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In-vivo images including three-dimensional or surface orientation information may be captured and viewed An in-vivo site is illuminated by a plurality of sources, and the resulting reflected images may be used to provide three-dimensional or surface orientation information on the in-vivo site. The system may include a swallowable capsule.
In one embodiment, a method for presenting images includes: accepting a series of images from an in-vivo imager, the series of images including surface orientation information; and outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive surface orientation aspects of the images. The in-vivo imager may be contained in a capsule. For each image the surface orientation information may be recorded by at least a plurality of sub-images, each sub-image including an image of a site using a different lighting perspective.
FIG. 6 depicts a portion of a filter used with an embodiment of the present invention.
Reference is made to FIG. 1, which depicts an in-vivo image capture device according to one embodiment of the present invention. In an exemplary embodiment, the in-vivo image capture device is a capsule 1 which comprises a plurality of illumination sources 12 and 12′, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), for illuminating the body lumen, and an imager 14, such as a CMOS imager, for obtaining images of an in-vivo site 100. In an embodiment where the image capture device is a capsule 1 which moves through the GI tract, the view of the in-vivo site 100 captured changes with the movement of the image capture device. Preferably, periodically, a representation of a view of the site 100 is captured including stereoscopic, three-dimensional, surface orientation or image depth information. The illumination sources 12 and 12′ and the imager 14 are preferably positioned behind an optical window 8. An optical system, including, for example, lenses or mirrors (not shown), or including optical window 8, may aid in focusing reflected electromagnetic energy onto the imager. A control unit 5 is connected to each of the illumination sources 12 and 12′ and to imager 14, to synchronize the preferably non-overlapping periodic illumination of the in-vivo site by each of illumination sources 12 and 12′ with the capturing of images by imager 14. The capsule preferably includes a power source 16, such as a battery, which provides power to elements of the capsule 1, and a transmitter and antenna 18 for transmitting images obtained by imager 14 and possibly other information to a receiving device (FIG. 2) via a wireless link. The control unit 5 may be any sort of device or controller enabling the control of components. For example, a microchip, a microcontroller, or a device acting on remote commands may be used.
While in an exemplary embodiment, the illumination produced by the illumination sources 12 and 12′ is substantially white light, in alternate embodiments different illumination may be produced. For example, infra-red, red, blue or green light may be produced. Furthermore, while in one embodiment illumination sources 12 and 12′ produce the same spectrum of illumination, in alternate embodiments each may produce different spectra. Each of illumination sources 12 and 12′ may be, for example, individual sources, such as lamps or LEDs, may be sets of sources, such as certain LEDs in a ring of LEDs, or may be overlapping sets of sources.
Preferably, the capsule 1 is swallowed by a patient and traverses the patient's GI tract. Preferably, the capsule 1 is a swallowable capsule capturing images, but may be another sort of device and may collect information in addition to image information. For example, system and method according to an embodiment of the present invention may employ a device implanted within a patient's abdomen. Furthermore, in an embodiment including a capsule different configurations of components and systems may be included the capsule. For example, the control unit may be incorporated in the transmitter, and an imager other than a CMOS imager may be used.
In an exemplary embodiment, while the capsule 1 traverses a patient's GI tract, the capsule 1 transmits image and possibly other data to components located outside the patient's body which receive and process the data. Preferably, two images using different illumination sources are captured 20 milliseconds apart, stored in the capsule 1, and transmitted as one burst of information; one second later another two images are captured. Other time differentials may be used. The two images may be transmitted as two separate images or, alternately, processed and interlaced or combined into one image before transmission. The images may be combined by interleaving by bit or by pixel before transmission, or otherwise interleaved or combined. Alternately, the images may be multiplexed through known methods. In alternate embodiments, other rates of imaging and other timing schemes may be used. Since the capsule 1 moves through the GI tract (with possibly stationary periods), typically each image frame is different; thus successive images of the in-vivo site 100 differ.
Reference is made to FIG. 2, which depicts a schematic diagram of an in-vivo imaging system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Located outside the patient's body in one or more locations are an image receiver 20, for receiving image information from an image capture device, an image receiver storage unit 22, for storing image data at the image receiver 20, a data processor 24 for processing image data, a data processor storage unit 26, for storing image data used by the data processor 24, and an image monitor 28, for displaying, inter alia, the images transmitted by the capsule 1 and recorded by the image receiver 20. The image receiver 20 preferably includes an antenna or antenna array 15. Preferably, the image receiver 20 and image receiver storage unit 22 are small and portable, and are worn on the patient's body during recording of the images. Preferably, the data processor 24, data processor storage unit 26 and monitor 28 are part of a personal computer or workstation which includes standard components such as processor 24, a memory, a disk drive, and input-output devices, although alternate configurations are possible. Other systems for capturing, processing and recording image and other data from the in-vivo image capture device according to embodiments of the invention may be used. For example, an in-vivo image capture device may be attached by a wire to a recording device.
Preferably, for each view or site, information is gathered which includes a plurality of sub-images, each sub-image including an image of a site using a different lighting perspective. Referring to FIG. 1, in-vivo site 100 includes irregularities 110 and may include pathologies, such as polyp 120. Irregularities 110 and polyp 120 have three-dimensional characteristics. During operation, electromagnetic radiation from the illumination source 12, such as visible light rays, illuminates the in-vivo site 100 during a first period at a first angle. The imager 14 is synchronized to obtain an image of the in-vivo site during the period of illumination by illumination source 12. Preferably, the illumination sources 12 and 12′ and the imager 14 are under the control of control unit 5. The image obtained by imager 14 depicts the in-vivo site 100 as illuminated from the first angle, including shadows. The image captured by imager 14 is transmitted by way of the transmitter and antenna 18 to the receiver 20. Electromagnetic radiation from the illumination source 12′ illuminates the in-vivo site 100 during a second period, preferably not overlapping with the first period, at a second angle. Since the illumination sources 12′ and 12 are preferably spaced from one another and separated by a certain distance the first angle is different from the second angle and the orientation of the illumination beams differs. In an exemplary embodiment, the illumination sources are 1.5 to 3 millimeters apart, in another embodiment the illumination sources are approximately 1 centimeter apart; in alternate embodiments other distances may be used. In general, the greater the distance, the more three dimensional or surface orientation information captured. When used herein, that the illumination sources are spaced from one another indicates that the sources of the illumination at the point the illumination is projected from the device are spaced from one another.
The imager 14 is synchronized to obtain an image of the in-vivo site during the second period of illumination. The image obtained by imager 14 depicts the in-vivo site 100 as illuminated from the second angle, including shadows. In one embodiment, the illumination of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′ is sequential, and occurs with a brief separation of time, in order that the view captured by imager 14 does not change significantly in between the capture of the two images. Preferably, there is a separation of approximately 10 to 20 milliseconds between the capture of the two images. In alternate embodiments, the illumination periods of illumination sources 12 and 12′ may overlap.
Data representing the images captured by imager 14 are transmitted by way of the transmitter and antenna 18 to image receiver 20 using, for example, electromagnetic radio waves. For each view of an in-vivo site a set of images (where the set may include only one image) are captured and transmitted. In one embodiment the set of images includes multiple images, each based on illumination from one of multiple illumination sources, are captured and transmitted. In other embodiments, the set of images may include only one image. In one embodiment, each of illumination source 12 and 12′ are individual electromagnetic radiation sources; in further embodiments, each of illumination source 12 and 12′ may include multiple electromagnetic radiation sources; for example, multiple lamps. For example, each of illumination source 12 and 12′ may comprise half of a ring of illumination sources. In further embodiments, more than two illumination sources may be used, and in addition more than two views per in-vivo site may be generated. In certain embodiments, illumination sources 12 and 12′ may be positions close together, but may project electromagnetic energy in different angles. In alternate embodiments other devices for illumination may be used; for example, other types of lamps, fiber optic cables, or individual illumination devices capable of altering the direction of illumination.
Image receiver 20 transfers the image data to image receiver storage unit 22. After a certain period of time of data collection, the image data stored in storage unit 22 is sent to data processor 24 or data processor storage unit 26. For example, the image receiver storage unit 22 may be taken off the patient's body and connected, via a standard data link, e.g. a serial or parallel interface of known construction, to the personal computer or workstation which includes the data processor 24 and data processor storage unit 26. The image data is then transferred from the image receiver storage unit 22 to the data processor storage unit 26. Data processor 24 analyzes the data and provides the analyzed data to the image monitor 28, where a health professional views, for example, the image data and possibly other information. In alternate embodiments, the image data need not be stored, but may be transferred directly to a data processor, or may be displayed immediately.
The image data collected and stored may be stored indefinitely, transferred to other locations, or manipulated or analyzed. A health professional may use the images to diagnose pathological conditions of the GI tract, and, in addition, the system may provide information about the location of these pathologies. While, using a system where the data processor storage unit 26 first collects data and then transfers data to the data processor 24, the image data is not viewed in real time, other configurations allow for real time viewing. The image monitor 28 presents the image data, preferably in the form of still and moving pictures, and in addition may present other information. In an exemplary embodiment, the various categories of information are displayed in windows. Multiple monitors may be used to display image and other data.
Preferably, the image data recorded and transmitted by the capsule 40 is digital color image data, although in alternate embodiments other image formats may be used. In an exemplary embodiment, each frame of image data includes 256 rows of 256 pixels each, each pixel including data for color and brightness, according to known methods. For example, in each pixel, color may be represented by a mosaic of four sub-pixels, each sub-pixel corresponding to primaries such as red, green, or blue (where one primary is represented twice). The brightness of the overall pixel is recorded by a one byte (i.e., 0-255) brightness value. Preferably, images are stored sequentially in data processor storage unit 26. The stored data is comprised of one or more pixel properties, including color and brightness.
In alternate embodiments, the data processor 24 or another data processing unit may process the image data to create from each image pair a two-dimensional or stereoscopic image portraying the three-dimensional and surface orientation information. The data processor may, for example, subtract aspects one image from another image to highlight differences between the images; other types of processing may be performed. The user may view the resulting images as two-dimensional images, or may view the images as stereoscopic or three-dimensional images. For example, known methods may be used, such as switched glasses, polarized glasses, or colored glasses, or any other suitable manner of delivering distinct images to the left eye and right eye of a viewer. Using switched glasses, a data processor controls which lens is opaque and which is clear at different times, allowing image data from one screen to be sent to different eyes. Using polarized or colored glasses, different image data may be sent to each eye.
In some embodiments, data processor 24 may process the image using, for example, known shape from shadow methods such as that described in 3-D Stereo Using Photeinetic Ratios, Lawrence B. Wolff and Elli Angelopoulou, SPIE Vol. 2065 pp. 194-209. In such embodiments, data processor 24 compares the shadows depicted in each image pair to generate data surface orientation of the in-vivo site 100. The data processor 24 may process the images according to other methods.
Referring to FIG. 3, in step 300, an imaging device illuminates a site to be imaged from a first perspective. Preferably, the imaging device is a swallowable capsule; in alternate embodiments other imaging devices, such as endoscopes, may be used.
In step 310, an image is captured by the imaging device while the site is being illuminated from the first perspective.
In step 320, an imaging device illuminates a site to be imaged from a second perspective. Preferably, the illumination from the first and second perspective is provided by two illumination devices separated spatially. In alternate embodiments other methods of illumination may be used; for example, fiber optic cables, illumination devices which are co-located but which project illumination at different angles, or individual illumination devices capable of altering the direction of illumination.
In step 330, an image is captured by the imaging device while the site is being illuminated from the second perspective. In alternate embodiments more than two images may be captured for each site.
In step 340, the images are transferred from the image capture device. Preferably the images are transmitted after each set corresponding to a view of an in-vivo site are captured. In alternate embodiments, each image may be transferred after each is captured, or in other manners.
In step 350, the image data may be viewed by a user in a manner allowing the user to see the three-dimensional and surface orientation aspects of the in-vivo site.
Reference is made to FIG. 4, which depicts an in-vivo image capture device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The capsule 1 functions in a similar manner to that depicted in FIG. 1, and includes a plurality of illumination sources 12 and 12′, an imager 14, and an optical window 8. The capsule includes a control unit 5, a power source 16, and a transmitter and antenna 18. Each of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′ generate electromagnetic radiation of different wavelengths. The imager 14 is fitted with a filter such as a mosaic filter 122 divided into alternating segments that are sensitive to the designated bandwidths of the electromagnetic spectrum generated by the each of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′. Each alternating segment of the mosaic filter 122 permits electromagnetic energy to reach the imager 14 only in the designated bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum for which it is sensitive. Each of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′ is operated simultaneously. Each image obtained by the imager 14 is composed of a plurality of segments, each segment including information from either illumination source 12 or illumination source 12′. One image containing three dimensional or surface orientation information is transmitted per view, rather than multiple images. In alternate embodiments other types of filters may be used, and the mosaic filter shown may be of a different configuration. For example, a mosaic filter with different colors or a different pattern may be used.
For example, illumination source 12 may emit red light and illumination source 12′ may emit green light. In such an embodiment, the filter 22 on the imager 14 is sensitive in alternating segments to red and green light. The segments on the mosaic filter that are sensitive to red will permit red light emitted by the red illumination source during its period of illumination and reflected by the in-vivo site 100 to reach the imager. Likewise, the segments on the imager's mosaic filter that are sensitive to green will permit green light emitted by the green illumination source during its period of illumination and reflected by the in-vivo site 100 to reach the imager.
The images obtained by the imager during the respective periods of illumination may be processed (for example, by data processor 24) and displayed to the user in various manners. For example, the user may view three-dimensional images using red-green glasses. In alternate embodiments, the multiple perspective image data in the image may be used to create three-dimensional images or two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional images, such as those as described above.
In further embodiments, information on surface orientation or three-dimensional aspects may be presented to the user in other manners, for example in textual form or in graph form. For example, a graph may be created which presents the user with a depiction of the depth (positive or negative, relative to the surface of the in-vivo site 100) at various points. Such indication may be numerical, for example, a −10 to 10 scale depicting indentation or protrusion at various points, or color, with each of various colors depicting indentation or protrusion. In alternate embodiments, a view of the in-vivo site 100 may be depicted, labeled at various points with depth data (e.g., numbers on a −10 to 10 scale depicting indentation or protrusion data). Further embodiments may describe the orientation of a view or various sections of a view as categories such as, for example, concave, convex, smooth or rough according to pre-defined criteria. Such data may be generated from, for example, known shape from shadow algorithms.
Reference is made to FIG. 5, which depicts an in-vivo image capture device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The capsule 1 functions in a similar manner to that depicted in FIG. 1, and includes a plurality of illumination sources 12 and 12′, an imager 14, and an optical window 8. The capsule includes a control unit 5, a power source 16, and a transmitter and antenna 18. Preferably, each of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′ generate electromagnetic radiation of the same wavelength. Capsule 1 includes additional source 13, providing marker illumination from a position and angle substantially similar to that of illumination source 12; in effect additional source 13 adds marker illumination to illumination source 12. Rays 200 represent electromagnetic radiation produced by illumination source 12, rays 210 represent electromagnetic radiation produced by illumination source 12′, and rays 220 represent electromagnetic radiation produced by source 13. Preferably, rays 220 are projected onto the in-vivo site 100 at substantially the same angle and from substantially the same position as rays 200. In one embodiment, illumination sources 12, 12′ and 13 are operated simultaneously and one image is captured and transmitted. The image may be separated into different views, providing three dimensional and surface orientation information.
The imager 14 is fitted with a filter such as a mosaic filter 122 divided into alternating segments that are sensitive to different bandwidths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Certain segments allow the passage of electromagnetic radiation generated by source 13. Other segments allow the passage of electromagnetic radiation generated by illumination sources 12 and 12′. In certain embodiments segments may filter the illumination generated by sources 12 and 12′ into different spectral bands, such as the red, green and blue spectra; in other embodiments segments may allow substantially the entire spectrum generated by sources 12 and 12′ to pass. Each alternating segment of the mosaic filter 122 permits electromagnetic energy to reach the imager 14 only in the designated bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum for which it is sensitive. Preferably, each of illumination source 12 and illumination source 12′ is operated simultaneously. Each image obtained by the imager 14 is composed of a plurality of segments, each segment including information from either illumination source 12 and source 12′ (or a portion thereof) or source 13. In one embodiment, source 13 produces electromagnetic radiation of a certain frequency which is used to mark a perspective, such as infra-red radiation, and illumination sources 12 and 12′ produce other illumination, such as visible light. In alternate embodiments, the illumination sources may produce different spectra, and thus a separate marker source may not be needed. The marker illumination may include spectra other than infra-red radiation, for example UV radiation.
Reference is made to FIG. 6, which depicts a portion of a filter used with an embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, the filter 22 includes a repetitive pattern of sections, each section including a plurality of cells. Each cell allows a certain spectrum of electromagnetic radiation to pass to the imager 14. For example, cells 230 allow red light to pass, cells 240 allow blue light to pass, cells 250 allow green light to pass, and cells 260 allow infra-red radiation to pass. Preferably, the filter 22 includes many sections and cells; in one embodiment one section is included for each pixel recorded by the imager 14.
After capture, the images obtained may be displayed to the user in various manners, for example using the methods described above. In one embodiment, electromagnetic energy from one section, including all cells of the section, is recorded by each pixel of the imager 14. During the processing of the image, the known frequency of the source 13 is used along with the information provided by cells 260 to produce different pixel representations for each of the two views desired. For example, the intensity of the source 13 for each pixel may be used as a marker for percentage of the electromagnetic energy for that pixel which is produced by illumination source 12.
In a further embodiment, electromagnetic energy from each cell is recorded by one pixel of the imager 14. During the processing of the image, the known frequency of the illumination source 13 is used along with the information provided by cells 260 to produce different pixel representations for each of the two views desired. For example, the intensity of the source 13 for each pixel may be used as a marker for percentage of the electromagnetic energy for certain associated pixels gathering light in the frequency of the source (e.g., source 12) associated with source 13.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources are operated in a separate time period.
2. The system according to claim 1 wherein at least two of the plurality of illumination sources are configured to illuminate an in vivo site from different angles.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of illumination sources produces an illumination level which differs from the illumination level produced by a different one of the plurality of illumination sources.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources produces illumination of the same spectrum.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the capsule comprises a transmitter for transmitting image data.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the capsule comprises a battery.
7. The system of claim 1 comprising a controller configured to control the illumination sources in a selective manner.
8. The system of claim 1 comprising a receiving unit configured to receive transmitted image data.
9. The system of claim 8 comprising a processor configured to create from an image pair a single image portraying three-dimensional and surface orientation information.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources is capable of producing a different spectrum.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces illumination in the infra-red spectrum.
12. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces illumination in the UV spectrum.
13. The system of claim 10 wherein the capsule comprises a transmitter.
14. The system according to claim 10 wherein the capsule comprises a mosaic filter.
15. The system of claim 10 comprising a receiving unit configured to receive transmitted image data.
16. The system of claim 15 comprising a processor configured to create from an image pair a single image portraying three-dimensional and surface orientation information.
capturing a set images of the site using an imager contained within a swallowable capsule, at least two images in the set illuminated using different subsets of illumination sources.
18. The method of claim 17 comprising transmitting the images via a wireless link.
19. The method of claim 17 comprising passing light through a segmented filter.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of illuminating an in vivo site comprises illuminating in at least two different illumination levels.
capturing a set of images of the site using an imager contained within a swallowable capsule.
22. The method of claim 21 comprising transmitting the images via a wireless link.
23. The method of claim 21 wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces illumination in the infra-red spectrum.
24. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces illumination in the UV spectrum.
25. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces substantially white light.
when capturing a first image using a first of the illumination sources, providing illumination from a third illumination source, wherein the illumination from the third illumination source differs in its spectral content from that of a second of the illumination sources.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein the plurality of illumination sources are spaced from one another and selectively operable, such that the combination of the plurality of reflected images produced by illumination from the plurality of illumination sources provides information on the three-dimensional aspects of the in-vivo site.
28. The system of claim 27, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources are operated in a separate time period.
at least one of the plurality of illumination sources produces illumination in a spectrum which differs from the spectrum of illumination produced by a different one of the plurality of illumination sources.
30. The system of claim 27, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources produces illumination of the same spectrum.
31. The system of claim 27 wherein the capsule comprises a transmitter.
32. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces illumination in the infra-red spectrum.
33. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the illumination sources produces substantially white light illumination.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein at least one of the plurality of illumination sources produces illumination in a spectrum which differs from the illumination produced by at least a second one of the plurality of illumination sources.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein each illumination source provides light from a different angle, each illumination source being selectively operable.
36. The system of claim 35, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources are operated in a separate time period.
a processor accepting a series of images from an in-vivo imager, the series of images including surface orientation information, and outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive surface orientation aspects of the images.
38. The system of claim 37, wherein the in-vivo imager is contained in a capsule.
39. The system of claim 38, wherein for each image the surface orientation information is recorded by at least a plurality of sub-images, each sub-image including an image of a site using a different lighting perspective.
a processor means accepting a series of images from an in-vivo imager, the series of images including surface orientation information, and outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive stereoscopic information.
outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive surface orientation aspects of the images.
42. The method of claim 41, wherein the in-vivo imager is contained in a capsule.
43. The method of claim 41, wherein for each image the surface orientation information is recorded by at least a plurality of sub-images, each sub-image including an image of a site using a different lighting perspective.
a plurality of illumination sources, wherein each of the plurality of illumination sources are operated in a separate time period; wherein at least two of the plurality of illumination sources are configured to illuminate an in vivo site from different angles.
a controller means for operating the illumination sources so that the imager captures three dimensional information.
a plurality of illumination sources, at least two of the illumination sources producing light of a different spectrum, at least one illumination source producing UV light.
capturing a set images of the site using an imager contained within a swallowable capsule, at least two images in the set illuminated using different subsets of illumination sources, the imager including a segmented filter.
a processor capable of accepting a series of sets of images from an in-vivo imager, each set including of images taken using different lighting, and capable of outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive surface orientation aspects of the images.
a processor means for accepting a series of images from an in-vivo imager, the series of images including surface orientation information, and for outputting graphics images displaying such images to a user such that the user may perceive surface orientation aspects of the images. | 2019-04-20T03:37:57Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030174208A1/en |
1 Samuel 18:17 Then Saul said to David, "Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD's battles." But Saul was thinking, "I need not raise my hand against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the LORD." For Saul said to himself, "I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!"
Then Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife, only be a valiant man for me and fight the LORD'S battles." For Saul thought, "My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
Saul told David, "Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I'll give her to you as a wife, if you will be a warrior for me and fight the LORD's battles." But Saul was thinking, "I don't need to raise a hand against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
One day, Saul told David, "If you'll be brave and fight the LORD's battles for me, I'll let you marry my oldest daughter Merab." But Saul was really thinking, "I don't want to kill David myself, so I'll let the Philistines do it for me."
Saul told David, "Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I'll give her to you as a wife, if you will be a warrior for me and fight the LORD's battles." But Saul was thinking, "My hand doesn't need to be against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
Saul told David, "Here is my older daughter Merab. I'll give her to you as a wife. Just be an excellent soldier for me and fight the LORD's battles." Now Saul told himself, "I won't harm him myself. Instead, I'll let the Philistines harm him."
Then Saul said to David, "Here's my oldest daughter, Merab. I want to give her to you in marriage. Only be a brave warrior for me and fight the battles of the LORD." For Saul thought, "There's no need for me to raise my hand against him. Let it be the hand of the Philistines!"
Saul said to David, "Look, my elder daughter Merob, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles." For Saul said, "Do not let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him."
And Saul said to David, Behold I will give thee my elder daughter Merab to wife; only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles. For Saul said to himself, My hand shall not be against him, but the hand of the Philistines shall be against him.
And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give you as your wife: only be you valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give you to wife: only be you valiant for me, and fight the LORD's battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.
And Saul said to David: Behold my elder daughter Merob, her will I give thee to wife: only be a valiant man, and fight the battles of the Lord. Now Saul said within himself: Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hands of the Philistines be upon him.
And Saul said to David, Behold my eldest daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife; only be thou valiant for me, and fight Jehovah's battles. But Saul thought, My hand shall not be upon him, but the hand of the Philistines shall be upon him.
And Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me. and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee for a wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD'S battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
Saul said to David, "Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh's battles." For Saul said, "Don't let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him."
Now the men of Israel had been saying, "Do you see this man who keeps coming out to defy Israel? To the man who kills him the king will give great riches. And he will give him his daughter in marriage and exempt his father's house from taxation in Israel."
And all those assembled here will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and He will give all of you into our hands."
"I will give her to David," Saul thought, "so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "For a second time now you can be my son-in-law."
Saul replied, "Say to David, 'The king desires no other dowry but a hundred Philistine foreskins as revenge on his enemies.'" But Saul intended to cause David's death at the hands of the Philistines.
Please forgive your servant's offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD's battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.
When David arrived in Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, "Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the LORD's enemies."
(17) Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife.--This was but the fulfilment of a much earlier promise. The king had said he would give his daughter in marriage to the hero who should slay the Philistine giant champion. For one cause or other he had declined, or at least postponed, the carrying out of his pledge; and the dark thought crossed his mind, Could he not endanger the hated life, while seeming to wish to keep the old promise? He speaks of the Philistine war as the Lord's battles. This was a feeling which inspired every patriotic Israelite. "He was," when fighting with the idolatrous nations, "warring for the Lord"--so David felt when he spoke of the Philistine giant as having defied the ranks of the living God, and alluded to the battle as the Lord's (1Samuel 17:26; 1Samuel 17:47). The same idea is expressed in the title of that most ancient collection of songs which has not been preserved to us--"Book of the Wars of the Lord" (Numbers 21:14).
Verses 17, 18. - Behold my elder daughter Merab. Saul had promised that he would give his daughter in marriage to whosoever should slay the giant (1 Samuel 17:25); and not only was there in this the honour of a close alliance with the royal house, but, as it was usual to give large presents to the father in return for the daughter's hand, the gift had also a substantial value. After long delay Saul now refers to this promise, not so much with the intention of fulfilling it, as of leading David on to enterprises which might cost him his life. The marriage may have been deferred at first on account of David's youth; the subject is now revived, but with evil intentions. My eider daughter is literally "my daughter, the great one," while Michal is "the little one," a way of speaking used only where there are but two daughters. Be thou valiant, etc. This exhortation would be natural under the circumstances; but Saul hoped that David, in order to secure so great a prize, would be encouraged to undertake rash adventures. For Saul said. I.e. in himself; his purpose was to urge David to perpetual fighting, that so in some rash undertaking he might be slam. Thus Saul s malice grows, and though not prepared as yet to put David to death himself, he would have felt relief if he had died by the fortune of war. David answers modestly and discreetly that he is not worthy of so great an honour. We are not to suppose that he discerned Saul's treachery, which only came-to light afterwards. What is my life, - i.e. my condition, - or my father's family? The or is not in the Hebrew, and the meaning is, What is my condition, even my father's family? etc. David's condition or rank in life was settled by the rank which his father held. | 2019-04-24T08:43:54Z | https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/18-17.htm |
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July 1-4 event aims to put into action Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Catholic bishops in the United States want to form a Church of missionary disciples on fire to spread the joy of the Gospel to their communities.
To be held July 1-4 in Orlando, Florida, it will be a gathering of thousands of Catholic leaders working in dioceses, apostolates and movements across the country.
Having the U.S. bishops bring together Catholic leaders from all U.S. states and territories into a single meeting place to discuss evangelization has no precedent in the life of the Catholic Church in the United States.
The convocation also reflects the social genius of the Catholic Church in a unique way, by using the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. Although the U.S. Catholic bishops have convoked this gathering of Catholic leaders from across the U.S. and its territories to promote unity in proclaiming the Gospel, all the participants are there to learn from the experiences and insights of Catholic leaders in more than 300 organizations that are trying to spread the Gospel at the local level.
Jonathan Reyes, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, told the Register that the event seeks to strengthen the “apostolic vision” of the Church by bringing its leadership together for this one-time event.
The idea of the convocation originated in the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities and the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development and has been in the making for more than seven years, Reyes explained. However, Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium provided the needed push to put this plan into action.
“Evangelii Gaudium was the sort of key moment, with this sense that the Church, facing the challenges of the age, was just called to missionary discipleship, encountering Christ, and [the need] to try to do something that was never done before,” he said.
The convocation is by invitation only. All the U.S. Catholic bishops have chosen Catholic leaders for their diocesan delegations.
Approximately 160 out of 197 dioceses, eparchies and ordinariates are sending delegations, with an average of 10 delegates accompanying their bishop. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is sending the most delegates, 52 persons, while the eight delegates for the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St. George’s in Canton, Ohio, represent the greatest ratio of delegates proportional to flock size. With its 6,200 Catholics, that’s one delegate for every 775 Catholics.
The USCCB also disbursed more than $500,000 in scholarships to make sure the personal and geographic diversity of the Church, along with insights and contributions, was represented, including African-American and Native-American Catholics, low-income attendees and “Catholic Home Missions” dioceses.
Some attendees are coming from as far away as the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
The USCCB has also invited more than 160 Catholic organizations, covering a wide variety of Catholic-led ministries, apostolates and movements, dedicated to advancing the mission of the Church, Reyes said.
The convocation features 66 breakout sessions, covering a wide variety of themes in the Church. Reyes said the sessions are off the record, so people in the Church can have a frank and open conversation about where the Church is advancing and failing and how to create effectively a Church of missionary disciples.
Each delegation will have to strategically choose which breakout sessions its members wish to attend over the three days. However, the convocation will provide plenty of opportunities for networking to establish relationships with other Catholic leaders to continue gathering ideas and strategizing how to put them into action.
All the public events — such as the public presentations, Mass and prayer services — will be televised with commentary on EWTN, the Register’s parent company, so Catholics at home can experience part of the event.
Diocesan and organizational delegations will then have the task of disseminating the fruits of what they’ve acquired to the local parish and community level.
Sherry Weddell, author of Forming Intentional Disciples and a convocation presenter, told the Register that the real opportunity for the conference will be networking.
Delegates will not be going to find “silver bullets,” because each of their circumstances is different. But the breakout sessions and presentations will help start ideas and get the conversation going, meaning the real work — putting conversation into action — will be after the gathering. The convocation itself represents a real change in the U.S. Church she has seen gaining steam recently — going from a maintenance to a missionary attitude.
Evangelii Gaudium, she said, built on the call for missionary disciples honed by Blessed Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, and the majority of the bishops have taken it to heart.
“The conversation has changed so dramatically in the last five years,” said Weddell.
The delegation from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, one of the main sponsors of the convocation, has been preparing for the event by studying Evangelii Gaudium together.
Kathleen Buckley Domingo, associate director of the diocesan Office of Life, Justice and Peace, told the Register they have drawn their delegation from Catholics in the chancery, parishes and other organizations that reflect the diversity of Catholic ministries in L.A. — such as pro-life, homeless and immigration ministries — but also from different ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures.
Domingo said they are looking forward to learning “new ideas and new approaches” from others on evangelization, since they have to fight a wide variety of attacks on human life and dignity.
At the same time, she said the archdiocese hopes to contribute its own experience of how having people engaged in life, justice and peace-building, “united for the glory of God,” can deliver a more effective witness.
The Diocese of Las Vegas is just 20 years old, but Connie Clough, director of faith formation, said they look forward to learning from similarly situated Catholic dioceses and eparchies about how they have effectively used their size and resources to proclaim the Gospel.
Clough said they are looking forward to learning the perspective of the Eastern Churches — delegations are coming from the Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Melkite, Maronite, Syro-Malabar and Armenian Catholic eparchies in the U.S.
Las Vegas’ largest parish has 8,000 families, and its smallest missions have 25 families. But Clough thinks they will bring back new knowledge and networked contacts from the convocation and also a model for collaboration and learning between the diocese’s parishes and Catholic organizations.
The Archdiocese of New York has drawn its delegation from chancery staff, but also a “broad swath” of religious and lay Catholics involved in ministries in the field, according to Daniel Frascella, the archdiocese’s director of adult faith formation.
New York is known for its rich cultural and ethnic diversity, and Frascella said the archdiocese wants to see what “best practices” it can learn from others on how to communicate the Gospel in these different contexts, since their parishes also include rural, suburban and urban communities.
Frascella said the archdiocese is working on a plan to reconvene their 40 delegates after the convocation, discuss their takeaways, and consider how they can implement them practically in their ministries for the local Church.
Jaime Maldonado, a Connecticut seminarian with the Archdiocese of Hartford’s delegation, told the Register he is looking forward to learning how to engage more effectively with the “Nones” — the large segment of the U.S. population that no longer identifies as Christian — particularly millennials. Maldonado, 38, who has a scientific background — before seminary, he was a neuroscientist at Yale — said many times he was asked during his postdoctoral fellowship how he could believe in God and be a scientist.
Maldonado admitted his answers at the time were “not eloquent,” and he looks forward to learning from others in the breakout sessions about how the Church can provide a better witness in this area. It is critical for reaching out to millennials, many of whom seem to have the view that science and faith are incompatible.
The “Convocation of Catholic Leaders” provides an excellent opportunity to get the Church in alignment for the challenge of proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st century, according to Curtis Martin, founder and CEO of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).
But Martin said the Church needs to recover its own story, particularly in how the Church has been successful in communicating through the culture in order to proclaim the Gospel and raise up a generation of disciples on fire for Jesus Christ — Christians who understood that their faith required a “completely radical response to the most radical event of human history.” Martin pointed to the Jesuit missionaries of North America, who learned the language and culture of the Native peoples and helped them spread the Gospel.
He pointed to the Huron martyr Joseph Chiwatenhwa and his wife, Marie Aonetta, who dedicated themselves to raising a family of saints and took the initiative as lay Catholics to spread the Gospel, supported by St. Jean de Brébeuf and the other Jesuit priests.
The witness of the Coptic martyrs in Egypt, who recently gave their lives for their faith, drove home for Martin the importance of cultivating this kind of discipleship.
This story was updated at 9:30am Eastern June 8, 2017.
Public portions of the event will be broadcast on EWTN and livestreamed online. Go to event.registerat.com/site/USCCB/Program.aspx. | 2019-04-23T22:59:46Z | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/unprecedented-gathering-of-us-church-will-discuss-evangelization |
Every week I hear from friends who can no longer use, or even boot their computer. This week it was four different friends with serious virus problems, in one case the virus had encrypted the disk and they couldn't recover any of their data. Other times it's a software update that went awry or a hard disk failure. Luckily, Rule 1 allows you to recover from all three cases. The rest of this discussion covers some techniques I use to minimize the chance of getting viruses.
You've never going to be 100% protected from getting a virus, so be sure to have two levels of backup. These backups not only protect you should your machine become hopelessly infected by a virus, but also against a hard drive failure or hopelessly messed up software.
Make a complete system backup every couple of months (or more frequently when installing new software, and always before installing a major Windows update). There's a link to step-by-step instructions for using one backup program at the end of my discussion of Complete System Backups.
Backup documents, images, music, and other personal data almost daily using SyncToy. For more information see my discussion of Backup Strategies and Using SyncToy.
Rule 2: Practice Safe Computing.
Install a virus protection program and keep it up-to-date.
Use Firefox and install key security add-ons (extensions).
Beware of links in e-mails and on web pages.
Install a virus protection program and be sure its virus definitions are kept up-to-date. Everyone has their favorite, but there is no longer one I really recommend. They all suffer from program and feature blot which makes them difficult to use, or really slows down your computer (Norton seems the worst, but it's not alone).
I use AVG, not because it's great, but because it's FREE. But it too has gotten much worse. Prior to version 8 it was easy, even for the inexperienced user, to keep updated. Version 8 is a real pain when used on dial-up line; I keep thinking I've missed something in the setup that would make it work better. And just recently it did some update that caused it to stop working completely. On two different computers ... had to un-install and re-install.
I highly recommend using Firefox as your web browser and installing at least a couple of add-ons (or extensions). One is WoT which stands for Web of Trust (see the examples below). Another I recommend is NoScript ... it's a little more effort to setup, but it will protect you from sites running scripts (programs) which might corrupt your machine. For more on NoScript, see my discussion of setting up and using Firefox.
with all red lifesavers, it is probably someplace you want to avoid.
The green check marks (arrow below) you see are added to some pages by version 8 of AVG, they show that AVG has verified that the page contains threats. Since they're not added to every link I'm not sure how useful they are. I'm sure new versions of many other anti-virus programs have similar features.
Firefox supported tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking long before Internet Explorer. It's an Open Source development project; this means the source code of the program is public and people all over the world calibrate on its development. This usually results in newer and better ideas getting incorporated sooner, meaning it's likely to always be ahead of Internet Explorer.
For me three of the most important areas are (A) the address field when I can type a URL, (C) the Google search field, and (B) my bookmark toolbar which I've customized to contain mostly just icons which I recognize.
Here's a discussion of Firefox I wrote a few years ago on another website (it should open in another tab or window). It's a bit out-of-date, but it should still contain some useful information. Be sure to follow the link there to Tips on Using Firefox.
Pop-ups were not only annoying, but often lead to problems ... to often without knowing it you were installing a virus. The pop-up blocker in Firefox stopped most of these and Internet Explorer (which I no longer use) now has a pop-up blocker too. Be sure these blockers are turned on ... I've seen pop-ups that have no way to close without agreeing to installing something you don't want. Once some of these programs get installed, you get pop-ups all over the place that can't be stopped ... and they either take a lot of effort, or are impossible to remove.
It recognizes some (not all) mail that is trying to get private information (passwords, bank account information, etc.) from you and puts a big red banner across the top of the message. Anyone foolish enough to ignore this probably going to loose all their money anyway. I think it even disables links (so you can't click on them) in these messages.
Because you are reading your mail through the Firefox browser, if you have added "WoT" you'll see a rating for every link in your e-mails. In fact both this one and the one above were thrown into the spam folder so you would never have to deal with either one.
Actual link targets displayed on status bar.
it is actually some page on the "app7.su" website ("su" is the old country code for Soviet Union, it is being phased out).
A snippet is the first words of the message displayed following the subject (in bold) in the list of messages. For many messages it's often all you need to see, you don't need to open the message. For example, the first message above is from my wife. I can see she's asked me to download something for her the next time I go to the library and have a high-speed internet connection.
Although Gmail has a few folders, see list showing spam folder above, you can't create folders of your own. Instead you can "label" messages (which is logically the same thing, you just do it differently. But I very infrequently use labels, what you do instead is use Google's search capabilities to find any message you want. What I do use are the stars. They're easy to add/remove (just click on the star). I use them as a to-do list, even if you download messages to your client e-mail program they remained starred in your "All Mail" folder. Above I starred the messages from my wife so I could easily find the URLs she wants me to download the next time I'm at the library.
Attachments. I like the way Gmail handles attachments.
I especially appreciate it on a dial-up line. As you see above, it shows you a thumbnail of each attachment. You can choose to download individual ones, or with one click you can download them all (and walk away while they slowly download on a dial-up line). Actually they download about twice as fast as they would download to your client e-mail program, because the graphics Gmail downloads are not encoded as text. When you "Download all attachments" they end up in a zip file.
Another nice thing about Gmail is how well it interfaces with your client e-mail program (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.). Even message you read and/or archive in Gmail are later downloaded to your client program when you get home and download all your mail. And if you setup Gmail as your client's SMTP server, any mail you send out will also be archived at Gmail. This means that wherever you are in the world you can get a copy of any e-mail you sent or received from your client program.
Firewalls: I just use a combination of hardware (a firewall built into my router) and the firewall that comes with Windows. The advantage of a better software firewall program is that they monitor outgoing as well as incoming internet traffic. They will catch programs which have gotten past your anti-virus and are now starting to "reach-out" from you machine. The problem is most of us don't have enough knowledge to use them wisely ... they keep asking you if _____ can access the internet, or _____ can access your computer. You either keep saying yes, or if you say no, things don't work right, but you don't even realize it. Pretty soon it's like crying wolf all the time, you just ignore it and keep clicking OK. For most us (myself included) it's not worth the effort.
Never use any peer-to-peer music or software sharing software, they're almost guaranteed give you hundreds, if not thousands of viruses. If you really want to use one, devote an old computer not connected to any other of your computers just to that task. | 2019-04-22T15:05:05Z | http://imagingtips.com/othertips/safe/0100safe.shtml |
There are many trade-offs inherent to your life if you are a Division I student-athlete. You get a free education while playing the sport you love in front of adoring fans. But you also take on a full-time job that affords few vacations or holidays. A female basketball player practices 40 hours a week, is expected to stay on campus and work out all summer, and must take the court when her classmates are away on vacations. This is as true of a member of one of the weakest major squads in the country as it is of a contributor to the team ranked #6 nationally. On Thanksgiving Day, the women of four disparate programs gave up the opportunity to eat turkey with their families in order to play in the WBCA/Basketball Travelers Classic at Mackey Arena. Purdue’s tournament-opening opponent was Savannah State, the weakest opponent on the Boilers’ entire schedule. Savannah State has been a Division 1 school for such a short period of time that the Lady Tigers don’t even have an RPI rating. When they finally do get such a number assigned, it will be a very low one.
The game played out much as one might have expected, with the hapless Lady Tigers unable to defend the faster Boilers on one end of the court, and unable to score against them on the other. After only six minutes of play, the home team had a 14-2 lead, and each Purdue starter had scored at least once. The only negative was that Erika Valek picked up two quick fouls, but Sharika Webb ran the point in an extremely capable fashion in Valek’s absence, with no drop in the Boilers’ level of play. The hosts were able to pour on the points, running razzle-dazzle fast breaks where precision passing led to point-blank layups. The Vegas Gold and Black went into halftime up by 35, 49-14.
In the second stanza, things picked up right where they had left off for the Boilers. Purdue began the period with a 10 -0 run. Each player in home uniform not only saw extended minutes, but also scored. Things got a bit sloppy when coach Kristy Curry employed combinations of women who had little court experience together, but the Boilers’ effort never flagged. With 11:40 remaining, Shereka Wright drove the baseline and snaked in a bucket to surpass the 1,000-point mark for her career. After receiving a standing ovation, she was soon subbed out. When the game was over, Purdue had reached a new all-time record (78 points) for victory margin, with the final score being 103-25.
The Boilers concentrated on running a transition game, and in getting the ball to players on the low block for easy scoring opportunities. As one might expect, their shot selection was reflected in their field-goal percentage of 60% on the night. The Boilers had an excellent ratio of 29 assists to their 42 made baskets.
To the Boilers’ credit, they did not attempt to press or trap the overmatched Lady Tigers. They were generally in a man-to-man, and that strategy was sufficient in holding the visitors to 19.6% shooting from the floor. Savannah State had 28 turnovers, 15 of which were credited as Purdue steals.
Purdue was dominant in every category Thursday night, and that included rebounding – the hosts pulled down 49 boards to the visitors’ 21. Emily Heikes led the Boilers with 7 rebounds.
Purdue connected on 13 of its 19 attempts from the stripe for a 68% success rate. Mary Jo Noon was the sole Boiler to make a perfect 100%, going 1-for-1.
Purdue had 29 assists to 12 turnovers. Even though positive assist-turnover ratios are expected of point guards and other individual players, it is a rare women’s basketball team that has such success as an entire group. Those that do manage this feat tend to have extremely successful seasons. What was most impressive was the unselfish team play that each Boiler exhibited whenever she was on the court.
In contests such as this, Shereka Wright tends to play a conservative role. The ball doesn’t go to her in offensive sets, and she seems more concerned with helping her teammates get involved than with taking over the game. Still, when she’s all by herself for a breakaway layup, she’s gong to put it in. And when she grabs an offensive rebound, she’s going to make the put-back. And before you know it, all those opportunities add up to a boatload of points. In twenty minutes of play, Shereka scored 19 points (7-of-12 field-goal attempts, 0-of-2 three-point tries, 5-of-6 free-throw attempts), pulled down 6 rebounds, and added 2 blocked shots, 2 steals, 3 assists, and no turnovers. By scoring the 1,000th point of her career during the game, Shereka became the fourth-fastest Boiler to reach quadruple figures. This achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers that Wright came off the bench when a freshman.
Lindsey Hicks had one of her best games as a Boiler. What was most impressive was that she sustained a high level of effort for all 16 minutes that she was on the court. She was able to do the little things that don’t show up in the box score, and generally looked comfortable and focused throughout the evening. Hicks finished with 9 points (4-of-6 FG, 1-of-2 treys), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 assists to no turnovers.
Erika Valek was consistently able to push the ball up the court and find open shooters. She picked up two quick blocking fouls, which limited her minutes to some extent. When she returned to the court, she was able to play tight defense without picking up a third foul. In her 15 minutes of play, Erika scored 10 points (4-of-7 FG, 2-of-4 treys) and recorded 2 steals. The true measure of a point guard lies in passing rather than in scoring. In this respect, Erika excelled by dishing out 8 assists against her lone turnover.
One of the reasons Erika’s assist totals have increased is that virtually every time Valek throws the ball to Beth Jones, Beth is able to convert. Jones once again played well, both when she had the ball in her hands and when she did not. Particularly impressive were the six rebounds she was able to grab. In sixteen minutes of action, she also collected 12 points (5-of-6 FG, 2-of-3 treys), an assist, a steal, and a turnover.
Mary Jo Noon took a little longer to get going than her teammates as she missed her first two shots. She then “dialed in”, and was able to hit the rest of her attempts. Many offensive sets saw Noon receive the ball on the high block before passing back out to an open perimeter player. Mary Jo passed very well in these situations, and recorded a career-high 3 assists. In addition, Mary Jo had 11 points (5-of-7 FG, 1-of-1 FT), 1 rebound, a blocked shot, and a turnover in 17 minutes of action.
Emily Heikes played the game wearing a large, clear face guard. The mask appeared to be bothering her somewhat, as she’d monkey with it and take it off frequently. She remained as aggressive as always under the basket, pulling down a team-high seven rebounds. Emily’s shot was off initially, but her touch improved as the game wore on. Towards the end of the contest, she had two steals, each of which she took down court for a breakaway layup attempt. On the second such occasion, she was fouled hard and was pushed head over heels on the baseline. Luckily, Emily is a very tough cookie, and seems to be the Boiler most able to sustain such treatment without serious injury. She ended the evening with 9 points (4-of-8 FG, 1-of-2 FT), 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.
Sharika Webb was needed when Valek picked up her second early foul. Webb thus played 25 minutes, the most for any Boiler on the night. Above all else, she established herself as someone with a true point-guard mentality. She seemed to focus on distributing the ball, pushing the tempo, and exciting the crowd with her no-look bullet passes. Some of her turnovers occurred because her teammates are not yet ready to receive such quick balls on the fly. Sharika finished her third game as a collegiate player with 1 point (0-of-2 FG, 1-of-2 FT), 4 rebounds, a blocked shot, and 6 assists to 3 turnovers.
Carol Duncan’s shot began to fall, and she connected on some easy baskets that she might have missed in earlier contests. She brings a great spark off the bench as she attacks every possession and every defensive opportunity. Carol also demonstrated the ability to find the open player as she delivered a nice high-low pass for an assist. The assist joined 10 points (4-of-7 FG, 2-of-3 FT), 6 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and a steal as the box score line she had to show for 16 minutes of play.
Power forward Sabrina Keys might be being groomed to play some center as well, as there were several instances when Keys was joined on the court by either Emily Heikes or Lindsey Hicks, as opposed to Carol or Mary Jo. Currently, Sabrina does the things that don’t show up in the box score better than the things that do. She was able to provide help on defense, and then demonstrate the savvy of the wiliest veteran in recovering to guard her own player. Sabrina looks a little more comfortable every time she takes the court, and one of her made baskets was a gorgeous pull-up jumper. In 17 minutes of action, Sabrina scored 5 points (2-of-4 FG, 1-of-2 FT), pulled down 3 rebounds, and recorded an assist.
Missy Taylor was able to use her long frame to great advantage, and it was evident that she will be almost impossible for opposing teams to match up against once she has added a little strength and recovered 100% from the injury which sidelined her as a high-school senior. As did Carol Duncan’s, Taylor’s shot began dropping with more regularity. One hopes that Thursday’s game provided Missy a huge jolt of confidence she will be able to carry into future contests. In twenty-one minutes, Missy recorded 9 points (4-of-7 FG, 1-of-2 treys), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, a blocked shot, and a turnover.
This game was just what the doctor ordered for Ashley Mays. Ashley looked infinitely more comfortable than she had in past games, and was one of the more active players on the team. Ashley showed glimpses of being a superior defender. She can apply on-ball pressure, cannot be driven against, and was responsible for 2 blocked shots. Mays also snagged 5 rebounds by establishing position and using her “ups”. One hopes that Ashley, like Missy, can use future contests to build on the confidence gained against Savannah State. In addition to the aforementioned blocks and rebounds, Ashley scored 4 points (2-of-3 FG), dished out 2 assists, recorded a steal, and committed 3 turnovers.
Although Brianna Howard’s 5 minutes of action was much shorter than the stretch allotted to any other Boiler, Howard certainly made the most of her time on the court. She was a force in the paint defensively, and was able to disrupt Lady Tigers who were driving to the basket. Unlike most walk-ons, Brianna is an aggressive player who mixes it up on both ends of the court. She looks for her shot, and hit a particularly impressive driving layup despite being hammered by a Savannah State player as the ball was released. Brianna finished with 4 points (1-of-1 FG, 2-of-3 FT), a rebound, and 2 steals.
Perhaps because of the enormous disparity in talent between the opposing sides, each coach appeared to be much more concerned with specific goals than with the outcome of the game. Curry concentrated on distributing the minutes and allowing the bench players to become comfortable on the court. It was announced earlier in the week that Curry and her husband are expecting their second child in May. When she was pregnant with Kelsey during the 1999-2000 season, Kristy blamed any outbursts she exhibited on her wild hormones. Hormones or not, this year’s edition of the Boilers is so focused and hard-working that it’s difficult to imagine Curry unloading on the team very often.
The officials had very little to do – neither team played a particularly physical game, and only 27 fouls were whistled during the contest.
The announced crowd was 3,983 –smaller than for most Purdue home contests, but an extremely good turnout for a Thanksgiving evening. Because the pep band was not present, Mackey Arena was uncharacteristically silent. The cheerleaders did remain over the break, and did their best to get the crowd going while rousing music of various genres was piped in over the public-address system.
Things will get much tougher for the Boilers Friday when they take on Texas Christian University, which overcame an ice-cold start to beat Holy Cross in the opening game by a score of 68-54. The Horned Frogs were able to win without their star player, Sandora Irvin. Although the sophomore was reported to be serving a one-game suspension, the possibility that the TCU coaches were sandbagging so that Purdue couldn’t scout their top scorer occurred to more than one person sitting in my section. The championship clash will provide the Boilers with a much better idea of how they will fare against Big 10 teams than have Purdue’s first three games of the season. | 2019-04-26T02:27:54Z | http://oldgoldfreepress.com/columnist/Capri_Small/columns/105.shtml |
The new year is here, and the biggest brands already have their 2018 social media plan laid out. But if you haven’t quite solidified yours yet, it’s not too late. This article is intended to guide you through the process of crafting a social media marketing plan for the coming year – providing you some helpful tips, tricks, and analysis that should ease you into getting started.
But before we begin, it’s important to note that coming up with a new strategy isn’t limited to improving on what you did last year. Equally vital to creating an effective social media plan is reviewing what you did—what worked, what was lacking, and what your data says about the direction you should take.
To try and see what the coming year holds, you need to take note of the significant developments 2017 brought to the world of social media. Here are some of the more noteworthy changes that came to the different social media platforms.
Ephemeral content came into its own in 2017, with Facebook rolling out an option to syndicate Instagram Stories last October. This development has made brands’ utilization of Stories an extremely crucial aspect of any social media marketing strategy.
The ease with which you can syndicate Stories on different platforms is already great news for brands. The exponential reach brought about by this feature only adds to the power of short-lived, albeit, more authentic content.
Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. Its effectivity as a strategy goes beyond the stat from Twitter analytics firm Annalect suggesting that 40 percent of people made online purchases after seeing a product being promoted by a social media influencer.
But because consumers are increasingly placing value on authenticity and transparency, Instagram rolled out its “paid partnership with” tag. According to Instagram, the feature ensures that the community easily recognizes when someone is paid to post content.
But more importantly for brands, the tag provides marketers access to data on influencers’ posts – making the previously tricky task of measuring influencer marketing ROI that much easier.
In early November, Twitter raised its limit to 280 characters – giving brands and marketers more space to relay their stories.
And while visual content will continue to dominate social media, according to Social Flow, the small sample size has shown that users are like and retweeting longer tweets two times more than shorter ones.
Now that we’ve done a quick run through of some of the most significant social media developments in 2017, let’s move on to some predictions of things and trends you should take note of in crafting your 2018 social media marketing plan.
In the middle of 2017, it wasn’t too difficult to notice that you were seeing less content from the accounts you were following. The major platforms’ conscious decision to change its algorithms means that the days of free content exposure will continue to decline.
This means that paid social will no longer be an option for brand marketers, but a necessity. Brands will need to be more thoughtful in its use of paid social – taking everything from targeting and scheduling, to which content to boost into careful consideration.
This development is also seen to push a significant increase in outbound marketing, with brands reaching out to audiences rather than letting them find their content.
Stories have a raw, more authentic feel compared to carefully curated content – and this is a big reason why people have increasingly gravitated towards this kind of content. But apart from feeling more real, ephemeral content has a way of playing with people’s FOMO, inciting audiences to not only keep viewing them but to take fast action on any CTA.
The rise of ephemeral content brings to fore a number of possibilities for marketers. From re-purposing content to fit the format, to come up with special offers that are only available as long as the content is – there are a plethora of ways marketers can make ephemeral content work for them.
As previously discussed, Instagram took an initiative to ensure transparency with influencers’ sponsored posts. On a similar, but exponentially more serious note, Facebook is currently testing a feature that will let users see what ads an organization has purchased, and how they’ve been targeted.
Apart from being a response to consumers’ preference for transparency, the initiative is a response to the pressure put on Facebook to take responsibility for its role in shaping political discourse.
For its part, Twitter has also launched its transparency center, which allows everyone to know who is behind an ad, how long it’s been running while providing users a platform to give feedback.
Ad transparency will only grow as 2018 moves along. Marketers will have to be continually mindful of this as they craft their social strategies.
Again, before you come up with a plan, it’s integral for you to re-assess how you’re using social media and its effectivity. This way, you can see what works, what doesn’t, and what could use improvement.
It’s important to note that it’s better to focus on a couple of social media channels than to try and maintain an unfocused presence on every social network. So once you see where your audience is, and how they’re using the platform, you can begin to use that information to your advantage when crafting your social media plan.
Before you come up with any plan, it’s important to clearly establish your goals and objectives. Having carefully and clearly defined set of goals not just allows you have a structure for your social media marketing plan, it also helps you to measure its success.
Oberlo has a number of valuable tips when it comes to setting social media goals. One of them goes against vanity metrics (likes, retweets) because unless your objective is to measure reach, it doesn’t provide any tangible insight into business growth. Instead, the drop shipping app recommends using metrics like leads generated, and conversion rate.
Not every organization is big enough to have a dedicated team of marketers to create and curate content for your social media marketing. One excellent way to get an idea of what could work for you is to look at other brands in your niche. Taking a look at what kinds of content your competitors are posting, and measuring how it performs, gives you an idea, not only of what works with the audience but also for how you can create content that can stand out.
Apart from your competitors, you can also look at your targeted audience to see how they’re engaging with different platforms and content. This way, you can get a good idea of what types of content resonate with them – helping you come up with similar ones, and boosting your chances of achieving your goals.
As well, industry leaders are a great source of inspiration when it comes to social media marketing. Because while you may not have the reach or the resources to emulate their success, there’s plenty of great ideas you can implement to your own strategy.
After having a clear analysis of your past social media activities, the predictions for 2018, and gaining social media inspiration, you should have an idea of what strategies you should focus on in the coming year.
The next step is to find out the number of resources at your disposal. Just like having a clear set of goals is to the plan, having a complete understanding of how much is at your disposal when it comes to social media marketing is essential before you proceed to craft your plan.
It is good to create a presentation to the dedicated individual in your company/brand about your target plans the coming year, including your estimated expenses. In this way, it will help your company identify which to invest into and which strategies to debunk, in accordance with the budget your company is willing to allocate to your department.
While authenticity and transparency, as previously discussed, are important elements in social media marketing – one factor has remained crucial to any strategy’s success – consistency. And this is what makes having a content calendar an integral part of any social media marketing plan.
What types of content will I post?
How will my posts inform and entertain my audience?
Do my posts help achieve my goals?
Meanwhile, tools like Hootsuite (which are free to sign up for) allow you to schedule social media posts in advance, automating the process of posting at specific times.
Once you fill up your calendar, take note of which type of content works best, and which times of posting get more engagement – this will help you improve your calendar as you move forward.
Though certain elements like consistency in posting persist, there are a number of variables in social media that can change without notice. This makes it important to integrate testing capabilities into the actions you take on social media.
Tracking number of link clicks on different platforms using URL shorteners and UTM parameters.
Analyzing your hits and misses and adjusting your plan accordingly will keep you from spending valuable resources on platforms and posts that don’t resonate with your audience.
This is a tool that helps you dig deeper into Twitter analytics for growth on the platform. It tells you who your followers are, where they’re located, and when they tweet. Followerwonk also allows you to search Twitter bios to connect with anyone on the platform and helps you find new influencers in your niche. The tool then provides actionable visualizations that you can compare and share with others.
Followerwonk is just one of many valuable Twitter tools at your disposal. All you need to do is find out exactly what you need.
Essentially, this in-app tool helps you understand who among your audience is most engaged with your Facebook Page. From the most basic metrics like likes, reach, and engagement, to when your fans are on Facebook content, and what types of content are – Page Insights helps you determine the tastes and interests of your target market.
Canva has been called the easiest design program in the world. Available on desktop and mobile, the app provides you access to over 60,000 templates designed by the Canva community. Whether it’s an Instagram post, a Story, a social graphic, posters, or invites, creating beautiful designs has never been easier. Just tap on a design element to edit, and the rest is up to you.
Ideal for bigger teams, Trello allows you to work more collaboratively with its boards, lists, and cards that enables the team to organize and prioritize projects. Be it onboarding new team members, updating lead or project status, this free tool keeps everyone up to speed.
Social media is a continually changing landscape. As such, your social media marketing plan should keep with the times. Users respond differently to each new feature that different platforms roll out.
Keeping your finger on the pulse of these developments and subsequent reactions will allow you to tinker and optimize your social media marketing accordingly.
What kind of social media strategies did you implement last year? How are you looking to improve on them this 2018? | 2019-04-25T10:29:49Z | https://www.understandingecommerce.com/guide-creating-2018-social-media-plan/ |
Baum, L. Frank. 1996. THE WIZARD OF OZ. Ill. by Lisbeth Zwerger. New York: North-South Books. ISBN: 1558586385.
This is an abridged version of Baum's The Wizard of Oz complete with rich illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger. I have never read the original version by Baum, so I cannot describe the differences between the versions. While there are similarities to the movie version, there are also a great many differences. I read about many events and characters that were never featured in the movie. The main characters are the same, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. What was new for me was reading about the Queen of the Field Mice, the Hammer-Heads, and the land and people made of China. In this version, the Wicked Witch sends wolves, crows, and bees against Dorothy and her companions before sending the flying monkeys to bring the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy back to her castle. Some parts are actually quite violent such as the Tin Man decapitating the wolves that attack them and the Cowardly Lion takes the head off of an enormous spider.
The water color illustrations by Zwerger are done in rich, vibrant colors and feature full page art as well as small cameos on pages. The characters are not depicted as most of us in the United States are used to seeing them. The Scarecrow is very fat, Dorothy does not wear the famous blue and white checked dress for very long in the book, but instead is pictured mostly in white, and the Cowardly Lion looks like a wild lion and not like a cute stuffed animal. "Viennese illustrator and Hans Christian Andersen Medalist Lisbeth Zwerger takes a fresh look at L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz in a large-format edition. Zwerger's fantastical, delicate, eccentric illustrations bear no resemblance to the vision of the movie." (Publisher's Weekly, 1996). Zwerger includes a note at the end of the book that states that she was intimidated by the need to paint the scenes set in the Emerald City in green. In order to solve this problem, the book comes with a pair of green glasses that can be slipped on by the reader to get an enhancement of the illustrations by tinting everything various shades of green.
My favorite illustration in the story is also used on the front cover of the book. The illustration is of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man carrying Dorothy and Toto through the infamous poppy field. The poppies are oversized, much taller that the characters, and are a vivid red against a grayish-blue background. The poppies shadows are also shown, adding dimension to the illustration. I also enjoyed the illustration of the Wizard after it has been revealed that he is not a powerful wizard after all. The Wizard looks very small, and more like an elderly professor than a great wizard.
The strengths of the book are the illustrations. They are bright and colorful and add dimension to the book. I think one of the main weaknesses of the book is that it is abridged. "The deletion of some descriptive and transitional phrases and of various events creates a text that is much flatter and less engaging than the original." (School Library Journal, 1991).
Cultural markers in the book were not obvious to me. I do not have a background in art, so I can only go by what I have found in reviews which say that there is a European influence. "The art, naturally, has a European flavor, here translated into fey paintings that catch the lighter elements of the story." (Booklist, 1996).
I enjoyed reading the "new for me" elements of the story that are not included in the movie version, but I still found the language rather flat and sometimes uninteresting. "All this time Dorothy and her companions had been walking through the thick woods. The road was still paved with yellow bricks, but these were much covered by dried branches and dead leaves from the trees, and the walking was not at all good." (Baum 1996, p. 27) It just seems that the language should be more descriptive and lively than what this abridged version has.
Lindgren, Astrid. 1985. THE DRAGON WITH RED EYES. Ill. by Ilon Wikland. New York: Viking Penguin Inc. ISBN: 0670816205.
This is an interesting story about a brother and sister who go out to the pigsty to see the new piglets that were born during the night. To their surprise, in addition to ten piglets, in a corner by himself is a baby green dragon. After a while, the sow refuses to feed the dragon (he bites!), and the children take over the chore of feeding the dragon. They feed the dragon candle ends, string, and cork, but the dragon is still not happy. The dragon is both mischievous and lovable and on one October evening he lays his paw against the girl's cheek as his eyes are full of tears and then flies away, never to be heard from again.
I enjoyed the story and I thought it had a realistic ending that many children can relate to, especially if they have ever raised a wild animal from a baby and then had to let it go back into the wild. I also thought it interesting that the dragon was never really accepted by the mother pig nor the piglets. I think this demonstrates to children that even though they may not be accepted by the crowd, they still have good qualities of their own that should be valued. Lindgren writes in such a way that will hold the interest of children. "It was true, though I suppose no one will ever discover how it happened. I think the sow was as surprised as we were. She was not particularly fond of her dragon baby, but she got used to him in time - except for his biting her every time she fed him, that is." (Lindgren, 1985).
The illustrations use realistic colors for the pigsty, straw, barn, and outdoors, but the illustrator uses brilliant greens and yellows in illustrating the dragon. This technique really makes the dragon stand out and demonstrate how different he is from the piglets. The most touching illustration shows the little dragon saying goodbye to the little girl. The setting sun is a large ball of blazing orange and the little green dragon really stands out.
The book has been translated into English from the original Swedish and I could not really tell that it did not take place in the United States. There are a few clues in the illustrations, but not in the text itself. In the illustrations, the little girl has blond hair that is worn in braids. This could be a cultural marker indicating Swedish heritage, but it is not an obvious clue. Another illustration shows a scene from a meadow that includes tall evergreen trees. These trees can also be found in areas of the U.S. as well. Another possible clue in the illustrations is in the picture showing the children's beds. The boy's bed has the typical headboard and footboard we are used to, but his bed also includes high sides with boards and his mattress fits down in it like a box. The girl's bed looks like it is a wooden daybed, again not quite the style we are used to seeing in the United States. Otherwise, it is not obvious where the story takes place.
I could not find a review of this book anywhere. I could only find one review by a reader on Amazon.com. The reviewer did not agree with the reading level that is posted on the site. The site says the book is appropriate for babies through pre-school. I find I agree with the reviewer that the book is more appropriate for slightly older children from ages pre-school through second grade.
My overall opinion of the book is positive. It is a story that children will relate to in spite of a somewhat sad but yet realistic ending.
Bjork, Christina. 1985. LINNEA IN MONET'S GARDEN. Ill. by Lena Anderson. New York: R & S Books. ISBN: 9129583144.
This is a unique book that blends fiction, art history, and biography together into a seamless whole. The book is told from the point of view of Linnea, a young girl who travels with her elderly friend, Mr. Bloom, to Paris to see Monet's garden. Mr. Bloom takes Linnea to visit a museum so they can view Impressionist paintings before going to visit Monet's house and garden in Giverny, France. After her visit to the museum, Linnea now understands what it means for a painter to have been called an Impressionist. Linnea and Mr. Bloom picnic in Monet's garden and enjoy the famous water lilies that Monet painted.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it is one of the best children's books I have read. It mixes the fictional story of Linnea while teaching children about art history and presenting a short biography of Monet and his family. The book presents the information in a fun, interesting way without being didactic or stilted. The following is an example that demonstrates this point, "But Monet practiced capturing impressions. Every day, he studied his bridge. He discovered that it looked different depending on the time of day and the weather. It was sunlight that made the difference." (Bjork 1985, p. 28). What a great way for children to learn how important sunlight was to an Impressionist painter. The language used in the book does not talk down to children, but explains the concept in language that is easily understood and yet entertaining.
The ink and watercolor illustrations by Anderson are bright and colorful and often reflect the colors used in Monet's paintings. My favorite illustration shows Linnea on a path in the garden with the different varieties of flowers on either side, nasturtiums overflowing and almost covering the walk, and a black and white cat playing with Linnea and a vine. The colors used really make the flowers stand out and the different shades of green can help the reader get the feel of what it would be like to actually be in the garden. "But, it is the sense of being there, and Linnea's own enthusiasm, that carries the book." (Publisher's Weekly, 1987). The book also includes actual photographs of several of Monet's paintings as well as photographs of Monet and his family. The book jacket says that many of the photographs were previously unpublished.
The book contains many cultural markers. The book describes a hotel in Paris, the Esmerelda, that is on the River Seine in the Left Bank. Linnea describes her view from her hotel window which includes the Notre Dame Cathedral. Linnea also points out that the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame takes place there. The name of the hotel takes its name from the character Esmeralda from the book. Linnea describes taking the Metro, the underground train in Paris, to the Marmottan, the art museum. Linnea also describes the food that she and Mr. Bloom buy for their picnic lunch at Monet's garden. They buy bread called a baguette, a goat cheese and a cow's milk cheese, pate`, tomatoes, nectarines, mineral water, and cider. The book also tells the reader that Monet's biggest pictures that cover the walls of a big round room are called the Water Lily Rooms and are located in the Orangerie in Paris. The Orangerie used to be the King's greenhouse but is now a museum.
The book has amazing illustrations and photographs of artworks and of Monet and his family. The book also includes a section at the end that lists more things to do in Paris and a timeline of Monet's life. I like the small illustration at the very end in the bottom corner that has Linnea smiling and saying Au Revoir!
Publisher's Weekly. 30 October, 1987. Books in Print. [database online]. Available from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2066/merge_shared/details/details.asp?item_uid=937497&viewItemIndex=0&navPage=1&FullText=&BipAlertQueryString=&BipAlertDisplayQText=.
Stolz, Joelle. 2004. THE SHADOWS OF GHADAMES. New York: Delacourte Press. ISBN: 0385731043.
This story takes place in the Libyan city of Ghadames in the late 19th century. The women in Ghadames are segregated from the men and lead a quiet life confined to their homes and rooftops. Malika is approaching her twelfth birthday, a time when she is approaching adulthood, and according to her family's Berber custom, a time when she is close to marriageable age and will be confined to the world of women. Malika is not looking forward to this as she yearns for more. She wants to learn how to read and dreams of visiting far off places which she knows will never happen once she is confined to the world of women. Her world does get expanded slightly when her mother and her father's second wife secretly take in a wounded stranger and nurse him to health. He teaches Malika how to read Arabic and describes the places he has visited and widens Malika's world.
The book is full of cultural markers since it describes the Muslim culture which many in the United States are not familiar with. The women are segregated from the men and must wear veils. The only men the women see or talk to are the men in their own family. When Malika and Bilkisu go to the women's baths, their servant must make noise in the street before them to alert any man on the street that there are women coming. If they hear a loud stamp on the ground they must go back and hide in a doorway for the man to pass before they can go on. Many of the women are tattooed and Malika is anxious for the time when the meanings of the tattoos will be explained to her. Her brother, Jasim, is working for their Uncle while their father is away. When their Uncle visits the women to tell them of a stranger and of his mysterious disappearance, he also describes how grown up Jasim has become and Jasim's mother then tells Jasim and their Uncle that Jasim can no longer come to the rooftops to visit the women. He must go to work each day now; his childhood has ended. Another cultural distinction is that when Malika's father leaves on a trading journey, his wives do not wear any jewelry while he is absent. Malika also describes the custom of the oil lamp. "Papa has been careful to place the oil lamp pointing inward in the niche. This way, if a visitor looks in through the hole in the door, he will immediately know that my father is off on a trip. Placed another way, or unlit, the lamp conveys a completely different message. For example, The master is in the palm grove. Or, There has been a death in the house. The men know not to knock at the door when, thanks to the little lamp in the entryway, they see that the women are alone in the house." (Stolz 2004, p. 9) Jasim loves to torment Malika with the fact that she is a girl and will someday be confined to the world of women. "He never leaves me in peace, always harping on the fact that I am "just a girl." It is his favorite refrain, and he whistles it between his teeth with a mocking air as soon as our mothers are out of earshot. "I am going to travel, I am going to drive caravans, I'll be going to Kano and Timbuktu, and all the way to Mecca and Istanbul! While you, you're going to stay right here and never go anywhere!" (Stolz 2004, p. 7). The author also describes the use of camels in the caravans and desert sandstorms. The practice of slavery and servants customs are also described.
The book has been translated from the original French and I found the book to be very enjoyable to read. The author and translator give the reader a very realilstic glimpse of what it was like to have been a girl in a 19th century Muslim city. The reader also experiences Malika's jealousy of her brother and her confusion about becoming a woman and following their customs. "This quiet story is notable for the intimate picture of the traditional Muslim world that it conveys; unfortunately, not until the author's note at the end is the time period made evident. The imprecise use of language may make it difficult for readers to visualize this distant world and to understand the characters' motivations." (School Library Journal, 2004). I found that I did not quite agree with the second portion of this critique. There are clues within the story that indicate that the story is not set in modern times. There is no mention of electricity or cars. Oil lamps are used for light and camels are the main form of transportation. I also did not find the language to be imprecise and thoroughly understood the character's motivations. Malika was struggling against being confined to centuries of Muslim custom and wishing she could have more freedom. I found this to be a great learning experience of what it would have been like to have lived as a young Muslim girl during this time period.
School Library Journal. 1 November, 2005. Books in Print. [database online]. Available from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2066/merge_shared/details/details.asp?item_uid=55556689&viewItemIndex=0&navPage=1&FullText=&BipAlertQueryString=&BipAlertDisplayQText=. | 2019-04-25T08:57:26Z | http://rrrs120.tripod.com/internationalchildrensliteraturereneeschneider/id11.html |
1. What are some of the consequences of fluoroquinolone overuse?
2. Which antimicrobial resistance rates are issues in your health region?
3. Is there opportunity to influence prescribing habits through educational intervention?
Other CSHP 2015 "winning" success stories will also be highlighted at the end of the session.
Management and Leadership Best Practices Award, sponsored by Apotex Inc.
Given the often limited human and financial resources, managers should consider the best evidence available on a profession’s impact to plan healthcare services within an organization. Data are few on ranking healthcare programs in order to prioritize which healthcare program would mostly benefit from the delivery of pharmaceutical care by decentralised pharmacists. The aim of this project was to establish a consensual and coherent ranking of healthcare programs that involve the presence of decentralized pharmacists, based on health outcome, health costs and safe delivery of care.
This descriptive study was derived from a structured dialogue (Delphi technique) among directors of pharmacy department. We established a quantitative profile of healthcare programs of five sites that involved the provision of decentralised pharmaceutical care. A summary table of evidence established a unique quality rating per inpatient or outpatient healthcare program. Each director rated the perceived impact of pharmaceutical care per inpatient or outpatient healthcare program on three fields: health outcome, health costs and safe delivery of care. Directors agreed by consensus on the final ranking of healthcare programs.
A ranking was assigned for each of the 18 healthcare programs for outpatient care and the 17 healthcare programs for inpatient care involving the presence of pharmacists, based on health outcome, health costs and safe delivery of care. There was a good correlation between ranking based on data from the 2007–2008 Canadian report on hospital pharmacy practice and the ranking proposed by directors of pharmacy department.
The use of strength of evidence quality rating combined with Delphi technique allowed our panel experts to propose a final consensual ranking of which healthcare programs would need to benefit from pharmaceutical care. Our study suggested that the ranking by the panellists was influenced by the quality of the evidences available and by current allocation of pharmacists in healthcare programs in Canada.
A novel approach used to rank healthcare programs that include the provision of pharmaceutical care by decentralised pharmacists was described. This ranking approach was based on the perceived impact of pharmaceutical care healthcare program on three fields: health outcome, health costs and safe delivery of care.
The impact of clinical pharmacists on improving the quality of patient care in surgery is not well described.
The objective was to prospectively evaluate clinical and economic outcomes after clinical pharmacist services were added to two general surgery wards in an adult tertiary care centre.
This was a prospective, observational study. All clinical interventions were documented and assessed for severity, value and the probability of preventing adverse drug events (ADE). Cost avoidance was calculated using two methods: by avoiding additional days in hospital ($3593/ADE) or additional hospital costs ($7215/ADE). Two pharmacists independently categorized the interventions; disagreements were resolved by consensus.
The pharmacists made 1097 interventions in six months with a 98% acceptance rate by surgical staff. Half of the interventions were rated significant for severity (561, 51.1%) and value (559, 51.0%). One-quarter of the interventions had a 40% or greater probability of preventing an ADE (270, 24.6%). Cost avoidance was estimated to be $0.68 – 1.36 million or $617 to $1239 per intervention.
The importance of having pharmacists manage the drug therapy needs of the post-surgical patient was demonstrated. Investments in a clinical pharmacist position in surgery may yield a benefit to cost ratio of 7:1.
Patient Care Enhancement Award, sponsored by TEVA Canada Ltd.
Opioid analgesics are high alert medications that are known to cause adverse drug events.
To determine the cause of opioid incidents that require the administration of naloxone (opioid reversal agent).
A retrospective chart review of inpatients who received naloxone for reversal of toxicity resulting from licit, in-hospital opioid use was conducted. Cases were analyzed to determine preventability, and preventable cases were assessed to determine the phase of the medication process where incident occurred, as well as the type of incident that occurred (determined through thematic grouping). The drug responsible for toxicity was determined, and the proportion of cases documented by occurrence reporting was noted.
Thirty-six cases were identified, 29 (80.6%) of which were preventable. The primary medication incident occurred most frequently in the prescribing phase, but multiple phases were often involved. Six types of incidents were identified thematically. Morphine was the drug that most frequently resulted in toxicity. Two (5.6%) cases were documented by occurrence reports.
Opioid incidents occurred in the acute care centres under study. Targeted educational initiatives or policy changes are required to decrease the frequency of these incidents and better document their occurrence.
Critically ill children require sedation for comfort and to facilitate interventions. Dexmedetomidine is a newer sedative with little safety data in pediatrics, particularly with durations of therapy greater than 48 hours.
To quantify the frequency of adverse events and withdrawal syndromes associated with dexmedetomidine and describe its use for continuous sedation in critically ill children.
A retrospective medical record review of patients who received dexmedetomidine for sedation in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Adverse events were assessed using a Naranjo Score to determine the likelihood of an association with dexmedetomidine.
Included were 144 patients (median age 34 months (range 0 to 17.7 years)) with 153 treatment courses. Mean infusion rate was 0.42 (SD 0.17; range 0.05 to 2) mcg/kg/h. Median therapy duration was 20.5 (range 0.75 to 854.75) hours. Hypotension (N=81 (52.9%)) and bradycardia (N=38 (24.8%)) were the most common adverse events, and were “probably” attributable to dexmedetomidine in 17 (11%) and 9 (6%) of treatment courses, respectively. Agitation and hypertension were the most common withdrawal symptoms observed.
Dexmedetomidine is commonly administered for greater than 24 hours in our institution and is generally well tolerated. Patients receiving dexmedetomidine for over 24 hours should be monitored for withdrawal following discontinuation.
Secondary prevention medications, including acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), statins, ß-blockers and angiotensin-modulating agents (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers), are recommended in patients who have undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.
To evaluate the rate of secondary prevention medication utilization from discharge to one-year post-CABG surgery for a cohort of adult patients at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton, Alberta.
A retrospective analysis was performed using a clinical patient registry. A randomly selected subset of patients was invited to evaluate medication utilization at one-year post-surgery using community pharmacy records.
The registry identified 1,031 patients. The mean age was 66 years and 80% were male. The proportion of patients discharged on all four medications post-CABG surgery was 35%. The individual utilization rates for ASA, statins, ß-blockers and angiotensin-modulating agents were 96%, 94%, 92% and 42%, respectively. Of the patients invited to participate in the one-year evaluation, 151 (39%) provided consent. The proportion of patients on all four medications at one-year was 48%. Individual utilization rates for ASA, statins, ß-blockers and angiotensin-modulating agents were 95%, 84%, 84% and 65%, respectively.
The rate of utilization of four secondary prevention medications was 35% at discharge and 48% at one-year post-CABG surgery. These rates were primarily limited by the low use of angiotensin-modulating agents.
Maintenance of an up-to-date medication list, using medication reconciliation (MedRec) to identify discrepancies, has been shown to reduce adverse drug events in hemodialysis patients.
Develop and implement a renal program-wide, sustainable MedRec program primarily using nurses.
The project team worked with the hemodialysis nurses to develop a standardized MedRec process utilizing the provincial patient database and guidelines from Safer Healthcare Now. The nurses were educated and given tools to support them to gather a best possible medication history (BPMH). An Evaluation Analyst developed a Logic Model and Data Collection Plan to support the project.
After one year, the percentage of medications with a discrepancy and the average number fell from 23% to 15% and 3.9 to 2.7 per patient, respectively. Over 85% of the staff surveyed stated that there were now clear processes and tools in place to conduct a BPMH, update the medication lists in the provincial renal database, and to communicate the medication information to the patient and other caregivers.
A project team consisting of three hospital pharmacists with support from an Evaluation Analyst was able to successfully standardize a MedRec process in a regional outpatient HD program primarily using nurses.
We sought to create an effective, accessible, sustainable, multi-faceted pharmacy staff training program for safe handling of hazardous drugs that could be easily adapted for other disciplines. We also wanted to design a program that would advise staff on an ongoing basis about known or reasonably foreseeable risks to safety and health arising from hazardous drugs used in pharmacy work areas.
We conducted a needs assessment, then designed and evaluated a set of instructional materials that form a comprehensive training program for safe handling of hazardous drugs. The materials include a slide presentation intended for face-to-face inservices, a self-learning package in hard copy and on-line format, an annual refresher quiz, and a mock spill drill.
Since inception of the training program in 2010, 335 pharmacy staff members have completed one or more training program components. Field tests of each component have improved content, enabled high success rates on refresher quizzes, and identified opportunities to improve the region’s Safe Medication Handling policy. The training program has been easy to sustain at a reasonable cost.
Our experience has shown that improving staff safety requires not only a policy and associated procedures, job aides and work tools, but also a comprehensive training program to ensure initial and ongoing use of job aides and work tools by front line staff members. Adoption of the pharmacy hazardous drugs training program for training of nursing personnel region-wide attests to the quality of the program and to pharmacy’s medication safety leadership role. Training program materials will be available for viewing during the facilitated poster presentation.
Since the publication of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Alert on hazardous drugs in 2004, many healthcare organizations have reviewed their guidelines and procedures for handling hazardous drugs. Occupational exposure may occur when handling, compounding or administering a drug considered to be hazardous, from storage to waste management. The aim of this project was to measure environmental contamination with cyclophosphamide (CP), ifosfamide (IF) and methotrexate (MTX) in pharmacy and patient care areas of hospitals.
Twelve standardized measurement sites within pharmacy (6 sites) and patient care areas (6 sites) were selected. Sites were sampled mid-week at the end of the day. Samples were analyzed for the presence of CP, IF and MTX by UPLC-MS-MS technology. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0015 ng/cm 2 for CP, 0.0012 ng/cm 2 for IF and 0.0060 ng/cm 2 for MTX.
A total of 25 hospitals participated in the project (37% response rate). Overall, 259 samples were collected between April 2008 and January 2010 (147 samples from 25 pharmacy areas and 112 samples from 24 patient care areas). No hospital was using a closed system transfer device (CSTD) at the time of the study. The median[min-max] number of sites per center with at least one positive sample for at least one drug of the three hazardous drugs evaluated was 6[1–12]. A total of 135(52%) samples were positive for CP, 53(20%) were positive for IF and 7(3%) were positive for MTX. The median[min-max] concentration was of 0.0035[<LOD-28] ng/cm 2 for CP, <LOD [<LOD-8.6] ng/cm 2 for IF and <LOD [<LOD-0.58] ng/cm 2 for MTX.
CP levels were a good indicator to estimate the level of hazardous drug contamination, considering that it is still largely used in most healthcare centers. It also allowed a good comparison with other studies. Our results from 25 hospitals indicated that it is feasible to have a similar (and in some cases, lower) proportion of CP positive surface samples without the use of a closed-system transfer device.
Periodic surface contamination measurements are necessary to ensure that current practices limit healthcare workers occupational exposure to hazardous drugs. This project have helped participating centers identify their specific areas for improvement. The overall results from this project will also serve as an attainable goal that any Canadian hospital may refer to in order to reduce the risks to healthcare workers’ safety.
Overuse of fluoroquinolone (FQ) antibiotics is associated with outbreaks of MRSA and C. difficile-associated diarrhea and increasing resistance to gram-negative organisms. The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) has seen increasing E. coli resistance to ciprofloxacin over the last decade. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and optimize empiric treatment of Regina General Hospital (RGH) emergency department (ED) outpatients with uncomplicated UTIs, using antimicrobial stewardship principles to align prescribing with local resistance data and best practice.
An educational strategy, aimed at ED physicians, presented the changes in RQHR antibiotic resistance patterns, principles of antimicrobial stewardship, the drivers of resistance, and a literature review of best practice for outpatient UTIs. An overview of baseline findings from a retrospective chart review, along with the suggested best practice was also presented. A post-intervention audit was conducted in the same manner as the baseline audit for comparison purposes.
Adherence to best practice significantly increased from 40.6% pre-intervention, to 65.8% post-intervention (P<0.001; OR = 2.81, 95% CI 1.51–5.25). There was also a significant change in overall antibiotic selection from pre to post-intervention (P<0.001; OR = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.11–0.58). Further statistical analysis suggests this significance was driven by a decrease in ciprofloxacin use from 32.3% in pre-intervention to 10.5% post-intervention. Future interventions may be required to further improve adherence and to determine what effect this may have on reducing resistance rates of E. coli to ciprofloxacin.
To raise awareness of the potential antimicrobial stewardship interventions which exist in the treatment of a very common infection, outpatient urinary tract infections.
To provide an example of a simply designed, pharmacist lead, inter-professional collaboration on an antimicrobial stewardship initiative in the emergency room setting.
Teaching, Learning, and Education Award, sponsored by Eli Lilly Canada Inc.
Recently discharged patients were surveyed about their preferences for pharmacy services as part of a phone questionnaire to determine the percentage of patients who recalled interacting with the pharmacist during their hospital admission (CSHP 2015 Objective 1.5).
To analyse content of former patients’ open-ended survey responses to a telephone questionnaire.
A telephone questionnaire was conducted with former inpatients randomly selected following discharge from hospitals in Horizon Health Network, New Brunswick. Responses were recorded to the question “what service or information would you like a pharmacist to provide in the hospital that would most help you in managing your medications?” Two raters established response categories, obtained acceptable inter-rater agreement, and independently scored the survey responses.
Sixty-three percent (n=445) of all responses obtained were related to Information About Medication (e.g. purpose, adherence, side effects). Self-Disclosure (23.7%, n=167), detailing experiences with pharmacies, medication or hospital, was the second most common global category. Subjects’ responses were less frequently associated with Pharmacy Services (7.7%, n=54) and their Information Source for Medications (5.3%, n=37).
Most patients would like a pharmacist to provide a general medication overview during their admission. Results suggest many patients are unaware of other clinical pharmacy services. | 2019-04-24T19:27:07Z | https://cjhp-online.ca/index.php/cjhp/article/view/1218/1666 |
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Rationalist Judaism: "Nu, So What Did You Think Of My Alps?"
As I mentioned, I'm currently in the Italian Alps for a few days, giving some lectures, and today, I went horseback riding. It is bitterly cold, and I have a bitter cold, but I did not want to miss the opportunity. Now, riding a horse is not one of my skills (I’ve spent more time riding elephants), and the horse that I was given was a huge and feisty stallion who seemed as though he was auditioning for Tolkien’s Riders of Rohan; I was the only person in my group who was given a switch in order to impose discipline if necessary. However, he didn’t throw me off and he was obedient, at least for most of time. We made our way through the tiny, narrow streets of a rustic village, then up the hills through snow-encrusted countryside, with the gigantic white Alps looming around us. It was incredible.
The experience reminded me of something that I wrote about fifteen years ago, back when I was Nosson Slifkin. At the time, I was grappling with two stories which appeared contradictory. The first concerned the late Manchester Rosh Yeshivah, Rabbi Yehudah Zev Segal (whose daughter was my elementary school teacher, so I guess that makes me an indirect talmid of his!). The story is told that Rav Segal was once traveling in Manhattan, and his companions suggested that they take a detour in order to see the famous Empire State Building.
Fifteen years ago, these stories presented a contradiction that bothered me. In classical yeshivah fashion, I reasoned that the contradiction could be resolved. The Empire State Building is a man-made creation, and thus there is no reason to admire it. The Alps, on the other hand, are God’s own handiwork. Thus, there is no difference between Rav Segal and Rav Hirsch.
Fifteen years later, I’m not dismissing the possibility that this resolution is valid, but I am more open to acknowledging the likelihood that the stories reflect a fundamental difference between these two great Torah scholars. I can think of two ways in which to explain the nature of this difference.
One possibility is that these stories reflect two different approaches within Judaism. Rav Segal was of a particular ultra-Orthodox ideology in which Torah—the pursuit of God’s wisdom and commands—is of paramount interest, to the point where it is virtually of exclusive interest. Neglecting the pursuit of Torah and mitzvos, even for a short time, merely to appreciate a wondrous sight, would be inexcusable. Rav Hirsch, on the other hand, was of the Torah im derech eretz school of thought, in which a Jew’s life is enriched by appreciating the wonders of the world—be they God’s creations, or the creations of man, with his ingenious application of his God-given brain.
Another possibility (perhaps related to the previous one) is that these stories reflect the different origins of Rav Segal and Rav Hirsch. There’s a hilarious satirical news story about a person in New York for whom all therapy had failed to cure his chronic miserable attitude, and he was about to undergo a lobotomy, when at the last moment the surgeon realized that there was nothing clinically wrong with the person; he was, in fact, from Manchester. I spent the first seventeen years of my life there, so I can see why it might have caused Rav Segal to have little interest in sightseeing. A miserable, grey, industrial and very provincial town, Manchester tends to produce cynical people who have little interest in the wider world. Rav Hirsch, on the other hand, was from a very different culture.
So, there are three possible explanations for the differing attitudes of Rav Segal and Rav Hirsch. I’ll have to contemplate the matter further before deciding what my attitude should be with regard to man-made wonders. But meanwhile, I’m glad that I braved the cold and my cold to ride through the mountains. When God asks me what I thought of His alps, I’m going to tell Him that they are terrific.
Horses are pretty awesome, too.
Nu, So What Did You Think Of My Lord of The Rings? My La Boheme? My 5th Symphony in C Minor? My Mona Lisa? My Madame Bovary? My ... Lipa Concert?
I'm sure that both Rav Segal and Rav Hirsch would agree that you make a bracha on seeing Alps and no bracha on seeing the ESB (unless you are an architecture nerd - shehecheyanu).
Is there really a stira?
I think that Rav Hirsch would have been interested to see the Empire State Building.
We say a bracha Chonen Hadaas, which I always think of when I see a wonder of the world like the Empire State Building. Hashem gave the architects and engineers the wisdom to build them, didn't he?
(Even more so the George Washington Bridge, which is breathtaking but unfortuately pedestrian to those of us who see it on a very regular basis. And read Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses to find out just what miracles of engineering went into building the Cross Bronx Expressway).
And Baruch Shechalak Mechachmaso Lebasar Vedam.
"back when I was Nosson Slifkin"
The Mishnah in Avos says that if you're travelling along and learning, and you see a tree or a ploughed field and stop learning to say "Wow, what a great tree" or "Wow, what a great ploughed field" you've done very badly.
Why a ploughed field as opposed to just a field? Why a ploughed field as opposed to a nice mountain?
The tree is natural, a product of God's handiwork. The ploughed field is a testament to the hard work of man to develop the natural world God gave us. Admiration of both the natural and the man-made must come second to Torah. Perhaps that's why the Manchester Rav had no interest in the ESB.
But maybe Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch was riding through the Alps on the same horse as you and couldn't concentrate on his learning so he had time to look?
"And Baruch Shechalak Mechachmaso Lebasar Vedam."
You say that on the ESB??
Not to mention that some (most?) architectonic wonders were build in connection with avodah zarah.
I wish I knew how to ride a horse. My mother tells me that my father was quite adept at riding horses.
My personal take is that seeing a great man-made structure is an extension of seeing G-d-made structures since isn't it G-d who created man, his wisdom, and the potential to create such structures?
R.NS: "And Baruch Shechalak Mechachmaso Lebasar Vedam."
The הכרת הטוב: Manchester has given us many Nobel Laureates, including 2 physicists in 2010, as well as many other precious חכמי אומות העולם.
I know one of Rav Hirsch's great-granddaughters who insists that Rav Hirsch's name is not Shimshon. She says it's Samson or Shamshon, but not Shimshon. Just thought I'd let you know.
You say: "I think that Rav Hirsch would have been interested to see the Empire State Building."
--Hagyan (or 'הגיין'), who is authenticated by his Google profile.
A fourth option: Perhaps RSRH enjoyed sights like the Alps, and used his vort to justify going out of his way to see them, and perhaps Rabbi Yehudah Zev Segal wasn’t in the mood to take a detour that day, and used his vort to justify not going to see the Empire State Building.
They don’t contradict each other because each is really a justification for a personal preference that may have been thought up on the spur of the moment rather than a well thought out articulation of a Torah principle.
One of the major characters in the musical "Hair" is a guy from Flushing, Queens, who decides that it would be more interesting to be from Manchester, England!
Six years ago I took my wife to the top of the Empire State Building and offered her an engagement ring. She accepted and we are still married :).
Open a Hirsch Siddur and see Rav Hirsch's commentary to that Mishna.
I was going to bring up that Mishna, but Garnel beat me to it!
Rabbi Slifkin - Great post! A little different than your usual writing and I enjoyed it very much.
Garnel – That mishnah in Pirkei Avos always bothered me, especially because I love nature and nature has a wonderful emotional effect on me. Stopping to appreciate nature enhances my life, and even enhances my learning (like when I was up in the beautiful mountains in the summertime).
I take exception to your disparaging remarks about Manchester. I was born in Manchester and have lived all my life here, yet I have been very fortunate to have seen many of Hashem's great wonders of the world. Nevertheless, when I return from these travels, I always say "It's nice to be home" - in Manchester.
Rav Mordechai Breuer, when teaching the pasuk "Vat'chash'vehu m`at me'Elokim," told the story of Rav Hirsch, and continued that in the spirit of the mizmor, one could continue with the question, "did you see my New York?"
We get alot more snow nowadays R'Natan, makes Manchester a little brighter!
Why complicate things? Two people had two different personalities and interests. My son once asked me if I allow him to be interested in beetles (he was six at the time, and I think a combination of seeking a large bug along with a nascent yet emerging sense of independence motivated the question). I told him it's not for me to decide what fascinates him, that's his department. And that's been our understanding since, even to my slight chagrin. He has no interest in Chazzanut or classical music, both of which I am passionate about, and would love share with him. C'est la vie. He's a great kid in almost every other way. The point is that many chareidim see the need to ape EVERY aspect of those great and venerable sages referred to as "Gedolim" If the Gadol eats breakfast at 7:42 a.m., so shall we. If the Gadol ties his necktie in a half windsor knot, so shall we and on and on and on. It's a silly practice. G-d made individuals to be individuals. It means nothing that R. Segal had no interest in seeing a tall building and couched it in Hashkafic terms. Likewise, it means nothing that R. S.R. Hirsch wanted to see the Alps and couched it in similar terms. The only significance of both stories is the message that is common between them: that everything one chooses to do, should be done in service of the Divine, or at least made to appear as such (mitoch shelo lishamh bah lishmah). People are allowed, nay are expected to stylize their lives, and should do so to His glory.
I have a third plausible theory. That the story of Rav Hirsch is pretty well known story and Rav Segal was just being ironically witty. Welcome back.
arn, absorb, follow and do, like nice little programmed androids.
To me it means we will listen and we understand. I remember a discussion in a charedi baal tshuva circle with two talmidei chachomim present, what to do if your rebbe tells you to jump out the window. Guess what? The initial reaction was of course you jump like nice little programmed androids! Then they had a sofek that lechoira the rebbe is telling you to do a dvar aveira, so how can we do it? Some concluded that they have to do it af al pi ken because of emunas chachomim, others needed to be 'meayen'. I concluded that I was in the wrong company and threw the rebbe out the window. Lol.
Poshuter, you change your name every time I out you.
The Wizard, you very perceptively described the fundamental difference between Chareidi hashkafah and non-Chareidi hashkafah.
Even assuming you are correct that only Chareidi hashkafah is lechatchila AND there is no bedeiavad, what does this do for most Jewish people who for various reasons cannot do what the Chareidi hashkafah requires? Is this a form of Protestant predestination, where only an elect have a change to be saved, all others predestined to perish?
IIRC he actually sat on it - I have always wondered about that one (and the companion piece on the ir hanidachat) - shouldn't his testimony have ended the debate (just as one exception to a proposed theorom is enough to kill it)?
G*# makes a good point, that it was probably just an off the cuff remark, not reflective of any grand philosophy. In shas we find many statements that were said "dechayeh madche", ie, just to get an annoying guy off one's back. This happens to many people on a daily basis.
Agav, Charlie Hall's comment, that the Cross Bronx XPway caused so-called environmental damage, is a picture perfect example of liberal "thinking", and demonstrates quite nicely why America is in decline.
Wizard, learn Horiyos and you will see that it is on fact forbidden to follow a teaching that know to be incorrect, even if the whole Sanhedrin tells you to do so. Your intellect (if any) is odif.
Also, Manchester is the epitome is grimness.
"Naaseh v'nishma means we listen, learn, absorb, follow and do, like nice little programmed androids."
Who does the programming? This seems to be a very cogent argument for blaming G-d for one's heresy and misdeeds.
shouldn't his testimony have ended the debate (just as one exception to a proposed theorom is enough to kill it)?
No, he didn't mean literally. What he meant was that it's not drush ve kabel sachar but rather a halacha like other halachos.
G*# makes a good point, that it was probably just an off the cuff remark, not reflective of any grand philosophy.
Bad point - 'sichas chulin of talmidei chachomim tzricha talmud'. If those comments were not said in earnest they would be kalus rosh and leizonus. True talmidei chachomim don't speak lightly of Olam Habo or Yom Hadin.
Charlie Hall, please tell us what environmental and socioeconomic damage was caused.
>IIRC he actually sat on it - I have always wondered about that one (and the companion piece on the ir hanidachat) - shouldn't his testimony have ended the debate (just as one exception to a proposed theorom is enough to kill it)?
Apart from the fact that the Torah says two or three witnesses establish a thing, not one, he was not testifying that he saw a ben sorer u-moreh case, only the grave (likewise 'ir ha-nidachas). Presumably there was a grave which people said was a ben sorer's grave. But how can he have know if it really was? We all know that there are many false graves. Most importantly, it could not have been an authentic grave if historically there never was a ben sorer. Maybe we can never know for sure eiether way, but surely this testimony alone should not have ended the debate.
I don't know why people are bothering to respond to this "Wizard" guy, it's pointless. It's also obvious that it's "Poshiter Yid" with a new moniker.
"Bad point - 'sichas chulin of talmidei chachomim tzricha talmud'. If those comments were not said in earnest they would be kalus rosh and leizonus. True talmidei chachomim don't speak lightly of Olam Habo or Yom Hadin."
"ברוך ... שחלק/שנתן מחכמתו ליראיו" ?
Or how Rambam mentions עונש in ספר המצוות on "את-ה' אלוקיך תירא"? Seems related to me but I'm not sure yet.
I wonder also if carefully observing whether people "don't speak lightly of Olam Habo or Yom Hadin" is how to identify תלמידי חכמים?
"Likewise, it means nothing that R. S.R. Hirsch wanted to see the Alps and couched it in similar terms."
That's why I have always felt bad for yeshivish people who work. Nebech, they feel terrible that the whole day they must do something so mundane as working. When they get home and can learn, they're in heaven. An ideal MO person, however, is happy working since he sees his work as part of his avodas Hashem.
I can't imagine what it must be like to spend eight hours every day of one's life thinking one is essentially wasting one's time or serving some secondary, non-ideal function in G-d's world.
They were making a new psak on ben sorer, such that it became nearly impossible for it to occur. The question is asked: If it will never happen, why is it in the Torah (ie. how can you completely annul something in the Torah)? The response: To learn it and be mekabel schar (iow it can still serve an intellectual purpose).
The testimony regarding the grave of a ben sorer would then be talking about a ben sorer who had been killed according to the previous definition of the halacha. It is probable that it was definitely a ben sorer as otherwise he wouldn't have disrespected the grave by sitting on it.
Well, it seems that she is confused herself as to which one it is. I think that it was pronounced as Shamshon, I heard this pronunciation many times, but written Shimshon. It's a distortion similar to Yankev for Yakov. Just thought I'd let you know.
Oh, I've heard this remark often. It's bizarre, because it automatically assumes that a yid mit a burd has special status or spiritual level. It makes me uncomfortable. But what does this mean when compared to nature? Seems like apples and oranges to me.
Yes, true talmidei chachomim as it says if there is no reverence (for the Almighty) there is no wisdom. But someone other than talmid chochom can also poses it.
This is a very good thought but I hope you agree that it's not the intend of the Mishna?
I think Rabbi Yaakov comes to proclaim the supremacy of Torah. He is talking about hamafsik mimishnoso davka. He is not denying the outside world. This is the pshat imo.
"...(a) peculiar comment in the Talmud Yerushalmi (end of Kiddushin): “A person will in the future [have to] make an accounting for everything that his eye beheld but he did not eat.” "
Wizard: How did you decide whom you were going to mindlessly follow? How did you decide what subjects are beyond your comprehension?
There are plenty of other problems with your comment, mainly that it does not represent Judaism as practiced and understood by virtually all of the Rishonim, but let's start with that question.
see Sanhedrin 71a - ani ritiv vyashavti al kivro - I saw HIM and sat on his grave.
sorer, such that it became nearly impossible for it to occur.
I will have to put on my academic sheitl for this one. Sanhedrin moved out of lishkas hagozis 40 years before the Churban. Rabbi Yonasan was a talmid of Rabbi Akiva so he could not have seen HIM and set on his grave because there was no dinei nefoshos at that time. They were not makink a new psak because it was already impossible for it to occur. This was also the reason why the Jews could not execute Jesus.
shouldn't his testimony have ended the debate (just as one exception to a proposed theorem is enough to kill it)?
Correct conclusions. One has to feel the pulse of the Gemorah what is commonly known as the Svorah. The creative, artistic types have an easier time at it than the scientific types. To me this is the beauty of the Gemorah - the Svorah. Just my opinion fwiw.
RS, the last few posts were excellent!
However, being from the same area of Manchester myself (R' Natan and I were childhood friends) I must say that I also felt that way about the aforementioned "sunny" city until I brought a girl I was engaged to at the time to visit my parents. She looked around (actually we were just passing the Hazeldean Hotel) and said, Manchester is such a pretty place! And you know what, I looked around with new eyes and said, I've never noticed it before, but you're right! Especially Broughton Park (which is where we and Rav Segal grew up). There are some very quaint and pretty houses, nestling amongst abundant greenery. Arresting avenues of old Oaks leading to stately 19th century English buildings. And that's not to mention the English hills which surround Manchester (in which we spent a good amount of our childhood, collecting various creatures and getting rained upon copiously).
I don't think I grew up as one of those "cynical people who have little interest in the wider world" to whom you refer. It's true that most peoples smiles have been eroded by years of constant drizzle, however I would not ascribe Rav Segals approach to the rain. The chareidi worldview runs deeper and longer than that in my opinion.
Mordechai, the link doesn't work.
One bein hazemanim (Yeshivah was in session in the Catskills) some fellows took off some days to do some sightseeing, canoeing, rappelling, whatever. They came back to the Yeshivah, and were hanging around, telling of their exploits.
The Rosh Yeshivah walked in.
They sheepishly explained where they had been,adding that Rav SRH had said that he wants to have an answer to HaShem's question "Have you seen My Alps?"
The Rosh Yeshivah responded "I don't know if He will ask you if you saw His Alps or not; but one thing I do know for sure--He certainly will ask you if you saw His Masseches Eiruvin!
I will have to put on my academic sheitl for this one.
but even an academic (not that i accept academic study c"v :-)) would have to explain why such specific language was used.
Max: It wasn't or isn't a conscious decision. It's a mesorah, just like Torah. Father to son, father to son. Makes it easier that way, too. Tatty says so and so is a gadol, ergo he's a gadol. I heard an audio yesterday of HaRav Gifter, zt"l. He said on the tape that HaRav Shach, zt"l was the Gadol HaDor. That's enough to convince me and the rest of Ortho Jews that he was.
As far as what's beyond comprehension, that's obvious to the indivual, and to the Gedolim as well. When the Gemara says not to learn Kabbala until age 40, that means age 40, not when you decide it's time. And since age 40 at that time a person knew all of shas baal peh, today it should probably be age 80 or not at all. Even your precious Rambam says not to learn about the Mekava except with 1 Talmid Chacham. Yet everyone thinks they can just go ahead and do what they please, because they have reached such glorious heights in the secular world. A PhD in astrophysics in no way qualifies you to learn Kabbala.
This is where feeling the pulse of the Gemorah comes in. Rabbi Yonathan objected to the concept of 'drosh vekabel sachar', and to drive across the point expressed himself in an exaggerated manner common to his period. Trying to explain 'specific language' brings you to being megale ponim shelo kihalocha.
Since you were trying to apply mathematical logic to Talmudic text I am surprised by the c'v. Academic approach is useful for obtaining proper historical, cultural and linguistic understanding of a Talmudic text. If Chovos HaLevovos can use the words of 'amgushi' (a priest of idolatry in the context) to teach us emunah why cannot we learn from the academia? Kabel emes miomra, imo. This is the approach of the rationalist school of thought.
"When the Gemara says not to learn Kabbala until age 40, that means age 40, not when you decide it's time."
Where did you conjure up this quote? Where is Shas does it say this? Or did you hokus pokus it?
Father to son, father to son. Makes it easier that way, too. Tatty says so and so is a gadol, ergo he's a gadol.
Lech lecha ... Mibeis avicho. There is a nice machshova in Likutei Halochos of R. Nosson talmid of R. Nachman. He says that since Torah is eternal this commandment applies to each and every one of us. Every person is brought up with incorrect beliefs due to his environment and parental upbringing. The Torah commands us to abandon our preconceived notions and follow the path of G-d similar to Avraham Avinu.
I dont know the exact daf. Exact sources are not as important to me as they are to you. We Haredim do not need chapter & verse. Someone said that someone said that the Gemara said is plenty good enough.
Mibais avicha only works if you say my father or anyone's father worshipped idols like Avraham's did. But if my father and your father was a ben Torah, then you are not allowed to deviate from his teachings, as it violates kibud av.
I'm sure the heilige R. Slifkin can tell you where it says about 40 years old. Even translating any kabbala sefer into English is a shande, if not a crime altogether. Just beczuse you can walk into the library and read any secular book, does not mean you can do the same with any Torah sefer. There are restrictions. Only a fool would think that if he reads the Artscroll version of Yechezkel that he can understand the Maaseh HaMerkava. Same with reading an English Zohar. Pretentious, chutzpahdik, and criminal.
"We Haredim do not need chapter & verse. Someone said that someone said that the Gemara said is plenty good enough."
You'll have to be a bit less over the top if you want to be convincing.
Same with reading an English Zohar. Pretentious, chutzpahdik, and criminal.
Criminal? No. Criminal is when someone does a crime. Rubashkin, for example, committed a crime when he lied on his collateral declarations to the bank for 10 years straight as was proved in court. Rubashkin also committed a crime when he perjured himself on the stand in court. The yeshivish world seems to get mixed up quite a lot about what is and what is not a crime.
Someone said that someone said that the Gemara said is plenty good enough.
talmid has this to say.
As someone from Manchester and knowing the ROSH very well and Mrs Kupets your elementary teacher, I can only say I dont believe the story. If you read of the Chida travels in London he went to visit the tower. The ROSH was brought up in Manchester and went to a non-frum co-ed Jewish school. He was not the over frum person he is made out to be with no secular knowledge at all. He often went to the alps as well. I think one does a disservice to his great memory writing questionable stories about him.
Then there is the third Alps story.
Rav Kook was stuck in Europe when WW I broke out. His first safe haven was in Switzerland. The Nazir, attempting to cheer him up, took him for a trip in the mountains. When asked if the beauty of the mountains didn't move him, Rav Kook sadly responded "the mountains of Eretz Yisrael speak to me more..."
I have a third plausible theory. That the story of Rav Hirsch is pretty well known story and Rav Segal was just being ironically witty.
Agreed. But this could actually be a minor variation of the 2nd explanation: Rav Segal was negating Rav Hirsch's opinion by quoting him in a mildly sarcastic way.
this system will also be duplicated to post Halloween masks or even fancy dress masks.When Mask my partner and i say mask That means so numerous things, considering that the You will find other kind connected with masks for some other occasions. | 2019-04-19T07:25:34Z | http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/12/nu-so-what-did-you-think-of-my-alps.html |
I am wondering if the chap Roseman above might be F/Lt Noel Eric Roseman pff, RNZAF, who served with W/C Bill Simpson in No. 109 Squadron later?
I too am interested in this, and the history of Levin is surprising quiet on the subject. The Weraroa strip was AFAIK and as pjw4118 states West of SH1 in CD Farm Road. However, the Air Force Base was clearly called "Weraroa" but I think it was at Kimberley, a couple of miles to the Southeast. From what I've seen, it appears to me that the strip ran between Kimberley and Tararua Roads and was roughly North-South i.e.at right-angles to the prevailing wind, which I find unusual.
Yeah it was your book and other research that led me back here and then I spotted Roseman and thought it had to be the same man. Also missing from that No. 109 Squadron photo was Alan Dray DFC pff. He was from here in Leamington, Cambridge.
Over Xmas I spent a bit of time in Levin looking for more details about Weraroa.
Originally the CD ( Central Development )Farm road area and Kimberley Rd ( RNZAF ) were both part of an 800 acre Government owned block , munch of which remained State owned until the late 1980s. Originally an experimental farm the Wereroa part became Levin State Farm for " unemployed elderly men. " and reformatory school for boys. In 1918 it also held religious conscientious objectors.
In 1939 the Kimberly Road site was commandeered by the RNZAF and the borstal moved across to CD Road over a weekend.
Things happened quickly in those days , a request to the PWD to provide a satellite airfield for Ohakea at Weraroa was made on 1/7/41 and the airfield opened a month later. As well as an ITW , ground radar operators were trained there and although uniformed as RNZAF or WAAFs they did not come under Air Force control.
Post war the borstal remained in CD road and was extended , having its own cell block built in 1966.The borstal closed in 1989 and today the site remains mainly empty but perhaps with Waitangi obligations. It is classified as Historic Cat 1.
Three movies were made at the site and named Kohitiri , they are available on NZ on Air Film .
I will post a couple of photos of the CD road remains.
The site of the old Kimberley Hospital is now being developed into a retirement village, so eventually any WWII vintage buildings still on the site will probably disappear. They're keeping/renovating the chapel apparently, but I don't know if that's WWII or post-war.
Maybe Bruce, but I do recall we had a lot of outdoor lectures on our Basic Training course at GSTS, Woodbourne, in 1989 too. I can see merit in outdoor lectures for some things, like the compass bearing training, parachute training (they usually popped one and infated it in the wind to demonstrate its parts), etc.
The Kiwi of the air stations — it possesses no "wings' — Weraroa is the Royal New Zealand Air Force's "intake" point for all pilots, observers and air gunners. It is the place where the men who will have wings are grounded in the first steps of their training.
For this preliminary course the Air Force took over from the Education Department one of its training institutions, a mile or so outside Levin, equipped with well-planned gardens, plenty of green sward and good permanent buildings. For additional accommodation new dormitories and streets of boarded tents have been spread over the adjoining paddocks.
Immediately on arrival the recruit makes a complete break with the old life by packing up his "civvies" and donning the Air Force blue uniform. In an article Charles E. Wheeler gives the initial issue to the recruit, the complete total of his official possessions: one greatcoat, two complete uniforms, two pairs socks, two pairs boots, two shirts and four collars, clothes-brush, button-brush and stick, tie, gym. vest, canvas gym. shoes, two caps and badges, five blankets (more can be obtained at choice), one pair of sheets and a pillow slip (regularly replaced as they require washing).
At first parades of new recruits, uniforms are closely scrutinised, suggestions for improvement noted, and a visit to the camp tailor eventually produces a smart fit.
"Training makes you one step better than the enemy," is the axiom learned at the first lecture. There is so much study in the Air Force that the men are relieved of most fatigues. The course is intensive. Men must keep their uniforms clean, and modern facilities including a drying-room are available for their personal washing. But there are no cook-house fatigues, nor is the recruit required to clean up the camp grounds — he has quite enough to do with his studies, varied by some early morning physical exercises, and breaks between lectures.
Most of the young men get to bed by 9 p.m. Every man has a wardrobe, and sleeps on a spring mattress. He must be tidy. In the morning bed clothes have to be folded into a neat pile like a sandwich at the end of the stretcher.
The men come to mess with their own cups and cutlery; they line up to be served, and find the tables laid for the rest. Diet is planned to include raw and cooked fruit, and fresh vegetables such as lettuce. The men are represented on a messing committee, where with the camp officers including the doctor, the dietary scale is decided periodically.
Recruits are immediately formed into flights of a convenient number for lectures, possibly 30 in a group. They go through the course together, and are sent as a flight to their next station. They elect two of their number to exercise control, marching them to meals and making sure that every member of the flight attends lectures. This system assists in their development of friendships and builds a disciplined body with some idea of Air Force traditions and obligations. The course for pilots is six weeks, for observers two months, and for gunners about a month.
Most of the air gunners and observers go straight to Canada, under the Empire air training scheme. The "rough spots" have been knocked off. They then know a good deal about the guns used on aircraft, understand much of the technical side of radio transmission, and have a sound groundwork in navigation. So much has to be taught in this first month that only one week-end leave is given during the whole period.
Experienced officers, from knowledge of the young airmen and records of their examinations, can determine what they can best do in the Air Force; that an individual is marked out for a pilot, an observer, or that he will develop into a skilled gunner. The station has many lecture rooms, and a large staff of qualified officers who invite questions and test the attention of the class by occasional discussion.
"Your training," he adds, "is aimed at bringing out all these attributes."
Articles like the above make me realise the RNZAF recruit training in the 1940's was so similar to when I went through in 1989, it shows they knew what they were doing, they found the best method and stuck to it. Not like the civilian education system.
I also learned a new word fro that article, "sward" - an open expanse of short grass.
The property at Levin which used to be the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm, but was an Air Force training station for several years during the war, is now being used by the Mental Hospitals Department for the accommodation of children in the same class as those at Templeton farm colony, near Christchurch. The existence of such an institution in the North Island will enable children who require to live in one to be nearer their homes, if their homes are in the North Island, than they would be at Templeton. The patients which the department has at Templeton and intends to have at Levin are children who are mentally deficient but not insane, including some who are adult in years but have remained childish mentally. They require protection from the hazards of normal life, but live and work satisfactorily in an institution.
This map comes from the National Library's collection.
I only just found out that the property next door (ie RNZAF Wereroa) was a WW2 ground training unit from speaking with the previous owner! I then did a bit of digging and it brought me here. Fascinating stuff, I’m a bit of a military history junkie as being a serving member of the NZDF (and ex RN) such info is of great personal interest. I’m going to collate maps and aerial photos to make a display for the wall of the man cave as with the redevelopment of the site much of the remaining fabric and infrastructure will likely be lost.
If I were you , get over the fence and collect any items of interest , as I am sure that there are a few boards with carefully carved names in some of the old dorms/classrooms ! | 2019-04-24T08:30:31Z | http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/12818/lost-airfields-rnzaf-levin-wereroa?page=6 |
Several seminal works of educational research have espoused the virtues of feedback. First came Black and Wiliam’s Inside the Black Box, then Hattie’s Visible Learning, followed by the Educational Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit.
Each posited that feedback was one of the most impactful teaching strategies at our disposal, adding eight months of extra progress every year and leading to at least half a GCSE grade’s improvement. But is feedback in danger of being the next big fad?
To be clear, there is no doubt that feedback is important. It is not the next Brain Gym. If pupils didn’t know what to improve and how to improve it, they would be unlikely to make any progress.
But our obsession with feedback has led to an unhealthy teacher workload which, in turn, has adversely affected recruitment and retention in the profession.
For proof of this, look no further than the government’s Workload Challenge (2015) survey, which found that 53 per cent of respondents thought that, while marking pupils’ work was necessary and productive, the excessive nature, depth and frequency of marking was burdensome.
Last week I explored ways of ensuring that marking and feedback are made more meaningful, manageable and motivating. This week, I will turn my attention to what the evidence tells us works best.
Time spent on marking and feedback can be time well spent. However, when teachers spend so much time marking that they burn out, or when time is spent engaged in ineffective marking, then something has to change.
What’s more, the quality of the marking and feedback that steals so much of teachers’ time is often questionable. Indeed, as the Carter Review of Initial Teaching Training (January 2015) found, there are gaps in some teachers’ capacity “in the theoretical and technical aspects of assessment”.
In fact, of all the areas of ITT that Sir Andrew Carter reviewed, “the most significant improvements are needed for training in assessment”.
Assessment skills are not sufficiently prioritised in either initial teacher education or CPD. There is an assumption that assessment is a natural intuitive skill possessed by all new teachers but that is, it seems, a false assumption.
Assessment, the report argued, is part of every teaching activity and is the means used by good teachers to evaluate progress and diagnose the needs of their pupils. As such, the best marking and feedback are neither wholly formative, nor wholly summative; they are embedded in the classroom, not activities of reflection outside the classroom.
The best marking and feedback also help pupils to engage more fully in their own development and learning. After all, a pupil responds better to new challenges if they understand what they need to do in order to progress and why doing it matters.
What’s more, the best marking and feedback are at the heart of every classroom because they provide evidence that guides teaching and learning. The best marking and feedback also provide an opportunity for pupils to demonstrate and review their progress.
The NAHT report stated that assessment should be fair – in other words, it should be inclusive of all abilities and free from bias towards factors that are not relevant to what the assessment intends to address.
They say that assessment should be honest – in other words, assessment outcomes are used in ways that minimise undesirable effects, are conveyed in an open, honest and transparent way to assist pupils with their learning, and judgements are moderated by experienced professionals to ensure their accuracy.
They say that assessment should be ambitious – in other words, it should place achievement in context against nationally standardised criteria and expected standards, and embody, through objective criteria, a pathway of progress and development for every child. Assessment objectives should set high expectations for pupils, too.
They say that assessment should be appropriate – in other words, the purpose of any assessment process should be clearly stated and conclusions regarding pupil achievement should be valid and the assessment method appropriate to the pupil’s age, to the task and to the desired feedback information.
They say that assessment should draw on a wide range of evidence to provide a complete picture of pupil achievement – in other words, it should demand no more procedures or records than are practically required to allow pupils, their parents and teachers to plan future learning.
And they say that assessment should be consistent – in other words, judgements should be formed according to common principles, the results should be readily understandable by third parties and a school’s results should be capable of comparison with other schools, both locally and nationally.
Furthermore, the NAHT says that the outcomes of assessment should provide meaningful and understandable information for: pupils in developing their learning; parents in supporting children with their learning; and teachers in planning teaching and learning.
They say that the result of assessment should be to provide information that justifies the time spent on it, and that feedback should inspire greater effort and a belief that, through hard work and practice, more can be achieved.
The term “feedback” originates from the field of engineering and was first used, to the best of my knowledge, by Norbert Wiener in 1946.
To Weiner and his fellow engineers, feedback formed part of a loop – it was about the discrepancy between the current state and the desired state, but this alone was deemed useless unless there was also a mechanism within the feedback loop to bring the current state closer to the desired state. In other words, feedback was about correction and progress.
Translating this notion for use in education, we can conclude that simply telling pupils that their current performance falls short of where they need to be isn’t feedback in the original engineering sense of the term. Rather, to be effective, feedback must also embody a mode of progression for pupils.
In practice, this means that the teacher should be clear and constructive about pupils’ weaknesses, offering suggestions on how they might be addressed, identify pupils’ strengths and offer advice on how to develop them, and then – crucially – provide planned opportunities in class for pupils to improve upon their work.
In order to do this well, the teacher needs to articulate clear assessment criteria before pupils engage in a piece of work and ensure these criteria guide the marking and feedback. In other words, if the learning objectives for the work being marked do not specify expectations around, say, presentation, then the teacher should carefully consider whether comments about pupils’ presentation should in fact be made.
The most effective feedback requires small incremental improvements of pupils’ work. Feedback is most impactful when it is given infrequently – what we might call “quality marking”, given for targeted pieces of work and not for every piece.
And feedback also works best when time is given for pupils to act upon it. In fact, the latter prerequisite is the most important. As Dylan Wiliam once said, the only useful feedback is that which is acted upon.
How well has the pupil understood the task?
What does the pupil know and not yet know?
What does the pupil need to do next to improve?
How will the pupil be informed of the required next steps?
How can feedback help encourage pupils to review their work critically and constructively?
Dialogic marking is misguided – it is time-consuming and yet often ineffective. But that isn’t to say that comment-based marking isn’t worthwhile. Indeed, we know from Ruth Butler’s research that providing feedback in the form of comments only (rather than giving a grade or a grade and a comment) is the most impactful strategy because it focuses pupils on what they need to do next to improve, rather than on comparing their summative performance with their peers.
However, when giving written comment-based feedback, we need to be mindful of the fact that pupils rarely read comments. A culture shift is therefore needed and that starts with providing time in class for pupils to read and reflect on the comments.
It also involves giving pointed comments – that is to say, brief and focused on the next steps, not long-winded and focused on correcting every mistake. Comments, if they are to be helpful, also need to be specific – pinpointing particular changes that are needed and providing examples. Vague suggestions such as “Details?” are unhelpful.
Comments need to offer something new, too, rather than simply repeating what has been said before. If the same written comments keep reappearing in a pupil’s book, it suggests they aren’t paying attention to them or don’t know what to do with them.
John Hattie says that the best way in which to understand feedback is to consider Sadler’s (1989) notion of the “gap”. The purpose of feedback, Sadler argues, is to reduce the gap between where a pupil is and where she is meant to be – that is, between prior or current achievement and the success criteria.
To make feedback effective, therefore, teachers must have a good understanding of where pupils are, and where they are meant to be. Hattie argues that “the more transparent (teachers) make this status for pupils, the more pupils can help to get themselves from the points at which they are to the success points, and thus enjoy the fruits of feedback”.
Feedback can help to reduce this gap in several ways. First, it can provide cues that capture a pupil’s attention and help her focus on succeeding with a task. Second, it can provide information about ideas that have been misunderstood. Third, it can be motivational, encouraging pupils to invest more effort or apply greater skill to a task.
Matt Bromley is an education writer and author with 18 years’ experience in teaching and leadership. Visit www.bromleyeducation.co.uk. To read the previous articles in this series or Matt’s archive of best practice articles, visit http://bit.ly/1Uobmsl. The next article in his feedback series is due to publish on May 24. | 2019-04-25T00:39:02Z | http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/feedback-the-mark-of-success-part-3/ |
Starting January 16, LEGO VIP members can purchase the mammoth sized D2C set, LEGO Movie 2 Welcome to Apocalypseburg (70840) in any LEGO brand store and at shop.LEGO.com. To make the debut of this set extra special, LEGO has organized a couple of designer signing events where LEGO VIP fans who purchased the Welcome to Apocalypseburg (70840) can meet and greet the designers behind this 3,100-piece set. There are two designer signing events that you may want to consider if you happen to be in London in the UK, or Florida, USA during the next few days.
As mentioned in their Facebook events page, the first designer signing event to happen will be on January 17, Thursday at 12PM to 3PM (UTC) at the LEGO flagship store in Leicester Square London, UK. On the other hand, the second event will cater to LEGO fans in the US on January 19 from 12PM to 3PM (EST) to be held at the LEGO Store in Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Here’s a quick look at what to expect from these designer signing events.
Don’t miss your chance to meet Justin Ramsden & Paul Constantin Turcanu – the official LEGO designer team and master minds behind THE LEGO MOVIE 2 ‘Welcome to Apocalypseburg’ set and get it signed.
Open to LEGO VIPs only!
Please note, there is a limit of only 2 sets per person to get signed.
If you’re not a LEGO VIP member, then this might be a good time to upgrade your account. Other than the Welcome to Apocalypseburg set, Justin Ramsden is also credited for designing the much larger set, LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71043), and other LEGO Marvel Superheroes sets.
LEGO has just announced a new promotional to celebrate the release of the LEGO Overwatch theme a couple of weeks from now. If you’re looking forward to visit your local LEGO Store in January, then you may want to mark the 23rd to have the chance to participate in the LEGO Store Overwatch Play Event. Like any other LEGO Store events, participating in this in-store play event will give you the chance to build and bring home your FREE LEGO Overwatch Ganymede brick-built figure.
This brick-built avian figure is a great companion to the LEGO Overwatch Bastion (75974) set which is also slated to be released on January 1. Here’s the full announcement from LEGO.com.
Some of your favorite Overwatch heroes have been protecting the LEGO® Store and have left their sprays behind. We need your help to search throughout the store to figure out which characters have been here!
Find the sprays and mark each one you find, then show your checklist to a Brick Specialist and build and take home your own FREE LEGO Overwatch Ganymede model!
Event takes place in stores January 23, 2019. To participate, you must sign up in stores beginning January 1, 2019. Builders must be between the ages of 6-14 to participate.
Be sure to drop by any LEGO brand store starting January 1 to register for this LEGO play event. And since this event is running only for a day, expect this free LEGO Overwatch Ganymede figure to run out pretty fast.
Just a quick reminder, just in case you haven’t noticed it yet: the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) is now available at LEGO Shop@Home as our current promotional, gift with purchase set. This is also a nice freebie to go along with the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71043) if you’re planning to get this massive set which is now currently offered with Double VIP points at shop.LEGO.com.
The LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) is available for free beginning November 9 until 21 or until supplies last, with a minimum purchase of any LEGO products worth $99 and above. LEGO seems to have a sufficient number of sets at hand since this gift-with-purchase set is still available at LEGO Shop@Home as of this posting. This set is also available at all local LEGO stores across the US, in case you want to pick up your own set personally.
The LEGO Store December 2018 US Calendar is now uploaded via LEGO’s servers and we now have an idea on what to expect from your local LEGO Store and LEGO Shop@Home before this year closes.
If you recall earlier in September, the official images of the new LEGO Seasonal Christmas Carousel (40293) were released by a Russian online retailer giving us a hint that the limited edition set is our next LEGO GWP or gift-with-purchase set. Since then, news were somehow slow regarding this highly sought-after set which is similar to the likes of 2017’s Nutcracker (40254) and 2016’s Snowglobe (40223). So for those who are asking when and where this year’s LEGO Seasonal Christmas Carousel (40293) will be available locally then the LEGO Store December Calendar now gives us the answer.
Here’s a rundown of what to expect from the LEGO Store December 2018 calendar both online and in-store. My only minor complaint is that it still doesn’t give us an official confirmation of when will the Christmas Gift Box (40292) be available in the US, if ever it is still a possibility. LEGO has already released info that the Christmas Gift Box will be a promotional set that will be available in the In the UK and rest of Europe, so I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.
December 1 to 10 – Free Christmas Carousel (40293) with purchases over $99.
This gift-with-purchase set is free for every single receipt purchase of any LEGO products worth $99 and above. This promo will run from December 1 to 10 or while supplies last at all LEGO Stores and at shop.LEGO.com.
December 11 to 24 – Free Reindeer Ornament (5005253) with purchases over $50.
This next LEGO seasonal ornament was first revealed via the LEGO Store Calendar in China just a month ago, and it looks like it’s heading its way in the US as well. Frankly speaking, I wish LEGO could have offered an alternative to the Reindeer Ornament since I feel that this line of buildable LEGO Christmas decors are quite saturated already. But hey, it’s for free so I guess there’s no really complaining there.
December 1 to 31 – Throughout December, LEGO will offer Double VIP Points with purchases on select LEGO sets.
We have no info yet on what these qualifying sets will be, but we’ll keep you posted.
December 4 to 5 – The VIP Monthly Mini Build for December is a Sleigh (40287).
LEGO VIP members can register online for December’s LEGO Store Monthly Mini Build which is a Sleigh starting November 15.
Also remember that the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (21315) is now available via LEGO Shop@Home and at all LEGO Stores, including the LEGO xtra polybag range. The former features a new building experience with two buildable pop-up fairy tales cleverly hidden in one attractive build, while the latter is a great supplement for any City landscape that you might be working on.
When the LEGO Store November Calendar in the US was released earlier this month, I have to admit that I find it less appealing as compared to previous offerings. The month of November as far as LEGO stores in the US are concerned, seems to be a bit lackluster, with no significant promos to expect other than the usual Double VIP points and the promise of Black Friday exclusives. Simply said, it lacked the attractive gift-with-purchase sets that are usually given out once the holiday season begins. However, with the recent confirmation of the micro-scaled LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) as a November promotional freebie in LEGO Stores in the US and at shop.LEGO.com, it looks like LEGO has intentionally omitted some of its promotional offers from its US November LEGO Store Calendar. While our attention was focused on the new micro-scaled LEGO Harry Potter set, the LEGO Store in China has revealed that aside from the Diagon Alley (40289), we can expect another limited edition, holiday-themed promotional set to be released anytime soon in the form of the LEGO Christmas Gift (40292) set.
Other than the LEGO Store in China, it looks like the LEGO Store in Germany is now reporting that the LEGO Christmas Gift (40292) is also their November GWP set together with the micro-scaled Diagon Alley (40289). As shared by Promobricks, their LEGO Store November Calendar flyers are now available to fans and with it, German LEGO fans can expect a month filled with nice freebies and promotional items. From November 5 to 21 for example, fans can have the Diagon Alley (40289) for free together with a single receipt minimum purchase of 80 Euros; and the Christmas Gift (40292) set from November 20 to 26. To add, there is also the LEGO Seasonal Penguin Girl (5005251) which first came to our attention last July. This collectible minifigure will be given away for free across LEGO Stores in Germany from November 22 to 26.
Now that LEGO Stores in China and Germany have confirmed the availability of the LEGO Christmas Gift (40292) will be available in their respective regions, I guess the obvious question is, will it be available in the US as well.
It’s difficult to say at this time, but it is worthwhile to note that LEGO has uploaded a page dedicated for the Christmas Gift (40292) set. There is nothing much to see here, however, the product blurb mentions that this particular set will contain 301 pieces and has a retail value of $19.99 as you can see below.
We just have to cross our fingers and patiently wait if and when this next LEGO holiday exclusive will be available in the US. Thanks again to Promobricks and their readers for sharing this info.
The LEGO Mosaic Maker is one of the most eye-catching and rare LEGO treat that any fan of the brick can experience. And though its end result is the LEGO Personalised Mosaic Portrait (40179) which is only composed of 1×1 plates, a 48×48 baseplate and generic brick separator, each boxed set is somehow unique in itself because it comes with the customer’s portrait photograph interpreted in LEGO tiles.
The machine for LEGO Mosaic Maker is somewhat huge and also complicated, that there are less than ten of them around the world. But a LEGO Store here or there has slowly been getting its own machine in recent months. And its Japan’s turn to have their very own.
Indeed, the LEGO brand is already ubiquitous in Japan, and the inclusion of the Mosaic Maker makes it even closer to the hearts of LEGO fans in the region. In fact, in just weeks after LEGO set up a Mosaic Maker machine in their second branded store in China, another store unit was opened this week at the Yokohama Landmark Plaza.
Like its regional counterparts, the LEGO Mosaic Maker in Japan functions the same way: visitors have their photo taken in a booth, and the machine renders the image in five colored LEGO 1×1 plates to be tacked onto a large baseplate. It’s a visual feast as you wait for your picture to be printed, while the boxed set of mosaic pieces is slowly dispensed.
Pricing in Japan for the LEGO Mosaic Maker falls reasonably around big LEGO set prices in the country at ¥10,455 (US$93). This is still somewhat lower as compared to the US debut of the machine which cost at $129.99 a pop. That’s two significant Asian markets that now carries the exclusive set. Where else will it be showing up next?
The LEGO Store November Calendar in China has made its way online, and it gives us a glimpse of our next limited edition, seasonal gift with purchase (GWP) set just in time for the holidays. Bouwsteentjes has shared an image of the said calendar, and with it comes the reveal of the LEGO Christmas Box (40292).
As you can see, there are also other familiar promotions such as the rumored microscaled LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) which we will talk later on, and the LEGO Minifigure Collector Frame (5005359). However, the most noticeable and appealing of all is the new LEGO Christmas Box (40292). Similar to the concept and design of Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures (75952), the LEGO Christmas Box features a holiday-themed vignette cleverly hidden inside a gift box. The build itself has a removable lid and opens at the middle to reveal a cozy, indoor holiday winter scene.
Being a limited edition promotional gift with purchase set, it should be expected that limited quantities will be available once this is offered at the end of the month. I’m not quite sure if it will also follow the same time frame in the US and the rest of the world, but you can bet that it will come in limited quantities.
If we read it right, the LEGO Store November Calendar from China also mentions a specific number of the LEGO Christmas Box sets that will be given away. If that is the case, then better expect that this set will surely go out fast.
I love the idea behind a surprise build, similar to the recently announced LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (21315). It’s those little surprises that make a LEGO set extra special, even more as it comes as a limited edition, seasonal set. I just hope that LEGO will upload its official images soon so we can have a better look.
So what do you think about the LEGO Christmas Box (40292)? Do you think it’s worth the trip to your LEGO Store or that additional purchase online? Share your thoughts in the comments below. | 2019-04-24T07:01:22Z | https://brickshow.com/2018/09/first-uk-lego-brand-store-closes-for-1-month-refurbishment |
Let the Johns-Carabelli Co. guide you through the process, from consultation, to design, to stone cutting, to memorial cleaing and repair.
The artisans of the Johns-Carabelli family are nationally recognized as leaders in the monument industry in custom design, lettering and engraving. The art of hand drawing and hand carving lettering has been passed from generation to generation. When the American Monument Association created the book “Symbols-The Universal Language,” they turned to our artists to write the entire lettering section. While much of the engraving done today uses a computer generated template, understanding the core concepts of proportion, value and relationship of letters and design is a critical but often missing component necessary in any properly executed lettering project. We continue to use our talents and expertise to ensure all of our lettering projects no matter how small are based on those concepts.
Most memorials are produced from materials that will endure the test of time. Whether granite or bronze, their inherent beauty should last for generations. But just like an automobile or the windows of a home, without proper maintenance and periodic cleaning this beauty becomes hidden. Our expert craftsmen have the skills and tools necessary to restore your memorial to its original beauty. Even though granite is nearly as hard as a diamond its polished surface can be easily destroyed when not cleaned properly. The frequency of required cleaning is hard to define as conditions can vary from location to location. In many cases the patina created from the collection of dirt on a memorial can actually enhance its beauty. Let the experts at the Johns-Carabelli Co help you determine what cleaning and restoration services are right for your particular circumstance. Our restoration services also include sandblasting. Automotive and motorcycle parts as well as lawn furniture are just a few of the metal restoration projects we can assist with.
Handcrafted from granite, marble and other natural stone as well as bronze, commercial signage is available in any size range and budget. We can assist you in all phases of your project, from design concepts through installation. These signs, which naturally evoke an air of stability and distinction will withstand weathering and remain beautiful for years. Whether for a school, church or professional firm, our signs will give your name the prominence it deserves and convey the image you desire. Some of our quality signs can be seen at many area high schools and universities, several Ohio State Highway Patrol posts, the new RTA station in Little Italy and the Federal Building, just to name a few.
Individual and Companion Memorials: A single or companion memorial differs from a monument in that it is normally one piece and smaller in size than an upright monument. It may be made as a lawn level memorial, pillow or bevel memorial, or a slant face memorial. However, its size should not limit its personalization. The skills of our designers assure you a well-designed tribute no matter what style of memorial you desire. Let us create a memorial that captures what you want to remember most about your loved one.
Memorials that are upright in form, more than 8 inches and at least two pieces of stone are referred to as monuments. Sizes and styles may be controlled by cemetery regulations, although most cemeteries are encouraging upright memorialization, allowing families more flexibility when planning a memorial tribute for loved ones. These monuments span one or two grave spaces, and may be designed to reflect personal or family values, a profession, a love of life and more. Our design ideas are limitless. Let the experts at The Johns-Carabelli Co. guide you through the regulations for your specific site regarding size and finish.
For families who desire a larger cemetery lot, a family monument may be placed as the focal point on the lot. Some cemeteries also permit separate memorial headstones to provide a more personal tribute for each individual. Let the experts at The Johns-Carabelli Co. guide you through the specific regulations for your site, regarding size and finishes, prior to selecting this type of monuments.
Placed to commemorate a historical moment in time or respected individual, the public or civic memorial may be designed to commemorate a battle, war or conflict, or to bring attention to a person or event of historical significance. Many times a church, or cemetery will erect a feature memorial to bring attention to a religious figure. Both heroes and tragic events have been commemorated with memorial tributes designed by The Johns-Carabelli Co. These tributes can be found in schools, parks, cemeteries and religious sanctuaries.
Bronze is another popular medium used in memorialization. Some cemeteries require bronze to be used, so please let us help you confirm any cemetery regulations before choosing a memorial. Bronze can also be used to enhance a granite memorial with emblems or decorative ornamentation. Add a unique look that makes your memorial stand out from a generic headstone selected from a catalog.
Benches can be used as a place for reflection, rest or to preserve cremains. Whether you’re looking for a traditional, contemporary or rustic look, the possibilities are endless. You will see our work in gardens, walkways and cemetery lots.
Boulders can be seen as a symbol of strength or a connection with nature. They have many uses, from displaying an address, to family, estate or cremation memorials. Using a boulder as a memorial is a unique choice that will make your memorial look more natural and stand out among other more traditional designs.
When a family chooses cremation, memorial choices are still as limitless as in traditional burial. Choose anything from a personal garden tribute to a monument with receptacles to hold the cremains. Let the Johns-Carabelli family assist you in selecting the type of memorialization to best suit your family.
The Johns-Carabelli Co. is the only shop in Northeast Ohio with a master craftsman on staff with over 30 years of experience cutting hand-tooled lettering. Whether your goal is to match existing memorials that were carved in the last century or to just bring that feel of old-world craftsmanship to a modern design, experience the creative difference that this old world skill can bring to your memorial.
The artists at The Johns-Carabelli Co. have a great attention to detail. With hand-crafted etchings, your memorial will have photo-quality images meticulously engraved that provide a depth in clarity, unmatched by laser or sand-etched methods. Whether you’re looking for a portrait, nature scene or existing art work replication, we can provide the memorial that tells the story unique to your loved one.
Pets are members of the family and deserve to be memorialized the way we would any other loved one. The Johns-Carabelli Co. can create anything from a simple stone for the yard to memorials for pet cemeteries. We take the same care in creating these memorials as any other family memorial.
The distinction of a private mausoleum is unsurpassed. Beauty, prestige and reverence are displayed in a personal mausoleum. Through the ages, similar architectural structures have been built for those who wish to eliminate the ordeal of in-ground burial. The mausoleum design signifies great strength as well as beauty.
Original unique garden pieces are designed and handcrafted ensuring that any sculpture you choose will be truly one of a kind. Statuary, boulders, pavers, bricks and natural stones can be used to personalize any space. Any cemetery lot that allows planting can become a personal garden of memorialization. Perfect for any garden, walkway or entrance, garden art will enhance the beauty of any surrounding without detracting from the natural look of the outdoors. These pieces are often used when cremation is chosen over traditional burial.
The Johns-Carabelli Co. uses only the highest-quality granite available; specifically suited for monumental purposes. We partner with select maufacturers across the United States to produce your memorial to our strict quality standards. The granite memorials we provide are not dyed or enhanced in any way, ensuring they will withstand the tests of time, temperature and climate. | 2019-04-25T04:05:26Z | https://www.jcmemorials.com/products-services |
Everyone knows calcium is critically important for healthy bones and teeth, but did you know it also plays important roles in stabilizing essential proteins, regulating the contraction and relaxation of muscles, and managing the constriction and relaxation of blood vessels? IIn fact, calcium levels are so important, even a small decline in the calcium levels in the body’s blood and tissues causes the release of a hormone that simultaneously limits calcium’s elimination through urine, stimulates its release from bone tissue, and facilitates its absorption during digestion(Higdon, Drake, Delage, & Weaver, 2001).
In the body, almost all of the calcium you consume is stored in the bones and teeth. The remainder circulates through the blood to other tissues and organs where it performs essential tasks ranging from those mentioned above to the tasks of nerve and cell signaling (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2013a).
Adult men and women from 19 to 50 years of age and kids from four to eight years of age need about 1,000 mg of calcium each day. From 51 to 70 years of age, men need about 1,000 mg a day while women need a little more – about 1,300 mg per day – to help prevent osteoporosis during menopause. Both men and women over 70 years of age need about 1,200 mg per day. Adolescents and teens from nine to 18 years of age need about 1,300 mg of calcium every day to support healthy bone development (NIH, 2013b).
One of the biggest risks of not getting enough calcium is the development of osteopenia (low bone mineral density) or the more serious condition, osteoporosis, both of which can significantly increase the risk of fractures (NIH, 2013b). Some studies have also indicated that calcium may help reduce the risks of certain cancers and may help provide some protection against heart disease. Other symptoms associated with low levels of calcium include numbness and tingling in the fingers, heart arrhythmias and even convulsions (NIH, 2013a).
Although many foods contain calcium, a report from the federal government (2009) found most people in the U.S. - about two-thirds – aren't getting nearly the amount they need to maintain optimal health. Deficiencies were greatest among girls and young women ages 14 to 50 years of age, although both genders appear to be consuming far less calcium than recommended on a daily basis (Bailey et al., 2010).
Although anyone can develop calcium deficiency, some people are more likely to consume less calcium than others. People who are lactose intolerant or sensitive to milk and milk products, women who are in menopause, and younger women who have unusually low levels of circulating estrogen are at special risk for calcium deficiency. Vegetarians and vegans are also more likely to have low levels of calcium compared to those who eat meat.
Milk and other dairy products are good sources of calcium, but if you're lactose intolerant or you simply don't like milk or milk products, don't despair: there are plenty of other non-dairy sources of the mineral that can help keep your calcium at optimal levels. Sardines and canned salmon, both with their bones retained, are excellent sources of calcium, and turnip greens, kale and Chinese cabbage are good vegan sources. Fortified bread and cereal products and fortified orange juice can also help boost your daily intake (NIH, 2013b).
Of course, if you're looking for an easy way to boost calcium levels, nuts and seeds are ideal. In fact, just one cup of almonds has about 380 mg of calcium – more than a cup of milk, which has just under 300 mg. A cup of Brazil nuts has about 213 mg of calcium, and a cup of pili nuts has 174 mg. Seeds are even more potent sources of calcium. Just a tablespoon of sesame seeds has 88 mg of calcium – try sprinkling some on a salad for a healthy crunch (Kandil, 2012).
Adding foods rich in vitamin D helps increase absorption of calcium in the digestive tract so you can get the most from the calcium-rich food you eat. On the other hand, oxalic acid and phytic acid found in vegetables, beans and whole grains can decrease calcium absorption, which is another reason why vegetarians and vegans are at greater risk for calcium deficiency.
The federal government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends people get nutrients from food sources rather than relying on supplements (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.). Since nuts and seeds are great sources of not only calcium but other important minerals as well, adding them to your regular diet is an ideal way to supplement your nutritional needs naturally. For some ideas on how to add these foods to your regular regimen, check out the sections below for calcium-rich recipes and snack recommendations from our Health Nut and Registered Dietitian!
Create your own confections to cull your cravings for the sweet or savory with these recipes for superbly scrumptious, calcium-laden snacks and meals.
A true powerhouse of calcium, our detox smoothie supplies a whopping 74% of the Daily Value (DV) for calcium! A superb source for anyone, particularly those subscribing to a vegan diet.
Another simple smoothie recipe, this delectable drink offers a healthy helping of calcium with 47% of the DV for the mineral. Treat yourself to this sweet savor today!
It can be surprisingly difficult to meet your dietary needs when it comes to calcium, but this delectable salad supplies a hearty helping of the mineral with an abundance of other nutrients.
A delectable dinner made with more calcium than your average meal, this vegan casserole is ideal for fitting that elusive mineral into your daily diet!
When it comes to adding in calcium-rich foods, you most likely think of items like: milk, yogurt, and cheese as some of go-to sources. While dairy foods are rich in calcium, there are also plenty of other foods that deliver calcium to boost your daily intake.
On food labels, the amount of calcium in the food is referenced by the % Daily Value (DV), which is a set of recommendations for key nutrients based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet, the % DV for calcium is 1000 milligrams, so if a food has 18% of the DV that would have about 180 milligrams of calcium per serving. Similarly, 30% of the DV is 3000 milligrams of calcium per serving. Remember, if you have two servings, all of the nutrition fact data doubles!
Not only do these savory snacks supply a veritable 18% of the DV for calcium in each serving, but they also offer an abundance of other essential nutrients, including: vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. Try tossing some into a salad with quinoa and spinach or serve up chopped sun dried tomatoes with a slice of feta cheese on crackers, like our Vegan “Cheese” Dill Crackers.
These delectable dried fruit pieces provide an equally impressive helping of nutrients. With about 9% of the DV for calcium per ounce and also provides 100% the DV for vitamin C! Savor these delicious chewy treats and the nearly 3 grams of protein each ounce provides to help you power through the work day.
This soft snack provides an enticing texture and neutral flavor that can be enjoyed on its own or easily added to an omelet for a quick fix of calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C.
Cook some of these luscious legumes at the beginning of the week and add them to salads or soups for an impressive helping of fiber with 15 grams in each serving. A standard serving also supplies 17% of the DV for calcium and 9 grams of protein to support your nutritional needs.
This superb superfood supplies a surplus of the nutrients you need most in every healthful serving. Simply add a scoop of seeds to your salads, smoothies, baked goods, or stir fries to enjoy the incredible 11 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 8 grams of unsaturated fat, and 180 milligrams (18% of the DV) of calcium included in every 28-gram serving.
This crunchy carb is a great way to start the day. A gluten-free cereal, this protein-rich snack can be eaten on the go for an easy means of adding fiber, calcium, and iron to your diet.
These fabulous fruits supply a surprisingly saturated source of natural sugars to give you a burst of energy that is ideal for work or school. The berries also offer complex carbs and an impressive array of nutrients in each 40-gram serving, including: 5 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 190% of the DV for vitamin C, 10% of the DV for calcium and 30% of the DV for iron.
Carob makes a great snack on the go with dried pods that are rich in fiber to support a healthy digestive tract. The snack also supplies some natural sugars for energy and a modest offering of the minerals many diets need more of: calcium and iron.
These fruits may look funny- but their flavor is even more rich and succulent than that of standard strawberries. Each was soaked in apple juice to add a secondary sweetness and to produce a final snack that also offers vitamins and minerals.
Moshfegh, A., Goldman, J., Ahuja, J., Rhodes, D., & LaComb, R. (2009). What We Eat in America, NHANES 2005-2006 (Rep.). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. | 2019-04-22T10:52:27Z | https://nuts.com/healthy-snacks/sources-of-calcium |
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Steve Hendren, President of Galvin Green USA, joined the team in 2017 and facilitated the opening of Galvin Green’s new headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Boasting more than 15 years of industry experience, Hendren began his career as a Regional Manager with Worldwide Golf Enterprises, eventually joining Nike Golf as a Regional Sales Director and Director of Strategic Accounts. Among his responsibilities, Hendren managed key accounts in golf and sporting goods and directed a sales team.
I started playing golf when I was 12 years old. My parents were members at a tennis club in Orange County, CA that had a 9-hole executive course and driving range. They put me into a junior camp one summer, and I immediately fell in love with the game. My mom would drop my childhood best friend and I off at the course and we would go out and play as many holes as we could before they had to pick us up. I played as often as I could through high school with that same childhood friend, and my father, who picked up the game shortly after I did.
I played college baseball at West Virginia University, which limited the amount of time I had to play golf. Right after graduation, a few days after moving back home to Southern California, I was at Roger Dunn Golf Shop in Santa Ana and decided to fill out an application, thinking it would be fun to work there until I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I was hired as a cashier but fell in love with the industry and the company and spent the next 10 years there, the last five of which I was a regional manager in Northern California and Hawaii. I was fortunate to be involved in nearly every aspect of the business and got to learn a lot about the industry and business in general.
After 10 years, I was approached about an opportunity with Nike Golf. I spent seven years with them as a sales rep, regional sales director, and strategic account director, learning the differences in working for a relatively small, privately owned company and a multi-national corporation. We went through several changes during my tenure there, which helped me understand the uniqueness of the golf industry and how valuable it is to be authentic to the game.
This past December, I was given the opportunity to lead the U.S. operation for Galvin Green. After meeting the leadership team in Sweden, getting to know the products, the people, and the culture, it was an easy and exciting decision to make the move. Galvin Green is a pure golf brand, with a 27-year history in the golf business and a strong loyal consumer base. We’re rooted in golf and our brand vision is clear, to be the leading premium performance brand in golf.
What's your assessment of the consumer golf market for 2019?
For Galvin Green, it’s been great. I know there are challenges with the weather throughout parts of the country, but we’ve been fortunate to experience significant growth in new doors and with our existing partnerships. We’re very optimistic for the remainder of the year, as we approach the heart of the golf season.
What's the key distinguishing item between Galvin Green and your competitors?
It’s difficult to identify 1 item that distinguishes us from the competition. We’ve earned the reputation for producing the best outerwear in golf, and in that category, we’re launching an innovation this year that could change how golfers perceive playing in the rain. Our new Ashton Gore-Tex ShakeDry jacket is the lightest Gore-Tex jacket we’ve ever made. It feels and performs like you’re not wearing anything. It’s truly revolutionary in the world of golf outerwear.
European owned apparel companies have been gaining significant traction in the American market place over the last several years. Why do you think that is?
While there are several similarities between some of the European golf clothing companies, there are also significant differences. The perception of quality and fit is a contributing factor, but we place great value on performance and comfort. We’re a pure golf brand, and we’re committed to creating products that help golfers perform their best on the course. We use the best materials and believe that the details make the products.We have a saying that “We Never Compromise”, and we take that approach with everything we do.
Given that dynamic -- how is Galvin Green shaping its growing influence in the States?
Products and partnerships. For our entire 29-year history, we’ve been focused on making premium products for serious golfers. In the US, we’ve simply embraced the brand reputation for quality and performance and have forged partnerships with many of the best golf facilities across the country. By focusing our distribution on only the best golf, we’re able to stay focused on our core consumer, and grow our reputation as one of the best performance apparel brands in golf.
A number of past successful apparel companies have often sought to expand their profile and with that comes the risk of stifling creative innovations. What's the balancing point between the two elements and can companies truly expand growth without becoming stale and predictable?
We’re a different company than virtually everyone else in the golf apparel business. For starters, we’re a golf brand, and we’ve always been a golf brand. We don’t make ski gear, or baseball gloves. For nearly 30 years, we’ve remained focused on golf, and will continue to be. What motivates us is to be the best, not the biggest. If you’ve had the chance to see the new Ashton jacket we’re launching, you’d agree that we’re anything but stale or predictable. We continually lead with new innovations and technologies that help golfers perform their best.
When Galvin Green is considering adding new items to the line -- what's the key determination in putting that into motion?
We launch new products when there’s a consumer need, and when we can make them better than both the competition and our own products in the marketplace. We don’t bring new products to market until we’re confident they’re the best. That’s what drives our brand strategy, and ultimately strengthens our reputation for creating best-in-class products.
Plenty of companies in the apparel category tout the fashion side and minimize the durability dimension. How does Galvin Green walk this line in ensuring what it produces achieves both aims?
Galvin Green has always embraced the fashion side with bold designs and color. In the early years, we battled the critics that questioned whether we could sell a bright colored rain suit. We were the first company to produce a Gore-Tex golf jacket in a color other than navy or black. What stands out most with our consumers though, is our commitment to performance and durability. There’s no better way to prove it than with our lifetime waterproof guarantee on our Gore-Tex products. I don’t know of any other brand in golf that offers a lifetime guarantee. That really illustrates our commitment to both quality and performance.
Is usage on the professional golf tours an essential component in brand visibility and credibility?
It can be. There are several brands out there that are offering huge endorsement deals. Our ambassadors on the PGA and worldwide tours, partner with us because they value the performance of the products and trust that we’ll help them perform at their best. We’re extremely fortunate and proud to work with athletes like Troy Merritt, Martin Laird, and Ben Silverman, who choose to partner with us for these reasons.
What's the split between men's and women's business for the company and how do the genders differ in what appeals to them?
The split varies slightly by region, but women’s currently accounts for just under 20% of our global business, but it’s growing and will continue to be a key opportunity for us. I would attribute the growth in our women’s business to the commitment we’ve made to quality, performance, and style. We take the same approach to quality and materials but utilize designs and style that ensure performance and confidence on the course. Some of the best women’s golfers in the world partner with us on tour, and there’s a growing demand with our retail partners as well.
There's little question Millennials are becoming more and more of a powerful voice in the golf industry and beyond. What approaches is Galvin Green taking to attract them, while at the same time, still appealing to those from earlier generations?
We’ve expanded on how we communicate with the consumer. Obviously social media has become a greater part of how we tell our story. At the same time, we work closer than ever with our retail partners to ensure our story is being told to our loyal consumers and golfers that are just getting to know the brand. We’ve also expanded our product line to include new designs and details to attract a younger and edgier consumer.
PING has unveiled its new performance driven 2019 Spring / Summer men’s apparel range. | 2019-04-24T02:42:15Z | https://golftoday.co.uk/category/lifestyle/ |
Beautiful. Natural. Durable. That’s a Waterlox finish. A unique blend of Tung oil and resin, Waterlox showcases the natural beauty of wood, providing lasting, durable protection. This elegant, one-of-a-kind finish has been made by the Hawkins family since 1910, and is still made by hand according to the original family formula. Waterlox delivers spectacular results, and to make sure you achieve just that, this guide will take you step-by-step through the proper application of a Waterlox finish in conjunction with the online floor application video and FAQs.
If you are finishing countertops or other wood items, please reference the appropriate guide for proper application.
Proper ventilation and adequate air circulation must be provided when using any wood finishing materials. Most oil-based varnishes dry upon exposure to oxygen, which is also known as “oxidative cure.” A lack of cross-ventilation (air exchange) provides less free oxygen, slowing the drying process. Cross-ventilation is the biggest factor affecting dry times. It is not recommended that any solvents or solvent-based materials be used in a non-ventilated area. It is the oxygen molecules in the air that interact with the varnish, creating a chemical reaction and causing the film to dry. Therefore, the better the ventilation (during and after all coats) the quicker the film obtains its final hardness and other chemical resistance properties.
Ceiling fans do not bring in fresh air from an outside source, even if windows are opened. They circulate stale air around the room. In fact, ceiling fans have a tendency to direct too much air downward on the surface of the freshly applied coating and can potentially “skin” over the fresh coat. This slows down the drying time because the solvent is trapped beneath the skin, causing a longer or improper cure.
An 8” to 12” lamb’s wool applicator block and pad, plus one refill pad to complete each coat.
A paint roller pan or five-gallon pail. Be sure to use a pan or pail that allows your applicator to become immersed in the finish.
To make your project even easier, order a complete Waterlox Floor Finish Application Kit. It has all the materials you’ll need to complete your project, including a FREE bottle of Waterlox Original Cleaner Concentrate and a copy of our Wood Finishing DVD.
Using mineral spirits or paint thinner. This may not be practical as it will require quite a bit of thinner to completely rinse out all of the coating.
In today’s ever changing world, more and more products are available on the market due to market forces and general reformulation. Therefore, we are not aware of every type of colorization and filling process available on the market today.
Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes perform best over bare wood and are not designed to be used as a top coat over previously finished surfaces (does not refer to stain coat(s) if used). For best results, strip previously finished surfaces to bare wood, and then apply as described under “New Wood Application”.
If stripping a previous coating off the surface, doing a “sand and recoat” (and it is not previously a Waterlox product) or where not possible to apply to bare wood, our Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish can be used as a primer/tie-coat. It is imperative to identify the previous coating on the floor to know how to proceed.
Surface coating finish (e.g.: oil-modified urethane, water base urethane, etc.). Since a surface finish lies on top of the wood, and will block the penetrating ability of Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes, we recommend sanding down to bare wood before applying Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes. One method of testing for an oil-modified urethane coating is to apply a drop of ammonia to a small, inconspicuous area. Cover the drop with something hollow to prevent the evaporation of the ammonia (e.g.: Dixie® cup, shot glass, etc.) If the spot where the ammonia was applied becomes yellow, it is most likely surface finish.
Other Oil Coatings (e.g.: raw non film-forming linseed oil, soya oil, Tung oil, mineral oil, etc.). Our Waterlox Original Tung Oil products are most likely compatible with these types of finishes. One method of testing for an oil coating is to apply a drop of ammonia to a small, inconspicuous area. Cover the drop with something hollow to prevent the evaporation of the ammonia (e.g.: Dixie® cup, shot glass, etc.) The ammonia will not only yellow, but will eventually wrinkle the film if it is an oil coating.
To prepare the surface, we recommend cleaning the surface with TSP (trisodium phosphate) and water, doing a clear water rinse and allowing it to dry for 24 hours. After the surface is dry, a light buff with a maroon pad or a 3M® white pad is sufficient. After the surface is prepared, re-coat with the Waterlox Original Tung oil finishing system.
Contact a local floor professional who may specialize in refinishing these types of wood finishes. Once the floor is ready for re-coating, we recommend conducting a cross-hatch test to test for adhesion before beginning the entire project.
2. Preparation of the surface is the most important step in the finishing process. In order to achieve the desired results, the floor must be properly sanded prior to finishing. Because of the importance of this step, hiring a professional to do the sanding could be money well spent. To maximize penetration of a Waterlox finish, final sanding should be done with 100 – 150 grit sandpaper.
4. After vacuuming the surface with and across the grain, we recommend tacking it. This can be accomplished by using a mop, lint-free rag or micro-fiber mop dampened with mineral spirits (paint thinner) which will attract any remaining dust and dirt. Mineral spirits (paint thinner) is recommended because the Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes are based in this solvent and are therefore compatible with it if any residual is left on the surface. Mineral spirits (paint thinner) also evaporates slower than other more intense solvents such as lacquer thinner.
When the mineral spirits is wet, it will provide a preview of what your finished floor will look like and allow you to address any sanding or substrate imperfections.
5. Whatever gloss level you choose, we recommend applying Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish as a base. The number of base coats will vary based on the type of wood being finished. As a general rule, most hardwoods will require two base coats. Softer woods like pine, fir or American cherry will require three. Use the wood hardness FAQ (Janka Chart) to help determine the hardness of your wood species. Below is a breakdown of the number of coats to apply to a larger surface such as a floor.
red/white oak, Brazilian cherry, etc.
Medium sheen (semi-gloss) appearance = 3 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
Satin sheen appearance = 2 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, followed by 1 coat of Waterlox Original Satin Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
High gloss appearance = 2 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, followed by 1 coat of Waterlox Original High Gloss Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
white pine, yellow pine, red pine, fir, spruce, cherry, walnut etc.
Medium sheen (semi-gloss) appearance = 4 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
Satin sheen appearance = 3 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, followed by 1 coat of Waterlox Original Satin Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
High gloss appearance = 3 coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, followed by 1 coat of Waterlox Original High Gloss Finish applied @ 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
Example: 1,500 square feet of oak: 1,500 square feet x 3 coats= 4,500 total square feet ÷ 500 square feet per gallon per coat = 9 gallons of Waterlox Original Tung oil finish.
Example: 1,500 square feet of Pine: 1,500 square feet x 4 coats = 6,000 total square feet ÷ 500 square feet per gallon per coat = 12 gallons of Waterlox Original Tung oil finish.
6. Use a quality natural bristle brush for cutting in around the room. Only cut in an area of enough size to provide adequate time to complete that area before it begins to set up.
7. Apply all coats liberally with the grain using an 8” – 12” lamb’s wool applicator. We recommend the use of a lamb’s wool applicator over a roller or T-bar because rollers leave bubbles in the film and T-bars apply the finish too thinly. Further, the applicator should be no wider than the pan or pail you’re using to hold the finish to allow for complete immersion.
Saturate the applicator and spread the finish evenly along the entire length of the floor, reloading the applicator as necessary. Remember that in order to get the proper film build and allow Waterlox’s self-leveling properties to work; Waterlox should always be applied at 500 square feet per gallon per coat.
Also, be sure to apply only light pressure to the applicator while finishing. Waterlox’s penetrating action does the work for you. Too much pressure can result in bubbles in the finish or an uneven coating.
Your floor may look uneven in appearance after the first or even the second coat of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish. This is completely normal. Waterlox penetrates deep into the wood and will build up to an even film when applied with the suggested number of coats and coverage.
If you notice any mistakes or drip marks, simply sand the area lightly and apply more finish.
8. Sanding for adhesion purposes is not required between coats of Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes. This makes Waterlox unique and different from most surface finishes which need abrasion for inter-coat adhesion.
9. Allow each and every coat to dry for 24 hours. Dry time will depend upon ventilation, humidity and temperature.
Allow the surface to dry for 48+ hours with adequate cross-ventilation. Cover the floors with red rosin paper. For extra security and to prevent dents, use ¼” Masonite® (smooth side facing downward toward the floor) to cover the heavy traffic/work areas (ladders, tools and scaffolds, etc.). Once all the trades have completed their projects, pull up the Masonite® and paper.
Some customers choose to finish the floor with all but the last coat of finish. After the trades have completed their projects, pull up the Masonite® and paper. Clean the floors with TSP and water; perform a clear water rinse and let dry for 24 hours in a well ventilated area; apply the last and final coat(s) as per the finishing guide.
After the Waterlox Original Tung oil finish has dried and cured for at least 7 days, cleaning may be performed. For floors, we recommend using a broom or damp mop or microfiber mop on the surface as needed.
Avoid ammonia-based cleaners and products containing wax or acrylics, and try to prevent water from pooling or standing on the surface for long periods of time. We believe wax creates time-consuming maintenance is sues, scuffs easily, leaves water spots and attracts dirt. Wax also makes it difficult to recoat your wood surface with Waterlox when necessary. Even though waxes are compatible with Waterlox finishes, we don’t recommend using them for the aforementioned reasons.
Deep Gouges. Use a fine paint brush or Q-Tip® to “fill” in the deep scratches by building them up.
Keep in mind that the gloss level of Waterlox Original Tung oil finishes softens over time; therefore, any repair may be shinier than the rest of the surface when initially completed. After the repair has been allowed to cure it will become less noticeable.
Black Heel Marks. Black heel marks are what’s know as a transfer of material and the material has actually been transferred to the coating. To repair, remove the mark with a rag dampened with mineral spirits. | 2019-04-19T12:42:15Z | https://waterlox.com/project-help/guide?id=735857e4-4e6a-4b34-9853-e61d7c746baf&q= |
House painting services serve two functions, the first is protection. A good paint coating will effectively keep sun and moisture away from the surface for a greater number of years.
The second purpose of painting services is to beautify by giving the desired color and finish.
It is our job to properly prepare the surface and apply the paint in order to provide both the best protection and lasting beauty.
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We give attention to detail giving you a quality, professional job that you deserve. We also protect your valuable non-painted surfaces including your carpets, wood, linoleum and tile flooring, and your fine furniture.
You can trust your house painting project to Gilbert’s Painting.
My house now looks like a model home!! The inside of my house was in bad need of a new paint job. On the recommendation of my daughter-in law I contacted Travis Gilbert. He was prompt in giving us a quote and his team did a beautiful job. Reasonable price for area painted. I will definitely be contacting him for future work. Thanks guys!!
Travis, Graham, and crew did a wonderful job, got in and got the job done, painted the exterior of the house, painted and stained gate. Excellent prices. Referring them to everyone!. A+ Thanks guys!
The painting looks great, excellent customer service and best prices around!
Travis and his crew did a wonderful job in our neighborhood(Val Vista Meadows)!!!! Our home looks beautiful! The pricing was definitely fair and lower than other bids my husband received. They did a very neat job in a timely manner and cleaned up so well. I will recommend them to anyone that is looking for great painters!!
Quality work at an affordable. Travis and his crew showed up on time, were clean and polite and did an excellent job on our exterior repaint. Will recommend them to anyone I know and am planning on having them do our garage floor as well.
Outstanding experience! The exterior of our home was painted last week and the house looks great! Professional crew, detail oriented, and NO MESS left behind. Fair price (lower than most contractor bids) and excellent customer service. Travis took the time to answer our questions and provided us with more information than any other contractor we called for an estimate. You do not find companies like this anymore. We will be recommending them to everyone we know and using them in the future for our painting needs.
We recently purchased a foreclosed home in much need of some cosmetic TLC. We researched and interviewed a handful of general contractors which ran from out of this world expensive to not licensed or insured to obviously not interested in the job. Frustrated we went to the BBB.org site and filled out a “request a bid” form, happily Gilbert's painting/Travis Gilbert contacted me early the next morning and the rest is history. We were immediately impressed with Travis Gilbert level of professionalism, knowledge and later were equally impressed by his work ethic and do things right the first time mentality. His bid was significantly less than his competitors plus he threw in a lot of little extras along the way. Gilbert's painting did an outstanding job on an extensive list of repair work to our new home. Their work is such high quality that the repairs are impossible to tell apart from the original. Inside the house they took down two walls of a fifth bedroom and converted it back .
Travis did an excellent job at painting my home (1855 E Oakland St, Gilbert, AZ). He offered the most competitive bid, started and completed by job on time and the results are excellent. The most impressive thing about Travis was the level of service he provided in addition to painting both the the interior and exterior of my home. He was very easy to get a hold of and when the carpet company failed to remove all of the old carpet, Travis offered to take care of that for me. Great guy, great workmanship, great results! I highly recommend him to others.
We recently had the exterior of our home painted by Gilbert's Paint. Travis and his crew are local and easy to work with. We were very impressed and completely satisfied with the quality of the paint job! Travis goes the extra mile to make sure you (the customer) are satisfied and makes sure everything is done to your liking. As a newly wed couple who was being forced to paint our house, Travis really worked with us for financing letting us pay as we were able. I woud definately recommend him to a friend or use him again for an interior job! Thank you Travis!
Great company. Travis did my house along with four others in our Val Vista Meadows neighborhood. All of them look great. Great pricing, excellent attention to detail in the prep work. The crew was courteous and professional. Very polite. Great job cleaning up when they were done. Very respectful toward my wife and daughter. I cannot say enough about this group. I will recommend them to anyone with my full support.
Great prices!!!!!!!!! Even better service from Travis and his crew!!!!!!! Everyone was extremely professional and did an amazing job and they exceeded all of my expectations. I would recommend them to anyone who is painting their home and we will be calling them back once we are ready for the exterior to be completed. Thanks again for great job!!! Phone quote was almost exactly what the end quote was after the walkthrough which is very hard to come by these days and hear so many horror stories about working with shady people. THESE GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!
Great prices!!!!!!!!! Even better service from Travis and his crew!!!!!!! Everyone was extremely professional and did an amazing job and they exceeded all of my expectations.
I would recommend them to anyone who is painting their home and we will be calling them back once we are ready for the exterior to be completed. Thanks again for great job!!!
Phone quote was almost exactly what the end quote was after the walkthrough which is very hard to come by these days and hear so many horror stories about working with shady people. THESE GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!
We just had the exterior of our home painted by Gilbert's Painting. We were thrilled at the outcome. The house looks like new. We had three estimates before we started and Travis was the only one who told us about the different levels of paint and the primer he could use near my rose bed to prevent the stucco from peeling off. He is very knowledgeable and answered all my questions. Once we decided on Gilbert's Painting they arrived on time and worked tirelessly and professionally on our home. The crew was polite and helpful. They cleaned up the yard when they left and it only took them two and a half days to do the whole exterior. We would highly recommend them to anyone who needs painting!
Needing to paint my home, I heard about Gilbert's Painting through a friend. I had already obtained 2 other estimates and was ready to get down to business. The owner of Gilbert's Painting came out to give me an estimate. As he walked around the house, I was impressed with all of the extra prep they were going to do as opposed to the other estimates. My decision was made right then. A handshake followed and an agreement was made. The job started when he said it would. Attention was given to every detail as the job progressed. It was completed in a timely manner and we have gotten many compliments. I would recommend Gilbert's Painting to anyone. Reasonable price, quality work, and no surprises.
Travis and his crew did a phenomenal job painting our home in Gilbert. We received multiple bids from various painting companies, but Travis had the best rates. Matthew, Brian and Doyce worked extremely hard and continually asked us questions to ensure our expectations were being met. They even went above and beyond, to assist us in doing a few handyman projects which would have taken my wife and I a significant amount of time. I would highly recommend them! | 2019-04-25T02:10:46Z | https://gilbertspainting.com/painting-services/ |
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Ireland’s huge exports to GDP ratio and privileged position in global supply chains helped it grow rapidly in the 1990s, but are now amplifying its downturn. This column argues that Ireland’s looming banking and public finance crises can be fixed. The government must find new sources of tax revenue and craft a package in which all social partners can claim ownership.
The increase in secondary-market spreads on Irish government debt in the past five months is symptomatic of the sudden emergence of a twin crisis in the banking sector and in the public finances.
It was always to be expected that Ireland would be particularly exposure to a global downturn, considering the exceptionally large contribution of exports to GDP and the vertical integration of much of Ireland’s manufacturing sector into the global production chains of major multinational firms. These characteristics contributed to a sustained output boom during the 1990s but now act to amplify the downturn. Moreover, the Irish export sector must cope with a trend loss in wage competitiveness since 2000 and the sharp slide in sterling over the last six months.
Two other domestic factors have compounded the misery.
In the new millennium, the sources of growth shifted, and the continued economic boom was characterised by an over-expansion in the construction sector, with excessive levels of building of residential and commercial property and large bets being placed on the value of development sites.
This property bubble was funded by the Irish banking system, which in turn relied heavily on the international inter-bank market and accumulated substantial net external liabilities. Accordingly, the collapse in the property sector has been centrally important in the deterioration in the financial health of the Irish banking system.
A second home-grown contributory factor has been the brittle state of the Irish public finances.
Although the Irish government ran annual budget surpluses until 2006, an increasing share of the revenue that supported these surpluses was coming from taxes whose yield is sensitive to high and increasing asset prices and asset transactions (capital gains taxes, capital acquisition taxes and stamp duties) and on corporation profits tax – much of it coming from multinational firms. Once the asset markets turned, the volume of transactions dried up and profits collapsed, the level of tax revenues plunged during 2008 exposing a structural deficit – exacerbated by a strong upturn in public expenditure in the last few years.
Together with the operation of automatic stabilizers, this turnaround resulted in a general government budget deficit of 6.8% of GDP in 2008. In January 2009, the government projected budget deficits (under a no-change scenario) of 11% of GDP for 2009 and 13% of GDP in 2010. Moreover, even these numbers are subject to downside risk, in view of the continuing deterioration in the economy.
Fortunately, the Irish government entered the crisis period with a healthy balance sheet – the gross government debt stood at only 24.8% of GDP at the end of 2007 and Ireland has a sizeable sovereign wealth fund in the form of the National Pension Reserve Fund. But the sudden emergence of such a large deficit, and the prospect of some additional borrowing needed to deal with the banks, mean there is no time to lose in adopting corrective measures.
The problem of the banks has received greatest international attention, yet is likely to be the smaller of the two sources of additional borrowing requirements.
These banks steered clear of the asset-backed securities that have caused problems elsewhere, but their heavy exposure to property-related lending at home, and in the UK have raised questions in the market about their ability to weather the inevitable growth in loan losses.
Traditionally conservative institutions, the two big banks’ lending decisions appear to have been destabilized in the mid-2000s by the reckless expansion of the third one, Anglo-Irish Bank. The latter bank was allowed to grow at an average real rate of 36% per annum, bringing its market share from 3% to 18% of Irish-controlled banks in 10 years. The other banks responded by relaxing their lending conditions even as the property market was obviously reaching its peak. Loans were made to final residential borrowers, property management companies (shopping malls, etc.) and property developers.
Irish property prices have now been falling steadily for over two years, and seem clearly far from the bottom. With rising unemployment and sharply falling retail sales, the recoverable value of the property-related loan book is essentially unknowable. The banks entered the downturn with substantial book capital, but although they have announced much increased loan loss provisions and suspended dividend payments to conserve capital, their share prices have collapsed to about 2-3% of their peak value. At such prices, the market is evidently discounting very substantial loan losses well in excess of those envisaged by the banks in their worst case scenarios.
At the end of September 2008, apparently faced with the inability of Anglo-Irish Bank to rollover its debt and fearing a contagious reaction onto the other banks, the government announced a blanket guarantee of the liabilities of the main Irish-controlled banks. Subsequent revelations of some balance sheet window-dressing at Anglo and some dubious transactions related to share purchases, contributed to the government’s decision to take full ownership control of that bank in January.
Since the gross bank liabilities guaranteed by the government amount to well over twice GDP, the open-ended nature of the possible bank losses that might fall on the budget seems to have contributed a lot to market concerns about the public finances.
The biggest one day increases in the secondary market spreads were on days dominated by bank-related news. Heightened regulatory oversight and the appointment by the government of new directors to the boards of all the guaranteed banks should help stem any additional accumulation of tail risks. Indeed the indications now are of banks that have reverted to their traditional pre-bubble conservatism.
Given how much the shift in the structure of tax revenue has contributed to the fiscal problem, it seems evident that there must be a return to more stable sources such as personal income tax, VAT and excise taxes. And the late pre-crisis surge in government spending must be reversed.
In Summer 2008, the government signalled its intention to take decisive corrective action to deal with the emerging problem by bringing forward the annual budget from December to October. That budget introduced a progressive income levy, although some of the expenditure cuts that were announced were very poorly received and were not put into effect. Further steps were announced in February 2009, cancelling future instalments of public sector pay increases that were agreed in September 2008 and imposing, from March 2009, a levy on public servants whose average net effect is to lower take home pay by 7.5% of gross income. This levy (rationalized as a quid-pro-quo for the liberality and security of public sector pensions) represents a de facto pay cut for public sector workers, which is a substantial shock after a decade of rapid growth in absolute and relative public sector pay.
However, even with some additional measures that have been announced, the current scale of the fiscal adjustment amounts to only 1.5% of GDP. Moreover, the government’s popularity has plummeted, such that there is uncertainty about the capacity of the government to implement further fiscal reforms.
The government’s stated strategy (as laid out in its submission to the European Commission in the middle of January 2009) has been to undertake fiscal adjustment in a gradualist fashion, with the goal of returning the general government deficit to below the 3% limit by 2013. But the sceptical market perception is increasing the cost of borrowing beyond what was projected (as is the case for several other sovereigns), and it has become evident that the gradualist path leaves the government vulnerable to funding risk.
Accordingly, the most prudent strategy at this point is to front load the fiscal adjustment. Along one dimension, it is now time for the government to increase tax rates and eliminate a host of tax breaks, rather than deferring such moves to next year’s budget. In relation to public spending, more needs to be done in terms of controlling current spending. It also makes sense to introduce a substantial pause in the public capital programme. While the Government has been planning a high level of public investment (at around 4.5% of GDP), a deferral of some major schemes would greatly ease the funding situation.
Upward adjustments in tax rates and the deferral of public spending may not seem the ideal tools for dealing with a recession. However, even with a substantial further correction that is plausible in terms of scale, the government would still be running a 2009 deficit that is substantially above any other euro area economy.
If the required fiscal adjustment is implemented, the future can be bright for the Irish economy. While the construction and property price bubble that sustained growth in the 2003-2007 period skewed the structure of the economy and its balance sheet in a damaging way, many of the factors that drove the original and extraordinary Irish Hare expansion during the late 1990s remain in place (Honohan and Walsh 2002).
In addition, while unemployment is growing, the current crisis has underlined the adaptable nature of the private-sector labour force, with employers and workers negotiating an impressive array of firm-level deals to maintain employment, including measures such as substantial nominal pay cuts, adjustments in working hours and sabbatical schemes. Accordingly, its attractiveness as a globalised economy with a highly-open labour market means that there is no reason why Ireland cannot emerge from this crisis as a mature, high-productivity contributor to the wider European economy.
Finally, in relation to the political economy of fiscal adjustment, there remains considerable potential in the social partnership model that has dominated the Irish policy formation system over the last two decades. There is quite a degree of convergence across the unions, employer federations and the government in terms of a common understanding of the scale of the problem and the required general framework for an economic recovery programme. While the unions did not agree with the public sector pension levy and are currently protesting against the government’s actions, there is widespread agreement that tax increases are inevitable and must be widely applied. The current crisis represents an important test of the consensus-based approach to policy formation.
Subject to the imperative of quickly restoring confidence in the public finances, the path of fiscal adjustment will be much smoother if a political formula is found that can allow all parties to claim ownership of the programme.
Patrick Honohan and Brendan Walsh (2002). “Catching Up With the Leaders: The Irish Hare,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2002(1):1-77. | 2019-04-21T22:16:13Z | https://voxeu.org/article/ireland-how-fix-looming-banking-and-public-finance-crises |
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif two weeks ago in a bid to salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world powers, according to the Boston Globe.
Kerry reportedly met Zarif at the United Nations in New York for a second meeting in as many months amid threats by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the agreement by May 12.
According to the Globe, the Obama administration’s top diplomat has also met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeir, French President Emmanuel Macron on two occasions, and spoken on the phone with the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in an attempt to save the agreement that he spent years negotiating with other world leaders.
Kerry refused to respond to the Globe report.
Reuters reported last week that Trump has “all but decided” to withdraw from the agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and to allow nuclear-related sanctions on Iran that were suspended under the nuclear deal to snap back into effect.
Zarif insisted on Thursday that his government has implemented its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers fully and in “good faith” – just days after Israel and the Trump administration accused the Iranians of lying about the nature of their nuclear work at its outset.
It was like a scene out of the Mission: Impossible series. Two assassins on BMW motorbikes gunned down 34-year old Fradi Al-Batsh on the morning of April 21 in Kuala Lumpur. Al-Batsh was riddled with eight bullets before his attackers sped away.
Al-Batsh was a 34-year-old electrical engineer, a PhD in power systems and energy efficiency, and a lecturer at the British Malaysian Institute. As it turns out, he was also a loyal and active member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, working on the development of drones and rockets. He may also have been negotiating arms deals on behalf of Hamas with the North Koreans.
Reports suggest that it was agents of the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, who killed al-Batsh. This only seems logical. But less obvious is what a Hamas weapons developer was doing in Malaysia in the first place.
As it turns out, Hamas has a significant presence in Malaysia. For years, the terrorist group has used Malaysia to engage in financial activities and even plan operations from outside Gaza, particularly as the group has been forced out of its traditional Middle East areas of operations, such as Syria.
The problem is that Hamas operatives don’t come in peace. In 2012, at least ten members of Hamas traveled to Malaysia for training to prepare for a cross-border attack against Israel. The group reportedly trained for kidnapping soldiers, anti-tank ambushes, and sniper attacks.
Malaysian police said Saturday that they had located the weapons and the getaway vehicle used by the assassins who gunned down a Hamas rocket and drone expert in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun told reporters that authorities were currently attempting to locate the owner of the vehicle, according to the Malaysian newspaper the New Straits Times.
Fadi al-Batsh, said to be a rocket and drone expert, was on his way to dawn prayers on April 21 when he was assassinated by motorbike-riding gunmen, a killing his family and the Hamas terror group have blamed on Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
“After shooting the victim and fleeing on a high-powered motorcycle, the suspects immediately switched to a van and escaped,” Fuzi said, according to the New Straits Times.
The motorbike the two suspects were allegedly riding was found abandoned not far from where the assassination took place.
The police inspector-general also said that the two suspects had used fake passports from Serbia and Montenegro to enter Malaysia, “They are also believed to have passports from other countries,” he said.
The infiltration of Palestinian demonstrators into the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom goods crossing on Friday evening caused damage estimated in the millions to infrastructure, mostly to pipes providing vital gas and fuel to the Strip.
Dozens of Palestinians broke into the Gaza side crossing on Friday evening, setting fire to the gas pipeline that supplies fuel to the Strip. They did not get through to the Israeli side.
These riled-up demonstrators first and foremost hurt themselves and the Gazan public. But despite Israeli army assessments that this was done with Hamas backing, from conversations with Palestinians in Gaza, a somewhat different picture emerges. One which suggests that the infiltration into the compound was initiated spontaneously by a mob that had no initial plans to do so.
The moment the incident began, Hamas officials in charge of security at the site realized that trying to stop it could cause deaths and injuries, and so pulled back and allowed the demonstrators to do as they pleased.
The Kerem Shalom crossing is the main entry point for merchandise entering Gaza. It’s difficult to think of a place more critical to the Strip’s own economy.
In the past, 900 truckloads of merchandise entered through the crossing every day. Today that number is down to about 300 a day, due to the economic crisis in Gaza which has led to less demand.
It is members of the Palestinian Authority that are in charge of operations at the crossing, not Hamas. And so the vandalism at the site wasn’t just an expression of rage against Israel but against the PA too.
Hundreds of Palestinians set fire to and damaged the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday evening. The law-breakers damaged fuel and gas pipes that serve the people of Gaza, said the IDF.
“This is a cynical act which damages the well-being of the people of Gaza and the humanitarian efforts carried out by Israel and other countries,” the IDF spokesperson stated.
On the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, infrastructure was set on fire and damaged, reported Maariv.
“The Kerem Shalom riot is happening on the Palestinian side of the crossing and includes causing damage to the infrastructure, I don’t see the Palestinian Authority paying for the damages soon”, said Maariv reporter Tal Lev-Ram.
An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that, based on initial visual information, the office of the crossing management was looted and destroyed, the fuel tank which served the generator was set on fire and petrol pumps suffered damage.
Around 10,000 Palestinians took part in protests on Friday along the Gaza-Israel border and violent clashes with the IDF were monitored in five locations. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that the number of wounded protesters stands at around 430 people.
After a short time the protesters are apparently spotted by Israeli troops, and can be seen running back into Gaza.
The army said in a statement that the Gazans were identified by soldiers monitoring the border and a patrol was dispatched to the scene. Soldiers fired tear gas at the infiltrators and forced them back over the border.
On Saturday, the army said troops identified several Palestinians who breached the border and placed Molotov cocktails near the security fence in the south of the Strip before returning to Gaza. In a second incident soldiers fired at a group of Palestinians who attempted to sabotage the fence in southern Gaza, and they retreated.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Thursday that the “March of the Return” processions in Gaza sent a clear message to all sides that it was impossible to implement the “deal of the century”, a reference to the peace plan being put forward by the Trump administration.
“The attempt to instill fear in the lives of the settlers has already done its part, and if we look at what is happening around us, we will find that they fled because they are thieves, and what happened to them will happen in the north of the country as well,” Zahar said.
“The blood of the Palestinian people, spilled on this land, will go from here to Jerusalem,” he vowed.
A large blast rocked the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least six people, witnesses and the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, but Palestinian media reports said it was an “work accident,” a term usually used to describe the accidental detonation of explosives being prepared by one of the terror groups in the Strip.
The Ynet news site, quoting sources in Gaza, said the men, including senior members of the Hamas military wing, had been trying to dismantle an old Israeli missile that had failed to explode.
The health ministry said several bodies had been brought to a local hospital.
The IDF said it was unaware of the cause of blast.
The Palestinian Authority will use its recently-granted membership of Interpol — the global association of national police forces headquartered in the French city of Lyon — to both pursue its political war against Israel and harass domestic opponents of its policies, the author of a new report on the issue warned on Friday.
The decision at Interpol’s General Assembly in September 2017 to grant membership to the PA was a “serious error,” Ted R. Bromund — a senior research fellow at the Washington, DC-based Heritage Foundation — told The Algemeiner.
Israel withdrew on Friday from the election for one of two seats on the United Nations Security Council in 2019 and 2020.
Ten days before the official opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem, Israeli officials still do not know if US President Donald Trump will attend.
Channel 10 news reported Friday night that a week later, neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Foreign Ministry knew whether the president was coming.
The report said authorities were taking the possibility into account in their preparations for the May 14 event.
The ceremony will be attended by 1,000 dignitaries, 250 of them American. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is set to lead the US delegation, which will include 40 members of Congress and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump.
Richard Grenell, the newly confirmed US ambassador to Germany, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News on Thursday that German companies should stop trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran because Tehran sponsors terrorism.
The European Union extended its human rights sanctions on Iran last month but declined to impose new penalties on the regime for widespread repression of civil liberties, according to human rights groups.
Grenell slammed Iran for destabilizing Syria. Iran is the main financial sponsor of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Grenell, who was sworn in as ambassador to Germany on Thursday, is sharp critic of Iran’s nuclear program and a strong supporter of the Jewish state.
“We had to address the issue of the increase in governments requesting boycotts of sport events for political reasons. Some governments abuse sport for their political purposes. This is against the mission of sport and of the Olympic Games, which bring people together and unify people regardless of any political differences,” he continued.
“These boycotts are against our essential values. We are here to watch this carefully and to act,” added Bach.
Police on Saturday arrested one of the organizers of a weekly demonstration against government corruption, after he tried to hang a sign protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along the route of the Giro d’Italia bicycle race in Tel Aviv.
Police said he was held because he planned to interfere in the race. The Giro d’Italia, one of the most prestigious road cycling races in the world which is taking place in Israel for the first time. It entered the 167-kilometer (104-mile) second stage Saturday as competitors rode down the Mediterranean coast from Haifa to Tel Aviv.
However, Israel Radio quoted Hadas’ lawyer as saying that it was to prevent the prime minister any embarrassment in the race, which has been billed as a public relations coup for Israel.
The lawyer accused police of violating his client’s right to free speech.
In his April 21, 2018 column in the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, titled “Hizbullah Resettling in Syria,” Ahmad ‘Ayyash referred to the policy of transfer and forced demographic change that the Bashar Al-Assad regime has been conducting in Syria over the past several years, with the assistance of Hizbullah and its other allies. According to ‘Ayyash, this is actually an Iranian “settlement project,” which involves expelling residents from various parts of the country and resettling these areas with Shi’ite members of Hizbullah and of other Iran-backed militias, who prevent the original residents from returning to their homes. He warned that the presence of these new settlers in Syria may not be temporary.
“Hizbullah’s involvement in the Syria war is not confined to military action aimed at propping up the Syrian regime. [Its goals] extend much further than that, and have to do with an Iranian settlement project whose implementation began several years ago. The aim [of this project] is changing the demography [of Syria] by settling [it with members of] Iran-backed [Shi’ite] militias from Afghanistan, Lebanon and other countries in the region.
“Marble grave headstones were damaged in the Jewish part of the Nikaia cemetery,” a police spokesman told AFP, without giving further details.
The head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), Minos Moissis, said he was “very angry” about the desecration, in a Facebook post that included pictures of two broken headstones.
Jewish graves and Holocaust memorials have been a recurring target of vandals in Greece, often by members of the far-right.
The vandalism comes amid rising anti-Semitism in Europe, after a spate of recent incidents across the continent.
State attorneys in the western German city of Dusseldorf are investigating a scandal-laden German rap duo for hate speech, a city spokesman said on Wednesday.
Spokesman Ralf Herrenbrück told the regional daily Westdeutsche Zeitung that two hate speech charges had been made against Kollegah and Farid Bang. A Jewish person had pressed one of the charges, he said.
Prosecutors are examining the duo’s lyrics from their latest album, “Junge, Brutal, Gutaussehend 3” (“Young, brutal, good looking 3”), and earlier songs as part of their investigation, Herrenbrück said.
Both rappers have been at the center of an anti-Semitism scandal after they won a prize in April at Germany’s 2018 Echo music awards.
The Echo awards’ organizers scrapped the event after German media, musicians and Holocaust survivor associations sharply criticized them for awarding the rap duo a prize. Some winners of previous Echos had also returned their Echo awards in protest.
Pop superstar Shakira is to play her first ever concert in Israel this summer, Hadashot TV reported Saturday night.
The show will be at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on July 9, the report said.
The Colombian-born singer, 41, whose father’s parents immigrated to the US from Lebanon, has sold over 140 million records in her career, making her the top selling South American singer ever and one of the best selling artists of all time.
The TV report said she would likely come under pressure from the BDS movement that seeks to boycott Israel, but noted that she has been to Israel before: Shakira has never played in Israel, but she participated in Shimon Peres’s 2011 presidential conference.
Shakira said on that trip that education was the best way to achieve global stability and peace.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Peres, after meeting Israeli and Palestinian school children on her visit to Jerusalem, she said she had come to Israel to share some of her experience working in the field of education through her charity The Barefoot Foundation.
Shooting “Schindler’s List” took an emotional toll on director Steven Spielberg, but he got by with a little help from a friend. Spielberg told a sold-out crowd at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that during the shoot, comedian Robin Williams would call him once a week from San Francisco.
“He would do 15 minutes of stand-up on the phone, and I would laugh hysterically cause I had to release so much,” Spielberg said. “But with the way Robin is on the telephone, he’d always hang up on you on the loudest best laugh you’d give him,” without even saying goodbye.
Spielberg, who was joined by other actors from the film in conversation with New York Times critic Janet Maslin — as part of The Tribeca Film Festival — responded to a recent survey showing that millennials didn’t know much about the Holocaust. Spielberg said that while he thinks a good amount of attention was paid to the Holocaust at the time of his film — and that he started the Shoah Foundation to disseminate the stories of survivors — it is up to schools to do more.
As Spielberg and the cast gathered to mark the 25th anniversary of the film’s release, he said it was true that Martin Scorsese was at one point a possible director for the film — but said it was false that Mel Gibson was considered for the leading role. The role of Oskar Schindler, the man who saved 1,200 Jews from death, of course went to Liam Neeson.
Kievian tourist sites proudly declare Golda Meir as “a true daughter of Kiev” with modern Ukrainians viewing her as a role model for heroism and nation building. “For us, she is an example of a person who made great changes in the country,” said Ukrainian-Jewish member of parliament Georgiy Logvinsky, who is also the head of the Ukrainian parliament Jewish committee.
“I always use this line,” said Georgiy Logvinsky.
Like many of the leaders, writers and poets of the Jewish pre-state community in the land of Israel, Golda Meir was born in Kiev, Ukraine. To mark her 120th birthday I went to look for her home in number 5 Basseyna street in Kiev.
The original shack in which Meir lived is long gone, and modern offices and flats now stand there. Like most old houses in this beautiful city, the building is impressive and tasteful. One store offers expensive shoes of the sort Meir, who was raised in poverty, could only have dreamed of. A relief with her image was placed on the entrance of the building by the Jewish Agency and the city of Kiev and now adorns the entrance to the building. | 2019-04-19T12:50:15Z | http://246mag.com/0505-links-kerry-met-iranian-fm-in-attempt-to-salvage-nuclear-deal-in-gaza-setting-fire-to-their-own-gas-lines-youtube-censors-memri-removes-for-harmful-or-dangerous-content |
NCR Corporation will release its first quarter 2019 financial results after the market close on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. A conference call is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the same day.
NCR Corporation (NCR), a global enterprise technology company for the financial industry, today announced that BankDhofar, one of the fastest growing banks in the Sultanate, is the first financial institution in Oman to deploy NCR’s Financial Kiosk. NCR Financial Kiosk offers BankDhofar customers the ability to conduct 90 percent of teller-aided transactions conveniently and on their schedule, with a digital, self-service experience free from waiting in line in a bank branch.
NCR Corporation , a global enterprise technology provider for the financial industry, today announced that New Jersey-based Provident Bank has selected NCR Digital Banking to support their digital strategy for customer growth and retention.
See what the IHS Markit Score report has to say about NCR Corp.
NCR Corp NYSE:NCRView full report here! Summary * ETFs holding this stock are seeing positive inflows * Bearish sentiment is moderate Bearish sentimentShort interest | NegativeShort interest is moderately high for NCR with between 10 and 15% of shares outstanding currently on loan. The last change in the short interest score occurred more than 1 month ago and implies that there has been little change in sentiment among investors who seek to profit from falling equity prices. Money flowETF/Index ownership | PositiveETF activity is positive. Over the last month, ETFs holding NCR are favorable with net inflows of $70.33 billion. This was the highest net inflow seen over the last one-year.Error parsing the SmartText Economic sentimentPMI by IHS Markit | NeutralAccording to the latest IHS Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data, output in the Technology sector is rising. The rate of growth is weak relative to the trend shown over the past year, however. Credit worthinessCredit default swapCDS data is not available for this security.Please send all inquiries related to the report to [email protected] and report PDFs will only be available for 30 days after publishing.This document has been produced for information purposes only and is not to be relied upon or as construed as investment advice. To the fullest extent permitted by law, IHS Markit disclaims any responsibility or liability, whether in contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence), equity or otherwise, for any loss or damage arising from any reliance on or the use of this material in any way. Please view the full legal disclaimer and methodology information on pages 2-3 of the full report.
Cousins Properties Inc.’s agreement to buy Dallas-based Tier REIT is linked to U.S. population-and-job growth shifting to Sunbelt markets, says President and CEO Colin Connolly. “We are taking advantage of a very compelling opportunity,” Connolly told Atlanta Business Chronicle following the March 24 announcement of the pending deal between Cousins and Tier REIT Inc. (NYSE: TIER). Cousins’ acquisition will create a nearly $5.9 billion real estate company (based on stock value) with a 21-million-square-foot portfolio across key Sunbelt cities such as Atlanta, Austin, Dallas and Charlotte.
“We are taking advantage of a very compelling opportunity,” Connolly told Atlanta Business Chronicle following this morning’s announcement of the pending deal between Cousins and Tier REIT.
Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") downgraded NCR Corporation's ("NCR") Corporate Family Rating ("CFR") to B1 from Ba3 and its Probability of Default Rating ("PDR") to B1-PD from Ba3-PD. Moody's also downgraded the ratings on the company's senior unsecured notes to B2 from B1 while affirming the Speculative Grade Liquidity (SGL) rating of SGL-2. The ratings downgrades reflect the meaningful decline in NCR's operating performance and credit metrics over the past year and Moody's concerns related to the company's ability to materially reduce debt leverage from current elevated levels.
Northgate opts for NCR's cloud-based retail POS solution, NCR Emerald, to drive its digital conversion and improve customer relations.
After a brief spike higher, Square (NYSE:SQ) has fallen below the levels it saw before the Feb. 27 earnings announcement. Investors have sold Square stock, as concerns about valuation and slowing profit growth weigh on the equity. * 7 Dark Horse Stocks That Deserve Your Attention in 2019 Source: Chris Harrison via Flickr (Modified) However, the "slowing" profit growth remains massive. Furthermore, Square's moves into cash registers, payroll processing and banking have formed a compelling ecosystem. This influence calls into question the future of many long-standing financial businesses. Considering SQ's transformational power in the finance business, I would recommend using the recent decline to look for a buy point in Square stock. As I've pointed out in previous articles, Square stock is the financial tech stock of the 2010s. Much like Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) in the 1990s and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) in the early 2000s, Square carved out a financial niche that the large players could not push aside. Now, Square has built an ecosystem that has helped it to grow beyond its place as a niche player. Beware the Square EcosystemPut simply, Square has grown with the small businesses it continues to support. Admittedly, when venturing beyond phone-based platforms, both the Square Cash Register and the Cash App seem like natural extensions. As of the end of 2018, the Cash App had already grown to 15 million accounts, up from just seven million in 2017.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsHowever, now Square has moved into many other areas such as scheduling, payroll systems and even small business loans. This system has become so powerful that customers who left had Square seeking cheaper payment processing solutions, returned to the fold.These moves should also make one wonder about the future of the more traditional financial stocks. For one, Square's small-business lending threatens the type of loans made by community banks, many of whom already struggle to provide high-tech banking services.However, the power of the Square ecosystem threatens more than just community banks. Square Cash Register pressures the company formerly known as National Cash Register, NCR (NYSE:NCR). Square Payroll threatens the business of ADP (NASDAQ:ADP). Moreover, between the Cash App and Square's loan business, what need will consumers have for a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) or a Visa (NYSE:V)? Buy Square Stock… If It Pulls BackAll of these companies have time to adapt. For that reason, I will not predict their demise. However, given the power of this ecosystem, it is little wonder why Square stock has commanded such high multiples. Despite my bias toward value, even I like SQ stock long term. Still, over the past year, I have been a Square stock bear on valuation concerns. These worries remain and I would not yet buy SQ.However, even a value-based case has begun to form on SQ stock. The forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio has fallen to about 68. Also, profit growth has slowed down, but only gradually. Wall Street forecasts a 57.4% increase for this year. For next year, that will only fall to 50%. Analysts also think that SQ will maintain a 49.8% average annual growth rate over the next five years. If the forward PE drops below 60 (a point it surpassed as recently as December), I would recommend buying this stock. Final Thoughts on Square StockThe bad news in Square's numbers may create an opportunity to buy a transformational business at a comparatively low valuation. I have long held a negative view of SQ stock due to its elevated multiple. Despite a steep decline and a partial recovery, SQ still trades at a high PE ratio.However, profit growth will likely come in at about 50% per year for the foreseeable future. More importantly, the growth of its ecosystem looks positioned to transform the finance business. This could also force many of its peers to either adapt or possibly close their doors. * 12 2018 Winners That Will Be Big Ol' Losers in 2019 The Square financial ecosystem will transform the financial industry more than any one company has in decades. This factor alone makes Square stock a buy on any significant pullback.As of this writing, Will Healy did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. You can follow Will on Twitter at @HealyWriting. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 15 Growth Stocks to Buy Under 15x Earnings * 7 Dark Horse Stocks That Deserve Your Attention in 2019 * 5 Disruptive Technologies That Are Moving Too Fast Compare Brokers The post Square Stock Faces Short-Term Pain and Long-Term Gain appeared first on InvestorPlace.
A Mercedes-Benz Stadium spokesperson said the new cash-to-card kiosks were utilized by less than one percent of the attendees during the rollout at Atlanta United's MLS home opener.
NCR (NCR) Down 2.4% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound?
NCR (NCR) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.
NCR Corporation , a global enterprise technology company for the financial industry, today announced that Stockman Bank selected NCR Digital Banking to attract and retain profitable business banking relationships with a compelling new digital experience.
NCR Corporation , a global enterprise technology company for the financial industry, today announced new NCR Digital Banking customers as the company expands its base of credit union clients.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set to become the first sports stadium to implement a completely cashless transaction model —and will be placing “reverse ATM machines” around the stadium.
NCR last year completely rebuilt its top executive ranks following the April 2018 departure of then-Chairman and CEO Bill Nuti.
NCR Corporation today announced it has acquired BEC, Colorado’s leading provider of Hospitality Point-of-Sale Technology based in Denver. The acquisition complements NCR’s existing presence and expands coverage within the Western US.
NCR Corporation , a global enterprise technology company, today announced we won the inaugural ATMIA Next Gen award for our Activate Enterprise multi-vendor ATM software at the ATM Industry Association awards this week.
Atlanta-based Cardlytics is broadening its leadership team while also expanding its overseas footprint. | 2019-04-25T20:25:10Z | https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ncr?ltr=1 |
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Specializing in corporate and commercial law, Peter Saad is the principal lawyer and founder of Saad Law. Known by his peers as a forthright lawyer who always tells it how it is, Peter is pragmatic, perceptive and professional. He manages and oversees all matters at Saad Law, providing integral counsel and guidance to both his staff members and clients on a wide range of legal transactions. Throughout the course of his career, Peter has successfully closed over $50 billion in deals and has had the opportunity to represent many high profile clients including Bunge Limited, Barrick Gold Corporation, BE Aerospace Inc., McGraw-Hill Incorporated, The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated. Peter also played an instrumental role in two of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the mining industry in 2012, worth over $7.0 billion combined.
After working for one of the world’s largest corporate law firms in New York City, Shearman & Sterling LLP, Peter developed Saad Law with a single goal in mind: to help businesses succeed. With the capacity to handle large, complex matters and the client-centred vision to provide a genuinely personalized legal service, Saad Law opened its doors to help both individuals and companies successfully manage their corporate, commercial and real estate legal needs.
Peter graduated from the University of Toronto’s Juris Doctor Program and holds an MBA in Strategic Marketing. His legal acumen combined with his strong business and marketing expertise, is what enables Peter to provide his clients with astute legal and business advisory services.
Peter is frequently called upon by colleagues to proactively problem solve and provide trusted advice. He is also a regular keynote speaker at a wide range of events throughout Toronto and the GTA.
Jasy Ibrahim is an associate specializing in corporate and commercial law. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, commercial real estate and general corporate matters. She has facilitated over one billion dollars in transactions and represents major financial institutions in various sectors including technology, health care, telecommunications and transportation.
Beginning her law career on a special project for the Access to Justice Program, she performed design, implementation and management tasks. Today, Jasy brings to the table prior experience in commercial, corporate, employment, intellectual property and general law at firms in both Oakville and Toronto.
Jasy graduated with an Honors Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, after which she acquired her Canadian Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) Degree and American Juris Doctor (JD) Degree from the University of Windsor and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, respectively. During law school, Jasy competed in multiple trial and appellant moot court competitions. She was also awarded the Certificate for Recognition for Excellent Achievement in Law and Literature. In her spare time, Jasy worked closely with the Community Legal Aid’s Windsor Chapter, and spent three years as a Board Member of the Windsor United Way Executive Committee.
Jasy is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association.
Vani Selvarajah is a corporate and commercial lawyer. Amenable, intuitive and analytical, Vani is a legal advisor who represents a wide range of clients in various corporate and commercial transactions.
Her diverse professional background includes prior work in refugee and immigration law with Barbara Jackman at Jackman Nazami & Associates, corporate and business law at GA Law, and human rights advocacy through Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada at the United Nations. Vani’s cultured experience combined with her intuitive, meticulous and practical legal skills, gives her the essential skillset to close deals efficiently, always protecting the best interests of her clients.
Graduating from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Arts focusing in Legal Studies and Criminology, Vani attended law school at the University of Alberta. She received her law degree in 2011 and was called to the Bar in 2012.
Vani is currently on the Board of Directors for Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, an organization of lawyers who promote human rights around the world, and appears regularly before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Through these organizations, Vani advocates for human rights across the globe, taking active participation in the world’s most pressing issues.
George Nashaat is an associate who works within the realms of financing, acquisitions, commercial leasing and corporate law. With a particular focus on financing, George acts as counsel to major banks, providing opinions on the enforceability of loans, registering mortgages and security interests, and coordinating credit requirements. George advises clients on a wide range of corporate matters, with a specific emphasis on pharmacy acquisitions, shareholders’ agreements and commercial leases.
George earned his JD/MBA from the University of Calgary and worked within the legal departments of three major energy companies. In these positions, George engaged in securities, corporate finance, small claims, and environmental and regulatory tasks.
With a laser focus on the big picture, George takes the time to know his clients and advance their concerns successfully. He approaches every issue from both a legal and business perspective, and his high attention to detail and exceptional writing skills ensure that he delivers with 100% accuracy on every file.
George is a member of the Toronto Lawyers’ Association.
Felix Ng is an associate who engages in financing, acquisitions, commercial leasing and corporate law. Managing corporate financing transactions and files from beginning to end, Felix represents both major banks and borrowers, offering full support to the financial institution and providing legal guidance to the borrower. In acquisitions and commercial leases, Felix drafts agreements, handles closing documents, acts as the primary point of contact for financial matters, and negotiates leases on behalf of landlords and tenants.
After earning his undergraduate degree in finance, Felix immediately went on to obtain his JD from the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law. He then articled at Saad Law for ten months at which time he was admitted to the Bar and hired as a full time associate.
Felix has an exceptional work ethic and high attention to detail. Always quick to respond and identify potential issues early on in a file’s lifecycle, Felix puts his clients at ease with perceptive, transparent and informative legal counsel.
George Messih is a lawyer whose practice focuses on commercial real estate and estates. George has handled multi-million dollar commercial transactions and has been a reference point to clients who rely on him for timely advice and the smooth carriage of their files. With the innate ability to anticipate issues before they arise, George finds and executes practical solutions to complex problems.
Prior to his admission to the Bar, George was an undergraduate level tutor for law, philosophy and modes of reasoning courses, and worked at the Legal Advice Clinic where he interviewed new clients and advised them on contracts and cases, worked closely with pro-bono partners from leading UK firms and drafted various agreements.
After completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics at McMaster University, George went on to earn his law degree in the United Kingdom. A firm believer in life-long learning, George continued his professional development at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he is currently in the process of completing the Intensive Program in Wills & Estates.
George is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, the Ontario Bar Association and the Toronto Lawyers Association.
Julie Bastone is a senior law clerk focusing on the firm’s most complicated commercial real estate and financing deals. Responsible for drafting, reviewing and finalizing documents, conducting and reviewing required searches, and liaising with lawyers, clients, agents, brokers and managers, Julie expertly handles any and all issues that arise during or after each transaction in order to ensure that the necessary needs are met by all parties.
Julie has over 23 years of experience in various sectors of the law including corporate, real estate and litigation. She has worked with a wide variety of clients, such as CEOs, partners and sole proprietors in all kinds of work environments including large firms, mid-sized firms, sole practitioner offices and government headquarters.
Julie graduated from the University of Toronto’s B.A. program and earned her Law Clerk Diploma from Seneca College. From large Bay Street law companies to small boutique legal firms around the GTA, Julie has been actively working as a law clerk since 1995. With an innate ability to review complex situations and simplify the issues at hand, Julie keeps clients well informed and still retains the nuances of each matter’s intricacy.
Jill Rowe is a senior law clerk who focuses on corporate and commercial law. She began her career in 1996, bringing over 22 years of experience to the table.
Within her current role, Jill is involved in all aspects of the firm’s corporate and commercial law practice. This includes the preparation of transactional documents, the implementation of estate freezes and corporate reorganizations, the completion of incorporations, amendments, amalgamations, continuances, dissolutions and revivals, minute book reviews (including rectification resolutions and annual corporate maintenance), the completion of extra provincial registrations, business names and limited partnership registrations, and due diligence searches.
Formerly, Jill was the Corporate Secretary of Dominion Diamond Corporation where she was responsible for liaising with the Board of Directors, attending all Board, Committee and Shareholder meetings, preparing for such meetings (which included the drafting of notices, agendas and minutes, and maintaining the Board electronic portal), attending to SEDAR, EDGAR, TSX, NYSE and SEDI filings, and assisting with the preparation of annual filing materials and certifications.
Jill takes great pride in providing exceptional service and quality of work to her clients.
Amanda Poirier is a law clerk who focuses on residential real estate transactions. Performing any step required to complete a purchase, sale or refinance transaction, Amanda can be found circulating agreements, communicating with title insurance companies, dealing with tax departments, working with financial institutions, receiving and paying out funds, and collaborating directly with her clients to ensure they are always informed and prepared.
With over 8 years of experience, Amanda has had the opportunity to work within many different sectors of the law including commercial and residential real estate, civil litigation, wills and estates, and corporate and family law. Over the years, Amanda’s career has placed her in a number of big-name law firms where she received formal training and mentorship from the most senior lawyers. This breadth of experience is what eventually made her realize her strengths and passion for real estate law and she now brings a deep, broad and big-picture understanding to the table.
Attending CTS Canadian Career College in Barrie, Amanda graduated from the Law Clerk Program in 2010. With exceptional organization skills, a high attention to detail and a strong and resourceful work ethic, Amanda always maintains open and honest communication with her clients, executing each file smoothly and efficiently from start to finish. | 2019-04-23T22:27:18Z | https://saadlaw.com/our-firm/team/ |
This morning, I had a rather depressing conversation with two people who, like me, are professional musicians who rely for much of their income on giving instrumental lessons to children. And I have had similar conversations with other instrumental teachers over the last few weeks. Things are not good in the instrumental teaching world.
Instrumental teaching is strongly cyclical: numbers are at their highest in the autumn, when children take up music lessons on starting at a new school, and they gradually drop off after Christmas as children lose interest and exam pressure takes over. And we have a horrible gap in August when even those who intend to continue their lessons go on holiday. Inevitably, during August we take on debt and we pay that off in the autumn when things pick up again.
Except that this year, they haven't. The number of new students starting lessons is pitiful - it is nowhere near enough to make up the losses over the last year. My teaching hours are down from 36 last October to 24, a drop of a third. The effect on my income it is catastrophic. I am now one of the many people who are UNDER-employed: I have a job, but it is not enough to occupy my time and it doesn't bring in enough money. If things don't pick up, I will have to look for something else to do.
Every instrumental teacher I know is experiencing the same problem. Existing students are terminating their lessons, some explicitly for financial reasons and others citing pressure of work. New students are hard to come by. Some teachers are teaching students for nothing in order to maintain a presence in schools and encourage talented youngsters - but not all of us can afford to do this. And cash flow is worsening: people are paying later and later, and bad debts are rising. So it seems that people either don't want music lessons for their kids, or they don't want to pay for them.
I'm not writing this in order to moan, but to point out what is occurring at the grass-roots, micro-business level, and ask some sensible questions about what is really happening to the economy. We know that the economy is in recession - but not deeply so. Official figures show the Q2 contraction as being about 0.4%. Some people have predicted that things will improve in Q3, and some have even queried whether there is actually a recession at all. Yet this is the worst autumn take-up of music lessons I have experienced in 12 years: other teachers have been in the business longer than me and they also say they have never known the take-up to be so bad. The recession of 2008/9 was supposedly a far worse downturn, but we did not suffer the catastrophic drop in lesson take-up that we are experiencing now. So what on earth is going on?
It is very clear that our customers are feeling the pinch. I have in the past been very impressed by the willingness of many parents who are by no means well-off to pay for music lessons for their children: their commitment to their children's education is admirable. But perhaps they have reached the end of their disposable income. Perhaps they, too, are under-employed and no longer have enough money coming in to pay the bills. Perhaps, even, they are losing their jobs.
But that's not what official figures are saying. In fact the UK's employment figures have been something of a success story. And, anecdotally, not many of my students' parents seem to be losing their jobs. I only know of one in the past year, and he worked for an investment bank (investment banking has been going through a major contraction since 2008, so this is no surprise). No, I don't think lack of employment is the problem. There are other factors at work.
One is inflation. I know that official figures show that inflation is slowing down, but the fact is that over the last couple of years inflation has been pretty high - and perhaps more importantly, it has been high in essential products. Transport costs are very high at the moment. Fuel bills are rising. World commodity price rises due to shortages in goods such as grain (due to drought in America, among other things) are increasing the prices of essential foodstuffs. Many people are also experiencing increases in housing costs: rents are very high at the moment and some mortgage rates have risen. Although the retail sector generally is depressed and prices are falling - just look at the number of "permanent sales" going on - in the essentials that people need in order to live, and to which they give the highest priority, prices are rising.
The second is the pressure on children, and I do think this is a considerable issue. I have teenage children myself, and I know what sort of workload they have - and many of my students have even greater workloads. I have A-level students who say they work until well after midnight every night to keep up with their A-level coursework. I have younger students who work every lunchtime, after school and well into the evening, desperately trying to meet the school's target that every GCSE must be at A*. When, pray, are they supposed to practice their instruments? And if they have no time or energy for practice, what point is there in having lessons? This, I know, is how many parents are thinking. Public examinations and the demands of the school to meet its target grades come first, and a broad general education encompassing the creative arts is less important. And if a child is overworked and stressed, I really can't blame parents for cutting down on lessons they don't see as essential. But do children really need to be overstretched like this? How does ensuring that they get 15 GCSEs at A* improve their prospects? All it proves is that they've been driven like cattle. Schools benefit, because they come higher up the league tables. But the children suffer: their teenage years are eaten up by work and stress. Until recently, some of my students at high-performing schools had singing lessons as a form of light relief: they didn't do singing exams, and we simply did interesting music and had a lot of fun. But even that has proved too much and these students have ended their lessons to give them more time for work. And yet I know that the prospects for these young people in the future get dimmer by the day: many of them will not leave education until their mid-twenties, and others will find it hard to find work that really uses their (considerable) skills and talents. They will be saddled with huge amounts of debt to pay for their tertiary education, they will find it almost impossible to buy even quite ordinary family homes and they will be forced to delay having children until they are almost too old. What are we doing to our young people?
The third factor causing the decline of music lessons is worry - and this is I think the root cause of the current instrumental teaching problem. Inflation in essential goods has been with us for a few years now, and so have overstretched kids and slave-driver schools: I can't really see that these have worsened sufficiently to explain the lack of music lesson take-up. But I have never seen such constant economic doom and gloom in the press and the blogosphere, and I admit I contribute to it myself: I do not foresee a good outcome to the Eurozone crisis, and I think that the current government's fiscal policy since it came to office has made our economic prospects worse, not better. But it seems to me that the reason people are cutting back discretionary spending, including their children's music lessons, is not because they haven't got the money at the moment. It's because they think they won't have for very much longer. They are conserving resources and saving like crazy while they still can. We have a major crisis of confidence in our economy - not (just) among businesses, but among households. And while that remains the case, they will continue to save instead of spending, and the economy will continue to stagnate.
Believe me, we have spare capacity - as do many, many businesses at the moment. And we don't need more credit - we are, after all, established businesses which were until recently doing well. This isn't about finance, it's about customers. My colleagues and I are ready and willing to teach the nation's children how to play a variety of instruments and sing. But if parents are too scared about their own future to invest in their children's, what hope is there for us - and what hope is there for the whole nation?
Really? Nations are fictions? What do you consider reality, then?
You worked at a bank. What do you expect from god or the society - grace?
If you experience one time a problem setup another pillar. Today you need almost 3. Have one business that sells hours and another that does sell pieces. Have at least 2.
You are in U.K. It will not pay to come to Austria for this. A friend of mine started a business selling and sharpening knives. The hourly rate for sharpening knives is 50 EUR in my hometown. Somehow this direction, check in your neighborhood. Think of things to repair. Investment is low at the moment, our state is sitting on 800 Mio. EUR funding and no one is investing.
Write a book about Economics for children. Call it Bunny Economics or whatever you think does make sense. If you want I will let you have the characters and the basic idea. My vocabulary is weak and my grammar is poor, but I like my Englishm but I am the only oen. I have no idea about economy. Maybe there is someone who could do it better. Find another music teacher with a certain talent for arts & graphics, if you don't have (usually musicians have more than one talent). Sell it via the Internet - there are many such sites like GoodRead, ... maybe one for children too. If such a site does not exist, know your next business (I doubt there is none).
Seek for problems on the Internet. Solve them.
Don't sit at home and wait for better times to come, said don't wait for the next huge bubble, I doubt it will arrive soon and if take the opportunity to prepare for a quick burst. We can be happy if the real estate bubble in Germany and Austria (partially not a real bubble, people simply bought real estate at double the price but from money withdrawn from the savings account) will go/run out smoothly.
I have no idea about Economics but the next 20 years will not become prosperous. Ten years ago the growth of the potential money supply intersected the economic real world economy's growth, in Germany and Austria as well as other parts of Europe. I think little earlier. Combined with the fact that more jobs become destroyed than created ... I think there is no huge potential for private music teaching, if you don't kill competition, better said tell 'competition' to do something else.
In Austria and Germany we experience exactly the same as you in U.K. People have lost the trust. The believe in money is gone ... The believe in metal is back. It's same false believe.
I suppose I should have known that someone would ignore my statement that I did not write this post in order to moan, and lecture me about how I should get on my bike and look for other work.
You have completely missed the point. I was illustrating our economic problems with a real-world, grass-roots example from personal experience. In my view the UK the economy is not in as good a shape as the government, and government supporters, like to claim. And I am concerned that the "worry factor" is causing parents to deprive children of certain areas of education while pushing them far too hard in other areas; this in my view is very wrong.
Thanks for posting this Frances - coming to it late, sorry - I think underemployment is vitally untold story. It has always affected independent workers like yourself in recessions, but independent workers used to be relatively fewer in number. However, corporate delayering and outsourcing means more than ever we have workers (be they middle class "consultants and interim managers" or working class "agency workers") who do not register as unemployed, but are clearly under-employed.
If we added up under-employment and added it to the figures I'd guess that it would easily push "unemployment" over the 3 million figure that attracts much more media (and general) attention when telling the story of our economy. | 2019-04-21T02:15:00Z | http://www.coppolacomment.com/2012/10/music-lessons-and-household-confidence.html |
In the old times, we had huge and heavy material doors. They were normally made from some kind of wood or simple iron. These doors had weak security. In the middle era, we had a bit advanced style of doors from Tarneit that were light materials that were easy to handle but had weak security. Nowadays in our modern and advanced era, we have all kinds of door. We now have different material for our front and back doors of the house. We install light material doors for our rooms and washroom. We install good material doors in our offices and other commercial buildings to increase security and look of the building to attract the customers and other officials.
If we talk about the window covers. We only had simple weak lock doors for our windows in old times. Anyone could break in easily in those times. There was no extra cover or protection in the windows of our houses. But nowadays we have window protections to keep our houses and other buildings secure.
There is a verity of materials used n doors in today’s world. There are iron doors that are heavy and used especially in banks. There is stainless steel, glass, and, wooden doors etc. There are completely opaque doors. We also have see-through doors. The way a door opens is also up to us. How we want our doors and windows to open. We can get ourselves a door that opens only in one direction. It can be outward or inwards. We can get a door that opens up on both sides. We can push it or pull it’s our choice. Then we have sliding doors. These are mostly installed in the washroom, our sitting areas, our door to the garden or in our wardrobes and, offices etc. These types all go for our windows.
We use mesh styled doors and window covers or doors to keep the atmosphere of our house fresh but protected from bugs. The increase in our demand for modified things for ourselves gave us today’s what we have. Sometimes we need it sometimes it’s just our wish to decorate our houses in a most beautiful way, but mostly to increase our security. Especially for our children. The lock system of doors used today is made in such a way that it is easy to lock but difficult to break or open without a key. For example, we can install a lock with triple locks system within a lock. Or we also have the door locks controlled by a remote or our cell phones and computers. These electronic locks cannot be open just like that.
So surely we have much better doors for our houses and we not only install wooden doors, but we also install the second door on our front and back of the house. This is the requirement of today’s world. Without a proper security door and window covers we and our families are unsafe.
Giving gifts has always been complicated. Especially during busy holidays. I’d say half the holiday related stress would disappear if there was no pressure to give out gifts and also just imagine how much richer you would be at the end of the holidays if you had no commitment to shower your nearest and dearests with presents?
You never know what the best choice for a certain someone would be and the sea of choices to choose from does not help either but on the other hand while there is no denying that having many options can only add to the trouble of trying to figure if your mom has a mixer/ dicer already or if dad really needs that fancy tool box he claims to be in dire need of, the gentle nudge the Christmas brochures and commercials offer does help in the long run.
Over the years I have moved to buy Christmas gifts online. Havingto pick from a drop down of items that are of similar genre is definitely so much easier than having to go in circles at the store. These optionsalso comes in handy when you want to go through that extra trouble to take your pick and get in somebody’s nice list for the coming year. Over the years, gift giving has done a complete 360 and now there are far more elements to it than there ever was.
It is now not a simple gesture but a full-fledgedexperience and you can easily spend a small fortune trying to get the perfect gift for that special someone. While it is both amusing and exciting to observe how all this has turned out to be in the past decade, one cannot help but wonder what the future felicitation and gift giving in general has in store for us.
Come holidays everybody is rushing to get their shopping done and get home intime for dinner. Then there is the pressure of having to buy corporate gifthampers so that your clients don’t feel unappreciated for all the business passed on to during the past year.The same dilemma applies on birthdays, anniversaries and office parties. There is a sea of people to please and so little time to cater to all their preferences. We have no time to commit to personally choosing a gift for our family or friendbecause of the constant need to be on the move and the need to multi task in many platforms.We’ll all I can say is, thank god all these come around just once a year!
Are you trying to find a home that you can buy for you and your loved ones? Do you want to buy commercial property for other personal purposes? If this is something that you are trying to do, then you might want to make sure that you enter the process of buying property in the right way. Buying property and even selling property sounds very easy on the outside but in truth, it is hard to do. Most buyers, especially first time buyers do not know what to look out for and so, it is very easy to fall in to a trap and make a mistake that would end up costing them millions of dollars. This is why many people take weeks and even months to make sure that they have made the right decision about buying a property. If it is a home that you are hoping to buy, it is crucial to take your time and understand what you can do to make the right decision.
Usually a big mistake many property buyers to is to find a home, look at it and then buy it without considering other options. It is easy to fall in love with the very first home that you see, but how do you know there isn’t something even more perfect for you in the market if you do not keep looking? You must never buy the first home you look at and instead, keep looking for a Maitland house for sale and create a list of what you love the most. This way, you can buy a home that you truly love with all the right details.
A real estate agents Port Pirie is someone that you are really going to need by your side when you are looking for property. This is even more important if it is your first time buying property because it is harder to make a mistake when there is someone guiding your choices. An estate agent or broker has a wide knowledge about the property market and so, they are able to hunt down exactly what you are looking for. Not to mention, they are also great at negotiations too!
It is easy to find a home that you fell in love with and decide to move away from your budget a little so that you can buy the home. This is something you must not to do because having a budget in place is going to help you in this process! Plus, an estate agent is someone with great negotiation skills!
As an educated society we must not stereotype among people and among things, there are certain misconceptions regarding food items, fattening nonfattening milk, cream, butter, sugar items, chocolates and much more. Instead of misunderstanding the whole product one must read the ingredients behind the packing and try to eliminate those harmful ingredients out of the diet or that item simple. We all are educated but, ask this question; how often we check the writing on the back of the packaging (hardly right?) that’s what we are doing wrong. Problem is the nature of impulse buying and rapid decision making in buying food items, surprisingly we are so picky when buying shoes, dresses even undergarments but, when it comes to buying something to eat we just buy it simple (without noticing what we are buying).
Here we will talk about not just an eating item but, a craving, a sensation a tempting experience which is known as ‘chocolate’. We have heard a lot about dark chocolate, look for more cocoa presence and less alkali presence. But there is another serious element present in a chocolate which is known as ‘gluten’ those who are unaware of this ingredient, chocolate is something which if naturally made; contains liquid cocoa (roasted liquid cocoa) and those unsweetened chocolates free from any gluten hence chocolates which are free from gluten are pure chocolates. Although gluten is not harmful it is present in wheat, rye and barley (it’s a protein) but if added in a chocolate makes a chocolate impure (those who are serious chocolate lovers know the difference between gluten free and with gluten). Why dark chocolate is so famous for health benefits because, dark chocolate is bitter (due to excessive quantity of cocoa), on the other hand chocolates contains wafers, biscuits and other wheat kind items are never free from gluten. Those who has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and other immune disorders, anemia etc. are seriously gets effected with gluten, that’s why people with the before mentioned disorders avoid consuming wheat and other food items contains gluten.
For those who has clearly identified gluten as toxic, no gluten means no taste. Usually this item is important and irreplaceable so to find food especially chocolate without gluten is like finding a black cat in a dark room. Imagine the famous brand Hershey’s which is a well-known name in chocolate industry, makes pure chocolates but only few healthy chocolate bars our of millions can be considered as gluten free (means pure in serious terms) which are plain milk and milk chocolate with almonds. Yes! Kisses are gluten free (just by the way). There are number of brands which cannot be bifurcated among with gluten and without gluten and cannot be discussed in a short span of time. Like always no matter what you eat in chocolate stay moderate!
For What Reasons Will We Need An Electrical Handyman?
Electrical handymen or basically electricians can be useful for a lot of reasons and they are generally a very good investment of money. The reason being that electrical appliances and electronics can be a very tricky thing to fix and fix right, unless you have the proper mechanical and technical know-how that goes with the industry and the field. Also sometimes the repairing of some electrical item may require a set of very specialized skills that you will most likely not have. So let’s look at some of the advantages of hiring professional help when it comes to setting up electrical and in going about their repairs.
Like mentioned before most fixes unless it is something very basic, will require some proper technical smarts in order for the issue to be fixed. This is because electrical are very sensitive and doing something wrong or in the wrong way can end up costing you a lot, in terms of money and life. This is the biggest reason you would want to look around and hire electrical services company to do your repairs so that you do not end up in a worse situation. The second reason is that some of the work that you might end up having to do, would require a lot of very specific and highly trained set of skills. In these cases, even an ordinary electrician would not be enough.
You will need someone who has plenty of experience of doing that particular kind of work or work with that particular kind of device. For example, if you needed a split system air conditioner installation set up or an air conditioning repairs. In this case it will be very much worth the money hiring a specialist for a little bit extra money than hiring a general electrician, who just might end up ruining the device.These are two of the main reasons to get professional help. However just getting help is not enough. You have to make sure that the help you get is of a proper standing and is well reputed.
How you can check this is by checking online or asking friends and family who live in the area. In the case of specialists, you could ask the manufacturer or the agents of a particular device, as these people would most likely have contacts of people with the required skills. In most cases the agents themselves may even have the people to do the setup on hand, and all you would have to do is pay a little extra and get these specialists help. This will definitely help you reduce the risk of ruining you new equipment and also there will be then someone proper you can blame if they make a mess.
As adults, we all understand the importance of money. Thus, that is why we go to work every day no matter how much we hate it. We know that we need to work in order to earn money and survive. Thus, this is another reason that people strive to save some of their salaries. They know that they need to save money if they want to have a good future. However, simply saving a part of your salary would not lead to a stable future. Instead, if you want to become financially comfortable you need to invest your money.
In this day and age real estate would seem like a great investment. But we understand that you won’t take this step lightly. Instead, you would attend a property seminar investment or two before taking this step. Then you would be aware that it is not possible to make money from these investments within a short span of time. Furthermore, more often than not you would end up losing some money at the beginning. When this happens we know that you would feel like giving up altogether.
But keep in mind that investment property is a long term plan. Therefore you need to take the time to look at the big picture. Furthermore, you need to have some confidence in your investments. Therefore make sure not to lose out hope at these short term volatilities.
We can tell you right now that long term investment would not be everyone’s cup of tea. That is because you would not be able to enjoy and short term profits. This is enough to make many individuals feel disheartened. Therefore when this happens it is easy to feel enticed by short term investments. However, you need to keep in mind that long term investments can lead to greater benefits. But you need to be patient. Otherwise, you can end up losing some amazing benefit.
When investing you need to trust your gut. That is because sometimes you would end up making decisions that others would not make. However, that does not mean you are wrong. Furthermore, sometimes in order to be successful, you would have to follow the less popular option. When such moments present itself you need to be open minded.Investing long term may sound like a challenging task to many of you. That is because it is an activity that would test your patience. But if you can ignore the short term profits then you can definitely succeed.
There might have been times when you went to visit the beach with your family or gone on a fishing trip with your friends and ended up being badly sunburned. Living in Australia means that you have to be twice as careful as people who live in less warm countries because the temperatures around Australia is known to be rather harsh, especially at this time of the year. Since summer is here right now, this means there are more and more people who have plans on spending some relaxing time down at the beach or just head out to sea with a group of friends to get the catch of the day. Since summer is known to be the three hottest months of the year, it is important for you to protect yourself and the best way to do that is through sun protective clothing.
Whenever you know you are about to head out in to the sun, protecting yourself by using something like sunscreen is recommended because it protects your body from harmful sun rays. When you are going to be spending all day under the bright, hot sun, you are going to need more than just sunscreen and that is when sun protective fishing clothes come in to play. By buying the clothes that fit you to go fishing or spend the day at the beach, you will be protected from the harmful ultra violet rays that might otherwise cause problems.
Going out on a trip with family or your close friends mean that comfort must always be a priority. There is no way for you to enjoy your time with your loved ones if you are not comfortable in the clothing you are wearing. But with the right kind of adult and kids fishing shirts Australia to protect you from the harsh sun, comfort is not going to be questioned at all. The clothes are going to come in various ways so that you can choose what you think is best suitable for you, so comfort always follows you!
Since there are a lot of kids and young children who would be playing down by the beach or going on fishing trips with their parents, you must make sure that they are protected with sun protective clothing. By checking for high quality clothing, you would be able to find UV protective clothing that is best for kids as well!
If you are an entrepreneur we know that you want to run a profitable business. That is because at the end of the day earning a profit is the most important thing. Thus, that is why you conduct some research into various business ideas before settling on one. Well, if you are hard pressed to find one then we think that trucking business would be the ideal step for you to take. That is because despite the tough competition it is not impossible for you to succeed. However, even then there are some things that you need to know if you want to succeed.
If you thought that truck repairs Brisbane Northside were costly you would be surprised to hear how much trucks cost. Furthermore, when starting a trucking company it would not be possible to start with only one truck. You would ideally need a fleet of vehicles. Thus, that is why you would require a considerable amount of money to make this purchase. Furthermore, remember that these trucks don’t come cheap. Therefore you need to be prepared to spend a significant amount on one vehicle alone. However, we also understand that not everyone would have the necessary funds in their bank account.
We know that this can be disheartening to hear. That is because even after you purchase the vehicles you would still require funds for additional expenses like smash repairs or panel beaters. Thus, that is why you should consider taking out a loan. We know that this would not be the ideal option for you. But if you manage to make this company a success you can easily repay everything that you borrowed.
As I mentioned earlier the trucking business is a tough business to be a part of. That is because the competition is fierce. Therefore you need to take every action necessary to stand out from the crowd. One of the best ways to accomplish this task would be by getting a unique logo. Remember that this is the logo by which potential clients would identify you. Furthermore, it is also the logo that would appear on every marketing and advertising campaign. Therefore you should not select on something basic. Instead, strive to select something that speaks to you and complements what the company is standing for.Trucking business may be a tough industry. But it is also a very profitable industry if you know what you are doing. Thus, that is why it is important for you to educate yourself on running a company such as this. | 2019-04-25T18:50:44Z | http://weisblott.com/ |
Most of us spend a lot of grow old in our cars — between commuting, government errands, transporting others, or long trips, we usually log many hours a week in our vehicles. considering that in mind, you probably want a car that’s not just transportation, but as a consequence a kind place to be — a friendly spot taking into account kind materials laid out in a logical, thoughtful manner, and maybe even one that’s nice to see at.
We comprehend this desire — so we’ve laid out the 10 best car interiors you can acquire for below $50,000. We’ve focused upon the latest models, and most have been updated recently to find the money for handsome, comfortable, thoughtfully-planned interiors that strike us as a nice area to spend time. pick any one of these vehicles, and we suspect you’ll be a tiny happier during the hours of the week you spend in your car.
Choosing the best bmw x6m paint colors might not be as simple as you think. As a thing owner from the world of professional auto detailing, I am commonly asked what the best car paint color is. I don’t know nearly you, but I always have to laugh whenever I acquire a question roughly speaking the “best” of anything.
As a car detailing professional I definitely have an opinion taking into account it comes to selecting the best color of your bmw x6m as far afield as care and maintenance goes; which is usually what the question is in fact nearly taking into consideration I dig a little deeper into the “real” question beast asked.
Not every automotive paint colors are created equal; some have a greater emotional response, some have greater demands of care and maintenance. If you are looking to get the most out of car ownership and want lasting satisfaction, later contact along and become allowance of the elite society of organization called the informed! Knowledge alone is not power, but knowledge applied is power!
After all, it’s generally trendy that black cars are hotter in the sun and white cars save cooler in the summer, but is it truly true? Our latest video puts that theory to the test. … The black car’s cabin measured a scorching 130 degrees Fahrenheit, while the white car’s interior registered on your own 113 degrees.
taking into consideration a color (colored fabric) absorbs light, it turns the vivacious into thermal dynamism (heat). The more lighthearted a color absorbs, the more thermal spirit it produces. Black fabric absorbs all colors of roomy and is suitably warmer than white fabric which reflects all colors.
Unless of course you have already been bitten by the black bmw x6m syndrome of that love or hater relationship. People every love later black or dark colored cars are tidy and shiny, but hate the mannerism dust shows taking place shortly and it seems they are dirty more than they are ever clean!
Most of us spend a lot of grow old in our cars — in the company of commuting, handing out errands, transporting others, or long trips, we usually log many hours a week in our vehicles. when that in mind, you probably want a car that’s not just transportation, but in addition to a nice area to be — a pleasing spot with kind materials laid out in a logical, thoughtful manner, and most likely even one that’s nice to see at.
We comprehend this desire — therefore we’ve laid out the 10 best car interiors you can acquire for below $50,000. We’ve focused on the latest models, and most have been updated recently to meet the expense of handsome, comfortable, thoughtfully-planned interiors that strike us as a nice area to spend time. pick any one of these vehicles, and we suspect you’ll be a tiny happier during the hours of the week you spend in your car.
Most of us spend a lot of become old in our cars — between commuting, giving out errands, transporting others, or long trips, we usually log many hours a week in our vehicles. in the same way as that in mind, you probably desire a car that’s not just transportation, but along with a kind place to be — a to your liking spot past kind materials laid out in a logical, thoughtful manner, and most likely even one that’s nice to see at.
We comprehend this desire — therefore we’ve laid out the 10 best car interiors you can get for below $50,000. We’ve focused upon the latest models, and most have been updated recently to pay for handsome, comfortable, thoughtfully-planned interiors that strike us as a kind area to spend time. choose any one of these vehicles, and we suspect you’ll be a tiny happier during the hours of the week you spend in your car.
Engineering timelines are longer than those of media scandals, which has unchangeable the bmw x6 2016 a predicament in the manner of diesel engine. The companys decision to manufacture a next-generation ultra-clean turbo-diesel was made capably back Volkswagen was caught getting its cheat on, but the over and done with 1.6-liter inline-four reviewed here in the the bmw x6 2016 is reaching its take aim announce in Europe just as request slumps for compression-ignition engines, thanks in large allowance to the Dieselgate scandal.
There is little unplanned that the bmw x6 2016 will sell its further engine anywhere external of Europe; company executives acknowledge that it likely will be the last diesel it will develop. Diesels nevertheless made in the works 45 percent of European passenger-car sales last year, but that percentage is falling brusquely and is disproportionately made up of cars greater than before than the the bmw x6 2016. Within a technology generation, the battle for spending the allowance essential to build other all-new diesel for a minority player past the the bmw x6 2016 will roughly definitely be gone. But it is fitting for such an engineering-led company that, despite its modest output, this little diesel should be remembered as one of the pinnacles of its genre.
Choosing the best comparativo porsche cayenne e bmw x6 paint colors might not be as easy as you think. As a concern owner from the world of professional auto detailing, I am commonly asked what the best car paint color is. I don’t know about you, but I always have to laugh whenever I get a ask approaching the “best” of anything.
As a car detailing professional I unquestionably have an assistance subsequently it comes to selecting the best color of your comparativo porsche cayenne e bmw x6 as in the distance as care and child support goes; which is usually what the ask is truly just about as soon as I dig a tiny deeper into the “real” ask being asked.
Not all automotive paint colors are created equal; some have a greater emotional response, some have greater demands of care and maintenance. If you are looking to get the most out of car ownership and want lasting satisfaction, next admittance along and become share of the elite bureau of work called the informed! Knowledge alone is not power, but knowledge applied is power!
bearing in mind a color (colored fabric) absorbs light, it turns the lively into thermal enthusiasm (heat). The more buoyant a color absorbs, the more thermal vibrancy it produces. Black fabric absorbs every colors of vivacious and is in view of that warmer than white fabric which reflects every colors.
Unless of course you have already been bitten by the black comparativo porsche cayenne e bmw x6 syndrome of that adore or hater relationship. People all adore past black or dark colored cars are clean and shiny, but despise the artifice dust shows in the works snappishly and it seems they are filthy more than they are ever clean!
For decades, one’s deed to miserable the phrase “It has leather seats” was a defining factor in whether or not supplementary people thought your e road bmw x6 was nice. The smell, the feel…even the animal from whence it came. every these factors contributed to the allure and mystique of leather seats.
The concern is, though, you should never acquire leather seats in your car. even though animal rights activists and environmentalists have their own reasons to tell you to go for cloth, I’m not going there in this fragment because it’s irrelevant: all ideological debate aside, leather seats don’t create a collect lot of wisdom in the majority of cars. And I’m going to tell you why.
Are e road bmw x6 a well-behaved car?
Yes, it’s legitimate roughly speaking all e road bmw x6 models are severely reliable. In order to have a obedient car, your by yourself marginal used to be buying a e road bmw x6, but that’s no longer the case. … e road bmw x6 models are still great choices for shoppers curious in a used car, but they shouldn’t be the lonesome choice.
Practical and modern in appearance, the e road bmw x6 interior is open and offers acceptable storage space. Even the base e road bmw x6 is far afield from a penalty box. Upper-dashboard plastics are of the soft-touch variety, and user-friendliness items such as automatic climate manage and steering-wheel-mounted audio controls are all standard.
e road bmw x6 seats in reality leather?
As the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi increasingly rely on con leather in their more affordable models, many mainstream manufacturers sell cars taking into account a mixture of real leather and synthetic vinyl seats, but some are ambiguous in the same way as describing their products.Are leather e road bmw x6 seats better than fabric?
Pet dander, dust, and supplementary allergens can approve into the cloth fabric, even though bearing in mind leather you can thoroughly vacuum the seats or wipe them clean. Of course, even cars in imitation of leather seats have carpeted floors, which furthermore port allergens. suitably leather upholstery can without help condense allergens in the car, not prevent them.
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Are bmw x6 xdrive35i 0-60 a reliable car?
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bmw x6 xdrive35i 0-60 seats in reality leather?
As the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi increasingly rely on affect leather in their more affordable models, many mainstream manufacturers sell cars bearing in mind a amalgamation of real leather and synthetic vinyl seats, but some are ambiguous gone describing their products.Are leather bmw x6 xdrive35i 0-60 seats better than fabric?
Pet dander, dust, and new allergens can decide into the cloth fabric, while following leather you can adequately vacuum the seats or wipe them clean. Of course, even cars similar to leather seats have carpeted floors, which then harbor allergens. hence leather upholstery can abandoned edit allergens in the car, not prevent them.
Drop a little amount of water on the good, as genuine leather absorbs moisture. If the fine is fake, the water will straightforwardly puddle taking place upon top. But genuine leather will interest a little drop of water in unaided a few seconds , telling you quickly if it is genuine. Know that genuine leather goods are rarely ever cheap.
Choosing the best 0 finance bmw x6 paint colors might not be as simple as you think. As a situation owner from the world of professional auto detailing, I am commonly asked what the best car paint color is. I don’t know very nearly you, but I always have to laugh whenever I acquire a ask as regards the “best” of anything.
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After all, it’s generally fashionable that black cars are hotter in the sun and white cars keep cooler in the summer, but is it in reality true? Our latest video puts that theory to the test. … The black car’s cabin measured a scorching 130 degrees Fahrenheit, even if the white car’s interior registered by yourself 113 degrees.
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After all, it’s generally all the rage that black cars are hotter in the sun and white cars save cooler in the summer, but is it essentially true? Our latest video puts that theory to the test. … The black car’s cabin measured a scorching 130 degrees Fahrenheit, while the white car’s interior registered only 113 degrees.
once a color (colored fabric) absorbs light, it turns the buoyant into thermal animatronics (heat). The more well-ventilated a color absorbs, the more thermal vibrancy it produces. Black fabric absorbs all colors of fresh and is therefore warmer than white fabric which reflects all colors.
Unless of course you have already been bitten by the black bmw x6 years syndrome of that love or hater relationship. People all adore following black or dark colored cars are tidy and shiny, but hate the quirk dust shows happening tersely and it seems they are filthy more than they are ever clean! | 2019-04-26T00:51:28Z | http://waubonseecommunitycollege.net/category/bmw-x6/ |
The battle between the US’s allies and Russia’s allies is escalating in the North-East of Syria, posing a real danger that the superpowers may slide into a direct confrontation to protect their interests. But Washington will not prevail at the end of the day in Syria and its allies – led by Syria’s Kurds under the flag of the “SDF” (Syrian Democratic Forces) – will pay the heaviest price.
It is clear that Washington hawks believe that they can provoke or belittle Moscow in Syria: the US bombed the Syrian military airport of Shyay’rat where Russian forces were stationed with other Syrian units. Moreover Washington jets bombed on three consecutive occasions Russia’s allies close to the Syrian-Iraqi border crossing in Al-Tanf. And last but not least, in recent days, the US Air Force shot down an Iranian drone and Syrian Su-22 jet whose bombing objectives were the “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorist group area, while US backed Kurdish forces were advancing on the city limit of of Rusafa in rural Raqqah.
All these hostile US military actions have been carried out unlawfully on Syrian territory and against the Syrian army not against terrorist groups. The US have no legal jurisdiction or international mandate or consensus to attack the Syrian Army on its own soil, particularly when the US aim, in fact, is to support the partition of an independent country rather than to fight terrorism. It is simply related to Washington’s influence and control over that part of Syrian territory needed in north-east Syria for occupation without any legitimate international support and to establish military airports and a base in Bilad al-Sham.
Obviously, Washington pays little attention to Moscow’s possible reaction to US military action against Russian allies in Syria as they advance to reclaim the Syrian territory. But Russia is responding by bombing Washington’s allies in Syria. It is not unlikely that US jets may accidently bomb Russian forces embedded with Syrian groups and Russian jets may bomb US Special Forces embedded with their Kurdish proxies operating in the north of Syria. This is when the situation may get out of control and the prestige of superpower countries may be dented creating an unwanted but almost inevitable reaction; this would drive the Middle East into another destructive dimension that may affect the World.
-It has injected thousands of fresh troops to recover the 55.000 sq km Syrian Badiya (Steppe) and managed to defeat the US proxies (Usud al-Sharqiyah) and ISIS in the semi-desert of south-eastern Syria: to date over 25,000 sq.km have been recovered from Suwaida province to the south of al-Tanaf borders.
-Iran pushed forces above the Tanaf (where US forces are established) to close the northeast path to Deir al-Zour, establishing a new demarcation line, and isolating the US in al-Tanaf.
-Iran coordinated with Iraq the advance of the Iraqi security forces on the al-Tanaf from the Iraqi side to block the US forces. Iraqi troops are moving north from al-Tanaf towards al-Qaem to meet the Syrian army and its allies along the borderline.
-Iran launched its “Zulfuqar” (Prophet Mohammed’s cousin, the fourth Caliph and first Shia Imam Ali Bin Abi Taleb’ sword) 700 km mid-range ballistic missiles against ISIS, but also to send multiple domestic (revenge for the double terrorist attack) and international messages to the US and its allies in the Middle East, just 24 hours after the US ban on the Iranian missile program. Tehran pays no attention to American decisions, telling Washington that its decision will not be taken into consideration; that Iran’s arm is long and can hit any target in the Middle East (Israel, Saudi Arabia, US military bases in the Middle East), and that Iran doesn’t feel concerned about all the conventional rules. It is capable of hitting any target whenever it wants and where it wants; Iran launched its missiles from Kurdistan-Iran, the same province from which the ISIS Iranian Kurds who launched their double terrorist attack this month against Iranian institutions.
Also Iran launched its missiles targeting ISIS in the city of Deir Al-Zour (besieged since 30 months with over 100,000 -150,000 civilians) and al-Mayadeen to emphasise the importance of Syria and the City of Deir Al-Zour (the US jets and its allies contributed in breaking the defence line of the Syrian army by striking last year their positions on the Tharda mountains overlooking Deir Al-Zour airport). That particular US bombing which lasted several hours, and killed over 100 soldiers and officer of the Syrian Army in Tharda gave ISIS the upper hand by allowing them to advance into the airport perimeter (the only air supply to the besieged city) and permitting the partition of the city in two parts by ISIS. Iran’s message is clear: it won’t allow the fall of Deir al-Zour and will do everything, with its allies, to break the siege in the coming months.
Following the escalation in Syria, Russia is sending more air defence missiles to Syria. Damascus will not hesitate to bomb US coalition jets, especially since Moscow maintain its forces on the ground and will be in charge of protecting them from any US reaction. Moscow has stopped cooperating with the US in Syria by temporarily suspending the deconfliction line (due to be re-established soon) and issued a clear warning that Russia will consider any target over flying west of the Euphrates river as hostile.
In the midst of all this, Iraqi forces are moving along the border with Syria, telling the US forces that it is cooperating with Damascus and is not concerned by any American project in the region. Baghdad will not accept the presence of any US forces on its territory after defeating ISIS. The US will maintain a training contract with the Iraqi government but will have no influence over the country’s decisions and relationship with its neighbours, including Syria and Iran.
All the forces on the ground – except the Kurds and some remnants of the Syrian opposition forces – will be working against the US forces in Syria, starting from ISIS (as insurgents after the war ends in Syria and Iraq), Al-Qaeda (vowed to hit the US anywhere in the World), Turkey (which refuses the US support for the Kurds autonomy in Syria), Damascus (will strike the Kurds after finishing off ISIS control of territory) and Syria’s allies (Iran, Hezbollah and Iraqi militia in Syria) are waiting for the right opportunity to strike US forces along the lines of what Hezbollah did in Beirut (blowing up the Marines’ headquarters and the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in the 80s). Therefore, the US has won many enemies and very few friends, who will find themselves on their own, because Washington will have no alternative but to abandon them sooner or later. It is well known that the US does not have friends; it has business partners and common interests. When the US interests will cease in Syria, the soldiers will have no alternative but to leave the country.
The secular Kurds of Syria have erred in adopting a new policy that was never adopted by the Kurds of Iraq. They declared hostility to Damascus and allied themselves with America and its allies in the region (Wahhabi Salafi Saudi Arabia). The Kurds took an anti-Iranian stance and accepted that their militants would become burning wood to recover the Arab-majority city of Raqqah, sustaining considerable casualties only to fulfil a US plan to establish military bases in north-eastern Syria. Kurds will be the future’s biggest losers: the forces of Damascus and their allies are recovering territories by the Kurds side and advancing in rural Raqqah to prevent the US proxies militants from expanding and occupying oil field west of the Euphrates River.
Kurds will become THE enemy following ISIS’s defeat. For the long years of the Syrian war, Kurds were silent allies and part of Syria. Damascus was ready to discuss a Kurdish Federation when the war ended, as long as it remains part of Syria. Today the Kurds have accepted to become the American proxy forces to fulfil a dream of a federation that was smashed first by Turkey (splitting Rojava in two when occupying the corridor from Jarablus to al-Bab), and today will be also attacked by Damascus.
Syria will never allow a Kurdish federation that offers protection to an occupying force, the US. In fact, the hostility towards Washington’s soldiers is unprecedented in the Levant and Mesopotamia, making of the Kurdish choice of alignment with the US (and Saudi Arabia) an incredibly suicidal naïve strategy. It It is clear, then, that the United States of America will only have enemies in the Levant and will end up losing its temporary Kurdish friends in the region. Russia only, and its allies, who work with determination, consistency and with considerable force in Syria, will prevail.
Most of the West haven’t a clue about what’s going on. They are busy eating, drinking and dancing instead of mourning and reporting on the atrocities. Shame on the UK, USA and ISRAEL who have aided and abetted ALL terrorists…….your time of retribution is soon to come upon you.
Excellent analysis. The Syrian Kurds have blundered into a US trap. The US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals and proxies in the MENA think the East will bend its knee but those days are over.
Very informative and critical indeed. Gratitude for your contribution.
And the people of the west are hardly paying attention. This should be bigger news, and certainly should be presented as a serious matter in the media. It isn’t presented that way, and the people don’t understand the danger.
NextWho is losing and who is winning in Syria? | 2019-04-20T11:04:24Z | https://ejmagnier.com/2017/06/21/syrian-kurds-will-be-the-biggest-losers-america-and-russia-on-the-verge-of-the-abyss-in-syria/ |
Drug addiction stops every day at Narconon Arrowhead. Below is an explanation of our program from the only source that matters - our students and their parents.
On the 28th of April 2000, we attended our son's graduation ceremony at Narconon Arrowhead. Our son's graduation event will forever be etched in our memory, as a rebirth of our child. It had been so many years since we had seen him drug or alcohol free that we actually had a hard time recognizing him. He looked absolutely wonderful and his behavior was so accepting and calm. For years, we had wondered if we would ever see our "real" son again. We met so many people the evening of our son's graduation and we cannot remember all of their names, but we want to thank each person who took the time and effort to make a difference in our son's life. Your efforts are most likely the reason our son developed the will to change, as all other efforts that had been made through the years had not made a difference for him. You are truly the savers of life!
My son was a bright talented child. He learned to play the guitar and had a natural ability to draw and paint. In his teens something happened to this bright talented child. I found out later that he had gotten into drugs and barely finished high school. He could not hold a job and his only financial support was a family who "gave him money to keep him away". This went on for twelve years in which time he was a waste to himself and others. After trying numerous "Drug Rehab Programs" I found Narconon Arrowhead. I took him there as an emaciated "end of the trail person". In a short time he regained his health and became himself again. Most importantly he became free of drugs. My son now has a family of his own. He is very productive in working with others to help them gain their own self esteem back and to become free of the ravages of drug use. My son and I have never been closer or had such a good relationship as father and son. Narconon Arrowhead not only gave my son back to me, but also gave me a very good friend.
There are no words to define what Narconon Arrowhead means to my family.
Just a personal note of thanks for allowing me to be a guest at Narconon Arrowhead to learn about your procedures and to visit my son Joseph, one of your students (Joseph graduated from the Narconon program). Thanks to you he celebrated his 9th month of sobriety on April 25th for which we are all grateful.
I studied with professional interest the 9 points (courses) of your program, namely, Drug-free Withdrawal, Communications, New Life Detoxification Procedure, Learning Improvement, Communication and Perceptions, up and Downs in Life, Personal Values and Integrity, Changing Conditions of Life, and The Way to Happiness®. We cover these same areas but not with the excellent books you have.
During my four days I added to my professional competence as an addictions outpatient counselor by talking with students and staff. I was able to see what a focused, intensive program such as yours at Narconon can accomplish in helping people turn around. I was impressed with the level of motivation in the students and I like the use of the term "student" because it points out the reason why they are there, namely, to learn a new way to live.
After seeing the results of your work and speaking to members of the staff, I feel that you have much to teach the drug rehabilitation field and Araphoe House. This was a rewarding personal visit for me as well as an information-packed professional visit for which I am grateful.
I really do not have the words to describe how I feel today as compared to the life I led engulfed in the degradation of drugs. How do you describe the day to day agony and humiliation of being a drug addict? Drugs control and destroy life and make you do things you would never dream of doing if not for the illusive and hollow promises you tell yourself this chemical will give. How do you describe this insanity in such a way as to make others understand just how devastating it really is? How do you explain a life without pride or integrity or peace of mind, not even a little? How do you describe the guilt and alienation from life?
I came to Narconon Arrowhead a broken mess of a human being. I had lied to myself for so long that I started to believe there really was no hope for me, or a way out of the trap. I told myself that I was a drug addict and that somehow explained and justified my impeccably wasted life. I was more dead than alive and numb.
Today I have no words to really explain the difference in my life. The Narconon® program has taught me how to live again. Narconon Arrowhead has restored my faith in myself and given me a peace and stability that can only be dreamt of. No longer do the chemicals of evil men call my name or haunt my dreams. No longer do I fear or hate or have to hide. I am successful and happy and I have a future. I can see again and have restored faith in myself. I can look people in the eye and be proud. I can smile and enjoy even the smallest of simple pleasures.
Narconon Arrowhead made me whole again. How do you thank someone for saving your life?
When I first came to the Narconon program back in 1997, I was 27, years old, had been using every drug under the sun for 15 years and was basically in apathy as to whether or not anything could be done to help me. This was my third rehab in a year and I truly wanted help, I just didn't think it was available. So I started doing the program and I could not find anything wrong with it No matter how hard I tried, with all of my old paranoia and distrust in full effect, I just couldn't find anything wrong with it. Here was a program that didn't have me admit I was powerless and diseased, want me to relive my terrible past 90 times in 90 days (for the rest of my life) or want me to take "medication" for my "manic depression".
This is a program that truly showed me that I am powerful, that I can repair the past and that all the happiness I ever hope to find is within myself. This program not only showed me how to stay off of drugs, it did just what it promised, it gave me a new life. If you're at the end of your rope and you're ready to put in some good, honest hard work to make a change for the better, without drugs, Narconon Arrowhead is hands down the best drug rehabilitation program on the planet, period. I've been clean for 3 years now and I owe it all to my grandmother for getting me to Narconon Arrowhead and to Mr. Benitez and Mr. Hubbard.
I’ve had the finest drug treatment money could buy, it has taught me many things. It has taught me about probation and jails, it has shown me the inside of prison twice, and how it feels to be treated like I was less than human. It has taken me to the funerals of seven of my best friends, where I had the opportunity to witness the pain of a mother who lost a son too soon, a father who will never again hear the sound of his child’s voice, and a mother with two sons and no father to help raise them. I have given my parents the intense feeling of anguish at finding their son OD’d in their own home - the list goes on. A major part of my life today is a legacy of pain and remorse, my own and that of those whose lives I have touched.
I first got clean in 1988 and in my first treatment center I was told that one in ten addicts who make it to treatment live. I vowed then to be that one and for the last eleven years I fought a losing battle. It is a miracle that I stand before you today. For those of you who don’t know, and are using, let me tell you it is a life and death struggle that you are in. For those of you who have had enough pain. I suggest that you grab ahold of this program with both hands and don’t let go until you wring every bit of knowledge and information out of it that you can. It’s been said that nothing worthwhile is easy. I have done the hard part already. I have gained certainty that I was going to die or spend my life in prison by trying to "use successfully".
I want to talk about the staff…It is hard for me to put into words my gratitude to the staff, how do you thank someone who has saved your life, and not just mine, but has dedicated their lives to helping others to live happy, productive lives? Words are not enough. I will forever spread the word about Narconon Arrowhead and the people who absolutely perform miracles every day.
I started drinking at 14 years old, and started smoking pot at 15. Then I started cocaine at 17. I was introduced to crack and I became hooked. I soon dropped out of high school and stopped talking to my parents. I really didn’t care about life. I was introduced to Narconon Arrowhead and I decided that I definitely needed help. So I agreed to come here. And with the technology that we have here, I have learned so much more than just about staying away from drugs. I’ve learned patience. After a month here my cravings for all drugs disappeared. I have hope for my future. And I have dreams I hope to accomplish one day. I realize that the world will work with me if I work with it. I’m happy again.
I found the real me, the person I always wanted to be.
The Narconon® drug rehabilitation program has saved my life. I cannot begin to explain the sense of happiness that has been restored to my life. I once pictured myself as a drug addict that was beyond help, but today that picture has changed to one I am proud to face in the mirror every day.
My drug abuse began thirteen years ago with a simple six-pack of beer but quickly turned into a $300 a day heroin habit. I reached out for answers and help along the way but was never able to find the solution to my drug abuse. I went through countless 12 step programs that never pacified my desire for heroin. My addiction took me to county jails in four states, three hospital trips for overdoses and finally to the state prison. All along the way I knew, that my addiction was controlling my life but I couldn't stop. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was a drug addict and that was all I would ever be. When I got out of prison I was offered a chance to go through the Narconon Program. I didn’t know if it would work but I knew that if I didn't do something soon I was going to die.
I arrived on the Narconon Arrowhead campus on June 17, 1998 and that was when my life finally began to change. Through the course of the program I regained the sense of personal integrity and responsibility necessary for me to stay off of drugs. There was one day that I had the tremendous realization that for the first time ever I was in control of my life and could honestly say that I was happy This was when I knew, I had finally conquered my drug addiction and I owe that to the Narconon program and staff.
I am very happy to say that since I have completed the Narconon program I have enjoyed health and control over my life in a way that I have never before experienced. My past life was ruled by drugs, the getting of them and the using of them, for over 25 years. I was cynical, depressed, angry and tired. This program allowed me to confront myself and my environment. It provided me the opportunity to physically heal and to mentally expand. I, in effect, have discovered my spirit, in a new and ready condition. I have captured the confidence and wonder of my youth. By successfully completing this program I am, for the first time in many, many years, living freely and with purpose. I have awakened to my potential. I accept the challenge.
Before I came here I was told by three doctors that I did not have long to live. Narconon Arrowhead gave me back my life. Doing this program I have learned that I am a good person and there is more to being drug-free than just being off drugs. It’s knowing yourself and who you are. It’s about honesty, integrity and values that make a person happy. Narconon gave me all these things and more.
I thank Narconon Arrowhead and all who made it possible for me to experience this wonderful life I now have.
Three months ago I arrived at Narconon Arrowhead with what seemed at the time only a glimmer of hope. After twenty years of heroin and methadone addiction, countless efforts of attempted help that failed, happiness as a drug free person seemed as likely as hitting the lottery at five million to one. As overwhelming as it seemed, I couldn't bring myself to accept the alternatives; death or prison. Not without exhausting all possible solutions. Somehow I still cherished the thought of drug free existence. Happiness had its price and upon arriving at Narconon Arrowhead I'd decided that if I could, if it was possible, I'd make a real, genuine effort. Then, after being exposed to the loving, caring and committed staff members at Arrowhead, my commitment became "I can", and "I will". And sure enough, three months later I am drug free and in control of my life for the first time in my adult life.
Five weeks from today I'll be thirty-eight years old, with a future as a happy, drug free member of society to look forward to. What appeared impossible became a reality. My purpose as a person has been revealed. Today I can accept responsibility for my past, no longer afraid of my future, and I am wanting and willing to help my fellow man.
The time spent at Narconon Arrowhead has been nothing short of life-saving. The Narconon program and the people who delivered it, words like amazing, unbelievable and spectacular can't begin to do them justice.
The Narconon® program works and anyone that recognizes the threat drugs pose to our society and planet must support the efforts of Narconon Arrowhead and staff - they deliver.
I was drinking heavily and doing a lot of cocaine but because I was able to "function" I didn't think I had a problem. During this time I was mentally and emotionally dead. I couldn't feel things anymore and even when I wanted to feel something I didn't have the proper reactions to situations. I was dying. My body was deteriorating rapidly and I was very sick frequently. The drugs and alcohol were killing me. You see, I did want to die - the greatest way to not deal with anything is to die and that is the drug addict's ultimate dream, but something kept pulling me back; after I ended up in the hospital after a blackout I did stop once for 8 months, I went through pure unadulterated hell from the withdrawal which lasted about a month. Afterwards I would still crave the drugs and alcohol. It was madness. I couldn't stop thinking or dreaming about them. I went to meetings during this time and then I started to drink after the meetings, then I progressed to using the drugs again, mostly cocaine. My sponsor once told me 'It 's OK, you 're not ready to quit yet SO if you have to drink, then drink, and when you are ready to quit you will know it. You may just have to go down further before you make the decision to stop.' I thought it was a bunch of garbage because every day I did want to quit but I couldn't.
I went to a chiropractic seminar and they talked about the Narconon® program. I took a pamphlet with Kirstie Alley's picture on it and called. I asked for information and then I didn't think about it, until that July 4th weekend. I went on a binge from July 2 to the early hours of July 5th and I realized that I did have a major problem. I called Narconon Arrowhead and was there 72 hours later.
I was looking forward to the sauna because I wanted all the alcohol, drugs and residues out of my body. I wanted to feel clean again instead of feeling sick all of the time. I went into the sauna with cloudy eyes, feeling sick all the time and no energy. I came out a new born. I thought it couldn't get any better, but I was wrong.... the life skill courses here at Narconon Arrowhead really enable you to take control of your life, actions and environment. You make the decisions for yourself without ever having to justify another thing.
When I took that 1st drink at 7, I was escaping from a physically, mentally and emotionally abusive environment, but I also lost who I was. When I came to Narconon Arrowhead I had no idea who I was. I found myself here and that is a wonderful gift. I now help other people get out of the fog, haze and destruction of substance abuse. People don't have to be lost from themselves or from others. There really is no escape from reality. Anyone can have what I have today. They can have themselves back. Instead of being at the effect of everything going on around them, they can make the necessary changes to make their lives better by coming to Narconon Arrowhead.
If you or someone you love has a problem with drugs or alcohol please call. Narconon Arrowhead can save that life and give that person a new awareness of themselves.
I would like to put on paper my feelings at this time on what I've been through and what I am going through. I feel as though, to a degree I am in a state of confusion because of my recent transformation from a lower primate to a higher man. The change has been a painful one, with regard to having to give up all the things that I've been used to doing for the 30 years of my addiction. For the first time I am now truly clean and drug-free. Something I haven't been for 30 years. All my excuses have been stripped from me. I am now capable of receiving, and applying, new ways of living a good and prosperous life.
As for Narconon Arrowhead and all it stands for, I owe my life. When I got here, my life was in a downward spiral, and it had been for the past 18 years. I didn't know how to live. I didn't know how to be happy. I only knew I wanted to.
The Sauna was the best thing for me. Without the cleansing, I would still be a resigned junkie. My health is back, and my body is alive again. Being in control of my life, is my life.
The Ups and Downs Course taught me why I had mood swings and how to prevent them.
The Personal Values and Integrity Course brought out the real me and reinforced my self-respect.
The Conditions of Life Course taught me how to handle any situation I have or will have in my life.
The Way to Happiness® Course is just what it says, and if you apply these values to your life, you will flourish and prosper and so will those around you.
Narconon Arrowhead is truly a miracle, but this miracle can be explained. I plan on explaining it to many others to come. Through the Narconon® program, I have courage, strength, and happiness.
I personally thank the Narconon Arrowhead staff. I appreciate all the support and understanding and greatly value all that everyone has taught me.
I have had wins on this course since I started the program. I have been getting better ever since and I have had exceptional personal increases in all directions. I am very happy with my progress. I am looking forward to my life after Narconon. This is going to be fantastic. Why didn't some one tell me about this place before!
I will pass the word!
I came here 8 months ago with a drug history of more than ten years. This was my last hope and the last hope of my family for me. What I found here was the answer to a wasted and hopeless existence on drugs. I found a technology which really does work. But more than that, I found people who believe that addicts like myself could be helped and really could become creative and productive citizens again. I also found out that there are others out there who believe the same thing, people who contributed not only money but also their belief in people like me.
After I graduated from the program, I stayed on for a while to work in the Print Shop where I was able to work in the graphic arts department and do what I love the most -- art. I also found a wonderful lady to spend the rest of my life with. I want to somehow try to express my thanks and gratitude in the way I can do it best, through my art. I have prepared a special illustration for Narconon Arrowhead with the help of the Print Shop, this small gift could never equal what the Narconon program has done for me and many many others, but maybe it can serve as a reminder to Narconon each day that they are creating NEW LIFE for real people like me.
I can't tell you how much Narconon Arrowhead is appreciated by me and my family. | 2019-04-24T07:56:03Z | http://addiction2.com/success-stories/success-stories.html |
The beating of my wings filled the air around me, and clear venom bedewed my fangs. There was a faint tinge to it, but I couldn’t taste what. I let the thought light and felt the beating of my wings. I was alone again. But that didn’t matter as much as the lightning flutter in my heart, flashing through my veins.
I flicked my tongue, waving it in the air before pressing it to my vomer. Moving my head to either side, I built a sense of direction, of scent gradients. A new smell had appeared: urine, off to the side of the ape’s old path.
Was it that scared? It should be. That flightless monkey had hurt my friend. I would hurt it.
The mixed scent of urine and blood didn’t move in the next few moments. Was it tired at last? Did it think I lost its trail?
I flapped my wings, harder, anger straightening my slow bounding flight. I could keep waiting for Hinte, or I could catch the human myself and show her. I was swooping down to the spot, growling.
On the ground, I only saw a wet puddle and scraps of torn, bloody cloth. I landed, flicking my tongue again. Near the puddle sat a circular human canteen, black and smelling of sharp, dead leather. And around it there were other splashed wet spots, like water pour out, that smelled slightly of sweat. I tilted my head before jerking it up. It had rinsed its scent, even if partially. I should have gone after it with the chance.
I smelled drops of blood on the ground here, leading off in a kind of trail. There were footprints too, vague things, and they seemed to stop suddenly with the urine puddle. I leapt up, flying low along where the blood pointed, waiting for the urine scent to fade, the distant blood and sweat to come clear again.
“Following the ape’s trail?” I said.
She flipped away then, flying opposite me. I flew after her, catching up in a few beats. Flying was something I did better than her, at least. I slowed my pace to fly beside her, and smiled at her.
With a crinkling of my frills, I did as she said.
The smell found me again, coming from the distance, the other side of the spot where we left our bags. Hinte had been right. This human was tricky.
Without waiting for Hinte or for the human to tire, I winged low after them until I could see the human jogging over the dustone. It moved fast, even with its weight. Had it kept that pace the entire time? At least we can fly. It might have escaped us if we had to chase it on foot.
Fanning my frills, they caught a familiar skittering crunch. Below me, a dozen glasscrabs scurried in pursuit of the human! I needed to be quick. The human looked back as it ran. It held a glowing pink cryst in its mouth and there was a similar glow in its forefeet.
What was it up to? Would it try to use the crysts to make the glasscrabs attack me? The crabs were scurrying behind it. I could land in front of the human, trap it between the crabs and me.
Threshing my wings, I overtook the human. After twisting in the air and crashing in front of the ape, I glared, fangs out, wings spread. The ape flinched, and clutched its hold on the corpse slung over its shoulder.
I growled and stepped forward. “Got you,” I said. From my fangs, I spat a stream of weak venom at its face. It would only irritate, but it’d buy me a few seconds.
The ape brought its free leg to its eyes, and my venom splattered on its armored sleeve, dripping and soaking and useless.
Its other foreleg moved to its mouth, and there came a quick dissonant whistle. It repeated the notes, three times, and never lowered its foreleg.
And then, the ape spoke. “No.” Its voice sounded garbled. “Get you.” In its mouth, The hisses and growls of our language felt forced and alien.
The ape threw the pink cryst at my feet; then it reached into a pocket. A foot-sized clay orb was in its forefeet before flying at my face. The clay orb fell short, and cracked apart on the ground.
My world became blinding white light that mocked the suns and stars. My frills fell over my eyes — but when I moved them, only suffocating blind darkness was there.
Somewhere near me a wet rag smacked onto the ground, stinking of the musky scent the crab had marked me with earlier. After this came cracking footfalls sprinting away from me. The skittering crunches came upon me in heartbeats. I flapped my wings to scare them, to give me space to leap up and land a few strides away.
I looked around, breathing, breathing until the world started to clear.
“It’s a saying — my point is that the ape is crafty, okay? We might have to work together to catch it.” I looked to the writhing mass of crabs. They’d ripped the ape’s wet rag to shreds, and were climbing over each other to chance at the cryst.
“It only has time for all of these ploys because you fall for the most apterous tricks. Let me handle this.” Hinte turned around, crouching.
“Can we at least try my plan?” A tiny bit of pleading entered my tone.
My frills were dancing beside my head. My plan is going to be awesome — Hinte will taste it. After waving my own tongue in the air, I leapt up again, and raced after the apes’ scent. As I flew after it, I heard whistles resounding across the lake. The notes sounded complex, cacophonous, unmusical. Then came another complex whistling, from far behind me. That couldn’t be good.
As I drew in on the ape, my frills folded and I prayed the endless stars my plan would work.
I yelled, “Hey ape!” It felt like a leap.
The reply was more whistling, the human not even glancing up — then, it spoke. “Betrayer,” was the distorted answer, its tongue garbling our sibilants. It sounded like it had a lisp.
“You betray.” Another whistle, a single note response.
“Hey, we’re only here for the crysts. The little glowy stone things. You have another. I know you do.” I prayed you did.
Its whistling held for longer, with another short response.
me. She’d had more of a surprise.
direct fight on some level.
The human was clutching the corpse on its shoulder tighter, and had managed a single step backward. Breathing in massive pants, its body swayed with exhaustion. It recovered like molten glass turning to brittle dustone, and at length slowly spoke, maybe tasting that I didn’t attack it, or move at all, really.
“I no want death dragon.” Its words came out sounding deliberated, yet it must have a weak grasp of y Draig, as told by its word choice.
“Me neither,” I said, not sure how to respond or even what it meant. The ape stared at me, eyeing every inch of my body for motion. It spoke again after breaths and breaths.
I raised a foreleg, and the ape started back and lifted its other limb, toes splayed.
The ape stared. But its face shifted, eye-cover things squeezing together. Maybe it tasted my meaning? It reached again into a pocket.
Now I tensed, wary of another blinding orb. But it produced the pink stone, holding it out.
It didn’t step closer, so I stepped forth. The foreleg holding its friend shifted. I reached for the cryst. That other foreleg stabbed at my neck.
“Death!” it yelled. Its friend was falling to the ground beside it.
I screamed out of the way. The blade was slicing the scales of my neck.
A bright-white figure swooped from the sky, growling. Hinte dropped onto the human, claws slashing its neck. Blood gushed. Hinte ripped at the human’s stomach.
Already exhausted, the human crumbled. To the ground it fell beside its comrade. Its forefoot felt along the ground, seeking and finding that of its dearest friend. The human coughed, chest wounds and vog catching up to it. In between its death coughs, the ape yelled its last words.
“You–you monster.” It gave one last sputter and moved no more.
“That took long enough,” Hinte said.
Hinte had inclined her head, almost thoughtful. She had the look of someone unlistening and determined, and already building her answer.
My back was to the bright-white figure, now.
I picked up the pink cryst, shook my head. “I don’t care about crysts. I just got them so that you’d think I was actually worth something for once. That I was helpful.” I dropped the cryst.
I didn’t have to say anything else.
Hinte inclined her head, and left.
I lay there and dewed for a bit.
I couldn’t stay. The heat, my thirst, the stinking vog, everything awful about this lake would get to me eventually. I don’t know why I lay there — but if I moved, where would I go?
I’d wanted things to be simple. When I came to the land of glass and secrets, it wasn’t for anything big — there were my brother’s plans, looming, but those were nothing but an excuse, a chimerical hope. I’d thought I wanted the simple life, somewhere small and cozy to live, maybe find a cute drake, maybe lay a few eggs.
All my life, I never really worried about death. It was something only the nadir had to worry about, something only my sister had to understand.
I — didn’t like it.
The sound of beating wings found me then, coming back around. I found the dark figure in the distant vog. Her flight looked faltering and lopsided. Why? Because her wing membrane is bandaged, because her wing was stabbed, because she fought the humans, because I had let her fly to the overhang alone, just like I was letting her fly to the last ape alone.
What difference would I make, anyway?
I’d bravely flown to the center of the lake for crysts — and got my lungs poisoned. I needed Hinte to save me from the glazed olms. I bravely slinked after a strange sound in the lake — and let the human escape. I needed Hinte to save me from that human.
I wanted Hinte to finally admit I was useful, and she didn’t because I wasn’t. She’d even warned me that being loud in the lake would wake rockwraiths. I was probably the reason the first human had been attacked at all.
This was all my fault. Maybe if I left the lake entirely, things would go right for once.
I stood up. This wasn’t giving up. I still had the crab blood, I could still brew the Munditi Sieve. I leapt in the air, and started winging back to where this mess started, where my bags still sat.
I flew my lonely flight through the vasty lake. The plates still rumbled beneath me, and the wind still seemed to laugh in my inner ear. In the distance, distorted by endless echoes, the last ape was whistling. It repeated the same sequence of notes, again and again. The spaces between them grew shorter and shorter, and the notes faster and frantic.
Time wound longer, and I didn’t count ghost-swallows, after what happened last time I tried to drink while flying. At last, I came near where we’d left our bags.
All around circled a moat of molten glass, only a few strides wide. The glass revealed blasted the air above it, stirring it into a vortex of swirling dust. A wave of heat barreled into me like an angry varjotuoksu player with one last chance to win.
The swirling clouds here concealed whatever behind the moat with our bags — the clouds looked even darker than usual, an inky blackness.
At my pace, Hinte had to have already flown into the vortex, but I stayed, landing with only a small, light flex of the lake skin, and peering long into the swirling clouds.
You could hope it was just my bags and Hinte on the other side, but it was a windless hope. Who’d dug the moat?
My head twitched. I shook it a few times, the muscles of my neck seeming to have a mind of their own. Had the wuthering excitement of the day already caught up to me? Steady as I tried to be, the twitching in my neck grew worse, and burning.
I was pacing around the moat. The human had to know Hinte had another dragon with her. They’d expect me. But would they expect me to run? I just need to slip in the moat, grab my bags and get out of here. That’s all.
I needed to step in. My nerve was strongest now. If I flagged, maybe it’d never be done.
I took a breath, then leapt over the moat.
First thing you saw was my crab stabbed and discarded on the fringe.
I had its blood, but still felt some kind of loss. I fluttered my wings to soften my landing, but I still crashed onto the dustone island.
A twang sounded, followed by jagged voice shrieking. My gaze snapped up.
The dark-green wiver faltered low in the air. Her right wing half-folded and she rolled to the ground, landing rough.
“Hinte!” I called. My eyes traced the path of the projectile back to a alien figure hobbled on the ground steps from our bags.
The ape turned to me, whipping around a gray weapon. The bow!
I rolled. My wings curled on their own. The arrow flew over my body. I whipped my head around — but this new island had no cover at all, at all.
A biting spear of pain stabbed into my shoulder. I screamed. My legs scrambled under me. I managed a stand, and faltered in the very next second as I half-leapt, half-stepped away.
The straight bow tracked my movements with precise jerks. I leapt, threshing my wings, and flew up.
From up here, you could see the breaks in the skin, still glowing, where Hinte and I had played around, and steps from the hobbled figure you could see the bags I’d snuck in here to grab; but only in the that single moment of calm before you saw the human and its jerking its gray weapon up at you, its face contorted in some toothy expression.
I swerved and twisted in the air as three more arrows stabbed a course toward me. On the ground, trails of blood streaked all along the moat, and led to and from the spot where the human sat hobbled.
Another spear of pain bit into my wing! My next flap faltered, and the wing was spasming. I spun in the air. Breathless, I made a scream empty and choked.
At the very edge of the island, the lake skin crashed into me. Forelegs, hindlegs, wings, tail, head, all scrambling. It was all I could do to not fall into the lake.
My wings writhed, and pain flooded them to the tips of every finger. The arrow had hit the base of my wing, and not punctured the membrane. My breath drew back into me, and I clamped down on my scream.
Maybe the human would hope I was dead?
Another twang came and went with a splitting pop of the ground beside me, and answered was my question.
But a growl had come with it. Did… did Hinte ruin the ape’s aim at the last moment?
I struggled to my feet. Hinte stood by the human, and in her claws gripped the human foreleg. The human now crouched, gray bow dropped by its side.
The humans other forefoot swung at her, and she backed off just as quick.
Bronze gleamed between them, catching molten light.
The human had a shortsword and waved it at Hinte.
If Hinte pressed the attack, it would stab her. If I flew at it, it could stab or slash either of us. The human looked weak, holding itself in a crouch, supporting with its other leg. If I’d learned anything in the last few minutes, I couldn’t underestimate the ape. It thought it could give one good hit before we killed it, and I would too.
Hinte flared her frills in anger. Her bloody wings spread, but she did not step forward again.
“Ja.” Hinte hadn’t even paused. She leapt backward. I wondered why for all of a heartbeat. The ape said it would kill us if we moved, but it now couldn’t even reach either of us.
I leapt without more hesitation, and crashed down beside my bag. Now, both of us stood on either side of the ape. The ape, stepping after Hinte, flinched at my landing.
My forefoot slipped into my bag. Past the crab blood, I grabbed the raisin-looking gem. A third the size of my sole, it slid into my foot.
The ape half-turned, the shortsword still angled at Hinte. But then, it reached to its side, pulling out a long knife and pointed it at me.
What? Wasn’t I worthy of a whole sword? I was a fearsome dragon too! Just because I was smaller than Hinte didn’t mean anything.
The human waved its blade.
Okay. Time for action. “Don’t kill us, please!” I said. The hairs above the human’s eyes shifted, moving closer to its eyes. “We’ll let you go, we don’t want to fight anymore. Look, we’ll even pay you.” I lifted my forefoot, showing the gemstone.
The human stared at me. I outstretched my forefoot, slowly. My toes fell away, freeing the human to pick it up. But it stayed where it was, keeping the two strides between us.
“Hinte, get back.” She looked at me, head tilted. “The human won’t take the payment if you’re right there, free to attack it. Get yourself back.” I injected a little bit of cold authority in my voice, just like mother had taught me. The same tone you’d use to order servants or hatchlings around. I hoped it didn’t sound too condescending.
Hinte was already leaping, meeting the human on the other side in heartbeats. She dug her claws into the ape’s neck. Her venom smelled salty. She brought her claw up to rip at the other side of its throat.
Again, a human crumbled under her and died, eyes wide, feet searching for something to hold onto. It coughed and spat up blood, and I didn’t like how much like a grimace that look on its face was.
I breathed. It was over. “We won.” I didn’t mean to say that aloud.
“You had a good plan,” she said.
“Yes,” she said, drawing out the word. She waved her tongue.
“Oh… that makes sense.” I looked up.
“Um,” I started. I was leaving you to fight the human alone. “I wasn’t flying right into an obvious trap?” Shift the focus, shift the blame.
Hinte jerked at that, looking to her wing. I followed her gaze. There, an arrow punctured her wing.
That pulled a gasp. “They got your wing again! When did that happened?” I reached at her wing. She didn’t move, and let me wriggle the arrow out.
“All the crysts in my bag.” As she spoke, her fangs had unfolded.
“I’m sorry.” I looked down, shuffling over to my bag.
I followed her pointing wing. The pink container sat open by the ape’s gray bow, almost a third of it scoped out.
“It heard me telling you to use it for my wounds.” She snapped her tongue. “No dragon medicine will help the apes, let alone die Wunder. We are of different superclass.” The wiver kicked the ape’s corpse. Her foot hit something, and she flicked her tongue. Digging into the folds of the ape’s corpse, she found another of the blinding orbs.
She hummed yes, placing it in her bag before grabbing more rope from it, and slipping the whole bag around her side, straps tightening. Near the bag, one of my glasscrabs lay with a knife sticking out, turned almost inside out.
“All the way back? Stars above. How did they pull this off in less than a long ring?” I reached down to pick up the crab, but Hinte snapped her tongue.
I hummed. Stepping back toward my bag, I found a bottle of my crab blood spilled out. Desperation or pointless vandalism? I still had two glasses.
I nosed into my bag, and squeaked a little. Sterk was still alive! Was it because he didn’t glow? The human must have missed him. Hinte had twisted her neck to look at me. I pulled the drab green stone from my bag and set him on my head.
Hinte’s neck just twisted further.
But Hinte walked over to the two human corpses, leaving me with the cryst.
“Ja. And I said the last one feigned death. Its wound was fatal. That is why it went nowhere after I left it here.” She walked over the other bodies.
The wiver pointed at a long metal rod with a rubber handle and a mesh sieve at the other end. I slinked over, picked it up. The cured-rubber handle slid right into my foot, my halluxes finding their grooves, and my toes wrapping and settling around it.
I waved it around some, and pointed it at Hinte in a challenge, and swung it with a yarl. She peered at me. As the rod swung, it folded limp in the air. A sigh, andI spat disappointed salty venom at it. It was folded further and fell into my bag.
I snapped my tongue at Hinte, daring her to laugh. She did. I crinkled my frills.
She nodded slow. I smiled and my frills bounced. After it found my bag, I said “I don’t suppose we can forget about the other corpses?” I held the end of my snout with my wings.
As Hinte stepped over to me, she was shaking her had. Grabbing a green container, she said, “Here.” It wiggled as she opened it. It was scooped in her claws and wiped across my neck. The pain of the bleeding line dimmed, feeling cool and sandy.
Hinte bent her frills a bit when she noticed the arrow sticking out of my wings’ shoulder. When she pulled it out, I yelped and the wing spasmed again; but the green jelly soon grounded the pain.
She didn’t smile, but her frills relaxed a touch.
After we returned to the other bodies, I’d grabbed last intact crabstone, and Hinte’d placed both of the humans on my back for me. For a few steps, I thought I’d at long won our argument about carrying equal weights.
As we set off again, my legs buckled under the weight and I slumped over. Hinte growled a complaint, and shuffled the bodies between us again.
I was following farther behind her than earlier. As we walked on, I dwelt on the more than two forefeet difference in length between us, the muscled thickness of her legs, and her wider frame. She even stood taller than me! When I sighed, the lake air had begun cracking the numb shell of the respira.
We marched on all the same, and along the way, we passed the spot where the human had blinded me. The glasscrabs had all left, leaving only the stinking rag and the dim pink cryst. I felt the distant shudder of the other crabstone every few heartbeats, a far cry from what it had felt like before the crabs devoured it.
I beamed at her compliment.
Hinte looked away, wings shifty as she considered my words. A few moments passed before she replied.
I looked up, wings drawing together. There had to be something to say to that. But it never found its way to my lips. The talk frayed apart.
The surface of the lake grew rugged and hilly again. At first it looked like we might have come back to where I met the first sifter, but no blades of dustone stabbed up, and the bands of dustone never grew more pronounced. The winds whipped up again, tossing dust at us and soughing through unseen crevices.
I yelled, leaping across to land behind Hinte. I crouched on the ground, my head swerving around to find the human.
“Again?” Hinte turned, waving her tongue at me.
The sifter waved a wing. “Go ahead. She’s obviously on the same road as us.” They still spoke with that odd, artificially saccharine voice. I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Mawla. Miss Mawla.” Her frills folded up, clinking slightly.
“Mawla sounds like a drake’s name,” Hinte murmured.
“What?” Her frills snapped out with a harsh clack.
Mawla rolled her neck and looked back to me.
“But why would they, uh, imply…” I twirled my alulae.
“Nevermind, I don’t want to know.” My tail constricted my leg. I licked my fangs.
“Gah!” I turned to Hinte. “Save me,” I whispered.
Hinte frowned, but turned to the yellow-brown dragon. “Why are you alone in the lake?” she asked.
“I can handle myself just fine.” Mawla’s frills were contracting.
It sounded familiar. If Hinte had pressed with how sifting on my own was such a bad idea, would I have gotten tired of hearing it, too? Would I have slinked back to Gwymr/Frina alone and friendless?
Hinte already had her fangs out, and she stepped toward the sifter.
Hinte’s frills fanned, and she turned away from me. She turned away from Mawla too, stalking away from the both of us.
“I didn’t want to push her away.” I looked over to Hinte walking away.
And ragged-white figure was gone.
I meant the apology; but a part of me couldn’t help but note just how well this move flew. She either had to forgive me for hiding things, or admit she shouldn’t have hid things from me.
“Um, I did,” I said.
Hinte had looked away, staring off into the lake’s shroud. Hinte’s lantern had created something of a wall between us and the darkness. In it, it felt like we walked a little closer together.
I turned to her, head tilted.
Hinte jerked her head toward me, fangs out.
I squeaked. “Okay, okay, you really totally for-sure found that stone. Can you tell me your secrets now?” I couldn’t help the eagerness in my tone. Would my last question alight for good?
I hummed an acknowledgment, and she continued.
I tilted my head. “Then why bother?” She waited a long moment before responding.
“Certain collectors will buy them, after a property that is — not well known,” she said. Then, in a low whisper, “The idea is that crysts are magical. Anti-magical. Warping energies, disrupting or distorting enchantments.” She waved her wing around.
The dark-green wiver snapped her tongue, and she slipped a wing back to her bag while slowing to a stop. She paused for a moment. “You still have my knife,” she said. “Can you bring it out?” She reached deeper into her bag.
Her knife was held in my alula, and she took it. From her bag, she’d gotten a metallic sphere, and it was pressed against the base of the knife. It came into place with a snap, and it was twisted. Shimmering green crawled up the black knife, emanating from the once-white streaks on the blade.
“This is a magical knife. Its cuts will desiccate and atrophy any organic matter it penetrates. Pay attention.” The dark-green wiver took the limb from one of the apes on her back and sliced deep into it. Blood didn’t rush forth, and the skin around it fell blackened and cracked. The ever-present, ash-stirring wind acted moments later, blowing dust from the limb. In moments, it looked as if she’d carved away flesh some dances ago, instead of a making simple cut breaths before. The only break in the atrophied blackness of the flesh was the white of bone.
The dark-green wiver held the knife tight in her wings while she fell to her haunches. She pulled out a rod with a glowing tip that looked a cryst someone had bothered to cut and polish. It glowed, but didn’t hum. The wiver held it and did something — maybe a finger shifted, I couldn’t be sure — and then it hummed.
Where the other crysts hummed low and discordant, this — whatever it was — sounded loud and… less discordant? The tones were focused and clearer in a way the others weren’t, without sounding pleasant at all.
“That is what it means, Kinri-gyfar.” Hinte pulled the little sphere from the knife, and held it out to me.
Huffing, I glanced away. Did I want to risk it? That knife could destroy me if I slipped up once.
“Fine,” I said, kicking a pebble. When I looked up, Hinte had started walking again, and was glancing back at me.
“The red one,” she said.
We walked awhile. A sound came in the distance, lost in the rattling and cracks. It might have been flapping or the wind.
So I knew at last why Hinte sifted crysts. And it fledged sense that she wouldn’t tell me. Magic was poisonous and maddening. Whatever freaky reputation alchemists had, mages could be so much worse. I still don’t get why this was worth hiding from me. I was a sky-dweller, a House sky-dweller at that. We didn’t shun magic the same way Gwymr/Frina did.
Looking up, I rubbed my headband. As I did, my mind slinked back over Hinte’s words, picking through implication. Other mages lived in Gwymr/Frina? Collectors, plural?
“But then —” I started, but the words alighted in my mouth as a slender black form flew from the vog toward Hinte.
And like that, we were hunted.
Okay, that pretty definitively answers my “so, do they breathe fire, or what?” question, at least for the females. The pace quickens, the plot thickens, the stakes raise–good! It’s also nice to see Kinri asserting herself a little.
Perhaps I missed something, but I don’t understand what’s being implied about Mawla’s gender here. Obviously it’s a joke, but it flew right past me. Sorry. The differences between draconic and human anatomy, and the way they apply to emotional signaling, etc., can be tricky to follow.
1) Hinte thinks Mawla is a drake’s name — this is kinda an obscure culture thing. Might be clearer later, or not. Full hint: her name is Hinte, her grandmother’s is Gronte; while her grandfather’s is Ushra and her brother’s is Regenra.
2) The joke thing I’d rather not fully explain, to be honest. Suffice it to say, as the text does, that it involves a rod shaped object, a salve, a suit that’s ripped somewhere and someone’s (presumably Lilian’s) cloaca, and as a result one of her coworkers jokes about her being male. I hope that’s enough winking and nudging at the point? It’s definitely intended more as a kind of noodle incident, sans ever coming up again. | 2019-04-26T12:38:37Z | https://endless-stars.com/2018/12/22/blow/ |
The Association of British Insurers’ (ABI) most comprehensive analysis yet into insurance fraud published this week highlights that every minute an insurance fraud is now detected in the UK. For the first time, the ABI’s annual detected fraud figures include data on application fraud – where details such as age, address, or claims history are deliberately miss-stated.
A total of 562,000 insurance frauds were detected by insurers in 2017 and of these there were 113,000 fraudulent claims, and 449,000 dishonest insurance applications. The number of dishonest insurance claims, at 113,000, were valued at £1.3 billion. The number was down 8% on 2016, while their value rose slightly by 1%. The fall in number reflects the industry’s collaborative work in detecting and deterring fraud.
The number of organised frauds, such as staged motor accidents, fell 22% on 2016, with frauds worth £158 million detected. This reflected the work of the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), who are currently investigating a rising number of suspected frauds, and the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED). IFED is the specialist police fraud unit investigating insurance fraud, such as staged motor accidents and illegal insurance advisers (so-called ghost brokers). Since its formation in 2006, IFED has secured over 400 court convictions for insurance fraud. The value of fraudulent detected motor insurance claims, at £775 million, rose by 4% on 2016. The number of these frauds, at 67,000, showed a small rise.
Fraudulent property insurance claims fell. The number detected dropped by 11% on 2016 to 22,000, with a value of £100 million. Insurers detected 449,000 cases of confirmed or suspected application fraud, where people lied or withheld information to try and get cheaper cover. Motor insurance made up the bulk of dishonest applications, with typical lies including the nature of the applicant’s occupation, and driving record, where previous claims and motoring convictions were not disclosed.
A cyclist claimed £135,000 compensation from a council for injuries he said he sustained when he fell off his cycle after hitting a pothole. However, evidence showed that the accident happened when he fell off on a slippery road at another location. He was jailed for three-and-a-half years. In another example, a bodybuilder, who claimed £150,000 for a back injury, was exposed when he was filmed doing a press-up challenge. He was ordered to pay £35,000 in legal costs. The ring leader of a gang who staged a bus crash to try to get £500,000 in insurance pay-outs for fake injuries was jailed and banned from driving for two years. Using a rental car, he staged the crash, following which eight of his fellow fraudsters on the bus claimed for fake injuries to necks and hips. Finally a student was convicted after attempting to claim £14,000 through six invented claims following a trip to Venice, including the alleged loss of an iPod, laptop and designer watch.
It was only relatively recently, in 2015, that the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) shared their insight into banking complaints involving telephone fraud. In those days it appeared that as older people were more likely to use landlines meant they were particularly at risk of “no hang up” scams.
But, according to their latest review in today’s connected world, it’s often loopholes in new technologies, rather than in old ones, that fraudsters are using to their advantage. FOS highlight that the first step toward being scammed for an individual may be putting their details into an identical, but fake banking website – or responding to a text message that, on the face of it, looks like it’s from their bank.
Unlike most other complaints FOS see, complaints about fraud and scams involve – whether it’s accepted or suspected – the actions of a criminal third party. So it’s understandable that, in many cases, both the bank and their customer tell FOS in strong terms that they’re not responsible for what’s happened.
This makes it harder for FOS to reach an answer that both sides are happy with. But it doesn’t mean usual standards don’t apply. As case studies from FOS illustrate, they will expect to see clear evidence that banks have investigated thoroughly – and reflected hard on what more might have been done to protect their customers and their money.
FOS also often hear from banks that their customers have acted with “gross negligence” – and this means they’re not liable for the money their customer has lost. However, according to FOS, gross negligence is more than just being careless or negligent. And as their case studies show, the evolution of criminals’ methods – in particular, their sophisticated use of technology and manipulative “social engineering” – means it’s an increasingly difficult case to make.
If there’s anything to be salvaged in the wake of fraud and scams, it’s what everyone can learn about how they happened and what needs to change.
Eating a large meal could help detect early signs of metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, according to new research the British Heart Foundation part-funded, published in the journal Cell Reports. A team of researchers, led by Dr Samuel Virtue and Professor Toni Vidal-Puig of the Cambridge University Metabolic Research Laboratories and the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Metabolic Diseases Unit, have made the observation whilst studying a gene called PPARy2. This gene controls the formation and function of fat tissue, which stores energy in the form of fat.
Researchers found that in mice that lack PPARy2, lipids – a form of free fat – were not sufficiently stored in fat tissue and were redirected to other organs, which is an early sign of metabolic disease and diabetes. Although the young mice without PPARy2 looked ‘healthy’, they went on to develop insulin resistance (the process that underlies early diabetes) as they got older. The glucose tolerance test (GTT) is a diagnostic test used routinely to detect diabetes. A glucose drink is taken after a period of fasting and the test measures how well the body’s cells are able to absorb glucose.
When the team performed the GTT on the mice without PPARy2, the results were similar to normal mice. But when they replaced the glucose in the GTT with a large, fatty meal – equivalent to eating a Christmas dinner – signs of metabolic disease emerged, including 10 times the levels of insulin found in normal mice given the same fatty meal, increased blood glucose and increased blood fatty acids. The researchers believe this is because PPARy2 is especially important in clearing free fats from the blood quickly after a high fat meal by storing them inside fat tissue. In mice without PPARy2, the fat tissue was overwhelmed by the high fat meal and the lipids built up in the blood or were redirected to other organs, eventually leading to insulin resistance as the mice aged.
Together with Professor José Manuel Fernández-Real, of the University of Girona, the team also demonstrated that PPARγ2 levels in humans are lower in obese individuals, demonstrating that their findings could also be relevant to humans. The study was jointly funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), MRC and Wellcome.
UK Finance has published their data showing mortgages lending by their members in 2017. The figures show their members’ gross mortgage lending in the latest calendar year and balances outstanding at the end of 2017, rounded to the nearest £100 million and ranked on the same basis. This means that the very smallest lenders, those with under £50 million of lending, do not feature in the figures. The data accounted for some 97 per cent of the total mortgage market – as published by the Bank of England.
For 2017, gross lending totalled £257 billion, up four per cent on 2016. This was lower than the 11 per cent growth seen in 2016. However, within this UK Finance have seen increased competition for business. This year there are 65 lenders in their results for gross lending, up from 60 lenders the year before. The largest lenders saw more modest growth. Although Lloyds has continued to increase lending activity with a seven per cent rise compared to 2016, the next three lenders on the table (Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander) all saw lower volumes than in 2016, compared to the previous year and corresponding contractions in market share.
Despite this, there was no change in the top ten gross lending table, with all lenders retaining the same rankings as in 2016. Lloyds Banking Group remains at the top of the balances outstanding table, despite a decrease in book size of one per cent. RBS had an increase of seven per cent for their balances outstanding, allowing them to overtake Barclays on the table and become the lender with the fourth largest mortgage assets in the UK. Below the top five, HSBC, Coventry, Virgin Money and TSB all increased their market share of outstanding mortgage assets.
2017 was a good year for the mortgage market with more lenders competing for business, and gross lending continuing on an upward trend. In their our most recent market forecasts, UK Finance predicted gross lending of £260 billion in 2018 – an increase of about two per cent. Lending in the early months of 2018 has, so far, outpaced their forecasts, driven largely by stronger-than-expected remortgage activity. The uncertainties UK Finance set out last year – not least those relating to the UK economy – remain; these have the potential to affect the path of lending for the rest of this year and beyond. However, the market has shown this year that, yet again, it is competitive and robust enough to continue to help UK mortgage customers as their needs change. | 2019-04-19T04:40:34Z | https://www.mortgageadvisorynetwork.co.uk/weekly-round-up-24th-august-2018/ |
Karaikal 05thJanuary, 2019: - Karaikal Port in association with L&T Construction Skill Training Institute conducted a selection drive to offer free skill training and employment opportunity for the youth in the regions of Karaikal, Nagapattinam and Nagore. This program is aimed at increasing the employability of youth and to provide them with an employment opportunity at L&T under CSR Program of Karaikal Port.
Karaikal 16th June, 2018: - Karaikal Port, India’s most Preferred and Responsible maritime gateway has invested 600 Cr in Mechanization for Bulk Material handling system, which will increase productivity, improve economy and vastly improve the protection of environment.
Varichikudy 20th July, 2018: Over 700 Students exhibited their Science Models at Government Polytechnic College, Varichikudy at Karaikal as part of Dr Kalam Innovation Kids Expo organized by Dr Kalam Science and Technology Foundation, an initiative by Karaikal Port.
Karaikal 30th June, 2018: Karaikal Port, India’s Preferred and Responsible Maritime Gateway and Space Kidz India , a Chennai based organization that facilitates experiential learning for students in the fields of Science and Technology, today introduced a joint initiative “Dr. Kalam Science & Technology Foundation” within Port vicinity at Karaikal.
Karaikal Port & MSSRF proudly announce the success of their joint initiative, "Knowledge Connectivity Program"
Chennai 19 June 2013: - Witnessing a highly successful joint endeavour in the form of "Knowledge Connectivity for Rural Empowerment" project, Karaikal Port & MSSRF have plans to scale-up this initiative for greater social benefits in the Karaikal & Nagappatinam regions.
Karaikal, May 29, 2013: Karaikal Port Pvt. Ltd. in association with M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation today organised a Career Guidance Programme at Karaikal for the student community in the district. Mr. Anto Alphonse, IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, Karaikal graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and released the “Career Guidance Booklet”.
Karaikal, December 13, 2012: Karaikal Port has been taking several measures to usher social & economic prosperity for the greater benefit of the people living around the Port neighbourhood. Since empowerment can be ensured only with better quality of life, more income and overall happiness, Karaikal Port has taken up the Self Help Group (SHG) initiative and started promoting the Self Help Groups in the region. Self help groups have proved to be the most effective approach to make women economically self reliant.
Karaikal, August 3, 2012:Karaikal Port was recently awarded as the “Innovative Port of the Year” at the 4th South East CEO Conclave 2012 held recently. The award was presented to Karaikal Port for its relentless, continuous innovation in port development & operations at a glitter ceremony where top performers from the Indian logistics and shipping sector were honoured.
Karaikal, July 10, 2012: Witnessing the resounding success of the “Knowledge Connectivity for Rural Empowerment” project, Karaikal Port has plans to upscale its initiatives for social benefits in the Karaikal & Nagappatinam region. The project is one of the social initiatives of Karaikal Port executed in partnership with M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) since November 2011. It has enhanced the livelihood opportunities by directly & indirectly reaching out to over 20,000 which includes farmers, fishermen and Self Help Group women (SHGs) across Nagapattinam & Karaikal regions.
Chennai, July 06, 2012 – Karaikal Port bagged the prestigious “MMA Award for Managerial Excellence” (MAME 2012) in Services Sector. This award was presented to GRK Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, Karaikal Port by Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director – IIT, Madras at MMA’s 56th Annual General Meeting. Also gracing the occasion were N. Srinivasan, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, The India cements Ltd, Mr Ravi Viswanathan, President MMA, Mr K. Kumar, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd and Mr Venky Rajgopal, Senior Vice President, MMA. MMA Awards are given to companies, institutions who have excelled in their business segment.
Chennai, June 27, 2012:Karaikal Port Private Limited, today announced that Standard Chartered Private Equity (Mauritius) II Limited has invested Rs. 130 crores (by way of primary and secondary investments) in MARG Karaikal Port for a minority stake. The primary subscription funds will be used for the Karaikal Port expansion plans which will enhance the port’s capacity from 21 MMTPA to 28 MMTPA.
Karaikal, June 21, 2012:Karaikal Port responded with alacrity in rescuing a fishing boat that was stranded in the midst of territorial waters. At around 9 am on June 15, 2012 Karaikal Port received a distress call from the Nagore Fishing Panchayat requesting the rescue of fishing boat which was stranded in the territorial waters of the Port. The authorities at the port acted swiftly by deputing a team of divers and excavators to rescue the fishermen and the boat. A team of fifteen members were involved in the rescue operation that lasted for two hours.
Chennai, April 30, 2012: MARG Limited, one amongst India's fastest growing infrastructure companies, has bagged the prestigious “Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility”. The award was presented amidst an august gathering of corporates & bureaucrats by His Excellency Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Education, Govt. of UAE at a special gala awards night during the 7th International Conference on Social Responsibility in Dubai (U.A.E). The award was presented in the esteemed presence of Justice M N Venkatachaliah, Chairman, IOD India and former Chief Justice of India, Lt Gen J S Ahluwalia, PVSM (retd), President, Institute of Directors, India and Dr Graham Wilson, Leadership and Organization Development, OXFORD, UK.
Chennai, January 27, 2012: MARG Limited, India's leading diversified infrastructure development company, announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.
Chennai, January 21, 2011: GRK Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, MARG Group, amongst India's fastest growing infrastructure organizations, bagged the "Special Jury Award" in the prestigious Gateway Awards of Excellence: Ports & Shipping ' 2012. The award was given to GRK in lieu of his outstanding achievement and exceptional accomplishments in the Indian Maritime Industry and was presented by K. Mohandas, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Government of India at a grand ceremony during the India Maritime Week, on January 19, 2012 at New Delhi.
Chennai, September 16, 2011: Karaikal Port Private Limited, a subsidiary of Chennai headquartered MARG Limited, one of the India's fastest growing infrastructure companies, has finalized its fund raising plans for its Phase 2A Expansion. Bangalore headquartered Ascent Capital, a leading private equity firm has decided to invest Rs 200 crores in MARG Karaikal Port. The funds will be used for the MARG Karaikal Port Phase 2A expansion plans which will enhance the port's capacity from the already planned expansion of 21 MMTPA to 28 MMTPA and involves an additional capex of Rs. 600 crores.
Chennai, August 8, 2011:MARG Limited, one of India's fastest growing integrated infrastructure companies, today announced the start of India's first ever PURA pilot project at Karaikal district in the Union Territory of Puducherry. MARG had bagged the PURA Pilot Project in Karaikal, Puducherry UT through competitive bidding under the PPP framework of Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India.
Chennai, August 01, 2011:- MARG Karaikal Port achieved yet another milestone on 31st of July, 2011 by adding container handling services to its fast growing cargo-mix. The landmark was achieved when the container vessel 'M V Ruhunupura', called at the port to discharge and load containers for the very first time. The container carried multiple cargo across a diverse customer base.
Chennai, May 17, 2011:MARG Limited, India's leading diversified infrastructure development company, today announced its audited financial results for the year ended March 31, 2011.
Nagapattinam, May 15, 2011:MARG Karaikal Port Pvt. Ltd. in association with M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation today organised a Career Guidance Programme at Nagapattinam for the student community in the district. Present the occasion was Captain Prasad Rebala, Sr. Vice President, Port Operations, MARG Karaikal Port and senior functionaries from MSSRF.
Chennai, April 1, 2010:Karaikal Port Private Ltd (KPPL) a wholly owned subsidiary of MARG Ltd, a leading infrastructure and real estate development company has finalized its fund raising plans for its second phase of expansion.
Chennai, February 01, 2010:MARG Limited, India's leading diversified infrastructure development company promoted Karaikal Port, flagged off the first batch of the prestigious export cargo of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), the Indian power equipment major.
Karaikal, January 27, 2010:MARG Limited, India's leading diversified infrastructure development company promoted Karaikal Port, today has reached a landmark milestone achievement by successfully flagging off the first railway cargo from the port.
Chennai, August 01, 2009:Subsequent to the declaration of a port at Karaikal, the Government of Puducherry decided to develop it as an all weather deep water port through private investment on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. Accordingly an Agreement was entered into between Government of Puducherry and M/s MARG Constructions Ltd, Chennai on 25.01.2006.
Chennai, May 29, 2009:The Chennai based MARG Group promoted Karaikal Port, which received its first vessel, carrying the project cargo for the port on 15th April, 2009 has been active as an offshore base for vessels of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Limited (HOEC), which calls on the port almost every alternate day.
Chennai, April 15, 2009:MARG Limited, India's fastest growing integrated infrastructure company, today received MV Beluga Fanfare - the first project cargo vessel at MARG Karikal Port. MARG Limited, India's fastest growing integrated infrastructure company, today received MV Beluga Fanfare - the first project cargo vessel at MARG Karikal Port. | 2019-04-20T04:20:17Z | https://karaikalport.com/press-release.php |
We recently returned from the lesser travelled path of Krabi and then onwards to the more remote, beautiful island of Koh Jum with kids – our then 2 and 5 year old. October half term meant that we visited at the tail end of the green season when showers are expected. However, in 21 days, we only had a couple of afternoons where we huddled up inside, listening the rain pour onto the ocean and bring the humidity down a notch.
If you are wondering whether it is worth taking little ones, including a toddler on a 14 hour flight, then transit onto another short flight to Krabi, followed by a drive and a narrowboat ride to Koh Jum – I would say a big fat YES in a heartbeat! Thailand has to be one of my all time favourite places to holiday. With wonderful food, the most beautiful scenery, sandy beaches, spectacular snorkelling & diving with all year round warmth, Koh Jum island has something to offer all the family.
Here’s my family guide to Koh Jum island, with suggestions of where to go, what to do and where to stay.
Where is Koh Jum Island?
Koh Jum Island (also known as Ko Pu) is only an hour away from Krabi airport and a 30 minute longboat ride from the Krabi mainland. Koh Jum (Krabi Province) is easily accessible from Krabi and there are daily long-tail taxi boats going to and from to the main land – Krabi. It’s remote in terms of being off the traditional tourist trail, but therein lies its beauty. Not a 7/11 in sight and a place where the ‘land of smiles’ comes into its own. I have visited several areas of Thailand, and it’s here, on this idyllic island where I have met the most genuine and friendly locals. Mass tourism has yet to arrive and instead you will find beautiful beaches, a couple of villages, and accommodation for all budgets. Koh Jum is easily accessible from Krabi and there are daily long-tail taxi boats going to and from to the main land Krabi. Koh Lanta and Phi Phi are a short boat ride away.
Quite a few places do close down during the green or rainy season, but a handful of places do remain open. We visited during October and November – towards the end of the green season and found plenty of places open, including local shops on Koh Jum village, a couple of beach bars/restaurants etc. We had no problem organising a private boat trip either.
Rustic or luxury? We stayed in both whilst there. Below are our thoughts on two different Koh Jum accommodation choices. There are no large hotels on Koh Jum.
We first stayed in the northern part of the island, close to the lush and dense green forests, but right on the beach. Our longboat navigated the few rocks into the sand where the lovely Kwan and her family welcomed us to Piman Pu on Lubo Bay.
Piman Pu Villa is a rustic, recently constructed traditional Thai home set in a lush green tropical garden – if you are lucky you may spot a shy monitor lizard. Much of the wood was salvaged from the tsunami and lovingly turned into a peaceful retreat. The villa has a fully equipped kitchen with modern facilities, including TV, DVD’s, free WiFi and a private pool just a 1 minute walk from the beach. The main bathroom comes with hot shower facilities and a separate loo and wash basin. This rustic villa has steep stairs to the upstairs bedrooms (x2 double beds) but our 2 year old managed these perfectly. As is common in Thailand, beds are harder than we are used to, but we all slept well.
Meals can be prepared with food purchased by guests at no additional charge. Kwan, the amazing housekeeper and her family live just behind the property. Kwan will ask you what meals you will like and prepare them for you. You simply settle up the food bill directly to her at the end. Her Thai dishes are naturally wonderful and her omelettes and pancakes went down a treat. Kwan very kindly washed some laundry for us too.
A popular request from my girls was to see her pet otter. A very friendly little chap, who loved dipping in an out of a large flower pot filled with water!
The villa has a local information book and Kwan is also a fountain of knowledge. We hired our long tail boat pilot for a day trip around the islands. We visited several, including Phi Phi and snorkelled in the vincinity, but we only disembarked on Monkey Island. Money island is an absolute must. the sand is literally as soft and as fine as flour but almost white in colour. Wild monkeys gamble across the beach, providing plenty of photo opportunities! The gentle slope of the beach, makes it perfect for toddlers or new swimmers too. You can hire bikes or hike too if you wish.
There are a couple of places to eat a few metres up the beach (Boa Hut is one) and there is also a massage place on the beach too. One of the shabby chic bars has a little swing, and a punch bag to practise your Thai boxing skills. It is a remote place, our next place was closer to the main village, but if some downtime, peace and quiet and a digital detox are what you are looking for – then this is the place. Interestingly, out of the 3 places we stayed, the Holiday Inn Resort Krabi with water slides, Piman Pu and the luxury Koh Jum Beach Villas, this was our eldest’s favourite place. Sometimes a bucket and spade, a pool and a otter are all you need! For latest prices for the Piman Pu Villa – see here.
The pilot of our boat (ours was called Nick) prepared a tasty Thai meal for us onboard, with fresh pineapple for dessert and plenty of cold water. All the leftovers were thrown overboard to attract the fish. Such a stunning view to see, even if you don’t snorkel or dive! Life jackets and snorkel equipment are provided.
Koh Jum Beach Villas describe themselves as “a luxury eco chic beach villa hideout”, which perfectly describes this gem of a place. There is a huge emphasis on sustainability, and indeed much of the resort has been built using trees uprooted from the tsunami.
Koh Jum Beach Villas are in the southern part of the island, close to the main village of Koh Jum. Guests can choose from a selection of twenty luxury beach villas either located on the beach or secluded in lush tropical gardens with stunning sunset views towards the sea, with or without a private pool and up to five bedrooms. All the villas have private gardens too. We stayed in Baan Nest, which was absolutely perfect for our family of four. A warm welcome of cool towels and refreshing fruit cocktails greeted us as we docked on the beach after a short long tail boat ride from the north.
The villas have air-conditioned areas, and numerous fans to cool down. Windows open in a way which can make you feel like you are outside camping but in complete luxury, with a huge comfortable, cosy bed. Natural mosquito spray is provided as well as incense coils- which is needed as the sun sets into a magnificent hue of red, pinks and oranges. The living area has tasteful furniture and fittings which ooze charm and sophistication but are totally in keeping with the natural surroundings.
The kitchen is fully equipped with a fridge, freezer, hob, microwave, kettle plus all utensils. A chef can even come and teach you how to cook a Thai meal in your villa.
Bathrobes and hairdryers are provided and onsite wifi too. There is one restaurant onsite, which provides delicious meals all day as well as speciality food nights on selected days of the week. A bar with light snacks provide delicious cocktails too! Just opposite is a communal pool which overlooks the beach and is the setting for evening entertainment including a fire performer! We also met there to prepare flower boats for the traditional Thai festival of Loi Krathong – it was a lovely way for guests to understand local traditions. For the latest prices for the Koh Jum Beach Villas, see here.
You can hire a tuk-tuk or bike from Koh Jum Beach Villas to explore the local area – Koh Jum Village is about a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride away. Further activates include kayaking through the mangroves, trekking through the flora and fauna, snorkelling, exploring the island. (Phi Phi is 30 minutes away by speed boat), diving, volleyball, golf, rock climbing, cooking class, massages, This was our final stop after nearly 3 weeks in Thailand so we opted for a massage, kayaking, hiring a tuk-tuk into the village and hanging out by the pool and beach. Some days we only saw one other family!
What’s your favourite Thai island? | 2019-04-24T23:47:08Z | https://www.flyingwithababy.com/koh-jum-thailand-krabi-with-kids/ |
Systems and methods for delegating access to resources hosted in a distributed computing environment are described. In one aspect, a server hosts a set of resources. The server receives a request from a user to perform an operation with respect to one of the hosted resources. Responsive to receiving the request, the server determines whether the user has already been delegated authority to perform the operation. The delegated authority is independent of whether the user is a member of an administrators group associated with any resource of the server.
This patent application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/281,083, titled “Role-Based Authorization Management Framework”, filed on Oct. 26, 2002, commonly assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby incorporated by reference.
The invention pertains to administration of network service provider hosted resources.
Administrating Web sites can be time consuming and costly, especially for entities that manage large Internet Service Provider (ISP) installations. To save time and money, many ISPs support only large company Web sites, at the expense of personal Web sites. One reason for this is because computer security has become increasingly important not only to businesses and other organizations, but also to individuals. To meet such security needs, computer and Web site security strategies must be selected and enforced for each administrative scenario. Such selection and enforcement make it considerably labor and time intensive and expensive to support personal Web sites.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary computing environment within which systems and methods for delegating administration of a hosted resource may be implemented.
FIG. 2 shows further exemplary aspects of system memory of FIG. 1, including application programs and program data for delegating administration of a hosted resource.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary procedure for delegating administration of a hosted resource.
Reliable, scalable, manageable, and secure systems and methods to delegate and implement remote administration of Web sites are described. In particular, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) computer server administrator utilizes the following described Internet Information Services (IIS) Delegation Administration (DA) framework to delegate specified Web site administration tasks to authorized users for execution. Such an authorized user may include, for example, a user that owns a personal Web site hosted by an ISP.
User authorization is determined in view of specified role-based access permission(s) to perform specified application operations associated with the hosted Web site. This IIS DA framework obviates existing trends involving computer security, wherein personal Web sites are not supported due to the inefficiencies of time and cost, as described above. One reason for this is because an administrator is not required to intervene (i.e., to ensure computer security and authorized access) every time a hosted personal Web site is modified or tested. Such modifications may include, for example, change of Web site content/functionality such as deployment of a new application on the Web site, etc.
These and other aspects of the systems and methods for delegated Web site administration are now described in further detail.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing environment 120 on which the subsequently described systems, apparatuses and methods for delegating administration of a hosted resource may be implemented. Exemplary computing environment 120 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of systems and methods the described herein. Neither should computing environment 120 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in computing environment 120.
The drives and associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for computer 130. Although the exemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk 148 and a removable optical disk 152, it are appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media which can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROM), and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment.
A user such as an ISP Web site administrator may provide commands and information into computer 130 through input devices such as keyboard 166 and pointing device 168 (such as a “mouse”). Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, serial port, scanner, digital camera, etc. These and other input devices are connected to the processing unit 132 through a user input interface 170 that is coupled to bus 136, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB).
A monitor 172 or other type of display device is also connected to bus 136 via an interface, such as a video adapter 174. The monitor can be utilized, for example, to present a user interface (UI) associated with the described systems and methods to delegate Web site administration, for example, by defining application access policies and rules as described below. In addition to monitor 172, personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers, which may be connected through output peripheral interface 175.
Depicted in FIG. 1, is a specific implementation of a WAN via the Internet. Here, computer 130 employs modem 178 to establish communications with at least one remote computer 182 via the Internet 180. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to computer 130, or portions thereof, may be stored in a remote memory storage device. Thus, e.g., as depicted in FIG. 1, remote application programs 189 may reside on a memory device of remote computer 182. The network connections shown and described are exemplary. Thus, other means of establishing a communications link between the computing devices may be used.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram that shows further exemplary aspects of system memory 134 of FIG. 1, including application programs 160 and program data 164 for delegating administration of a hosted resource. In this implementation, application programs 160 include, for example Authorization Module 202, Delegation Module 204, Remote Client Web Site Administration (RCWA) module 206 (i.e., the “requesting application”), Execution Module 208, and Authorized Process(es) 210. For purposes of discussion, these application programs in conjunction with selected other features of the system 100 of FIG. 1, are hereinafter often referred to as the “Internet Information Services (IIS) Delegated Administration (DA) Framework, or “framework”.
The Authorization Manager 202 provides security support for delegating administration of a hosted resource of IIS metabase nodes (i.e., nodes of the IIS metabase 212). The IIS metabase 212 identifies nodes for applications, resources, or objects hosted, deployed, and/or managed by the computer 130 of FIG. 1. More particularly, the metabase is a hierarchical store of configuration information and schema that are used to configure IIS. In existing systems, only users who are members of the Administrators group can view and modify a resource represented by a metabase node. In contrast to such conventional systems, the IIS DA framework, which is now being described, allows users other than those in the Administrators group (e.g., application administrators) such as Web site owners to view and/or modify particularly specified portion(s) of the IIS metabase 212. For purposes of this description, a “user” is an individual that is not assigned to the Administrative group, although a user could also be of the Administrators group.
To this end, the Authorization Manager Module 202, via selective interaction with the Delegation Administration (DA) module 204, allows an administrative entity (i.e., a member of the Administrators group) to specify (e.g., specify via a UI displayed on the display device 172 of FIG. 1) user access permissions to nodes of the IIS metabase 212. The Authorization Manager Module 202 writes such user access permissions (i.e., policies/rules) to Authorization Policy Store 214. In one implementation, such access permissions are represented, for example, in Extended Markup Language (XML), Active Directory, Software Query Language (SQL), or some other data format.
An application queries the APS 214 (via API's 216 exposed by the Application Manager 202) at run time to confirm that a client is authorized to perform a requested operation on a resource. Authorization Manager provides APIs for managing authorization policy and validating access control and a user interface for administrators so that they can manage the authorization policy store.
An application as specified by the Authorization Policy Store (APS) 214 is a top-level node of the Authorization policy store 214. An application specifies the operations or tasks that the application can perform and declares them in the APS 214, for instance, when the application is installed. An application specification includes administrator identified application specific roles in terms of the task and operations that are needed to perform a job (e.g., in an organization). The definitions of roles, tasks and operations (methods), and scopes are stored in the APS 214. A role is an authorization or resource configuration role (e.g., an organizational permission on some set of resources). An authorization role is based on a user's job function. A resource configuration role is based on a computer's function.
A task is a collection of low-level operations. The purpose of the task is to determine which low-level operations do some unit of work that is meaningful to administrators. An example of a task might be Change Password. Tasks can also contain other tasks. For example, a task called Manage User Accounts may include the tasks Change Password, Reset Password, Disable Account, and so on.
An operation is a low-level permission that a resource manager uses to identify security procedures. Several operations may be used to perform a meaningful task. (Operations are often not exposed or meaningful to administrators). An example of an operation could be WriteAttributes or ReadAttributes. A scope is collection of one or more physical or logical resources (e.g., a folder and/or files) associated with a respective authorization policy. An application can use the scope to group resources, to map a user requested resource to a scope (e.g., when an application checks for user access), and so on.
In this implementation, the Authorization Manager 202 allows specification of zero (0) or more groups and corresponding roles for each specified group member. A group corresponds to a user's role, and an application administrator specifies the permissions that are needed by the role by granting the group permission in an ACL for an object (e.g., application, resource, etc.). TABLE 1 shows an exemplary application definition of the APS 214, which in this implementation, is in an XML data format.
Each application includes numerous attributes such as a substantially globally unique identifier (a “GUID”, e.g., d9089f17-5fa6-4ae9-bddf-8ca6cd1c06fb), a name (e.g., SiteAdminApp), and so on. Application attributes are used, for instance, to identify particular ones of the applications specified in the authorization policy store 214. In the example, of TABLE 1, the application includes a group (e.g., see tag pair “AzApplicationGroup”) to specify one or more users assigned to one or more “roles” with respect to the application. A role is a set of permissions assigned to a user to enable the user to perform a set of tasks. Each application group includes a GUID attribute (e.g., value bf9d00f0-2be3-4367-a931-680038b51d0a) and a name attribute (e.g., GroupMetabaseChangeDefaultDoc). This exemplary group illustrates a single member identified by SID: S-1-5-21-3131233723-616130271-937215924-1032. For the purpose of this example, assume that this is the SID is associated with a user, “User1”.
In this implementation, a role is applied to a set of associated objects, and then a group of users is assigned to the role.
The application of TABLE 1 includes an application group (although any number of such groups could be defined) with a scope. A scope is collection of one or more physical or logical resources (e.g., a folder and/or files) associated with a respective authorization policy. An application can use the scope to group resources, to map a user requested resource to a scope (e.g., when an application checks for user access), and so on. The following is an exemplary syntax to define a scope: <AzScope Guid=“ce010982-6b6f-4e93-804e-d04bf1ddff78” Name=“Site Access for “User1””/>. Each scope has a unique identifier (e.g., ce010982-6b6f-4e93-804e-d04bf1ddff78) and a name (e.g., Site Access for “User1”) that can be used with an Application Programming Interface (API) to access the scope. For purposes of discussion, the illustrated scope has a metabase site ID of “w3svc/1”.
A role is defined when at least one (1) task has been specified with respect to an application group having access to a scope to which the role belongs. A task is one or more low-level operations to perform some unit of work for an administrator. For instance, a task might be “Change Password.” A task can encapsulate one or more other tasks. For example, a task called “Manage User Accounts” may include tasks “Change Password,” “Reset Password,” “Disable Account,” and/or so on. TABLE 3 shows an example role definition.
The role shown in TABLE 3 includes an AppMemberLink attribute that references an application group based on its unique identifier, in this example, bf9d00f0-2be3-4367-a931-680038b51d0a. TABLE 4 shows a scope with a related role.
A role may define one or more tasks. A task consists of one or more low-level “operations” that the user is given permission to perform, together with a business rule. An operation is a low-level permission that identifies security level(s) associated with a task. Several operations may comprise a meaningful task. Examples of operations include “WriteAttributes” and “ReadAttributes”. The following example of TABLE 5 illustrates a task allowing a user to change a property (e.g., the “DefaultDoc” property) for a Web site. The task contains two operations: one to set the value of this property, and one to get the value of this property.
In the example of TABLE 5, an operation is assigned a unique identifier and a name, as is the case with the definitions of the previous attributes. One of the most important characteristics of an operation is the OperationID attribute. A task can refer to one or more operations through the OperationID. TABLE 6 illustrates how to define an exemplary task.
The example of TABLE 6 shows two operations that are referenced by one task. This is to illustrate how a policy file can be defined. It is possible to have a task that refers to multiple operations. In one implementation, however, to ensure that the IIS Delegated Administration framework works as expected, within a policy file used with the tool, a task references only one operation. In such an implementation, when an operation is referenced by a task inside a role, the operation is not referenced by a different task inside the same role. Note, however, that the operation can be referenced by a task that is inside another role. For more information on exemplary syntax of the authorization policy store, see TABLE 11, below.
A task is defined one or more operations (e.g., the two operations defined in TABLE 6) identified by their unique IDs, and a business rule, or BizRule. A business rule is also called an authorization script written in a scripting language such as Jscript or VBScript. In this implementation, scripts that are attached to a task object that is run when an AccessCheck API is called to verify that the user can execute a given method. In this implementation, the AccessCheck API is implemented by a known Private Object Security (POS) API of an operating system 158 (FIG. 1). The POS API looks at a user's group memberships in a token and compares them to contents of an Access Control List (ACL) to determine if the user has the requested access. Scripts may use information that is available only at run time, such as “time of day” or “dollar amount requested,” to make an authentication decision.
For compliancy with the Authorization Manager 202, Delegated Administration (DA) module 204 uses one set of input values when interfacing with the Authorization Manager 202 and another set of values that are the parameters for the operation that the user wants to perform with respect to a hosted resource (e.g., a Web site) via a requesting application (e.g., the Remote Client Web Site Administration Application 208). For instance, in the preceding example of TABLE 6, for the SetDefaultDoc operation, the DA 204 utilizes as input the scope name, the operation or method name, and a value that is the value of the DefaultDoc parameter referred to in the BizRule above.
The DA 204 uses configuration file 218 to determine which Authorization Policy Store(s) 214 contains the input scope and to map the input operation or method name to an OperationID. In this implementation, the configuration file 218 is an XML file that specifies/defines each method assigned to a given set of users and maps the method to the corresponding operation identifier(s) (IDs) in the authorization policy store 214. The configuration file 218 also includes method parameters, scope mappings, log file data format, and command-line templates. When mapping scope name, DA 204 obtains from the configuration file 218 the path of the authorization policy store 214 where the scope is located, and the name of the application in this authorization policy store under which the scope is defined.
After the DA 204 parses the configuration file for such information, the DA 204 initializes the Authorization Manager 202 using the store path, opens the desired application, and gets the client context object that will be used to call determine whether the user has access to the requested function/resource.
IIS Delegated Administration Framework uses a registry entry of type “String” to store the full path to the configuration file 218 (e.g., HKLM\Software\Entity\IISDelAdmin\DelegAdminMappingPath (REG_SZ)). Such a string is stored in registry 220. TABLE 7 shows an exemplary configuration file 218.
In this exemplary implementation, the configuration file 218 includes the following entries: an entry for each method that will be allowed for a user; an entry for each scope, used in a store that contains a task referring to an existing method in the configuration file 218. Each scope entry corresponds to a user that has a scope in an authorization policy store. Additionally, an entry defines desired and/or default log file data format.
In this implementation, all of the attributes except Description are utilized. If an attribute is missing from a node definition to be used by ExecuteMethod, the method will return an error. (ExecuteMethod is an APi 222 exposed by the DA module 204 to performs an operation requested by the user—if authorized).
PublicName—The method name as it will be exposed to the user, the name that the tool will validate as an entry (a parameter of the ExecuteMethod method of a Dynamic Link Library object (e.g., a COM) accessed via API 222, exposed by the DA module 204).
ExePath—Defines either the path to the executable or command-line script that will be used to execute the method requested by the user or the ProgID of a COM object that is designated to perform the operation through one of its methods.
AZStoreID—Defines the OperationID that corresponds to this method in the authorization policy store.
CmdLine—Defines the way the command line for the executable module will be built, or the name of the method if ExePath specifies the ProgID of a COM object. For an executable module, in this attribute one can specify a keyword, an attribute name/value (method, parameter, and scope attributes) and a parameter index. For more information about defining CmdLine values, see the CmdLine Field Format below.
WaitTimeout—Indicates to the DA 204 how many seconds to wait after calling a CreateProcess API before exiting and logging the result. After a successful call to CreateProcess, the tool calls WaitForSingleObject (processHandle, timeout) to wait for that process to finish. This attribute is not used if the operation is associated with a COM method.
ProcessType—Specifies the type of process to be used to execute the method. The valid values for this attribute are “COM” (to specify that a COM method will execute the method) and “CMD” (to specify that a command-line executable will execute the method).
Separator—Assists in making the output of the executable module more granular. For special characters (such as “\r” and “\n”), this field includes the escaped version of the character (for example, “%0D” and “%0A”). The tool always reads the value of the Separator field and then unescapes it, so one can specify these special characters to be recognized as separators by the tool. For example, suppose a result will be a string containing a set of IP addresses that are denied for a site, and also that the result is a string containing all of these addresses separated by a “CRLF”(“\r\n” sequence). If the Separator=“%0D%0A” is defined in the IISDAMethod node, instead of the OutputArray function returning the whole string with the IP addresses, the function returns an array of strings, each corresponding to an IP address from the result string.
Description—Adds a description of the method, which can be used in the application that exposes the method to the user. For example, it is used by the sample ASP.NET application, Admin, to display the description of the method when the user moves the mouse over a method name on the page.
If a Parameter XML tag is defined, all of the attributes except Description are utilized. If one attribute is missing from a definition of the node and the node will be used by ExecuteMethod, the method will return an error.
Name—Sent by the tool as a parameter to the AccessCheck function. The same name is be used in the BizRule of the tasks that reference the operation ID corresponding to the method where the parameter is defined.
MetabaseProperty—Can be used if the execution module will request a specific metabase property as part of its command line, for example: “adsutil.exe get w3svc/1/AnonymousUserName”. In this example, the parameter has the attribute MetabaseProperty=“AnonymousUserName” and “w3svc/1” is the MetabaseNode defined in the scope. For more information about defining a scope, see Scope Syntax below.
Description—Associates a description with the parameter. For example, an application exposing the method to which such a parameter belongs to can use this field to display restrictions imposed on the parameter values.
One can specify the interfaces that will be used to execute a BizRule inside of a task that refers to an operation by using the Interface node. The following example shows the syntax of the Interface node: <Interface Name=““Flag=” “ProgID=””/>. Interface nodes are optional, and are used when COM objects are used in the business rule of a task, which references the method. If the Interface node is defined, all of the attributes are utilized. If one attribute is missing from the node definition and the node will be used by ExecuteMethod, the method will return an error.
Name—Identifies the name of the object as it is going to be used in the business rule.
Flag—Specifies the flag that will be used to create the object in the BizRule script.
ProgID—Specifies the independent version ProgID of the COM object. The corresponding Name in this node is, in fact, an instance of this object. The BizRule uses the object only through the Name provided.
Each attribute corresponds to a parameter utilized by AccessCheck related to interfaces.
<IISDAScope PublicName=““AZName=” “MetabaseNode=” “AZStorePath=” “AZApplicationName=” “GenerateAudits=” “AuditName=””/>.
All of the attributes are utilized. If one is missing and the node will be used by ExecuteMethod, the method will return an error.
PublicName—the name provided to the user when the scope is created, and the name the user will provide to identify at what level in the metabase 212 the changes are made (because a user can have more than one site assigned, for example).
AZName—the name of the scope in an authorization policy store file that corresponds to this scope. The MetabaseNode defines the actual scope, which is, in fact, a metabase node where the user has access.
AZStorePath—the path of the authorization policy store where this scope are located. This attribute specifies the authorization policy store where the DA module 204 will search for this scope.
AZApplicationName—specifies the application, in the store, under which this scope is defined.
GenerateAudits—specifies whether an attempt to access this scope generates auditing.
AuditName—specifies the key string used in auditing to identify the object that was accessed (in this implementation, it confirms that this scope, in particular, was accessed).
Path—defines the path where the log file is stored. This attribute is utilized.
The tool returns an error if it is not present. This attribute value points to a valid and accessible folder; otherwise, the tool of this implementation does not log anything, but will generate an exception. When creating the log file for the first time, the application uses the security settings inherited from the parent folder (identified by the value of the Path attribute), which means that the identity of the COM+ application (see, other module 210) has read/write access to this folder.
Field—identifies each field in the log file, using an associated Name attribute. For more information about fields, see Log File Fields below.
The result of the ExecuteMethod (ExecuteMethod is an APi 222 exposed by the DA module 204 to performs an operation requested by the user—if authorized. The operation or task implemented by ExecuteMethod is shown as the Execution Module 208) is logged using the comma-separated values log format. In this implementation, if a logging section is not present in the configuration file 218, DA 202 does not log anything and throws an exception.
A date and time (Date field) of the request (call to ExecuteMethod).
A name of the user (User field; for example, if the ExecuteMethod is called inside an .aspx page, the name of the user to whom access to the .aspx page was granted will be logged).
A method name (Method field) provided by the caller.
A scope name (Scope field) provided by the caller.
A value of the ExePath attribute corresponding to the method (ProcessType attribute, which is an attribute of the method definition in the configuration file attribute).
A value of the CmdLine attribute corresponding to the method (CmdLine field).
Delegated Administration 204 also logs in the last two positions the result (Result field) of the ExecuteMethod function 208 and the exception information (Exception field). The exception information provides details on the context of the exception (that is, in which step of the method execution the exception occurred) and the exception code that was caught by the tool.
The sixth field, CmdLine, utilizes a special mention. In the case of an IISDAMethod node with ProcessType=“COM,” the value logged in this field is as it appears defined in the configuration file 218 in the CmdLine attribute. In the case of an IISDAMethod node with ProcessType=“CMD,” the value logged in this field will be either as it appears defined in the configuration file 218 in the CmdLine attribute or (in case the string refers to IISDACmdLineKeys) the value of the full command line of the executable module, if ExecuteMethod actually built the command line for the module before returning. This provides more information in the log file to help one figure out as many elements of a request as possible and to ease the troubleshooting process.
If there is no Field node defined, the DA module 204 logs, for example, the eight (8) fields mentioned above, and the IISDALog node is used only to get the log file path. Usually, the field name is in the form “Param1,” “Param2,” and so on, because, in addition to the above-mentioned fields that are logged by default, these are the other fields that one might find useful.
In this implementation, “Param” fields are logged after the first six fields described above. If the list of parameter values contains more elements than the actual number of Field/nodes in the IISDALog node, not all of the parameter values are logged. However, if there are fewer parameter values for a method than the number of Field nodes in the IISDALog node, the rest of the field values in the log entry will consist of a space (“ ”).
Name—Used in the command-line string as a key.
AttributeName—Specifies the name of an attribute inside the configuration file, under the IISDAMethod, IISDAScope, or Parameter nodes, to which the key refers. This attribute enables one to specify either the attribute name itself or the attribute value to which it refers.
The command-line template allows Delegated Administration 202 to support tokens inside the command-line definition for a method (the CmdLine attribute of the IISDAMethod node). Such tokens include for example, the tokens shown in TABLE 9.
In this implementation, because # and $ are used for building the command line, these characters are restricted in the sense that if there is a sequence of two of these characters (like #string# or $string$), the tool will try to find an IISDACmdLineKey node that has a Name attribute equal to “string.” This is an implantation dependent feature that can be modified as design architecture implies.
This technique of defining the command-line parameters enables one to specify environment variables, such as % SYSTEMROOT %, in the module command line. When an IISDACmdLineKey node is created, all attributes are utilized. Otherwise, ExecuteMethod will fail when trying to parse the node. For more information about defining IISDACmdLineKey nodes and how they are interpreted at run time, see CmdLine and IISDACmdLineKeys Examples.
Parameters Method—sets the parameters associated with an operation. The parameters of this method is be a variant of type VT_ARRAY (where each element in the array is be of type VT_BSTR) or of type VT_BSTR. This method is called before calling ExecuteMethod.
ParamError Method—checks whether the parameters were set correctly by the Parameters method. If the parameters were set successfully, it returns 0. Call this method to avoid calling ExecuteMethod if parameters were not set correctly by the Parameters method.
Scope name—the scope associated with the user that is requesting the execution of the operation. The application that exposes the methods to the user collects this scope from the user. For example, using the sample ASP.NET application, the user specifies the name of the site to administer. This name is stored as a session variable and used whenever ExecuteMethod is invoked. The type of the parameter is BSTR.
Method name—the name of the method that the user will try to execute. This name corresponds to the value of a PublicName attribute of an IISDAMethod node inside the configuration file. The type of the parameter is BSTR.
LogResult—Boolean value specifying whether the method is to log the result of the operation.
ExecuteOperation—Boolean value specifying whether ExecuteMethod executes the command line or calls the COM method associated with the method. This parameter is useful when one want to use ExecuteMethod up to the point where AccessCheck decides whether the user is granted access to execute the method. If one choose not to execute any method or command line (by setting this parameter to FALSE), one can leave the values of the corresponding attributes of the IISDAMethod node as empty strings. After AccessCheck returns, the result is logged.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary procedure 300 for delegated administration of a Web site. In particular, the procedure illustrates exemplary processing that occurs when a user attempts to modify properties of a Web site, wherein the Web site is hosted by an ISP that implements the described IIS Delegation Administration Framework of FIGS. 1 and 2. Accordingly, and for purposes of illustration, the operations of the procedure are described with respect to the features of FIGS. 1 and 2. As noted above, in the figures, the left-most digit of a component reference number identifies the particular figure in which the component first appears.
At block 302, an administrative entity (e.g., a member of the Administrative group) provides one or more parameters for an operation with respect to an application and/or resources hosted by computer 130 (FIG. 1). Such provision is provided via the API 216 exposed by the Authorization Module 202 (FIG. 2).
At block 304, a user executes an application such as the Remote Web Site Administration (RWSA) application 206 (FIG. 2) hosted by the computer 130 (FIG. 1). The RWSA application 206 allows a user, such as a Web site owner, to modify, test, or otherwise administer content and/or functionality, or any other aspect of a Web site or resource hosted by the computer 130 (FIG. 1). As described below, authorization for such administration is dynamically determined by the Delegation Administration (DA) module 204. For purposes of this example, the user is not a member of an Administrator group with respect to administering the configuration and/or resources associated with the computer 130 of FIG. 1, although the user could be a member of such an Administrators group. At block 306, the user requests to perform at least an operation with respect to the hosted resource (e.g., Web site, etc.). To this end, the application (e.g., the RWSA application 206) invoke one or more of the APIs 222 exposed by the Delegation Administration (DA) module 204, to requests access to the operation. As already noted, user operation access to a hosted resource is controlled by several layers of functionality, as shown in TABLE 10.
TABLE 11, an exemplary Authorization Manager Policy Store.
command-line module or a COM method.
At block 308, the Delegated Administration module 204, determines whether the user is authorized to access the resource via the requested operation. This determination is made completely independent of whether the user is a member of an Administrators group with respect to administering the resources of computer 130 (FIG. 1). To this end, the DA module 204, via the Parameters method API 222, sets ExecuteMethod parameters. ExecuteMethod looks for an entry in registry 220 providing the path to the configuration file 218. The configuration file 218 specifies all possible methods that can be performed by all of the users and where an administrative entity can add an entry (that is, an IISDAScope node) for each user.
At this point, at block 306, ExecuteMethod reads the configuration file 218 and attempts to map the requested operation name, scope, and parameters to entries in that file. If these entries are found, the information related to the authorization policy store 214 (i.e., derived from the IISDAScope node attribute) is retrieved. The ExecuteMethod retrieves the information from the Authorization Policy Store 214 and verifies (e.g., a call to AccessCheck) whether the user has access to the specified scope, based on the method and provided parameters. To accomplish this, ExecuteMethod impersonates the caller to present a client's identity to resources it hosts on the client's behalf, for access checks or authentication to be performed against the client's identity. (Impersonation is the ability of a thread to execute in a security context different from that of the process owning the thread).
At block 310, if the user is determined to not be authorized to perform the requested operation, the user is denied access to the operation. However, at block 312, if the user is granted access to the scope and if the method referred to is in a task within the user's scope, ExecuteMethod executes a process (i.e., Authorized Process 210) or builds a Command Line 210 to execute a process that performs the user requested operation (i.e., execute via an object (e.g., a COM object) or Command Line).
For instance, the DA module 202 either builds the command line for the executable module that will actually execute the operation/method, or attempts to initialize a COM object associated with the operation and get the DISPID of the specified method. Then, DA module 202 calls either CreateProcess or the COM method associated with the operation, depending on what is specified in the first Boolean parameter. In the case of CreateProcess, DA module 202 uses the command line 210 just built and the process starts under the user context of an application (e.g., a COM application). For purposes of discussion, such an application is shown as Authorized Process 210.
At block 314, if the requested operation runs successfully, the authorized process 210 builds an output array and logs the output array to the log file 224. For purposes of discussion, such an output array is shown as a respective portion of “other data” 226. In this implementation, if the return type of the method is VT_BSTR or VT_ARRAY, all of the elements in the array are of type VT_BSTR.
TABLE 11 shows an exemplary format of the Authorization Policy Store 214. For more information about the syntax of this type of file, see Authorization Policy Store File Format.
The following examples show how a command line is built for a module, based on the settings in a configuration file 218 and the parameters passed to the ExecuteMethod and Parameters methods.
The following example shows exemplary syntax of a configuration file 218 from which the exemplary command line of TABLE 11 is derived.
In view of the above, the following actions take place to produce this command line: “SET” is used as it is because it is not delimited by # or $ characters; #mn# is replaced by “w3svc/1”; “/” is used as it is because it is not delimited by # or $ characters” #mp@1# is replaced by “AccessFlags”; and, #1# is replaced with the value of the parameter of index 1, which is 3.
The following example shows exemplary syntax of a configuration file 218 from which the exemplary command line of TABLE 12 is derived.
In summary, the following actions take place to produce this command line: “SET” is used as it is because it is not delimited by # or $ characters; $mn$ is replaced by “MetabaseNode”; #mp@1# is replaced by “AccessFlags”; and, #1# is replaced with the value of the parameter of index 1, which is 3.
The following example shows configuration file syntax from which the command line of TABLE 12 is derived.
The following parameters are passed to ExecuteMethod: (“Scope1”, “SetFlags”). The following parameters are passed to Parameters: An array containing the following strings: “1”, “1”, “1”. Refer to the configuration file syntax to understand the following discussion of how this command line is built. The value of the CmdLine attribute of the method is “SET #1# #2# #3#.” The tool looks at the first sequence delimited by two # or $ characters, in this example #1#. Because there is a number between the two # characters, the tool replaces this token with the value of the first parameter. The tool performs the same procedure for the next two tokens: #2# and #3#.
The following example shows a command line that causes an error by providing an incorrect number of parameter to the Parameters method. Configuration file syntax from which the command line of TABLE 14 is derived follows.
The following parameters are passed to ExecuteMethod: (“Scope1”, “SetFlags”). The following parameters are passed to Parameters: An array containing the following strings: “1”, “1”, “1”.
In this example, the Delegation Administration module 202 returns an error because the command line refers to a parameter with index 4 (by specifying #4# in the CmdLine attribute), but Parameters receives only three parameters. Accordingly, no command line is built.
In the example of TABLE 15, this method corresponds to a method with OperationID=1 in the authorization policy store 214. The path of the executable or command line 210 that performs the requested action is “C:\Adsutil.exe.” The command-line template for this method is “SET #mn# #1#”. The time-out for this method to be executed is 10 seconds. No separator or description is defined. The method has only one parameter, named “Flags,” which corresponds to the “AccessFlags” property in the IIS metabase. The method defines the “MyObject” object name (corresponding to an instance of the “Scripting.FileSystemObject” object) as being able to be used by the BizRule associated with the task that refers to the operation with ID 1 in the authorization policy store.
In the example of TABLE 15, the scope, defined as “www.fabrikam.com”, corresponds to the scope named “Scope1” in the store located at “C:\Store.xml.” This scope inside this store is defined under the “SecurityApplication” application. Access to this scope generates an audit using the “Scope1” name to identify the entry in the EventLog.
This template specifies that the CmdLine attribute of the “SetProperty” method can use (beside “keywords” and #D# tokens for the parameter values) only tokens that include the “mn” key, which identifies by name (using $mn$) or by value (using #mn#) the attribute with the name “MetabaseNode” defined under the “IISDAScope,” corresponding to the scope specified as a parameter to ExecuteMethod.
The following assumptions apply to this exemplary scenario: The registry entry HKLM\Software\Microsoft\IISDelAdmin\DelegAdminMappingPath (REG_SZ) is defined and contains the following string: “C:\DelegAdmin\Config\Config.xml”—the configuration file 218. The Delegadm.dll object runs inside a COM+ application (i.e., the authorized process 210) whose identity has read access to this registry entry.
This code will attempt to allow user1 to set the AccessFlags property to 1 for the site corresponding to “ScopeUser1” by calling the “SetAccessProperty” method and using the Authorization Manager APIs.
To accomplish this task, the following steps are performed inside ExecuteMethod: The specified parameters are validated. As noted in “Parameters” method syntax, a parameter for the Parameters method can be either a string or an array of strings. In this example, the parameter is accepted, because it is a string. If the parameter is rejected, the corresponding error code is logged. The object attempts to get the value of the registry entry HKLM_Software_Microsoft_IISDelAdmin_DelegAdminMappingPath. In this example, the value is defined as C:\DelegAdmin\Config\Config.xml. The identity of the COM+ application has access to this value. If the application cannot read the registry entry value, it logs an error.
Because the operation was not executed, the CMDLine field in the log file will contain the value of the CmdLine attribute of the IISDAMethod node that corresponds to the SetAccessProperty method.
After the application gains access to the configuration file, it searches the configuration file for the scope “ScopeUser1,” which is specified as a parameter. If the scope is not found, an error is logged. An error may appear even if there is an “IISDAScope” node that contains the PublicName attribute with value “www.fabrikam.com” if this node does not have all of the utilized attributes.
After the public scope name is validated, the method name is validated. The application looks for the specified method name in the configuration file 118, which is “SetAccessProperty” in this example. If the method is not found, the appropriate error code is logged. An error may appear even if there is an “IISDAMethod” node that contains the PublicName attribute with value “SerAccessProperty” if this node doesn't have all of the utilized attributes.
After the method name is found, the corresponding IISDAMethod node is read. The tool now maps the “SetAccessProperty” method to the operation defined in the AZStoreID attribute, which in this example is “1.” As specified in syntax of the policy file, only one task in the authorization policy store can refer to this method. If more than one task in the authorization policy store refers to this method, AccessCheck may deny the access to the scope. This may occur because the business rule on one of the tasks has denied the access to the scope.
Along with the attributes, the subnodes of the IISDAMethod node are read to retrieve information about the parameters of the method and the interfaces that will be used in the business rule of the task that refers to this operation (in this example, the operation with ID “1”). If an error occurs in the validation process, a corresponding error code is logged. An error can occur because utilized attributes inside the Parameter or Interface subnodes are missing from the definition of the IISDAMethod node. The number of parameters defined in the configuration file matches the number of parameters that are set before ExecuteMethod is called (using the Parameters method). Otherwise, a specific error code is logged.
The application attempts to initialize the Authorization Store object using the store path, which in this example is “C:\DelegAdmin\Stores\User1.xml” and to open the corresponding application inside this store, which in this example is “SiteAdminApp.” If one of the operations fails, the exception is caught and the result will be logged.
The application collects information about the caller (which in this example is user1) and builds the parameters for AccessCheck. The following TABLE 16 describes the AccessCheck parameters used in this example.
of this parameter for AccessCheck.
are interested in, which in this example is 1.
Flags attribute in the Interface subnode, which is 9600.
cannot be created, a specific error code is returned.
If the process of building the parameters for AccessCheck succeeds, the function is called and the result is checked. In this example, the user1 is granted access to the “Scope1” scope based on the parameters and the two XML files defined. If this function fails, an exception is generated. If AccessCheck denies access to the user, a specific error code is logged.
In general, if an error occurs while building the command line (for example, if invalid sequences, such as defining a key as #KEY$, were used, or if undefined keys were used), the application logs an error.
The described systems and methods for generating a contrast-based saliency map for image attention analysis. Although the systems and methods have been described in language specific to structural features and methodological operations, the subject matter as defined in the appended claims are not necessarily limited to the specific features or operations described. Rather, the specific features and operations are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claimed subject matter.
determining whether to authorize the operation as a function of whether the user has been delegated authority to perform the operation with respect to the resource, the authority being independent of whether the user is a member of an administrators group associated with any resource of the server.
2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining whether to authorize the operation is performed by a secure delegation administration framework.
3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the operation is associated with modification of content and/or functionality of the resource.
4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the resource is represented as an Internet Information Service (IIS) metabase node.
5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the request comprises a scope associated with the user, and a name of a method associated with the operation.
6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the resource is a Web site hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and wherein the user is not authorized to perform administrative activities on any resources associated with the ISP except by sending the request to the ISP for permission evaluation by the secure delegation administration framework.
7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the request further comprises an indication of whether the user desires to execute the operation via a dynamically built command line or via an executable object already associated with the operation.
8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the request further comprises an indication of whether the user desires to log a result of the operation.
9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the secure delegation administration framework is secure at least because it does not allow the user access to a mapping of user role-based permission to perform the operation directed to the resource.
wherein determining further comprises the application utilizing the mapping to identify whether the user has permission to perform the operation.
responsive to the presenting, identifying whether the user has been delegated a role-based access permission to perform the operation with respect to the resource.
executing the operation within a scope associated with the user.
determining whether to authorize the operation as a function of whether the user has been delegated a role-based scope of authority to perform the operation, the role-based scope of authority not requiring the user to be a member of an administrators group associated with any resources of the server.
14. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the operation is associated with modification of content and/or functionality of the resource.
15. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the resource is represented as an Internet Information Service (IIS) metabase node.
16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the request comprises a scope associated with the user, and a name of a method associated with the operation.
17. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the resource is a Web site hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and wherein the user is not a member of the administrators group.
18. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the request further comprises an indication of whether the operation is to be executed via a dynamically built command line or via an executable object already associated with the operation.
19. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 13, wherein operations associated with determining whether to authorize the operations are secure at least because the user does not have access to user role-based permission(s) to perform the operation.
wherein the instructions for determining further comprise instructions for utilizing the mapping to identify whether the user has permission to perform the operation.
determining whether to authorize the operation as a function of whether the user has been delegated a role-based scope of authority to perform the operation, the role-based scope of authority not requiring the user to be a member of an administrators group associated with resources of the server.
24. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the request is generated by at least one resource of the resources.
25. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the operation is associated with modification of content and/or functionality of the resource.
26. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the resource is represented as an Internet Information Service (IIS) metabase node.
27. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the request comprises a scope associated with the user, a name of a method associated with the operation.
28. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the resource is a Web site hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and wherein the user is not a member of the administrators group.
29. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the request further comprises an indication of whether the operation is to be executed via a dynamically built command line or via an executable object already associated with the operation.
30. A server as recited in claim 23, wherein the secure delegation administration framework is secure at least because it does not allow the user access to a mapping of user role-based permission to perform the operation directed to the resource.
means for determining whether to authorize the operation as a function of whether the user has been delegated a role-based scope of authority to perform the operation, the role-based scope of authority not requiring the user to be a member of an administrators group associated with the server.
35. A server as recited in claim 34, wherein the operation is associated with modification of content and/or functionality of the resource.
36. A server as recited in claim 34, wherein the resource is an Internet Information Service (IIS) metabase node.
37. A server as recited in claim 34, wherein the resource is a Web site hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and wherein the user is not a member of the administrators group.
means for executing the operation within a scope associated with the user.
MXPA04007143A MXPA04007143A (en) 2003-08-28 2004-07-23 Delegated administration of a hosted resource.
GB2353875A (en) 1999-09-04 2001-03-07 Hewlett Packard Co Computer access control system. | 2019-04-24T11:41:36Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050050354A1/en |
Celiac disease is a serious genetic autoimmune disorder where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. Therefore, people with celiac disease must eat a gluten-free diet. The disease affects 1 in 100 people worldwide, and one in 133 people in the United States. Two and one-half million Americans are undiagnosed and are at risk for long-term health complications.
Gluten, the culprit, is a family of dietary proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, oat, and other grains. It is the protein that makes dough elastic and gives bread its chewy texture. It is naturally poorly digested, and therefore more likely to engage the immune system than other proteins, even in people without celiac disease.
In people with celiac disease, it damages the intestinal villi, which are very small finger-like projections found along the wall of the small intestine. When the villi are injured, the small intestine can’t properly absorb nutrients from food. So, again, people with celiac disease must avoid foods that contain gluten. Sometimes, they may feel isolated, as they must eat differently than others.
And…. we have not only a new trend in college dining halls, but also new insight in what actually causes celiac disease. A new study (Reovirus infection triggers inflammatory responses to dietary antigens and development of celiac disease), published last week (April 7, 2017) in the journal Science, shows that Infection with reovirus, a common but otherwise harmless virus, can trigger the immune system to react to gluten, leading to the development of celiac disease. How? Usually, a regulatory immune response blocks inflammation to dietary antigens. However, a reovirus infection at sites where dietary gluten is present results in the induction of danger signals that confuse the immune system and lead it to develop an aggressive inflammatory immune response against gluten—it is this aggressive inflammatory response that may induce celiac disease.
For the study, which was carried out in a mouse model, researchers used two different closely related but genetically different reovirus strains. They showed that genetic differences between viruses can change how they interact with the immune system. Both reovirus strains induced protective immunity and did not cause overt disease. However, one of the reovirus strains triggered an inflammatory immune response and the loss of oral tolerance to gluten, whereas the other strain did not.
The study also found that celiac disease patients produces much higher levels of antibodies against reoviruses than those without the disease. The celiac patients who had high levels of reovirus antibodies also had much higher levels of IRF1 gene expression, a transcriptional regulator that plays a key role in the loss of oral tolerance to gluten. This suggests that infection with a reovirus can leave a permanent mark on the immune system, a mark that sets the stage for a later autoimmune response to gluten.
in the United States, babies are usually weaned from breastfeeding and given their first solid foods—often containing gluten—around six months of age. Children with immature immune systems are more susceptible to viral infections at this stage, and for those genetically predisposed, the combination of an intestinal reovirus infection with the first exposure to gluten could create the right conditions for developing celiac disease.
I think this is a groundbreaking discovery as so many people are affected by celiac disease. Hopefully, this will help foster further research not only to prevent celiac disease but also to possibly cure those who already have it. After doing some research, I found that reoviruses are oncolytic and are being looked at as potential treatments for cancer. In a study done by Kim et al., it was found that an attenuated reovirus targeted cancer cells in severely immunodeficient mice without killing healthy stem cells. The attenuated reovirus also exhibited reduced toxicity compared to a wild-type reovirus . The study also implies that attenuated reoviruses could be used to treat cancer in pregnant women (1). With the recent connection of reoviruses to celiac disease, I cannot help but wonder whether this will influence their potential use for treating cancer. Could reovirus cancer treatments cause an individual to develop celiac disease? If children infected with reovirus are at a higher risk of celiac disease, are reoviruses really safe to use for cancer treatment in pregnant women?
I find all the points you discuss fascinating – thanks for sharing. I didn’t know that reovirus was being used as a treatment for cancer. Going off on your comment, I decided to investigate the specific cancers that use reovirus-based therapy. I found out that reovirus can be employed for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and is more effective if used in combination with other drugs. (1) Reolysin (the drug name that uses reovirus) works by inducing stress in the endoplasmic reticulum, which eventually leads to apoptosis. Amazingly, Reolysin can selectively attack the cancerous cells due to reovirus’ ability to differentiate cells that express mutations in activated Ras signaling, specifically KRas. These mutations help facilitate viral uncoating and production of viral progeny in the cell. (2) I do share your concerns though about the potential side effects of using reovirus as a treatment – this should be thoroughly studied as the treatment looks quite promising.
Over the past couple of years, scientists are starting the discover the importance of gut microbial and its effects on food digestion and the immune system. In the case of Celiac Disease, a virus or maybe a bacterial infection can affect the intestinal tract leading to developing celiac disease. But what about other autoimmune diseases that deal with food absorption? According to a new study (1) gut, microbial metabolites protect against type 1 diabetes. In this study, they took mice that had type 1 diabetes and fed them a diet that would increase the amounts of acetate and butyrate released by gut microbial. It turns out that if your gut microbial produce increase levels of acetate it decreases the frequency of autoreactive T cells in lymphoid tissues. Acetate effects the B cell preventing them from activating more autoreactive T cells. Increased levels of butyrate increased the number and function of regulatory T cells. It appears that dietary changes for people with T cell-dependent autoimmune diseases may be an effective natural way of treatment. Another study (2) suggested that there might be a connection between an accumulation of autoreactive T cells in the gut-associated lymphatic tissue and other autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. I think we often overlook our diet and how it affects our overall health and not just our waistline. These emerging studies could also lead to new noninvasive ways of treatment.
Shannon, it is so interesting that autoreactive T cells could do so much damage and contribute do a disease that is widely accepted as a genetic disorder. This post made me want to look up what else autoreactive T cells could do in the human body and I found that they are also a large part of development of Rheumatoid Arthritis (1). The autoreactive T cells actually reduce glycolysis and cause the CD4+T cells to hyperproliferate and attain the inflammatory symptoms we see as symptoms in Rheumatoid Arthritis. This made me wonder what dietary changes could these patients make to reduce their levels of autoreactive T cells? According to a new study (2), by taking a fish oil supplement can reduce the number of autoreactive T cells all together. They also showed in this study that the fish oil also promoted an increase in CD8+ T cells in mice. More supporting evidence was found in another study (3) that showed that fasting in regular intervals also decreases autoreactive T cells that contribute to multiple sclerosis symptoms. Seeing how diet can influence all of these major diseases is eye opening and definitely needs to be explored as alternative or combination treatments for patients.
Researchers are connecting the dots more and more everyday between autoimmune diseases and bacterial infections causing them. In a recent study, a connection was made between gut mycobacteria imbalance and the development of Chron’s disease as well as ulcerative colitis (1). There is a very particular balance of bacteria that are good for us and help digest our foods for us throughout our digestive tract, but when this balance is lost, some of the bacteria can grow exponentially, causing havoc in the gastrointestinal system. The bacteria is kept in check by our bodies by controlling the pH and temperature along the GI tube, when these checks are overridden the bacteria are allowed to have a field day and grow without being controlled by the host body. One study that was found recently, focuses on what happens to your gut microbiome when you starve the body of carbohydrates as in a ketogenic diet (2). As you starve your body from carbohydrates to try and lose weight the Bacteriodes that call your gut home and whose sole purpose is to digest carbs begin to die off. This pruning of the gut microbiota allows for more invasive species to overgrow and populate areas of the GI tract that they usually are not found in. This also promotes the growth of very harmful strains of bacteria to grow that are usually kept in check by the growth of the Bacteriodes, such as Clostridium difficule (2). The research on this topic is now pointing toward the overgrowth of some bacteria getting through the gut walls and into the abdominal cavity to elicit an immune response. After a prolonged period of bacteria entering the gut, the body starts to see the intestines as foreign cells, and it immune system shifts its focus to fighting off the ‘invader,’ that is actually the body’s own cells. This is what is supposedly causing the autoimmune diseases such as Chron’s.
With research coming out on how viruses and bacteria can cause autoimmune diseases it makes you wonder how strong a role genetics play. It seems like gut flora is the missing link for a lot of diseases. In “Does the Gut Microbiota Influence Immunity and Inflammation in Multiple Sclerosis Pathophysiology?” their aim was to determine if gut microflora plays a role in developing MS (1). While it is unclear how exactly gut microflora contributes to the development of MS, there is a relationship. As you mentioned earlier a stable gut flora protects against inflammation. In another study, it was noted how there are gut microbiota-host interactions that play a role in the development of cardiovascular diseases (2). Again, the pathophysiology is unclear but with immerging studies I imagine the relationship will soon be discovered. I think more research so go into the gut-immunity-brain axis.
This article was very interesting to me as it pertains to gluten and how reovirus plays a part in celiac disease. Many people suffer with gluten and have to take great measures to get by day by day. One thing I found interesting was the idea how reovirus, usually considered an inoffensive virus, can “trick” the immune system to believe that gluten is harmful and causes the immune system to have a belligerent response to gluten. This is dangerous not only to adults but the article also pointed out that it can be critical to children and infants. Studies have been done to test rotavirus vaccinations in children with celiac disease as well as type 1 diabetes (1). According to Outi, their studies suggest that this vaccination can be beneficial for children who have a high chance of contracting celiac disease or type 1 diabetes. This research is just the tip of the iceberg in learning more on the relationship of rotavirus and celiac disease.
Offering tastier gluten free foods should be a major matter in the upcoming years. Not only gluten free diet reduces the tragedy of celiac disease; but it also minimizes the symptoms associated with schizophrenia. A study that was published in April 2017 showed that schizophrenic patients who follow a gluten free diet suffer way less than those who have gluten included in their diet (1). Gluten could be associated with more diseases and some more studies on gluten effects on the human body should be done. Therefore, having tastier gluten free foods available in schools, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, ..etc. should be a major concern within the next years.
Your comment on how gluten-free options can reduce symptoms of schizophrenia is interesting. I do not know much about schizophrenia but I know people with this disorder suffer with the symptoms associated as well as the community surrounding them. I believe having a gluten-free diet benefits these individuals in more ways than one. I found an article stating how athletes who adhere to a gluten-free diet had better success in their goals as well as their body systems (1). Little is known on this study but it’s interesting how gluten-free diets can be beneficial for anyone.
Coeliac disease is a serious ailment affecting more and more children every year. Because of the rapid increase in coeliac disease diagnosis, it is important to diagnose exactly what type of gluten-related disease a person has. Depending on the severity of the coeliac disease, doctors can determine a patient’s ideal diet to decrease the negative effects of the disease and better the overall lifestyle of the patient. In a study done recently, it was reported that anti-glutaminase antibodies are specific for the diagnosis of coeliac disease and in determining specific symptoms . There are three specific gluten-related disorders: coeliac disease, wheat allergy, and noncoeliac gluten sensitivity. However, further research must be conducted to better understand noncoeliac gluten sensitivity as not much is known about this disease. It is important to conduct research on, not only coeliac disease but also, the other kinds of gluten-related ailments. These are important especially in relation to the health of young children. It is detrimental to the already fragile immune system of a child to develop coeliac disease. Like this blog post mentioned, this disease can affect all aspects of someone’s life and, as an aspiring pediatrician, I would like to see more emphasis on discovering how to aid children in preventing coeliac disease.
I had heard of celiac disease before but I was unaware that there were other gluten related disorders. After reading your post, I agree that there needs to be more research into these disorders as well. In a study by Unde et al., they attempted to identify markers for systemic immune activation in wheat sensitive individuals who did not have celiac disease. They determined that these individuals had higher levels of CD14 and LPS-binding protein in their serum. They noted that there was systemic immune activation because of antibody reactivity to bacterial LPS and flagellin. They also found levels of fatty acid-binding protein 2 which indicated damage to the intestinal epithelium (1). I think more research like this will bring other gluten sensitive disorders to light. It may also help us determine more distinctions between celiac disease and other gluten related sensitivity disorders.
I have always been interested in studying Celiac disease. I always wanted to learn why and how it affects so many people. I also would not mind trying to find a cure for the disease.
I remember I had a friend during my first year of college who was very strict about avoiding foods containing any gluten at all. At first, I thought that she was avoiding foods containing gluten due to some sort of a diet fad or something of that nature. However, I later discovered that she was allergic to gluten and had suffered complications earlier in her life due to damage in her small intestine. I remember some of our mutual friends would be annoyed whenever we would want to eat certain items but she would always have us change our plans to eat something that was gluten free instead. I can thus relate to the article in that people who are allergic to gluten or have Celiac disease oftentimes feel isolated with limited options and with friends who are not interested in sharing gluten free meals with them. I think there should be a bigger push across college campuses to include more gluten free options that are enjoyable for both those who are unable to eat gluten and for their friends as well.
I also found it fascinating that the Reovirus is involved with Celiac disease induction. Another study has also described an association between Celiac disease and chronic Hepatitis C caused by the HCV virus (1). It will be interesting to see what other pathogens contribute to Celiac disease and what preventative measures (such as vaccines) can be employed to prevent the development of Celiac disease in the first place.
I agree with your comment; the school should have more gluten free options for some people.I didn’t know much about gluten when I was growing up. I used to hear commercials talking about gluten-free products, and I thought it was just that product that had gluten. It turns out most of the stuff we eat have gluten. It must be a real pain to have that allergic reaction. However new studies have alternative ways for Celiac disease treatment without avoiding gluten products. In a study done by Marino and his colleagues shows that modification of gliadin peptides inhibits their ability to induce an immune system response. This is done by using microbial transglutaminase for the change of the gliadin peptide. This is a good alternative, but there are some side effects we know about and some we don’t. Since this is relatively new, we don’t know long-term side effects. Eating gluten free products is the best choice.
I find this article to be very informative since I was not so familiar with celiac disease and how exactly it effects the human body. I have noticed a change in the food diets of our country that now normalizes gluten-free products. Just as the article mentioned, I inferred that gluten was another fad diet that was avoided by the general public to lose weight or become healthier. Though this study initially mentions it is mainly the presence of gluten itself that damages that lining of the small intestine, multiple studies have also included reovirus as being the cause for the immune confusion and eventual self-attacking episodes. The article Celiac Disease: Reovirus, Inflammatory Response, and Dietary Antigens agrees with the correlation between the reovirus and celiac disease and wanted to take studies further with a vaccine. Since there has been a vaccine made for celiac, their job was to test out the vaccine and see if there may have been an increased risk of actually developing the disease in children. However, after testing out a large amount of subjects throughout a five-year study, they did not see an increase in children with the vaccination than children without the vaccine. Though more trials may still need to be done as for the effectiveness of the vaccine against the virus, a negative correlation is currently not found.
I, too, was not aware of celiac disease and how many people it affects. I’m glad i got a chance to read about it, it opened my eye to something I’ve been so unaware about for so long. It’s refreshing ti know our country is making more and more gluten-free diets as this condition affects more and more people each year. It’s never easy living with an autoimmune disease, and it is very informative to know more research are being done about the causes and the possible correlation this disease has with the reovirus virus. Even possibly a vaccine for the disease.
This post talk about how reovirus can trigger celiac disease by inducing the immune system to react to gluten. They also found out that there is higher level of reovirus antibody present in the patient with celiac disease compare with those who without the disease. Not all reovirus strains can trigger the autoimmune reaction. During their study, they found out that the ability of the strain to trigger the inflammatory immune response is depending on their genes since reovirus with different genes interact with the immune system differently. Autoimmune disease, especially inflammation of the digestive track, has been close linked to the viral or bacterial infection by many researches. Under normal condition, the intestinal mucosa is protected by the tight junction which limit the passage of the foreign antigen. Many of the research shows that certain kinds of virus or bacteria can modulate the intercellular tight junction and therefore, the intestinal mucosa permeability is increase. When the permeability is increase some foreign antigen such as gluten and other diary antigen can pass through the gut mucosal barrier and cause inflammation. The mechanism that those antigens trigger autoimmune reaction is called “molecular mimicry” which microbial antigens are postulated to resemble self-antigen (1). I think that the reovirus play an important role in the “molecular mimicry “mechanism of gluten. Once the autoimmune reaction is activated, it becomes independent of continue exposure to the environmental trigger and therefore self-perpetuating and irreversible (2) which means the autoimmune reaction cannot be shuttled off although the triggered antigen is being removed. Many of the inflammation bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis is triggered by the incontrollable immune system. Many people may ask why gluten consumption is very susceptible in triggering autoimmune reaction? The reason for this is that gluten is made up of gliadin and glutenins which contains many toxic epitopes that can exerting cytotoxic and other gut permeating activities. Celiac disease also has close genetic association with HLA genes which is a highly specific humoral autoimmune response against tissue transglutaminase auto-antigen (2). The present of gluten in the GI track also lead to upregulation of the zonulin which is the only physiologic modulator of intercellular tight junctions described so far that is involved in trafficking of macromolecules and, therefore, in tolerance/immune response balance (2) and people with acute celiac disease have higher level of zonulin. Therefore, gluten is very susceptible in triggering the autoimmune disease and I think that future study can be conducted to investigate the relationship between the reovirus infection and the zonulin pathway.
Celiac disease is one of many severe autoimmune diseases known to cause cancer cells. The fact that 2.5 million Americans are undiagnosed and risk complications due to long term exposure, indicates the urgency for intervention and development of vaccination. Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) is a cell surface protein receptor for MHC class II antigen presenting cells. Gluten proteins, in the small intestine mucosa of patients infected with reovirus, readily binds HLA antigen DQ (HLA-DQ2 or -DQ8) with high affinity and activates T cell specific for gluten proteins that cause destruction of intestinal vili (1). Addison’s disease, autoimmune thyroid diseases, and Type 1 diabetes are examples of endocrine disorders that exhibit genes for HLA autoimmune response. Therefore, gluten proteins in reovirus infected patient, will cause celiac disease and may induce other HLA-linked diseases that is detrimental to our health.
Celiac disease is a severe genetic autoimmune disorder in which the gluten digestion leads to the small intestine being damaged. When people with is disease take in food with gluten, the body sees this as a foreign invader and sends a signal to the immune system, which attacks the small intestine. The only treatment available for people with this disease is a strict gluten-free diet. With more awareness being brought forth by this disease, it should also start the discussions about the many other autoimmune disorder relating to food or not. For example, pernicious anemia, the autoimmune condition in which the body absorption of B12 is flipped, resulting in a B12 deficiency (1). Of course, more studies can be done to get to the bottom line of why autoimmune exists in the first place. But in the case of celiac disease, it is an enormous progress that society is more aware and understanding of the importance of a gluten-free diet and making it more available. | 2019-04-23T14:37:31Z | http://sciencehealthandmore.com/celiac-disease-reovirus-inflammatory-response-and-dietary-antigens/?replytocom=2477 |
DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS : May a woman agree to inducing delivery of her nonviable defective baby?
Question 48: May a woman agree to inducing delivery of her nonviable defective baby?
We were surprised, since we picked this obstetrician partly because he was recommended by prolife friends. He left us alone for a while, and we talked it over. When he returned, we told him we would not have an abortion even to save my life, both because we believe abortion is wrong and because we want our baby to be born alive. We want to have her baptized and give her all the love and care we can, no matter how short her life is. The doctor said he never does abortions, but in cases like mine he does not regard inducing labor early as abortion. He also said the baby almost certainly would be born alive, so that she could be baptized, though she might live only a few minutes. And he told us that it would risk my life to go on with the pregnancy and he would not be responsible for what might happen if I do not follow his advice. We told him we needed more time to think it over.
We talked with our parish priest about it, and he referred us to a Sister Luke, who has studied health care ethics and works in the chaplain’s office at the local Catholic hospital. After listening to our story, she told us to follow the obstetrician’s advice and get the pregnancy over with. That is the right thing to do, she explained, because there is “a proportionate reason.” If we were sure her advice is sound, we would follow it. However, we are not sure, because my husband read that the Pope condemned something called “proportionalism” in his encyclical, Veritatis splendor. We want advice about what to do, and we want to make sure we do not get mixed up in something the Pope condemned.
The question is whether it would be morally acceptable to induce labor at once in this case. Even if a baby never will be viable, it is abortion to induce labor in order to end his or her life, and it is unjust to do anything without a grave reason that will result in shortening an unborn baby’s life. So, if the pregnancy can be continued until near term without grave risk to the questioner, she should not consent to the induction of early labor. If early delivery were necessary to save the mother’s life, her consenting in order to save her own life would not involve the intention to kill the baby or shorten her life. Saving the mother’s life could be called a “proportionate reason” for accepting the baby’s somewhat accelerated death. This use of the expression proportionate reason differs from that of the proportionalists whose opinion John Paul II condemned in Veritatis splendor.
Your letter is deeply moving. So often you speak of we! It is a sign of the love with which you, less than a year married, joyfully welcomed the prospect of your first child and now, with grief but evident faith, face the prospect of losing her so soon. Telling the doctor you would not have an abortion even to save your life also showed courageous and praiseworthy readiness to accept martyrdom. Moreover, you show your Catholic sense of values: you picked an obstetrician recommended by prolife friends; you want your baby to be born alive and baptized; you sought advice from your parish priest and Sister Luke to whom he referred you; and you question the soundness of the advice, which you otherwise would follow, because you fear it might be inconsistent with papal teaching.
Your physician has a more serious reason. Your diabetes could make continuing the pregnancy seriously harmful to you. Your question, therefore, really amounts to asking whether inducing labor now so as to forestall that harm must be regarded as abortion and excluded.
In my judgment, the answer partly depends on whether going on with the pregnancy would be risking your life. Without adequate knowledge of the facts and lacking medical expertise, I cannot say how much basis there is for your obstetrician’s concern. However, it is possible that what he told you is unduly pessimistic, and he may also be taking too dim a view of your baby’s prospects. Therefore, the first thing I think you should do is obtain a second medical opinion. That is your right, and in no way calls into question the competence of the physician you have been seeing. Though he told you he would not be responsible for what might happen if you do not follow his advice—which seems to me to have put you under undue pressure—he should and probably will cooperate with you in obtaining a second opinion by sending your clinical records and test results to the physician you choose to review the situation. That should be an obstetrician who practices in full accord with Catholic teaching. To identify such a person, you might try calling the offices of the obstetricians on the staff of the Catholic hospital and asking: “Does the doctor prescribe contraceptives?” If the answer is yes, ask if he or she knows any obstetrician who refuses to do so. If this approach does not succeed, tell your parish priest about the difficulty and ask him to help you—and, if necessary, to get an appropriate diocesan office to help you—find the right doctor. Do not hesitate to press your parish priest and diocesan officials on this matter; you are prepared to lay down your life, if necessary, in order to do what is right, and you have a special claim to their help. Having identified a suitable obstetrician, tell him or her you need a second opinion, and explain the situation. After obtaining and studying your medical records and the test results, this physician probably will examine you and perhaps order additional tests. Then he or she will give you a fresh, independent evaluation and explain your options.
I hope the second opinion will be that any problems likely to develop probably can be dealt with easily or even forestalled, without significant risk of serious and lasting harm to you. If so, your problem will be solved. Perhaps, however, there will be a serious problem, impossible to forestall and difficult to deal with, that will impose some risk of harm on you. Even so, the second obstetrician may be able to suggest a plan of care and treatment that, without gravely risking your life, will delay inducing labor until the pregnancy reaches the stage at which inducing labor for a good reason is regarded as acceptable by all Catholic moralists. In that case, accept the plan and carefully cooperate in carrying it out, even if it is unlikely to result in your baby being born alive.
Someone might disagree and argue that the point at which a baby normally is viable is irrelevant in your case, because your daughter is so seriously defective that even if you go to term she will die shortly after she is born. Assuming the accuracy of what your obstetrician has told you about your daughter’s prospects, her life after birth will be extremely brief. However, her life remains good and she probably can live within your womb until the end of the normal period of pregnancy. Therefore, inducing labor early would deprive her of what little life she is likely to enjoy, and your responsibility is to bear and nurture her, if possible, until she is ready to be born.
I think it quite unlikely that both obstetricians will agree that you and your baby both probably will die unless labor is induced early. But suppose that is their judgment? Even in that case, unless the danger of death is imminent, you should not agree to proceed at once, but should delay, hoping and praying for a good outcome. In that way, you will prolong your baby’s life and keep open the possibility that, despite the dire predictions, things will work out so that no life-or-death choice becomes necessary. But if the time does come when you must choose between risking your life, which also would cause your baby’s death, and inducing labor early, then, I think, you should choose the latter. That choice plainly will not be to end or shorten the baby’s life, for, though she probably will die sooner outside your womb than within it, your reason for inducing early labor will be to prevent your own death and, if possible, to provide your baby with the benefits of living briefly outside your womb, namely, baptism and a brief period of loving care. Thus, you will not be choosing to shorten your baby’s life, but only accepting that as an unwanted side effect. That will be fair to her, not only because your life also will be preserved but because she, too, will benefit.
Because this motive for accepting the shortening of your baby’s life would be fair to her, one can call it “a proportionate reason.” Perhaps that is what Sister Luke meant—though, it seems to me, her advice was defective insofar as she neglected to suggest that you obtain a second opinion and put off a life-or-death choice. A proportionate reason in this sense, however, differs from what is called “a proportionate reason” by the proportionalists whose theory John Paul II condemned in his encyclical, Veritatis splendor. Since you are anxious to avoid confusing the two, I shall try to explain the distinction.
The Pope’s main purpose was to reaffirm “the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those which prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts.”167 The relevant commandment, of course, is “You shall not kill,” which always and without exception prohibits killing by private individuals—capital punishment and killing in just wars are a separate problem (see LCL, 469–81, 890–94, 897–911). The prohibited, intrinsically evil act of killing, however, is to be understood, not merely as an outward performance resulting in someone’s death, but as a freely chosen kind of behavior characterized by its “‘object’ rationally chosen by the deliberate will” or, in other words, by “the proximate end of a deliberate decision which determines the act of willing on the part of the acting person.”168 Now, if, in the life-and-death crisis described above, you agree to induce labor early, you will not be rationally choosing by deliberate will to kill your baby or shorten her life; your act of willing will not be a deliberate decision that she die sooner rather than later. That harm, as already explained, will only be accepted as a side effect of what you will be choosing: preventing your own death and bringing about her birth so that she will live, though briefly, outside your womb.
In sum, if Sister Luke meant by proportionate reason what proportionalists mean by it, she thinks you would be justified, not only in accepting the shortening of your baby’s life in inducing labor at once, but even in choosing to kill her, on the theory that her death would be a lesser evil than the harm your obstetrician predicts you will suffer if your pregnancy proceeds. Since goods and bads cannot be rationally commensurated in that way, however, lesser evil here can have no definite meaning. It expresses only a subjective opinion based on feelings. On this basis, a proportionalist may regard an abortion as justified whenever the baby is expected not to live long after birth.
Your minds may be boggled by the preceding explanation of the difference between the proportionalism the Pope condemns and the legitimate use of proportionate reason. If so, do not worry about the details, for I am sure you will grasp the fact that the two are different. Looking at the matter in your clear-eyed way, you were prepared to stake your life on one of the truths proportionalists deny—that abortion is always wrong—but perhaps would have followed Sister Luke’s advice had your husband not read about the Pope’s condemnation of proportionalism. Without articulating the point, you saw correctly that, though choosing to kill a baby always would be a terrible wrong, accepting the baby’s death as a side effect could be right. Still, I hope and pray the crisis will not confront you, so that there will be no need to consent to inducing labor until your pregnancy is near term.
166. Jean deBlois, C.S.J., Patrick Norris, O.P., and Kevin O’Rourke, O.P, A Primer for Health Care Ethics: Essays for a Pluralistic Society (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1994), 235–38, note that pregnancy with an anencephalic fetus can put the mother at a somewhat increased risk and that the emotional trauma to the couple of a diagnosis of anencephaly can be considerable, assert (236) that the “condition uniformly is fatal, death usually occurring hours after birth from cardiorespiratory arrest,” claim (237) that “viability has no meaning as a moral marker in such cases” and that once the defect occurs integrated development is impossible due to absence of the cerebral cortex, and conclude (237): “On the basis of the above analysis it seems that once the diagnosis of anencephaly has been made the pregnancy may be terminated at any time.” This position is rejected—I believe rightly—by the Committee on Doctrine, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Moral Principles Concerning Infants with Anencephaly,” Origins, 26:17 (10 Oct. 1996): 276: “Hence, it is clear that before ‘viability’ it is never permitted to terminate the gestation of an anencephalic child as the means of avoiding psychological or physical risks to the mother. Nor is such termination permitted after ‘viability’ if early delivery endangers the child’s life due to complications of prematurity.” Peter J. McCullagh, Brain Dead, Brain Absent, Brain Donors: Human Subjects or Human Objects? (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993), 105–42, and a child neurologist, D. Alan Shewmon, “Anencephaly: Selected Medical Aspects,” Hastings Center Report, 18:5 (Oct.–Nov. 1988): 11–15, make it clear that the diagnosis of anencephaly sometimes is mistaken and the extent of the affliction varies; if anencephalic babies are born alive, many live more than a day and a few a month or more; some such infants behave in many ways like normal babies and may be conscious; and the cause of death varies. For infants afflicted with anencephaly who could not possibly survive long after birth, viability is irrelevant as a moral marker, but that irrelevance does not entail that aborting those infants is permissible, since the relevance of viability as a marker is that, what would have been abortion before viability may be a permissible early induction of labor after it. The fact that anencephalic infants develop a more or less perfect body (apart from their brain defect) shows that the cerebral cortex is not essential for integrated development. I conclude that choosing to terminate pregnancy when anencephaly is diagnosed is homicidal if the intended end is to reduce parental emotional trauma and is unfairly discriminatory against the baby if the intended end is to avoid the slightly increased risk of a properly managed pregnancy and natural birth.
167. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 115, AAS 85 (1993) 1223, OR, 6 Oct. 1993, xviii.
168. Ibid., 78, AAS 1196, OR, xii.
169. Ibid., 75, AAS 1193, OR, xi.
171. Ibid., 76, AAS 1194, OR, xii.
172. Ibid., 77, AAS 1195, OR, xii. | 2019-04-23T00:52:27Z | http://twotlj.org/G-3-48.html |
For the larger part of the 20th century, housing discrimination in the United States was overt and unambiguous. Racial segregation was largely the norm, and those who worked to preserve it were under little obligation, legal or social, to hide their intentions. At least it was easy to spot.
Help came in 1968 with the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of homes. The law explicitly barred practices with a discriminatory intent.
The country has progressed since the late '60s, and blatant prejudice is now much less common. Yet housing discrimination persists, often due to bias built into the system. So over the years, the federal courts have expanded the Fair Housing Act to cover practices with a discriminatory outcome. Under this theory, known as "disparate impact," a policy or practice can be illegal if it disproportionately affects minorities, regardless if that was its purpose. Disparate impact claims are crucial to fighting racial inequality today.
But this key weapon could soon be taken away. The Supreme Court will likely rule this summer in a case, Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, that may forbid disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act. Such a decision would effectively defang the law. It would also shed a disturbing light on how this court believes the law should react to entrenched discrimination.
The underlying reality of the Texas case is that certain housing policies disadvantage minorities more than whites, whether by hidden design, careless disregard or unfortunate coincidence. It's this type of discrimination -- in housing, but also employment, voting and education -- that today produces some of the biggest barriers to bridging the racial divide. If the Supreme Court acknowledges this truth and believes justice is best served by fostering equality "in fact, and not simply in form" -- to borrow a phrase from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- its decision should be easy. That it probably won't be helps explain why racial inequality remains such an unrelenting problem for the nation.
In the past, property owners and policymakers openly supported segregation.
During the first half of the 20th century, racially restrictive covenants were commonly used to keep minorities from moving into white neighborhoods. Under these private agreements, property owners would stipulate that their land could not be sold to or occupied by anyone who wasn't white. Sometimes, a group of neighbors would sign a contract prohibiting all current and future owners of their properties from selling or leasing to African-Americans. Violating the contract could lead to forfeiture of the property.
Local authorities also played a role in maintaining segregated neighborhoods. Though the Supreme Court had ruled that explicit racial zoning was unconstitutional in 1917, exclusionary zoning to preserve the character of a community was -- and is -- allowed. Neighborhoods can be zoned to allow only more expensive, low-density housing while prohibiting smaller homes or affordably priced apartment buildings. Because of racial differences in household wealth, many minorities are priced out of the exclusive areas. This practice, which has repeatedly been upheld by courts, is still widely used around the nation.
A big part of the problem was how the federal government limited minority access to mortgages.
Established in 1934, the Federal Housing Administration enforced policies for decades that helped preserve segregation. Chief among these was "redlining," under which it declined to back home loans to people living in certain often-minority neighborhoods. This discouraged mortgage lenders from extending financial services to those areas. The consequences of redlining on home ownership and economic development are still apparent today in many urban areas.
A 1936 map of Philadelphia from another New Deal era federal agency, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, identifying the neighborhoods in which lenders should and should not offer mortgages. Redlined areas are marked "hazardous."
Housing speculators capitalized on the fact that most African-American homebuyers couldn't access federally insured mortgages. In Chicago, for instance, mostly white speculators bought up cheap properties in black neighborhoods and marked up the prices, sometimes to twice what they had initially paid. These houses were sold under a contract that called for monthly payments until the entire price was paid -- and only then would the buyer receive the deed to or gain any equity in the property. If the buyer managed to pay off the contract in full, he or she owned a house in a minority neighborhood that would likely not appreciate in value. If the buyer didn't fulfill the terms of the contract, eviction with nothing to show for payments made was the usual response.
In the late 1960s, a group of black homeowners in Chicago began to fight this predatory system. A federal class-action lawsuit was filed in 1969 against speculators, contract sellers and financial institutions involved in the scheme. Activists also organized protests and holdouts, in which homeowners refused to make payments to the sellers. There were standoffs with police, arrests, negotiations, and in 1971, thanks to a policy change by regional banks and insurance companies, the homebuyers finally began converting their contracts into mortgages in large numbers.
Yet when the federal case finally went to trial in 1975, the black plaintiffs couldn't convince the mostly white jury that they had been price-gouged because of their race. As one juror reportedly concluded, "It was economics, not civil rights, in play."
Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
But as the Chicago case shows, it can be hard to prove that someone was motivated by racial animus. With the aid of the courts, the Fair Housing Act has also been used to target less explicit bias. Over the past 40 years, judges have repeatedly read the statute to forbid many policies and practices with a disparate impact on minorities, even where no racist intent can be shown.
In a rule issued in February 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development clarified the formula for deciding disparate-impact housing cases: If the plaintiff can demonstrate that a practice has a discriminatory effect, the burden shifts to the defendant to show that the practice serves a substantial, nondiscriminatory interest that can't be served by a less discriminatory means. If the defendant meets that burden, the plaintiff can still win by showing that, in fact, there is a less discriminatory means that would serve the defendant's needs.
Note this means that a policy with a disparate impact that also has a valid justification and no less-discriminatory alternative is legal. For that reason, there are plenty of legitimate housing restrictions and requirements that disproportionately affect minorities today -- like occupancy limits, credit score standards and income verification.
Housing advocates and federal prosecutors still use the law to fight housing discrimination.
A number of high-profile disparate impact cases have been settled in the past few years alone. Many focused on financial institutions and lenders that were accused of offering less favorable rates and services, on average, to minority customers than to white customers.
In 2011, for example, mortgage giant Countrywide Financial reached a record $335 million settlement with the Department of Justice following allegations that it had charged higher fees and rates to hundreds of thousands of Hispanic and African-American customers than it had to white customers with similar financial standing. The Justice Department investigation also found that Countrywide, which was purchased by Bank of America after the alleged misconduct, had offered subprime mortgages to 10,000 minority borrowers while offering regular loans to white borrowers with similar credit profiles. Using a disparate impact argument, federal prosecutors didn't need evidence that Countrywide's practices were driven by discriminatory intent, only that they had discriminatory outcomes.
The National Fair Housing Alliance reported that 27,352 housing discrimination complaints were made nationwide in 2013. The organization estimates that at least 4 million violations actually occur each year.
It's hard to overstate the ongoing importance of access to fair housing. Decades of segregation have helped to concentrate poverty in minority neighborhoods. Communities with large percentages of black and Hispanic residents tend to have fewer economic and employment opportunities; lower-quality education; less access to medical care, healthy food and public transportation; and lower levels of public safety.
While a number of studies released over the past few years have shown some progress in urban areas, fair housing advocates say the problem is far from solved.
"While recent modest declines in black segregation levels are welcome, the 2010 census shows that the average black resident still lives in a neighborhood that is 45 percent black and 36 percent white," William Frey, chief demographer at the Brookings Institution, told The New York Times. "At the same time, the average white lives in a neighborhood that is 78 percent white and 7 percent black. Black segregation levels are even higher for children."
For more on how ZIP codes correlate with opportunity, check out this tool created by Opportunity Nation and Measure of America.
Even with disparate impact claims, the government has often done a poor job fostering housing equality.
HUD's largest program of grants to states, cities and towns has delivered $137 billion to more than 1,200 communities since 1974. To receive the money, localities are supposed to identify obstacles to fair housing, keep records of their efforts to overcome them, and certify that they do not discriminate.
ProPublica could find only two occasions since [George] Romney's tenure [as HUD secretary, ending in 1972,] in which the department withheld money from communities for violating the Fair Housing Act. In several instances, records show, HUD has sent grants to communities even after they've been found by courts to have promoted segregated housing or been sued by the U.S. Department of Justice. New Orleans, for example, has continued to receive grants after the Justice Department sued it for violating that Fair Housing Act by blocking a low-income housing project in a wealthy historic neighborhood.
The Supreme Court is now debating whether disparate impact claims can even be raised in housing cases.
On Jan. 21, the justices heard oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. The Dallas-area nonprofit, which promotes racially and economically diverse communities, filed suit after finding that for the past few decades, the Texas housing department had allocated almost all affordable-housing tax credits to developments in minority neighborhoods, while denying credits to those in white neighborhoods. This effectively kept low-income residents from moving to white communities. The nonprofit is raising a disparate impact claim under the Fair Housing Act.
The Texas agency, unable to show there was no less-discriminatory alternative to its practice, lost the case in federal district court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. It petitioned the Supreme Court to rule for the first time on the overall permissibility of disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act. Court watchers suggest the decision may come down to Justice Antonin Scalia, who during oral arguments indicated sympathy with both sides.
Opponents argue that disparate impact claims are unfair to policymakers, financial institutions and property owners. If housing policies and practices are instituted for legitimate reasons based on race-neutral criteria, the basic argument goes, then they should be legal despite any unintended discriminatory effects -- and the people who implement those policies and practices should not be blamed.
During oral arguments, Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller suggested another problem: that housing officials and developers wary of possible Fair Housing Act lawsuits might make race-conscious decisions in favor of minorities, creating "the functional equivalent of a quota system." This would raise constitutional issues of its own.
Other critics have expressed concerns that the idea of disparate impact is too fluid -- that just because a practice unevenly affects a minority group doesn't mean that it harms the group or that it doesn't help other minority groups.
Supporters of disparate impact think the law is on their side, if not necessarily the justices.
Since 1974, 11 federal circuit courts have upheld an interpretation of the Fair Housing Act that allows for disparate impact claims. Moreover, in 1988, when Congress amended the statute, it chose not to add language ruling out such claims, but it did include language that implied their use.
Amicus briefs have flooded in -- from lawmakers, public interest advocates and business interests -- seeking to sway the justices. There are 14 supporting the Texas agency and 23 backing the nonprofit. One brief in favor of the Inclusive Communities Project comes from the federal government, 17 states and an assortment of civil rights groups.
"This was really the last legislative victory of the civil rights movement, and it was Dr. King's last victory, too," Philip Tegeler, executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, told The Washington Post. "This is the message that Dr. King brought to Chicago in 1966, talking about de facto segregation in the North, segregation wherever it exists -- that we need to address it. That's in large part what the Fair Housing Act was trying to do."
Fair housing advocates remain concerned -- in part because this is the third time the Supreme Court has agreed to consider disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act in less than four years. The two earlier cases were each settled less than a month before they were heard by the justices. Civil rights groups, which pushed for those settlements, worry that the justices' eagerness to rule on this issue could spell trouble.
"It is unusual for the court to agree to hear a case when the law is clearly settled. It's even more unusual to agree to hear the issue three years in a row," Ian Haney Lopez, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told ProPublica.
This statement in the article defeats the whole point of the article. It clearly shows non-Whites are getting an unfair abundance of the aid.
the Texas housing department had allocated almost all affordable-housing tax credits to developments in minority neighborhoods, while denying credits to those in white neighborhoods.
Another long, pointless Huffington article. Why do you bother posting this foolishness on a site with informed readers who see right thru your agenda??? | 2019-04-24T07:50:03Z | http://www.gcnlive.com/forum/index.php/topic,1439.msg1915.html |
I am just coming back from Mexico. I had the blessing a few weeks ago to lead our first pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As some of you know, I have a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. I learned it from my parents, beginning when I was a young boy growing up in Monterrey, Mexico.
Every summer my mom and dad would take my sisters and I on a 600-mile journey to visit our grandparents in Mexico City. And every time we went, our whole family would make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
My experience was not unique. This is what Catholic families do in Mexico — everyone tries to make a pilgrimage at least once a year to the Basilica.
I think most of us know the Guadalupe story. It takes us back to the “spiritual dawn” of the Church’s mission in the Americas.
It was December 1531 and the Blessed Virgin appeared to a poor Indian convert named Juan Diego on a hilltop outside Mexico City.
The Virgin entrusted Juan Diego with a mission — to go and ask the bishop to build a shrine in her name.
To convince the bishop, Our Lady gave him a sign. She made roses bloom even though it was the dead of winter. Then she used those roses to “imprint” her own image on the cloak — called a “tilma” — that Juan Diego was wearing.
And as we know, that tilma is still hanging today — almost 500 years later — in the Basilica, which is built not far from the site where she first appeared.
I am remembering that history today because I believe that Guadalupe holds the “key” for understanding the times we are living in.
So, that is what I want to talk with you about today. Also, it really makes sense because the Napa Institute, as we know, is entrusted to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I want to offer my reflections today on the important conversation that has been going on in the Church this year — the question of how we are going to live our Catholic faith and carry out the Church’s mission in a “post-Christian” society. A society that every day is becoming more and more hostile to our values and our beliefs.
I am going to offer my reflections today in three parts.
First, I want to begin by looking at the cultural moment we find ourselves in. The signs of the times.
Second, I am going to suggest that we need to see our present situation in light of the “event” of Guadalupe, I believe that in this event, we can see God’s “vision” — his plans and purposes — for the Church in the Americas.
Third and finally, I want to offer some reflections on some “themes” that we discover in the story of Guadalupe. These themes provide us with a way forward — a way to think about our Christian lives and mission in the years ahead.
So with that introduction — let me begin.
I think all of us here today feel a sense of urgency about where our country is heading.
Back in the first centuries of the Church, St. Jerome was writing about the Arian heresy, which denied that Jesus Christ was truly God.
But there are too many ways our nation has never lived up to Christian values. We could point to the “original sin” of slavery, the tragic mistreatment of native populations; ongoing injustices like racism, and the million or more abortions performed each year.
There is no question that our institutions and national self-identity were meant to be shaped by the vision and values of the Gospel. The promise of America — what still distinguishes this country from all the rest — is our commitment to promoting human dignity and freedom under the Creator. At the heart, this is a Christian commitment.
The point is — all that is changing right now. We face an aggressive, organized agenda by elite groups who want to eliminate the influence of Christianity from our society.
Our beliefs are now labeled as a kind of hatred or intolerance. Our Church institutions face lawsuits — for the “crime” of still believing what Jesus taught. The “crime” of not wanting to cooperate with practices we find immoral or dehumanizing.
My friends, we do not have the luxury to choose the times we live in. These are hard times. There is no denying it.
But the saints remind us that all times in the Church are dangerous times.
This is the challenge that Christians face in every time and every place. Are we going to shape our times? Or will we allow our times to shape us?
What we decide will make all the difference. Not only for ourselves and our families. But also for our times — for our society and culture.
And that brings me back to Guadalupe.
For me, the question is not really — how are we going to shape our times?
The better question is: how does God want us to shape our times? What is the path that Jesus Christ would have us follow in this moment in our nation’s history?
I want to suggest that the path already exists. It began in Guadalupe in 1531.
The apparition at Guadalupe was not a random occurrence. There are no coincidences in the Providence of God.
Our Lady did not appear only for the Mexican people. Her intentions were continental and universal.
At Guadalupe, the Mother of God came to be the Mother of the Americas.
Guadalupe is the true “founding event” in American history. And that means it is the true founding event in the history of our country — and in the history of all the other countries in North and South America. We are all children of Guadalupe.
Guadalupe gives us the “alt-history” of America. In God’s plan, this is one continent. It is meant to begin a new civilization. A new world of faith.
This is what Guadalupe is all about.
Within a few years after this apparition, millions came to be baptized in Mexico and throughout the Americas. A great wave of holiness swept through the continents — raising up saints and heroes of the faith in every country.
Mexico City became the spiritual headquarters — “mission control” for the evangelization of the Americas, Asia and Oceania.
When St. Junípero Serra came to the New World, he set sail aboard a ship called, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. He arrived at Veracruz and he immediately started walking — 300 miles to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
Friends, we need to follow this example. We need to consecrate our Christian lives and the Church’s mission to the Virgin.
I think this is the answer to the challenges we face right now in our culture. The way forward for our Church — right now, in this moment — is to “return” to Guadalupe.
We need to follow the path that the Virgin sets before us — the path of building a new civilization of love and truth in the Americas.
So in the remainder of our time together, I want to offer a brief reflection, a kind of spiritual interpretation of the Guadalupe story — in light of our moment here in our country.
As I see it, this story points to five themes — vocation, education, life, culture, and family.
These themes suggest certain priorities and directions for the Church.
If we look at them together, they give us a kind of “strategy” for Christian living and for carrying out the Church’s mission in this “post-Christian” moment in our society.
The first theme is vocation. At the heart of the Guadalupe event is a story about personal vocation and mission.
This is a beautiful summary of the mission of the Church and the purpose of our Christian lives.
God is calling us to “build a shrine” with our lives. Through our work and the way we live. God is calling us to bear witness to his salvation, to the difference that Jesus Christ makes in our lives. He is calling us to show his love and compassion to our brothers and sisters.
I think we all feel that way sometimes. That we are not worthy of what God is asking us to do. I know I can feel that way. But vocation is not about perfection. God calls every one of us and God gives each of us a mission. Your particular vocation — what God is calling you to do for him — there is no one else who can do it.
Friends, God is speaking those words to you and to me in this time. God has a message that he wants you to deliver with your lives.
We need to rediscover — the beautiful truth that every one of us has a vocation — to be holy, to be saints. To build a shrine with our lives.
Holiness does not mean separation from the world. Holiness means transforming the world — living totally for the love of God, and sanctifying the world by our love and service.
This is the first lesson of Guadalupe.
The second lesson of Guadalupe: We need to teach the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.
St. Juan Diego was on his way to church when he met Our Lady. It was his custom, every Saturday and Sunday, to get up before dawn and to walk nine miles from his home to go to Mass and then go to classes to keep deepening his knowledge of the Catholic faith.
For Juan Diego, Jesus Christ came into his life — and there is nothing more beautiful than to know Jesus!
This is a message for the Church in our times.
We are here to share this beautiful treasure of our relationship with the living God — who became a man for us, who gave his life to save us and to make us into a new humanity. Who is living with us now and walking with us as our Friend.
When we teach, we are calling people to conversion — which means a new way of thinking and looking at the world.
Our faith is not a collection of rules and obligations. The Catholic faith is a way of living, a way of seeing the world with “new eyes.” With the eyes of Jesus.
We need to renew in our times the Catholic imagination and our “sacramental” vision.
We need to push back against the scientific and materialist vision of our age. We are living in a culture that tells us there is no reality that “transcends” what we can see and hear and taste and touch.
This is a world without God — without the possibility of God.
But we know that the incarnation of Jesus changes everything! The things of nature and “ordinary” life are transfigured. The visible world is now a “sacrament” of invisible realities and beauty. Everything in this world can now be a sign and a pathway that brings us into the presence of God.
All of this is anticipated in the incarnational and sacramental vision of Guadalupe.
In the presence of the Virgin, Juan Diego wondered whether he was in paradise, whether heaven had come to earth. With her coming, the mountains were filled with songs like wonderful birds. Flowers bloomed in the winter season in soil where there were only stones and cactus and thorns.
This is the beauty that we can see with the eyes of faith. So in our teaching, we need to help people to see that our lives are connected, part of the beautiful mystery of God’s plan of creation. A great adventure that is unfolding under the eyes of our loving Father.
Holy Maria of Guadalupe appeared as an icon of new life, as a woman carrying a child.
Guadalupe is a vision of the world as God wants it to be. The “shrine” that Our Lady wants us to build in the Americas is a new civilization — a culture that celebrates life and welcomes life.
The Christian faith in this new world confronted the brutality of the Aztec rituals of human sacrifice. From the beginning, the saints and missionaries of the Americas proclaimed that every life is precious and an image of the living God.
And we need to continue this mission.
As we see every day in our society, life has become “cheap” and easily discarded. We see it in the crisis of homelessness, in the lives wasted by addiction. We see it in the push to spread euthanasia, in the continuing tragedy of abortion.
This is a task for us, my brothers and sisters.
The saints of the Americas teach us to go to the “peripheries” and margins of our society — to care for those who have no one to care to them. They teach us to meet “others” — as brothers and as sisters — and to serve them. From the heart, at a personal sacrifice. They teach us to defend the weak and vulnerable.
In my reflections at Guadalupe, it struck me that there is a touching family drama in the middle of the story of Juan Diego and the Virgin.
As you recall from the story, Juan Diego’s uncle — Juan Bernardino — is in the final days of an illness that is terminal. And as he is trying to serve the Virgin, Juan is also caring for his uncle — trying to find a priest who can come and anoint him. Also in the story, we see Our Lady’s tender care to heal the sick and to console Juan Diego in his stress and grief.
It is a touching story — that many of us can understand from our own families. Many of us know what it means to be taking care of a loved one who is dying.
And I think that speaks in a special way to our moment right now in our culture — with all the pressures to permit assisted suicide, with a population that is getting older and needing more medical care and attention.
This is an area where the Church can truly make a difference, in the spirit of Guadalupe. Perhaps part of the future of Catholic health care is to find ways to teach and train people in the ways of showing God’s tender mercy to those who are dying and to those who cannot be cured.
We have beautiful examples in the lives of our American saints.
We need to study the witness of people like Venerable Mother Angeline Teresa McCory, the Irish immigrant to New York who was a pioneer in caring for the aged and infirm. As she did, we need to help people today to see the face of Christ in those who are sick and suffering.
When we look at the self-image that Our Lady left imprinted on the tilma — we notice that she is a brown-skinned young woman — a mestizo. A person whose family background includes a mix of descendants from Europe and indigenous peoples.
She came dressed in the garments of the indigenous peoples and she spoke to Juan Diego in his own indigenous language.
And in all this, Our Blessed Mother reveals herself in a powerful way to be an icon of the Church.
Our Lady of Guadalupe reminds us that the Church was established to be the vanguard of a new humanity and a new civilization — one family of God drawn from every race and every nation and every language.
Right now in our country, and even in the Church, we see signs that we still have problems with nativism and racial prejudice. So we need to pray and we need to work harder to overcome our divisions.
The saints of the Americas show us that holiness knows no color. Beyond the color of our skin or the countries where we come from — we are all brothers and sisters. All children of one Father. And the Mother of God is our mother.
This is the message of Guadalupe.
Finally, my friends: the vision of Guadalupe encourages us to strengthen marriage and the family as the foundations of a truly human civilization.
Juan Diego was baptized, together with his wife, María Lucia, in 1524. They were among the first converts in the New World and were one of the first Catholic married couples in the Americas. Sadly she died five years later, two years before his encounter with Our Lady.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, came among us as the Mother of the family of God in the Americas.
Some of the earliest martyrs in this country — were missionaries who were killed for their witness to God’s truth about the meaning of marriage and the family. These include the Hispanic Franciscans martyred in Georgia in 1597 and some of the martyrs of Florida.
We need to ask these martyrs to give us the strength we need to confront the broad cultural crisis of the family today.
We do this first — by living the beauty and fullness of the Church’s teaching ourselves. In our own marriages and families.
We need to be models for a culture that is confused. We need to proclaim — by our example more than our words — the beautiful truth about the human person and God’s loving plan for creation and the family.
Let us hold up the great married saints from the Americas — like the Servants of God Eugenio Balmori Martínez and Marina Francisca Cinta Sarrelangue. They were from Veracruz and the story of their courtship is very moving. They wrote each other beautiful poems and love letters.
There is beauty like this to be found everywhere in our families, in our parishes, in the joy of our children. We need to proclaim this to our culture.
Let me try to draw some conclusions.
We forget this — but Guadalupe was the first place John Paul visited outside of Italy after he became Pope.
St. John Paul understood that the mission and meaning of America is continental, universal.
The nations of the Americas all trace their faith to the coming of the Virgin at Guadalupe. We share a common story of origins. And we are joined in a common destiny.
My simple point today is that each one of us is a part of that story — part of the great mission to America that began with the visitation of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The Church in this country — and every one of us — has the responsibility to continue the task that the Virgin gave to St. Juan Diego. To “build a shrine” with our lives. To build a society that glorifies God and is worthy of the dignity of the human person.
Let me conclude by sharing an experience I had on my recent pilgrimage.
After all those years of visiting as a child, it is deeply moving for me to now be a priest and to be able to celebrate the Holy Mass at the main altar in the Basilica.
The altar sits directly underneath the miraculous image of the Virgin.
And when you are there, you can feel the warmth of her tender eyes gazing down upon you. It is a powerful feeling, hard to describe. There is a beautiful sense of feeling protected. Of feeling like a child who is loved by the Mother of God.
Friends, Our Mother is speaking these words to the Church today. And to each one of us.
We need to lay our fears and hopes at the feet of the Virgin. We need to contemplate these times we are living in under the gaze of her loving eyes.
We need to go always forward with confidence. Because we go with God and with his Mother.
1. Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World (Henry Holt, 2017).
2. Dialogue Against the Luciferians, 19.
4. Quotations from The Nican Mopohua are drawn from Paul Badde, María of Guadalupe: Shaper of History, Shaper of Hearts (Igantius, 2009), 26-38.
5. Francisco Palou, Life and Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Junípero Serra (George Wharton James, 1913 ), 19.
6. Vincent O'Malley, Saints of North America (Our Sunday Visitor, 2004), 203-206, 360-362.
7. Homily, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, (Mexico City, January 23, 1999). | 2019-04-18T13:25:16Z | http://archbishopgomez.org/article/877?name=The+Marian+Heart+of+America%3A+Our+Lady+of+Guadalupe+and+our+%22Post-Christian%22+Society |
The Hesston College Division of Social Science provides an understanding of human social and psychological behavior, an essential component to a liberal arts education. The division promotes personal growth, responsible citizenship, and service to others in the church and the world. It offers exposure to employment settings, introduction to competent professionalism, and courses that are transferable.
What is criminal & restorative justice?
Hesston College’s Criminal and Restorative Justice major is a four-year transfer associate of arts program focused on sociology.
Criminal justice is a system of justice through practices and institutions that upholds social control, discouraging and reducing crime, or responding to those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
Restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior through healing and rehabilitation. Allows for both offender and victim to be involved in resolving the conflict.
Criminal and restorative justice professions require candidates who possess strong oral and written communication skills, good listening skills, and the ability to work with a wide range of diverse populations. Fluency in a second language is also desirable.
Students have the opportunity to gain real-world experience through volunteer practicum or internship opportunities.
Hesston’s Service Learning program offers students plenty of volunteer opportunities throughout the year.
Academic advisors and the resources in Student Success can help arrange job shadow opportunities, practicums and internships in fields of interest.
Opportunities to conduct observations in human services, law enforcement, courts and corrections fields.
As a Criminal and Restorative Justice major, you will take a number of foundational classes that are required at most transfer institutions. Students can supplement coursework in the major with courses in business, psychology, anthropology, or sociology.
Course work related to the hard sciences (biology, chemistry, and biochemistry) is necessary for career opportunities in forensics.
Internet security is a rapidly growing area with a wide variety of career opportunities. Supplement course work with computer science and technology courses to gain entry into this field.
What is emergency management – fire and EMS?
Hesston College’s Fire & EMS program is a partnership between Hesston College and the City of Hesston, offering students the opportunity to pursue Fire and/or EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) training while simultaneously working part-time with the City of Hesston’s Fire and EMS squads. Students will earn an Associate of Arts degree from Hesston College that will prepare them for transfer to a bachelor’s program or work in their field of study.
With fire training, students take Firefighter I training, as well as Hazardous Materials Awareness and Hazardous Materials Operations, and are certified nationally in Fire Fighter I.
With EMT training, students will take (and pass) the EMT national boards and be certified for EMT in the State of Kansas and nationally.
Those passionate about meeting the needs of people in emergency situations.
Those interested in public service.
Those interested in supplementary experience for majors including Disaster Management, Nursing and Pre-Medicine.
Practical experience through on-the-job training.
*The City of Hesston pays for the course fees for EMT and fire fighter training for those students hired by the city with a one year commitment to the department once certified.
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Psychology is a great major for persons who enjoy learning about people and their experiences. It has both a practical relational side and a research side.
Students interested in psychology can go into research or many fields that relate directly to people, such as business, counseling or education. A four-year psychology degree can provide you with the skills to work in an entry-level job in the mental health field or other careers directly related to people. A four-year degree will prepare the student for graduate studies in psychology.
Classroom instructors are trained in counseling and approach the content as a way for you to learn about yourself and those around you.
Courses are practical with hands-on assignments that help you understand the concepts and our world.
Focus on learning about the complexity of the human experience and empathy or other people’s perspectives.
Many assignments get you out in the community meeting people, such as visits to local retirement community Schowalter Villa, school visits or connecting psychology to current events, research and your everyday life.
The psychology curriculum will provide you with the strong educational foundation you will need for upper-level studies and a psychology degree. Three core courses – General Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology – focus on case study and observational research. Academic advisors work one-on-one with students to ensure requirements are met for a seamless transition to continuing education and professional careers.
The field of social work utilizes social theories to understand human problems, to help improve people’s lives and to improve society as a whole.
Since social work involves many disciplines, students that do well in social work are curious about people, have broad interests and want to make a difference in the world.
Persons who opt for careers in social work can choose from a wide variety of challenging kinds of work. Opportunities include traditional counseling services, crisis intervention, helping the underprivileged, organizational development, research in human behavior, teaching, and serving as behavior specialists in many other fields.
Hesston College provides many opportunities for service and leadership in the first two years that helps prepare students for a career in social work and further education. Students get a strong theory base through a variety of introductory courses, and our behavioral science department is diverse in their experience with both research and application.
At Hesston College, you will be introduced to basic ideas of social work. This introduction will provide you with time to test your skills and interests in these areas while helping you understand many kinds of people. As part of this introduction, you will have the opportunity to work with people ranging from young children to older adults who experience a variety of problems.
Sociology is a systematic study of the human society and social interaction. It focuses on how relationships develop and influence social behavior; and how societies develop and change.
searching for solutions to today’s social problems, you will find this area of study not only intrinsically rewarding but also one with great opportunities and prospects.
Sociology is a dynamic field that will give you a foundation and intellectual tools needed in many different career paths such as policy analysis, city planning, data analysis, public relations, social work, case management, corrections, law enforcement, advocacy, market research, and programming.
analyze, understand and engage our globalizing world.
At Hesston College, you will be introduced to basic ideas, research methods and sociological theories. This introduction will provide you with time to test your learned skills and interests in these areas while helping you understand how social life is structured and organized. As part of this introduction, you will have the opportunity to do research and to work with people ranging from young children to older adults who experience a variety of social problems.
To help students develop a philosophy of service that has real life implications.
To help students understand power and privilege as a social construct in the United States and the world.
To encourage ongoing development and assessment of innovative, cutting edge curriculum.
To create an environment on campus that supports, respects and celebrates diversity. | 2019-04-22T20:30:51Z | https://www.hesston.edu/academics/departments/social-sciences/ |
SermonIndex.net : Christian Books : CHAPTER XIV. THE ORIGINAL TEXT AND ITS HISTORY.
CHAPTER XIV. THE ORIGINAL TEXT AND ITS HISTORY.
1. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew, with the exception of certain portions of Ezra and Daniel and a single verse of Jeremiah, (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan.2:4, from the middle of the verse to end of chap.7; Jer.10:11,) which are written in the cognate Chaldee language. The Hebrew belongs to a stock of related languages commonly called Shemitic, because spoken mainly by the descendants of Shem. Its main divisions are: (1,) the Arabic, having its original seat in the southeastern part of the Shemitic territory, and of which the AEthiopic is a branch; (2,) the Aramaean in the north and northeast, comprising the eastern Aramaean or Chaldee, and the western or Syriac; (3,) the Hebrew, occupying a middle place between the two. The Samaritan is essentially Aramaean, but with an intermixture of Hebrew forms; the Phoenician, or Punic, on the other hand, is most closely allied to the Hebrew. All these languages, with the exception of the AEthiopic, are written from right to left, and exhibit many peculiarities of orthography and grammatical forms and structure.
2. The Hebrew characters in present use, called the Assyrian, or square writing, are not those originally employed. The earlier form is undoubtedly represented by the inscriptions on the coins struck by the Maccabees, of which the letters bear a strong resemblance to the Samaritan and Phoenician characters. The Jewish tradition is that the present square character was introduced by Ezra, and that it was of Assyrian origin. The question of the correctness of this tradition has been much discussed. Some wholly reject it, and hold that the present square writing came by a gradual process of change from a more ancient type. See Davidson's Bib. Crit., vol. I, ch.3.
The Rabbinic is a modification of the Assyrian or square writing, for the purpose of giving it a more cursive character.
3. The Hebrew alphabet, like all the other Shemitic alphabets -- with the exception of the AEthiopic, which is syllabic, the vowels being indicated by certain modifications in the forms of the consonants -- was originally a skeleton alphabet, an alphabet of consonants, in which, however, certain letters, called vowel-letters, performed in a measure the office of vowels. The Shemite did not separate the vowels from the consonants, and express them, as we do, by separate signs. He rather conceived of the vowels as inhering in the consonants -- as modifications in the utterance of the consonants, which the reader could make for himself. Various particulars in respect to the pronunciation of certain consonants were, in like manner, left to the reader's own knowledge. For example, the three Hebrew letters, [Hebrew: sh], sh; [Hebrew: m], m; [Hebrew: r], r, ([Hebrew: shmr], to be read from right to left,) might be pronounced, shamar, he kept; shemor, keep thou; shomer, keeping -- the reader determining from the connection which of these forms should be used, just as we decide in English between the different pronunciations of the word bow. As long as the Hebrew remained a living language, that is, the language of the masses of the people, this outline alphabet was sufficient for all practical purposes. The modern Arabs read without difficulty their ordinary books, which omit, in like manner, the signs for the vowels. The regularity of structure which belongs to the Shemitic languages generally, makes this omission less inconvenient for them than a like omission would be for us in our western tongues.
4. During the long Babylonish captivity the mass of the Jewish people, who were born and educated in Babylon and the adjacent regions, adopted of necessity the language of the country; that is, the Aramaean or Chaldee language. After the exile, the Hebrew was indeed spoken and written by the prophets and learned men, but not by the people at large. In Nehemiah 8:8 we are told that |they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.| This has been explained by some as meaning simply that they expounded to them the sense. But the more natural meaning is that they interpreted to the people the words read from the law. We find, soon after the captivity at least, the old Hebrew supplanted as a living language among the people at large by the Aramaean or Chaldee. Why not date the change from the latter part of the captivity itself?
It was natural that the prophets and historians, all of whom wrote soon after the exile, should employ the sacred language of their fathers. This fact cannot be adduced as a valid argument that the body of the people continued to speak Hebrew. The incorporation, on the other hand, of long passages in Chaldee into the books of Daniel and Ezra implies at least that this language was known to the people at large. As to the children spoken of in Neh.13:24, who |could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people| -- the people, to wit, to which their mothers belonged -- |the Jews' language| here is probably the language used by the Jews, as distinguished from that used by the people of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Keil, Introduction to Old Testament, Sec.18.
5. After the Hebrew had ceased to be the language of the common people, its traditional pronunciation was carefully preserved for many successive centuries in the synagogue-reading. It was not till several centuries after Christ (somewhere between the sixth and the tenth centuries) that the vowel-signs and other marks of distinction were added in order to perpetuate, with all possible accuracy, the solemn traditional pronunciation of the synagogue. This work is ascribed to learned Jews of Tiberias, called Masoretes, from Masora, tradition; and the Hebrew text thus furnished by them is called the Masoretic, in distinction from the unpointed text, which latter is, according to Jewish usage, retained in the synagogue-rolls. From reverence to the word of God, the punctuators (as these men are also called) left the primitive text in all cases undisturbed, simply superadding to it their marks of distinction. After giving with great minuteness the different vowel-signs and marks (commonly called diacritical) for the varying pronunciation of the consonants, they superadded a complicated system of accents. These serve the threefold office of guides in cantillating the sacred text (according to ancient usage in the synagogue-reading); of indicating the connection in meaning among the words and clauses; and of marking, though with certain exceptions, the tone-syllables of words. In addition to all the above, they added a mass of notes, partly of a critical and partly of a grammatical character, relating to various readings, grammatical forms and connections, modes of orthography, and the like. These are called collectively the Masorah, of which there is a fuller Masorah called the greater (found only in Rabbinical Bibles), and a briefer, called the less, the main part of which is found in common editions of the Hebrew Bible. To illustrate the Masoretic as contrasted with the unpointed text, we give the first verse of Genesis, first, in its simple unpointed form; secondly, with the vowel-signs and diacritical marks for the consonants; thirdly, with both these and the accents, the last being the complete Masoretic text.
The round circle above the initial letter in the third line refers to a marginal note of the Masorah indicating that it is to be written large.
Respecting the origin and antiquity of the Hebrew points a warm controversy existed in former times. Some maintained that they were coeval with the language itself; others that they were first introduced by Ezra after the Babylonish captivity. But their later origin -- somewhere between the sixth and tenth centuries -- is now generally conceded. It is further agreed that their inventors were able scholars, thoroughly acquainted as well with the genius and structure of the language as with the traditional pronunciation of the synagogue; and that they have given a faithful representation of this pronunciation, as it existed in their day. Their judgment, therefore, though not invested with any divine authority, is very valuable. |It represents a tradition, it is true; but a tradition of the oldest and most important character.| Horne's Introduction, vol.2, p.15, edition of 1860.
6. The deep reverence of the Jews for their sacred books manifests itself in their numerous rules for the guidance of copyists in the transcription of the rolls designed for use in the synagogue service. They extend to every minute particular -- the quality of the ink and the parchment (which latter must always be prepared by a Jew from the skin of a clean animal, and fastened by strings made from the skins of clean animals); the number, length, and breadth of the columns; the number of lines in each column, and the number of words in each line. No word must be written till the copyist has first inspected it in the example before him, and pronounced it aloud; before writing the name of God he must wash his pen; all redundance or defect of letters must be carefully avoided: prose must not be written as verse, or verse as prose; and when the copy has been completed, it must be examined for approval or rejection within thirty days. Superstitious, and even ridiculous, as these rules are, we have in them a satisfactory assurance of the fidelity with which the sacred text has been perpetuated. Though their date may be posterior to the age of the Talmudists (between 200 and 500 after Christ), the spirit of reverence for the divine word which they manifest goes far back beyond this age. We see it, free from these later superstitious observances, in the transactions recorded in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, when Ezra opened the book of the law in the sight of all the people, |and when he opened it, all the people stood up.| The early history of the sacred text is confessedly involved in great obscurity; but in the profound reverence with which the Jews have ever regarded it since the captivity, we have satisfactory proof that it has come down to us, in all essential particulars, as Ezra left it. Of the primitive text before the days of Ezra and his associates we have but a few brief notices in the historical books. But in the fidelity and skill of Ezra, who was |a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given,| as well as in the intelligence and deep earnestness of the men associated with him, we have a reasonable ground of assurance that the sacred books which have come down to us through their hands contain, in all essential particulars, the primitive text in a pure and uncorrupt form.
7. As to the age of Hebrew manuscripts, it is to be noticed that not many have come down to us from an earlier century than the twelfth. In this respect there is a striking difference between them and the Greek and Latin manuscripts of the New Testament, a few of which are as old as the fourth and fifth centuries, and quite a number anterior to the tenth. The oldest known Hebrew manuscript, on the contrary, is a Pentateuch roll on leather, now at Odessa, which, if the subscription stating that it was corrected in the year 580 can be relied on, belongs to the sixth century. One of De Rossi's manuscripts is supposed to belong to the eighth century, and there are a few of the ninth and tenth, and several of the eleventh. Bishop Walton supposes that after the Masoretic text was fully settled, the Jewish rulers condemned, as profane and illegitimate, all the older manuscripts not conformed to this: whence, after a few ages, the rejected copies mostly perished. The existing Hebrew manuscripts give the Masoretic text with but little variation from each other.
Earnest effort has been made to find a reliable ante-Masoretic text, but to no purpose. The search in China has thus far been fruitless. When Dr. Buchanan in 1806 brought from India a synagogue-roll which he found among the Jews of Malabar, high expectations were raised. But it is now conceded to be a Masoretic roll, probably of European origin. Respecting the manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch, see below, No.9.
8. In respect to form, Hebrew manuscripts fall into two great divisions, public and private. The public manuscripts consist of synagogue-rolls carefully written out on parchment, as already described, without vowel-points or divisions of verses. The Law is written on a single roll; the sections from the prophets (Haphtaroth, ch.12.6) and the Five Rolls -- Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther (ch.12.4) -- each on separate rolls. The private manuscripts are written with leaves in book form -- folio, quarto, octavo, and duodecimo; mostly on parchment, but some of the later on paper. The poetical passages are generally arranged in hemistichs; the rest is in columns which vary according to the size of the page. The text and points were always written separately; the former with a heavier, the latter with a lighter pen, and generally with different ink. The square or Assyrian character is employed as a rule, but a few are written in the rabbinic character. The Chaldee paraphrase (less frequently some other version) may be added. The margin contains more or less of the Masorah; sometimes prayers, psalms, rabbinical commentaries, etc.
9. There is also a Samaritan Pentateuch; that is, a Hebrew Pentateuch written in the ancient Samaritan characters, and first brought to light in 1616, respecting the origin of which very different opinions are held. Some suppose that the Samaritans received it as an inheritance from the ten tribes; others that it was introduced at the time of the founding of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim; others that it was brought by the Israelitish priest sent to instruct the Samaritans in the knowledge of God, 2 Kings 17:27, 28. It is agreed among biblical scholars that its text has been subjected to many alterations which greatly impair its critical authority. These, however, are not sufficient to account for its remarkable agreement with the Septuagint version against the Masoretic text, in numerous readings, some of them of importance. The explanation of this phenomenon must be the agreement of the original Samaritan codex with the manuscripts from which the Alexandrine version was executed. Probably both were of Egyptian origin. See Alexander's Kitto, art. Samaritan Pentateuch.
In a brief compend, like the present work, it is not thought necessary to notice particularly the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible. The reader will find an account of them in the |Bibliographical List| appended to the fourth volume of Horne's Introduction, edition of 1860. The text of Van der Hooght's Hebrew Bible, (Amsterdam and Utrecht, 1705,) which was chiefly based on the earlier text of Athias, (Amsterdam, 1667,) is generally followed at the present day, and may be regarded as the received text of the Hebrew Scriptures. | 2019-04-26T16:58:55Z | http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/bible_books/?view=book_chapter&chapter=60879 |
Len Hjalmarson has some thoughts on Good to Great, which I mentioned recently. Collins identifies a certain type of successful CEO which exhibits what he calls “Level 5 Leadership.” Len links to a Fast Company article from 2001 which provides a good overview of Collins’ book, which includes a section on how change occurs. I find not only Collins’ thinking on effective leadership to be of note, but also his outline of how change occurs. Slowly, gradually, gaining momentum… until the tipping point (not his phrase, I’m mixing metaphors again). I think this perspective is instructive for the missional church, on both counts.
I picked up Good to Great about a week ago and I’m finding a lot of links about the information as it applies to personal goals, non-profit (I read the monograph on the social service sector before the book, an order I don’t recommend), and the church.
Bill, I’m quite struck by your comment that Level 5 leadership is out of line with Mat. 20:25-28. My own reaction was how similar they are. Level 5 leaders are personally humble and put the good of the company over their own aspirations. In the book it also talks about executives who gave their workers privileges and benefits that they themselves didn’t have. A servant leadership model runs through the book, so I’m not sure where you see incongruity.
I would tend to see Level 5 Leadership as more like a business implimentation of servant leadership rather than a model for biblical leadership. It doesn’t purport to be that, and though I see some parallels I don’t think it’s a good idea to force the comparison to run in the wrong direction. I am also troubled at the widespread use of Collins for church purposes, maingly BHAGs as you say. A “spiritualized BHAG” might still just be presumption and personal ambition. The contexts using Collins in the church seem to be more Willow Creed Pastor-as-CEO types, and I’m uncomfortable with that whole scene. As Jude says, I do see a servant leadership them running through the book, but that might tend to be ignored in the Pastor-as-CEO type of thinking. I don’t think the leadership the Collins describes is incongrouous with the New Testament, but it’s only a small slice of the picture… but it doesn’t try to be any more than what it is.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the flywheel and the idea of the emerging/missional church gaining momentum, which I really like.
For the record, I read the book as a business owner looking for its insights for business purposes… whatever I’m taking from it for church leadership contexts is for me secondary and incidental. I’m not sure I would recommend it for anyone looking for insight specifically and only for the church… for those who just want a good overview for that purpose, read the article I linked. For those interested in the business angle, I can’t recommend it more highly than to say it’s the most important book I’ve read since Cluetrain.
Rob suggested that I contact you. I’ve been watching the site since spring.
He said that we each had some common experiences re the ch and ch leadership.
I am continuing research and would like some contact and input from others.
Maybe you could contact me via email. Thanks.
The challenge of godly leadership and its requirements continue to challenge the thinking and paradigms of leadership by many. Keep at it.
Jesus himself drew upon business analogies – but didn’t use business as a basis for designing the kingdom. I hear BM (that is a rather unfortunate initial set for your pseudonym, isn’t it) on making sure one doesn’t run the comparison the wrong way. I see it as when one follows biblical principles, even when not necessarily trying to be biblical, it tends to work. I think it’s unfortunate that ethics didn’t enter into the topic at all, and that Phillip Morris was included as a great company. Nonetheless, it is a fabulous book in identifying principles that will help any individual or organization get where they want to go.
Can anyone tell the difference between Willowback’s “Pastor-as-CEO”, the New Apostlic Reformation’s self-identified “apostles & prophets of the city and/or nation”, and Collins’ Level Five leaders?
I say that because, as someone who was royally “burnt” (or you can insert more colourful metaphors if you prefer) by the pastor-as-CEO types, I clearly recall them all carrying and quoting Collins’ Good To Great like it was the fifth Gospel.
In the place I came from, the pastors were seen carrying the Bible around and quoting it plus the leader’s/”apostle’s” interpretation as if it were the fifth gospel. Incessant quoting of Collins in this way proves to me that they don’t “get” it and that they are not operating as level 5 leaders.
Yes, since Collins wrote for a business crowd about business, there is a lot that the CEO-aspiring pastor will latch onto. What he says about leadership is mostly contained within a single chapter, and it’s almost an aside about the common qualities of successful leaders/CEOs. Some of the major commonalities are that they were largely unknown, they often rose from within the ranks of the company, and they are incredibly humble, not needing the limelight. They point to others following succeses, and they point to themselves following failures. How many CEO-aspiring pastors does this sound like? Precious few… or none, I’d say.
Don’t let their use of Collins’ work turn you off of him. There are some real nuggets in there about managing change… change from good to great. Let’s say the inherited church is the “good” but we’re hoping to make something great. So what do we need to know about how change takes place? Now you’re digging for the right stuff in Collins’ book. If you want to know how to be a great grand-poobah CEO leader, there’s stuff in there… but if that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t like what you find, and you won’t be properly equipped to negotiate the change being considered. That’s the issue with so many of these CEO-aspiring pastors, they’re not on the same page as this, and they can’t even see it.
I tend to much prefer “Bro.M.” for obvious reasons. The inclusion of Phillip Morris is discomforting from an ethical standpoint, but considering what Collins is on about and why, it must be acknowledged that PM is or was a very well-run company in the timeframe, and as such they help to inform Collins’ findings. This is one of things that’s so valuable about his book… it’s not a data sample of qualifying companies, it’s based on all of them.
I’m curious about the monograph though, as I haven’t read it. Does it genuinely add much for nonprofits, or just change a couple of the terms involved (like changing “profit” in the hedgehog concept)? Mostly wondering if some of those shifts or adaptations are fairly obvious even without the companion piece.
Robbymac, might I say, moi aussi.
I’m a fan of Collins for business. The church isn’t one. I’d be happy to NEVER see G2G or Built to Last in a church leader’s office. My experience (scars included) suggests they’ve done more harm than good.
The monograph makes a point of saying that non-profits should not try to run like businesses, because most businesses aren’t following concepts that will lead to greatness. Collins notes that although they used businesses to identify good-to-great concepts, it was primarily because stock prices made it easy to come up with a set of guidelines to separate great companies from the rest. Collins doesn’t see the priniciples as business concepts, just that businesses were used to identify them. So in the monograph, Collins says that these priniciples can be applied to the non-profit sector, including churches. But he did rework the profit-per-unit concept (what was it called, the economic denominator?) as abviously we don’t measure ourselves by $$.
Other than that I’ve forgotten a lot of the monograph. After reading it I realized I needed to read the book and understand the concepts before I could appreciate the adjustments for the non-profit sector.
Another book worth a look is Joy at Work by Dennis Bakke. Bakke, a Christian business man, writes about the company he co-founded and the culture they created was very similar to what Collins talks about, only Bakke directly relates them to his faith, although the book is written to a secular audience.
I’m still a bit surprised by the negative reaction to church leaders using the principles of GTG. I frankly think that the church needs a good dose of a lot of what’s in there. Too many Level 4 leaders, trying to bring about change through motivation strategies and one more conference, eternal optimism about the healings and revival without any reality checks. I could go on and on. But I’m a bit jaded right now and probably not that balanced. What’s true is true no matter where it’s found. I could easily see someone trying to use the book to apply prinicples that the book is against. But then again, people do that with the Bible, too.
I have just stunbled to this blog and am interested in the article you refer to above.
But cannot find the link. Would you be so kind as to email it to me, or post it here. | 2019-04-25T10:29:17Z | http://subversiveinfluence.com/2006/11/jim-collins-on-leadership-change/ |
It’s the end of a grueling workday and you’re still on edge, not yet recovered from the sting of a colleague’s tongue lashing. And it’s not the first time. Is this just another “bad day” on the job, or are you experiencing a form of workplace violence, aka bullying?
Forty-five percent of nurses have been verbally harassed or bullied by other nurses, while 41% have been verbally harassed or bullied by managers or administrators, according to a 2017 survey by RNnetwork.
Thompson, an author and speaker on workplace bullying, said most bullying is nurse to nurse, but other healthcare staff can also be bullies: the nursing assistant who’s been on the unit for 40 years and targets the new RN, or unit secretaries who victimize a particular nurse.
Cole Edmondson, DNP, RN, FACHE, NEA-BC, FAAN, CNO at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, agreed most nurses are bullied by other nurses, and most often through verbal abuse. He cited a December 2016 Texas Department of State Health Services study on workplace violence against nurses that revealed 82% of Texas nurses surveyed had experienced workplace violence, ranging from verbal abuse to physical acts.
Edmonson added bullying can target groups as well as individuals and is really a group phenomenon: one unit taking out their aggressions on another unit, or nurses on a unit bullying new hires or new graduates. Nurses in some areas or specialties may perceive or believe they are superior or “better than” another unit or specialty and degrade them, their care, their education or specialty.
Edmondson said in the literature and in practice “it’s known that nurse bullying ultimately impacts the quality and safety of patient care being provided, as 75% of nurses state they are aware of errors in patient care or issues created when nurse bullying occurs.” Many organizations have chosen to take the journey to Magnet designation to work on improving work environments, empowering nurses and creating excellent outcomes.
Some healthcare institutions are facing bullying head on, while others are reducing the incidence through cultivating a certain culture, said Lynda Olender, PhD, RN, MA, NEA-BC, associate dean, Hunter-Bellvue School of Nursing (New York) Graduate Programs, and a Distinguished Lecturer in Nursing.
Olender said organizations with caring cultures that follow the code of ethics and practice shared governance have a lower incidence of perceived bullying. Such organizations would experience fewer grievances overall because staff feel more valued, she said.
Edmonson asserted leadership should handle bullying by empowering workers through policies and procedures, making them aware bullying is not okay.
One reason bullying continues is that often those who witness or suspect the adverse behavior look the other way or decline to become involved. Nurses can and should stop that malicious pattern.
Rather than turn away, reach out to a colleague who is the target of a bully. “We can all be ‘upstanders’ by intervening in situations or reaching out to a colleague who is the target of a bully,” said Edmonson. “These situations don’t just stop when the bullying behavior is over. They have long lasting effects on mental health and one’s feelings of safety and security.” As nurses learn to identify and confront harmful behaviors toward themselves and coworkers, workplace violence, including bullying of nurses, will not be allowed to persist. Nurses — and patients — will be safer and secure.
Practice self awareness, observing how the situation is provoking an emotional response, recommended Olender.
Edmonson said if a nurse is comfortable doing so, he or she can address it directly with the person. If that’s not possible, Olender recommended practicing a response using role play on his or her own or with a friend.
If the nurse is not comfortable with the direct approach or if a direct discussion does not work, report it to a manager, supervisor or preceptor. If the manager is the problem, said Olender, seek the support of someone else, an educator or someone in human resources.
The nurse should find out the organization’s policy that addresses behaviors that undermine a culture of safety, and make sure he or she is clear on how the person has violated that policy. Then document the experiences with that person, stated Thompson.
Always document the situation: What happened, who said what and who witnessed the incident. Edmondson stresses that documenting needs to happen immediately since one’s impressions and memories are often less precise over time.
New nurses are an easy target for bullies, just because they’re new, noted Thompson. Preventing this starts with the job hunt, so new nurses should do their homework about the healthcare organization to which they are applying, said Olender. “Do they have a caring culture, a code of ethics, policies and procedure in place? Do they have shared governance?” If they do, the likelihood of bullying is probably lower, she said.
Some units can be toxic, Olender said. Ask the right questions in the interview process, such as how scheduling conflicts are handled. She said it’s a positive sign if unit nursing staff are part of the interviewing process, as it shows the organization is empowering the staff to make decisions about colleagues.
Ask if there are policies and procedures for workplace violence. Look at their orientation — what do they do to insure a healthy work environment?
Practice prevention personally as well. “Know what bullies look for in a target,” said Renee Thompson. Bullies look for “nurses who they don’t think will confront or challenge them, who seem insecure or nervous, who are passive communicators — anything that makes them different,” she said. For example, a BSN new hire might find him or herself as a target because most of the other nurses on the unit have associate’s degrees.
A nurse should act confident when starting a new position, Thompson said. Hold your head high. Shake hands of new people with confidence.
Look up the free online resource, the Civility Tool-kit, which addresses bullying behavior across the continuum.
I was a victim of bullying vpby nurses at a facility when the 2008 housing crash happened. The nurse would verbally tell her colleagues behingpd my back within earshot what a horrible RN I was. I was almost at a point of getting fired and went before the nurse manager. I attempted to get my old position back if I was that inept at this one. I ended up going on stress leave and had a conference call with them including professionals who were on my side. The end result? The nurse manager was laid off, as well as some some old timers ( they make too much money), and I got my dignity back. I have a position now where I have boundaries and am respected by families and nurses alike???!
Every person you encounter within your profession can truly make a difference with how they perceive the value of their contributions and efforts by vesting time, and sharing knowledge and experience. It’s easy to turn a blind eye and allow a fellow colluege to struggle, after all, why should they be worthy of not enduring the struggles and lessons earned like a right of passage. I”ll share my beliefs on this. How are we preserving our profession as nurses, when we judge our own without any regard to how we may potentially impact someone’s dream to make an difference guiding a patient towards restoring their health? The journey and struggles one makes to become a nurse may bring hard life lessons, but the very few who stand out and realize vesting in our professions future are the very few that keep hope..hope for passing knowledge and wisdom, along with passing the torch to the future generations of our nursing profession.
Ironic how Edmunson talks about bullying when it is his own nursing units that are the biggest bullies in the DFW metroplex.
1. Directly communicating with my preceptor result. Made me a bigger target. She even said to my face that she, “Hated people” among other horrible things to me.
2. Went to my supervisor who spoke to her but I became an even bigger target by the other nurses who were close friends with my previous preceptor. My new preceptor berated me so badly that I went into a room to cry. I was followed in by two co-workers who saw what she did and offered comfort, advice and even tips on my charting error, But no one spoke out.
3. I spoke to a Nurse educator as part of the new grad program, but that just made things worse. I was targeted as a problem nurse and all my mistakes were blown out of proportion and I was being “spoken to” during my shifts pulled away from care for the most mundane issues. It got ridiculous.
I could see that the writing on the wall was just to get rid of me. I am not a pushover or a whiner. I am an older new grad. A former professional in law enforcement and a veteran. I cannot believe the change these women had on me. I became a shadow of my former confident self. I was a nervous and terrified version of myself. I am afraid to speak up for myself. I fear repercussions, loss of my job and more. The current system of “follow the chain of command” “go to HR” does not work. IMHO I wish a separate entity like an Internal Affairs in law enforcement would be set up by nurses for nurses from outside the established groups within an organization. In the end I left before they found fired me. And now I fear applying anywhere. I’d rather face ISIS then a pack of nurses.
I totally agree!! Everything you said has been true for me at every job I’ve had. So tired of the bullying among nurses!!!
In my opinion bullying in healthcare is very prolific because many nurses are great advocates for their patients, but very poor advocates for themselves. While nurse to nurse bullying is bad, what is worst is when the bullying is coming from a nurse manager to a staff nurse. The staff nurse is at a great disadvantage, however, a nurse should persist that any form of bullying in the workplace be from a nurse to nurse bullying or from a nurse manager to a staff nurse, be stopped!!
Some of the nurses came from different country and they have different accent. Locals understand the english and it will not depend on the english. However, nurses do their best to carefully communicate to their patients to assist them right also.
How amazing to see my own story mirrored by others. I also am being targeted and bullied by management. And while nurses may advocate for pts, they are often reluctant to advocate for a nurse being bullied by management. I imagine the power of at least a handful of our 60 RNs speaking up, but how many actually do!? One.. and that is myself . Stepford wives of nursing who pride themselves on their efficiency, yet when it comes to having the integrity to standing up for other nurses , or to management….. good luck!
I’m going through this as an OT with another OT colleague..horrific sociopath of a bully and sleeps in her car instead of seeing patients.
I am being bullied by management and by the staff. Other nurses do not stick up for you they just stand by and watch. Some participate in bullying. There is no support from management, human resources or anyone. When you report it you get labeled and you are treated as if you are not credible and they attack your character. Wish there was somewhere you can go to get help.
The problem is the “insubordination” accusation. You learn in high school how to talk back to bullies, but if there is a shouting match on the unit, it’s the crime of the century. Instead, I think hospitals should not retaliate when nurses hit back at bullies or if staff argues with the supervisor. Insubordination on an employee’s record should be liable to slander/ libel lawsuit.
I am a 59 year old RN who has worked my entire nursing career without experiencing bullying until recently. I was employed by a health care system as a supervisor of a psychiatric facility in central PA. I worked there for 6 months on a 12 hour weekend option. During that time I began to be harassed, bullied and reported multiple times by three older new RN’s from the Child Adolescent Unit. All three have had other careers and when they finished orientation the DON felt they should be cross trained to cover the hospital as supervisor. Administration paid them ten dollars an hour on top of their regular salary when they covered the facility. This was enough financial incentive as well as them wanting my weekend option position. All three were all on a 5 day per week schedule rotating shifts. I reported the bullying and it was dismissed by nursing administration and so I took it to Hospital Administration. After that I was assaulted by a teenager and was on workman’s comp for a week and when I returned I was treated even worse by Nursing Administration. The bullying went as far as me having my car tire slashed while at work. I realize now that not every nurse who works at a psychiatric facility has good mental health and administration does not like anyone shining a bright light on situations where experienced supervisors are bullied by staff. Eventually I wrote a letter to the CEO of the health system. I did receive a meeting at corporate headquarters and a sincere apology from the corporate level administrators, however the real issue still remains that I have PTSD from such a traumatic work experience and the psychiatric hospital now has one of the three young inexperienced nurses as the supervisor in my old position and they continue to bully older professional employees. Sometimes we must realize that bullying is a corporate culture and it was not only allowed it was fostered and those who engaged it in at every level realized this too. The entire staff at this hospital now know that it will be tolerated and maybe even applauded. | 2019-04-25T17:56:44Z | https://www.nurse.com/blog/2017/08/23/how-to-recognize-and-prevent-bullying-in-nursing/ |
The House reconvened on Monday, March 14 for day 36 of the 2016 legislative session and an extremely busy week, as sine die (the 40th and final day of the 2016 session) is just days away. We had a busy legislative agenda this week, both on the House floor and in committee meetings as we continued to review, study and vote on legislation. With day 40 right around the corner, many more House and Senate bills received final passage this week and are now on their way to Governor Deal’s desk for consideration.
In my short time as your State Representative, it seems that each year there is a singularly important and perhaps historic legislation that dominates the General Assembly session. During 2015, it was the Transportation Funding Act of 2015 with its record-setting $900 million tax increase. This year, it was debate about how to best protect the religious liberty of all Georgians, regardless of faith or lack thereof. This discussion has been on-going in Georgia for many years.
Proponents and supporters of religious liberty legislation cite the need to protect individuals, businesses, pastors and others from being forced to participate in activities that are in opposition to their closely and deeply held religious beliefs. Sadly, the need for religious liberty protection is clearly founded in the actions of those, particularly from the LGBTQA+ community, who would seek to force businesses, such as florists and bakeries, to sell flowers or to bake cakes for gay wedding ceremonies and when they refuse, these businesses have been forced out of business.
Pastors are being forced to take a legal and theological stand in opposition to performing gay wedding ceremonies because doing so is a direct contradiction to their biblical and religious beliefs, and when they refuse there are those who then take legal action against the pastors. There certainly are churches and denominations who accept and willingly perform gay weddings. This is their right to do so. The problem is when those who believe in gay wedding ceremonies try to legally force their beliefs upon those who disagree.
There are strong forces in the business community who say that Georgia, by its passage of this act is demonstrating blatant discrimination against others who disagree with their religious beliefs. This argument is patently false.
In the 30 states that have passed Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) there has not been one single case of proven discrimination as a result of RFRA’s passage. The argument otherwise is simply untrue.
This is why passage of the Free Exercise Protection Act is important for all Georgians – to protect every citizen of Georgia in the exercise of their religious beliefs. And this is why I enthusiastically supported the passage of the Free Exercise Protection Act.
For more details on this historic legislation please click here.
Now, all that is needed is for Governor Deal to sign this historic legislation into law. You may show your support by contacting the Governor's office at 404-656-1776.
Recently I announced that House Bill 219, legislation I sponsored regarding public and private pools, received final passage in the State Senate. HB 219 will now to go Governor Deal for consideration.
I am pleased that the General Assembly recognized the importance of clarifying private property rights regarding swimming pools and for strengthening the safety of private pools in condos, townhouses and other private pools that serve a small number of property owners.
HB 219 clarifies and redefines public versus private property pools for purposes of health and safety, and the legislation I drafted was in response to a problem with unreasonable inspections of private pools in Glynn County. The bill also strengthens the basic standards and minimum safety requirements for private pools by establishing a list of five key safety items that must pass an annual inspection: compliance with federal law regarding suction outlet covers; availability of lifesaving and rescue equipment; security of access to common pool areas; water quality; and safety of electrical systems.
The bill makes no changes to health and safety rules governing apartment complex pools, or private residence pools, nor does the bill change any existing pool construction codes for the State of Georgia.
The passage of HB 219 is the result of two years of negotiations and discussions with the Georgia Department of Health, the Georgia Realtors Association, the Georgia Apartment Association and the Georgia Association of Pool and Spa Professionals. A special thanks to Jimmy Pruett, Chairman of the House State Planning & Community Affairs Committee, who helped to resolve concerns of the Department of Public Health and see this bill through the legislative process.
This week, the House unanimously passed Senate Bill 364, the “Quality Based Education Act,” to revise annual performance evaluations for public school teachers and state mandated testing. SB 364 revises evaluations so that student growth would account for 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, down from the current 50 percent. Additionally, professional growth would account for 20 percent, and the test component of teacher evaluations is lowered from 70 percent to 40 percent. The bill would also reduce the number of state mandated tests from 32 to 24 for students in grades K-12 by removing social studies and science milestone tests in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7. SB 364 would also ask local school systems to move all testing as close to the end of the school year as possible to ensure the students have received maximum exposure to the material prior to testing. SB 364 also adds formative testing in 1st and 2nd grades to measure progress and early learning to guarantee that all students are proficient in reading by 3rd grade and proficient in math by 5th grade. The bill is the result of multiple meetings with teachers, administrators, parents, and advocacy groups from across the state who gave input and opinions on what should be revised in the current evaluation and testing systems.
This legislation will give our teachers more freedom to teach Georgia’s students and will take the burden off both students and teachers. Our teachers greatly influence the youth in our state, and as such, we want to provide them with the resources to have the best opportunity to succeed in the classroom so that our students have the best opportunity to succeed in the future.
Another bill that received unanimous passage in the House this week was Senate Bill 402, legislation that would place a moratorium on new applications for licensure of narcotic treatment programs and create a commission to study the current licensure requirements in Georgia. While current license holders would be eligible to renew their license during the moratorium, SB 402 would put a temporary freeze on issuing new narcotic treatment facility licenses through June 30, 2017. During this time, the State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs, established under this bill, would study the need for any changes to the licensure requirements for these programs to ensure the safety of Georgia’s citizens. The commission would be tasked with examining the current narcotic treatment program licensure requirements for adequacy; assessing how the current licensure requirements and enforcement of the requirements provide adequate medical, counseling, vocational, educational, mental health assessment, and social services to patients enrolled in these programs and how these programs can be assessed for achieving recovery; determining if the geographic service areas are reasonable and balanced between population density and service proximity; determining the cause and effect of hospital admittance for overdose and incidents of suicide, if any, in relation to the adequate licensure and oversight of these programs; and hearing expert testimony on the effectiveness of nonnarcotic, medically assisted treatments for narcotic dependence and determining what legislative changes, if any, need to be made to address the commission’s findings.
The commission would be comprised of three members from both the House and the Senate, appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor, and five members appointed by the Governor, including the commissioner of the Department of Community Health and the commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Georgia ranks third in the nation for the highest number of narcotic treatment clinics with 62 clinics, despite the fact that we are eighth in total population. I am hopeful that this legislation will provide a solution to the increasing number of drug abuse and overdoses we see each year and ultimately save lives. There is a vital need for these treatment centers, but we must also get to the root of the issue and find out why there are so many of these facilities in Georgia.
We also passed Senate Bill 350 and Senate Resolution 558 this week, which would allocate tax revenue from firework sales in our state to Georgia trauma centers, fire services, and local public safety purposes. SB 350 would allocate 55 percent of the excise tax revenues from all fireworks sales in Georgia to the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission, which was created in 2007 to maintain a trauma center network, coordinate existing trauma facilities and direct patients to the best available facility for their needs. Additionally, 40 percent of the excise tax revenues collected from firework sales would go to the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Commission, which provides certification standards for all firefighters, fire inspectors, fire investigators and fire and life safety educators. The funds would be used to implement a grant program to improve the equipping and training of firefighters and the rating of fire departments by the Insurance Services Office.
Finally, five percent of the tax revenues would go to local governments to be used for public safety purposes and the operation of 9-1-1 systems. Senate Resolution 558 is the companion legislation to SB 350 and would amend the Georgia Constitution in order to allocate the excise tax funds, if approved by voter referendum on the November ballot. During the 2015 legislative session, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing the commercial sale and use of fireworks in Georgia. Should these measures receive final passage through the General Assembly and passage from Georgia voters in November, we would be able to provide a beneficial and much needed funding to the trauma, fire, and local government networks in our state by granting them the flexibility to improve and continue providing exceptional service to all Georgians.
The House also passed a measure this week to toughen the penalties for criminals who commit domestic violence in Georgia. Senate Bill 193 would make it a felony if a person commits family violence and has a previous conviction for family violence battery in Georgia, or in any other state. Prosecutors would be able to issue repeat family violence offenders a felony instead of another misdemeanor, closing a loophole that previously allowed some offenders to receive misdemeanor charges upon their second family battery conviction. The bill would also make the crime punishable by one to five years in prison. This legislation would strengthen our judicial system and punish violent, serial criminals, while also protecting those who they seek to harm.
Unfortunately the Senate did not pass the Georgia Space Flight Act but instead placed the issue into a space bill study committee. According to Rep. Jason Spencer (D180-Woodbine), the Senate’s decision to move the bill into a study committee was based on issues and jurisdiction that are not under state control.
HB734, the Georgia Space Flight Act, passed the House with overwhelming support (I voted YES). After the bill moved into the Senate, the Senate Science & Technology committee decided to place the bill into a Senate study committee after spending approximately 90 minutes discussing the legislation. The Senate’s primary focus was on the Federal Aviation Administration’s launch licensing process and applicable federal regulations as well as county zoning issues should the launch site be approved by the FAA, all of which are not under the control of the State of Georgia. Rep. Spencer pledges to bring the legislation before the General Assembly in 2017.
This week we passed another bill to keep Georgians safe in Senate Bill 367, a comprehensive update to Georgia’s criminal justice reform legislation. SB 367 would expand Georgia’s accountability courts to include “operating under the influence” court divisions as an alternative to the traditional justice system with the ultimate goal of reducing recidivism rates. Any court with jurisdiction over DUI or boating under the influence cases would be able to create a division of their courts to handle those cases. Similarly, any juvenile court would be able to create a “family treatment” court division to address issues within families through court intervention and the reduction of dependency. The goal of a family treatment court would be to reduce alcohol or drug abuse and addiction in child dependency proceedings; improve outcomes for families when dependency is based on alcohol or drug use and addiction; increase the personal, familial and societal accountability of defendants in child dependency proceedings; and promote effective intervention and use of resources among child welfare personnel, law enforcement, treatment providers, community agencies, and the courts. SB 367 would also allow the Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice to operate charter schools within state juvenile justice facilities under the control of the State Charter School Commission to allow children who are incarcerated to continue to receive an education.
Furthermore, individuals who have a suspended license as a result of a criminal conviction would be able to receive their license sooner under SB 367 by allowing time spent in prison to count toward license suspension time. The bill would also add court-mandated activities such as attending programs, treatment, and accountability court to the list of limited driving exemptions for drivers with limited driving permits. SB 367 would change the Georgia First Offender Statute to allow courts to set a date at when a defendant would be exonerated of guilt and have their criminal record restricted as long as the defendant successfully complies with the sentence and does not receive future convictions. The bill also updates probation stipulations if an individual fails to pay a fine or report to their probation officer and will now include a scheduled hearing in court. The legislation would also let inmates who have served sentences for certain drug-related offenses or repeat offenders of non-violent felonies be eligible for parole if they had no convictions for violent felonies; completed at least six years of their total sentence; were considered a low risk for recidivism; earned a high school diploma; and had no serious disciplinary violations in the past 12 months in jail. Those convicted of felony drug convictions would now be allowed to apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits upon their release to help ease the transition to re-entry. Finally, the bill would prohibit professional licensing boards from refusing to license an individual because of an arrest or conviction of a felony unless it directly related to the occupation they were attempting to be licensed. Legislative efforts over the past several years have made Georgia a national leader in criminal justice reform, and the modifications in SB 367 are a further example of how we can continue to be smart on crime, keep the citizens of Georgia safe, and help those who re-enter to become productive members of society. Providing alternatives to incarceration in the form of education and treatment not only allow our non-violent offenders to have a second chance at life, but will decrease recidivism rates. These efforts serve to make Georgia a safer place for all of our citizens, and I am proud of this body and the work we have done to offer those protections to our state.
SB 206, by Sen. William T. Ligon, Jr. (R-Brunswick), revises provisions relating to the prohibition of a water supplier's option to disconnect water service to premises because of the indebtedness of a prior owner, occupant, or lessee. The bill provides a procedure to obtain information regarding moneys owed for water supplied to certain real property under certain circumstances. SB 206 exempts any property from the refusal to supply water because of the indebtedness of the prior occupant. A new section is added to current law setting forth that any property owner or tenant, person executing a contract for the purchase or occupancy of property, attorney closing a real estate transaction, or lender considering the loan of funds to be secured by real property shall have the right to request a statement from the water supplier setting forth the amount of any outstanding water charges along with any late fees with interest. Rep. Alex Atwood (R-St. Simons Island) spoke in support of the bill. He indicated that ACCG, GMA, the Georgia Realtors Association, and others are in support of this legislation. There was one amendment, but it was withdrawn.
SR 730, by Sen. William T. Ligon, Jr. (R-Brunswick), encourages the Coastal Regional Commission to create a comprehensive plan for and oversee the implementation of the Coastal Georgia Greenway and to create and file an annual report with the General Assembly detailing its progress. I presented this bill before the House where it passed with a vote of 149-18.
SB 263, by Sen. Bruce Thompson (R-White), allows for the governing authority of each municipality and county in this state, as well as each board of education, which employs sworn police officer who are POST certified to adopt policies under which officers may retain their weapon or badge upon retirement or leaving employment as a result of a disability arising in the line of duty. It passed the House today with a vote of 123-46.
SR 876, by Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega), was carried in the House by Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville). It seeks to establish a Joint High-Speed Broadband Communications Access for All Georgians Study Committee. No changes were made in the House Special Rules Committee where this Resolution had been assigned. This resolution passed 166-0.
This week, we also had a special guest stop by the House. On Monday, we were honored to have Atlanta Braves legend Henry “Hank” Aaron and his wife Billye join us on the House floor, where we recognized the couple for their work in the community. Hank Aaron played 21 seasons with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and completed his career with two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. During his 23 year career, Aaron was an MLB All-Star for 21 seasons, still holding many records for most All-Star selections, a three-time Golden Glove right fielder, and the 1957 National League Most Valuable Player. Despite receiving many awards throughout his long career, Aaron is probably best remembered for his 715th homerun on April 8, 1974 which broke the previous home run record held by Babe Ruth. Since his retirement from baseball, Hank and Billye Aaron have been very active in their community, working with the Andrew Young Foundation and the Morehouse School of Medicine to advance the education of African-American citizens. Their commitment to the community is inspiring, and it was an honor to meet such a legendary couple.
Next week will be the final week of the 2016 legislative session. On Thursday, March 24 we will convene one final time this session for legislative day 40, or “sine die,” the last day we have to pass any legislation this year. While the end is near, there is still work to be done and many issues to be considered, and your input on these issues is very important to me. My colleagues and I will work long hours every day next week to ensure that we are doing what is best for Georgia and its citizens. If you are following legislation that you would like to see passed, or if you have any questions about the bills that the General Assembly has considered this session, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Your input will help guide my decisions during this crucial time, and I appreciate all of your feedback. You can reach me at my Capitol office at (404) 656-0126 or by email at [email protected].
As always, thank you for allowing be to be your representative. | 2019-04-23T00:24:46Z | https://www.votejeffjones.com/legislative_update_week_10_mar_18_2016 |
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The SPARROW panel of judges (N Sukumaran, Kannan Sundaram and Ambai) decided to take up contribution to literature in general this year for consideration for the SPARROW-R THYAGARAJAN Literary Award 2018. Two awards are normally given for Tamil writers and one for a non-Tamil writer. This year for the first time we decided unanimously to award three Tamil writers and two non-Tamil writers. In Tamil, two awards for acknowledging and honouring writers who have been in the field for many years and one award for a younger writer for literary work done in the recent past. The SPARROW-R Thyagarajan Literary Award 2018 for Tamil was given to S Thenmozhi for her excellent contribution to fiction and poetry and non-fictional work, Ba Venkatesan for the wonderful literary work he has done for the past many years both in terms of fiction and poetry and S Senthilkumar for the promising work he has done in fiction and poetry. This year the non-Tamil writer award was shared by two writers: Varsha Adalja, a feminist novelist and playwright, who won the 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati language for her novel Anasar, who is also a dramatist who has acted and written several stage plays, screenplays and radio plays and Aruna Dhere, a Marathi writer, who has written over forty books in different genres including personal essays, short stories, novels, poems, travelogues, children's stories, bhakti literature, folk literature and social history.
Former Trustee of SPARROW, Dr Roshan Shahani, gave away the award and spoke eloquently about her association with SPARROW and SPARROW's work and also about how Indian language literature needs to be taught and studied as diligently as English literature is, for India is a land of diverse languages and diverse cultures all of which contribute to what makes India.
The award function is normally an informal event which we organise in collaboration with RCWS (Research Centre for Women's Studies). Our association with RCWS is a long one and it is always a pleasure to work with Dr Putul Sathe who is generous with her time for this event. This is an annual event when everyone who is a friend of SPARROW comes to support and cheer us up. This year too our regular friends Dr Divya Pandey (former trustee and friend in whose love and support we thrive), Dr Chhaya Datar, Vijaya Dass, Dr Kunjalata Shah and writers Pudhiya Madhavi, Urmila Pawar and of course, our own Vishnu Mathur were there. It was a pleasure to have Ila Arab Mehta, the legendary Gujarati writer, with us and she came quietly as her sister Varsha Adalja's guest.
Apart from the usual Mumbai features like traffic jams this time there was a little bit more of problems in coordination for the Tamil writers had decided to stay in different places. Ba Venkatesan was staying with his daughter-in-law's family, S Senthilkumar was staying in the SNDT University Women's Hostel guest room and S Thenmozhi came with her extended family and was put up at the SRP Guest house at Goregaon East (arranged by the enterprising and ever helpful Anuradha Krishnaswamy in her official capacity).
S Senthilkumar came the previous evening and looked a bit disconcerted for he was the only one in the entire third floor of the hostel. He said that 24 days in a month he stays away from his family in Thiruvarur in a room amidst books as editor of a journal and is with his family only six days in a month. He was hoping his Mumbai trip would mean being with other writers and here he was all alone once again! But he said staying in a girls' hostel and eating at the mess hall with them will be a new experience and he welcomed it. We cheered him up with some tea and chakli and left him in his room with some more snacks to munch and sonpapdi to keep him happy.
Ba Venkatesan kept his promise of wearing the maroon shirt he had worn in the photograph which we all liked but he did not know about the Mumbai traffic and came half an hour late with his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson. Although he had told us that he did not want his age mentioned we did mention it in the PPT we did on each writer but he took it sportingly and did not complain for we had forgiven him for coming late.
S Thenmozhi's problem was different. She arrived at 6 a.m. on the morning of the event and had told us there was no need to receive her at Dadar station. We assumed someone else would receive her. But when she rang us up at 6 a.m. and said that no one had come to receive her I panicked for she did not know Hindi and she was with a family of eight people. But the ever efficient Pooja Pandey handled it with her characteristic calmness (after all, she is the cool one who stood outside the Operation Room before going in for a Caesarean section to tell me the Annual Report was complete and that she had mailed it to me) and told them to take cabs and she instructed the drivers over the phone on what route to take. We wondered how they would make it in the evening for the SRP Guest House is in the interior area and it is difficult to book cabs to come inside the campus. Aarti Pandey and Sayali Balekar who can practically deal with all such hurdles brought the family of eight in autos and a taxi just a little before 5 p.m.
Fortunately Varsha Adalja and Aruna Dhere are both familiar with Mumbai and Mumbai traffic and came on time.
The evening's programme was compeered by Maitreyi Yajnik who was doing it for us for the first time but she did a thorough job of it and managed to pronounce all the Tamil names as if she knew Tamil! The acceptance speeches were inspiring and dealt with many different aspects of literature. S Thenmozhi spoke about how and why she writes and about women writers, especially Dalit women writers, evolving a language of their own and why it was important to make this a universal language. Ba Venkaetasan was of the opinion that awards alone would not do and that organisations like SPARROW must also translate the writers they award. It is a tall order considering he writes novels of thousand pages but well taken. S Senthilkumar's acceptance speech was a story by itself. He spoke about Bodinayakkanur passenger train that brought cardamom bags to Mumbai at one time and gave a picturesque description of his town and its gods and how humans become gods and become part of his stories. Aruna Dhere spoke about her writing and what it means to her and why it is important to write if one wants to change the society and also keep what is precious in our culture. Varsha Adalja spoke just two lines accepting the award as she was keen to give more time for the evening's music performance.
The evening's programme ended with Mandar Katti enthralling us with Puriya Kalyan played on his sitar. He was ably accompanied on the tabla by young Shreeraj Tamhankar. Sharmila Sontakke had organised the evening's music programme. Manik Sonkar saw to the projection arrangements and also took the responsibility of receiving and dropping S Senthilkumar at the airport. Asmita Deshpande took charge of exhibiting the books of the authors and SPARROW and other similar arrangements. Priya D'souza was, as always, the official photographer of the event. Pradeep Surve saw to it that we got enough cups of tea and all of us ate enough and more of the snacks.
As we gathered later to have tea and snacks we shared stories and joked and laughed and took photographs. Thus ended another wonderful Literary Award event.
Vimmi Sadarangani accepting the award from chief guest Neela Bhagwat.
Lakshmi M is an activist who has been associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Thamizh Thesiya Periyakkam (Tamil Nationalist Movement) and various women’s struggles. She is currently the Central committee member of the women’s wing of Thamizh Theesiya Periyakkam. Her autobiographical work Latchumi Ennum Payani is a truthful account of her life and that of women around her both in the movement and outside it. In appreciation of writing a genuine document which draws attention to the lives of women in politics and their attitude towards family, marriage, motherhood and relationships with other women, SPARROW has great pleasure in giving her the SPARROW Literary Award 2017.
Stalin Rajangam has brought a new perspective to socio-historical research done so far on Dalit history. His painstaking research to reveal biases in writing history and to find hidden historical truths has brought contemporary relevance to Dalit history. By bringing to the public sphere the rare lives and experiences of those who are lost in the annals of history, he has done the important and much needed work of documenting not only the life stories of Dalit personalities but also that of those who have fought for the rights of the Dalit community. For his untiring and meaningful work of documenting Dalit history SPARROW has great pleasure in giving Stalin Rajangam the SPARROW Literary Award 2017.
Ashalata Kamble, an activist, writer and a staunch Ambedkarite, has been working with the Dalits for the past 35 years. Her books on the history of women and her poems have been an inspiration to many young aspiring writers. Her lifelong work has been to make visible the works of women like Bahinabai and Savitribai Phule and their literary contributions which have inspired her to be a writer, teacher and also an activist. Her biography Amachi Aai on her mother is a continuation of this work and an elaboration of her efforts to redefine motherhood in the context of the lives of women of the working class and their struggles to be mothers. In appreciation of her lifelong work for the Dalit cause and her biographical work Amachi Aai published in 2010 depicting what motherhood means to a working class woman SPARROW has great pleasure in giving Ashalata Kamble the SPARROW Literary Award 2017.
With her poems, essays, stories, biography and now an autobiography Kalyani Thakur is the leading Dalit voice from West Bengal and her name stands out among the Bengali writers. Through her writings which voice the pain, suffering, oppression, struggles and achievements of the Dalit community and as editor of two magazines Neer Writupatra and Chathurtha Dunia Kalyani Thakurhas worked tirelessly to draw attention to the life experiences and history of her disadvantaged community.Her autobiography Ami Kano Charal Likhi documents the life of a Dalit woman in rural and urban Bengal and records her views on feminism in India and its stand on Dalit women and Dalit feminism. For her vigorous and tenacious work in making the Bengali Dalit voice heard and for her autobiographical work which is a historical document of her life and times SPARROW has great pleasure in giving Kalyani Thakur the SPARROW Literary Award 2017.
SPARROW Literary Award, instituted by R Thyagarajan, Founder, Shriram Group, was organised by SPARROW in collaboration with the Research Centre for Women’s Studies (RCWS) SNDT Women’s University, on 10 December 2016, at the Mini Auditorium of the Juhu Campus of the University. This year the awards were for translation from an Indian language to Tamil and for translation from a foreign language to Tamil.
Eminent Tulu writer, Dr Suneetha Shetty gave away the awards to Kulachal M Yoosuf for his translations from Malayalam to Tamil, Gowri Kirubanandan, for her translations from Telugu to Tamil. Payani (Sridharan Madhusudhanan) for his translations from Chinese to Tamil. We missed Payani (Sridharan Madhusudhanan) an Indian diplomat currently posted in Beijing, who could not attend the function. His award was sent to him later. The well attended literary evening concluded with a very enjoyable music session by Reshma Gidh. SPARROW congratulates the awardees and thanks them and Dr Suneetha Shetty for their gracious presence at the function.
The SPARROW Literary Award Event on 12th December 2015, was a warm event with friends and well-wishers who came to demonstrate their appreciation for all that we do. And to give away the awards this year we had our own Neela Bhagwat, the well-known Gwalior gharana musician, whose music has kept many of us going in the last several years of struggle and celebration.
This Literary Award has been instituted by Mr. R Thyagarajan, co-founder, Shriram Group. This year we had a few more friends who came forward to support additional expenses. SPARROW trustees Dr Divya Pandey, Dr Usha Thakkar and friend and supporter from the US, Aravindan Kannaiyan and our well-wishers from Chennai, Bharathi Chandru and Chandru contributed to the event. The panel of juries this year were the same as last year: Publisher of the literary magazine Kalachuvadu, Mr. Kannan Sundaram, poet and editor of Kalachuvadu, Mr. N Sukumaran, and Dr C S Lakshmi (Ambai). The event was held in collaboration with the Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT University.
The awardees this year are writers we admire a great deal.
Anandh is a psychotherapist and is a writer whose poetry has inspired many and whose poetry has given a new dimension to contemporary Tamil poetry.
Anar, comes from the Eastern province of Sri Lanka and writes about what it is to be a Muslim woman in a war-torn country and her poetry is about how a language can alter life.
Vimmi Sadarangani is one of us and we tend to take her for granted but we also know about the great work she is doing as a writer and lover of Sindhi language and we respect and love her for that. She is a poet who keeps Sindhi language alive and whom Sindhi poetry has kept alive.
The acceptance speeches of all the three writers traced their writing careers and spoke about how close poetry was to their everyday life and its happenings. Awards have come their way but much more than that, poetry has kept them going through the highs and lows of life.
SPARROW had arranged for them to stay at a service apartment and the writers and their partners Sashi Anand and Mohammed Azeem and Vimmi's sister Bharti had enough time and space to interact. Vimmi, as usual, took over the task of taking them around and Bharti was clicking away with her mobile phone almost every occasion and every movement of all of them. They enjoyed a film together and got introduced to pav bhaji, chole bhature, sev puri, kesar falooda and the famous sev barfi of Chandru's. Unfortunately they went to the Versova beach in the morning when the slum colony there uses it as an open air toilet! Other than that they had lot of fun.
On 27 December, 2014 we started Literary Award event to become an annual event of SPARROW. SPARROW Literary Award was instituted by R Thyagarajan of Shriram Groups. The jury members were Ambai, N Sukumaran and Kannan Sundaram.
Su Thamizhselvi, K N Senthil and Meghana Pethe honoured us by accepting the 2014 SPARROW Literary Award. Well-known writer, Shanta Gokhale, gave away the awards and spoke warmly about her relationship with SPARROW.
In her acceptance speech, Su Thamizhselvi introduced herself as a young scion who has come in the tradition of women writers like Avvaiyar, Velliveethiyar, Vennikuyathiyar, Nachellaiyar, Karaikal Ammayar and Andal. She spoke about the rural background she comes from and how it has made her familiar with the pain, poverty and hard work that is part of a woman's life. "As a woman, I can clearly feel the pain experienced by women. As someone who has held in her palms the tears of women, I am sensitive enough to understand the intensity and heat of those tears," she said. Describing her literary journey as one involving "search, reaching and perplexity," she said that the award and the occasion will remain one of the greatest moments of her life.
In his acceptance speech, K N Senthil remembered with warmth Sundara Ramasamy and N Sukumaran, two writers he considers his teachers. Speaking of writing and the award, he said, "Writing is made possible through continuous practice but it is a bird that does not obey its master. It wants to measure the entire sky with its small wings…. I believe that the reward of writing is reaching somewhere. An award is its recognised form. There are many new generation writers in Tamil who are working hard and are leaving their imprints on literature. I am happy to receive this award as one of them, on their behalf."
In her acceptance speech Meghana Pethe said that she was happy to receive the SPARROW award because she was the first recipient of this award. She added that the joy of receiving the award was "almost equivalent to being the first love of a worthy lover" and that the "honour of being the first has a sanctity which holds good even today, although some other sanctities have been rightly questioned and declared debatable as of now by women all over the world." She spoke of writing being a lonely and painful journey and how often the process of writing is excruciatingly boring. Accepting an award from a panel of writers, she said, made the award all the more valuable. She ended by saying that this award would prove to be a trigger for her second cycle as a writer which was "likely to commence anytime now." | 2019-04-26T05:37:08Z | http://sparrowonline.org/literary-award.html |
The general principles and basic techniques of mechanical engineering are taught in the first and second years. After a solid foundation has been laid, the student is exposed to the application of these principles in specific areas of mechanical engineering through such courses as internal combustion engines, machine design, etc.
The program runs for 8 semesters spread over a normal duration of four (4) years leading to the B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering. The program has being reviewed to reflect changing trends in industry, increase the use of computers in all areas of the curriculum, challenge the students to generate practical solutions to real-life problems and make students more results-oriented.
Our students undergo a minimum of fourteen (14) weeks of supervised industrial work experience by the end of the program. This is done during the vacations and is expected to give our students a feel of industry. A minimum of 140 credit hours is required for the undergraduate program, which includes a final year project. Examinations and continuous assessments may take the form of thesis, essays, laboratory work, assignments, written reports and oral examinations and there are laboratories for research and experimentation.
This course gives a practical treatment of control of engineering systems composed of mechanical, electrical, thermal and fluid elements. General analytical and design tools for physical systems are developed.
Review of basic concepts and mathematical techniques used in Control Engineering. State-space representation of control systems. Frequency response methods. Stability analysis: Nyquist criterion. Controllability for a system of multiple inputs ,Root-locus System design. Nyquist, Bode and other plots. Gain and Phase margins, proportional control, compensator design Control system design and design specifications. Performance improvement and compensation.
This is an interdisciplinary course which involves mechanical, thermal, electrical and electronics engineering, programming and controls. Topics explored include mechatronics systems control, sensors and actuators, analog and digital control, integration of sensors, actuators and microcomputers including programmable logic controllers, design and programming of microcontroller.
Introduction to instrumentation. Instrument types and their performance characteristics. Analyses of systematic and random errors during measurement processes. Temperature measuring devices: liquid-in-glass thermometers, thermocouples, varying resistance methods, thermistors and optical pyrometers. Pressure measuring devices: Bourden tubes and manometers. Force and Torque measuring devices: strain gauge methods, load cells and dynamometers. Flow measurements: Bernoulli’s theorem, orifice plate and venture tube. Signal conditioning and recording.
Free Vibration of single degree of freedom linear systems: Harmonic motion, Vibration System Modelling, Energy methods and Stiffness. Response to Harmonic Excitation: Forced and Base Excitation of Undamped and Damped One-degree-of-freedom Systems, Rotating Unbalance, Coulomb and other forms of damping. General Forced Response: Impulse response functions, response to arbitrary and periodic inputs, transform methods, shock spectrum, Computer simulation of Time response of single degree of freedoms systems using Euler Method. Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom Systems: Two-Degree-of-Freedom Undamped Models, Eigenvalues and Natural Frequencies, Systems with More than Two Degrees of Freedom, Systems Viscous Damping, Forced Systems, Lagrange’s Equations. Torsional vibration systems including geared systems. Design for Vibration: Acceptable Levels of Vibration, Vibration Isolation and Suppression, Practical Speeds of Rotating Disc, Optimization. Vibration Testing and Measuring: Measuring instruments and testing.
Distributed-Parameter Systems: Vibration of Strings and Cables, Modes and Natural frequencies, Vibration of Rods and Bars, Bending Vibration of beams. Vibration Testing and Experimental Modal Analysis: Measurement Hardware, Digital Signal Processing, Random Signal Analysis in Testing, Vibration Testing for Endurance and Diagnostics. Introduction to Finite Element Method: Bar, Three-Element bar, Lumped Mass Matrices. Computational Consideration: Influence of Coefficients and Dunkerley’s Formula, Rayleigh’s Method, Matrix Iteration, Computer simulation of Time response of Multi- degree of freedoms systems using Euler Method. Nonlinear Vibration: Single-degree-of-freedom Phase Plots, Equation Linearization, Pendulum, Nonlinear damping and Averaging. Vibration of machine foundations.
Units of measurement (SI) and dimensions, Laws of mechanics, Characteristics of a force, force systems and, Moment of a force, Vector representation of forces, Free-body diagrams, Resultant and Equilibrium of system of coplanar and spatial force systems. Centroid: Determination of centroid from first principle, centroid of composite sections. Structural Analysis: Two-dimensional trusses using the methods of joints and sections; Simple frames and Machines. Friction: Laws of dry friction, angle of friction, problems involving dry friction. Simple Machines: Laws of friction, Definitions and calculations of mechanical advantage, velocity ratio and efficiency, self-locking and overhauling in machines, types of simple machine. Kinematics of a Particle: Rectilinear, Rotational and Curvilinear Motions of particles, Dependent and Relative Motion Analysis of Two Particles. Kinetics: Equation of Motion for a system of particles. Work and Energy: Work, Energy, Power, Efficiency, Principle of Conservation of Energy for particles. Impulse and Momentum: Linear impulse and momentum, Conservation of linear momentum for system of particles. Kinetics of a Rigid Body: centre of gravity, mass moment of inertia from first principle, parallel axis theorem, moment of inertia of composite bodies, and radius of gyration. Planar Kinetic Equations of Motion: Translation, rotation about a fixed axis and general planar motion. Impulse and Momentum: Impulse and momentum for rigid bodies. Work and Energy for rigid bodies: Energy equations for rigid bodies, Principle of Conservation of Energy for rigid bodies. Equation of motion of simple harmonic system, calculations involving period, frequency, displacement, velocity and acceleration, equivalent stiffness for springs in series and in parallel, equivalent mass of a spring, energy method.
Fundamental Concepts: Basic terminologies in mechanics, laws of mechanics, Units of measurement (SI) and dimensions, Newton's Laws of Motion. Characteristics of a force, System of Forces, Vector representation of planer (2D) and spatial (3D) forces. Resultant and Equilibrium of coplanar forces: Force Systems, Triangle law of forces, resolution and resultant of forces, moment of a force, Varignon’s theorem, free-Body diagrams and Equilibrium Equations. Structural Analysis: Assumptions, Two-dimensional trusses using the methods of joints and sections, Frames and machines. Friction: Frictional force, laws of dry friction, angle of friction, Problems involving dry friction, rope friction, square-and v-threaded screws, rolling resistances. Simple Machines: Definitions, law of machine, mechanical advantage, velocity ratio, and efficiency, self-locking and overhauling in machines, types of simple machines. Method of Virtual Work: Work done by Forces and moments. Centre of gravity and area moment of inertia: centre of gravity and centroid of a body, determination of centroid from first principle, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems, centroid of composite sections, experimental determination of centre of gravity, Resultant of distributed line loads, liquid pressure and flexible cables.
Kinematics of a Particle: Continuous and Erratic Rectilinear Motions, Rotational Motions, Curvilinear Motions including Projectiles, Dependent and Relative Motion Analysis of Two Particles. Kinetics of a Particle: Equation of Motion for a System of Particles. Work and Energy: Work, Energy, Power, Efficiency, principle of Conservation of Energy. Impulse and Momentum: Principle of Linear impulse and momentum, Conservation of linear momentum for system of particles, Impact, Angular momentum, moment of a force and angular moment momentum, principle of angular impulse and momentum. Centre of Gravity and mass moment of inertia: centre of gravity from first principle and composite bodies, mass moment of inertia, radius of gyration, parallel axis theorem, and moment of inertia of composite bodies. Kinetics of a Rigid Body: Planar Kinetic Equations of Motion including Translation, rotation about a fixed axis and general planar motion. Work and Energy for a rigid body: Kinetic energy, work a force and a couple, principle of conservation of energy for rigid bodies. Impulse and Momentum for a rigid body: Linear and angular momentum, principle of impulse and momentum, conservation of momentum, eccentric impact. Rotary balancing: single and multi-planes using graphical and analytical methods.
Fundamentals: Definitions and terminology, degrees of freedom, types of motion, mechanisms and structures, motors and drives. Dynamics of Linkages: Analysis of position, velocity, acceleration and dynamic forces in linkages using both graphical and analytical methods.
Graphical Linkage Synthesis: Introduction to type synthesis, function, path and motion generations, Dimensional synthesis up to three positions including quick-return mechanisms Grashof Condition for four-bar linkage, Inversion, introduction to Coupler and Cognates.
Cam Design and Dynamic Analysis: Cam terminology, single and double dwell cam design, displacement diagrams and polynomial functions, pressure angle and radius of curvature, Practical Design and Manufacturing considerations. Transmission of rotational motion: Gears and gear trains including Epicyclic/Planetary Trains, roller drives, belt drives and Chain drives.
This course is a continuation of ME 262, which is course in dynamics of machinery. It covers: Dynamics of mechanisms and machines in three-dimensions using Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems. Balancing of reciprocating masses including linkages, multi-cylinder in-line, radial and V-engines. Vector treatment of laws of dynamics: Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical systems. Fluctuation of energy and speed in machines: crank-effort and turning moment diagrams, flywheels. Inertia forces and torques in mechanisms. Engine Dynamics. Cam Dynamics. Governors. Gyroscopic motion: simple theory of gyroscopic couple, gyroscopic effects in machinery and vehicles, applications of gyroscopes.
Logical synthesis of mechanisms. Freudenstein’s equation. Coordination of Crank velocities. Design of up to six-bar mechanism using algebraic method for a given output function with 4th order approximation. Coupler Curves and Cognates. Motion and Path generation for common link mechanisms. Robert’s theorem. Error estimation in a given synthesis. Optimisation using Chebyscher’s theorem. High speed cam dynamics. Analytical derivation of cam profiles. Introduction to spatial mechanisms.
Introduction to computers. Computer hardware and software. Windows and word processing, Spreadsheet and Graphic presentation. Internet facilities and electronic mail. Introduction to computer programming using FORTRAN, C++, or any available programming language.
Overview of various types of Computer Programming: Structured, Object-Oriented, Graphical and Visual Programming. Structured Programming methods using FORTRAN, C++, Matlab, or any available programming language including visual programming in all cases. Software Engineering: Writing and running programs; Testing and debugging; Compilation and run-time environments Introduction to Databases.
Materials Science: Imperfections and diffusion in solids. Phase diagrams and transformations. The structure of metals and other materials: Properties and processing of engineering materials: Mechanical properties - hardness, ductility, brittleness, toughness, strength etc. Elastic and plastic behaviours. Dislocations and strengthening mechanisms. Thermal properties - Heat capacity, thermal conductivity, expansion and stresses. Mechanical engineering materials. Introduction to ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Introduction to polymers. Introduction to engineering ceramics. Materials selection.
Study of selected materials: alloy steels and cast irons, polymers and composite materials. Heat treatment of steel and cast irons including surface hardening. In-depth study of the most commonly used mechanical engineering materials.
Metalworking: Hot-working processes - hot rolling, hot pressing, forging, extrusion. Cold-working processes - cold rolling, drawing, deep drawing, cold pressing, spinning, powder metallurgy. Casting: sand casting, shell mould casting, centrifugal casting, investment casting, die casting, permanent mould casting. The cast structure. Problems encountered in casting. Casting design. Metallurgical principles of joining metals: welding and microstructure of welds. Inspection and testing of welds. Weldability of specific metals and alloys. Soldering. Metallic corrosion: The mechanism of corrosion - dry and wet corrosion. Stress corrosion, crevice corrosion, impingement corrosion, corrosion fatigue. Corrosion control - Use of inherently corrosion resistant metal or alloy; protection by metallic coatings; protection by oxide coatings; cathodic protection.
The same course is offered for different groups of students in the first semester and second semesters as ME 391 and ME 392, respectively.
Historical perspective; Methods Engineering, Methods and Work study etc. Productivity improvement techniques. Demand forecasting. Inventory management. Facility layout. Materials handling, Maintenance management. Total Quality Management. Human factors in engineering: A series of topics including machine systems, work conditions and ergonomics. Industrial Psychology: Motivation, performance analysis and measurement.
Introduction to management (definition and introduction to the main functions of management). Performance-related emoluments and other incentive systems. Engineering economy. Accounting and cost accounting. Project Management.
Entrepreneurship and free enterprise. Business planning. Product and service concepts for new ventures. Marketing and new venture development. Organising and financing new ventures. Current trends in commerce (Internet commerce, e-commerce, etc.). Business Law/Law of Contract.
The course presents a study of the theory and practice of facilities design: activity and flow analysis, space requirements, layout techniques, material handling, warehousing, location selection, and problem-solving with computer-aided layout techniques. Design projects in plant layout required.
Concepts of random variant generation, Monte Carlo and discrete event simulation will be introduced. Simulation languages are introduced in this course. One general simulation language is taught in depth. The use of simulation modelling in design and improvement of production and service is emphasized. Industrial Engineering design projects will be required. Computer based exercises will be undertaken by students.
Deterministic models of operations research are discussed with special emphasis on linear programming. Topics covered include simplex algorithm, transportation problem. Network flow, dynamic programming, integer programming, multiple criteria and nonlinear programming models. Introduction to the concepts of probabilistic operations research models and solution techniques. Poisson process, Markov chains, queuing models and their applications, decision analysis, inventory models, risk analysis, and project networks.
This course introduces ergonomics and biomechanics concepts. Topics include psychomotor work capabilities, anthropometry, environmental stressors, physical workload, safety, hazard and risk factor identification, work station design, and material handling. Introduction to the elements of cognitive human factors. Human sensation and perception, cognition, information processing, attention, signal detection theory, mental workload, and decision-making. Data collection methods and report writing are emphasized. Lab projects are required.
This course introduces the concepts of demand forecasting, aggregate production planning, inventory control, project planning, line balancing and job scheduling. Students will be expected to work on projects involving enterprise resource planning and supply chain management.
This course introduces the concepts of automation such as programmable controllers and robotics, design for manufacturing and assembly, material selection, flexible manufacturing systems, group technology, just-in-time manufacturing, process planning, and economics of manufacturing. | 2019-04-20T20:12:59Z | https://mech.knust.edu.gh/ug/bsc-mechanical-engineering |
I think it is accurate to state that the flood story in the bible is both myth and a forgery. It is obviously a myth for reasons too numerous to mention here, but it is also copied from other cultures/religions, thus making it a forgery.
It could very well be a myth. While some scholars believe the story is a myth, National Geographic put together a documentary called “In Search for Noah’s Flood”. They discuss various flood stories, and make the case that a large, localized flood must have influenced these various cultures to write of this flood. While there is no proof of a flood, it seems like a plausible explanation.
I wonder whether there is a sense in which archaeological evidence fits a normal distribution, i.e. the more you dig the more you confirm the norm.
In addition, I think the difficulty of archaeology and the bible concerns the way that the authors and redactors have used contemporary (to them) references, sites and concerns to illustrate the position that they have assumed. Hence trying to unpack how these texts have been assembled will be a major problem in trying to assign archaeological dates or evidence to them.
btw, Ronan Head gives an excellent presentation on Biblical Archaeology.
I learned Biblical Archaeology digging in Israel. I was caught off guard recently when one of the schools I attended (a Baptist and Evangelical school) published a pro-Book of Mormon article! Really! Reading this blog, then that article is like reading opposite worlds collide. Have you heard of a Baptist journal publishing a pro-Book of Mormon article?
I know LDS apologists love parallels, and they’re great at finding them. The next step is to harness the parallel-finding to some rigorous statistical analysis, trying to actually quantify the odds of Joseph Smith coming up with “Nahom” on his own.
The odds of the latter scenario, I’ve just calculated through a proprietary algorithm as 1 in 10.
“In his landmark collection Leaves of Grass, famed poet Walt Whitman wrote of a “strange huge meteor-procession” in such vivid detail that scholars have debated the possible inspiration for decades.
I have links to the articles, but I am not sure how to link in the post, sorry.
I find it very interesting that so much remains to be discovered, and sometimes rediscovered. I am certainly less than convinced by general no-evidence claims.
More compelling than the external evidence for the Book of Mormon is the internal evidence for the Book of Mormon. Finding ancient cultures in the Book of Mormon has been much easier than finding the Book of Mormon in ancient cultures. That is to be expected.
Now the question is whether your proprietary algorithm accurately predicts the odds. What if it is more like 1/100 instead of 1/10? Now it becomes even more impressive.
I think we gamble when we attempt to assign specific numerical likelihoods in this manner. All it will take is one obscure children’s book from Joseph Smith’s immediate culture, one 1820s newspaper article, one heretofore unnoticed Bible dictionary quoting Carsten Niebuhr or those who came after him (describing Nehhm, near Sana, before 1829), and the odds will be shot all to goodness-gracious. I find an average of one fresh and interesting new Mormon parallel source every couple of weeks, and I am only one researcher. The jury is still out.
Steve, a few years ago, Grace for Grace published an article about a Baptist Preacher that believes in the Book of Mormon.
The old world findings are exciting, but the quoted enthusiasm is a bit over stated. The letters NHM were found carved into stone in lower Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea. As I understand it, NHM is thought to be a tribal name, not necessarily a place name. There is a semi-suitable Wadi directly East of where NHM was found as a possible location for Bountiful. That’s it. If fits nicely into our Book of Mormon narrative, but I withhold my enthusiasm until this evidence gains traction in a secular peer reviewed publication. The Book of Mormon, as a secular history, would be the most astounding document is secular American studies ever known if it’s historicity were supported by evidence. Until we see Book of Mormon scholarship accepted by and spread into a secular forum, I withhold my exuberance over perceived evidence.
I also withhold my enthusiasm. The probability of rolling 4 sixes in a game of Yahtzee may be 1/1296, but you have to account for how many rolls you get.
How many rolls do you get to find one that matches the BofM NHM? I can’t really say how many place names there are in the area and time period that would count as a hit.
I think the analogy between the “history” of the BoM and the “history” of the Bible is a little misleading. The Bible is a collection of books written over centuries based on centuries’ old telling of stories passed through oral tradition. It’s not a great leap to acknowledge that (a) it is unlikely these stories represent, or are even supposed to represent actual occurrences and (b) it is likely that there is some historical truth to them and “close” archeological evidence will exist to support he genesis of these stories.
The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, was presented by an individual claiming to have been given the book through supernatural means. One can draw no conclusions as to the veracity of the stories therein without first accepting the claims of the individual.
To illustrate using your example of Sodom vs. Nahom. The evidence indicating a city that my have been Sodom is easier to digest because no one questions that this story was indeed told for centuries and was indeed written down by someone. That there may be some truth to the story is highly believable, even likely. Nahom, on the other hand, would need far more evidence to a non-believer. In the case of Sodom, the bible is evidence (not necessarily high quality, but evidence nonetheless) of the potential for such a city to exist – so when you add archeological evidence, you increase the likelihood of existence.
Without belief in JS Jr first, the fact that the BoM discusses a city named Nahom offers no objective evidence of its existence – so any archeological evidence would have to stand on its own.
I love your posts! While I am interested in BoM archaeology, it is lower on my priority lists right now. Since I stopped viewing everything through the “BoM is historical” lens, I think it’s pretty hard to convince anyone (non-believer) that the BoM is historical via archaeology. I think it relies very heavily on apologist enthusiasm and fun hypothetical statistics that impress.
However, I do want to mention what I think is a problem (though I confess I have not read much into BoM archaeology). It seems to me that most of the work done in BoM and Biblical archaeology is done by believers (since they believe they’ll find something). How many “impartial” archaeologists for the BoM or the Bible are there? 1, 2, 10 maybe? Does that mean anything? I think it does. But what would we expect from archaeologists who have an unquestioning loyalty to their goal of proving their book? I don’t want to cast doubt on all the good scientific work done by the likes of John Sorenson, I just think there needs to be more divested scholarship looking at the issues and evidence.
chicken, one issue I have with you comment is the fact that sodom was around 3000 years ago. if we wait another 3000 years, then the bom may seem plausible as well based strictly on the fact that we have been telling stories about lehi and laman for 3000 years.
jmb, when I look at biblical archaeology, there are no ‘unbiased’ archaeologists (just like the bom). I really like william dever of the university of arizona because he seems pretty unbiased to me, but even he allows that the story of samson could be based in fact because of a philistine vase that shows a man standing between 2 pillars. it could represent the fantastic story of samson collapsing a philistine temple. yet I think most scholars question whether a person could really collapse a building. the story bears more resemblance to hercules than fact, yet there are some biblical apologists that say the story could be plausible.
I think that mormons are so used to defending the bom, that we aren’t even aware of similar criticisms about the bible. after all, evangelicals aren’t going to volunteer unflattering info about the bible, and it is easy for both mormons and evangelicals to write off atheists.
… Dr. John Clark of the New World Archaeological Foundation has compiled a list of sixty items mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The list includes items such as “steel swords,” “barley,” “cement,” “thrones,” and literacy. In 1842, only eight (or 13.3%) of those sixty items were confirmed by archaeological evidence. Thus, in the mid-nineteenth century, archaeology provided little support for the claims made by the Book of Mormon. In fact, the Book of Mormon text ran counter to both expert and popular ideas about ancient America in the early 1800s.
As the efforts of archaeology have shed light on the ancient New World, we find in 2005 that forty-five of those sixty items (75%) have been confirmed. Thirty-five of the items (58%) have been definitively confirmed by archaeological evidence and ten items (17%) have received possible—tentative, yet not fully verified—confirmation.
That’s a decent trend line.
Essentially, the best available evidence is never perfect evidence, it is merely “best available.” When scholars and scientists mistake “best” evidence for “perfect” evidence they overstate their own knowledge in a kind of hubris, not seeing what they don’t know, and giving too much weight for what they think they do know. (Rhetorially) Just ask “experts” in geocentric astronomy, biologic spontaneous generation, or phrenology.
It’s not that Sodom has been talked about – its about the chicken and the egg. What I mean is, Bible stories were stories passed down for generations and then written down. The discussions about the BoM are not a result of stories and experiences, they are a result of an individual writing the stories down first, beginning a discussion. Under the former, the experiences and stories beget a writing evidencing the experiences and stories, under the latter, a writing begat stories, evidencing only what we choose to believe.
n, thanks for your comment. I think it well illustrates the idea that ‘the more you dig, the more you find.’ there are far too many that seem to have closed the book on future discoveries, and think that the current lack of evidence is evidence of lack.
chicken, I agree that this is a bit of a chicken or egg argument. but I think the main concept remains. can a bible or bom believer convince a non-bible/bom believer that his position is correct (and vice versa)? I think the answer is ‘no.’ bible and bom believers have a supposition of historicity. non believers have a supposition of non historicity. therin lies a problem-conflicting assumptions. I don’t know of a way around that. for example, if you believe noah’s flood is a myth, is there any amount of evidence that can change your mind?
The 1/10 odds were of the alternative scenario I hypothesized (Joseph Smith uses a variant on the known-to-him Semitic name name “Nahum” (“comforter”), whose meaning he reasonably could have learned from his Bible-infused culture, in connection with an event — the death of a beloved family member — where comfort is typically sought. The “proprietary algorithm” consists of me pulling the number out of a hat.
Re: Peterson’s description of the “exact name” of Nahom and the “exact place,” we don’t have either. We have three letters — NHM — which may “Nahom”, or it may be Nihm or Nahm or Nuhum or any other variation. Not quite “exact.” As for “exact place,” we have — southern Arabia. A big bulls-eye, especially given Lehi’s party’s literally years of wandering.
So: What are the odds of a Semitic placename existing somewhere in the Semitic-occupied territory in which Joseph Smith set the Book of Mormon, that has some potential similarity to a placename that might be invented by someone who was trying to invent Semitic-sounding placenames, with the Bible and potentially Biblical commentary or others’ knowledge as a reference?
If “NHM” is evidence that the Book of Mormon is a record of activities in the Old World, because of a passable resemblance of a Book of Mormon placename to an Old World placename, then why is not the Hill Onidah (cf. “Oneida,” a New York State Indian tribe) evidence that it is the product of contemporary upstate New York? As long as we’re calculating odds, what are the chances of an Indian tribe in Joseph’s neighborhood sharing a name with a place in (presumably) Mesoamerica? I’m not aware of any connection between the Iroquoian language group and any of the Mesoamerican language families.
If “NHM” is the crown jewel of apologetics, that’s not a good sign.
I’d like to see the definition of “confirmed” used here. I’ve seen apologists get excited about a Mesoamerican quarry of ochre (a reddish iron-containing pigment), as if it helped confirm the Book of Mormon’s reference to use of iron and steel metal. There’s a fair gap between a bunch of half-naked tribesmen smearing reddish ochre on their faces, and a blacksmith making a steel sword.
MH – I think you are talking apples and oranges. Everyone “believes” in the Bible – ie. that the Bible is a series of writings complied over centuries about the faith journey of multiple people over that time. Some of taken this to the extreme and view that, through divine intervention, the Bible is literally the Word of God and miraculous historical, others don’t. But no one disputes the history of the Book itself and how it was written and compiled.
The BoM, on the other hand, is the opposite. This a book where even the most ardent believer acknowledges that it was a newly found document claiming to be written by particular individuals of particular historial facts. If you believe JS Jr’s story, then you can start comparing the tales of the BoM with the tales of the Bible and applying archeological and historical references. But that’s a big leap. Most of us will deny the divinity of any religious tome not of our own religion (ie. most Christians don’t believe in the divinity of Muhammed notwithstanding a perfectly good book attesting to that fact).
What you are noting is that one cannot convince someone else of something supernatural if they do not believe. I agree. But the very existence of the BoM “relies” on the supernatural event. Not so with the Bible. As such, if archeological evidence suggests, even peripherally, the existence of the city of Sodom – even a skeptic may say “sure, maybe such a city did exist, that would explain the oral tradition involving the city that was recorded by ancient people.” But if you have archeological evidence that suggests the city of Nahom exists, most objective observers would assume their was an alternatiev explanation, as there is no long-standing and multi-generational historical tradition, merely a book that is admittedly in existence by supernatural means.
Sure. A worldwide flood layer dated prior to 2000 BC. It doesn’t exist. Although absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence, where evidence should reasonably likely have been left, then yes, absence of evidence that ought to be there is evidence of absence.
Alternatively, you could present geological evidence that the continents were virtually flat in antediluvian times, and Mt. Ararat was a molehill, such that you could possibly have enough water in the atmosphere to raise sea levels enough to actually drown people (as opposed to making the wicked mildly annoyed at sloshing around ankle-deep floodwater for forty days) without having to posit an atmospheric pressure similar to Venus’s, which would have cooked and imploded Noah and his fellows.
So there is evidence that could change my mind re: Noah. It’s just that the best evidence is that we’re extremely unlikely ever to find it, and so the best working hypothesis is that Noah’s flood is a myth.
Well, yes and no. It’s possible, and much argued over, that the Book of Deuteronomy was invented out of whole cloth by religious partisans long after its supposed writing by Moses, similar to how critics of the Book of Mormon suggest Joseph may have done with the Book of Mormon.
Well said. And again, we are talking about evidence of stories withing the Bible, where the BOM itslef (as opposed to its contents) requires substantial evidence of its supernatural origins. So while stories of even some books of the Bible must overcome “the best working hypothesis” it is the BoM itself which, absent extraordinary evidence, will be presumed mythical by non-believers.
This is why archeological “proofs” fall so far short from convincing objective reviewers of the BoM’s authenticity.
D’Anville’s 1751 map of Asia and Niebuhr’s 1771 map of Yemen are the basis for most of the accurate maps of Arabia from 1751 to 1814. With D’Anville’s indisputable reputation for accuracy and with Niebuhr’s firsthand experience and use of scientific instruments, in addition to the difficulty in mapping Arabia, most reputable cartographers relied on D’Anville and Niebhur in publishing maps of Arabia. Bonne, Cary, Darton, and Thomson, however, all seemed to have their own sources for information on Arabia and Nehem.
Not really so, in many instances. To take steel swords, the first example above, they were quite dramatically described in the James Macpherson’s Ossian poems beginning in the mid-1700s (and very widely published and accepted throughout Europe and America). Cement was certainly a part of young Joseph Smith’s world, used to construct the Erie Canal. Another of Dr. Clark’s claims I have seen is his notion that the idea of a King (Benjamin) working with his own hands would have seemed unlikely to someone of Joseph Smith’s time: most certainly not the case. Such things are readily available in the nineteenth century culture, but to know about them, one has to want to find them.
Regarding the easily-accessed names of Naham and Nahum -and many others for the Book of Mormon, the following .pdf document may be of interest to some readers . . .
Chicken #20, “But the very existence of the BoM “relies” on the supernatural event. Not so with the Bible” Yes, Chicken, but there are some very supernatural events–primarily in the Book of Genesis that all rely on supernatural events. Your point that “the Bible is a series of writings complied over centuries about the faith journey of multiple people over that time” will be similar to the Book of Mormon in 3000 years.
Thomas, I think most Biblical apologists assume the flood was a large localized flood, rather than a worldwide flood as I mentioned about the National Geographic special in the OP. Certainly it would be easier to find a localized flood than a worldwide flood. Your point about Deuteronomy is well taken. I’ve been planning to write on that for quite some time, but I haven’t had enough time to research it good enough to put a post together. It’s been called a “pious fraud” just like the Book of Mormon.
Doug, welcome back. It’s been a while, and we’re sparring about Nahom again. If Emma states that Joseph didn’t know there were walls around Jerusalem, how did he have a chance to look at these expensive maps?
Rick, your points are well taken, but my question to Doug applies to you as well.
What about the ark? Pretty skeptical but when this popped up a few months ago, it really startled me.
MH – you’re not understanding me and it’s probably because I’m not being clear. I’m not talking about events recorded in, or stories recounted. Yes the bible contains stories of supernatural, but the telling, collecting and writing of those stories was done by very natural means. The BoM, even if it contained nothing more than recipes would still be more suspect as the actual discovery and writing of the BoM is supernatural.
I can disregard the supernatural stories of the Bible as myth, exagerration, etc. and still believe the Bible is a record of the stories and spiritual journey of the people who wrote it – I may also believe that other stories contain truth.. If I similarly disregard the supernatural with respect to the BoM, then it means JS Jr. is fraudulent. If that is the case, I don’t even get to whether Nahom exists or whether cows can cross the ocean in a clam shell.
There’s one other issue I’d like to weigh in on with regards to archaeology and the BoM and Bible. Suppose you were an independent, impartial observer, and were interested in the historicity of the BoM. You ask where it supposedly took place. You ask where Joseph Smith said it took place. A large group of believing scholars have a whole mess of evidence, statistics, quotes, etc. that go some way in convincing you that it happened somewhere in Central America. But you then learn there is an entirely other crowd of believing scholars who also have a whole mess of evidence, statistics, quotes, etc. that it happened in North America near the Northeast. Now what?
My point is that the apologists themselves do not even have a cohesive cogent argument for a single theory. Rather, there’s a whole mess of theories, even amongst believers. How are we supposed to convince non-members, or doubting members about the historicity of a book when we can’t even agree on the evidence amongst believers? They would have a much better argument if they all backed a single theory. But the fact that there are a myriad theories is evidence that there isn’t that much convincing evidence!
My experience is that most members sort of tacitly believe that the events of the BoM took place in Central America somewhere. They haven’t really investigated, but that’s what they would loosely claim to a non-member. Yet, there is no official church position, no internal agreement among non-believing scholars, or even believing scholars.
ok chicken, I see your distinction, but I must confess that it seems a bit of splitting hairs to me. at least you’re consistent in calling both the bible and bom as myth. quite often, most bible believers are willing to call the bom myth, but bristle at calling the bible myth.
jmb, you points are well taken. it would be nice to have a single, unified theory. but I am not bothered by all the theories, because the brainstorming is a good, necessary process. if we put all our eggs in one basket, we may miss something important.
multiple geography theories are not without precedent. there are at least 13 theories that I am aware of detailing the route of the exodus. there are several locations for mount sinai. my personal belief is that mt sinai is located at jebel-musa in saudi arabia. scholars hotly contest these locations, but nearly everyone agrees that the traditional mt sinai is incorrect.
I think all the bom geography theories are similar to the exodus/sinai debate. I don’t know if you remember my malay post (311 comments), but that theory removes nearly all anachronisms that american theories have. of course it has its own problems as well.
I quite like Chicken’s point. The Bible has more “truth,” as it were (at least to a non-Mormon), from the get-go because it has been with us for years and because it is couched in familiar mythological tales that have been woven into a well known book. So even if you believe it’s all myth, the archeology has a chance of having a shred of truth just because myths generally have some scrap of truth. Hence, it’s not hard to buy into a potential site for Sodom even if the actual facts surrounding the city are not even close to what’s in the OT.
The BoM, OTOH, is not a collection of myths (at least that’s not the claim). It’s origin is supernatural to begin with, not based on myths. It’s not as if Mormon handed down some book or oral tradition to his progenitors who perhaps wrote it down or rewrote it, changed, and/or modified it eventually falling into the hands of JS. No, the entire story begins with an angel and gold plates buried in a hill. There’s a major discontinuity between what allegedly happened with the Nephites and when the book came into existence as we know it. It’s a “new” myth, story, civilization, etc. that originated with Joseph (even if you believe it’s historical, the BoM, as we know it in English, originated with Joseph). So when archeology is presented as evidence it is easy to postulate an alternative explanation as there is no agreed upon mythology about this civilization.
To the independent scholar, to use the BoM as a guide to the civilization in Central America is to concede the supernatural events and belive Joseph Smith. On the contrary, for the Bible archeologists, he/she need not believe the bible to be historical and still find evidence of a city mentioned therein.
Oh, I absolutely agree with you. I’m not personally bothered by the many theories either. I’m just saying that to the non-believer it is hard to make a convincing argument about the historical nature of the BoM (of which we are so sure) when there is not even an internally consistent theory about the historical nature of it.
I am going to disagree with jmb and chicken about the bible not being supernatural in origin. there was no bible prior to moses. he received the original scripture-the 10 commandments by the finger of the lord. surely this is just as fantastic as the gold plates. then they wrote the story of moses life with the plagues etc. then moses had the fantastic story of adam and eve revealed to him.
I did a post about a recent book (published by oxford I believe) asking if moses plagiarized hammurabi’s code. if moses were contemporary and joseph smith were ancient, I think we would have just as many questions about the supernatural events of moses as we do the gold plates.
I agree – but I don’t think it’s splitting hairs. The Bible is NOT a myth – it CONTAINS mythical stories. If you don’t believe in the supernatural at all – you would still beleive the bible exists and contains stories told for ages – but you wouldn’t beleive anything about the BoM.
And this is how it relates to archeology. Archeologists might use the Bible as clues to what archeological finds mean or even evidence to search for archeological items – because the Bible, is in fact, ancient stories and therefore at least theoretically points to ancient places and events – even if oune discounts entirely supernatural claims. But, if one discounts supernatural claims, then one would not use the BoM as evidence of historical fact or relate archeological evidence to BoM claims.
In an unsensitive analogy, if one does not believe in the supernatural in general, or JS Jr’s claims specifically, one would consdier the BoM to be entirely fictional – just like, say the Chronicles of Narnia. If one were to discover through archeological means, an ancient site with 4 thrones and statues of giant lions – one would not consider that this was a an indication that this was Narnia – any more than the finding of a plaque with NHM upon it would indicate the existence of a fictional place.
With the BoM – belief must come first. Everything else hinges upon that. With the Bible, belief is optional – because everyone understands it is a work containing ancient writings – not so with the BoM.
But you’re not suggesting that ALL of the Bible is supernatural in origin? And that’s the difference. The whole of the BoM is in the supernatural-origin camp. Perhaps there was no bible prior to moses, but there were, in fact, numerous myths about deluges, myths about God creating man and woman, etc. Besides, Moses didn’t come down from Mt. Sinai and write about it. There is considerable doubt as to the authorship and chronology of the pentateuch, which COULD mean it is also CONTAINS myth.
I don’t think any of this discredits the archeology or anything. It’s just easy to see why there would be non believing bible archeologists who still try to fit their findings with the Bible (to some degree) and why there would likely be no such non believing BoM archeologists.
Maybe I’m not seeing Chicken’s argument either, I dunno.
Mh – you’re even assuming there was such a person as Moses – he could be made up out of wholecloth. Nontheless, ancients kept record of their spiritual journey. Eventually these were written down and, more recently compiled into the old Testament. Again though, your only talking about particular portions of the bible and, more to the point, particular things IN the Bible. THe Bible itself was not pulled from a tree or dug from the gound. It was compiled from anceint records.
JMB275 – so you think non-believers would consider the archeological find similar to Narnia proof of the historicity of C.S. Lewis’ books? Would you condone further searchers for additional archeological proofs? Of course not – because we know the Narnia books are fiction. Non-believers similarly know the BoM is ficition.
Hmmm, you should read my comments again. I’m agreeing with you.
chicken, I still think you’re looking at this too narrow. the book of mormon is more like the book of genesis than the entire bible. (perhaps we could include the bible up until the time of jeremiah, since the archaeological data prior to david/solomon is scant.
now, assuming that mosos (or perhaps baruch) was the first to write down oral traditions into the bible, then the bible can be considered a collected of myths. there is little, if any proof of biblical archaeology prior to 700 bc (some may push that back to 1100 bc). after 700 bc, we do seem to have some evidence. so the origins of the bible can be considered just as supernatural as the bom.
now the bible post 700 bc is more like the d&c period of mormonism. we can find proof of locations of independence, slc, manti, just as we find jericho, jerusalem, and armageddon. 3000 years from now, archaeologists may confirm slc as a headquarters, and may discover lds and rlds versions of d&c. perhaps they may never discover the garden of eden or the city of zarahemla-perhaps they will find zarahemla in malaysia. bom archaeology is infantile compared to the 3000 years of the bible, or at least the past 2700 years.
Assumes Emma and/or Joseph didn’t make that episode up, in an early effort to bolster the “Joseph was so ignorant, he couldn’t possibly have invented the Book of Mormon himself” argument.
are you saying that emma made it up?
#42 — Emma or Joseph. And yes, most likely. I find it impossible to believe that Joseph Smith, who was clearly familiar with the King James Bible even if it’s not clear when he first read it through, could possibly have overlooked all the biblical references to Jerusalem’s walls.
Alternatively, even if Emma were accurately relating a conversation that actually took place, there’s no reason why Joseph couldn’t have had a gap in his knowledge about Jerusalem’s city infrastructure, and still had access to a map. NHM is a weak reed.
No. The origins of the bible is that people wrote down oral tradition and long-told stories. The origins of the BoM is that a young man claims to have been given the book by an angel. If all Genesis discussed was supernatural fantasy and all the BoM discussed were 100% proven facts, the origin of the former would be natural and the latter would be supernatural.
If one were to disregard the supernatural – one would look at the writings of Genesis and disregard them as fantasy – one would not even look at the BoM as they would disregard it as fantasy ab initio. That’s the difference.
chicken, I still don’t think you’re looking at time here. if the bom was 3000 years ago and genesis was 200 years ago, we would have 3000 years of oral history of the bom. genesis would have no such history, and would be seen just as unreliable as you view the bom today.
I agree that Joseph Smith would not likely have seen the more expensive maps. But here, we must begin to espouse a more sophisticated philosophy of cultural background if we are ever to transcend the somewhat adolescent stage of Mormon historiography whenever it explores parallels. Specific parallel sources (like the above expensive maps) are not so much candidates of particular borrowing, as they are indicators of a general, broad and available culture.
I was somewhat troubled – maybe amused – by a wholly unimaginative approach offered on this topic by S. Kent Brown in his article, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail” in Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson and John W. Welch, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon. (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], ), 55-125.
Dr. Brown there reviewed published sources of Joseph Smith’s time that mentioned or discussed the NHM region in southern Arabia, or showed it on maps. He rendered a valuable service by summarizing such works he had located (Brown, 72-75). But since his focus was entirely faith-promoting, calculated to minimize potential significance to Joseph Smith’s environment, Brown became as mathematical as some commenters on the present post here, and suggested that information from pre-1829 sources could not have reached Joseph Smith unless Joseph personally read those actual books –and then only at one of two specified libraries, named in the article, near which Joseph lived when he was a boy or a young man. Dr. Brown went to considerable effort to demonstrate that those libraries did not have Niebuhr’s work (Brown 2002, 69-75).
I will stipulate readily that Joseph Smith probably seldom thought of visiting Dartmouth College’s library when he was ten years old, even though it was only an hour’s walk from home. And, I probably have even less confidence than might Dr. Brown, that Joseph Smith likely spent any time patronizing the Manchester, New York membership lending library. But to ask the wrong questions (or to limit potential sources so) is as bad as to erect a straw man, and it gets us no closer to responsible history than if we were to hide our heads in the sand. As I wrote in my own work . . .
History has given us an “American Prophet” who needs to be explained in terms of divine revelation, rational synthesis, or something in between. It really does not matter whether Joseph Smith actually read any specific manuscript or book, because an entire culture is on display. We are scarcely dealing here with issues of pointed study or conscious borrowing. No single one of these writings was essential to the work of Joseph Smith, and this Bibliographic Source hangs upon no individual concept – upon no particular text. It is, rather, the very existence of the Mormon parallels which these sources display – in such great number, distribution, and uncanny resemblance to the literary, doctrinal and social structures which Joseph formed – which may command our attention.
interesting quote rick. I should check out your book.
it seems to me that we have 2 versions of joseph smith: (1) a dumb guy with a 3rd grade education that translated only by the power of god, or (2)a man with an encyclopedic mind that remembers small details of solomon spaulding’s manuscript, niehbur’s maps, etc. even if we assume that joseph never saw niehbur’s map but simply heard about it, it seems to me that we must say that joseph had a photographic memory to remember all these details, yet miss important facts such as jesus born at jerusalem.
while I am comfortable believing that joseph was no dummy, I am not comfortable believing he had a photographic memory either. it seems to me that if joseph did remember nhm, he must lean toward photographic memory. yet I see real problems with that line of reasoning as well.
There may come a day when the ramblings of some 1990s teenager about life in outer space may appear fantastically prevenient – to future readers who have little understanding of popular culture of an earlier era. That which to us is esoteric data was often common to people of earlier times. And perhaps most importantly, if the burden of discovering all these things devolves upon us, it was never the burden of Joseph Smith. Whatever he saw and liked may have entered his writings. The Arabian place names that never struck him as interesting would not make it into the Book of Mormon.
I still think it’s more likely that Joseph might have used a variant on the Old Testament name “Nahum” (“comforter”) to describe the place where Ishmael died, and his family sought comfort in their mourning, than that Joseph saw “Nehm” on an old map.
The point is that there are plausible naturalistic explanations (we’ve covered at least two here) for the coincidence of “NHM” and “Nahom.” It’s just not the slam-dunk evidence it’s cracked up to be.
but thomas, then it makes joseph smith as a genius like dan brown of da vinci code fame. dan compiled all this religious information into a book, but it took him years to put his book together. joseph smith is doing the same thing in a few months, and doesn’t seem to have the benefits of google like brown does. is it really that plausible that joseph got it all right with egyptian names pahoran and paanchi, while figuring out nhm too? at the same time he makes anachronisms with horses, chariots, and silk. this genius title seems to have some big problems, all while joseph is writing a book of theology.
Many people conclude that, since we haven’t found it all, Joseph Smith could not have found it either, except through revelation. They emphasize Joseph as an educationally-deprived lad chosen to restore the gospel. They add that no one, in fact, could have found the words and power of Mormonism without the help of God. Such a conclusion is convincing to the convinced – fully relevant, satisfying and final – IF one presumes the final product before the fact: supposing, in advance of the process, no possible “correct” development but Mormonism as it finally turned out, as we have known it in its various stages, complete with only the “Mormon” elements discerned or blended successfully out of a vast and confusing world.
If this sounds just right, it is a dangerous back-door defense that falls apart the moment one sees we are dealing with a farm boy whom the twentieth century never knew. Not a genius, but one derived from a culture that was surprisingly rich, varied and available. There was so much there from which to choose, and indeed, as you note (#50), Joseph did not necessarily get it all right.
My last semester at BYU, I took a Shakespeare class for the fun of it. The class consisted of 3 guys and something like 17 women. This being the BYU English department, these women had what passes in Provo for a feminist streak. I was amazed to learn just how many modern feminist themes Will Shakespeare had salted away in his plays.
The point is that people who go looking for useful parallels in a text, will usually find them.
Coincidences are more statistically likely than people might expect; in fact, the more proper names you collect, the more likely there will be a remarkable coincidence between one of them and an utterly unconnected one. Like Onidah/Oneida, for instance, if you want to think Joseph didn’t get the former from the latter. If a culture or a history or a landscape is described broadly enough, there’s plenty of room for people to come in afterwards and identify specific details that fit within the broad scope of the writing.
And no, Joseph wouldn’t have to be a “genius” to use “Nahom/Nahum” for a place of mourning. Mildly clever, at most.
Ignores the fact that the Book of Mormon project was in progress for three whole years, if you count the project start date back when he started work with Martin Harris. The famous “three months” consists of the final draft produced with Oliver Cowdery.
As a comparison. I once wrote the World’s Greatest Revolutionary War screenplay. The project dribbled on in outline form, coming together in my mind and partly on paper, over a period of three years — and then I finally buckled down and wrote out the last 4/5 in the course of two months, while simultaneously working a regular job. I suspect that a person reading it will find some parallels, and also some disparities, between what I wrote, and the history and geography of the Hudson River Valley setting (which I’ve never visited, and did precious little research on). If there are parallels, it won’t mean I was inspired.
When Harold Bloom calls Joseph Smith an “authentic religious genius”, he ascribes to Joseph an almost incomprehensible ability to craft religious history and theology in ways that others cannot. A genius of any kind has a mind that operates in ways that normal people cannot fathom. That is why we call them geniuses. If JS was indeed such a genius, to compare JS to Dan Brown is silly. Not all authors practice their craft in the same way, and almost certainly JS didn’t research and write the book of mormon the way that we might suppose a historical novelist would write a story.
I believe that JS was a religious genius in the same category as Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Jesus, or maybe even someone like Paramahansa Yogananda. These individuals were able to draw upon existing spiritual traditions around them and produce something new and compelling, and which spoke truth to the souls of those who listened to them or read their words. Whether what any of these spiritual geniuses said is, in fact, “truth” cannot be ultimately verified theologically (you cannot prove or disprove God’s existence, for example). In terms of relating historical or scientifically-verifiable facts, all religious genius will fall short because doing so isn’t really the point: these are not individuals who apply the scientific method or modern historical research methodologies to their messages. If we take Jesus’ word, for example, that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, then we have to reclassify all the many thousands (millions?) of other plant seeds that are, in fact, smaller than a mustard seed, or else make Jesus either a liar or an ignoramus. In the end, if you get caught up on whether the seed is in fact the smallest, or whether Jesus really did in fact use a mustard seed as an object lesson (or if someone else writing the story down many decades after which supposed lesson was purported to have taken place just put words in Jesus’ mouth), you miss the message which might actually convey some truth or wisdom that could be beneficial to you in your life: that having just a little bit of faith gets you far in God’s kingdom.
I’m in the camp that can’t really accept NHM as “proof” of Lehi’s existence any more than Joseph Smith’s public denials of polygamy were “proof” that he never entered its practice. Fact is, there are tons of references to names, places, and things in the Book of Mormon that one would expect to be easily corroborated by hundreds of years of collecting artifactual evidence in the Americas, but that are simply not there. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of 19th-century American-Protestant-influenced religious theology packed into the Book of Mormon, forcing the reader who believes in the book’s historicity to accept that ancient peoples 2,600 years ago had advanced understanding of Christian theology and doctrine, even though there exists no evidences of such understanding among any of the world’s contemporary inhabitants of the ancient world, even among the records we have that come from the Jews. Joseph either took extreme liberties with the text of the golden plates, or made huge theological mistakes in his “translation” of them, or else made the whole thing up (possibly with the help of friends and associates). That the Book of Mormon is as cohesive a narrative as it is testifies not to its historical truth, imo, as the religious genius of its creator.
Still, getting caught up in questions of historicity and authenticity really dillutes the power of some of the words written in the Book of Mormon. Just as the Bible contains lots of stories and writings that get largely skipped over because they no longer represent the theological sensibilities of the modern reader, we _can_ pick and choose which portions of the Book of Mormon speak “truth” to our modern souls without getting caught up in the angst of a black-or-white, all-or-nothing dichotomy. I used to think that religion had to be all true or all suspect, but now I’m just happy when I find messages that ring “true” to me, and feel grateful that they actually speak to me among all the other stuff that is out there. That’s a net positive, imo.
Here, here, SteveS (#53). My personal favorite passage in the Book of Mormon is found in modern 2 Nephi 2:25, “Adam fell, that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” When asked to write a completely middle-of-the-road introduction to Octavo Corporation’s digitized version of the 1830 Book of Mormon in the 1990s, one of my paragraphs went like this . . .
There were works of equally imposing claim, of course, even in nineteenth-century America, and it would be unproductive to insist that this book is entirely unique. Indeed, much of the Book of Mormon speaks not merely from its own era, but indeed from its own decade and the very counties from which it emerged. This I have verified over the years in hundreds of texts examined and transcribed from the immediate world and culture of Joseph Smith. So when I point out that the Book of Mormon also has its exceptional moments, readers of all persuasions may allow that surprises wait between its leaves.
But to me, coming from a physics background, that is the most interesting part of the Book of Mormon historicity question. I agree with BTC that the belief has to come first before one bothers to ask whether the historicity is worth pursuing (JMB can probably write a Bayesian about how different priors make historicity tests valuable or not!).
But once I have the belief in the Book of Mormon as a motivator, I immediately see, just as BTC does, that you can’t “domesticate” it into a theory of scripture like modern scientific believers have adopted for the Bible. There’s then no separation between the natural and the supernatural that permits the notion of non-overlapping magisteria. The supernatural must be accepted by a believer, or (my preference) the notion of the natural must be expanded so the activity of God in history is in-your-face.
That question is even more important, IMO, than trying to extract individual messages from the scriptures themselves. You make more progress when you can unify theories than when you are dealing with each idea separately. And the differences between revelation (or religious genius) as seen in the BofM and the Bible provide a really good arena for testing more general theories of scripture.
I like your ideas of the pervasiveness of notions in a society as the raw materials for religious genius. But there’s a trap; it’s easier to see the sources of a prophet’s inspiration after the fact. All the materials were present for Einstein to think of relativity well before he did so. There are thousands of people today who understand relativity better than Einstein ever did. But few of those thousands could make the inspirational leap themselves.
“Whether the virtues of parallels outweigh the vices is open to debate. The fact remains that the vices are considerable.
1. Any method of comparison which lists and underscores similarities and suppresses or minimizes differences is necessarily misleading.
2. Parallels are too readily susceptible of manipulation. Superficial resemblances may be made to appear as of the essence.
3. Parallel-hunters do not, as a rule, set out to be truthful and impartial. They are hell-bent on proving a point.
4. Parallel-hunting is predicated on the use of lowest common denominators. Virtually all literature, even the most original, can be reduced to such terms, and thereby shown to be unoriginal. So viewed, Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper plagiarizes Dickens’ David Copperfield. Both deal with England, both describe the slums of London, both see their hero exalted beyond his original station. To regard any two books in this light, however, is to ignore every factor that differentiates one man’s thoughts, reactions and literary expression from another’s.
5. Parallel columns operate piecemeal. They wrench phrases and passages out of context. A product of the imagination is indivisible. It depends on totality of effect. To remove details from their setting is to falsify them.
6. Parallels fail to indicate the proportion which the purportedly borrowed material bears to the sum total of the source, or to the whole of the new work. Without such information a just appraisal is impossible.
7. The practitioners of the technique resort too often to sleight of hand. They employ language, not to record facts or to describe things accurately, but as props in a rhetorical hocus-pocus which, by describing different things in identical words, appears to make them magically alike.
8. A double-column analysis is a dissection. An autopsy will reveal a great deal about a cadaver, but very little about the spirit of the man who once inhabited it.
9. Most parallels rest on the assumption that if two successive things are similar, the second one was copied from the first. This assumption disregards all the other possible causes of similarity.
This isn’t to say, of course, that LDS apologists haven’t engaged in their fair share of the abuse of parallels – but, your mammoth work is not the kind of evidence that you put it forward to be. Parallels themselves are relatively meaningless. They don’t tell us much at all. It is the differences that allow for meaningful and interesting discussion. While some of your parallels are certainly of interest and worth considering, the compilation as a whole is fatally flawed.
I have been absent for quite some time. Thanks for the welcome back!
I really don’t have much to add to the discussion as others have covered what I would have posted even better than I in relation to NHM.
I was told about Nahom while attending a leadership meeting in Japan by Neal H. Maxwell in 1995. He was very excited about the discovery and painted a picture of this place being just recently found and therefore impossible for JS to have known about it. That seemed like a bulls-eye to me as well back then. Imagine my shock in finding out just how long the area has been known and who had written about it and mapped it.
The fact that it was known and written about now makes the argument shift from what he couldn’t have possibly known to what he probably didn’t know as a poor farmer in upstate New York. Even you must admit that’s a much weaker piece of evidence then if NHM had been discovered after the BoM was published.
FireTag: The dilemma you mention applies more to an independently-verified or very widely-accepted theory or system. If we accept Einstein’s theory of relativity, then it may seem like genius to have ferreted it out from all the data in the Universe. But if we think like this about Mormonism, then we are essentially only saying that Mormonism is true because it is true. If we begin with the assumption that Mormonism (at whatever time period we wish to set it, for consideration) is true, then of course Joseph Smith’s task – apart from being inspired – would seem impossible. But Mormonism could have turned out to be almost anything else, as well. As I said in an earlier comment, if the burden of discovery of Joseph’s sources devolves upon us, that burden was never Joseph Smith’s.
Ben McGuire: Your accusations are not really against me, but against some generic description you have espoused. I have more integrity and historical capability than you suggest. My book is a reference work, designed to supply raw data for researchers who need it. The work will stand, and I invite other readers to dig more deeply, and tear into my individual entries, comparing them carefully with similar sources, and exploring the portions I quoted very carefully to see if I twisted any contexts or authors’ original intents.
Chuckle. Of all the time I am sure Ben McGuire spent reading that mammoth volume, I am surprised he (apparently) missed/forgot the title of the book, which very clearly states that it is “A Bibliographic Source.” I for one find the resource to be priceless, and look forward to using it in future projects to come.
This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but in the end I actually hope your right about the BoM and the bible.
I was assuming the starting point of belief in the supernatural (or, in my case, I should say, that nature is dominated at large scales by its personal rather than its impersonal aspects — I think God IS all of reality rather than separate from reality).
The modern scientist, whether physical or social scientist, is trained to the notion that “natural” is the default position. It takes a conceptual leap to change to a notion of seeing the physical and spiritual as a unified whole, or perhaps a conceptual regression to get back to the notion that the spiritual is the important part of reality, even though we are one of the few cultures in history to hold the “modern” view. We don’t look for such a leap unless motivated by something — a religious teaching, a personal experience, or something else. So it takes prophetic genius to make the leap.
It was in this context that I mentioned Einstein. The genius lies in REJECTING the notion of your everyday senses that space and time are a fixed stage and learning to see spacetime as an evolving character in the story itself. It wasn’t verified (or experimentally verifiable) for years afterward, and physicists only began training themselves to conceive of spacetime that way AFTER the verification. Now its obvious that even a bar magnet is a relativistic effect of electricity.
Once motivated, exploring “anamalies” that stand the paradoxes of our belief systems out in the open are the way physical scientists make progress in looking for the right conceptual link — the right “crazy ideas”.
In the Mormon faith, the Bible and the Book of Mormon present a huge anomaly because they each present an incompatible theory of scriptural transmission. There’s an analog in physics for that, too. The twin pillars of modern physics are quantum mechanics and general relativity. They are fundamentally incompatable on a conceptual basis because QM can’t be framed yet on anything but the “space and time as a fixed stage” basis, and unifying them is the biggest prize on the horizon.
Well, I think there’s an underlying assumption here. You’re using the term “spiritual” as it relates to supernatural phenomena CAUSED externally by some force. One can easily view the physical and spiritual as a unified whole and still accept “spiritual” as being what benefits an individual “spiritually.” That is, one need not postulate external mystical CAUSAL relationships to explain spirituality. Nor does this, in my mind, invalidate the spiritual experience. Rather, it is a more honest acknowledgement of the experience. Of course, this distinction leads one nicely to a post-modern view which many find dissatisfying.
I’m merely saying that the modern scientist is trained to reject the view described in the quote. The possibility you describe is CERTAINLY one way of relating the physical to the spiritual. The attraction of such views to the modern is that the “spiritual” is CONTAINED or ISOLATED to the metaphorical or the psychological and potentially subsumable to the modern worldview as our understanding of the arts, the social sciences, or the physical sciences grow. It keeps God in the gaps. It requires no conceptual leap.
Our reality may work that way. The universe may be non-relativistic, too; I am aware of at least two theories that attempt to merge relativity and quantum mechanics by making relativity go away at extremely small length scales. Maybe Einstein’s conceptual leap turns out to be, at best a useful approximation. But we test those fundamental assumptions anyway, because that’s how we learn.
What I am suggesting is that we need to look for new solutions to the problem of unifying the spiritual and physical that do NOT contain the spiritual within the physical any more than they contain the physical within the spiritual.
At the moment I am sitting in my office looking at the cover of a book on my bookshelf, titled “The Gold of Exodus”. It was given to me by an investigator on my mission, so settled down an knocked it on a P-Day. It was about two men, Larry Williams (yes the world famous, yet superstitious investor/advisor, and apparent grave robber) and Bob Cornuke, founder of B.A.S.E. (Biblical Arcaeology & Search Exploration). These two men apparently set on a quest to discover the “true” Mount Sinai sometime either in the 80’s or 90’s, and ended up hiking to the summit of Jabal-al-lawz in Saudia Arabia. Apparently the traditional site for the location is somewhere in Ethiopia.
I would tend to agree that the prevailing sentiment, no doubt influenced by the subtle endorsements via Church media, is the Central American theory. This seems to be the position most widely accepted by those of the F.A.I.R. crowd, but there has been a vehement disagreement between this group and those associated with the theories of a former meat salesman by the name of Rod Meldrum. The evidences sited both groups are so quickly dismissed by the others, that it clearly demonstrates that the evidence is far, far, from conclusive for even those who ultimately share the same position. The same goes for the Bible. Yes, it may have a stronger foothold in antiquity, but it is one thing to say Sodom may have reference to some ancient city, and completely another to say that Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt as they fled.
They main problem with all of this inquiry, is that evidence is fitted to the conclusion. This is true of both Bible and BoM scholars. In order to justify scientifically the parting of the Red Sea, we have theories that suggest that the Israelites had a much greater lead on the Egyptians, and passed through a wadi during conveniently timed moon-tides. Some have suggested that Soddom and Gomorrah lay beneath the Salt Sea, suggesting a metaphor for the whole salt business. At the end of the day however, the evidence of the wadi’s, or the salt content of Old World locations, do not independently lead to conclusions about the stories we teach. Just like NHM – depending on liberal we want to be on proximities, we can eventually find a beach that satisfies expectations of a percieved Bountiful.
It’s not as if Mormon handed down some book or oral tradition to his progenitors who perhaps wrote it down or rewrote it, changed, and/or modified it eventually falling into the hands of JS> — the whole point of my deconstructing the Book of Mormon posts and a number of other analytical approaches to the text involve the fact that Mormon did indeed take various traditions, writings and such and edit/collect/summarize them into a book that he passed on to Joseph Smith, through Mormon’s son Moroni.
Ben McGuire — interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing them.
MH — look forward to your posts.
Some interesting posts here, enjoyed reading the comments.
cowboy, I think we are talking about the same mountain. jebel al-lawz sounds familiar to me. I know that jebel musa literally translates to ‘mount of moses.’ simcha jacobovici put together a documentary on the exodus and he has a location in israel for mount sinai in a restricted military zone. he got into a battle on a blog I read as to why his mount sinai was a better site than the saudi site. it was interesting to view the debate and reminded me of the meldrum-sorensen debates. I think few mormons delve into these biblical debates, but I think there are some really similar debates to book of mormon archaeology debates. | 2019-04-25T19:55:04Z | https://www.mormonmatters.org/religious-archaeology-and-evidence/ |
All of these Codes are available for purchase at the Customer Service Counter in the Business Development and Permit Center, 3300 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45225. Call 513-352-3271.
For assistance while using these Codes, call the number listed with the Code titles.
This code has been adopted by the City of Cincinnati for one-, two- and three- family dwellings including their accessory structures and up to three attached townhouses less than four stories in height.
It skips the many provisions that apply to non-residential buildings, making it easy to read. The chapters are arranged in a logical construction sequence, starting with the building planning. Along with the usual building restrictions, it contains the applicable parts of the Mechanical Code.
This code applies to construction and/or alterations of non-residential buildings and residences not governed by the Residential Code of Ohio.
This code applies to all commercial heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration, incineration, air pollution control and similar work not governed by the Residential Code of Ohio.
This code applies to all plumbing work.
Call with questions about electrical work.
This Code is a collection of 19 local regulations, laws and ordinances that supplements the Residential Code of Ohio, the Ohio Building Code, the Ohio Mechanical Code and the Ohio Plumbing Code.
It also includes local regulations regarding construction in the flood plain (Chapter 1109) and excavation and fill requirements (Chapter 1113).
Chapter 1115 adopts the RCO One-, Two-, and Three Family Dwelling Code.
Chapter 1117 (Housing Code) regulates all existing residential buildings.
Chapter 1107 provides local enforcement of the ASME Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators and related regulations.
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This standard applies to historically designated buildings containing residential business and retail uses that are five stories in height or less, 4,000 square feet in area, of Type IIIB construction, or better, with each floor having two means of egress. This standard allows most sound existing walls and ceilings to remain in lieu of upgrading the fire resistive ratings to new Code Standards. This is especially applicable to changes of use and occupancy situations.
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The Zoning Code governs land use in historic districts, hillsides and certain urban business areas. It regulates development to avoid parking congestion and promotes effective signage compatible with its surroundings. This Code is generally arranged in a sequence of more restrictive Zoning districts to less restrictive Zoning districts.
Example No. 1: John Q. and Susan J. Public purchase a three-story building in Over-the-Rhine. The last use of this building was business on the first floor and storage in the basement and the upper floors.
They wish to turn the building into a 12-unit building (four units on each floor) with a Laundromat and storage in the basement.
Because this work will involve a change of use, many sections of the OBC will apply, as well as applicable provisions of the Housing Code. Note: OBC Chapter 34 has alternative compliance provisions for building constructed prior to July 1, 1979. If the building is designated historic, then CBC Chapter 1121 would apply thereby mitigating the fire resistance upgrades required by the OBC.
Example No. 2: Mr. Smith wishes to convert his three-story, two-family on Liberty Hill into condominiums. He wishes to make them more desirable by adding a room and deck to each floor to better market the view of the city. He must comply with the RCO Code as well as the Housing Code since he has only two dwelling units.
Example No. 3: Ms. Jones owns a four-story, two-family building in the West End. She wishes to renovate the building and turn it into a four-family. Because of the number of units and floors, the provisions of the OBC and pertinent sections of the Housing Code must be met. If the building is designated historic, then CBC Chapter 1121 would apply thereby mitigating the fire resistance upgrades required by the OBC.
Example No. 4: An organization wants to renovate a problem, vacant four-story, 12-unit apartment building. As part of the renovation, a number of units would be converted into efficiency units and a number of units combined into three- and four-bedroom units.
The OBC would govern any new construction such as unit separation walls, which are typically required to be rated for one-hour fire resistance. Any new room arrangements are required to comply with new code standards with respect to size, access and privacy and light and ventilation. Even though no changes are anticipated outside of the units, the exits and fire rating of the common stair hall need to comply with the Housing Code.
Other typical existing conditions that need to be evaluated for compliance with the Housing Code and shown on the construction plans are the existing room sizes, natural light and ventilation for existing habitable rooms, access to toilet rooms and requirements for habitable rooms below grade.
Other areas that need to be addressed are indicated on any orders that have been written on the building.
If the building is designated historic, then CBC Chapter 1121 would apply thereby mitigating the fire resistance upgrades required by the OBC.
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A special Walk-Through service is available for reviewing applications for Building Permits related to small- and medium-sized tenant improvements, including signs, awnings, tents, fences and roofing work, and residential alterations and additions including decks, retaining walls, fences and roofing work.
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Businesses in the State of Ohio typically must register with the Federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and with the Ohio Department of Taxation. Many businesses must register as a legal entity with the State of Ohio. In addition, employers must follow the requirements of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Lastly, there are State of Ohio licensing/permitting requirements specific to certain types of businesses. More information about all of the above can be found at: http://business.ohio.gov/.
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Permit required for any building alterations; restaurant operations must also comply with Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) regulations.
Registration required for contractors (construction, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.). | 2019-04-20T07:16:47Z | https://www.buildingrecords.us/municipalities/oh/cincinnati |
This guide does not claim to be complete. It reflects my view on how to setup a working Arch Linux system tailored towards data science, R and spatial analysis. If you have suggestions for modifications, please open an issue. Enjoy the power of Linux!
Setting up Arch Linux the old-school way (i.e. configuring all yourself) is quite tedious. To be honest, I’ve never done it myself. I’ve always used distributions like Antergos or Manjaro. These function on the one hand as an installation wrapper for Arch and on the other hand provide their own repositories. Both come with all kind of desktop environments to choose from (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc.). I will not go into details of desktop environments in this post. I will outline my personal setup in a separate post in the future.
Make sure to check out the ArchWiki FAQs and Arch compared to other distributions - ArchWiki to get a better understanding of Arch.
Currently the best wrapper around pacman is trizen. Here is a list (AUR helpers - ArchWiki) comparing alternatives (scroll to the bottom).
In ~/.config/trizen/trizen.conf set no_edit => 1. Until v1.55 there was also a switch that saved you the prompt asking whether you really want to install the package (install_built_with_noconfirm => 1). Unfortunately it has been removed in v1.56 and now you need to pass --noconfirm to trizen commands. The first settings saves you the confirmation prompt asking whether you want to edit a PKGBUILD (i.e. the scripts that specify how to download and install a package).
All Linux system come with bash (Bourne-again shell) as default. While this shell is not bad, there are better alternatives. You have to decide whether investing the time to change the shell and learn the new syntax will make a difference for you. Since you will (hopefully) use the terminal quite often (from now on), I would recommend to at least try it :) My current favorite is the fish shell.
The zsh (Z-shell) is highly customizable but its settings are a bit complicated. It has several advantages (file globbing, visual appearance, etc.) to bash.
A good zsh helper is prezto: GitHub - sorin-ionescu/prezto: The configuration framework for Zsh). Install (trizen zsh) and use it (zsh). My favorite theme is agnoster.
The fish shell is similar to zsh but comes with better defaults and an easier syntax. The omf package manager is great for installing additional plugins that simplify the shell usage. Check Oh-my-fish for an introduction.
The shell is available in the standard repos and can be installed with trizen fish.
A great way to get started is to call fish_config in a fish session to configure fish to your needs in a graphical browser window.
My current theme is bobthefish.
Compiling packages from source can take time. To speed up the process by enabling parallel compiling, set the MAKEVARS variable in /etc/makepkg.conf: MAKEFLAGS="-j$(nproc)". This will use all available cores on your machine for compiling.
A note before the installation process: If you only have 8 GB of RAM, you need to temporary increase the size of your /tmp folder. Otherwise the tmp folder will run out of space due to all the package downloads and installations and you will face weird error messages if you do all the installations without a reboot. Increasing the /tmp folder temporarily can be done by sudo mount -o remount,size=20G,noatime /tmp. This increases the size for your current session to 20 GB. Usually the size is about half or your RAM size. The size will be resetted when you restart your machine next time.
A note of caution: Try to avoid installing python libraries via pip. If you install libraries via pacman that have python dependencies, pacman will try to install the respective python-<package>. If you installed this package via pip before, you will face conflicts. First search if the package is available in the repos and if not, you can safely install it via pip.
While already at python packages, QGIS needs some external python libraries for its plugins. Otherwise it will throw errors during startup.
Here is a list of applications I use. Choose for yourself which could be helpful for your.
Google Drive: I use the paid service insync.
I use Notion which atm has not Linux Desktop app and can be used in the browser only.
A note on Mailspring: If you are on battery, quit the app as it consume a lot of energy while steadily trying to sync your mails.
Editors are an important topic so I devote an extra section to them. You can use editors to only edit text files but they can also be used as an IDE for coding. There are many editors out there, all loved by a certain group of people.
Here’s a list of the most popular ones (this list does not claim to be complete). Also some of the listed apps are actually IDEs while some are only text editors.
I currently use Neovim which is a fork of vim for quick editing on the command line. My general purpose IDE is Visual Studio Code and for R development I use RStudio.
If you are on a KDE Desktop, LibreOffice may flicker black/white. This is caused by OpenGl.
Additionally, I recommend to install the Papirus Icon theme for Libreoffice: trizen -S --noconfirm papirus-libreoffice-theme.
This library caches all C compiled code, making reoccuring package installations that use C code a lot faster.
Additionally, install ccache on your system: trizen ccache. See this blog post by Dirk Eddelbuettel as a reference.
To use R from the shell without a prior defined mirror, you need the system libraries tcl and tk to launch the mirror selection popup (trizen -S tcl tk).
Next, install either the “Intel MKL” or libopenblas to be used in favor of the standard “libRlapack/libRblas” libraries that are shipped with the default R installation. These libraries are responsible for numerical computations and have impressive speedups compared to the default libraries. Thanks [@marcosci](https://github.com/marcosci) for the hint. While the “Intel MKL” library is the fasted according to the benchmarks, its also much more complicated to install.
libopenblas will automatically be used if its installed since the default R installation on Arch is configured with the --with-blas option (see section A.3.1 in https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-admin.html#Installation). I recommend installing the AUR package openblas-lapack as its package cominbing multiple libraries: trizen -S --noconfirm openblas-lapack.
There is an AUR package that provides R compiled with intel-mkl named r-mkl. Note: The download size of intel-mkl is around 4 GB and takes a lot of memory during installation. Most of it will stored in the swap (around 10 GB) so make sure your SWAP space is > 10 GB.
Also to successfully install intel-mkl, you need to temporarly increase the /tmp directory as intel-mkl requires quite some space: sudo mount -o remount,size=30G,noatime /tmp.
Use trizen -s rstudio and pick your favorite release channel. During installation R will get installed as a dependency (if you have not already done so).
Open RStudio and install the R package usethis (it will install quite a few dependencies, get a coffee) and then call usethis::browse_github_pat(). Follow the instructions to set up a valid GITHUB_PAT environment variable that will be used for installing packages from Github.
Of course you it is not required to install all packages of a task view. You will never use all packages of a task view. In my opinion, however, it is pretty neat to have one command that installs (almost) all packages I use of a certain field. I do not care about the additional packages installed.
For rJava we need to do sudo R CMD javareconf.
Now you can install the ctv package and then call ctv::install.views("Spatial"). This will install all packages listed in the spatial task view.
The easiest way (in my opinion) is to use SSH and usethis::create_from_github().
If you have never set a “ssh keygen pair” at your local machine, please do so by calling ssh-keygen -t rsa.
If you already have a file named id_rsa.pub in your ~/.ssh folder at your local machine, skip this step! Otherwise it will override your existing one and may invalidate previous ssh connections you set up. You now have an id_rsa.pub file in a (hidden!) folder named .ssh within /home (at your local machine). (You can enable viewing hidden files/folders in the file-manager with the shortcut ALT + . (Dolphin) or CTRL + h (Nautilus)).
The local directory in which you want to store your Github repos should have 777 permissions. This usually is not the case if you create the directory. If the permissions are wrong, usethis::create_from_github() will not be able to write files there. sudo chmod 777 ~/git.
This object is then passed to the credentials argument in create_from_github().
you can also use create_from_github(repo = "pat-s/oddsratio", destdir = "~/git", credentials = git2r::cred_ssh_key()).
The little overhead is really worth it: You have a working ssh setup and by reusing the command and just replacing the repo name the cloning off all your repos is done within minutes!
While most people use R from within RStudio, it is important to have a proper command line setup. I often call R in a second session (besides RStudio) to update packages, run R CMD check on a package, etc. The native R command line that you get when typing R in your shell lacks a lot of features. Fortunately, there is radian. Its advantages are listed in the README of the repo.
I’ve set an alias that maps r to radian. So whenever I type r into the console and hit enter, I get a “21st century ready” R console.
The ~/.Rprofile holds several options that will be applied during R startup. However, specifying all custom functions, options and other calls in one R file can get messy. Fortunately, there is the startup package. You can put several .R files into the ~/.Rprofile.d directory. This way you can organize your custom R startup better. Also, by running startup::startup(debug = TRUE) you can actually see what happens if you start R.
You can find my settings in my Dropbox.
There are multiple approaches how to achieve this (Auto-mount network shares (cifs, sshfs, nfs) on-demand using autofs | Patrick Schratz, fstab - ArchWiki).
Here is an example of a fstab setup for a sshfs (to Linux server) and cifs (to Windows server) mount. Append those lines to /etc/fstab; don’t overwrite the existing content as this will result in boot errors otherwise!
(cifs) Depending how new the Windows server is, you do not need vers=1.0.
(cifs) Store your login credentials for the windows server in a file, e.g. /etc/.smbcredentials.txt with contents being username = <username> and password = <password>.
(sshfs) Copy .ssh/id_rsa to root/.ssh/ as the mount will be executed by the root user.
Both advantage and disadvantage of using fstab are that it tries to mount the directories during boot. However, often this fails. Either because of a missing network connection at this point or because you need a VPN to access a server remotely.
I won’t go into details of all options I used here. Check out the manual pages of the respective protocols if you are facing errors.
If you use fstab, you can mount all mounts with sudo mount -a.
The manual approach needs to be saved in a bash script and called from your shell with bash <filename>.sh.
sudo pkill -kill -f "sshfs"
Some operations in this file may be redundant or ineffective.
Mount all mounts specified in <name of mount file>.sh.
Again we use ssh, this time to log into remote servers rather than downloading Github repos. If you have never set a “ssh keygen pair” at your local machine, please do so by calling ssh-keygen -t rsa.
Every time you log in via command line now, you will not be prompted for your password.
You can easily connect to all servers you have access to with a little one-time effort.
tmux is a terminal multiplexer that lets you create complex terminal arrangements. Additionally, you can use keybindings to quickly move between panes and a lot of extensions exists to save and restore layouts.
One extension, namely tmuxinator gives you the power to write template files for server connections. This makes it possible to load several server connections with just one command.
KDE is probably the DE (Desktop environment) that is most customizable. By default it comes with a Windows-like navigation panel. However, you can have a dock by using latte-dock. I used KDE for quite some time and I was satisfied with most of it.
If you want to use an automatic login to a VPN and the networkmanager-daemon (e.g. Openconnect) does not store your password, try the network-manager-applet package. It is the GNOME network-manager and has (for whatever reason) no problems with storing the password.
GNOME looks more like macOS. Clean, fresh, smooth. However, it needs a bit more love in my opinion to get a proper working setup. You need to find which gnome-extensions you need for your work. Most of them are present in the AUR.
Also (and this is the biggest downside) it consumes a lot of memory. I ditched it in the end because of this. On my 16 GB machine, I could hardly have all my standard apps open with now hitting my RAM limit. In contrast, on my current Desktop Environment (i3) I really cross the 8 GB mark.
trizen -Q | grep "gnome-shell"
You can control the settings via the “Tweak tool” that comes with GNOME by default.
Note that GNOME comes with Wayland as the desktop compositor library while KDE still uses X. I am not an expert in both but the future is said to be Wayland. You might run into some troubles with driver support for Wayland and there is much better documentation and help for X. You can also run GNOME with X if you are facing too many issues.
Although the Linux kernel has a lot of power saving options, they are not all enabled by default.
I prefer tlp as powertop often causes trouble with USB devices going into sleep mode. Also, applying the changes on boot is easier with tlp.
Do trizen -S --noconfirm tlp and then follow the instructions on TLP - ArchWiki to configure it correctly. powertop though is useful to check the applied settings. Do sudo powertop and go to the “tunables” section and check if most settings are “GOOD” (most are “BAD” before applying tlp).
A machine can crash any time. It is not only important to backup your data and scripts (or to have them stored in the cloud). You also want to backup all configurations of your apps so that you can restore them easily with a click. This is also important and useful if you want to sync all your configurations across multiple machines.
mackup is a great tool for this. It syncs a variety of config files and uploads these to a cloud of your choice. Under the hood, the config files will get soft-linked to your cloud which means that updating it on one machine will also trigger a change on all other machines.
On a new machine, you only need to run mackup restore to have all your settings back. Unfortunately it does not work with Windows but if you are reading this guide, you are most likely not on Windows anymore ;-).
GitHub - cereda/arara: arara is a TeX automation tool based on rules and directives. An automatization tool for TeX: pac install arara-git. However, lately I use the latex-workshop extention in Visual Studio Code for all my LaTex stuff.
trizen -S perl-log-dispatch perl-dbix-log4perl perl-file-homedir perl-unicode-linebreak.
It’s also integrad in the latex-workshop extention in Visual Studio Code.
I use the Dracula scheme in almost all applications. While its comes integrated into RStudio, here are installation instructions for Kate and Tilix. Alternatively I like the tomorrow-night-eighties theme lately.
I enjoy using Fira Code. I use it as a coding font in all editors (monospace ftw) but also as a system wide font (the “medium” variant) with size 10. Another great monospace coding font is Iosevka.
There are two awesome icon themes: Papirus and numix.
Try them and choose for yourself. You will see what a tremendous impact good icons can have on your daily work.
My overall desktop theme favorite is “Adapta”. Set it via “System Settings -> Workspace theme -> Desktop Theme”. For “Look and Feel” I prefer “Arc Dark”.
To install these, simply click on “Get new looks” on the bottom right when you are in “System Settings -> Workspace theme”.
Set the environment variable QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME to "qt5ct" (add set -gx QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME "qt5ct" in .config/fish/config.fish).
Run qt5ct and change the settings to your liking. Note: The default GNOME font is “Cantarell Regular 11pt”. To select the default KDE “Adwaita” theme, you need to install it first: trizen -s adwaita-qt5.
To create presentations I use the R package xaringan. Usually I convert the resulting HTML slides to PDF using decktape (install with trizen -s nodejs-decktape) and present the talk using impressive (install with trizen -s impressive).
Some devices need to install the “synaptic touchpad drivers” to enable the a “soft-click” window activation. trizen -s xf86-input-libinput.
pacmanity: Each time you install a package, this tool adds the package to a Github Gist. This Gist stores all of your installed packages. Here’s mine. | 2019-04-21T04:55:47Z | https://pjs-web.de/post/arch-install-guide-for-r/ |
Purpose: Loss of integrity of either the inner or outer mitochondrial membrane results in the dissipation of the mitochondrial electrochemical gradient that leads to mitochondrial membrane permeability transition (mMPT). This study emphasizes the role of glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK-3β) in maintaining mitochondrial membrane potential, thus preventing mitochondrial depolarization (hereafter termed mitoprotection). Using 3-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-(1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (SB216763), an inhibitor of GSK-3β, and drawing a distinction between it and 1,4-diamino-2,3-dicyano-1,4-bis[2-aminophenylthio] butadiene (UO126), an inhibitor of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation, the means by which GSK-3β influences mitoprotection in cultured human lens epithelial (HLE-B3) cells and normal, secondary cultures of bovine lens epithelial cells, maintained in atmospheric oxygen, was investigated.
Methods: Virally transfected human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) and normal cultures of bovine lens epithelial cells were exposed to acute hypoxic conditions (about 1% O2) followed by exposure to atmospheric oxygen (about 21% O2). Specific antisera and western blot analysis was used to examine the state of phosphorylation of ERK and GSK-3β, as well as the phosphorylation of a downstream substrate of GSK-3β, glycogen synthase (GS, useful in monitoring GSK-3β activity). The potentiometric dye, 1H-benzimidazolium-5,6-dichloro-2-[3-(5,6-dichloro-1,3-diethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-ylidene)-1-propenyl]-1,3-diethyl-iodide (JC-1), was used to monitor mitochondrial depolarization upon exposure of inhibitor treatment relative to the control cells (mock inhibition) in atmospheric oxygen. Caspase-3 activation was scrutinized to determine whether mitochondrial depolarization inevitably leads to apoptosis.
Results: Treatment of HLE-B3 cells with SB216763 (12 µM) inactivated GSK-3β activity as verified by the enzyme’s inability to phosphorylate its substrate, GS. SB216763-treated cells were not depolarized relative to the control cells as demonstrated with JC-1 fluorescent dye analysis. The HLE-B3 cells treated with UO126, which similarly blocked phosphorylation of GS, were nevertheless prone to mMPT relative to the control cells. Western blot analysis determined that Bcl-2-associated X (BAX) levels were unchanged for SB216763-treated or UO126-treated HLE-B3 cells when compared to their respective control cells. However, unlike the SB216763-treated cells, the UO126-treated cells showed a marked absence of Bcl-2, as well as phosphorylated Bcl-2 relative to the controls. UO126 treatment of bovine lens epithelial cells showed similar results with pBcl-2 levels, while the Bcl-2 content appeared unchanged relative to the control cells. HLE-B3 and normal bovine lens cell cultures showed susceptibility to mMPT associated with the loss of pBcl-2 by UO126 treatment.
Conclusions: Mitochondrial depolarization may occur by one of two key occurrences: interruption of the electrochemical gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane resulting in mMPT or by disruption of the integrity of the inner or outer mitochondrial membrane. The latter scenario is generally tightly regulated by members of the Bcl-2 family of proteins. Inhibition of GSK-3β activity by SB216763 blocks mMPT by preventing the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. UO126, likewise, inhibits GSK-3β activity, but unlike SB216763, inhibition of ERK phosphorylation induces the loss of intracellular pBcl-2 levels under conditions where intracellular BAX levels remain constant. These results suggest that the lenticular mitoprotection normally afforded by the inactivation of GSK-3β activity may, however, be bypassed by a loss of pBcl-2, an anti-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family. Bcl-2 prevents the translocation of BAX to the mitochondrial outer membrane inhibiting depolarization by disrupting the normal electrochemical gradient leading to mMPT.
The dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψ) occurs in a process termed mitochondrial permeability transition (mMPT) . Lens epithelial cells represent an ideal model for studying mMPT because the lens thrives in a naturally hypoxic environment, and introducing atmospheric oxygen increases the formation of reactive oxygenated species (ROS), which, in turn, may cause a loss of ∆Ψ [1,2]. The current literature suggests that mMPT is mediated via the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore [3-5]. Studies have shown that glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK-3β) is immediately proximal to the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and acts as a point of integration for many protective signals . Thus, GSK-3β is a crucial enzyme involved in preventing mMPT through regulating the opening and closing of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore [7,8]. Additional studies involving ischemic reperfusion of cardiac myocytes have demonstrated that inhibiting GSK-3β can prevent the dissipation of ∆Ψ during oxidative stress [9-11].
One of the multiple protective proteins that converge on GSK-3β is the phosphorylated form of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) . Flynn et al. has previously demonstrated that after RNA suppresses ERK ∆Ψ collapses during oxidative stress in human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) cells. Furthermore, studies conducted on metastatic carcinoma cells have shown that phosphorylated ERK can cause GSK-3β to become phosphorylated at its inhibitory serine, thus inactivating the enzyme . Combined, these studies suggest that ERK can prevent the disruption of ∆Ψ by inactivating GSK-3β, presumably blocking the opening of the mitochondrial transition pore. However, as will be demonstrated in this study, inhibiting ERK phosphorylation can, itself, cause mitochondrial depolarization regardless of the activity of GSK-3β.
To date, the role that GSK-3β plays regarding preventing mitochondrial depolarization has not been established in an ocular system. In the current study, we demonstrate that inactivating GSK-3β activity (as monitored by its failure to phosphorylate glycogen synthase) using the pharmacological inhibitor SB216763 has a regulatory function in preventing mitochondrial depolarization. Furthermore, this study will reveal that the mitoprotection normally afforded by GSK-3β inactivation may be circumvented by inhibiting ERK phosphorylation, which culminates in inhibition of Bcl-2 phosphorylation, an anti-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family.
The Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase-1/2 (MEK1/2) inhibitor 1,4-diamino-2,3-dicyano-1,4-bis[2-aminophenylthio] butadiene (UO126) was purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA). The glycogen synthase kinase inhibitor 3-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-(1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (SB216763) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitors SP600125 (JNK Inhibitor II) and AS601245 (JNK Inhibitor V) were purchased from EMD Millipore Chemicals (Billerica, MA). Stock inhibitors were prepared by adding to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as follows: 20 mM for UO126, 16 mM for SB216763, 40 mM for SP600125, and 40 mM for AS601245. The mitochondrial dye 1H-benzimidazolium-5,6-dichloro-2-[3-(5,6-dichloro-1,3-diethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-ylidene)-1-propenyl]-1,3-diethyl-iodide (JC-1) was obtained from Life Technologies (Grand Island, NY). All other reagents were acquired from other commercially available sources as previously reported .
HLE-B3 cells, a human lens epithelial cell line immortalized by the SV-40 virus , were obtained from U. Andley (Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, St. Louis, MO). Authentication of the HLE-B3 cell line was verified with STR profile analysis (American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA), which confirmed that the cell line was human and of female origin, as originally reported by Andley et al. . A copy of the STR profile is available upon request. All studies with HLE-B3 cells were performed with prefrozen stock cells (maintained in liquid nitrogen) between passages 14 and 17. No experiments exceeded five passages beyond the initial stock cell passage. The cells were maintained in minimal essential media (MEM) containing 5.5 mM glucose supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum (Gemini Bio-Products, Sacramento, CA), 2 mM L-glutamine, nonessential amino acids, and 0.02 g/l gentamycin solution (Sigma-Aldrich) and cultured at 37 °C and 5% CO2–95% O2 . Cells were sub-cultured 4 to 5 days before the experiment and placed in MEM containing 20% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Twenty-four hours before the day of the experiment, the cells were switched to serum-free MEM. Unless otherwise specified, all experiments followed a common protocol: Cells were maintained in atmospheric O2 (about 21%) for 90 min, then switched to hypoxic conditions (about 1% O2) for 180 min, followed by reintroduction to atmospheric O2. Each experiment was executed with control DMSO-only cells (mock inhibitor treatment) and cells treated with inhibitors. The DMSO concentration per experiment never exceeded 0.05%.
Bovine eyes obtained from a local abattoir were transported on ice to the laboratory, where the lenses were removed aseptically. Bovine lens epithelial cells (BLECs) were isolated and cultured in 20% bovine calf serum–supplemented Eagle’s minimal essential medium. All studies with BLECs were performed on cells of passage 2.
Whole cell lysates were collected from HLE-B3 cultures using the hot protein extraction method as described by Henrich et al. . The cell cultures were rinsed at room temperature in final concentration: 150 mM sodium chloride, 10 mM sodium phosphate monobasic, 40 mM sodium phosphate dibasic), pH 7.4, before the monolayers were lysed with hot lysis buffer (about 100 °C), subsequently scraped into 1.7 ml micro centrifuge tubes, and immediately sonicated. The lysis buffer consisted of 0.12 M Tris-HCl (pH 6.8), 4% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and 20% glycerol . Part of the lysate samples were removed and used to determine the protein concentration. The protein concentration was calculated by using a DC protein assay kit from Bio-Rad (Hercules, CA). The lysate samples contained 25 µg of protein, 1X SDS laemmli buffer, and 1.5 µl 2-mercaptoethanol (Sigma-Aldrich). The lysate samples were then boiled for 5 min and the proteins resolved on 12% SDS-polyacrylamide gels. The proteins were then transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane (Bio-Rad). The electrophoresis and western blot apparatus were from Hoefer Scientific (Holliston, MA).
For western blot analysis, nitrocellulose membranes were blocked with 0.1% BSA and 0.02% Tween-20 in Tris-buffered saline (TTBS) for 60 min. These membranes were probed overnight at 4 °C with primary antibodies at a 1:1,000 dilution. The blots were then rinsed in TTBS for 5 min 4X and then incubated in either goat anti-rabbit horseradish peroxidase conjugate or goat anti-mouse horseradish peroxidase conjugate at 1:10,000 dilution (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) for 60 min at room temperature. Blots were again rinsed in TTBS (4X 5 min washes), and proteins were detected using a SuperSignal West Pico chemiluminescent kit from Pierce (Rockford, IL) . Probed membranes were visualized on a Fluoro Chem TM 8900 imager (Alpha Innotech, San Leandro, CA).
Primary antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA). The antibodies used in this study included rabbit anti-Bcl-2-associated X (BAX), rabbit anti-glycogen synthase, rabbit anti-phosphoglycogen synthase (Ser641), rabbit anti-phospho-GSK-3β (Ser9), rabbit anti-GSK-3β, mouse anti-phospho-p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (Thr202/Tyr204), rabbit anti-p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase, rabbit anti-phospho-Bcl-2 (Ser70), rabbit anti-Bcl-2, and rabbit anti-phospho-c-Jun (Ser63). Rabbit anti-actin was provided by Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA).
After the HLE-B3 cells were subjected to inhibitor treatments, the cells were stained with JC-1 to determine the mitochondrial membrane potential. JC-1 is a membrane permeant lipophilic dye that exists as J-aggregates in the mitochondrial matrix (red fluorescence) and as monomers in the cytoplasm (green fluorescence). During mitochondrial depolarization, the red J-aggregates flow out of the mitochondria and accumulate in the cytosol as green monomers . Thus, depolarization can be measured as an increasing green fluorescent/red fluorescent intensity ratio.
The JC-1 assay was performed as follows. HLE-B3 cell monolayers were maintained in serum-free MEM with or without inhibitor treatment, brought through atmospheric oxygen into hypoxia, and then later switched back to atmospheric oxygen as described above. At the end of the hypoxic exposure, the hypoxic media on cells (oxygen depleted) were poured off, and fresh (oxygen rich) serum-free MEM (with or without an inhibitor) was added containing 5 µg/ml JC-1 for 30 min in a tissue culture incubator. The stained HLE-B3 cells were then rinsed twice using serum-free MEM, and fresh oxygenated serum-free MEM (with or without inhibitor, but no JC-1 dye) was added. A random field of cells was imaged every 2.5 min for 60 min using an X10 objective on a confocal microscope (Ziess LSM410, LSM410, Thornwood, NY). The excitation wavelength was 488 nm, and the microscope was set to simultaneously detect green emission (540 nm) and red emission (595 nm) channels using a dual bandpass filter .
A caspase-3 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA; Invitrogen, Camarillo, CA) was used to determine apoptosis. HLE-B3 cell monolayers were maintained in serum-free MEM with or without treatment and brought through our experimental protocol, which included atmospheric oxygen into 3 h of hypoxia, and then subsequently switched back to atmospheric oxygen. Treatment included SB216763 (12 µM), UO126 (10 µM), staurosporine (100 nM), or 0.05% DMSO vehicle maintained throughout the course of the experiment. Sixty minutes after atmospheric oxygen was reintroduced, all samples were then lysed using our lysis buffer (0.12 M Tris-HCl [pH 6.8], 4% SDS, and 20% glycerol). Part of the lysate samples was removed and used to determine the protein concentration. The protein concentration was calculated by using a DC protein assay kit (Bio-Rad). Apoptotic activity was determined following the manufacturer’s protocol using 10 µg of protein.
Images from JC-1 confocal microscopy were separated into individual red and green channels using ImageJ (Baltimore, MD). The background fluorescence was removed from each image before the intensity was measured. The fluorescence intensity signal from each image was quantified for the entire image and expressed as the ratio of green fluorescent intensity over red fluorescent intensity. Western blot densitometry was determined using ImageJ, and related statistics was determined using GraphPad Prism 5 (La Jolla, CA).
JC-1 analysis of the DMSO mock-treated cells exposed to various cell culture conditions was implemented to determine whether environmental stress (i.e., hypoxia, atmospheric oxygen, or reversal from one condition to the other) elicited mitochondrial depolarization. Four conditions were tested: cells grown in constant atmospheric oxygen, cells switched from atmospheric oxygen to hypoxia, cells switched from hypoxia to atmospheric oxygen, and cells maintained in continuous hypoxia. Under all tested conditions, the cells did not depolarize, indicating that continuous hypoxia, atmospheric oxygen, and switching cell culture environments (hypoxia to atmospheric oxygen or atmospheric oxygen to hypoxia) do not induce depolarization (Figure 1).
To investigate the role GSK-3β plays in regulating cellular mitoprotection with cells maintained in hypoxia and subsequently exposed to atmospheric oxygen, HLE-B3 cells were treated with the GSK-3β inhibitor, SB216763. Non-phosphorylated GSK-3β is the active form of the enzyme, and in this form, the enzyme is capable of phosphorylating numerous downstream substrates including glycogen synthase (GS) . The phosphorylation of GS is thus a useful parameter for monitoring GSK-3β activity. Cultures of HLE-B3 cells were grown on 100 mm dishes until >85% confluence. Cells were treated with 12 µM SB216763 or mock-treated with DMSO (control). After 90 min in ambient oxygen, the cells were placed under hypoxic conditions (about 1% O2) for 3 h and then switched back to atmospheric oxygen (about 21% O2) for 3 h. Samples were collected from cells consistently maintained in atmospheric oxygen (control), immediately after hypoxic exposure and 1 h, 2 h, and 3 h of reexposure to atmospheric oxygen. Western blot analysis showed that the HLE-B3 cells subjected to SB216763 treatment had levels of GSK-3β and phosphoglycogen synthase kinase-3beta (pGSK-3β) similar to those of the controls (Figure 2). However, treatment with SB216763 resulted in inhibition of phosphorylation of GS. The failure to phosphorylate GS indicates the active site of GSK-3β was inactivated. The continued presence of pGSK-3β in the treated cells was because the autophosphorylation site of GSK-β was unaffected by SB216763 . A key question that we wished to address in this study was whether inhibiting GSK-3β activity positively correlated with preventing mitochondrial depolarization. In a recent related study , we observed that SB216763-treated cells monitored for mMPT using emission spectroscopy displayed suppressed mitochondrial depolarization relative to the control DMSO mock-treated cells.
A parallel experiment, using the MEK1/2 inhibitor, UO126, was also conducted on HLE-B3 cells to determine whether inhibiting ERK1/2 phosphorylation had any impact on the phosphorylation of GSK-3β and GS. Lens cells were treated with 10 µM UO126 or DMSO and subsequently placed in hypoxic conditions for 3 h. Following the hypoxic exposure, new media were added to the culture dishes, and the cells were exposed to atmospheric oxygen for up to 3 h in the continued presence and absence of UO126. Lysates of these cells were collected from cells maintained consistently in atmospheric oxygen, after the hypoxic exposure and 1 h, 2 h, and 3 h after atmospheric oxygen was reintroduced. Analysis of the western blot membranes showed marked inhibition of p42 ERK1/2 and p44 ERK1/2 (Figure 3, upper panel, left) relative to the control cells. The loss of ERK1/2 phosphorylation did not affect the relative levels of GSK-3β or pGSK-3β compared with the DMSO controls (Figure 3, upper panel, right), whereas inhibiting ERK phosphorylation prevented the downstream phosphorylation of GS. Therefore, the configuration of the ratio of pGSK-3β/GSK-3β and pGS/GS appeared identical irrespective of whether SB216763 or UO126 was used (compare the bar graphs of Figure 2 and Figure 3). Given the similarity in the profile of the ratio of pGSK-3β/GSK-3β and pGS/GS, a critical question was whether UO126-treated cells, similar to SB216763-treated cells, likewise prevented mitochondrial depolarization relative to the control DMSO mock-treated cells or whether UO126-treated cells were prone to mMPT.
Parallel studies were conducted using JC-1 analysis. HLE-B3 cells were treated with 10 µM UO126 or DMSO and then placed under hypoxic conditions for 3 h. The cells were exposed to the JC-1 dye for 30 min in atmospheric oxygen. Following the JC-1 application, fresh media with U0126 or DMSO were added to the culture plates. The cells were subsequently observed with confocal microscopy and the green and red intensities recorded every 2.5 min for 60 min. The green to red ratio of the UO126-treated cells markedly increased over the time course relative to the control cells, indicating the loss of ∆Ψ (Figure 3, bottom panel).
As discussed above, comparison of the western blots for pGSK-3β/GSK-3β and pGS/GS between the two inhibitor treatments generated profiles that were similar, if not, identical (compare Figure 2 and Figure 3). However, whereas treatment with the GSK-3β inhibitor, SB216763, likely blocked opening of the mitochondrial membrane permeability transition pores, effectively suppressing depolarization , treatment with UO126 elicited profound depolarization relative to the control cells (Figure 3, bottom panel). We therefore examined in greater detail the outcome of each inhibitor on the BAX, Bcl-2, and pBcl-2 levels.
Lysates from all experimental treatments were evaluated to determine the levels of Bcl-2, pBcl-2, and BAX. Western blot membranes from the SB216763- and UO126-treated cells relative to their respective controls indicated no alteration in the levels of BAX for the treated and control cells (Figure 4, upper panel and Figure 5, upper panel). The relative levels of pBcl-2 and Bcl-2 were not altered for the SB216763-treated cells compared with the control cells (Figure 4, middle panel). In contrast, the UO126-treated cells displayed significantly diminished levels of pBcl-2 under all culture conditions, including normoxic control, hypoxic exposure, and the reintroduction of oxygen subsequent to hypoxic exposure (Figure 5, middle panel); a significant loss of Bcl-2 was also observed but, interestingly, only during the reintroduction of oxygen phase (Figure 5, middle panel).
Of particular note, treatment with UO126 (Figure 5, upper panel, left and bottom panels) but not with SB216763 (Figure 4, upper panel left and bottom panel) prevented the phosphorylation of c-JUN, through all culture conditions. The phosphorylation of c-Jun is a useful parameter for monitoring JNK activity. That is, UO126, while effectively inhibiting ERK phosphorylation (refer to Figure 3, upper panel, left), was nonetheless equally effective in inactivating JNK activity. This observation imposed a burden of proof upon us to determine whether the ERK pathway or the JNK pathway negatively impacted the pBcl-2 levels.
HLE-B3 cells were treated with JNK inhibitors, SP600125 (5 µM, 10 µM, or 20 µM), AS601245 (5 µM, and 10 µM, 20 µM), or DMSO vehicle (control). Phosphorylated JNK is the active form of the enzyme, and in this form, the enzyme is capable of phosphorylating numerous downstream substrates, including c-Jun. The phosphorylation of c-Jun is thus a useful parameter for monitoring JNK activity. Treated and control cells were placed in hypoxic conditions for 3 h and then switched to atmospheric oxygen for 3 h. After the switch to atmospheric oxygen, the hypoxic media were removed from the cultures, and fresh oxygenated media containing either inhibitor or vehicle were added. Lysates of all the cells were collected after 3 h exposure in atmospheric oxygen. SP600125 and AP601245 markedly reduced phospho-c-Jun at all concentrations relative to the control cells (Figure 6). Further analysis indicated no change in the levels of BAX, Bcl-2, or pBcl-2 for cells treated with SP600125 or AS601245 versus cells treated with DMSO vehicle (Figure 6). A slight increase in the levels of pERK were observed with either inhibitor treatment cells relative to the control cells, the meaning of which is not immediately evident to us. However, whereas UO126 negatively impacted JNK activity (Figure 5), the JNK inhibitors did not cross-inactivate ERK phosphorylation (Figure 6). We therefore concluded that inhibition of the ERK pathway, not the JNK pathway, elicited the inhibition of phosphorylation of Bcl-2 (Figure 5).
To determine if the inhibition of ERK or GSK-3β activity influence the onset of apoptosis, an active caspase-3 ELISA was implemented. As above, the HLE-B3 cells were treated with either 12 µM SB216763, 10 µM UO126, or 0.05% DMSO. The 100 nM staurosporine concentration was used as a positive activator of caspase-3. Cells were incubated for 90 min and then placed in hypoxia for 180 min. At the end of the hypoxic exposure, the media were removed from the treated and untreated cells, and fresh media were added. The cells were then placed in atmospheric oxygen for 60 min. SB216763 and U0126 were administered throughout the duration of the experiment. At the end of this 60 min period, all samples were lysed with lysis buffer. The DMSO mock-treated cells displayed minimal capase-3 activation relative to the cells treated with staurosporine (positive control), which showed a significant increase in caspase-3 activity (Figure 7). The UO126- and SB216763-treated cells demonstrated levels of capase-3 activity similar to the DMSO mock-treated cells (Figure 7). The lack of caspase-3 activity in the UO126- and SB216763-treated cells indicate that apoptosis did not occur in the presence of either inhibitor, although the UO126 treatment elicited mitochondrial membrane permeability transition (refer to Figure 3, bottom panel).
To determine that our results (and consequent interpretations) had not been compromised by the viral transformation of the HLE-B3 cells, we repeated the UO126 treatment, as described above with HLE-B3 cells, with secondary cultures of normal bovine lens epithelial cells. Inhibition of p42 ERK1/2 and p44 ERK1/2 relative to the control cells was noted (Figure 8, upper panel). As with the HLE-B3 cells (Figure 3, upper panel, right), neither GSK-3β nor pGSK-3β (Figure 8, middle panel) was diminished, compared with the DMSO controls. Likewise, inhibition of ERK phosphorylation prevented the downstream phosphorylation of GS (compare Figure 3, upper panel, right and Figure 8, middle panel).
We further investigated the effect of UO126 treatment on BAX, Bcl-2, and pBcl-2 levels using secondary cultures of bovine lens epithelial cells. Lysates were evaluated with western blot analysis to determine the levels of BAX, Bcl-2, and pBcl-2. Western blot membranes from the UO126-treated cells relative to their respective controls indicated some lane loading variability, but no obvious loss, in the levels of BAX (Figure 8, bottom panel), similar to that of the HLE-B3 cells (Figure 5, upper left panel). As with the HLE-B3 cells (Figure 5, upper left panel), the UO126-treated cells displayed a significant reduction in pBcl-2 under all culture conditions: normoxic control, hypoxic exposure, and the reintroduction of oxygen (Figure 8, bottom panel). Of interest, unlike the HLE-B3 cells (Figure 5, middle panel) where a significant loss of Bcl-2 was noted (but only during the reintroduction of the oxygen phase), there was no dramatic reduction in the levels of Bcl-2 between the treated and untreated cells under any condition (Figure 8, bottom panel). Finally, as first observed with HLE-B3 cells (Figure 5, upper left panel), UO126 elicited the inhibition of phosphorylation of c-JUN, through all culture conditions (Figure 8, bottom panel).
Parallel studies with UO126 were conducted using JC-1 analysis. Normal bovine cell cultures were treated with 10 µM UO126 or DMSO and then placed under hypoxic conditions for 3 h. The cells were exposed to the JC-1 dye for 30 min in atmospheric oxygen. Following the JC-1 application, fresh media with U0126 or DMSO were added to the culture plates. The cells were subsequently observed with confocal microscopy and the green and red intensities recorded every 2.5 min for 60 min. As with the UO126-treated HLE-B3 cells (refer to Figure 3, bottom panel) the green to red ratio of the UO126-treated bovine lens cells markedly increased over the time course relative to the control cells, indicating the loss of ∆Ψ (Figure 9).
To establish our reference baseline, it was first necessary to demonstrate that the experimental manipulation of switching cells from hypoxia to atmospheric oxygen or vice versa, from atmospheric oxygen to hypoxia, was not, of itself, sufficient oxidative stress to elicit mitochondrial depolarization (Figure 1). Once established that the physical manipulation of switching cell cultures from one oxygen pressure to another did not impose mitochondrial depolarization, we investigated the regulatory function of GSK-3β insofar as its ability to convey mitochondrial resistance to depolarization.
First, we sought to clarify whether blocking GSK-3β’s autophosphorylation site or inactivating its catalytic active site conferred prevention of mitochondrial depolarization. To monitor the enzyme’s active, catalytic site, we scrutinized the phosphorylation of a downstream substrate of GSK-3β, glycogen synthase (GS). Our data revealed that SB216763 did not block the autophosphorylation of GSK-3β relative to control cells, but successfully eliminated the phosphorylation of GS, indicating that the catalytic site of GSK-3β was inactivated (Figure 2). Stated another way, the failure to phosphorylate GS, but not the autophosphorylation site of GSK-3β, appears to be a better predictor of whether inhibiting GSK-3β’s enzymatic activity positively correlates with blocking mitochondrial membrane permeability transition. In a recent report using the specific GSK-3β inhibitor, SB216763, we demonstrated that “inhibition of GSK-3β activity by SB216763 blocked mitochondrial membrane permeability transition relative to the slow but consistent depolarization observed with the control cells.” We concluded that inhibiting GSK-3β activity with the GSK-3β inhibitor SB216763 provides positive protection against mitochondrial depolarization .
The role of GSK-3β and how it may be influenced by upstream signaling mechanisms has been the focus of numerous studies. “There is evidence in different cell types that anti-apoptotic responses can be mediated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and the Akt/PKB serine-threonine protein kinase, p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinases or extracellular response kinases (ERKs), Raf, and cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA).” To further delve into this issue, using the lens cell model, we compared and contrasted the pGSK-3β /GSK-3β, as well as the pGS /GS western blot profiles of cells treated with an inhibitor of ERK against the known catalytic site inhibitor of GSK-3β, SB216763 (refer to above). We followed up with a JC-1 evaluation to monitor whether ERK inhibitor treatment prompted mitochondrial depolarization or whether, like SB216763, inhibiting ERK phosphorylation imposed resistance to mitochondrial depolarization .
Similar to the treatment with SB216763 (Figure 2), treatment with UO126 had no effect on autophosphorylation of GSK-3β relative to the control cells, but successfully eliminated the phosphorylation of GS (Figure 3, upper panel, right). However, whereas treatment with SB216763 resulted in suppression of mitochondrial depolarization , unexpectedly, the UO126-treated cells displayed profound depolarization (Figure 3, bottom panel). We therefore sought to explain the apparent discrepancy between the similarity of the SB216763 and UO126 profiles of pGSK-3β/GSK-3β and pGS/GS and the observation that the former but not the latter (Figure 3) conferred resistance to mitochondrial depolarization.
Western blot analysis of HLE-B3 cells treated with SB216763 or UO126 showed that the BAX levels were unchanged relative to the untreated, control cells (compare Figure 4 versus Figure 5). Moreover, the BAX content of the UO126-treated normal bovine lens epithelial cells was similar relative to the control cells (Figure 8, bottom panel). These data support the notion that BAX does not play a direct role in lens epithelial cell resistance to mitochondrial depolarization. We therefore directed our attention to answering the question, “Is it the continuous expression of Bcl-2 or the phosphorylation of Bcl-2 that confers resistance to mitochondrial depolarization?” The UO126-treated virally transformed HLE-B3 cells, and the normal bovine lens epithelial cells demonstrated a propensity to depolarize (compare Figure 3, bottom panel and Figure 9). We took advantage of our observation that UO126 treatment with HLE-B3 cells instigated a loss of Bcl-2 (but only under the condition of reintroduction of oxygen (refer to Figure 5) whereas UO126-treatment with normal bovine lens epithelial cells did not diminish the levels of Bcl-2 (Figure 8, bottom panel), this although with both types of cells, a profound loss of pBcl-2 was apparent under all conditions (compare Figure 5, top panel, left with Figure 8, bottom panel). Therefore, since the bovine cells depolarized without the loss of Bcl-2, we conclude that pBcl-2 confers anti-depolarization resistance in lens epithelial cells.
Lei et al. 2002 [20-24] stated, “this phosphorylation has been reported to inhibit the pro-survival function of Bcl. This conclusion, however, is controversial as other studies have indicated that phosphorylation may enhance the anti-apoptotic actions of Bcl-2” [25-27]. Data from our study lend support to the latter statement in that the depolarization observed with UO126 treatment is caused by a lack of pBcl-2 (compare Figure 3 and Figure 5 with Figure 8 and Figure 9). The lack of pBcl-2 likely results in a loss of Bcl-2’s antiapoptotic function as reported by others. Cellular apoptosis is regulated, in part, by maintaining a balance between the levels of the prosurvival protein, Bcl-2, and the proapoptotic protein, BAX. BAX is a proapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family. Activation of BAX causes its translocation to the mitochondrial outer membrane and induces mitochondrial depolarization. However, before BAX can initiate this process, the protein must first translocate from the cytoplasm to the mitochondria. Bcl-2 influences apoptosis by regulating the translocation of BAX to the mitochondria [28,29]. Any decrease in the levels of Bcl-2 (or in our case, pBcl-2) is likely to permit the translocation of BAX from the cytosol to the mitochondria and induce mitochondrial depolarization. Disruption of the integrity of the outer mitochondrial membrane would then be the cause of the initiation of the loss of ∆Ψ, often cited as an early predictor of the onset of apoptosis.
Previous studies in our laboratory have shown that UO126 inhibits not only ERK phosphorylation but also JNK activity (unpublished data). Studies have shown that pJNK mediates the phosphorylation of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 [20-25]. Thus, as this relates to the studies described here, one possible explanation for the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential could have been attributed to the loss of JNK activity. To determine whether this was the case, we analyzed JNK activity with UO126 treatment. A common measure of JNK activity is to monitor the phosphorylation of one of its downstream substrates, c-Jun, where inhibition of the phosphorylation of c-Jun indicates inactivation of JNK. The level of phospho-c-Jun was similar with SB216763 treatment relative to control cells (Figure 4). UO126 inhibited c-Jun phosphorylation (Figure 5). Moreover, the resulting inhibition of c-Jun phosphorylation with treatment by UO126 was accompanied by an apparent loss of pBcl-2, thus suggesting a potential connection between the JNK pathway and mitoprotection (Figure 5). UO126 treatment, since it inhibited JNK activity, complicated our ability to definitively interpret the data, in that our results would not permit us to immediately distinguish whether the inhibition of phosphorylation of ERK or JNK influenced the downstream reduction in pBcl-2 levels.
It therefore became necessary to determine which of the two pathways, ERK or JNK, was influencing the phosphorylation of Bcl-2. HLE-B3 cells were treated with two specific inhibitors of JNK activation. Analysis of the levels of phospho-c-Jun revealed that SP600125 and AS601245 effectively reduced the levels of phospho-c-Jun relative to that of the controls without affecting the pBcl-2 levels (Figure 6). Collectively, the data reported in Figure 5 and Figure 6 allowed us to assert that inactivating JNK does not influence Bcl-2 phosphorylation. Instead, inhibiting ERK causes the loss of Bcl-2 phosphorylation. We therefore conclude that inhibiting ERK phosphorylation overrides the mitoprotection otherwise afforded by SB216763 presumably because of the loss of pBcl-2 (Figure 5 and Figure 8).
Mitochondrial depolarization is often cited as an early indicator of the onset of apoptosis. However, our studies establish that despite the mitochondrial depolarization initiated by UO126 treatment for HLE-B3 cells (Figure 3, bottom panel) in conjunction with the loss of pBcl-2 (Figure 5), the degree of the mitochondrial membrane permeability transition was at an insufficient level to induce apoptosis in human lens epithelial cells, as indicated by the lack of active caspase-3 (Figure 7). Our result is not all that unexpected because it has previously been shown that there is considerable intracellular heterogeneity in mitochondrial membrane potential of mitochondria . In effect, the degree of mitochondrial depolarization as indicated by the JC-1 dye represents the collective states of depolarization from a heterogeneous population of mitochondria. We conclude that one must exercise caution when equating mitochondrial depolarization with the onset of apoptosis. Cellular apoptosis/necrosis should be determined only after examination with annexin V/propidium iodide, DNA fragmentation, or caspase-3 or -9 cleavage, or some combination thereof.
In conclusion, the studies presented here further support our previous assertion that GSK-3β is a critical upstream regulator of mitochondrial membrane permeability transition for human lens epithelial cells cultured in atmospheric oxygen. In this study, we have established a direct relationship between the active catalytic site of GSK-3β and the normal functioning of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore to open and close. However, inhibiting ERK phosphorylation indirectly overrides the otherwise protective influence of GSK-3β to resist mitochondrial membrane permeability transition through a concomitant loss of pBcl-2 levels leading to mitochondrial depolarization. Restated, the fact that SB216763 and UO126 prevent the phosphorylation of GS suggests that GS phosphorylation, itself, may be regulated by one of the many signaling pathways activated by ERK independent of GSK-3β. At the same time, the ERK pathway also likely independently influences Bcl-2 phosphorylation. The mechanism by which UO126 administration leads to preventing phosphorylation of Bcl-2 is currently not understood and warrants further investigation.
Recent studies in our laboratory have shown that UO126 treatment elicits a significant decrease in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) but only upon reintroduction from hypoxia to atmospheric oxygen (unpublished observation). However, UO126 does not have an effect on VEGF expression in hypoxia-maintained cells . VEGF acts as a prosurvival factor in hypoxic lens epithelial cells by maintaining consistent expression of the prosurvival protein Bcl-2, which likely prevents the translocation of cytosolic BAX to the outer mitochondrial membrane, thus preventing the initiation of mitochondrial depolarization . Our laboratory is interested in regulating VEGF as a cell survival protein. Current studies in the laboratory are directed toward elucidating the potential role of GSK-3β in managing the sustained expression of VEGF and how VEGF expression regulates the levels of Bcl-2 and its phosphorylated counterpart as it influences downstream impact on lenticular mitoprotection in atmospheric oxygen (manuscript in preparation).
The authors express their gratitude to Lawrence Oakford for the preparation of all figures and images in this manuscript and to I-Fen Chang for technical support in obtaining the JC-1 image analysis data. | 2019-04-24T09:55:34Z | http://www.molvis.org/molvis/v19/2451/ |
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When I first headed along to LARP, almost four years ago now, I ate terribly. I don’t mean that I missed meals or forgot to eat, but rather I spent my weekends living on fast food and junk. Being a crew member at Profound Decisions comes with free meal tickets – and being skint and virtually homeless at the time I took full advantage. Burgers, chips, macaroni cheese – I ate them for every meal. With a full English in the mornings. And I supplemented those meals with snacks from the crew hut like flapjack brownies and, yes, Freddo’s by the fistful. It wasn’t a healthy diet I was fueling my body with.
It was great. Well, unless I realised that eating like this at LARP events was making me quite unwell. I’m not a big person either – at 5ft tall and slim I just couldn’t continue putting away portions designed to fuel LARPers that were twice the size of me. Moving in with my partner and doing a wider variety of games (other than just fests) also made me reconsider the way that I was eating at LARP events and something had to change.
Now I’m not saying that everyone should eat healthy food when they’re away at LARP (or at any other time in their life) but there does seem to be a certain expected ‘burger van’ culture of catering at many events – especially fests. And if you don’t want to eat that kind of food it can be difficult to find healthy alternatives. I should also give a huge shout out here to people like The Grange, Goldbird Catering, and The Gaol who have all supplied balanced food for events I’ve been at. Over the last two years the Profound Decisions crew hut supplies have hugely improved too – fresh fruit is now a permanent fixture alongside the chocolate bars!
But anyway – I digress. The best thing that my partner and I did this year was buy a 4m bell tent with Frontier stove. I will lovingly froth at everyone about how much this has changed my crewing experience. The Frontier essentially gives me a convenient stove top for cooking on, and it usually takes less than half an hour to get warmed up. I take with me to events an enamel casserole and some balti dishes, and that’s all the cooking pots I need for the two of us and the odd friend.
This is the food I’ve just packed for the last Empire LRP of the season. Having cooked for the best part of a year, I think I’ve started to get the hang of what I need to take and what I don’t in order to eat healthily. So I’d like to share, as a starting point, some of the things I have found that work for me. (These are largely referral links to Amazon – I make a few pennies towards site costs if you order things from the website once you’ve clicked on the link).
Courgettes and carrots. This is basically where you ‘add veg to taste’ (or meat, I guess – but the advantage of vegetarian catering at events is that you don’t have to worry about meat spoiling). Courgettes work brilliantly in curry and carrots for tagine. I also tend to pick up a bag of spinach or spring greens for the cool bag.
This crate stays more or less packed between events and I just top it up as we run low. It’s full of things with long shelf lives that I can mostly pull meals together from, as well as breakfasts and light lunches.
The Spice Tailor. I was bored and hungry in Tesco one day; what I really fancied was a takeaway curry but instead I found these. They aren’t cheap (around £3 a pack) so you could instead just buy cheaper jars of sauces, but they’re honestly worth every penny to feel like you’re eating well. They contain separate bags of spices, onion and garlic, and sauce meaning that it’s almost like cooking a curry from scratch. I always have tins of tomato and coconut milk stashed in the basket to just extend the sauce slightly, and I cook whatever healthy vegetables I have on hand in it (usually with a tin of chickpeas added and some naan bread alongside instead of rice). The Rogan Josh is pretty excellent as is the Fiery Goan Curry. I’m basically working my way through the whole range at each event I go to.
Gastro Moroccan Tagine. I did cook a tagine from scratch in a lovely heavy Le Creuset* shallow casserole at the first event we took the stove to. It was great. But it was an awful lot of messing about while I was crewing. (If I was playing I’d proberbly make the effort one night at an event if I had more time to sit around in camp.) Instead I have succumbed to the way of convenience and I now buy this Lloyd Grossman sauce. I keep sultanas and tinned chickpeas in the crate ready to add to some fresh vegetables, and there are even little packets of couscous (because those big packs, they always end up splitting and going everywhere).
Tinned vegetables. Peas, sweetcorn, even fried onion in case I forget real onions (or just don’t feel like chopping them up). They can all quickly be dumped into one pot meals to add variety or extend it for unexpected guests.
Beanfeast Bolognese* and Super Rice*. This is mostly my partners contribution and I am a reluctant convert. You just add hot water. And they taste pretty good too.
Sugar Free Red Bull*. I do actually like the taste. And it’s only 12 calories which is far better than most sweet, fizzy drinks.
Hot drinks. Events can get cold. And I don’t know about you, but I can’t function without a hot drink in the mornings. The tupperware box in the photo has a selection of different herbal teas that just need hot water. They’re mostly Clipper*. Sometimes I find myself thinking I’m hungry when I’m actually a bit bored (it’s a bit like when I get up from the sofa and open the fridge at home with no real purpose). So I drink herbal tea. My regular tea of choice is Clipper Organic*. And the instant coffee that we take to events is Nescafe Azera because it doesn’t taste totally foul. If I have space I sometimes take a V60 drip coffee maker* and some fresh coffee, or an Aeropress*.
Breakfast. It’s important when I’m trying to eat healthily that I start the day well. I’ve got three options this weekend: The first are porridge sachets*. You’re supposed to microwave them, but they’re just as easy on the stove top (and at 50 for £11, it’s a no-brainer). Lately I’ve got myself a bit hooked on this Fuel 10k chocolate granola* (I usually get it from Tesco). To make it simpler for events, I’ve pre-measured portions into little snack bags and I’ll pack some yoghurts in the cool bag. Lastly are the Fuel 10k liquid breakfasts*. I’ve always hated these kind of meal replacement drinks with a passion because they taste of dust and cardboard, but these are pretty good. I drink them regularly before 0630hrs gym classes when I’m not at events. Since they don’t need a fridge and they have a long date, they’re good and relatively healthy standbys.
Snacks. If the event doesn’t provide a crew hut with fruit I usually add apples and bananas to the basket. Other than that, it’s just the usual stuff: Soreen bars, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate bars and some little packs of crisp things. Basically – whatever is on offer in the Supermarket that week. Itsu’s individual packets of Miso soup* are my other hidden gem for snacks. Add hot water to the paste and you have a strong tasting broth that makes you feel like you’ve eaten.
I’ve not included the contents of the coolbag in the post above. To be honest, for Empire it’s mostly just milk, yoghurts, and booze that I’ve put in the freezer first to act as ice packs. My cool bag is a £3.50 Ikea one. It’s not great, but it just about does three days if you put enough frozen stuff in (I fill the space with frozen bottles of water).
Next year my plan is to do my LARP store-cupboard shopping all in one go at the beginning of the season. I’m hoping to take advantage of service likes Amazon Pantry (if you’ve not tried that yet you really should) and offers at the supermarkets to make it as cheap as possible. If you have any suggestions for healthy recipes that can be largely bought and prepped in advance or brilliant products that you couldn’t live with out, drop us a line in the comments!
I hope that this post convinces you that with a little planning it’s not too arduous a task to cook relatively healthy meals at events. From starting the fire to eating I rarely spend more than an hour cooking in the evening. While group catering and campfire cooking can be enjoyable, you can also have the benefits of healthy food without the time-sink. | 2019-04-22T16:04:55Z | http://larp.guide/2016/09/healthy-food-for-larp/ |
The South Fork of the American River is everyone’s favorite California river! As the river flows through the heart of Gold Country, it includes rapids which are challenging yet not extreme. There is plenty of time for you and your rafting companions to indulge in family or group bonding, playful joke telling, and spirited water fighting. In-between the rapids, there’s always a little time for a refreshing swim in the cool, clear water.
The South Fork’s long season and its close proximity to Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and the San Francisco Bay Area make this an extremely accessible river trip. The Chili Bar half-day trip is named after a population of Chileans who settled on the South Fork of the American during the California Gold Rush; the trip is short and sweet, with plenty of adventure for both novice and experienced rafters!
The South Fork’s exciting Class III whitewater is near-perfect fun for the whole family! The water on the South Fork is released during summer months from hydroelectric facilities located upstream. Such water releases are not subject to the control of El Dorado County or commercial rafting companies.
To increase your safety, we expect everyone to watch our 23-minute Whitewater Orientation video before joining us. Watch at www.oars.com/experience/safety/ or call 800-346-6277 to request a free DVD. Please don’t leave home without watching.
We meet near our camp store at the OARS American River Outpost at 9:00 AM. Roads around here are winding, so please be sure to allow for plenty of travel time. Our river-side campground and base of operations is in the heart of the twin towns of Lotus and Coloma. Our peaceful hideaway is surrounded by plenty of history, recreational opportunities and cultural activities.
Once everyone has arrived, the guides will deliver an orientation and safety talk and fit you with your safety gear. We will then take a 25-minute shuttle ride to the Chili Bar put-in point, where your boats and the rest of your OARS crew await. After practicing your paddle strokes with your guide, we will head downriver to the infamous rapid named Meatgrinder!
Beautiful river scenes stretch out around us with redtail hawks soaring overhead and the occasional river otter swimming near shore. Exciting rapids like Racehorse Bend, Maya and Triple Threat await us on this enjoyable run! After a short section of class I-II whitewater, we find ourselves at the notorious “Troublemaker” rapid. This solid, class III rapid packs an exhilarating ride. Be sure to smile as we make our way through this rapid as there are often onlookers watching from the shore.
After floating by the historic town of Coloma and the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where gold was originally discovered in 1848, your trip begins to wind down—but not without a few more stories from your personable and knowledgeable guide. Once we return to the campground, we encourage you to stick around awhile: explore our nature trails, play campground games or just savor your time along the river.
We’ll meet you near our camp store at 9:00 AM at the OARS American River Outpost, located at 7330 River Park Drive, behind Hotshot Imaging’s store in Lotus. Click here for a Google Map.
From Sacramento on U.S. Hwy 50: Follow Hwy 50 east toward Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. Take the Ponderosa Road exit (Exit #37), turn left onto Ponderosa/S. Shingle Road and cross over the freeway. At the second stop light, take the right turn on N. Shingle Rd toward Coloma/Lotus.
After about 4.5 miles N. Shingle Road turns into Lotus Road—continue going straight for about 6 more miles. As you approach Lotus, pass through the town’s first stop sign and continue to the 3-way stop sign intersection with Hwy 49. Turn left onto Hwy 49 (north) and cross the bridge over the South Fork of the American. Immediately after crossing the river, you will see the “River Park” shopping center on the left, with signs for Hotshot Imaging. Please use the center’s second entrance, where a left-turn lane is provided at River Park Drive. Look to the back of the center, where you will see the entrance to our American River Outpost.
From South Lake Tahoe: Take Hwy 50 west to Placerville. Turn right on Hwy 49 (north) and follow the directions from Placerville listed below.
From Placerville: Proceed north on winding Hwy 49 for about 9.5 miles (about 20—25 minutes) through the town of Coloma. Just past Coloma and the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, cross the bridge over the South Fork of the American. Right after crossing the river, you will see the “River Park” shopping center on the left, with signs for Hotshot Imaging. Please use the center’s second entrance, where a left-turn lane is provided at River Park Drive. Look to the back of the center, where you will see the entrance to our campground.
From Reno/North Lake Tahoe: Take Interstate 80 west to Auburn. Take Hwy 49 south from Auburn for about 17 miles (about 30 minutes), arriving in the Coloma/Lotus area. After passing through Lotus’ 3-way stop sign (intersection with Marshall Grade Road), continue past the gas station and look for us behind the “River Park” shopping center on the right. Before Hotshot Imaging’s building, turn right onto River Park Drive and look for the entrance to our campground in the back of the retail center.
The closest major airport is in Sacramento (SMF), which is served by most major airlines and car rental companies. Oakland (OAK), San Francisco (SFO) and Reno (RNO) are within a 3-hour drive.
One night of FREE camping before or after your trip is available at the OARS American River Outpost in Lotus for everyone who goes rafting with us; additional nights of camping and all nights of camping for non-rafters are $10 per person/night. Advance reservations are required. Please ask an Adventure Consultant about the details of staying at our beautiful riverside camp or click here.
We recommend you make reservations well in advance in order to guarantee lodging.
You may want to check one week prior to your trip for an up-to-date weather forecast. We recommend you check the following web sites for weather in Coloma, CA: www.weather.com or www.accuweather.com.
Ability to remain seated and balanced while in a whitewater craft while holding on with at least one hand.
Wear a Type V Coast Guard-approved personal floatation device (maximum chest size of 56 inches). Wearing leg straps may be required to ensure proper fit. Where required, properly wear a helmet.
Ability to independently board and disembark a boat four to ten times each day. This may require stepping into the boat, and then maneuvering your body over and across tubes and fixed objects into a seated position.
Ability to independently navigate shoreline terrain, including safely maneuvering around and across boulders, rocks, and slippery and uneven surfaces, under low branches, and around vegetation. This includes the ability to maintain your balance near precipitous ledges or cliffs.
Ability to independently swim in whitewater or swift currents while wearing a PFD. This includes being an active participant in your own rescue, including having the ability to (a) keep your airway passages sealed while underwater, and regain control of your breathing when being submitted to repeated submersion under waves or currents; (b) orient yourself to new “in-river” surroundings; (c) reposition yourself in the water to different swimming positions; (d) swim aggressively to a boat or to shore in whitewater; (e) receive a rescue rope, paddle, or human assistance, and possibly let go of the same; (f) get out from under an overturned boat.
Ability to swim 100 yards in flat water while wearing a PFD.
Ability to assist another passenger who has fallen out of the boat by pulling them back in.
It is very important that each trip participant take an active role in their own safety. You will likely encounter wilderness conditions that you are unfamiliar with, and those conditions may change rapidly. It is critical to pay attention at all times, to be aware of your surroundings, and to avoid taking unnecessary risks. Even a non-life threatening injury in a wilderness setting can become a major emergency for you, and can endanger the entire group. Swimming alone or hiking alone is discouraged. Excessive alcohol consumption or illicit drug use is not tolerated. Using common sense, and following both the explicit instruction and the lead of your guides can go a long way towards keeping yourself and the group safe. Some obvious things to avoid in camp and on shore (by way of example) are: walking around without shoes in camp, approaching wild animals, not paying attention to what is above or around your tent site that could harm you, not paying attention to hazards such as poison ivy and rattlesnakes, and walking near precipitous ledges.
The best choice is an amphibious shoe that drains water, protects your toes and won’t come off in swirling current. A retired pair of athletic shoes can work well, too. Sport sandals with a heel strap are a good option. Find professional-grade options made by Chaco®, the official footwear sponsor of OARS guides.
We recommend starting with bathing suit/swim trunks and a lightweight synthetic shirt, and then adding layers of synthetic long underwear and fleece as needed.
Protecting yourself from the sun should be taken very seriously! A hat, sunscreen, lip balm and sunglasses are a must. In many cases, a long-sleeve shirt is the best method for preventing sunburn on your upper body. Light-weight long pants may also be appropriate to protect your legs.
ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR CHANGING WEATHER! Especially during the months of April, May and early June, California can experience extreme changes in weather.
Wearing cotton items on a river trip is only appropriate when the weather is hot. Wet cotton will chill your body temperature.
Provided (early-season) wetsuits do not include “wetsuit booties” – please bring your own, or wear wool socks with tennis shoes as a good alternative.
Please let us know if you have any medical issues we will need to consider in planning your trip.
No dogs are allowed at the OARS American River Outpost.
You may want to bring a small waterproof bag to hold your camera and other items you might need during the day. While most rafting-specific bags are designed to be waterproof, you may also wish to place your camera in a durable, waterproof casing for additional protection. Disposable waterproof and panorama cameras are also a fun option.
There are several professional companies taking photos of each raft at some of the South Fork’s larger rapids, which provide great action shots. These companies are not affiliated with OARS and you will need to contact them separately to purchase these pictures. Hotshot Imaging is conveniently based in Lotus right next door to our campground; visit them after your South Fork of the American trip at their storefront on Hwy 49 to order pictures. (To order your photos online, you must request the photo link for your trip from Hotshot Imaging.) For more information, visit http://www.hotshotimaging.com/ or call (530) 621-0400.
Each participant will need to complete the required trip forms online and submit them no later than 30 days prior to your trip, or immediately if booking within 30 days.
Final and full payment is due at the time of booking.
We advise that you leave your valuables at home or in your private vehicle and take on the river only what’s absolutely necessary. We also recommend you leave dry shoes and clothing in your car to ensure a comfortable drive home.
Tipping is optional, but appreciated by our staff. If you are wondering how much to tip, you may consider that we operate in a service industry with a host of behind-the-scenes contributors in addition to the guides on your trip. In general, we suggest a gratuity based on 10 – 15% of the trip cost. It is customary on OARS trips for gratuities to be given to the Trip Leader in the form of cash or personal check, who will then distribute appropriately amongst all the guides and support staff.
In reviewing your statement, you’ll notice a $1/person/day donation to the American River Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the Forks of the American River. One-hundred percent of your tax-deductible donation goes toward conserving the American Rivers watershed. This donation is voluntary and may be removed from your invoice if you choose not to participate.
Full payment is required at the time of booking. Payments may be made by check, money order or Visa/Mastercard (American Express and Discover incur a 3% processing fee). Receipt of the payment signifies acceptance of our complete Terms and Conditions. Individual departures and trip capacity are strictly limited by the managing agency. Cancelling your trip will incur cancellation fees because holding spots for you means we are likely turning others away who would like to book the trip.
If you find it necessary to cancel your trip, please notify us as soon as possible. We do not make exceptions to the cancellation policy for any reason, including weather, wildfire, terrorism, civil unrest or personal emergencies. There is no refund for arriving late or leaving a trip early.
29 to 3 days prior Payment can be transferred to another trip (within the same year) for $15/person transfer fee. No refund.
Please note that different deposit/cancellation policies may apply for charter groups. Refer to the group organizer’s confirmation e-mail for details.
Under most circumstances, if you are of an adventurous spirit and in reasonably good health, you should have no problem enjoying an OARS trip. People with medical conditions, including pregnancy, should have a physician’s approval before taking an adventure travel trip.
Everyone is required to sign a standard liability release form before the trip, acknowledging awareness that there are inherent risks associated with the trip. Due to the nature of the activities, a condition of your participation is that you will sign this form and return it to our office before the trip begins. Anyone who refuses to sign the form will not be allowed to participate, and consistent with OARS cancellation policy, there will be no refund of the trip fees at that time.
O.A.R.S. West, Inc. and cooperating agencies act only in the capacity of agent for the participants in all matters relating to transportation and/or all other related travel services, and assume no responsibility however caused for injury, loss or damage to person or property in connection with any service, including but not limited to that resulting directly or indirectly from acts of God, detention, annoyance, delays and expenses arising from quarantine, strikes, theft, pilferage, force majeure, failure of any means of conveyance to arrive or depart as scheduled, civil disturbances, government restrictions or regulations, and discrepancies or change in transit over which it has no control. Reasonable changes in itinerary may be made where deemed advisable for the comfort and well being of the participants, including cancellation due to water fluctuation, insufficient bookings (this trip requires a minimum of 4 guests), and other factors. There is risk in whitewater rafting, particularly during high-water conditions. Rafts and kayaks can capsize. You could be swept overboard. Your guide will make every attempt to assist, but you must be strong and agile enough to “self-help” and “float-it-out” without further endangering yourself or others. We reserve the right not to accept passengers weighing more than 260 pounds or with a waist/chest size exceeding 56 inches. We may decide, at any time, to exclude any person or group for any reason we feel is related to the safety of our trips. We are experienced at accommodating people with various disabilities. Please give us an opportunity to make you feel welcome. We need to discuss any special requirements ahead of time. On advancement of deposit the depositor agrees to be bound by the above recited terms and conditions. Prices subject to change without notice. | 2019-04-21T00:14:30Z | https://www.oars.com/before-you-go/south-fork-american-river-chili-bar-half-day/ |
The Council on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals (hereafter the "Association") is a business league of companies with common business interests in radionuclides, radiochemicals and other radioactive products primarily used in medicine and life science research, and radiopharmaceuticals. The purpose of the Association is: 1) to monitor and proactively respond to and to assist in regulatory and legislative processes at the International, U.S. Federal, State, or Local government levels that ensure reasonable controls on the development, manufacture, transportation, use, service, and disposal of radioactive products; 2) to develop and encourage the use of industrial standards to assure safe, reliable and high quality products and services; and 3) to promote and maintain public awareness of the benefits of these products and services to society.
to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of the purposes set forth above. Notwithstanding any provision of the Articles of Incorporation of the Association or any other provision of these By-Laws, the Association shall not carry on any other activities not permitted to be carried on by a corporation exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or the corresponding provision of any future United States internal revenue law).
Except as provided otherwise by the Articles of Incorporation or by these By-Laws, the Association shall have all powers that a not for profit corporation has when organized under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, as amended, and shall have all such additional powers as are permitted by any applicable law.
The registered office of the Association in the State of Delaware shall be located at 1209 Orange Street, in the City of Wilmington, County of New Castle. The name of its registered agent is the Corporation Trust Company. The Association may have other offices within or without the State of Delaware as the Board of Directors may from time to time determine.
Section 4.1. Classes of Members, Qualifications. The Association shall have two classes of members.
Section 4.1.1. Full Member. Any North American company that is in the business of manufacturing, distributing, or compounding radionuclides for biomedical research, or radiopharmaceuticals, or radioactive sources, has paid applicable membership dues, and has a representative on the Board of Directors shall be a full member of the Association for the term specified by the Board of Directors. A vote of greater than two-thirds of the directors is required for membership approval.
Section 4.1.2. Affiliate Member. Any North American company that is in the business of manufacturing, distributing, or compounding radionuclides for biomedical research, radiopharmaceuticals, or radioactive sources, and any North American company that is in the business of manufacturing pharmacologically active agents used in Nuclear Medicine procedures, has paid applicable membership dues, and does not have a representative on the Board of Directors; shall be an affiliate member of the Association for the term specified by the Board of Directors. A vote of greater than two-thirds of the directors is required for membership approval.
Section 4.2. Dues. The Board of Directors may determine the amount of an initial membership fee, if any, and annual dues payable to the Association by members.
Section 4.3. Voting Rights. Each full member shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of the members.
Section 4.4. Resignation, Removal. Any member may resign by filing a written resignation with the Secretary/ Treasurer. Any member may be removed, with just cause (such as nonpayment of dues), by affirmative vote of a majority of the directors, provided that thirty days' written notice is given to such member in advance of such vote and provided that such member is offered an opportunity to be heard by the Board of Directors before such vote.
Section 4.5. Reinstatement. Upon written request signed by a former member and filed with the Secretary/Treasurer, the Board of Directors may by affirmative vote of two-thirds of the directors reinstate such former member to membership upon such terms as the Board of Directors may deem appropriate.
Section 4.6. Annual Meeting. The annual meeting of the members for the election of Directors of the Association and for the transaction of such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting shall be held at such times as the Board of Directors may provide.
Section 4.7. Special Meetings. Special meetings of members may be called by the Board of Directors or such officer as the Board of Directors may designate.
Section 4.8. Place of Meeting. All meetings of members shall be held at such place, either within or without the State of Delaware, as the Board of Directors may provide.
Section 4.9. Notice of Meetings. Written or printed notice, and an agenda stating the place, day, and hour of the meeting, and in the case of a special meeting or one required by law or by these By-Laws, stating the purpose or purposes for which the meeting is called, shall be delivered to each member of record entitled to vote at such meeting not less than ten (10) nor more than ninety (90) days before the date of the meeting. Such notice shall be given by or at the direction of the Chairman, the Secretary/Treasurer, or the officer or persons calling the meeting.
Section 4.10. Action Without a Meeting. (1) Any action required by law to be taken at any annual or special meeting of members entitled to vote, or any other action which may be taken at a meeting of members entitled to vote, may be taken without a meeting, without prior notice, and without a vote if a consent in writing, setting forth the action so taken, shall be signed (i) by all members entitled to vote with respect to the subject matter thereof, or (ii) by the members having not less than the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize or take such action at a meeting at which all members entitled to vote thereon were present and voting. Prompt notice in writing of the taking of such action without a meeting shall be delivered to those members entitled to vote who have not consented in writing. Such consents shall be delivered to the Association by delivery to its registered office in the State of Delaware, its principal office, or the Secretary/Treasurer of the Association. Delivery made to the Association's registered office shall be by hand or certified or registered mail, return receipt requested.
Section 4.11. Action at a Meeting. If a quorum is present, the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes present and voted, either in person or by proxy, shall be the act of the full members, unless the vote of a greater number is required by law, the Articles of Incorporation, or these By-Laws.
Section 4.12. Quorum. Unless otherwise provided by the Articles of Incorporation or these By-Laws, full members of the Association holding one-half of the votes entitled to be cast on a matter, represented in person or by proxy, shall constitute a quorum for consideration of such matter at a meeting of full members except that in the absence of a quorum, a majority of the full members present may adjourn the meeting to another time without further notice. Withdrawal of full members from any meeting shall not cause failure of a duly constituted quorum at that meeting.
Section 4.13. Proxies. A full member entitled to vote may vote in person or by proxy executed in writing by the member or that member's duly authorized attorney-in-fact. No proxy shall be valid after eleven months from the date of its execution, unless otherwise provided in the proxy. The proxy must state the issue or motion that the vote is intended to cover.
Section 5.1. General Powers. The affairs of the Association shall be managed by or under the direction of its Board of Directors.
Section 5.2. Number and Qualifications. The maximum number of directors of the Association shall be the number of full members of the Association.
Section 5.3. Appointment and Tenure. Directors shall be elected by vote of the members at each annual meeting, and each director shall hold office until the next annual meeting of members and until a successor has been elected and qualified. If the election of directors shall not be held at such meeting, such election shall be held as soon thereafter as conveniently possible. Elections of directors may be conducted by mail.
Section 5.4. Resignation. A director may resign at any time by written notice delivered to the Secretary/ Treasurer of the Association. A resignation is effective when the notice is delivered unless the notice specifies a date later than the date of delivery.
Section 5.5. Presiding Officer. The presiding officer at any meeting of the Board of Directors shall be the Chairman of the Board, or, in his absence, the Vice Chairman, or, in the absence of both the Chairman and the Vice Chairman, any other director elected chairman by vote of a majority of the directors present at the meeting.
Section 5.6. Executive Director. The Board of Directors shall contract with an individual, who is not a member of the Board, to serve as the Executive Director. The Executive Director shall perform functions as assigned by the Board of Directors.
Section 5.7. Vacancies. A vacancy in the Board of Directors by reason of resignation, death, or removal shall be filled, as necessary, by the Board of Directors, taking into account the nomination of the member company represented by the former director. Any vacancy occurring in the Board of Directors by reason of an increase in the number of directors may be filled by the Board of Directors. A director elected to fill a vacancy shall be elected for the unexpired term of his or her predecessor in office or, if the director is elected because of an increase in the number of directors, the term of such director shall expire at the next annual meeting of members entitled to vote.
Section 5.8. Regular Meetings. A regular annual meeting of the Board of Directors shall be held without notice other than these By-Laws, immediately after, and at the same place as, the annual meeting of members. The Board of Directors may provide by resolution the time and place, either within or without the State of Delaware, for the holding of additional regular meetings of the Board without notice other than such resolution.
Section 5.9. Special Meetings. Special meetings of the Board of Directors may be called by or at the request of the Chairman of the Board and may be conducted either within or without the State of Delaware.
Section 5.10. Notice of Meetings. Notices and agenda of any special meeting of the Board of Directors shall be given in accordance with these By-Laws at least three (3) days in advance thereof by written notice to each director at the address shown for each director on the records of the Association. Neither the business to be transacted at, nor the purpose of, any regular or special meeting of the Board of Directors need be specified in the notice or waiver of notice of such meeting, unless specifically required by law, the Articles of Incorporation, or these By-Laws.
Section 5.11. Action Without a Meeting. Any action required by law to be taken at a meeting of the Board of Directors, or any other action which may be taken at a meeting of the Board of Directors or a committee thereof, may be taken without a meeting, if a consent setting forth the action so taken shall be signed by all directors or by all the members of such committee entitled to vote with respect to the subject matter thereof, as the case may be. The consent shall be evidenced by one or more written approvals, each of which sets forth the action taken and bears the signature of one or more directors or committee members. All approvals evidencing the consent shall be delivered to the Secretary/Treasurer to be filed in the records of the Association. The action taken shall be effective when all the directors or the committee members, as the case may be, have approved the consent unless the consent specifies a different effective date. Any such consent shall have the same force and effect as a unanimous vote.
Section 5.12. Quorum. One-half of the directors then in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting, provided if less than one-half of the directors are present, a majority of the directors then present may adjourn the meeting to another time without further notice. Withdrawals of directors from any meeting shall not cause failure of a duly constituted quorum at that meeting.
Section 5.13. Action at a Meeting. The act of the majority of the directors present at a meeting at which a quorum is present shall be the act of the Board of Directors, unless the act of a greater number is required by law, by the Articles of Incorporation, or by these By-Laws.
Section 5.14. Proxies. At all meetings of the Board of Directors, a director may vote by proxy executed in writing by the director and authorizing a director in attendance at the meeting to act for such absent director or by designating a person to act as a director, in writing, on his/her behalf. A director may confer a limited or general proxy, which shall be valid only for the meeting and on such date identified therein, unless that meeting is continued for lack of a quorum. Before or at the time of the meeting, such proxy shall be filed with the Executive Director and the Chairman of the Board and shall state clearly the scope of authority granted. Any copy, facsimile or other reliable reproduction of such writing may be used for any and all purposes for which the original writing could be used, provided such writing is a complete reproduction of the original writing.
Section 6.1. Committees of the Board of Directors. A majority of the Board of Directors may create one or more additional committees of the Board, which committees, to the extent specified by the Board and not otherwise prohibited by law, may have and exercise authority of the Board of Directors in the Management of the Association. The designation of any committee and the delegation thereto or authority shall not operate to relieve the Board of Directors, or any individual director, of any responsibility imposed upon it or him by these By-Laws.
Section 6.2. Action of Committees of the Board. A majority of a committee of the Board of Directors shall constitute a quorum. The Act of a majority of committee members present and voting at a meeting at which a quorum is present shall be the act of the committee. A committee may act by unanimous consent in writing without a meeting in the manner provided by these By-Laws for written consents of the Board of Directors. Some or all committee members may participate in and act at any meeting through the use of a conference telephone or other similar communications equipment. No member of a committee of the Board may act by proxy. Subject to these By-Laws and to action by the Board of Directors, a majority of the members of a committee of the Board shall determine the time and place of meetings and the notice required for meetings.
Section 6.3. Advisory Committee. The Board of Directors may create one or more advisory committees or other advisory bodies and appoint persons to such advisory committees or bodies who need not be directors. Such advisory committees or bodies may not act on behalf of the Association or bind it to any action but may make recommendations to the Board of Directors or the officers.
Section 6.4. Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee shall be a standing committee of the Association. The Nominating Committee shall have the following responsibilities: to recruit qualified candidates for elective positions of the Association; and to recommend removal of a director.
Section 6.5. Working Committees. The Board of Directors may from time to time, in its discretion, by resolution passed by a majority of the Board of Directors, designate, and appoint other committees of one or more directors which shall have and may exercise such lawfully delegable powers and duties conferred or authorized by the resolutions of designation and appointment. The Board shall have power at any time to change the members of any such committee, to fill vacancies, and the discharge any such committee.
Section 6.6. Special Interest Committees. The Board of Directors, at their discretion, can also create Special Interest Committees, in which each Director is free to be a participating member. If any cost is incurred by a Special Interest Committee, the Special Interest Committee will levy an assessment to fund such Special Interest Committee activities.
Section 6.6.1. Membership. A Director may appoint another employee of his/her company to represent him/her as a participating member of a Special Interest Committee or of a subcommittee of a Special Interest Committee. The maximum number of members of a Special Interest Committee or of a subcommittee shall be the number of full members of the Association. At least one Director must be a member of each Special Interest Committee.
Section 6.6.2. Dues. The costs and expenses relating to the work of any Special Interest Committee or sub-committee shall be borne only by those member companies whose director so elects to participate.
Section 6.6.3. Voting Rights. Each member of a Special Interest Committee or a sub-committee shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of the members.
Section 6.6.4. Tenure. The tenure of a Special Interest Committee member is the same as the tenure of the Director who participates in the Special Interest Committee or who appointed the committee member who participates in the Special Interest Committee or subcommittee.
Section 6.6.5. Resignation, Removal. Any member may resign from a Special Interest Committee by filing a written resignation with the Chairman of a Special Interest Committee. Any member may be removed, with just cause (such as nonpayment of dues), by affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the Special Interest Committee, provided that thirty days written notice is given to such member in advance of such vote and provided that such member is offered the opportunity to be heard by the committee membership before such vote.
Section 6.6.6. Reinstatement. Upon written request signed by a former member and filed with the Chairman of a Special Interest Committee, the members may by affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members reinstate such former member to committee membership upon such terms as the members may deem appropriate.
Section 6.6.7. Vacancies. A vacancy in a Special Interest Committee membership by reason of resignation, death, or removal shall be filled, as necessary by the Board of Directors, taking into account the nomination of the member company represented by the former Director.
Section 6.6.8. Presiding Officer of a Special Interest Committee. The presiding officer at any meeting of a Special Interest Committee shall be an elected Chairman by vote of a majority of Special Interest Committee members at a special meeting of a Special Interest Committee shortly before or after the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors. In the absence of the Chairman, the presiding officer of a meeting shall be any committee member elected chairman by a vote of a majority of the members present at the meeting. The Chairman shall hold office until a successor is elected and qualified or until such Chairman’s earlier death , resignation, or removal in the manner provided above. Vacancies may be filled at any meeting of a Special Interest Committee. Election or appointment of any member or agent shall not create any contract rights.
Section 6.6.9 Presiding Officer of a subcommittee of a Special Interest Committee. The presiding officer of a subcommittee of a Special Interest Committee shall be any subcommittee member elected Chairman by vote of a majority of the subcommittee members. In the absence of the Chairman, the presiding officer of a meeting shall be any subcommittee member elected chairman by a vote of a majority of the members present at the meeting. The Chairman shall hold office until a successor is elected and qualified or until such Chairman’s earlier death, resignation, or removal in the manner provided above. Vacancies may be filled at any meeting of a subcommittee. Election or appointment of any member or agent shall not create any contract rights.
Section 6.6.10. Role of Chairman of the Board in a Special Interest Committee. The Chairman of the Board is to be an ad-hoc non-voting member of every Special Interest Committee and subcommittee, and is invited to attend the meetings of a Special Interest Committee or subcommittee. Information exchanged at the Special Interest Committees’ or subcommittees’ meetings is not to be shared by the Chairman of the Board with those outside the committee membership unless so permitted by such committees.
Section 6.6.11. Records. Special Interest Committees and subcommittee shall keep correct and complete books and records of account and shall also keep minutes of the proceedings of their members, and shall keep a record giving the names and addresses of the members entitled to vote. All books and records of a Special Interest Committee or subcommittee may be inspected by any member entitled to vote in a Special Interest Committee or subcommittee, or such member's agent or attorney, for any proper purpose at any reasonable time.
Section 6.6.12. Access to Records. A Member company whose director does not elect to participate in a Special Interest Committee shall not be entitled to attend Committee or subcommittee meetings nor to have access to minutes and records or background information produced as a result of such meetings. A Special Interest Committee meeting may be opened to non-members by unanimous consent of the Special Interest Committee members. Minutes, records, and background information relating to work of a Special Interest Committee or subcommittee (including those in which all members do not participate) shall be provided only to the Executive Director, and to Legal Counsel, who would, in turn, make them available to member companies of the Special Interest Committee and to the Secretary¬/Treasurer in a sealed envelope for the Corporate archives.
Section 7.1. Enumeration. The officers of the Association shall be a Chairman of the Board, Vice Chairman, Secretary/Treasurer, and such other officers or assistant officers as may be elected or appointed by the Board of Directors. Officers whose authority and duties are not prescribed in these By-Laws shall have the authority and perform the duties prescribed from time to time by the Board of Directors. Any two or more offices may be held by the same person. A director may be an officer.
Section 7.2. Election and Term of Office. The officers of the Association shall be elected annually at the annual meeting of the Board of Directors, or as soon thereafter as conveniently possible. Each officer shall hold office until a successor is elected and qualified or until such officer's earlier death, resignation, or removal in the manner hereinafter provided. Vacancies may be filled or new offices created and filled at any meeting of the Board of Directors. Election or appointment of any officer or agent shall not itself create any contract rights.
Section 7.3. Resignation and Removal.
(a) Any officer may resign at any time by giving notice to the Board of Directors. A resignation is effective when the notice is delivered unless the notice specifies a date later than the date of delivery. The resignation of an officer need not be accepted in order to be effective.
(b) The Board of Directors may remove any officer, either with or without cause, whenever in its judgment the best interests of the Association would be served thereby.
Section 7.4. Vacancies. A vacancy in any office, however caused, may be filled by the Board of Directors for the unexpired portion of the term.
Section 7.5. Compensation. The officers of the Association shall serve without compensation unless otherwise specified by the Board of Directors.
Section 7.6. Chairman of the Board. The Chairman of the Board shall in general supervise and control all of the business and affairs of the Association. The Chairman of the Board or any other proper officer of the Association may sign any deeds, mortgages, bonds, contracts, or other instruments which the Board of Directors has authorized to be executed, except in cases where the signing and execution thereof shall be expressly delegated by the Board of Directors or by these By-Laws to some other officer or agent of the Association, or shall be required by law to be otherwise signed or executed, and in general he shall perform all duties incident to the office of the Chairman of the Board and such other duties as from time to time may be prescribed by the Board of Directors. When present, he shall preside at all meetings of the members and of the Board of Directors.
Section 7.7. Vice Chairman. In the absence of the Chairman of the Board or in the event of his inability or refusal to act as Chairman of the Board, the Vice Chairman shall perform the duties of the Chairman of the Board and, when so acting, shall have all the powers of, and be subject to all the restrictions placed upon, the Chairman of the Board.
(e) keep a register of the mailing address of each member, director, or committee member, which shall be furnished to the Secretary/Treasurer by such member, director, or committee member.
The Secretary/Treasurer shall also have charge and custody of and be responsible for all funds and securities of the Association, receive and give receipts for moneys due and payable to the Association from any source whatsoever, deposit all such moneys in the name of the Association in such banks, trust companies or other depositories as shall be selected by the Chairman of the Board, disburse the funds of the Association as ordered by the Board of Directors or the Chairman of the Board or as otherwise required in the conduct of the business of the Association, and render to the Chairman of the Board or the Board of Directors, upon request, an account of all his transactions as Secretary/Treasurer and on the financial condition of the Association. The Secretary/Treasurer may contract with an individual, who is not a member of the Board, to perform certain functions with the prior approval by the Board. Any such contracted functions that involve the assessment, receipt, or transfer of moneys shall require periodic audits of all transactions by the Secretary/Treasurer.
The Secretary/Treasury shall in general perform all the duties incident to the office of Secretary/Treasurer and such other duties as from time to time may be assigned to him by the Chairman of the Board or by the Board of Directors. If required by the Board of Directors, the Secretary/Treasurer shall give a bond (which shall be renewed regularly), in such sum and with such surety or sureties as the Board of Directors shall determine for the faithful discharge of his duties and for the restoration to the Association, in case of his death, resignation, retirement, or removal from office, of all books, papers, vouchers, money, and other property of whatever kind, in his possession or under his control belonging to the Association.
Section 8.1. Contracts. The Board of Directors may authorize any officer(s) or agent(s) of the Association to enter into any contract or execute and deliver any instrument in the name of and on behalf of the Association, and such authority may be general or confined to specific instances.
Section 8.2. Loans. No loans shall be contracted on behalf of the Association and no evidences of indebtedness shall be issued in the name of the Association unless authorized by a resolution by the Board of Directors or by action of a duly empowered committee of the Board. Such authority to make loans may be general or confined to specified instances. No loan shall be made by the Association to a director or officer of the Association.
Section 8.3. Checks, Drafts, Etc. All checks, drafts, or other orders for the payment of money, notes, or other evidence of indebtedness, issued in the name of the Association, shall be signed by such officer(s) or agent(s) of the Association and in such manner as shall from time to time be determined by resolution of the Board of Directors. In the absence of such determination, such instruments may be signed by the Chairman of the Board.
Section 8.4. Gifts. The Board of Directors may accept on behalf of the Association any contribution, gift, bequest, or devise for the general purposes or for any special purpose of the Association.
The Association shall keep correct and complete books and records of account and shall also keep minutes of the proceedings of its members, Board of Directors, and committees having any authority of the Board of Directors, and shall keep a record giving the names and addresses of the members entitled to vote. All books and records of the Association may be inspected by any director, any member entitled to vote, or any director's or such member's agent or attorney, for any proper purpose at any reasonable time.
The Board of Directors may provide a corporate seal which shall be in the form of a circle and shall have inscribed thereon the name of the Association and the words "Corporate Seal" and "Delaware."
Section 12.1. Manner of Notice. Whenever under the provisions of law, the Articles of Incorporation, or these By-Laws, notice is required to be given to any member, director or member of any committee designated by the Board of Directors, it shall not be construed to require personal delivery. Such notice may be given in writing by depositing it in a sealed envelope in the United States mails, postage prepaid and addressed to such member, director, or committee member at his or her address as it appears on the books of the Association, and such notice shall be deemed to be given at the time when it is thus deposited in the United States mails; or such notice may be effected by facsimile transmission with printed evidence of successful transmission or electronic mail with printed acknowledgment of receipt, or given in writing by any other means and if given by such other means, shall be deemed given when received. Such requirement for notice shall be deemed satisfied, except in case of meetings of members with respect to which written notice is required by law, if actual notice is received orally or in writing by the person entitled thereto as far in advance of the event with respect to which notice is given as the minimum notice period required by law, the Articles of Incorporation, or these By-Laws.
Section 12.2. Waiver of Notice. Whenever any notice is required to be given by law, by the Articles of Incorporation or by these By-Laws, a waiver thereof in writing signed by the person or persons entitled to such notice, whether before or after the time stated therein, shall be deemed equivalent to the giving of such notice.
Each person who at any time is or shall have been a director, officer, employee, or agent of the Association or is or shall have been serving at the request of the Association as a director, officer, employee, or agent of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust, or other enterprise, shall be indemnified by the Association in accordance with and to the full extent permitted by the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware as amended from time to time. The foregoing right of indemnification shall not be deemed exclusive of any other rights to which a person seeking indemnification may be entitled under any by-law, agreement, vote of members or disinterested directors, or otherwise. If authorized by the Board of Directors, the Association may purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of any person to the full extent permitted by the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware as amended from time to time.
A vote of a majority of the number of Directors may alter, amend, or repeal the By-Laws or adopt new By-Laws. Such action may be taken at a regular or special meeting for which a quorum is present and for which written notice of the purpose shall be given. If such action is taken without a meeting, all of the Directors entitled to vote thereon must consent in writing.
Upon dissolution of the Association, no funds shall be distributed, directly or indirectly, to any member, officer, or director of the Associa5tion, or to any private individual. Rather, after payment of any outstanding debts, any funds remaining shall be distributed as determined by the Board of Directors, in accordance with the purposes for which the Association was incorporated. | 2019-04-23T12:18:29Z | https://www.corar.org/by-laws |
Everyone experiences ‘mountaintop moments’ in their spiritual lives. These are times when we feel close to God; we expect Him to move. Our faith is engaged. When we are in the midst of a mountaintop moment, we FEEL God’s presence surrounding us. Moses experienced a literal mountaintop moment when he received the law from God on behalf of the Israelites (Exodus 24:12-18).
Sitting on a mountain in prayer for forty days and forty nights is something you can only accomplish in the Faith Zone! Moses was literally surrounded by God’s presence, like a cloud. Undeniable.
When we are in the midst of a mountaintop moment, God’s presence, His existence, is undeniable. He is near; we are undeniably WITH the Almighty and He with us. For me, typically, these moments have happened for me on the cusp of big changes in my life. When I have felt lost or unsure, God has guided me.
The reality is that God’s presence has never left me since I invited Him into my life, so why is it in times of trial or confusion that His presence is most obvious to me? Because, when we have big choices to make, or face situations that we can’t handle, is when we seek God most desperately.
Psalm 63 was written at a time when David was desperately seeking God. As opposed to a mountain-top moment, David was alone in a desert wilderness. He was the King, but he was fleeing his son Absolom, who wanted to kill him over a whole other family drama.
The psalms are songs of worship. Although David was surrounded by desert, he didn’t praise like a man in the desert. He praised as if he was climbing a mountain, to encounter the very presence of God. His circumstances pulled him towards despair, but his heart went the opposite way: to hope, to God.
David’s worship prayer doesn’t ignore the fact that he’s in a desert, “a dry and parched land where there is no water”, he just doesn’t allow his situation to be the defining factor on whether or not he encounters God. David knew something that we all need to remember: God is the source of all life. Without God sustaining him, the desert would get the better of him. As long as God is with us, there is hope.
Although he FELT far from God, David still praised Him.
Alone in a desert, under threat of death from his own family, David prayed “your love is better than life”! Why was David able to understand God’s goodness in the midst of a trial?
An experience is so much more powerful than a story. David wasn’t clinging to the stories in an ancient book. He wasn’t worshiping a concept. He wasn’t following a set of rules. He had experienced God – his power and his glory. His love, better than life!To sustain our faith between mountain-top moments we need to experience God. How though?
Firstly, by seeking Him. I remember, as a child losing a precious possession (usually a puppy from a puppy surprise toy) and going to my mother to see if she could magically make it appear. She always said “where did you last see it?” and sent me retracing my steps. Infuriating, but reading this psalm, I see the value.
When you lose something, you go back to where you last had it. Now, David had not lost God (God is very hard to lose, one does not simply misplace the creator of the universe). What David had lost was the feeling of closeness with God.
Feelings don’t always reflect truth. Our feelings are affected by so many things that God is unaffected by: our health, other people, the weather, finances, videos of cute animals on the internet, the news.I could go on all day about things that I’ve cried about in the last week that do not change the goodness of God one little bit. But I won’t.
“He remembered us in our weakness.
Go back to where you experienced Him in the past. For David, it’s the sanctuary.
You will ALWAYS find life in scripture. When you seek God in His Word, you will ALWAYS find a fresh, God-breathed word for today.
To experience God in the desert, we must SEEK HIM.
It’s the habits that we build in the light that sustain us through the darkness. We need a reservoir of revelation.
My best friend and I live in different states now. We both have small children and are involved in our churches. Plus she is literally the most disorganised person I know. Sometimes, I don’t hear from her for months at a time.
BUT, I never doubt that she loves me.I don’t doubt she is still my friend just because I haven’t heard her voice for awhile. Why? Because of the fight we had after I laughed at her for walking into the boys toilets in grade 7. Because of the legendary practical jokes we played on our teachers at the end of grade 10. Because when I used to argue with my sister and storm out of my house I would go to hers. I could go on and on and on. I don’t doubt her, because we have years, decades of shared history. A couple of months of silence will never change our history. It’s the same with God.
I may feel as though He is silent, but when I open the Bible, the truth is still there. There are still thousands of years’ worth His love. It is still life-changing. I may feel as if He is distant, but I still remember the night at a Connect group run by ill-equipped but enthusiastic 14 year old, that I decided to take a risk on Jesus. I still remember praying for a woman in the Philippines, whose heart was failing, and seeing the colour come back into her face and hear her praise God without pain for the first time in months. I still remember seeing God move in my school when I was in year 11 and 12 at a public school and seeing three people praying once a week at lunchtime turn into a group of 80 running a service at lunchtime. I remember being called into the principal’s office to be told I was doing a great job but could I please stop because too many people were getting saved.
I remember God coming through. Again and again. When I am in the darkness, I remember what I saw in the light. That’s what it means to testify. That’s why David was able to praise in the desert.
A mature faith doesn’t rely on every moment to be a mountaintop, because, if there were no valleys, there would be no mountains either. That’s geography, but it’s also life in abundance.
I cling to you, your right hand upholds me.
We often hear of people who’ve been able to just hold on: hold on to hope against the odds, that sort of thing. David takes it a step further; he clings. What’s the difference between holding on to God, and CLINGING to Him?
There are two ways that I walk my dog: without her harness and with her harness. She pulls like a steam train and the harness works by putting pressure on her shoulders if she pulls too hard. When I walk her WITH the harness, I hold the lead, but when I walk her WITHOUT the harness, I CLING to the lead.
Think of a rock climber holding onto a cliff face.
He’s pretty happy. Not too far up, looks like it’s a wall he has climbed before, maybe he’s just super skilled. Whatever it is, he’s got it under control, he’s not bothered.
However, check out this guy!
He is clinging, not holding on. He’s not having such a great time. He really desperately doesn’t want to let go of that rock. So what is the difference between them? Other than the potential for a horrible death.
What’s the difference between walking my dog with or without her harness? What’s the difference between hanging on the a cliff face or clinging on for dear life? What’s the difference between letting your relationship God tick along comfortably and clinging to Him desperately, with all you have?
When Saskia and I go for a walk without the harness, there is a risk that she might pull the lead out of my hand and take herself for a walk. When a climber switches the local indoor climbing wall for a real live mountain, the risk increases exponentially.
Could it be that you are living a life where you don’t actually need God to uphold you?
Perhaps God is calling you today to take a risk on Him!
Climbing the same indoor climbing wall over and over again with the same group of friends might be fun and it might keep you fit, but how much more exhilarating is it to explore real mountains? Attending church every week is a good thing to do, you get to be part of an amazing community, there’s food, good music, it’s all good. BUT how much more will you get out of it if you take a risk: join a team, lead a connect group, speak prophetically into someone’s life, invite people into your world.
Putting your spare change in the offering will certainly help the offering be bigger, but if you take a risk and add some faith to your giving, if you make your generosity hurt just a little from time to time, add an element of sacrifice, you will see God move and bless you.
Sometimes, we will feel close to God, on the mountaintop and sometimes, we will feel far away. Sometimes that’s a result of seasons and circumstances and sometimes, our own sin causes us to withdraw from God. Whatever is going on, we never lose God, only our perception of His presence. He never abandons you, He never will. He promises unfailing love.
When you lose the feeling of His nearness, resist the urge to withdraw. Don’t let the enemy reduce your faith, which the Bible says can move mountains, to something as flimsy as a feeling.
Seek – go back to where you last found His presence.
Remember – Remember His goodness when you find yourself in the dark. Testify – tell yourself the stories of what he has done in the past.
Cling – take risks. Live a life that needs His right hand to uphold you.
Above all, remember. He never gives up. He never abandons you. He is always faithful and His love is better than life. He is the beginning and the end; the same, yesterday, today and forever.
We are all familiar with sacrifices in life. Some sacrifices are large and significant; others are more everyday. Sacrifice could mean anything from forgoing the last piece of pizza for your friend to giving up a kidney for a family member , just like a member of our Energizer family did a while back.
Making sacrifices is a noble pursuit. As a nation, on ANZAC Day, we remember and honour the sacrifices made by thousands of service personnel throughout the various wars our country has been involved in. Parents sometimes remind their children of what the sacrifices involved in raising them.
We are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus; He was born so He could be a Holy sacrifice for humanity.
That Holy sacrifice is at the very core of Christianity; without it Christianity would not exist. So as Christians, we are very familiar with the concept and see it as noble. As we embrace a new era, I believe we will have a greater understanding of sacrifice.
Often we pursue and celebrate the various acts of sacrifice, but miss the real heart and motivation behind it and take on a martyr-type spirit. To make real and genuine, life-changing sacrifice part of our lives in a new era, we need to understand what God desires from us most.
Interestingly, He doesn’t ask for martyrs but, as King Saul found out, He rates obedience above sacrifice.
Our submission to God and our obedience to His voice should be our sacrifice to Him.
Our submission to Him will always trump our various acts of sacrifice, which all too often, in our humanity, we live to resent. Submission to God brings freedom; seeking acts of sacrifice alone can become religious.
In our world I’m humbled by the amazing sacrifices you all make to see our church grow and lives impacted. Let’s keep making the source of motivation our obedience to His voice and submission to God, then we will continue to live in freedom and true joy.
See you at our services this Sunday and let’s keep making intentional pre-service prayer part of our culture!
Marketing companies spend a lot of time, effort and money developing packaging, because packaging sells; we’re attracted to the bright and shiny.
At times the packaging can be even more exciting and durable than the product it contains. You probably still have shoe boxes that contained shoes that have long since expired!
And of course, the beautiful iPhone boxes: all part of the “Apple experience”: too beautiful to discard, they mostly outlast the phone they once carried.
Collections of Grange Hermitage, the famous Australian red wine, have sold for over 150 000 dollars. However, to those uneducated in the world of wine, a bottle of Grange worth thousands of dollars may look less impressive than a ten dollar bottle, even though the contents are worlds apart.
Another version says earthen vessels, meaning common everyday crockery. All of us can feel rather ordinary and feel like we fall well short of the perfect package, even cracked or broken like a clay jar or piece of everyday crockery.
Our God’s power is not limited by the size, quality, or finish of the container. His power can’t be contained and was never supposed to be contained. Out of your imperfection or brokenness can flow a power that can’t be contained, managed or even fully understood.
Out of our imperfection flows true perfection.
Let’s not see our brokenness as a limitation, but rather an opportunity and channel for God to do something magnificent through us.
Let’s be specific with our prayer this weekend, especially in our pre-service prayer meetings. Pray for new people, salvations, breakthrough in giving and for powerful life-changing encounters with God.
Just over a year ago, we moved house. As with any new abode, there were a few little adjustments we wanted to make and, for me at least, the addition of a dishwasher was top priority.
So yesterday, I got my dishwasher installed; I obviously need to work on my prioritising skills!
There is nothing more relaxing, as far as I am concerned, than the gentle hum of a magical cupboard doing the dishes for me. It is a far better use of space, IMHO, than the boring old regular cupboard that was there before. My husband is very good at a lot of things, but carpentry is not really one of them. Sadly for us and our new magic cupboard, this is also true of me.
So on Tuesday we had this dishwasher delivered, and, unsure of what to do with it and how to get it from sitting in the hallway to performing its miraculous function in the kitchen, I left it where it was. Tuesday night is the night we host Connect Group at our house and so when “the homies”, as my three year old calls them, arrived, I proudly showed off my new dishwasher to them and explained my problem of how to get it into a kitchen which had no dishwasher-shaped hole, without breaking said kitchen.
Now one of our Connect Group homies is also one of our dearest friends (they all are really, but this is a story about one in particular). Josh is the person who first went out of his way to befriend and welcome us when we first showed up at Energizer Church, close to a decade ago. He has helped me out of plenty of tight spots, from picking up children from care when I was stuck in traffic, to changing flat tyres, and many other situations. It is in his nature to be generous, and I have seen proof of that time and time again.
Without hesitation, Josh offered to come and install the dishwasher for us later in the week, which he did. He did an incredible job and, true to form, found three other things to fix in my house while he was here. “Uncle Josh has done a great job!” declared Jasper and he was right.
When we discussed how we might pay him, Josh said “in beer, but only if you drink it with me”. This says so much about him and so much about what it means to be generous. The goal of his generosity was not to get something; it was relationship. True generosity has no ulterior motive other than to love.
Josh is a skilled tradesperson and his time is valuable, but he demonstrated that relationships are more valuable by helping us out when he didn’t need to. Generosity doesn’t always mean giving large sums of money. It means being free with whatever is in your hand. For Josh, what was in his hand that day was super tradie skills and a couple of “spare” hours (let’s be honest, there’s no such thing as free time, just time we make free). He took what he was good at and was generous with it.
What I am best at is writing, so, inspired by Josh, today I am using that gift to be generous with my honour. My bank account looks pretty sad (maternity leave life!) but I have a “spare” hour, so I can donate that to write this article. Hopefully, you read it and decide to take whatever is in your hand to show some generosity today as well. That’s how it works; generosity breeds generosity.
One of my favourite passages of the Bible is found in Ezekiel 47, where the prophet saw a vision of a small stream that became first a creek and then a river. Wherever that river flowed, there was life and vitality, even as it made its way east, through the desert, eventually bringing life to the once lifeless dead sea.
Marshes remain salty because only a small amount water flows in, but is unable to flow through and flush out impurities, hence the swamp remains toxic. Therefore, the best way to deal with a swamp is not to try and remove all the impurities and toxins, but to introduce adequate fresh water and provide a path for it to drain away. As the fresh, clean water flows through, toxins, salt and sludge are washed away, making way for life to return.
Purity is not so much about living to certain standards and ideals; it is more about living in such a way that impurity is flushed out of our lives by the life-giving spirit of God. That flow is increased as we allow that spirit to flow through us, removing contamination and bringing life to those around us.
This Sunday we’re going to look at what purity really is; what are the benefits of purity and how do we find it?
Remember, pre-service prayer before all services: let’s make it a priority!
A while ago I shared a God Story in one of our Sunday services, a snippet of the works of God in my life: how God has taken myself and my family from a complicated and unpleasant living situation to a much better one. Truthfully, there is so much more to the story. It was one of those “when it rains it pours” type scenarios. Throughout this time, I have really had to learn that waiting, exercising patience, is a verb. It’s not something you do passively all the time. As the psalmist says, “I waited patiently for God,” but, like him, I still cried, at times literally. I think the relentless crying out is what gets God’s attention. Any parents out there know there is only so much crying out a parent can bear before they act on their child’s behalf. Perhaps it’s not all about the getting what we want, or even need, as much as these experiences shape who we really are.
Not so many months ago, four to be precise, we found ourselves moving into what we thought was to be a very good home. It didn’t turn out that way, sadly. One thing about this house was that its foundations were bad. Regardless of everything else that was the matter, this particular experience seriously challeged my own foundations. As a result, I have thought and prayed long and hard about faith.
Nothing says, ‘draw near to’ or ‘lean on God’ like hard times, right? Well, not always. Life is about choices and it really can go either way. Now, I am not saying that’s how I was heading. To be honest, I am beginning to feel like I am majoring in difficult life situations, one after another. Faith is now my go-to; it’s my only life boat; it’s all that I have. Even with faith as my faithful go-to, I couldn’t seem to activate my go-go-gadget faith arms and get anything flowing. During this period, my frustration was beginning to grow very wild. We had a green light to leave this hideous house as soon as we could and yet, for the first time in our lives, finding another property was hard. At times it felt impossible. We’ve never before had to look for seven days, let alone seven of the longest weeks of my life!
Luckily for me, I have a friend named Jen. She is a storyteller and is often on the hunt for stories just like mine. She messaged me one morning and asked if I had or if I knew of any God Stories. Because I am hilarious, I half jokingly said “if we get this house we are applying for today, I will stand up and be your God story Sunday”. Well, who knew that was all that it would take to get my prayers answered and we would be approved that very day. Note to self for future reference! Funnily enough, it just so happened that I had listed Jen as a character reference for the real estate agent as well!
For my faith to be activated, I had to activate my faith, myself. I had to be willing to step out of myself: and step out I did. At that moment, just like the psalmist, my feet were totally steadied and not only was my burden lifted, I felt like I had a new song and that it would be completely true, that many would see what he has done and be amazed. I don’t know that anyone was that amazed but it is amazing and I am amazed all the time at the faithfulness of God in my life.
If you read Psalm 40 in its entirety, you will notice two parts. The first is David praising our God for pulling him out of the pit. Like every good rescue story, he went on to live hsppily ever after… not. David found himself in another pit, only this time he was strengthened by the truth he acquired in the first pit. His response is probably how we all should respond: remembering God is our helper and our saviour, as proclaimed in verse 17.
So now I know that I’m not just becoming skilled at dealing with difficult situations; God is building my faith. He’s allowed me to be wiped off my feet at times so I can find him on my knees. While I’m walking around flapping like a duck, God is using my last test to prepare me for the next one. I look forward, strangely, to the next one.
I really like guitars, but I also really like my wife, who really likes not being broke. Buying new guitars and staying married (or at least not being broke), can sometimes mean selling old guitars. Saying goodbye to old ones, means saying hello to new ones.
Changing into my work uniform works a lot better if I first remove my pyjamas. Being ready for a new day, means leaving behind the night before.
When I first moved to Hobart, I missed Launceston, I wanted to hold on to my life up there, but my future was in Hobart, and I couldn’t stay in Launceston and also live in Hobart. I had to leave Launceston behind.
Stepping into a new era as a church is going to mean embracing change for each of us personally. It’s going to mean leaving some things behind. Lately, I’ve been asking myself what I need to leave behind to enter a new era?
The sin that trips us up will be different for all of us, but all of us have the same decision to make: will we leave it behind to step into a new era? This isn’t something that just happens; we need to make plans and be strategic. What determines your success at throwing off the things that would hold you back is what you plan to replace them with. Deciding not to do something is much harder to stick to than deciding to do something else instead.
Throw off gossip, take up kind words.
Throw off self-medication, take up supportive friendships and healthy habits.
Throw off bitterness and take up thankfulness.
Throw off laziness and take up discipline.
God transforms us from one glory to the next glory. Transformation is a process of change. If we hold on to what God did years ago, living in ‘the glory days‘, we risk holding up the process of transformation, and missing out on the ‘ever increasing glory’ God wants to bring us into. Let’s not forget what God has done for us in the past, Rev 12:11 reminds us that “they (that’s us) have defeated him (our accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony”, but let’s always seek God for what he’s doing next. Where is the next victory? What’s the new ground to take? Where is God leading us right now?
Tradition isn’t inherently bad, but tradition for its own sake can distract us from the spiritual reality we live in; we miss the point! Some of the things I was taught growing up in a pretty conservative church environment were much more ‘man-made ideas’ than ‘commands from God’. Let’s measure everything we hear against God’s word, and throw out anything that doesn’t line up.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two, out of all the Israelites, who came close enough to the promised land to actually walk into the promise. Imagine the disappointment they must have felt as a whole nation had to turn their backs on that promise and just walk away. Imagine trying to live the next forty years full of faith and expectation, when they knew they had come so close.
Often, to fully embrace a new era, we have to let go of the past. For Joshua, God was saying more than the obvious. He was telling him to let go of the disappointment; let go of the old thinking; see yourselves differently. See yourselves as owners, rather than borrowers; see yourselves as inhabitants, not wanderers; see yourselves as thrivers, not survivors!
For Joshua to make this shift he had to let go of the Moses era, which was an era of survival; it was living day to day and hand to mouth. That era was over. However, the thing Joshua had to do was be courageous enough to walk into and lead a nation into the promise.
Three times the Lord said to Joshua “be strong and courageous”. We know that God is our strength; we know that when we are weak, He is strong. God did amazing, powerful things that Joshua could never have dreamed of, but what only Joshua could do, was use his own strength and courage to leave the familiar, leave the disappointment and walk across that river into a new land and a new era.
What is God asking you to leave behind as we walk into an exciting new era?
Let’s remember to be filled with faith, courage and expectation this Sunday! | 2019-04-26T07:49:44Z | https://energizerchurchblog.com/category/devotionals/ |
This week's SmackDown Live is the first SmackDown after Elimination Chamber 2019 on Feb. 17, 2019! Press F5 or refresh for updates during the show.
Smackdown opens with Shane McMahon hitting the ring. They show a brief recap of the WWE Championship match two nights ago, and then he takes a mic. "Thank you for that, what's up, New Orleans? As you can see, what an amazing main event we have for you tonight. How amazing was the debut of Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Aleister Black, and of course, Ricochet. They're going to be here again tonight, and a lot more."
Miz comes out. "Look, I know I said I wasn't going to do this, but I haven't slept in 48 hours, I haven't eaten. Look, two nights ago, I lost the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. That's been 48 sleepless hours for me. I know you took a chance on me, I know my reputation, and you took a chance on me, and that means so much to me. Shane, I have a confession to make: I used you. I knew you'd relate to how I feel about my dad, it's everything I live for, and I knew you could relate. And when I fell injured at Best in the World, you selflessly took my place. You revealed that your dream was to be a tag team champion, and I can relate, when I win a title, I make it the most relevant, most prestigious championship in the WWE. And then, two days later, you surprised me by bringing out my dad. And as the crowd chanted, 'Mr. Miz', my dad told me that he was proud of me, and that he loved me. And that was the first time that I have ever heard him say that. And that was... that was the best moment of my career, and one of the greatest moments of my life. And it was because of you. So thank you. But then two days ago, in our first title defense, I let you down, and I am so sorry. Now, I can't change the past, but I can control the future. And I know there are no more automatic rematch clauses, but you're Shane McMahon. And if anyone can make a rematch with the best tag team in the world and The Usos, it is you, Shane. Listen to the crowd, Shane. I know they want it, I know you want it. Rematch, rematch!"
The Usos come out. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Holy cow. From the sounds of it, uce, it sounds like the WWE Universe want a rematch between Shane and the Miz vs. the brand new Smackdown Live Tag Team Champions! But this is what we know: there's no more automatic rematch clauses. But Shane, if you could dig down deep and forgive your partner, then we'll give you one more chance to become the tag team champions of the world. But Shane, there's only one reason you don't want this rematch. Let's keep it real: your boy, Miz, is a joke. These are facts. Your boy, Miz, is a failure, he's a fraud, he wants to be an a-list star with c-list skills. He said it himself, he's a crybaby."
Shane: "With all due respect, you don't disrespect my partner. The rematch is on! And it's happening in your hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, at Fastlane!"
Miz: "We're taking back our tag team championships, and that is awesome!"
Lockup, Andrade with an arm wrench, Black with a cover for zero, misses a kick, lockup, Andrade with a rear waistlock, Black with a side headlock, Andrade whips out, double axe handle, stomps in the corner, chop to the chest, whip, knee in the corner for two, chop, whip, misses a knee, falls to the floor, Almas with a suicide dive, backflips into the middle of the ring instead, commercial.
Back on air, trading forearms, Black with a pair of clotheslines, blocks a kick, hits one, leg sweep, knee, Andrade presses Black to the floor, follows, rolls Black into the ring, hammerlock, DDT, blocked, Black with a rollup for two, boot in the corner, blocked, Black with an enziguri, kick, German with a bridge for two, Andrade with kicks, tosses Black to the corner, running knees to the face for two, hammerlock DDT, reversed into snake eyes, Black Mass for three.
The former DIY are backstage. Kayla asks if they can keep up their momentum tonight. Ciampa says they've made a career out of defying expectations, while Gargano notes how they've come back together a year after fighting in the same arena. The Bar run in and belittle them as nobodies. DIY challenge them, and The Bar just laugh in response.
Jeff Hardy tells AJ Styles that they need to work together tonight. Kofi walks in with a "pancake branch" to extend.
Ciampa and Sheamus start off, lockup, Sheamus presses Ciampa to the corner, face wash, Ciampa with a face wash, rear waistlock, Sheamus with European uppercuts, Ciampa with boots, running big boot, Cesaro in, asks for Gargano, Gargano in, Cesaro with a rear waistlock takedown, wrenches an arm, Gargano rolls through, hurricanrana, rollup for one, Cesaro with a European uppercut, Sheamus in, stomp in the ropes, Cesaro in, whip, misses a double clothesline, Ciampa in, Gargano with boots to both opponents, Ciampa with a knee to Cesaro, Gargano with a suicide dive to Sheamus, Ciampa leaps at Cesaro from the apron, Cesaro catches him and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, commercial.
Back on air, Cesaro has Ciampa in a chinlock, Ciampa with a jaw breaker, boot from the corner, goes off the top rope, Cesaro with a European uppercut, Sheamus in, knocks Gargano off the top rope, Ciampa goes for a tag before he realizes, Sheamus with a knee, sets Ciampa up top, punches to the back, fireman's carry, Ciampa with elbows, sunset flip, Sheamus lands on Ciampa's knee, hurting both of them, double tag, Gargano with a springboard kick, hurricanrana to the floor, leaps to the apron, goot, senton to Sheamus, blocks a Cesaro charge and sends him into the barricade, hurricanrana to Cesaro into the ring skirt, slingshot DDT for two, Cesaro shoves Gargano to the corner, Gargano with a kick, head scissors into the Gargano Escape, Cesaro to his feet, breaks the hold with a backbreaker, Sheamus in, Cesaro with another backbreaker, Sheamus with a knee from the top rope for two as Ciampa breaks the count, both members of The Bar toss him to the floor, Irish Curse to Gargano for two, Sheamus drags Gargano up, Gargano with a superkick for two, Cesaro in, tries to knock Ciampa off the top rope, Ciampa dodges, Gargano with a rollup for two, Ciampa in, Cesaro doesn't notice, Ciampa with a rollup for three.
Asuka hits the ring for an interview.
Kayla: "Asuka, you are one of the most formidable Superstars in WWE history. The longest undefeated streak of any champion in NXT, the winner of the first Women's Royal Rumble, and now, a year later, Smackdown Women's Champion. But lately it seems like more people are talking about Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey. Do you feel lost in the shuffle?"
"I feel ready for new challenges. I beat Becky and Charlotte at TLC, I made Becky tap out at Royal Rumble, I don't want to talk about Becky and Charlotte. I want to know who's ready for Asuka right now!"
Mandy Rose comes out with Sonya. "Aww, poor Asuka. No one is paying attention to you. Here's a little advice: why don't you take some notes from God's Greatest Creation, the most magnetic, the most irresistable, and the most talked-about Superstar in WWE. So if anyone's ready for Asuka, it's me."
Lockup, Mandy with a side headlock, Asuka punches her way out, dropkick for one, Lacey Evans' music hits, and she comes out, poses, has a staredown with Sonya, walks back off, Mandy with a shove to the corner, Russian leg sweep for one, bails to the floor, Asuka yells at Mandy, who climbs back in the ring, hits knees, throws Asuka down, Asuka with kicks, Mandy tosses her to the corner, Asuka tosses Mandy to the floor, commercial.
Back on air, Asuka has a kneebar in, Mandy makes it to the bottom rope, both women to the floor, Mandy with a knee, Asuka beats the count at 9, Mandy with stomps, shoves, slaps, Asuka with a slap, more slaps, whip to the corner, reversed, Asuka leaps to the top rope, missile dropkick, spinning back elbow, another, spinning back kick for two, back suplex, Shining Wizard for two, kick to the face, Mandy screams that her eye is hurt, tosses Asuka into the middle rope, rollup for three.
Backstage, a new interviewer asks Charlotte about the recent altercations with Becky Lynch. She says that Becky is like a ghost, and she's a non-factor, and needs to accept that the Wrestlemania main event will be a one-on-one.
Miz approaches Shane backstage and thanks him for making the rematch. He says his dad will be ringside at Fastlane.
EY wrenches an arm, Ricochet reverses, arm breaker, snapmare, EY goes for a triangle, break, EY with a side headlock, Ricochet whips out, EY with a shoulder tackle, whip, Ricochet floats over, head scissors, dropkick, EY to the floor, Ricochet feigns a suicide dive, backflips into the middle of the ring, punches, whip, EY holds the rope, Ricochet with a shoulder tackle, EY punches him to the floor, back in the ring, kicks in the corner, hangman hold, top rope knee drop for two, wrenches the neck, chinclock, Ricochet punches his way out, EY tosses him to the corner, charges, Ricochet dodges, palm strike, another, hurricanrana, shoulder tackle, springboard European uppercut, running shooting star for two, fireman's carry, EY blocks, Ricochet with an elbow, tosses Young to the apron, EY with an elbow, Ricochet with a dropkick, EY falls on the floor, Ricochet with a springboard kick to the interfering Wolfe, suicide dive to Young and Dain, rolls Young into the ring, swinging kick from the apron, goes up top, 630 for three.
Kayla asks New Day about Kofi's epic performance last night. Xavier Woods says this wasn't a rapid ascension to the top, it was 11 years of great work. Kofi says this has been huge, and it was all possible thanks to his brothers in the New Day pushing for him to be the one in the Elimination Chamber. He says the momentum is just getting started.
Daniel Bryan grabs a mic before the match started and runs down the crowd for being the same kind of small-minded skeptics who have held down great thinkers for all of history. He says his opponent for Fastlane won't be any of the men in the match tonight, because he already beat them.
Kofi and Bryan start off, Joe in immediately, lockup, Joe tosses Kofi to the corner, Kofi ducks, kicks, whip, reversed, Kofi with a dropkick for one, arm wrench, Jeff in, top rope elbow drop, whip, reversed, Jeff with a clothesline, inverted atomic drop, leg drop, dropkick for two, Twist of Fate, blocked, Joe tosses him down, Orton in, drags Jeff to the corner, stomps to the legs, stomp to the gut, Bryan in, front facelock, roundhouse kicks, last one connects for two, Orton in, chinlock, Jeff powers out, Kofi in, clotheslines, dropkick, Boom Drop, tosses Bryan to the floor, clotheslines Orton over the top rope, goes up top, Bryan shoves him off the top rope, Joe knocks AJ off the apron, Orton back suplexes Kofi into the announce table, commercial.
Back on air, Bryan is pummelling Kofi with mounted punches, slaps, Orton in, tosses Kofi to the floor, another back suplex into the announce table, rolls Kofi into the ring for two, chinlock, Kofi elbows his way out, Orton with a punch to the back, whip to the corner, Kofi tosses Orton into the ring post, Bryan in, AJ in, AJ clears the opposing corner, blocks a back suplex from Bryan, hits him with a backbreaker, Ushigoroshi for two, calls for a Styles Clash, Orton goes for an RKO, blocked, AJ hits an enziguri, Bryan with a kick, AJ rolls him into the Calf Crusher, Joe breaks the hold, eats a Twist of Fate, Orton tosses Jeff to the floor, AJ tosses Orton ont of the ring, Bryan with a rollup for two, reversed into a rollup for two, Bryan locks in the LaBell Lock, AJ makes it to the rope, ducks the running knee, hits a Pele Kick, Kofi in, springboard clothesline, Bryan presses him to the floor, Kofi lands on everyone, forearm to Bryan, missile dropkick, Bryan lands on the floor, Kofi with a stage dive to Bryan and Rowan, Trouble in Paradise for three.
Don't give us Bryan vs. Kofi at Fastlane. Give it to us at goddamn 'Mania. This has potential.
Shane comes out. "Alright, alright! That was an amazing match! Miz and I won't be the only ones competing at Fastlane. Daniel Bryan, you will be defending your championship against... Kofi Kingston!"
Come on, Kofi, make us all believers. | 2019-04-22T22:36:49Z | http://angrymarks.com/?ArticleID=54229 |
Before joining Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi had opposed biometric identification- fingerprint based registration of Asians in general and Indian and Chinese in particular. In his book, Satyagraha in South Africa, he describes Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance of 1906 and the Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act under which finger printing of Asians was attempted as a "Black Act." The Black Act was resisted on the grounds of the safety of Indian and Chinese community of South Africa and to resist an intolerable humiliation.
Gandhi’s first Satyagraha was in opposition to British Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance of 1906 and Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act of 1907. Under the Act every male Asian had to register himself and produce on demand a thumb-printed certificate of identity. The Act required the re-registration of Indians who were currently resident in the colony. The registration documents required photo identification and a full set of fingerprints, and these documents were to be carried at all times, and to be made available to police on demand. Unregistered persons and prohibited immigrants were to be deported without a right of appeal or fined on the spot if they fail to comply with Act.
In many respects, this law amounted to a rational review of existing legislation in the aftermath of a total regime change, and did not, in and of itself, represent unusual discrimination for times, nor unreasonable demands on the population. Gandhi, however, made a repeal of the Black Act a central pillar of his early political activism, which in turn set the stage for a confrontation between the Transvaal Indian Community and the colonial government.
One of the lessons from the Satyagraha and freedom struggle is that law seeking biometric identification of Asians must be resisted. There is a logical compulsion for the Supreme Court to factor in this part of our history.
It must also be factored in that in South Africa, both Indians and Chinese were required by law to register their presence in the Transvaal by giving their fingerprints and carrying their passes. In response to such legal requirement, Gandhi encouraged Indians and Chinese to burn their passes. By this yardstick, it emerges that no political party In India qualifies to be deemed an opposition party unless they burn, boycott or bury the scheme that issues biometric identification slips carrying unique identification (UID)/Aadhaar numbers.
It appears that the Chinese have remembered their historical lessons not only from their subjugation through opium wars but also how as community of shared fate they had opposed finger printing together with Indians in South Africa. Dr. M Vijayanunni, former Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India underlined other reasons for China giving up a similar exercise on Rajya Sabha TV on February 2, 2013. Indians on the other hand appear to be addicted to forgetting lessons of their consistent defeats (in the battle fields and off the battle fields).
It seems that acting like a modern day Clive, Nilekani has managed to somehow take the heads of key political parties, their beneficial owners and their loyalists into confidence. Court’s verdict on UID/Aadhaar is likely to decide whether Clive and his loyalists will win once again or not.
By 1750, the Indian empire was in a state of collapse as a result of a permission given by Indian Emperor Jahangir to an Ambassador of English Emperor King James for setting up of a base by English East India Company in Surat, Gujarat in 1615. By 1690, this company had factories all along the West and East coasts of India with the main centres at Madras, Calcutta and Bombay. The company started to protect its trade with its own armies and navies.
History repeats itself in simple ways. Capt Raghu Raman, who was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Union Ministry of Home Affairs had proposed creation of private territorial armies by commercial czars in his earlier incarnation with Mahindra Special Services Group as part of his previous work titled “A Nation of Numb People”. But the State seems to have gone ahead and has started providing Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), world’s biggest industrial security force to the commercial czars on rent. At this rate how long will it take for the commercial czars to hire Indian Army, Navy and Air Force? In any case they are hiring them post retirement or poaching them in their pre-retirement phase itself. The publications of industry associations have pointed out that NATGRID and UID/Aadhaar are linked. Unless the Supreme Court is alive to the writing the writing on the wall its ramifications are bound to unfold and make their democratic rights redundant.
The Court may recollect that Indians were taken into “uncharted waters” by unelected persons. UID-aadhaar and related schemes are meant to engineer the electoral system for good.
The surveillance regime based on UID/Aadhaar is rewriting the political geography of the country by employing biometric and other intrusive automatic identification technologies. The resident numbering project took citizens for a ride by promising that the UID/Aadhaar is voluntary. Such deception ended up coercing people through rules and orders by denying services. In a reply to RTI query, UIDAI replied "There is no way of verifying the country of origin of the companies" when asked about the involvement of transnational companies as contractors. It indulged in fibbing. The fact is that UIDAI has been hiding the details of these contractors who are linked to foreign intelligence firms and agencies.
Disclosures and revelations widely reported underline how these technologies have put even heads of governments reveal that there is paucity of capacity to monitor or regulate these technologies within the Government. If this is the plight of the governments and technologically challenged political class, the threat for citizens can easily be understood.
Court must make the government review its capacity to regulate an emerging technology regime that is undermining democracy and sovereignty and should not be misled by unelected cabinet ranked officials who say, “Technology has no history and no bias, it treats everyone the same way.” History of technologies reveals that it is their owners who are true beneficiaries especially when it is used for social control. There is a compelling need to urgently assess the claims and risks of biometric and surveillance technology and how some companies made UID/NPR politically persuasive for the ruling party and intertwined the systems of technology with crying need for governance.
Democratic mandate of 2014 was against turning India into a market democracy where executive and legislative decisions are driven by profit mongers not by public interest. It was a mandate against assault on democratic rights and diluting federal structure of the country. Given the fact that the electoral verdict of 2014 was against the proponents of UID/Aadhaar project, it remains intriguing as to why a political leader and a Prime Ministerial candidate who opposed it in September 2013 at a BJP Youth Conference rally in Trichy and on 7th April 2014 at a Bharat Vijay rally in Bangalore and who tweeted on 8the April 2014 saying that Aadhaar has no vision, it is only a political gimmick, changed his mind after a closed door meeting between him, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Nilekani in late June 2014. Nilekani succeeded in getting the endorsement for the Aadhaar project.
Is it the case that the biometric databases of Indians have already been sold in the futures market and the powers that be have got their shares in the booty which makes it ‘irreversible’ as is being claimed, despite electoral reverses?
Why are opposition parties taking starkly contradictory positions by implementing UID/Aadhaar number scheme even as they express their opposition to it?
Did the citizens’ database that was handed over by Hosni Mubarak regime to the Government of USA prior to its fall facilitate the overthrow of democratically elected Morsi regime in the coup by the military in Egyp and the repression of Egyptian citizens there after?
What will application of judicial mind mean when the Court has sufficient evidence to infer that beneficial owners of meta data collecting and automatic identification technologies have overwhelmed Government of India resulting electronic and biometric invasion by foreign entities?
What is the lesson from Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to biometric identification?
The way all the agencies are linking demographic and biometric information with identification of citizens it is apparent that a permanent Emergency architecture is unfolding. The electoral database is also being converged. The idea is to make citizens transparent before the all mighty Government so that Government, their servants can remain opaque to safeguard the interests of undemocratic and ungovernable social control technology companies.
The author had appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that examined the Aadhaar Bill and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution that examined the Consumer Protection Bill. He is editor of www.toxicswatch.org and is the convener of Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties which has been working on UID/Aadhaar issue since 2010. | 2019-04-19T14:23:09Z | http://www.toxicswatch.org/2018/07/why-mahatma-gandhi-opposed-aadhaar-like.html |
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Good, that you've chosen to rent a new dumpster to clear the a great deal of trash piled-up at your career location. You need to know the type and also size of dumpster of which best fits your requirements before you go onward with the rental course of action. Roll off of dumpster should be your decision if you are looking available to dump massive tons of trash in the significant commercial and residential tasks. Before you place a purchase for the spin off trash bin, it is significant for you to be aware of dimensions of the actual garbage container so that you will accommodate the required place to squeeze dumpster at your undertaking location. You may be running a home remodeling, commercial undertaking or commercial clean up, the area you accommodate for the garbage package should be double the amount size of the height and also width.
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Before going for any Large Dumpster For Rent in Laclede, ID organization please check of which whether maintaining dumpsters are allowed throughout area or otherwise, if it is not helped than go for alternative option of garbage bin. You could find companies that work in particular areas and plenty of which are in every talk about and metropolis as well. The fees policy in addition depends upon organization to company, a few companies charge on each week basis although some charges on every dumpster or bin they will take. You would like to select per your qualification in order to steer clear of the frustration associated with realizing with a party day time that you can't use program because the sort of service you chose. | 2019-04-26T02:14:40Z | https://ratedumpster.com/idaho/large-dumpster-for-rent-laclede-id/ |
Poor circulation may lead to built up of lactic acid in the muscles, which may cause fatigue. The hot stones when placed on the trigger points, penetrates deep into the body stimulating the blood vessels for a better circulation. The real message thereafter facilitates the flow of blood increasing circulation.
A Hot Stone therapy promotes overall health by rejuvenating the body and directing the flow of energy in the right way. It helps in reducing pain and stress related to chronic diseases and fibromyalgia. It also helps in preventing sleep disorders as it induces sleep and relaxation. It is also helpful for patients dealing with anxiety, depression and other mental illness. Apart from this, a relaxing Hot Stone Massage also helps in releasing toxins from the tissues and aid better health.
4-21-19 You no longer see birds in the spring time. Continued pressure from tourists and bandits in the night doing what they know best in the Wild Wild West to make tourist come in the boats to see the few birds left in the lake.
John Bel Edwards is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 56th Governor of Louisiana since 2016. He was previously the Minority Leader of the Louisiana House of Representatives for two terms.
Lake Martin Louisiana now Posted Keep Out to Public.
The commercial operator who was issued the Alcohol permits to sell and consume on a State Lake, State Servitude, Parish Levy Road, State Dam has now excluded the Public to all the land inside the Lake Martin.
The clock is ticking and more and more of the Private Lake will be slowly closed down as land owners protect there property and interest in Lake Martin.
If the Public wants to help keep the lake open to them , Then Donate to our gofundme.com.
Many people have told me this is just Louisiana Politics.
Well this isn’t the Louisiana like that anymore.
People need to ban together and call there Legislators and Governor and let them know you want to save access to Lake Martin and protection against the tourist companies chasing all the nesting birds out of the lake because of all the boat trafficking in the lake.
We need the state to step in and build bathrooms and facilities with a understanding that tour boat operators will have to follow rules and regulations with insurance to protect the state and land owners liability and interest in the lake.
Swamp tour Operators are encourage to give to gofundme.com so we can restore the agreement and put a commission to over see the Lake rules and regulations.
State of Louisiana Created Lake Martin Louisiana in 1950 by signing a agreement with the private land owners who land circle all of the Land that goes all around the Lake . The Chauffe Family has all the Land from the boat Landing back towards the Lake where it touches Nature Conservatory Land in the Lake. The State used these leases all around Lake Martin to flood there Land to create Lake Martin.
The agreement was that the lake would be used for the public and State access into Lake Lepoite making the Game and Fishing Preserve that people come all over the world to see our last natural beauty left in St. Martin Parish and In the State of Louisiana.
A Commission was formed that was years later decommissioned and the lake was handed to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Since that time Lake Martin Louisiana has been forgotten by The State of Louisiana.
Since then the Boat Landing has crumbled into a accident waiting to happen and there are commercial operations with alcohol permits and boat tours. The liability has reverted back to the Land owners.
The people of St. Martin Parish are convinced that the State of Louisiana has forgotten about Lake Martin Louisiana Located in St. Martin Parish.
Land owners have given up on local Parish Government and the State of Louisiana to come in and take responsibility for there lack of interest in Lake Martin.
Now Land owners are forced to block and post there property to escape the liability they were forced to accept. Saying nothing and doing nothing will pave the way to the whole lake being shut down because the liability that tourism put on Lake Martin.
Lake Martin Parish has no help and the local land owners cannot afford the money to hire legal representation to protect the interests for the Public and State access into Lake Lepoite.
The commercial operator make a incredible amount of money from Tourism. Why should the Land owners have to pay to fight for public access. Why Should Land owners take all the liability for the commercial activities in the Lake.
All the people going to Lake Martin and supporting commercial activities in Lake Martin Should step back and look what is really going on. If you liked Lake Martin ? Then you should take the time and voice your concerns to everyone involved in letting Lake Martin to be closed to the Public access.
Many of you who love Lake Martin knows someone who wants to make a difference in this world. If you have been blessed with money or influence to the higher powers in the State of Louisiana then take the time to donate or just pick up the phone and call the Governor JOHN BEL EDWARDS and ask him for help.
How Does Massage Work ?
The relaxation response may decrease the physical effects of stress and reduce the risks associated with stress, such as hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, anxiety insomnia, persistent fatigue, sexual dysfunction, digestive disorders , and psychological issues–to name a few.
A Combination Massage is a massage integrating more than one style or massage modality. It can combine techniques from Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, reflexology, trigger point therapy and hot stone. These combinations are used to tailor the massage towards your personal preferences and specific needs.
What should you expect during a combination massage?
During a combination massage, you will lie unclothed on a massage bed, covered with towels. The therapist will likely ask you which parts of the body you’d like to focus on – it’s totally fine to choose an overall body massage.
The therapist will use their expertise to combine techniques from multiple massage types to best benefit your specific needs. This blend of techniques should relieve stress and tension in your body, and provide pain relief if needed.
In addition, certain combinations are said to amplify the healing effects of massage. For example, a Swedish massage combined with a hot stone may increase circulation and metabolism quicker than using only one style.
How do you know which styles the massage will include?
A therapist will use her discretion in tailoring a massage based on your individual needs. Before the massage, don’t be shy in communicating your goals of the massage – such as relaxation or relief of tension. During the massage, tell your therapist if you find a particular style that you like or dislike. You can also check with the day spa or massage place beforehand to find out which modalities a combination massage tends to include.
Louisiana Massage Therapy Clinic is a popular massage facility in Lafayette , Louisiana. They offer premium services like hot stone massages and neck massages. Their hallmark service and the namesake of the business is their foot massages. You can opt for a 30 or 60-minute foot massage or pair your foot massage with a shoulder or full-body massage for a more soothing experience. The highly trained technicians will ease muscle soreness, working with your body rather than against it to ensure you’re comfortable throughout the massage.
The atmosphere at Louisiana Massage Therapy Clinic is soothing and relaxing. Comfortable Foot Massage Chairs and lavish towels make you feel like you’re escaping into a dream. Bring a friend with you for an afternoon of relaxation. Foot massages are also a great couples’ activity. After you’re finished, every step you take will feel looser.
For repeating Customers visiting regularly ask Juli to verify each visit and receive the fifth session free. Example Customer visited four times for a one Hour Foot Massage the fifth time customer receives a free one hour Foot massage. 30 minutes Foot Massage $30.00 and 60 minutes Foot Massage $40.00. You can visit website www.lafayettemassagetherapy.info to schedule online booking or call 337-909-0440 to book your appointment. Walk in welcome.
What To Expect with a full Body Massage ! | 2019-04-26T00:57:34Z | https://lafayettemassagetherapy.info/category/massage/ |
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 7 - A simultaneous operation between April 3-5, carried out in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Italy and which saw the involvement of some 600 law enforcement officers, led to the arrest of 64 members of an Albanian-speaking organized crime network.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 5 - In an interview for German media Deutsche Welle on Thursday, head of the opposition’s Democratic Party Lulzim Basha said the united opposition will not be returning back to the parliament and that the political crisis is real, but also an opportunity to finally give Albanians a democratic system if the Socialist government resigns.
“I remind you that German partners in the German Bundestag recognize these problems, we have raised these concerns a long time ago, since almost a year. Unfortunately, things this year did not improve, but have deteriorated. Not only that, but now we have official evidence of government cooperation with organized crime. The opposition's abandonment of parliament is without a return, the political crisis is real, but this is an opportunity, a great opportunity, not just to remove a crime-related government, but to give Albanians a democratic, functional system that serves them and not just the political parties or simply the political class,” Basha said.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 5 - The Albanian government approved on Thursday an amendment in a previous Council of Ministers ruling that foresaw the state-ownership of the country’s southern coastline so that private investors can eventually build resorts along it.
The ruling, dating February 27, was published in the government’s Official Book and was later deleted, also due to pressure from neighboring Greece, as there is Greek minority living in Himara whose properties would be affected under the law.
On Thursday, the government approved the law’s suspension only for the part of the coastline starting from Vlora and ending in Saranda - which includes all the locations inhibited by Greek minority landowners.
“Real estate properties according to Point 1, located in the areas where the initial registration hasn’t concluded, will register under the administrative responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism, after the initial registration process of the private properties located at the cadastral areas included in this ruling has been finalized,” said the ruling approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers.
On Monday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the media he’d been informed of “negative developments” concerning the Greek minority living in Albania, and that, given it was true, it could affect Albania’s EU path, which is also determined by Greece’s support as a EU member state.
A day later, the CM ruling was deleted from the government’s Official Book, while on Thursday Greek national TV ERT reported Tsipras and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama even had a phone call regarding this particular issue.
According to ERT, Tsipras and Rama spoke about the necessary reforms for Albania’s opening of EU accession talks, however it was also reported the core of the conversation was the draft law which affects the Greek minority’s properties and Tsipras’ ultimatum for it to be amended.
However, the amendment that will allow private property owners to finalize mortgaging processes will not be applied to the other parts of the coastline - a fact which, just as the February 27 ruling itself, has drawn criticism from political experts and international representatives in Albania alike.
For over a year, the government has scanned the most profitable areas and on Friday published in its Official Book at least 67 maps with all areas that will guide local units to suspend passing agricultural land ownership to ex-agricultural enterprise benefitors, for those areas prioritized for tourism development.
This “state ownership”of property by law has been criticized from political experts as anti-democratic and worrying, while anonymous sources told Tirana Times the law - and its amendment - did not go unnoticed by a number of ambassadors to Tirana.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 5 - Economy expert and analyst Artan Hoxha said on Thursday the solution to the deadlock are early elections that will allow both government and the opposition to compete on an equal ground and that, according to the IPR Marketing survey results published on Wednesday, opposition parties would receive 80 mandates in the present political situation.
“They are two eggs which are bumping and one will soon break. As Dr. Noto said, the opposition’s egg is getting stronger,” Hoxha said, referring to Italy’s IPR Marketing Director Antonio Noto, who faced criticism following the publication of the survey.
“We have a government intertwined with crime, a judicial power visibly under the government’s rule. Institutionally, it seems like a problem without solution. Just like the vicious circle that comes round and round and cannot stio. There is only one break of this vicious circle and that would be a new electoral process that places the parties under equal conditions of competition, which can come through a transitory government that will do nothing but give a message to criminal gangs, that this model has no future,” Hoxha said during an interview for Ora News.
“The question would be this: if the political elections were to take place on April 3, who would you vote for? Opposition parties were at 53 percent, the Socialist Party at 44 percent, while other parties stood at 3 percent, where parties such as the PBDNJ, PDIU are also opposition. So the ratio is at 55-45. If these were translated into parliamentary mandates, the opposition would take 80 mandates and the government 60. So we have a public reversal of the voting inclination inherited from the 2017 elections. The majority in the nation today is a minority and the political minority of 2017 today is the majority in popular support,” Hoxha said.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 4 - Italy’s IPR Marketing published its first national survey on Wednesday, where among 2000 voters - only 31.3 percent of whom come from Tirana - 62 percent wish to leave the country.
Asked whether they’d leave Albania if given the chance, IPR concluded that 62.2 percent of Albanians would leave given the chance, 35.1 percent would stay, and 2.8 percent said they don’t know what they’d do.
Concerning Prime Minister Edi Rama’s governance, 29.5 percent said they believe the PM is positive, while 34.7 percent gave negative answers. A total of 7.2 percent said they are not able to judge the government’s work.
Further on, concerning the criminality in the country - which is a main topic of political discourse and one of the main reasons Albania has still to open accession negotiations with the EU - compared to the last three years, 53.4 percent of Albanians think that crime in the country has increased. Few are those who think the opposite, where 17.0 percent think this phenomenon has declined. There are 23.6 percent of Albanians who think the crime is on the same level as three years ago.
The survey also touched on the perceptions voters have on the economic progress over the last three years, where 20.9 percent of Albanians think that the economy has improved, while 43.3 percent think that the Albanian economy has deteriorated. Meanwhile, 34.7 percent of citizens think that the economy hasn’t moved in three years.
In addition, 60.1 percent of the population listed unemployment as the most pressing problem seeking solution, whereas 53.2 percent believe corruption is most pressing and 45.4 percent regard poverty as Albania’s biggest problem.
Interestingly, 49 percent of those surveyed said they believe Albania is not heading in the right direction, 40.8 percent expressed an opposing view and only 10.2 percent they don’t have an answer to this question.
Compared to three years ago, 18.5 percent of the surveyed said Albania’s living standard has risen, while 39.7 percent believe its living standards have deteriorated. Meanwhile, 40.5 percent said the living standard has remained the same.
IPR Marketing, one of the leading companies in Italy, specializes in research, studies and analysis of public opinion and market for more than 26 years, with successful international experience.
“We are used to attacks from all over the world. Because they see us as wizards, but we are not, we do a scientific job, not magic. Surveys are attacked by the loser and this is not only in Albania but everywhere. But over the years, confidence in surveys has grown,” head of the IPR Antonio Noto said.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 4 - Albania’s opposition held on Wednesday its eighth protest, which kicked off in front of the parliament and ended close to the government building.
Meanwhile, inside the parliament, most people were involved in debates with opposition representatives on the electoral reform, following the decision to postpone the Reform Committee for one more month waiting for the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration to accept the invitation to conclude this process, which is also one of the recommendations of the European Council to open accession talks with Albania.
This time around, the majority of protesters came from DP and SMI youth forums, while there were many who held slogans reading the word “GO,” addressed to Prime Minister Edi Rama. Even among youth, moments of tension were present when a group of protesters tried several times to break the police line at the parliament’s entrance.
Protesters then moved to the boulevard while holding a paper pyramid, at the top of which was Rama’s name, symbolizing the pyramid of crime and corruption which, according to the opposition, is headed by the Socialist government.
Close to the government building, the pyramid was set in flames while the protest concluded with the return of the opposition leaders to the DP headquarters’ yard.
Members of parliament who refused to resign their parliamentary mandates and others who have replaced their opposition MP colleagues ever since they decided to boycott the parliament, debated the majority over the electoral reform.
The debates were prompted by yesterday's Socialist Democrat Damian Gjiknuri's proposal to postpone the Reform Commission for a month, in order to allow the opposition parties to join this process.
According to MP Rudina Hajdari, who is one of the few DP MPs who refused to resign their parliamentary mandates, said the majority should establish a dialogue with the opposition MPs now present in the parliamentary hall.
“This commission was established with the previous MPs. We don’t know what you discussed with them, what their proposals were and what they want to achieve with this electoral reform. This is a new parliament and you have to accept this reality. You have to accept new proposals. You have to accept the mandates of that commission expired on February 21, 2019,” Hajdari said, referring to the date the opposition decided to resign its parliamentary mandates and continue protesting to demand Rama’s resignation and the establishment of a caretaker government that can bring about early elections.
Rama, on his part, explained the majority’s proposal to postpone the reform commission is merely a sign of a good will to conclude the only process which remains open with the opposition, pointing out however they will not wait indefinitely, while reminding it was the DP that insisted to Include the Electoral Reform on the European Council’s recommendations for opening accession talks with Albania in June.
“We will wait as long as it is permissible. If, on the part of the European Union and the European Commission it is made known the electoral law can stop here, before a decision to open the negotiations is reached, because it is written in the text, we will stop here and refer only to OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, excluding other elements,” Rama said in parliament.
Despite the recommendation from the EP, the decision on whether aspirant countries will open accession negotiations remains to the member states.
In this context, Albania’s political situation does not help the country receive a positive decision, while the results of the European elections will also be decisive in the position that the member states will take.
[post_content] => TIRANA, April 3 - Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy to Tirana Leyla Moses-Ones announced on Tuesday that help towards the High Judicial Council will soon lead to the creation of the Court against Corruption and Organized Crime.
She said that whoever thinks the ongoing justice reform will fall behind is mistaken, echoing her own words during the AIIS conference “70 years of NATO, 10 years of Albanian membership” which took place on March 21.
“This is but one example of how the United States continues to work hand-in-hand with Albanian and European partners to help Albania with Euro-Atlantic integration and rule-of-law. We are seeing this in justice reform efforts. The High Prosecutorial Council will soon bring about the prosecutors of the SPAK, and then the National Bureau of Investigation,” Moses-Ones said.
Further on, she added that it’ll be US assistance towards the HJC which will finally lead to the creation of the Court against Corruption and Organized Crime.
“Our assistance to the High Judicial Council will soon lead to the Anti-corruption and organized crime court. U.S. Department of Justice officials are mentoring Albanian prosecutors, who are already bringing about notable prosecutions — and we expect more. The United States supports all of Albania’s new institutions, such as the Councils and the SPAK, as well as existing institutions that are willing to fight against corruption or organized crime. Justice reform is moving forward, and it won’t be stopped,” Moses-Ones concluded.
The US Embassy’s Chargé d'Affaires made these remarks during the ASP Case Management System Upgrade Inauguration organized by the Ministry of Interior.
Valuing the opportunity to mark an important milestone in the modernization of the State Police, Moses-Ones said she is proud to celebrate the continuous close partnership between the state police and the US government.
Moses-Ones’ words were echoed by the German Ambassador to Tirana Susanne Schütz in an interview for the local media Monitor a few days back.
Schütz said the country’s ongoing justice reform and its vetting process are successful and have contributed positively in improving Albania’s image in the eyes of foreign investors. | 2019-04-19T18:46:42Z | http://www.tiranatimes.com/?cat=28&paged=3 |
If there's one country that might have insight into what a post-ACTA future may look like, it's the Republic of Korea. Korea is known as having one of the most advanced networks in the world, but more recently it has also been the recipient of some of the strongest foreign pressure to ramp up its IP laws. Heesob Nam is a member (and former Chair) of IPLeft, a Korean digital rights activist group founded in 1999 to critique the increasingly maximalist IP rights agenda in that country, and research and present alternative policy proposals. He writes of the impact on Korea of ACTA and other international IP agreements.
In August 2008, our group, IPLeft, demanded that the Korean government disclose relevant information about its stance on the negotiation of ACTA. The disclosure was denied, as was our appeal. The reason for the denial was unconvincing: the disclosure, we were told, would result in "a harmful effect on a diplomatic relationship with foreign countries and severe damage to considerable national interests".
How does the participation in an international cooperation to combat the trade of "counterfeit and pirated goods" harmfully impact foreign relationships? Which national interests are to be damaged by open and transparent discussion? Unlike its attitude to civic society and the general public, it turned out that the Korean government already provided relevant information to, and sought opinions from, particular business groups from the earliest stages of the negotiation, at least from November 2007.
When it comes to ACTA, transparency and openness became principles that apply only to a small number of business interests. This is why the secrecy of ACTA is so bad: it mirrors a particular perspective that views the system of intellectual property as a means for maximizing commercial profit and which pays little attention to the broader social, cultural and economic implications of the IP system.
This imbalanced and biased approach is infused into the draft texts that we have seen. The draft chapters on civil enforcement, criminal enforcement, and border measures lack procedural justice and fairness. They improperly promote the interests of IP holders to the detriment of the other party in civil, criminal and administrative proceedings.
The provisions contained in the proposed Internet Chapter appear to impose undue obligations on ISPs. The extent to which ISPs are to be liable for copyright infringement by users is a matter of domestic cultural policy, not a trade issue. Careful balancing of interests and fine-tuning are necessary, including factors specific to local culture and environment which cannot be concluded in a closed room occupied by trade negotiators.
More significantly, the liability of ISPs is of great importance not merely for the protection of copyright: it is important for the protection and realization of everyone’s right to take part in cultural life as declared in legally binding international human rights instruments. One of our concerns about ACTA is the risk of undercutting the principle of the rule of law and the possible conflict with human rights, in particular with the right to a fair trial, the right to equality before courts and tribunals, the right to equality of arms, and the right to be presumed innocent. ACTA tries to introduce substantial changes in civil and criminal procedures. But the proposed changes give rise to issues of procedural justice and fairness, jeopardizing Korea’s obligations under the international human rights instruments, e.g., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and potentially weakening the democratic values recognized in our Constitution.
For instance, pursuant to the US-Japan joint proposal, any provisional measures such as a preliminary injunction may be rendered by judicial authorities without a prior hearing of the alleged infringer. Here, neither "irreparable harm to the right holder" nor "a demonstrable risk of evidence being destroyed" is explicitly required. Even the Customs office may take an ex-officio action to suspend the release of suspected copyright or trademark infringing goods. Moreover, right holders may be awarded a predetermined amount of damages without having a burden to show the amount of damage or even when the amount is greater than actual damage. An even more severe breach of principles of procedural justice is found in a so-called "camcorder provision" under which anyone who attempts to use an audiovisual recording device to make a copy of any part of an audiovisual work in a theater may be criminally punished. This out-of-proportion rule not only produces a direct conflict with the right to be presumed innocent but also undermines the principle of fair use or fair dealing.
National autonomy is vital in order to decide the proper level of local IP protection and enforcement. Korean IP law has undergone substantial revision due to the threat of trade sanctions from both the US and the EU since the early 1980s. This economic coercion has continued for about thirty years, and has led to an emergence of consistent domestic pressure for stronger IP protection.
Interestingly, the strongest advocates for these reforms in Korea are not the IP industries: they are the executive branches in government which claim competance over the administration of patent, trademark, and copyright. To them, stronger IP protection and enforcement is a chance to enhance their position. The unending economic pressure and the heavy reliance of our domestic economy upon exports have produced this environment. The problem is that these state actors are much more influential than other, emerging local businesses, because they possess institutional capacities and resources to promote a maximalist IP regulatory culture.
With this power, these government agencies have introduced new laws in Korea which may well be used to support controversial provisions currently being discussed in Guadalajara, Mexico. Examples include a filtering obligation imposed on certain online service providers, and a "graduated response" rule under which the Minister of Culture can suspend or terminate the Internet account of a repeat infringer or even shut down a website that the repeat infringer is using. Advocates claim that the shutting-down provision is incorporated in the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (and Side Letters) (currently awaiting ratification), and may possibly be pushed by the US in modified form during the ACTA negotiations. If ACTA is concluded with an inspiration of such provisions and applied to Korea under the name of international harmony, our effort to reform the copyright system would be undermined, and opportunities for democratic policy discussion at local level would be lost.
Contrary to the beliefs of ACTA negotiators, stronger, criminal enforcement rules can create unintended consequences among the general public. In Korea, following the introduction of these new laws, reports of criminal copyright infringement skyrocketed from 14,838 to 90,979 between 2005 and 2008. Among these, juveniles victims occupied 24% in 2008, an increase from 1.9% in 2005.
This reported increase, however, does not represent a rapid rise of the unauthorized use of copyrighted material by juveniles. Rather, it shows how criminal sanctions can be misused. Under the Korean Copyright Act, any unauthorized acts of reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works can invoke a criminal liability. This wide coverage of criminal sanction paves the way to abuse or misuse of criminal enforcement. ACTA is no different in this sense. In order to be "willful copyright piracy" under ACTA, an infringing activity needs to be "on a commercial scale". But commercial scale is defined so broadly that it covers activities with "no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain". With this broad definition, the infringement on a commercial scale may include almost every unauthorized use of copyrighted work. So, for instance, those who download a single piece of music may risk criminal penalties. In other words, ACTA opens the door to the global misuse of criminal enforcement rules, beyond even what we've seen in Korea.
Here, criminal sanctions have become a sort of new business model for lawyers acting for copyright holders (mainly music and film industries). They monitor Internet users and send warning letters to suspected individuals threatening a criminal action. In exchange for not taking the criminal action, they ask for a cash settlement. Criminal enforcement procedures provide copyright holders with leverage; using the threat of criminal action as leverage for the settlement negotiation as the initiation of criminal procedure is triggered by a complaint by the right holder. Among the 90,979 complaints in 2008, 56% were settled out of court.
ACTA risks exporting Korea's criminal enforcement regime, while importing the worst of other countries' IP laws. But that's not the only reason to oppose it. A trade agreement that breaches procedural justice, fairness, transparency, and proportionality is not Anti-Counterfeiting: it's Anti-Commons. | 2019-04-22T02:09:17Z | https://www.eff.org/pt-br/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-korea |
Semple, K. E., Zhang, P. K., and Smith, G. D. (2015). "Stranding moso and guadua bamboo. Part II. Strand surface roughness and classification," BioRes. 10(3), 4599-4612.
In this study OSB strands produced by a CAE 6/36 disk flaker from re-saturated moso and guadua bamboo tissue were classified by surface quality and compared with industrial aspen OSB strands. Strands were first classified into three groups based on surface appearance and texture. The topographic features that characterize the surface were then measured using a laser surface profiler to give two surface roughness indicators; average roughness (Ra) and average maximum roughness (Rz). Guadua strand surface quality was extremely poor compared to moso due to its very large, dense vascular bundles. Ra and Rz values for many bamboo strands, particularly guadua, exceeded the typical diameter of resin droplets dispensed during industrial OSB blending, meaning that excessive roughness could compromise bonding efficiency in bamboo OSB.
In Part II of this series on stranding moso (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) and guadua (Guadua angistifolia Kunth) bamboo, the surface quality and roughness indices of strands were assessed. Part I (Semple et al. 2015a) covered strand production using a CAE 6/36 laboratory disk flaker, pole characteristics affecting strand size and quality, and compared frequency distributions for strand width and thickness against a standard industrial aspen OSB mill furnish. To minimize the amount (and cost) of resin required to manufacture OSB, strands are spot-welded together by very small, dispersed droplets of resin (Kamke et al. 1996; Smith 2003a,b). There is very little information available on the measured surface roughness of OSB strands, and none for bamboo strands. Information on how it may affect the efficiency of bonding of small droplet arrays deposited during the resin atomization and blending process is also lacking. The very rough surfaces of many of the bamboo strands observed in Part I may be different to and outside the range of surface roughness found in standard OSB furnish, and potentially reduce the bonding efficiency of very small adhesive droplet arrays.
The surface of a machined piece of wood (such as a sliced OSB strand) is a complex function of three levels of texture (Marian et al. 1958): the woods’ own anatomical features (e.g., vessels), intentional machining features (e.g., smooth slicing by a planer or roughening from sand paper), and errors of form (e.g., material distortion and variability in tooling and machine performance that produces ‘background’ effects such as waviness or deep cracks). Notwithstanding errors of form, the induced surface roughness of wood adherends has significant effects on adhesive wettability and final adhesive bond strength and fracture toughness (Collett 1972; Ebewele et al. 1980; Nussbaum and Sterley 2002). To bond wood surfaces, specialized liquid adhesives have been developed that allow wetting and conformation with the surface, but limit seepage into the substrate and its resultant starvation of the glueline. Therefore surface characterization of wood and OSB strands commonly includes assessment of surface energy, with measurement of contact angles in relation to adhesive wettability (Shupe et al. 1998; Maldas and Kamdem 1999; Shi and Gardner 2001; Nussbaum and Sterley 2002).
One of the biggest problems with defining wood surface roughness in relation to adhesion is the porous and permeable nature of the wood, giving it ‘internal roughness’ that is not picked up by stylus tracings (Ebewele et al. 1980). Some drawbacks of stylus tracings include slow measurement speed, surface damage, catching of the stylus in holes or deep fissures, 2-dimensional sampling, results being influenced by environmental vibrations, and stylus and arm variables (Devoe et al. 1992; Hu and Afzal 2005). Today, stylus tracings have largely been replaced by non-contact methods of laser displacement sensing of the surface to map the surface topography (Lundberg and Porankiewicz 1995; Sandak and Tanaka 2003; Sandak et al. 2004; Hu and Afzal 2005). A commercially available non-contact laser profiling system was used in this study, due to occasional deeply fissured surfaces, and detached tissue on bamboo strands susceptible to dislodgement by a stylus.
The objective of this study was to measure the surface roughness indices (average roughness, Ra, and maximum roughness, Rz of bamboo strands classified by feel as ‘smooth’ or ‘rough’ and compare these indices with those measured on ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ industrial OSB strands produced from aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx). The results are compared to and discussed in relation to the known size of resin droplets administered during OSB furnish blending.
Assessment of strand surface quality was done in two ways. First, a qualitative classification using a combination of visual and tactile assessments of each measured strand from Part I was made as to whether each strand fell into one of three surface roughness groupings: (1) rough on both sides, (2) smooth on one side and rough on the other, or (3) smooth on both sides. Tactile assessment of surface roughness can be subjective, particularly if there are several categories, and the boundaries between categories are indistinct. For this reason, the number of categories was restricted to three, with most sampled strands easily classified into one of the three.
Second, a laser surface profiler from LaserScan LT (Solaris, San Francisco, USA), fitted with a Keyence K2000 Series LK-031 sensor head, was used to measure the topographic features, i.e., the height and depth of the ridges and valleys running parallel to the length of the strand. This was done to quantitatively characterize surfaces assessed subjectively by touch as either ‘rough’ or ‘smooth’ in each type of sliced tissue (aspen, moso, and guadua). Surface profile data were mapped and analyzed using Solar Map Universal 3.2 software. Six specimens, each of seven types of surface, were scanned for a total of 42 scans. The seven surface types were (1) aspen ‘smooth’, (2) aspen ‘rough’, (3) moso ‘smooth’, (4) moso ‘rough’, (5) guadua ‘smooth’, (6) guadua ‘rough’, and (7) a ‘smooth’ reference surface of sliced moso bamboo veneer. This cabinet-quality veneer is produced in China by pre-softening large laminated billets and using a large sharpened wedge blade to slice thin veneer sheets measuring 2400-mm × 1200-mm × 0.6-mm in thickness. The veneer is kept intact by a layer of high tear strength paper adhered to the back.
and Rpi and Rvi are the ith highest peak and lowest valley, respectively.
A DX100 Olympus Digital Light Reflection Microscope (5x magnification) was used to examine the sliced transverse cross-sections through the culm wall of moso and Guadua tissue. This was to provide a visual comparison of the morphology of the vascular bundles likely affecting the surface quality of the sliced strands.
Cursory examination of both industrial aspen mill strands and bamboo strands suggested considerable visual and tactile variation in the surface roughness of strands. The surface quality of wood products is still often assessed by feel (tactile) judgment, but due to the complexity and variability of the material no universally accepted standard parameter for characterizing and comparing the roughness of wood surfaces has ever been developed (Fujiwara et al. 2004). The macroscopic visual appearance of strand surfaces of moso, guadua, and aspen mill strands subjectively assessed ‘rough’ and ‘smooth’ to touch is shown in Figure 1a to c. Figure 1d shows the surface condition at the site of node tissue in the culm wall. Note the much wider zone of node tissue in the guadua strands. Slicing through the site of the embedded node tissue in the culm wall of guadua resulted in a very uneven, and in many cases broken up, surface.
Fig. 1. Surface appearance of: (a) moso, (b) guadua, (c) aspen mill strands. The top strand surface in the images was classified as ‘rough’, and the bottom strand surface was classified as ‘smooth’. (d) shows the appearance of the sliced node tissue in moso and guadua.
The proportions of moso and guadua strands falling into each of the three surface quality categories, stranded using the same flaker operating parameters, are given in Table 1. The majority (60%) of industrial aspen strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides, and 10% were classified as ‘rough’ on both sides. Experiments (Semple et al. 2014) in adjusting tissue MC and flaker operating parameters to optimize the thickness distribution and quality of strands from moso bamboo found that strand surface quality for moso was very sensitive to tissue moisture content, knife protrusion settings, material feed rates, and whether the pieces were stranded horizontally or vertically, i.e., slicing across or along the grain, respectively. Full tissue saturation above 130% MC, low knife protrusion settings, slower feed rates, and stranding parallel to the fiber direction are all necessary to maximize the proportion of ‘smooth-both-sides’ strands.
Despite these efforts, no more than about a quarter of the bulk moso strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides. Another quarter of the bulk moso strands were distinctly smooth on one side and rough on the other. The rough surface of these moso strands is characterized by the presence of very thin and flat strips of parenchyma tissue that has sheared away from the bulk strand tissue, as seen in Fig. 1a and close-up in Fig. 2a.
The observed generation of rough surfaces is believed to be due to tensile stress and shearing forces acting on the backs of strands. This may be caused by the angled back of the cutting blade. The counter knife angle is designed to force sliced wood veneers to break up along the grain into narrower pieces to ensure most strands end up between about 25 and 50 mm in width (Maietta et al. 2011). A higher angle is used for denser, stronger woods. A schematic diagram of the slicing action is shown in Fig. 3.
Three factors that were unable to be changed during stranding were the knife profile, counter knife angle, and the need to boil the pieces to re-saturate them prior to stranding. According to De Vallance et al. (2012), two adjustable process variables — MC and knife angle, directly impinge on the strand size and surface quality of ‘difficult-to-strand’ hardwoods like red oak. Knife angle critically affects the surface quality of veneer sliced from blocks (Spelter 1991). De Vallance et al. (2012) were able to make significant improvements to the size and quality of red oak strands by reducing knife speed down from current industrial flaker settings and using blades with a lower counter knife angle, thus placing less fracture stress on the material. Here, the bamboo tissue was saturated to its maximum capacity to ensure that tissue dryness was not a limiting factor, but it was not possible to adjust the counter knife angle. It is therefore possible that further improvements in the quality of both guadua and moso strands could be had by reducing or eliminating the counter knife angle, as well as other adjustable parameters such as cutting speed. The profiled counter knife is also unnecessary since the width of bamboo strands is already constrained by the limited culm wall thickness.
Strand quality in guadua was markedly lower than that of moso, despite using the same stranding parameters used to produce the best outcome for moso. From Table 1 only 5% of the sampled bulk guadua strands could be classified as ‘smooth’ on both sides. The majority of guadua strands (65%) were both visually and tactilely ‘rough’ on both surfaces. Many of these were split apart, as seen in Fig. 2b (top strand), rather than sliced cleanly, as seen in Fig. 2b (bottom strand). The appearance of the transverse surface across the grain of the culm wall of moso and guadua is shown in Fig. 4.
The very large and solid vascular bundles present in guadua give it higher average density and far superior flexural stiffness than moso. From Part I, the average basic density of the stranded guadua and moso culm tissue was 533 kg/m3 and 447 kg/m3, respectively. Comparative tests on the two species by De Vos (2010) showed guadua to be 75% higher in MOE (14 GPa) of internode tissue than moso, but only slightly higher in MOR (130 MPa compared to 115 MPa for moso). Interestingly, De Vos (2010) found guadua to be less than half the Janka hardness of moso (2500 N compared to almost 6000 N for moso internode tissues). Despite this apparent difference in hardness, guadua was still far more problematic to strand than moso, likely because of its greater average density and the more extreme differences in density and hardness of the two main culm wall tissue components: the fiber bundles, and the surrounding parenchyma ground tissue. Many of the guadua strands tended to split apart rather than slice cleanly, producing a rough surface with lots of raised ridges that correspond to the separation of the very large and solid fiber bundles (also known as vascular bundles) from the much softer and weaker parenchyma tissue. The largest of the vascular bundles of guadua were around 1.1 mm high and 0.5 mm wide, similar to those observed and measured by Aijazi (2013) in scanning electron microscopy images though the culm wall cross section of guadua. These very large, closely spaced fiber bundles in guadua tissue are in contrast with the much smaller and more discrete vascular bundles of moso tissue of the transverse section of the culm wall. In contrast, moso vascular bundles are approximately 40 µm high and 300 µm wide (Dixon and Gibson 2014). In the moso tissue sampled, many of the fiber sheathes (there are four in a whole fiber bundle) appeared not to be fully solidified, as shown by the light brown zones. This suggests that the fibers may have not yet reached their full maturity and density, and helps explain the much lower basic density of the moso (447 kg/m3). After 1 year, bamboo fibers are hollow and thin walled, and over several subsequent years the fiber walls thicken and the cells solidify almost completely, leaving minimal lumen space (Leise and Weiner 1996).
While the volume fraction of fibers in the culm wall of bamboo is strongly gradational across the culm wall, the average volume fraction for guadua ranges from about 42% to 49% (Estrada et al. 2014). Fiber volume fraction for moso is on average around 40% (Osorio et al. 2010), and ranges from 15 to 20% in the inner wall to 60-65% at the outer wall (Amada et al. 1997). Guadua fibers are not only more voluminous compared to moso, but they are also very dense at 1440 kg/m3 (Trujillo et al. 2010). The fibers are extremely tough and strong with a reported tensile strength and elastic modulus (tensile) of chemically extracted fibers of 234 MPa and 20.6 GPa (Ramirez et al. 2012), and for fibers extracted using optimized mechanical extraction, 800 MPa and 43 GPa, respectively; these values are comparable to those of glass fibers (Van Vuure et al. 2009; Trujillo et al. 2010). The parenchyma cells of the ground tissue surrounding the vascular bundles are very short and blocky with thin walls (Leise and Grosser 1972; Leise 1998), and the tissue density is just 330 kg/m3 (Dixon and Gibson 2014). Its strength is only a tenth of that of the vascular bundles themselves (Amada et al. 1997). Unless the blade is very sharp and slices cleanly through the fiber bundles longitudinally, the shearing force exerted along the culm wall will simply rupture the parenchyma tissue surrounding the fibers, leaving them exposed on the surfaces of strands, giving the kind of surface seen in Fig. 2b (top strand).
In the stranded culm materials the frequency of nodes in the culm was less for guadua (3.3 nodes per m) than moso (3.8), but the node plates and embedded node tissue in guadua was over twice as thick (Semple et al. 2015a). Note in Fig. 2d the much greater damage to the surface caused by slicing through embedded node tissue in guadua compared with moso. Previous research (De Vos 2010) has noted the very poor planed surface quality of solid guadua tissue, especially at the nodes. In the node zone of the culm wall the anatomy of the vascular bundles changes considerably, becoming extensively branched, intertwined, and interconnected by repeated anastomoses (Grosser and Leise 1971). Fiber length is also shortest at the nodes, leading to greater tissue weakness (Leise and Grosser 1972; Shao et al. 2010). Sampling of the noded strands from guadua found up to 45% of the bulk strands broken into two shorter pieces. Slicing this tissue would be akin to trying to slice through a knot of very thick rope.
The only known previous attempt to convert guadua tissue to strands was conducted by Dagilis (1999), similarly using a disk flaker. The author found that wafer quality was so poor as to preclude the fabrication of waferboards (the precursor to OSB), but did not elaborate on any wafer quality parameters such as breakage or surface characteristics. Short of simply cross cutting guadua culms into shorter rounds and discarding the node sections, there appears to be currently no practical way of removing the node plates. Since docking culms into short lengths is impractical and wasteful, a purpose-designed corer with a hardened steel or diamond-tipped tooling head would be a useful development for the guadua processing industry. The nodes are also largest and most numerous in the bottom portion of each whole culm, so one relatively simple strategy for minimizing the effects of nodes on OSB boards may be to separate the lower portion of each culm and only use the strands from these in the core layers of boards where consistency of strand length and strength properties is not as critical.
Average Ra and Rz values, and coefficient of variation (CV) for the six specimens from each of seven surface types are given in Table 2. A visual example of the raw surface roughness profiles (Fig. 5) and the typical 3-D topographic map constructed for a surface (Fig. 6) is shown for the ‘smooth’ and ‘rough’ surface of guadua strands. For the purpose of this study, a characteristic average roughness index was measured to characterize the two subjective tactile roughness groupings ‘rough’ and ‘smooth.
The smoothest of the ‘smooth’ to touch surfaces was the fine sliced moso cabinet-makers veneer, Ra = 7.19 µm, followed by the ‘smooth’ moso strands, Ra = 7.70 µm. Corresponding Rz values for these two surfaces were 37.63 µm and 43.97 µm, respectively. Interestingly, the industrial aspen strands classified by touch as ‘smooth’ were similar in measured surface characteristics to the guadua strands classified as ‘smooth’; Ra = 10.11 µm and 10.70 µm, and Rz = 57.98 µm and 57.33 µm, respectively. The strands from the three tissue types classified by touch as ‘rough’ were more variable in their measured surface characteristics. The roughest surfaces were found on guadua strands, Ra = 23.38 µm. It is interesting to note that all the strand surfaces subjectively classified by feel as ‘rough’ were remarkably similar in the measured topographic feature that makes them noticeably rough to feel, i.e., the average vertical distance of the five highest and lowest peaks and valleys of the surface, represented by Rz. Average Rz values are 113.83 µm, 115.43 µm, and 115.22 µm for the ‘rough’ to touch aspen, moso, and guadua strands, respectively. However, note also the very high CV values in Table 2, especially for Rz of ‘rough’ surfaces indicating the large variation in measured roughness within the two groups.
Accurately correlating measured (contact or non-contact method) surface roughness parameters with tactile roughness has proven very difficult (Fujii et al. 1997; Fujiwara et al. 1998, 2001, 2004). A surface rated very smooth to the touch can have a few very narrow, but deep, fissures caused by slicing along a vessel element that can greatly skew mathematically derived roughness parameters obtained directly from a measured profile. An example of this is the ‘smooth’- rated surface of guadua strands, whereby there is a deep valley caused by slicing lengthways though a vessel element within a fiber bundle (Fig. 2a and Fig. 3a). Topographic features as this had an upwards skew effect on the Ra for ‘smooth’ guadua strands compared with ‘smooth’ moso strands, both of which felt similar to the touch. Better linkage of tactile roughness with measured roughness indices is possible using a Robust Gaussian Regression Filter (RFRF) (Brinkmann et al. 2000). This reduces or eliminates ‘outlier’ effects that cannot be discerned by, or affect, the feel of the overall surface (Fujiwara et al. 2004). However, if considering surface roughness in relation to adhesion, such filters can mask the presence of topographic features that strongly influence adhesive interaction with the surface and the ability to form adequate bonds.
The results from the surface roughness measurements has potential implications for the efficiency of bonding with small resin droplets dispensed from spinning disk atomizers during OSB strand blending. Numerous studies have shown that for a given dose of resin, many very small droplets or particles of solid resin and wax lead to superior flake or OSB board properties rather than fewer, larger resin spots (Schwarz et al. 1968; Kasper and Chow 1980; Ellis 1993; Kamke et al. 1996; Saunders and Kamke 1996; Smith 2003 a,b). The size and spacing of the droplets is critical. Optimum resin spot diameter has been shown to be between about 300 µm and 400 µm, with spacing no greater than 300 µm (Smith 2003b). There is no information directly linking the size of the pits and fissures in machined OSB strands with the size of the droplets administered during blending of strands with resin. A recommended droplet diameter for a typical PF resin used in OSB manufacture, dispensed from a spinning disk atomizer (SDA) is 94 µm (Smith 2003b). Experiments using industrial blender operating parameters (resin flow rate, SDA disk rotational speed) by Zhang et al. (2008) found much smaller droplet diameters ranging from 0.25 to 60 µm. 90% of the spray volume consisted of droplets <30 µm, and up to 15% of the spray volume consisted of droplets <10 µm in diameter. This was smaller than the average peak-valley difference (Ra), and certainly smaller than the average maximum roughness (Rz) of the rough-surface bamboo strands. If the strands being blended have high peaks and deep valleys, then the very small droplets administered by SDA during blending are likely to disappear into fissures, and will be unable to contribute to bonding. A deeply fissured surface (such as the loose side of a veneer) also creates the opportunity for adhesive over-penetration and starvation of the glueline, particularly for resins with low surface tension (Shupe et al. 1998). Therefore, surface roughness and topography of wood adherends, such as veneer or strands, could greatly affect the bond strength depending on the adhesive system, and its amount and distribution on adherends.
The bond strength of discrete and scattered resin spots between OSB strands relies on the ability of strands to plasticize and deform sufficiently during hot pressing to form very tight, continuous wood-wood contact (Wolcott et al. 1990). The vast majority of bonds between strands result from a resin spot on one strand contacting a resin-free area on an adjacent strand (Smith 2003b). If smooth, intimate contact between the two surfaces is not made, then a bond is unlikely to be formed, and that resin is wasted. Aspen strands soften, compress and conform tightly to one-another during hot pressing, and administering very small droplets during blending does not appear to pose any significant problems for product quality. Investigations on pressing bamboo strand boards (Semple et al. 2015b) found that, unlike aspen, the harder and denser bamboo strands do not compress and conform to each other under normal OSB hot pressing conditions, leaving visible gaps between strands. This means that bonding by tiny, discrete droplets in bamboo strand boards could be more sensitive to the surface roughness of bamboo strands. Further work is required to examine the interactions between bond strength formation and the surface roughness of bamboo strands.
Moso and guadua bamboo produced different strand surface quality when stranded using a disk flaker designed for relatively soft, low density woods such as aspen. The majority of guadua strands were visually and tactilely classified as ‘rough’ on both sides, and only 5% could be considered ‘smooth’ on both sides. The remainder had one ‘rough’ and one ‘smooth’ surface. About a quarter of moso strands were ‘smooth’ on both sides, compared with 60% of aspen mill strands.
Average measured surface roughness (Ra) of the ‘smooth’ moso strand surface was 7.7 µm, while that of aspen mill strands and guadua were similar at 10.1 µm and 10.7 µm, respectively.The Ra value of ‘rough’ strand surfaces was 17.4 µm, 20.9 µm, and 23.4 µm for aspen, moso, and guadua, respectively.
The average maximum roughness (average distance between the five largest peaks and valleys, Rz) values were similar for all three strand types classified as ‘rough’; approximately 115 µm.
The average and maximum roughness values for the strand surfaces exceeded the reported diameter of most droplets dispensed by spinning disk atomizers used in OSB furnish blending. This could potentially affect bonding efficiency, particularly in the case of the bamboo strands, in which there was a much greater proportion of very rough strands, and which do not conform and compress during hot pressing.
This study was funded through an NSCERC (National Science and Engineering Research Council) G8 Tri-Council grant. The authors gratefully acknowledge the following personnel at Forest Products Innovations (Western Division): Mr. John Hoffman for access to boil tank facilities and operation of the disk flaker, and Dr. Zarin Pirouz and Mr. John White for access to laser surface profilometry equipment.
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Article submitted: February 3, 2015; Peer review completed: May 15, 2015; Revised version received and accepted: May 27, 2015; Published: June 5, 2015. | 2019-04-24T10:24:08Z | https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/stranding-moso-and-guadua-bamboo-part-ii-strand-surface-roughness-and-classification/ |
TO THE LAST, they sing the same song: They hate corruption. They love the poor. They mean well. They are true. They are good. They are pure.
Or at least that is what they say or claim in their political ads.
The same narrative almost defines the campaign of the top candidates for both national and local posts in the May 2016 elections. But more than desire or ambition to rule the nation and control the public purse, a few other things unite them, too.
For at least four of the five candidates for president, five for vice president, 22 for senator, six party-list groups, and 17 candidates for local positions, trying to get themselves elected has meant spending like crazy on political ads.
According to Nielsen Media’s monitoring reports – to which PCIJ has subscribed – a total of 108,573 “social concerns” ads worth P7.75 billion, by the media agencies’ rate cards, were aired and published from Jan. 1, 2015 to Jan. 31, 2016.
Of this, about 105,000 ads valued at P6.7 billion or 86.4 percent featured apparent candidates in the May 2016 elections as “advertiser” or “product” from March 2015 to January 2016.
About 90 percent of these pre-campaign ads aired on the top-rating TV news and teleserye programs during prime-time hours (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.), and on popular talk-news programs on national and regional radio networks. The balance ran in national newspapers and magazines.
The amount of money spent on campaign advertising not only indicates the overflowing coffers of many candidates and parties, but also their willful abuse of a system that imposes caps on campaign spending and airtime limits only during the campaign period.
Impunity marks, too, the stubborn secrecy of most candidates about who paid for, or from which sources they got money for the ads. Prodded by reporters to reveal more facts, the candidates have a uniform curt reply: Donations from unnamed donors paid for their ads.
According to law, the official 90-day campaign period began only last Feb. 9. This is even though those running in the upcoming polls became official candidates from when they filed their certificates of candidacy in October 2015.
Efforts by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to amend the law so it could start the meter running on candidates’ spending much earlier have been repeatedly foiled in Congress.
Yet while candidates in the May 2016 polls may get free pass from still porous election laws for their pre-campaign ads, they may have a hard time escaping from the legal and administrative liabilities that they and their donors may face, by the text and letter of anti-graft, civil service, and tax laws.
By reason and logic, the billions of pesos they have spent on pre-campaign ads could have come only from three sources: their own money, their yet unnamed donors, or public funds and purses.
By the data enrolled in their 2014 or latest SALN filing, many of the candidates who had already run up millions of pesos in ad bills before Feb. 9 have neither sufficient net worth nor cash on hand or in bank to be able to finance their pre-campaign ads.
Laws do not sleep or lie in wait during election campaigns, and in the view of four regulatory agencies – Comelec, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Office of the Ombudsman – these candidates and their donors have some serious explaining to do.
Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim, head of the poll body’s Campaign Finance Office (CFO), notes, for instance, that anti-graft laws prohibit public officials from accepting or receiving gifts in cash or in kind from private sources, as well as from using their public office for private gain. Many of those running for office are incumbents.
Collecting taxes on donations, meanwhile, is what BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares tells PCIJ she would be interested to do.
The National Internal Revenue Code imposes a 30-percent tax on donations from stranger to stranger (in this case, the donors and the candidates), that must be remitted to the bureau within 60 days of the receipt of donation. Failing this, surcharges and penalties of up to 20 percent per year will apply, says Henares.
Henares also says she will be keeping watch over mass-media agencies, notably the television networks, to check their remittance of the commensurate value-added tax collected from pre-campaign ad buys.
Henares says she plans to check the BIR’s files to see if the donors of funds that the candidates spent on pre-campaign ads have yielded any payments of the donor’s tax from any parties at all in the last few months.
The SEC, for its part, issued a legal opinion in July 2015 in which it explicitly banned all corporations from donating to candidates and political parties.
As for the Office of the Ombudsman, its senior officials say they are keen to monitor and review how the candidates have sourced money for their political ads, especially in light of the wealth they have declared in their respective statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth or SALN.
For sure, some candidates have said that they have no idea on who have donated to their campaign — the better, they say, to shield themselves from favor-seeking donors. And yet indications are that the candidates and their finance and campaign managers know not only who their donors are, but also how their ad agents paid for the ads.
For one, ads are booked and paid for clients — in this case the candidates — by the ad placement agencies that the former have hired. The TV networks have uniform rules for these deals: It’s PBB or “pay before broadcast” or the ads will not run, and pay in cash or direct deposit of payment to the networks’ bank accounts.
For another, some ad agents now working with several candidates have told PCIJ that because they booked the ads, they pay for these direct to the networks, after getting the required cash payment from either the candidates’ finance manager, campaign manager, or communication team manager. They do not, the ad agents say, deal with the candidates’ donors at all.
Ads are also more than just about the networks’ rate cards, points out the agent. An equally big but hidden cost that candidates incur goes to producing the ad materials that could run on TV. Ad-material production, in turn, normally has candidates sitting through concept and storyboard discussions, attending shoots, talking or acting before the cameras, and then reviewing and approving the ads for broadcast.
It is industry practice for ad agents with established contractual relations with networks to get a 10- to 15-percent commission on ad placements they book.
Some candidates and political parties, of course, may have to explain more than others regarding their pre-campaign ad spends.
Topping Nielsen’s reports on pre-campaign ad spenders is the Liberal Party pair of former Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II (P969,173,267) and Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo (P273,856,544), who also had tandem ads worth P92,326,469. Together, their combined total ad buys as of Jan. 31, 2016 come up to P1,335,356,280.
Roxas’s ads started running in August 2015. For January 2016 alone, his ad spend was P291,145,762, including P234,961,626 for TV ads and P56,184,136 for radio ads.
Robredo’s ads first hit the airwaves only in November 2015. In January 2016 alone, she incurred P89,810,523 in ad spend, including P89,457,723 for TV ads and P352,800 for radio ads.
The duo’s total ad spots of 22,542 consisted of 20,159 for Roxas, 540 featuring both of them, and 1,843 for Robredo – in all cases mostly aired on TV.
Apart from the ad spend of Roxas and Robredo, eight of the 12 candidates for senator of the Liberal Party had also incurred a combined total of P659,991,074 of political ads.
In all, the administration party led by President Benigno S. Aquino III and its national candidates had already invested a grand total of nearly P2 billion –P1,995,347,354, or a third of the P6.69 billion spent on political ads for the period.
The LP bets are followed by the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) candidates Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who have a combined total ad spend of P1,144,345,760. The bulk of this sum went to promoting Binay’s run for the presidency, P1,050,065,095. By contrast, their tandem ads cost only a total of P64,607,324, while Honasan’s solo ads ran up a bill of P29,673,341.
Binay’s ads started airing in June 2015; in January 2016 alone, he placed ads worth P347,470,186, including P14,760,488 for radio ad spots.
Total ad spots for Binay, Binay/Honasan, and Honasan came up to 9,071. It included 8,781 solo ads for Binay, 177 for the Binay-Honasan tandem, and only 113 solo ads for Honasan.
Also in the Billion-Peso Ad Club is the Galing at Puso slate of Senators Grace Poe and Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, which incurred total ad spend of P1,019,190,923. Interestingly, only a sliver or P2,776,800 of that amount covered Escudero’s solo ads.
For this ad spend, Poe acquired total ad spots of 24,971 mostly on TV and radio, and Escudero, 618, mostly on radio.
Poe’s ads started airing in August 2015. In January 2016 alone, she acquired ads worth P274,120,425, including P207,012,211 for TV ads, and P67,074,614 for radio ads.
A fourth tandem, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (PDP-Laban) and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano (Nacionalista Party) ranked fourth in the list of ad spenders. Their ad spend came up to P715,943,742, broken down as follows: P146,351,131 for Duterte; P419,002,456 for Cayetano; P62,630,621 for them both; P87,885,089 about Cayetano and wife Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano; and P74,445 for the PDP-Laban.
The pair acquired a combined total of 2,157 ad spots, including 1,533 that featured Duterte alone.
Duterte’s first ad came out in March 2015 but it stopped airing for a few months later, or while he remained unsure about running for president. When he finally decided to run in December 2015, Duterte’s ads picked up speed again before Christmas. In January 2016 alone, he placed TV ads valued at P10,105,180.
Cayetano, in contrast, acquired a total of 421 TV ad spots for himself, and another 98 ad spots featuring him with his wife Lani, starting April 2015. He stopped airing ads in January 2016 though.
Independent candidate for vice president Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was featured in pre-campaign ads worth P8,953,380, according to Nielsen. His total ad spots: 984.
The People’s Reform Party’s Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago distinguished herself as the only candidate for president who did not air or publish any pre-campaign advertisement. Her running mate, Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. of the Nacionalista Party, however, bought ads by the bucket.
Marcos’s ad buys began in June 2015. It had reached P252,503,856 in value as of Jan. 31, 2016, according to Nielsen Media. It paid for 4,199 ad spots on TV, radio, and print.
But some candidates for the country’s top two posts also invested in creative – and costly – means to gain exposure. Among them is the Liberal Party’s demure vice-presidential bet Robredo, whose life story was featured last Feb. 6 on the top-rating “Maalaala Mo Kaya” program of ABS-CBN Entertainment. Young star Dimples Romana played Robredo’s part, and actor Marvin Agustin, that of Robredo’s late husband Jesse.
Two candidates for president have also invaded entertainment TV, or tapped entertainment stars to up their appeal to voters.
Duterte guested on ABS-CBN’s “Gandang Gabi Vice” variety show on Dec. 7, 2015.
Roxas, meanwhile, had a dramatized interview with teen heartthrob Daniel Padilla in a video that was first posted on YouTube on Nov. 6, 2015. As of this writing, it has drawn less than 9,000 views and about 200 mostly critical comments.
In addition, Roxas and Robredo starred in the “Fast Forward” MTV of an all-star cast of actors from the ABS-CBN and GMA7 networks. Posted on YouTube on Dec. 5, 2015, it has drawn about 740,000 views.
Media agents say such cameo roles or guest appearance for the candidates on entertainment TV can be had only for a hefty price. In fact, they say, the cost of these special promotional packages is equivalent to at least four to five minutes of ad placements, or about P4 million to P5 million. A minute-long ad on prime-time TV goes for at least P900,000.
As a norm, the candidate’s team will also have to cover the talent fees and other production cost of the actors and the program’s staff.
In the meantime, many wanna-be’s for Senate seats bought millions of pesos of pre-campaign ads as well.
Guingona, Recto, and Drilon are re-electionist senators, and Lacson, a returning senator. Three others are appointees of President Benigno S. Aquino III — De Lima, former justice secretary; Petilla, former energy secretary; and Villanueva, former director-general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Hontiveros was former Akbayan party-list representative.
Fourteen candidates for senator from the other political parties also spent a total of P1.33 billion on pre-campaign ads during the period.
Topping the list is Bongbong Marcos’s cousin, Leyte’s 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who acquired twice more ads than the former, P502,392,924, from August 2015 to January 2016. He is serving his third and last term in Congress.
Gatchalian, Romulo, and Pacquiao are district representatives, while Bello and Colmenares are party-list representatives in the 16th Congress. Osmena is a re-electionist senator, Zubiri a former senator, and Tolentino, recently resigned chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. Moreno is serving his third and last term as vice mayor of Manila.
As a group, these candidates for national office accounted for P6.69 billion or 86.38 percent of the P7.75 billion in total “social concerns” ads purchased from TV, radio, and print media agencies, from January 2015 to January 31, 2016.
This figure even came from various advertisers, including a joint ad series of the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front worth P6.48 million for the BBL throughout 2015, as well as the local officials and leaders of Sulu, and the Usapang BBL group. | 2019-04-23T06:56:27Z | https://pcij.org/stories/bribery-tax-evasion-impunity/ |
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Autocare of Solihull operate a fully mobile vehicle valeting and detailing service throughout the West Midlands, Warwickshire and further afield.
Paintwork Protection - Why So Important?
Winter time can really be tough on your car exterior. Paintwork and wheels suffer an increase in road grime and, with the cold weather washing can become less frequent. Click on images to enlarge them.
Before winter sets in its time to apply some long lasting protection so your car is easier to wash and there is less chance of dirt gripping your paintwork and wheels.
Autocare wash the exterior body work using our multi wash system, rinsing then treating the bodywork with biodegradeable grime remover. Rinsing again them washing the entire car with a ph neutral shampoo, lambs wool wash mitt and the two bucket method (buckets with grit guard to avoid dragging any minute grit particles around your car causing swirl marks).
Rinsing and drying follows then the wheels are cleaned with a non acid wheel cleaner to remove brake dust and dirt. Then rinse and dry with micro fiber towels.
Paintwork is then treated to remove any contamination, tree sap, tar spots and industrial fall out. The cleaner and smoother the surface of paintwork and wheels enables the sealants to perform to there best.
Next we cleanse the paintwork and wheels to ensure the surface is ready to receive the sealant. Sealants are chosen for this particular valet to seal the surface from the harsh environment. Sealants are synthetic waxes formulated for long lasting protective qualities and do not contain any abrasives. They are applied by hand then buffed.
Alloy wheels are treated the same but with a dedicated alloy wheel sealant.
Keeping your car paint finish looking good for longer.
Do water droplets bead on your car paintwork?
Applying a layer of wax to your car paintwork finish creates a barrier keeping dirt, grime and other contaminants from reaching the paint finish of your car and starting a process of deterioration. Real waxes contain no abrasives. So if light scratches, tar spots etc., are not removed before the wax is applied they will still be visible after waxing. Once a quality wax is in place dirt and grime will not grip the surface so easily, washing will be much easier and your car will look good for longer.
After full paint finish preparation takes place and wax is applied water droplets will bead on the surface. When water beading is not evident it's time to apply wax again.
This example of a black BMW 5 series had been treated roughly in an attempt to remove bird droppings and tree sap. In doing so any protection had been removed. Although the clear coat finish had been badly scuffed in a number of places nothing had fully penetrated to the colour coat beneath. Paint depth measurements were recorded and found satisfactory all over. Although no paint finish is bird dropping proof the sooner this and tree sap is removed the better. When prompt and careful action is taken a 'full recovery' is possible. Every manufacturer will advise a car owner to wax their car at least twice a year. This means putting down a layer of protection to keep most forms of contamination at bay between waxing.
On every occassion this means washing the car paintwork (and wheels) to remove dirt and grime. The use of a clay bar to remove more embedded contaminents can reap surprising rewards. Removing 'dirt' not previously visible lying unnoticed in an even layer all over your car paint finish.
Depending on the condition of the surface of the finish polishing may be required to remove swirl marks etc to restore clear sharp light reflections. Machine polishing in experienced hands can dramatically improve upon what can be achieved when polishing by hand alone.
One of the questions I am often asked is what can you do about scratches in paintwork.
With scratches the first thing to do is the finger nail test. Run your finger nail over the scratches at right angles to them. If your finger nail catches in the scratch, even the slightest, this tells us it is too wide to machine polish out. The scratch may close up a little but alot will depend on how 'stretchable' the paint finish is.
The two photos below of a Mercedes C Class shows lots of swirl marks caused by a poor wash technique starting with using a sponge. These tiny scratches generally are not very deep in the clear coat finish and look like a spiders webb when you see the sun reflected in the paint surface. Because of how these are caused they will most likely be found over the entire bodywork so the whole car will need to be machine polished to erase them.
One panel had a few scratches caused by a pets claw and another panel a long scratch caused by passing too close to a roadside bush.
The next two photos show after Autocare have machine polished these panels.
All the swirl marks have been erased. The long scratch turned out to be not as bad as I had originally thought. No two scratches are exactly the same and so this makes it difficult to precisely predict what is achievable with machine polishing. This pets claw marks were infact very deep but not too wide to close up. These have not completely disappeared but are no where near as visible.
This particular Sky Line had to be perfect as three days later it would lead the cavalcade at Silverstone playing its part in breaking the record for the most Skylines in one place at the same time.
There were numerous blemishes where the paint shop had to flatten drip marks etc. So this would need a complete machine polish and wax to every panel to ensure it looked its best for this very special occassion.
Starting with a rince then wash to the bodywork following the Autocare multi wash system, two bucket method and lambs wool wash mitt. Drying was by micro fibre towel. Next I was anxious to know the paintwork depth. The digital paint depth guage measurements would be citical to the success of this project. The Sky Line had received a complete respray in recent days and before polishing started it is vital to know exactly what the depth of finish is to determine which blemishes can be corrected without compromising the clear coat finish. If ever the clear coat finish is too aggresively mopped or wet sanded the appearance and colour of the finish will, in blotches appear different and the only answer is to respray.
The measurements were fine in this case so I went straight to masking off the delicate areas and choosing mopp head and polish grade combination. Continuing through the polish grades finishing with the finest to bring out a clear reflection. Then apply by hand a cleanser (contains no abrasives just gently cleans the surface and prepares it so the wax bonds fully). Topped off with my favourite Carnauba wax to maximise colour intensity and gloss. The results you see in the five photos took over 8 hours to complete.
As you can see the outside of the vehicle was in need of some 'tlc' but the lady owner, who made it clear she would not be parted from her 'baby', had kept the interior very clean.
First job was to vacuum the soft top roof with a special brush attachment to remove any loose debris. Then treat the fabric with a dedicated roof cleaner and leave to soak. Rinse the cleaning fluid which has now had time to loosen the dirt and inspect for any remaining dirt or staining and retreat if necessary. I can now leave the roof, I will be applying a reproofing treatment to repel water and the ingress of dirt but this will be later as a more even coating is achieved when the hood is dry.
Next job was to rinse the exterior bodywork again and treat with a grime remover to loosen any stuck dirt before rinsing once more. Then wash exterior bodywork with ph balanced shampoo and lambs wool wash mitt. The door boot and bonnet shuts follow and then hand scrub wheel arches. Dry all bodywork, door and boot shuts with microfiber towels.
Cleaning the alloy wheels comes next. This can be a slow job removing all the brake dust, tar spots etc but at the end it always looks well worth the effort.
Next a close assessment of the paintwork then to work with the clay bar. It's important to remove any and all contamination however minute since it can adversely affect the end result. 'It's all in the preparation'.
Next stage to machine polishing. The condition of the paintwork needed only very fine polishing to achieve the desired result. Then clean up the paintwork with a cleanser to ensure the chosen carnauba wax will adhere thoroughly and last longer. As you can see from the reflections in the paintwork the result is pleasing.
Lastly the alloys wheels. These are polished then sealed with a brake dust repellent to slow down the bake dust sticking and corroding the wheels.
The interior comes next not forgetting the door and boot shuts to be polished by hand and adjacent rubber seals cleaned and treated. Plastics and vinyls are dusted with special attention to the air vents, switches etc. then all treated with anti static cleaner which leaves a matt factory finish. Thorough vacuum comes next, carpets, mats, seats and boot (there are two storage areas on this Boxster one front and one rear), followed by shampoo to carpets and mats. The seats are leather so cleaning first. The cars exterior does not show its age but the leather seats are worn and so cleaning must be done carefully with dedicated leather cleaner. To store the leather suppleness and reduce future cracking a leather conditioner is applied. Then the roof linning is wiped clean along with all the mechanism. Rubber seals are treated at the top of the screen. On to the glass not forgetting door mounted mirrors and those under the sun visors. Lastly the leather upholstery has a conditioner applied. Important to regain suppleness and reduce cracking.
Finish off with a matt dressing to the tyres.
Most cars suffer from some sort of contamination to the paintwork at some time during their life. Industrial fall out, tree sap, tar, hard water spots etc. It is vital to safely and correctly remove these contaminents before the process of oxidation starts ruining your paintwork.
I was contacted by a gentleman who had recently purchased the Audi A3 in this case study. He was already aware of the 'staining' of the exterior of his car and felt that this seriously detracted from the overall appearance of his new purchase. The previous owner had told him this was due to frequent parking in a local railway station car park. I agreed with the new owner to inspect the vehicle and suggest a remedial course of action. As you can see from the photos it looks as if the whole car has some sort of 'brownish' staining on it. When you run your finger tips over the surface it feels gritty. Small sharp nudules (iron filings) appear embedded in the surface. This confirmed the contamination had arisen in the station car park.
If left untreated this contamination would, once mixed with our mild acid rain, turn into rusty brown dots, Unfortunately no matter how much washing and polishing by hand you do, it is unlikely to improve things.
In this situation this rail dust is not selective where it adheres to, roof, bonnet boot lid even headlamp lenses. The sun catches the speckles in the paintwork. Windows, rubber seals and alloy wheels too. The pictures capture the mist like staining on the upper panels and window glass, especialy evident outside the wiper arch.
The rectification process started with a thorough wash to the exterior bodywork, wheels and arches. Using ph neutral shampoo, lambs wool wash mitt and the two bucket method to ensure there would be no loose grit carried around the bodywork. This was followed by a specialist commercial only available solution to loosen the long standing contamination. Product training comes into its own here. Next came the contamination removal bar stage using various grades. This is the safest way to remove most types of contamination, tree sap, industrial fall out etc. You can see in the photo the brown staining on the bar after it has been lifted from the bodywork. Great care is needed in order to avert these tiny filings as they are lifted away causing scuffing to the surface. Continuing with all the remaining exterior, windows, rubber trim, alloy wheels etc.
To remove all the contamination it took over 4 hours and 5 separate bars. To finish this stage another wash for the exterior bodywork and dry with a micro fiber towel.
To fully restore the paintwork to better than showroom finish a full machine polish was next. Prior to agreeing the work extensive digital paint depth measurements were taken and recorded to ensure the Audi's paintwork was suitable to machine polish. This is a key step in the process as visual checks can only tell you so much. Simply, without this information to guide you, alot of damage can be done in inexperienced hands. Paint depth measurements are on going throughout the polishing stage to ensure the very minimum of clear coat finish is removed so as not to compromise the clear coat. Various grades of polish were tested to find the best possible combination to achieve the desired effect. It is polishing that gives your car the glossy reflections you see not the waxing. A few small scratches were closed up and alot of swirl marks polished out.
The final result was protected with 55% Carnauba wax which adds a depth of shine too. | 2019-04-23T04:18:16Z | http://www.autocarecarvaleting.co.uk/case-studies.php |
See this article detailing that arctic sea ice right now is below the mean of ice extent for even the 2000’s, (not to mention previous decades), with 53 days to go before the minimum for the year will be reached. Another wake up call in a long series of them.
David Wallace-Well’s article on the danger of runaway climate change, (here I post the annotated edition because it fleshes out more of the scientific evidence Wells based his story on), has apparently become the most read article in New York magazine’s history. I found the piece insightful. I thought it was mainly on-track in terms of laying out what worst-case scenarios of climate change would look like, (from what I understand at least), if business as usual use of fossil fuels continues over the rest of the century.
Some climatologists and science journalists have criticized the article for being incorrect on some points of climate science, but mainly because it offers up a “doomsday scenario” that they think will do more harm than good when it comes to efforts to deal with climate change.
“”I have to say that I am not a fan of this sort of doomist framing…. It is important to be up front about the risks of unmitigated climate change, and I frequently criticize those who understate the risks. But there is also a danger in overstating the science in a way that presents the problem as unsolvable, and feeds a sense of doom, inevitability and hopelessness.”.
Read a fuller rebuttal by Mann here.
Mann points out scientific mistakes in the Wells piece related to the pace of methane release, what he calls a mischaracterization by Wells of a recent study updating satellite warming data sets, etc.
I’m not a climatologist. I take Mann at his word on the criticisms of the science. But to me his arguments, as well as those of others who I’ve read, are mainly not really refuting Wells scientific claims, as much as they are making a political argument that popularizing such extreme views of what could come to pass (Wells clearly says this could happen, not that it will happen), do more harm than good because they frighten people into inaction.
Other’s have commented well in mainly upholding the Wells piece and responding to these criticisms, for instance see this funny and provocative piece on Vox by David Roberts, and this piece by Susan Mathews of Slate.
I encourage everyone to read the pieces linked here, and others, and jump into the controversy!
I can’t go into depth right now on all of this, but to comment in basic terms. Either Wells piece is mainly representing scenarios that are possible based on the actual science of what we understand at this point, or it isn’t, first of all. And I think it is. If this is the case, a political argument that says the piece “isn’t helpful” in convincing people of the need for action on climate change is just that-a political argument. It shouldn’t be fuzzy that its criticism of the article is political mainly, and not on what is wrong with the piece scientifically.
Also, much of this political criticism comes from a certain view that itself I believe fails to understand the political situation and depth of the problem we face in dealing fundamentally with the climate crisis.
The views behind some of these criticisms, I believe at least, see the lack of action on climate change as largely coming from the right wing, denialists, skeptics and “authoritarian” types like Trump, combined with a lack of knowledge generally in society about science and climate change. And I believe they see much greater hope to deal with climate with the Obamas and Merkels of the world in power, as well as economic trends toward use of green energy in the world as it is, etc.
There are clearly real differences in strategy between the Obamas and Trumps, and I’m not arguing there is completely no difference between the two when it comes to combating climate change, or in terms of where things will end up for the planet. But I think the problem is not just climate denialism or Trumpism or even anti-science thinking. That is a huge problem we face, a very real threat right now that needs to be recognized and combated. In fact, Trump and Pence-the whole fascist cabal, needs to be driven out of power by us for many reasons, including because of the tremendous danger they represent to the planet’s environment.
But a deeper problem, and the basic source of the fascist anti-science Trumpian nonsense itself, is the system of capitalism itself. Anyone who wants to argue against the fact that the leading mainstream figures over the last decades of western civilization and “democracy”, (including Al Gore and Bill Clinton), have not brought us the climate and overall environmental crisis, has their head in the sand.
And more deeply, it’s not just a matter of what any of these leaders will personally want or not want to do, or what their “legacy” will compel their desires to do, but what the underlying dynamics of the capitalist system, driven by ruthless competition and ruled by profit-in command, will allow them to do. This is why despite Obama’s clear understanding that climate change is a great threat, he could only make goals to limit emissions in very modest amounts, and then these goals were not even met. This is also why the Paris accords don’t do nearly enough in taking the kinds of dramatic efforts needed to really save the planet. Even though it is completely monstrous that Trump pulled the U.S. out of these accords.
Again, I’m not arguing , “they’re all the same”. I am arguing, given the scope and pace of the climate crisis, (and adding to that, not just the climate crisis, but the overall environmental and biological crisis-including the advancing sixth extinction – or what a recent PNAS piece terms the “biological annihilation” taking place on earth-see next article on blog)-to base approaches on simply convincing this system and its representatives to do the right thing and save the planet, is complete folly. We actually need massive resistance by millions to force change, and in my thinking, a revolution and a new system that is not based on the competitive, expand or die drive that is inherent in capitalism.
So arguments criticizing Wells for “doomsday” thinking, I think are based on, and seriously misassess even what we are up against in truly dealing with the climate crisis, not to mention the overall environmental crisis. And beyond that, they don’t have a grasp that those in power will never, and fundamentally can never, deal with these crises from the viewpoint of the interests of all of humanity, and especially the poorest of humanity, who their whole rule rests on exploiting and oppressing.
This is the case even when there are real differences among them on how seriously to take climate change and what actions to take to combat it.
I can’t go further on this now, but those are some basic thoughts.
A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has come out authored by Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Erlich and Rodolfo Dirzo.
This is a really important piece of work investigating how the “sixth mass extinction” of species is proceeding and further raising the alarm about the great danger.
Further, the abstract states, “humanity needs to address anthropogenic population extirpation and decimation immediately”.
The study has been somewhat, at least, controversial, with some saying it overstates the danger, (other right-wing and fascist forces just attacking its supposed “alarmism”) but I think it makes a strong case that the danger is very real and lies not just in extinctions-(for example 200 species of vertebrates going extinct in last century)- but also the vast decline in numbers of individuals of species and populations of species, and their ranges, that is rapidly advancing today.
Actually “biological annihilation” I think is quite accurate and entirely appropriate to describe what’s happening. This is a very worrisome wake-up call about the need to address this, as well as understand and move against the causes of this-which I view as a capitalist system and resulting world culture unable to control continual expansion and annihilation of nature.
It’s up to us to save the planet, its species and its people.
Check out this riveting interview by Terry Gross on Fresh Air with nature photographer Paul Nicklen-on his amazing experiences with polar wildlife and commentary on polar ecosystems in peril. It very vividly brings home the stakes of climate change and habitat destruction, from a deeply personal angle.
originally published March 13, 2017, reposted here in light of Pruitt’s nonsense of the EPA hosting “debates” on climate change.
And second—really, Pruitt? We should believe you? You, who have absolutely zero knowledge and zero expertise to determine this? Instead of believing the thousands of climate scientists who have studied this issue from many angles, over decades, and found that human-caused climate change is real and evidence for it is overwhelming? Somehow you have authority or legitimacy to speak as an expert on this, when your whole career and position has been as a toady for fossil fuel conglomerates? When you have slavishly copied memos written by energy companies who stand to earn millions in profits, into your press releases, to brazenly cover efforts to eviscerate climate and clean water standards that would give some protection to people and nature?
The idea that anyone should believe you—or reality-denying lunatics like Trump, who claims climate change is a hoax—and the confusion and lies you’re spreading that production of greenhouse gases by capitalist energy production is not connected to global warming, would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous. You would have us disbelieve mountains of evidence, thousands of scientific studies, and glaring reality. The truth is, yes, human activity—and its production of greenhouse gases along with other practices—is warming the planet, changing the climate, and helping destroy the basis for much of Earth’s natural world, and the basis, too, for human beings to continue to exist on this planet.
That a man like Pruitt would be given authority to head a government agency that supposedly has as its whole reason-to-be the protection of nature and the safety and health of people makes this regime totally illegitimate. That the president of supposedly the “most advanced” country in the world would appoint such a man, and himself claim climate change is a hoax, demonstrates, as do many other things, the complete illegitimacy of this regime. And what does it say about this capitalist-imperialist system which, due to its inexorable drive for profit and its expand-or-die competitive dynamic, has now brought forward a “Trump” and is rushing headlong to make things worse?
This regime is moving to eliminate programs that research or monitor climate change. It’s planning to erode or eliminate whole programs and sections of government agencies that would limit climate change. It’s on a mission to eliminate protections and limits on plundering the environment by wiping out all manner of regulations and rules. An all-out savage war on the natural world is being launched by this regime, in the service of unfettering unlimited feasting and plunder by U.S. capitalist monopolies. If this is allowed to fully unfold, it will guarantee, and further intensify, the accelerating erosion of ecosystems. It will put humanity—especially the poorest and most oppressed of humanity who have done the least to cause this—in the crosshairs of eco-catastrophe.
The Trump/Pence cabal is not only denying climate change and its connection to human activity but is working to hamstring the ability of people to prevent such an engulfing catastrophe already swirling like floodwaters around our legs. This should scream out another sharp alarm—along with all the other outrages they are carrying out—that this fascist regime must be swept from power at the soonest possible time. | 2019-04-19T03:22:41Z | https://forplanetandhumanity.com/page/3/ |
Dr. Graham is supported in part by the Office of Research and Development Medical Research Service Department of Veterans Affairs, Public Health Service grants R01 DK062813 and DK56338 which fund the Texas Medical Center Digestive Diseases Center. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Veterans Administration or National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Graham is a consultant for BioGaia, RedHill Biopharma, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd.
Experts now recommend that all Helicobacter pylori infections be eradicated unless there are compelling reasons not to. As with other infectious diseases, effective therapy should be based on susceptibility.
We recommend clinicians have 2 first-line options to accommodate prior antibiotic use or drug allergy.
We recommend 4-drug combinations as first-line treatments, ie, either concomitant therapy or bismuth-containing quadruple therapy, to be taken for 14 days.
Concomitant therapy consists of the combination of amoxicillin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, and a proton pump inhibitor.
Bismuth quadruple therapy consists of the combination of bismuth, tetracycline, metronidazole, and a proton pump inhibitor.
After 2 treatments have failed, therapy with different regimens should be based on susceptibility testing.
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This was the consensus of the 2015 Kyoto H pylori conference,2 and it signaled a fundamental shift in thinking. Up to now, H pylori treatment has not been based on infectious disease principles, leading to suboptimal results and antibiotic resistance. In addition, the conference recommended that H pylori infection be treated whenever it is found unless there are compelling reasons not to.
Here we review current and possible future regimens for eradicating H pylori that we hope will be more effective and will lead to less resistance than in the past.
But infectious diseases differ from most gastrointestinal diseases. In gastrointestinal problems such as constipation or inflammatory bowel disease,10 the causes are generally unknown, and there is a large placebo response to therapy. In contrast, in infectious diseases, the cause is generally known, there is no placebo response, and treatment success depends on susceptibility of the organism. Failure of proven regimens is generally due to resistant organisms, poor adherence, or, in the case of H pylori, poorly designed regimens in terms of doses, frequency of administration, or duration of therapy.
Many thousands of H pylori-infected patients participated in clinical trials in which the results would have been predictable if the researchers had assessed susceptibility before giving the drugs.11–13 Worse, many patients were also randomized to receive regimens that the investigators knew provided poor cure rates in the population being studied. This knowledge was generally not shared with the patients. This approach was used to demonstrate that a new regimen was superior to an old one, even though the new one was already known to be less affected by resistance to the key element in the comparator.
Clinicians generally do not test for susceptibility when treating H pylori, one reason being that such testing is often unavailable.3 However, almost every hospital, clinic, and major laboratory in the world provides susceptibility testing for other common local pathogens. H pylori is easy to grow, and laboratories could test for susceptibility if we asked them to.
Current H pylori recommendations may also contribute to the global increase in antimicrobal resistance.
As discussed below, all recent guidelines have recommended 4-drug non-bismuth-containing concomitant therapy as first-line therapy. An infectious disease colleague described it as a “hope therapy” because the prescriber hoped that the infection would be susceptible to either metronidazole or clarithromycin. All who receive this combination receive an antibiotic they do not need. This is an expedient rather than a medically rational choice resulting from failure to deal with H pylori as an infectious disease.
Conceptually, treating infectious disease is straightforward: one should prescribe antimicrobial drugs to which the organism is susceptible3 (Table 1). However, clinical success lies in the details, which include the doses, frequency of doses, duration of therapy, timing of doses in relation to meals, and use of adjuvants such as antisecretory drugs, antacids, and probiotics. A number of regimens reliably yield high cure rates—95% or higher—if the organism is susceptible and the patients are adherent.
The effectiveness of any regimen may vary depending on the population it is used in, due to polymorphisms in drug-metabolizing enzymes such as CYP2C19.
Sequential therapy for H pylori infection consisted of amoxicillin plus a proton pump inhibitor for 7 days, followed by clarithromycin, tinidazole, or metronidazole plus a proton pump inhibitor for a further 7 days. This regimen should not be used any more because concomitant therapy will always be superior (see below).
Bleeding esophageal varices: Who should receive a shunt?
If symptoms do not respond to a proton pump inhibitor or are atypical, testing may be needed. | 2019-04-21T05:11:27Z | https://www.mdedge.com/ccjm/article/134409/gastroenterology/treating-helicobacter-pylori-effectively-while-minimizing |
SR #0: What’s so Special?
Okay, if you’ll all take your seats and quiet down we can begin. I’ll keep this very short today because I know it’s Spring and many of you are eager to get out there and walk Frisbees and throw dogs… I mean — well you know what I mean.
The point is, that in keeping with spring, I’m aiming to keep these posts light and breezy. Unfortunately, I have terrible aim, so we’ll see how that goes. I never met a paragraph I couldn’t make longer!
Today begins a series of posts discussing Special Relativity. I’m going to start off by explaining what makes it “special” as well as what we mean by “relativity.” (And note that, from now on, I’ll usually just write “SR” — “Special Relativity” is a lot to type!) I’ll also introduce you to a few other important basic concepts.
By the time we finish this series of articles, this diagram should make complete sense to you!
Last Saturday I gave you an overview of some of the consequences of SR. By the end of the series, I hope to have given you a good explanation of how those things occur. It will take us a while to get there, but every journey starts with a single step, so let’s take those first steps now.
Basically, this is about motion and, in particular, about relative motion. That’s the “relativity” part of the name right there.
If Al is “standing still” and Em is “moving past” then Al sees Em moving relative to himself. But how can we be sure Al actually is the still one while Em is the moving one?
If Al is right next to us — say we’re sitting on a bench — we can obviously tell he’s not moving closer or further away from us or the bench. We can prove this by reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder at any time to reassure ourselves he hasn’t moved.
As we see Em pass by, we observe her distance decrease as she gets closer and then increase as she gets further. If she passes us closely enough, we might be able to “high-five” as she passes. So, clearly she’s moving.
But what if that bench we’re sitting on with Al is in a train car and Em is standing on the platform. We see her (and the platform) get closer, we high-five as we pass, and then she and the platform recede behind us.
Meanwhile, Em sees that she’s standing still (relative to the station platform), and from her perspective we and Al have zipped past in the train car.
Both versions (with certain caveats) are correct versions of the event!
A key caveat here — the key caveat for the moment — is that the motion must be constant. It cannot involve any slowing down or speeding up. That is what makes the kind of motion we’re discussing here “special” (more about that next time).
So long as the train is moving at constant speed — and in a straight line — it is just as correct to say Em is moving as it is to say Al is moving.
The only thing we can say about not moving is that Al is not moving relative to the train car, and Em is not moving relative to the train platform.
But from Al’s point of view this is exactly the case! We’re sitting next to Al, and we can see he isn’t moving. Neither is the bench inside the train car. Everything inside the car is just sitting there (while Em equally obviously is moving past us).
In fact — and this is a really important point — there is no experiment we can perform that proves otherwise. Within the train car, it is absolutely true that we are not in motion relative to the train car. If you’ve ever been riding in a car and felt like the world was zipping past, that is a completely valid way to view it.
The ‘F’ train — as in Fake!
A minor caveat is that the sound and vibration of the train running along the tracks provides a clue that we’re moving.
But if you watched the old Mission: Impossible TV show, you may have seen that episode where they trick their target into believing he’s on a moving train using sound and mechanical effects.
For that matter, some amusement park rides do a pretty good job of tricking you into thinking that you’re moving using the same kinds of effects.
Conversely, if the train car is sound proof and has a smooth suspension, you may feel no sense of motion. Consider what it feels like to ride on a commercial aircraft. You can walk down the aisle with no sense that you’re really hurtling through the air at hundreds of miles per hour!
An important term here is frame of reference. It’s a technical term for “point of view” but it includes the idea that — for example — you, Al, the bench you’re sitting on, and the entire train car, are part of one thing: a frame of reference.
Em also has a frame of reference: the platform and the train station and — in her case — the entire Earth.
But having that larger frame of reference — even one as big as the Earth — doesn’t make hers “better” or preferred. It only means there are a lot more people who share her view that Al and the train are moving.
Special Relativity is about motion of one observer relative to another.
It’s special because that motion must be constant; no slowing down or speeding up.
In this situation, both observers can make equally valid claims they are standing still while the other is moving.
Both can also make the equally valid claim that they are moving and the other party is standing still.
Every observer has their own frame of reference.
There is no preferred frame of reference; all are equal.
Just keep in mind that some dogs have injured themselves doing this!
This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2015 at 5:05 pm and tagged with Albert Einstein, constant motion, frame of reference, motion, Special Relativity and posted in Physics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You weren’t kidding when you said bite sized chunks. But I’m sure the complexity will come soon enough.
I think his book is freely available at Gutenberg [Emphasis again his]. My copy is a 15th edition released in 1952 and copyrighted 1961.
Thanks for the reference! It looks like it is available on Gutenberg, but without the images, which I suspect is pretty crucial in a book like this.
It’s also available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents, with images, so I just picked up a copy, just in case I decide to read it.
On “special”, maybe we’re saying the same thing but from different angles. It seems like I remember reading some time ago about this breakdown.
1. Galilean relativity: all motion is relative.
2. Special relativity: 1 + the speed of light is always constant, which effectively makes time, length, and mass relative.
But I may be showing my own misconceptions.
The only actual image is a drawing of Einstein, but if they also didn’t include the formulas and a couple tables, that would make it pretty useless. But for 99 cents, you can’t go wrong, so good choice, I’d say.
Incidentally, my edition has a typo. The first formula in chapter 13 should be x’ = wt’ (not x = wt’). The paragraph that follows references x’ (which will confuse you until you realize the typo), plus it’s repeated as the fourth formula in that chapter, so it’s clearly a typo.
Your , , works fine. (A quibble: I believe the mass is more tied to the energy involved, though. The famous E = MC^2 is a reduction of the full mass-energy equivalence formula when velocity is zero. (This is different from time and length changes which follow the Lorentz equation.) But I think it’s still true that what makes SR “special” is that it is restricted to inertial frames of reference — that is, frames moving with constant velocity.
As I’ll mention tomorrow, supposedly (or, at least, I’ve heard that) Einstein wanted to call his theories “equivalence” theories. SR is based on the equivalence of light speed (to all observers). GR is based on the equivalence of gravity and acceleration.
Thanks for the info. While I do understand the basics (particularly why it makes FTL likely not feasible), I’m not confident I have as good of sense of SR as you may be thinking, not the extent that I’d skip Einstein’s description of it, or yours, and I’ve never been able to get the twin paradox straight in my head.
I can relate, actually. I spent a lot of time going over the Twins Paradox — lots of diagrams on graph paper, lots of calculations (even a small Python program). The traveling twin isn’t that hard; it’s the stay at home twin that was so twisty to figure out when trying to nail down exactly what happens.
The biggest hangup I currently have is understanding what happens when the traveling twin decelerates and arrives at the remote destination. Every diagram I saw assumed the twin immediately returned, and exactly where the simultaneity is when they’re stopped at the destination isn’t really addressed. I keep thinking, what happens if the twin stays at the destination? Certainly there is a delay in messaging between the twins, but it should be a known quantity and therefor reconcilable, and so at what point in their timelines will they now be simultaneous?
I don’t expect you to answer that now. I’ll wait until you get to that point. But that’s my current hang up. I fully understand it’s a hang up since SR has far too much experimental evidence behind it for it not to be reality, or at least an extremely close approximation of it.
The trip back is really just a repeat of the trip out and doubles the time difference.
That must mean, from the traveling twin’s perspective, as they are decelerating, the at home twin’s aging speeds up dramatically, to a rate that is faster than the traveling twin’s rate. It’s the opposite of what the traveling twin has observed on the trip up to that point. Why that happens is what I’ve struggled to understand.
I’ll make you wait for the detailed answer, but if you’ve encountered the idea of a “surface of simultaneity” with regard to SR, what happens is that the traveling twin’s perception of what is simultaneous lags further into the Earth twin’s past as the trip progresses (although ahead of what light signals would indicate). Upon stopping and re-entering the same frame of reference, that surface catches up. So in a sense, yes, the Earth twin ages rapidly as that surface moves from the past to the present.
I didn’t realize you were a secret physicist, Lady Di! 🙂 You’re absolutely right, and for certain things that needs to be taken into account. The key is that, for Em standing on the platform, the actual curvature of her motion around the Earth’s axis is very close to a straight line (and the orbit around the sun even more so). Think how flat the Earth looks — so much so we used to think it was flat!
But what’s really cool is how you’re paying attention and thinking about the topic! A+ m’lady! A+!
That sounds better than ‘dead-eye catatonia’ so I’ll take it as a compliment!
It is given as such!
Nice job! I appreciate your breaking this down for people like me.
As with Tina, I appreciate the way you’re assuming nothing on behalf of the reader Wyrd, which in my case is always wise.
The goal is just one new idea per post. That means those with good familiarity may find the series slow, which is unfortunate, but it’s mainly oriented at opening doors for those with no familiarity with it (but a willingness to be fascinated by it).
This blog appears to be special. I just discovered that a lot of people are relating to it quite well! Thank you…on the curve! | 2019-04-24T13:52:45Z | https://logosconcarne.com/2015/03/16/sr-0-whats-so-special/ |
The word optimization was used more times than I could count. One slide in particular from the presentation, entitled “Rapid Manufacturing Scenario,” caught my eye. The speaker described a series of two improvements (noted in the bar charts at the bottom of the slide) using “machining process optimization software tools.” “Hmm,” I thought “interesting stuff: virtual verification of NC code, 3D part scanning and digitization, optimal tool paths, automatic program correction”. But I couldn’t help noticing that as operational times were being slashed, the orange bar – Setup on Machine – stayed the same. In fact, nowhere in the presentation, was there a mention of machine setup improvement.
I wondered, ‘Would this ‘improved ratio’ of setup to runtime cause a machine shop to run fewer parts or more parts?” For a site grounded in Lean, I think the answer would be ‘always work on setup reduction in order to run exactly what is needed for the next process.” In the absence of that grounding however, I worry that the ratio would create more over-production to “optimize’ part cost.
After the presentation, I jumped onto the CCAT website and did find a one-day course on set-up reduction (none scheduled however) and an article on Lean simulation software, not a favorite approach with me. I think the real floor is where the action is, not the virtual floor. Call me old-fashioned.
In June 2011 our national government announced it would spend $500 million to support advanced manufacturing. I hope they understand what it means. I’m still confused. I worry that Advanced Manufacturing sounds an awful (and I mean awful) lot like Lee Iacocca’s “agile manufacturing” strategy (vintage 1990) to leapfrog Toyota’s system. History did not validate this approach; I hope it has not been repackaged for 2012.
I recall a complaint offered by Shigeo Shingo in 1989 that while at that time nobody was paying attention to SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies), there were a swarm of doctoral dissertations on algorithms for optimizing economical order quantity (advanced manufacturing?) Have we grown beyond that thinking today, or are we still squirming in quicksand?
BTW: Mark your calendar. The Northeast Shingo Prize Conference is coming up September 25-26, 2012. Hope we’ll see you there.
This entry was posted in Old Lean Dude and tagged change over, GBMP, hoshin kanri, inventory, kaizen, lean assessment, lean development, lean government, lean in healthcare, lean manufacturing, lean summit, lean thinking, lean tools, made in america, muda, mura, Muri, Northeast Shingo Prize, optimization, poka-yoke, process improvement, searching, set-up reduction, shigeo shingo, six sigma, SMED, standardized work, Toast Kaizen, toyota production system, TPM, TPS, true north, value stream mapping on June 4, 2012 by GBMP.
“I am one with the weeds,” Menrika commented jokingly while we were working together on an improvement project. She was referring to the nitty-gritty realities that present themselves to us when we are that close to the ground. The expression typically refers to getting too tangled up in details. But while it can be argued that a broad perspective may not be achievable from the ‘weeds,’ I think there are too few kaizen leaders who spend enough time there. Menrika’s comment reminded me of a few lessons I learned from my Dad when I was a tot – maybe 7.
“Funny,” I thought, “the lawn looks so much different at knee level.” There were stones and mold and bare spots and insects — all sorts of different problems that were only visible when, as Menrika would say, I was one with the weeds.
“But why do you use the frame for weeding?” I asked.
“So when do you think we’ll be done with this job?” I asked.
This entry was posted in Old Lean Dude and tagged GBMP, hoshin kanri, inventory, kaizen, lean assessment, lean development, lean government, lean in healthcare, lean manufacturing, lean summit, lean thinking, lean tools, made in america, muda, mura, Muri, Northeast Shingo Prize, optimization, poka-yoke, process improvement, searching, set-up reduction, shigeo shingo, six sigma, standardized work, Toast Kaizen, toyota production system, TPM, TPS, true north, value stream mapping on April 24, 2012 by GBMP.
3P, “Production Preparation Process,” is a method introduced to the US in the mid-80’s by Chihiro Nakao, a contemporary of Mr. Ohno, and founder of Shingijutsu consulting. I recall the method was called “New Production Preparation” (NPP) early along, but apparently succumbed to a marketing intervention, hence 3P. The basic idea of 3P is to achieve, in Mr. Nakao’s words, “breakthrough or transformational changes in production process” through rapid, integrated prototyping of both product and process.
I had a 3P experience recently that reminded me how much I learn from customers. My inspiration occurred during a “mini-event” to develop a build-out addition to a surgery center. The decision to use a 3P approach to develop a better floor layout was made pretty late in the process. We had one week to investigate the current condition and understand design requirements. Then, we began, a team of eight clinicians – docs, nurses, techs and housekeepers — to “trystorm”, a term connoting brainstorming activity combined with actual doing. The first of Mr. Nakao’s “16 Catch Phrases” advocates minimal pre-planning and “lightning fast” prototyping, a criteria we closely followed: the event lasted 1½ days.
Most of the 3P team had minimal previous exposure to Lean concepts. But all were very passionate about patient care and “constructively dissatisfied” (a theme I take up in GBMP’s DVD Moments of Truth) with the status quo at the surgery center: Bed shortages in the recovery area, ORs waiting for available beds in recovery, surgeons waiting for ORs and, of course, patients waiting for everything.
When I introduced the concept of “patient-centered” healthcare from a Lean perspective, a connection between passion and principle occurred – not a perfect understanding, more a fuzzy idea that focusing on the care from the patient’s point of view might yield a breakthrough. By the end of the first day (actually half-day), there was consensus regarding the status quo and a first pass concept for improvement. We agreed to “sleep on it.” This, I have found is a very important, if not scheduled, part of the 3P process.
On day two we jumped into trystorming with a vengeance. One participant advised that she’d awakened at 2:00 a.m. with a thought. “What was it?” I asked. “That we might not come up with a better layout.” she replied. Nervous laughter. We trudged on with a concept that was based upon “adjacencies,” a word that connotes relative locations of departments to facilitate workflow. I reminded the team to focus on patient flow, and placed a couple Lego people on the prototype layout to signify the patient and his family. As we broke for lunch, there was a feeling within the team that the trystorm layout created so far would not be a breakthrough. We were facing a 4:00 p.m. deadline for a solution, and CHI-E was kicking in.
Do you have a 3P experience you can share? Please send it along.
BTW: Speaking of principle-based transformation, there’s still time to register for the fast-approaching International Shingo Conference in Jacksonville, April 30 – May 4. I’ll be there, and hope to see you too.
This entry was posted in Old Lean Dude and tagged GBMP, hoshin kanri, inventory, kaizen, lean assessment, lean development, lean government, lean in healthcare, lean manufacturing, lean summit, lean thinking, lean tools, made in america, muda, mura, Muri, Northeast Shingo Prize, optimization, poka-yoke, process improvement, searching, set-up reduction, shigeo shingo, six sigma, standardized work, Toast Kaizen, toyota production system, TPM, TPS, true north, value stream mapping on April 19, 2012 by GBMP.
I take my work very seriously, but sometimes when I have excess idle time (like on the red-eye from Phoenix to Boston), I’ll have a whimsical idea. Here’s one I’d like to share, to demonstrate the universality of a good idea. My stream of thought begins with recent participation in the Boy Scouts Merit Badge University. As a counselor for music merit badge, I attended a course for their “new” training method, referred as the EDGE method. I noticed that it bore a striking resemblance to the methods used during World War II to backfill and rapidly train workers in US plants. The same method subsequently was used to help the Japanese manufacturing economy rebound after the war. And today it is experiencing resurgence on US shores, helping to standardize and improve operations in many industries. Most recently, it appears to have made it into the latest edition of the Boy Scouts Handbook. Hurrah for the Scouts, an organization from whom I think I learned more that I did from college. I suppose there is a TWI’er in Scouting today who had the foresight to pass this thinking along. I can only hope that as scouts grow into business people, that EDGE will eventually become their means for training employees.
Explain how it is done – Tell them.
Guide learners as they practice – Watch them do it.
Enable them to succeed on their own – Use memory aids, practice it, they teach it.
(4) Follows up to provide feedback and help.
Could it be that that the creators of TWI were Stooges fans?
This entry was posted in Old Lean Dude and tagged GBMP, hoshin kanri, inventory, kaizen, lean assessment, lean development, lean government, lean in healthcare, lean manufacturing, lean summit, lean thinking, lean tools, made in america, muda, mura, Muri, Northeast Shingo Prize, optimization, poka-yoke, process improvement, searching, set-up reduction, shigeo shingo, six sigma, standardized work, Toast Kaizen, toyota production system, TPM, TPS, true north, value stream mapping on April 6, 2012 by GBMP.
With the International Shingo Prize Conference just a month away, I thought a short post about Shigeo Shingo and the Prize named in his honor would be worthwhile. At the time of Prize’s founding in 1988, Shingo was nearly an unknown in the U.S. His first book translated into English (1969, Japanese Management Association) was hard to understand, reading like a 1960’s instruction manual for a Japan-manufactured product. This was my introduction to Set-up reduction and source inspection (or “prevent-type mistake-proofing) techniques. Shingo’s amazing technical discoveries are credited with making just-in-time possible. Today while Shingo’s original book, the Green Book, is out of print, replaced by a slicker, more readable version, the techniques he first described in English forty years ago, SMED and Poka-Yoke, have become part of our manufacturing lexicon.
But one of Shingo’s most important contributions from the green book is often overlooked or even refuted: The concept of production as a network of process and operation. In this network, process is visualized as the flow of objects of change on one axis, and agents of change on another axis. The agents are the operators and machines that add value. The objects are the various parts that are converted from raw materials to finished goods. For those in healthcare, note that “parts” can be replaced conceptually by “patients’, and “operators” can be replaced by “providers” (e.g. docs, nurses, etc.) In Shigeo Shingo’s world, production does not refer only to manufacturing, but to any process-operation network. The concept of waste is the same, in his words, whether you are “making rice cakes or automobiles.” And where do we find nearly all of this waste? On the process axis — from the view of the part (or patient.) When we speak of “process improvement” we are referring to the process axis of Dr. Shingo’s network.
This conventional definition spills over into cost accounting implying that if all operations for a particular process are improved by say 50%, then there will be a 50% process improvement. Consider for example that standard costs are based on roll-ups of operational cost (value-added) plus a large fudge factor based upon average allocation of overhead costs (non-value-added) which, in a circular way, are stated as a multiplier of the value-added time. This is nonsense. Operational times are scrutinized and measured often to four decimal places, while process is essentially invisible in this conventional model. Make versus buy decisions are made by evaluating only a small fraction of total cost. System Efficiency is viewed as a sum over local efficiencies. More nonsense.
The English language can be confounding. Those who prefer Meriam-Webster’s definition of process to Dr. Shingo’s will never gain the benefits of Lean. How important is Shingo’s Network? What do you think? Share a story.
BTW: Looking for another kind of Shingo Network? Come join me and GBMP at the International Shingo Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, April 30-May 4. Hope to see you there.
This entry was posted in Old Lean Dude and tagged GBMP, hoshin kanri, inventory, kaizen, lean assessment, lean development, lean government, lean in healthcare, lean manufacturing, lean summit, lean thinking, lean tools, made in america, muda, mura, Muri, Northeast Shingo Prize, optimization, poka-yoke, process improvement, searching, set-up reduction, shigeo shingo, six sigma, standardized work, Toast Kaizen, toyota production system, TPM, TPS, true north, value stream mapping on March 30, 2012 by GBMP. | 2019-04-25T04:02:57Z | https://oldleandude.com/tag/lean-tools/ |
Which event do you think will come out a winner or loser tomorrow Sunday July 15, 2018. The one and only Pacquiao or INC Lingap? Well, how does the boxing world feel about the great Pacman?
“Manny Pacquiao will step into a boxing ring for the 69th time as a professional on Saturday night when he faces hard-hitting Lucas Matthysse at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As he approaches the age of 40, the fighter who was once considered the greatest boxer on the planet has watched the reflection of his finest years as a pugilist grow smaller and smaller in his rearview mirror until they are almost unrecognizable.
Nevertheless, he’ll step between the ropes again for reasons that appear to be clearly financially driven against Matthysse. It wasn’t long ago that any fight involving Pacquio would invariably be a PPV attraction. His bout against Matthysse will be streamed on ESPN+, which seems like a pretty steep falloff for a man who was involved in the biggest pay-per-view of all time just three years ago when he lost a unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
You can read more about that fight here .
And how about the INC Lingap? The Manila Times put out a story of this activity scheduled also for July 15, 2018.
“The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) is set to hold a massive anti-poverty program under its Lingap sa Mamamayan (Lingap) project on July 15.
Around 150,000 people are expected to participate in the activity to be held at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila as “part of the Church’s resolve to do something concrete to combat poverty [in the country]and around the world,” according to INC general auditor Glicerio Santos Jr.
The vision is perfect, almost anyway. A homegrown church with a membership of shall we say 5 million feeding and treating the needs of the rest of the world reaching as far as the continent of Africa. But come to think of it, how does the King secure the logistics for such an event. Easy, require all the locales to donate their share in the event through kind or equivalent money. There is also the Tanging Handugan or Special Offerings. The membership solely shoulders the expenses. Ministers? No they do not. Not even the King. WE the members support them, from the food they eat to the lavish lifestyles they support. And what verse do they show to support this?
Maybe we should have been content with that one glass of water. Doesn’t it say in the bible that we should “not add or take away”? So maybe it should have been only one glass, no more no less. Anyway, back to the subject.
Curious though is the insistence of the King to hold it at the Quirino Grandstand. Wouldn’t it have been global in a sense if it had been held simultaneously in different locales all over the Philippines? Much more practical too. The working brethren would not have a difficult time to participate since it is being conducted at their own locale. Every province and city would also have benefited then. Not like the proposed Luneta venue. Buses will be rented to ferry the visitors from their locales to the venue, then they will have to be brought back to their locales. The accompanying brethren will have to manage breakfast and lunch for their visitors and themselves because this is not included in the Lingap. Beneficiaries to the event would be limited.
Didn’t the King’s crooked knights foresee this? Of course they did. The problem here is publicity. No media coverage if done at the locales. The kingdom needs publicity, to present an image of godliness, compassion, and love towards its fellowmen. And there’s the Guinness to consider, right? But the way I see it, the King needs assurance that he is still in control and is subtly showing our political friends that he is still a force to be reckoned with come election year and that is next year – National and Local elections. Up for grabs is the position of Senator, Congressman, Mayor, Vice-Mayor, etc. Easy money as they say, for the King and his Knights of the crooked table and some crumbs for Frank the pugs. Well, how can you blame them with all the mortgaged church properties nearing remata.
Ka Tacio wala akong FB.Ang totoo kaya lang ako nakasusulat dito ang anak ko ang nag set up nitong laptop na giangamit ko.Sad to say wala akong gaanong alam sa makabagong teknolohiya ngayon. Malayo sa akin ang anak ko.nxt time mag meet kami patuturo ako kahit sa FB. Ka Shane Michael,TAMA ka,Hindi ako si Jesus at ang mga Character na binanggit ko na NAGTAGO ngunit di kahulugan ay DUWAG,Sagot ko yan kay Coward Like you na sabi bakit AKO NAGTATAGO? Gaya ng sabi ko “marami na akong hinarap na MT at maging mga “ministro”,HINDI nila MASAGOT at MASIRA ang Paninindigan ko sa panig ng KATOTOHANAN–“sila” ang mga AYAW na akong Kausapin at Dalawin,sino ngayon ang DUWAG sa Katotohahan,”sila” o AKO? Kung nagtatago man akong sa pangalang bibliko,hindi dahil TAKOT akong matiwalag,ayoko muna dahil sa paminsan-minsan na “nakasasamba pa ako” NALALAMAN ko kung anong mga TURO at ARAL ang Binabaluktot o Pinipilipit “nila” para ILIGAW ang mga kapatid na walang Malay!!Hindi ako PERPEKTO,may mga pagkakataong MALI ako,ngunit sinisikap ko na kung MAGAGAMIT ko ang mga TALATA sa BIBLIA,ginagamit ko,sapagkat ITO,(mga Salita ng DIOS) ang PINAKAMABISA na Panlaban sa Lahat ng Kasinungalingan at Maling Aral o Turo sa KANINOMANG “nangangaral ng Ebanghelyo”.!! Tama ka rin ka Lost Sheep,ngunit kung HAYAG ang kasamaang ginagawa at napatunayan,HUMAHATOL ka ba o kung HINATULAN mo,mali ba yon! Halimbawa,yung mga “kapatid” na pumatay kay Mayor Bote– sinabi ko mga MAMATAY TAO kayo,kakahiya kayo,(INC) pa naman kayo. Nang sabhin kong Kriminal sila,mali ba yung pagsasalita kong iyon na PAGHATOL sa kanilang karakter? Gaya ng nasa JUAN 7:24 Huag kayong MAGSIHATOL ayon sa anyo,kundi MAGSIHATOL kayo ng MATUWID na Paghatol!! Samakatuwid,pued kang humatol BASTA Matuwid na paghatol. Isa pang halimbawa: Nahuli kang Nagnanakaw sa akto,sinabihan ka o hinatulan ka ng mga tao o kapitbahay mo “Magnanakaw ka”,kasalanan ba yun?Di ba hinatulan mo yung tao ayon sa MALI niyang ginawa,kaya ang tawag na sa kanya Magnanakaw,di ba?
Heto pa ang isang magandang Halimbawa sa PAGHATOL– alam natin ang EVM church mga SINUNGALING at mga DUWAG sa panig ng Katotohanan,diba? Kung sabihin ko na HINDI sila ligtas.mali ba yun? Ang sabi sa APOC. 21:8 ang DUWAG at SINUNGALING sa dagat-dagatang Apoy mapupunta!! Sinuway mo ang TUNAY na PAMAMAHALA na Ibinigay/ipinagkaloob sa ka EGM,LIGTAS ka ba? Si EVM hindi tunay na TP,ALAM halos ng Lahat pati na yang Sangoons na yan,INUTUSAN sila ni ka ERDY na “maghalal na Papalit sa KANIYA” pero di nila Sinunod.Kung sinabi kong Peke is EVM(paghatol) nagkasala ba ako,gayung TOTOO naman na ito ang Habilin ng ka EGM sa “sanggunian sa Pamumuno ni J$” na magkaroon ng Halalan para pumalit sa ka EGM,tapos PUMUESTO si EVM,di ba PEKE siyang TP?? Mali ba ang Hatol ko na PEKE siya?
Ka Bible Bot– Sa Hebreo 1:8 malinaw ang nakasulat– But as to the Son,He says,GOD is Thy throne forever and forever…then 0n 9 it says –Thou has loved righteousness,and hated iniquities,therefore GOD,Thy GOD “annointed thee”. Nothing in these verse Proved that Christ was/is GOD!! If Christ is God as belief by others and using these verses,HOW COME He(Christ) was Annointed by GOD? It is very clear GOD was the ONE who annointed Christ,not God annointed (another) God,Right? On Colosians 2:9 it says— For in Him(Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of Godhead bodily. Does it means Christ is GOD because God dwells in Him? If he(Christ) is God in this Verse,WHO is the GOD that Dwells on HIM? So there will be 2 Gods if we will accept that becoz God dwells on Christ,christ is also God?How About Moses n others Prophets? God was with Moses too.God was with Elijah too and annointed them with the H.Spirit.ARE THEY GODS? Christ divine nature DOES NOT proved or Proof that He is GOD. God is Holy,Christ is Holy,God is Truth,Christ is Truth,God is Life and Christ is Life–It only shows that SOME qualities of GOD,Christ Have,but it doesn’t mean he is God.The truth God says,YOU(pertaining to all mankind) must be HOLY,because I AM HOLY!!When God Created Mankind it was for their Holiness,but bacause our LOLO n LOLA Adan n Eba,Disobeyed GOD,we INHERIT their Characters–DISOBEDIENT to GOD!! Do you know that the true Christians are Holy? That was proclaimed by apostle Paul and the HOLY SPIRIT DWELL in us,he said You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit!! Are we God becoz the H.Spirit and God dwells in us if we lived a Life of righteousness n holiness? In John 10:30 Christ and the Father are ONE in taking care of the Sheep or their people not in NATURE,Just read verses 27-29,then 30.Is what our Lord JesusChrist proclamation in John 17:1,3 is not ENOUGH PROOF that He is not God? He was praying at the Father and says ,THIS is ETERNAL Life,that they may KNOW “YOU,the ONLY TRUE GOD”.!! Just asked anyone who believed that Christ is GOD like this,Is our Lord JC telling the TRUTH when He said that the ONLY true GOD is the Father.And asked them too,WHOM I am going to BELIEVED,you or our Lord JesusChrist? Very simple questions that those who believed that Christ is God, CANNOT answer!!
The point about Col 2:9 is that the New World Translation states “the fullness of the divine quality resides in bodily form” means this is used as an adjective just like John 1:1 Moffatt states “the Word was divine” Revised English Version states “the fullness of what God was resides in bodily form” and “the Word was what God was“ are both adjectives. The Godhead is not a divine being but rather the qualities of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. John 10:29 and John 14:28 Jesus even states the Father is greater. REV is the only truly Unitarian bible.
Think of a system, family or partnership united.
There is a right end Unitarian sect that believes the Father is true God but recognizes the Godhead as a unity of God, Jesus and Holy Spirit.
Mga kapatid,sa tagal ko ng nagbabasa ng Biblia,may ISANG talata akong nabasa na,ITO lang talatang ito,SIRA na ang paniniwala NINOMAN na Dios ang Cristo.Marami silang mababasa na kung ano-anong pangontra sa mga talata na binabasa natin para patunayan na si Cristo ay Dios din.Ngunit itong nasa Deuteronomio na nabasa ko noon pa,HINDI nila matutulan at di aayon sa paniniwala nila na Dios ang Cristo.Heto mga kapatid sa 32:39 ng Deut. heto ang nakasulat: Tingnan ninyo ngayon,na AKO,samakatuwid baga’y AKO nga,At walang dios sa AKIN:AKO’Y” pumapatay”,at AKO’Y” bumubuhay”,AKO’Y” sumusugat”,at AKO’Y “nagpapagaling”;at walang makakaligtas sa Aking kamay. Heto ang mga TANONG na dapat itanong sa naniniwalang si Cristo ay Dios? Si Cristo Bumuhay ng patay at Nagpapagaling,ngunit SAAN MABABASA na si CRISTO pumatay ng tao,nagbigay ng karamdaman o may sinugatan na tao? Kapag may nabasa kayo(tanong mo sa kausap mo) na si Cristo pumatay at nanugat o nagbigay karamdaman sa kaninomang TAO,tatanggapin ko na Dios si Cristo!!
Gawin mo nang six months bro. Biro lang ha…Daniel Matsunaga’s gonna miss you more.
Bro. WS, it’s been two weeks now since your last post. Anything new?
What’s new? At least if bibliko is around he shall make sure this blog remains active.
As another instance of the eerie resemblance of the INC saga and Trump’s presidency, I just saw this article after googling “CNN breaking news”: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jim-acosta-anti-media-trump_us_5b61415fe4b0b15aba9dcc10. CNN’s Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, is “very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in the conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt”. Sadly, in our case, the hostility whipped up by EVM and his ministers, especially in their worship service sermons (“puksain mo sila”) already resulted in, at least, 4 violent deaths (Fruto, Villocino, Ledesma, Patungan). And the climate of fear still persists within the church as EVM lords it over with his “ obey and never complain” mantra. In reality though, the true INC members who have decided to stay are not really afraid but are just patiently waiting for EVM to be replaced and the church to be restored to its pristine condition through divine intervention.
Hi Brethren,I’m back.Thanks sa pag-aalala nyo sa travel ko.I have to work tonite.Just got home this morning. Salamat sa inyong lahat.Happy to be back!!
Thank you bros, you are back. I thought we’ll still wait for another article from bro. WS before we can have an exchange of views again. I like the analogy you presented bro. Filosofo Tacio about Trump’s and EVM’s administration. Indeed, they really share a lot of of strategies in common. Strategies that suppress the rights of people and stay in power to be in control of many lives. In our case, the rights of brethrens. How I wish for the day to come so soon when the Church will go back to its pristine state, unblemished and pure for the glory of God!
May nagbalita sa akin na ang webek sa lokal ng Hawaii ay NAUDLOT dahil nag-Brown-Out!! Nawalan ng electricity dahil “walang pa palang permit” na nakuha para sa okasyon ng ihandog ang kapilya.Balita rin na “lahat ng mga maytungkulin at mga ministro” ay INALISAN ng mga karapatan dahil sa pangyayaring iyon.Okey lang na Pumalpak sila kasi balita HINDI pa Kumpleto ang KAYARIAN ng Kapilya eh inihandog na agad!! Ganyan pala ngayon,kahit di pa AYOS lahat ang kaayusan ng isang kapilya,INIHAHANDOG na pilit para may Maipagyabang sila na may “bagong kapilya” na naihandog.!! KAILAN sa panahon ng ka EGM nangyari ang ganyan?,WALA,wala kahit Isa,ngayon sige lang “basta may maipagyabang na inihandog na kapilya” ok lang kahit may KAPINTASAN.!! Ang isa pang kaipokritahan ng mga ito,ang mga ipinakikitang kapilya sa TV ay karamihan yung magaganda kahit panahon pa ng ka EGM.WALANG ipakita na mga Baranggay Kapilyates at mga Kapilya na bulok na at hindi maipagawa na nasa mga probinsya.Mga kapilya na halos sinlalaki lang ng mga garahe at walang kaayusan,ITINATAGO at INILILIHIM sa publiko at mga kapatid.!! Napanood nyo ba yung episode 14 nila Miguel? Tinanggal si BOB “big fat liar” ah,mukhang napagalitan he he he..ipinalit kapatid ni ka Jon Dizon.May Drama pa sila sa huli pati na si Miguel na akala mo sincero sa pagsasalita na gustong “magpaiyak”.Hanga ako sa mga ito,sanay na sanay ng “magsi-arte” sa harap ng telebisyon,sanay “manghamak” ng kapuwa.Tama si bro.Edge,ano ang masama sa isang ministro na magtinda ng tubig sa “malinis na paraan ng paghahanap-buhay” kesa NAKIKINABANG sila(mga OWE/STF) sa NAKAW na abuloy at Handugan na ukol para sa AMA.Mga ministro ang mga ito sa TV pa man din,nanghahamak ng kapuwa dahil Nagtitinda lang ng Tubig? Paano yung mga kapatid na basurero at street Vendor–hahamakin din nila? Ganyan na ang ASAL ng mga ministro ng EVM church,mga Mapagmataas.Mayayabang at Mapanghamak ng kapuwa-Tao!! Ang lalakas ng loob magsabi na “kami ang tunay na defender of Faith”? sabi nga kapal Muks nyo,wala na kayong HIYA.!!
Marami pa akong mga kaibigang kapatid na Silent Defender at sabi nga nila,alam namin na maraming maling nagyayari sa Iglesia.Lagi nilang sinasabi na,basta dito na lang muna kami,hihintay na lang kung kailan ito(ang Iglesia) ibalik sa dating kalagayan na matuwid. Ang kakatuwa sa mga karamihan sa kanila,sumasamba sila pero di naman daw nila iniintindi ang itinuturo dahil paulit-ulit lang at parang sirang plaka.Ayoko lang silang hiyain,GUSTO kong sabihin sa kanila,Bakit sumasamba ka pa,di ka naman pala nakikinig? Nag-aabuloy ka at naghahahndog at naglalagak sa pasalamat,di NAKIKIISA ka pa rin sa mga LIDER? Alam nilang/mong MALI bakit nanjan ka pa? Di ba isang kalokohan o kamalian iyong alam di ayos/tama pero nanjan ka?Lalo na ang iba at may Tungkulin pa–Napipilitan o Natatakot na HINDI sumama sa mga Aktibidad,kalayawan man o kabanalan na matatawag-di nakikiisa ka pa rinsa EVM Church? Paano kang naging “defender” di ka kumikibo o nagsasalita ng katotohanan? Kung babalikan Aral natin ang mga IBINUBUKOD ng Dios na ILILIGTAS NIYA,either IBUBUKOD Niya o PAALISIN sa dakong pupuksain o gugunawin ng Dios.Tulad ni Noe–pinasakay sa DAONG.Si Lot at Pamilya PINAALIS sa Sodom at Gomora.Ang unang Bayan kailangan KASAMA ka ni Abraham at ng Bayang Israel na pinamahalaaan ni Moses.Ang Unang INC dapat KAANIB ka dito at ng sumama ang mga LIDER,sabi ng Dios–LUMABAS ka sa Kanya BAYAN ko ng HINDI ka madamay sa SALOT na gagawin ng Dios(ito nga ang unang Babilonia-ICAR na ngayon). Kaya AYWAN ko,kung papaano kang maliligtas kahit Silent Defender ka pero NANJAN ka kay EVM.HINDI ka naghahayag ng mga Kamaliang ginagawa nila,bagkus TAKOT kang magsalita at natatakot o napipilitan ka pang sumunod sa takot mo na matiwalag at itakwil ka ng mga mahal mo sa buhay o mga kaibigan at kakilala mong kapatid na puro Bulag na at Panatiko,di ba? Ito lang ang masasabi ko ukol sa mga nananatili at naghihintay ng pagbabago.Papaano kung iyon palang mga tiniwalag nila at kusang humiwalay na ay PAGBUBUKOD na pala ng AMA? Sino ngayon ang Ligtas at di Ligtas?IIWAN ko na sa inyo mga kasagutan Bro.!!
Totoo ba mga Bro. na ang mga SCAN,mga Nakasuot na lang ng Barong shirt o polo barong dahil “maganda ang Imahe” nila sa buong mundo dahil “mababait sila” at walang sangkot sa anomang mga krimen at anomalya? Balita eh “binawi na lahat ng UNIPORME nila at isang mataas na Opisyal sa Sangoons at inatasan ukol dito? Nagtatanong lang po.
Pansamantala lang iyan at ibabalik din sa kanila ang mga uniporme. Gusto ng Opisyal na iyon na ma-SCAN ang bawat uniporme kung alin ang amoy Defenders.
kasi po sumabog na ang balitang pangulo ng SCAN ang tumira ky mayor Bote. In fairness, personal na away nila ng mayor yun dahil sa property or business. | 2019-04-24T14:52:05Z | https://increflections.com/2018/07/14/mid-year-fight-of-champions-pacquiao-vs-inc-lingap/comment-page-2/ |
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C. Kulkarni, IEEE Safe Advanced Mobile Power Workshop, Milpitas, CA, September 2015. | 2019-04-24T16:11:23Z | https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/dash/groups/pcoe/publications/ |
Whilst I am finally loving the way my body feels, now that I am actually getting fitter and healthier, I sometimes have to drag myself to my classes at The Circuit Factory. The aches from the last session, or the tiredness from no sleep, or the huge tub of ice cream I ate last night, all will me to put on my yoga pants and settle down on the sofa with wine and more ice cream.
So I've found that there are several essential oils that have the ability to dissolve each and every one of those devils on my shoulder, and make getting to the gym just that little bit easier on my resolve.
Deep Blue is the ultimate soother for sore and aching muscles after that intense work out. I add it to the bath the following morning and it really helps to soothe all those aches and pain and give my body what it needs to relax and unwind. I also dilute it in coconut or olive oil (it's quite cooling on my skin) and apply it topically to whichever muscle is doing the most complaining.
It really helps me to feel more normal, so I don't have to hobble back to the gym (or let those muscles give me an excuse for sitting on the sofa!).
There is literally nothing like doing a Circuit Factory class when you're all heavy with the weight of all the crap you've eaten that day. In the past I've often just made excuses and not gone, worried I might actually be sick. Grapefruit essential oil has been great in relieving those sugar cravings, so I am abstaining from the ice cream more often. So I feel lighter, and it doesn't feel like such a drag getting off my backside and going to class.
I kinda need to breathe when I'm working so hard my lungs want to explode. So the biggest excuse I make for myself is that I can't possibly go to the gym when I've got a little sniffle. I'm not sick, but I can't breathe, so it's not worth it. So I apply Breathe to my chest three times a day, and definitely before class, as it helps to support my respiratory system to clear my airways. I can get to the gym and get on with my day.
I really want to kiss the person who invented these! After another sleepless night with my two angel babies, the last thing I want to do is go to the gym. I want to conserve my energy for lifting my wine glass and crying at soppy movies. Mito2Max is a great supplement which supports the body's optimum aerobic capacity and supports stamina naturally without the use of stimulants like caffeine.
Wintergreen is great for when you tweak a tendon or a muscle. It's fantastic at supporting the body's natural healing and it supports the body as it tries to reduce inflammation and heal the pull to the muscle. I apply it twice a day to any injuries I pick up.
Does this help you with any of your excuses?
I have been looking for a gluten free cheese cracker recipe for a while. S's favourite snacks are goldfish crackers or mini cheddars. Plus I'm rather partial to them as well! So I wanted to find a gluten free version so that I can indulge, and reduce S's gluten intake a little bit.
S is a typical toddler, so she won't be fooled by bad knock off versions. If it doesn't taste perfect, she simply won't eat it.
That's why I love this gluten free parmesan cracker recipe from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. They don't taste like they are gluten free and they have a great crunch to them.
I use their "Mock Better Batter" flour blend, and I find it works great as a gluten free flour for quite a few of their recipes. We can't get Better Batter flour blend in Dubai or in the UK, so I can't just order it in from Amazon.
I've started making the dough in large batches and freezing it. I'm not sure if the crackers would retain their crunch if you froze them after baking them. They taste just as good after the dough has been frozen as they do if you make them completely fresh.
Make sure you roll them out pretty thin though, because otherwise they lose their crunch when you store them. If they are thin, then they stay crispy and crunchy for over two weeks (not that they usually last that long!).
I tend to use cookie cutters to get interesting shapes, but you could easily just slice the dough up before baking (I'm a bit OCD about wonky crackers, clearly been eating store bought crackers for a long time).
I've also used normal buttermilk instead of the cultured buttermilk and found that it worked just fine, but the crackers need more cooking so that they are still crunchy.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit or 175 degrees celsius . Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornmeal, baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt and buttermilk blend, and whisk to combine well. Add the finely grated cheese, and mix to combine. Add the 4 tablespoons butter and the milk, and mix until combined and the dough begins to come together. Divide the dough into two parts, and press each into a small ball. Place the first ball of dough between two sheets of unbleached parchment paper, and roll into a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick (about the thickness of a nickel). The dough should roll out quickly and easily. With a fluted (or simple round) 1-inch cookie cutter, cut out rounds of dough and place them on a prepared baking sheet, about 1-inch apart (they will not spread during baking). Gather and reroll scraps. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Using a toothpick, poke 4 evenly spaced holes toward the center of each of the rounds of dough. Poke the holes in a tight circular motion to create well-rounded holes. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of all of the rounds of dough lightly with the remaining teaspoon of melted butter. One tablespoon of melted butter should be enough to cover all of the rounds lightly. Sprinkle the tops of the rounds liberally with coarse salt.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once during baking, for about 12 minutes, or until the crackers are dark golden brown on the edges and lightly golden brown on top. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. For best results, store at room temperature in a sealed glass container, to maintain crispness.
It's funny how life takes you on different twists and turns, many of them were never in the plan, or turned out like you expected.
For me, becoming an expat was one of those unexpected twists, and it definitely did not turn out the way I thought it would. As I'm sure I have said before, I have never had this burning desire to live overseas. I wasn't one of those people who was desperate to disappear on a gap year to Australia or the Far East.
Don't get me wrong, I love my holidays, but permanently immersing myself in another country, I'd never really wanted to. I was more than happy in the UK, and as I chose a career path which was only really applicable in the UK and a handful of other countries (in a previous life I was a lawyer), I hadn't really set myself up for a life abroad.
But Gary has always wanted to work overseas. He has made that more than clear from the moment we got together. We discussed it, and discussed it, and discussed it, but as time went on, it slipped further to the back of my mind.
Until the offer of a job in Qatar came through.
I'm usually a bit of a believer in fate, I believe that things seem to click together at the right time. If it feels right, it probably is. With the job in Qatar, it was fairly clear that things were clicking together.
We were only three months away from getting married (a prerequisite if I wanted to live with Gary in Qatar). We had already discussed starting a family soon after we were married (necessitating a career break for me). We had already started looking at houses, in readiness to move out of our apartment and start a new chapter.
We snuck off to Qatar for the weekend to investigate and we liked what we saw. It was obvious that there would be a culture difference, but English was commonly spoken and there was a large amount of expats living in Qatar, making the transition much smoother.
Then, less than nine months after we arrived in Qatar, a job came up in Dubai. I was pregnant and getting more and more so each day, and the clock was ticking as to whether we would even be able to get out of Qatar before it was too late for me to fly. I did not fancy an eight hour road trip through Saudi Arabia when nine months pregnant.
Again everything seemed to come together so that, in the nick of time, we moved to Dubai. In less than four weeks, we moved countries, found an apartment, found a hospital and had a baby.
Dubai has been the most amazing place for us to have started our family. We had the most amazing care from the hospital for both of our children, and we've had the most amazing opportunity to experience Dubai as a family.
We've made some amazing friends. Friends that have become family to me. Friends who all jumped up and offered to look after Miss S while I was in hospital having Mister L. Friends who would happily come over at the crack of dawn to look after the kids if I wasn't well enough.
There is something about being expats that has banded us all together. We have leaned on each other much more than we probably would have if we were in the UK with family close by. And that has been such a blessing, as it turns out.
One of the hardest things when you are an expat is not having family nearby who can just pop over. And yet my friends have more than made up for that by being so amazing. I feel like we've all changed and grown, but grown together, as our children have grown alongside us.
I'm not the person I was when I left the UK. Not only have I had the opportunity to meet the most amazing people, I've also had the chance to experience another amazing culture. I knew nothing of Islam before I left the UK (and I'm no whizz at it now!). I had no understanding of the religion, or it's people.
My understanding of Islam was limited to what was in the newspapers, along with some limited wider reading. I hadn't realised what a limited view that actually was until I lived in the Middle East. Living in a muslim country has given me a new appreciation for other people's religions, and how to respect those religions. It also gives you a hugely different view on the politics of the Middle East, and on the decisions that are made in rooms far away from here.
I am a much more worldly person that the one that left the UK four years ago. I feel like I have morphed and changed and expanded (metaphorically, thankfully not physically!). Seeing more of the world, and spending more than a week in one place, has changed my perspective on so many different things.
It has also taught me my own strength. It's taught me that I can move house, move country, move continents, without much chaos.
It's taught me that I can make friends, can build relationships and bonds with people, again and again and again. And that those friendships might just become some of the most important to me.
It's taught me that I can take care of two children while Gary works abroad, for weeks at a time. It has taught me that I can be patient and calm, when there are no reinforcements.
It's taught me that I can maintain and even improve relationships with friends and family that are still in the UK. That the miles between us really do mean nothing at all, as long as we love each other, and want to support each other.
It's taught me that I can watch friends leave, and smile even when I wanted to cry. To see the bigger picture for not only me, but for others. To see what is best, and to encourage and support their decisions, even if they aren't the decision I'd wish they'd make (for purely selfish reasons).
I love Dubai, but the time has come to leave it. To leave behind the place where we built our married life together. To leave the apartment that we brought our children home to. To leave the friends who have gotten me through the first tough years of motherhood.
As I look around me, I wonder how we will ever do it. To sell or pack up all of our worldly possessions (which have multiplied in four years), and ship them across two continents. I wonder how we'll ever settle into another life, a very different life than the one we are leaving behind.
I know that we can, and that we will. I know that it will be easy and hard in equal measure. I know I will grieve and rejoice in equal measure, as we begin our new lives. There are so many opportunities lost to us, but so many more that we will gain.
It's hard to leave when you aren't fed up of where you are, but then that's also exactly the time to go. Again it feels rather like fate has intervened, there were so many coincidences that happened as we walked towards this decision, towards the new job, new home, new life.
I will miss Dubai, and all of those amazing people we leave behind. But they have a very special, and very warm place, in my heart. Dubai has made me the person that I am today, and for that, I'm more grateful than I can possibly express.
I thought we'd avoided the toddler tantrums with S.
Ok, stop laughing..... seriously, stop laughing.
In hindsight it was the most ridiculous thing, but as S approached two and a half, and she hadn't really progressed into full meltdown mode, I thought she was just one of those kids who didn't really have them. She had strops now and then, but no hysterics, and she was fairly easy to cajole out of them.
At the time, I kept saying "they'll come", but to other people. The fact that they really were going to show up didn't really lodge itself in my brain.
And then the world came crashing down with meltdowns and throwing herself on the floor and using the word "no" so many times a day I felt like screaming my head off.
My particular favourites both revolve around chocolate. First of all there was the time when she asked for ice cream, and then had a meltdown when I opened the ice cream instead of the chocolate I'd bought for baking.... in public, which included lying on a bench for fifteen minutes screaming her head off and crying hysterically.... while I ate most of the ice cream.
Then there was Valentines day, when she was given chocolate hearts in every shop we went into (in Dubai they give chocolate to children A LOT!), and then had huge hysterics demanding chocolate as though I'd refused to let her have any. Cue a twenty minute crying fit in the double pram while I wandered around and ignored her.
I am not the most patient. I can pretty much ignore the full blown tantrums, because there isn't really a way to stop them once they've started and it's better for S if we just ride the wave of emotions for a little while and let her sort herself out.
But the incessant not listening, and refusal to do anything I ask her to (even if it's something she really wants to do).... it makes me grit my teeth and want to punch a wall. So I've had to develop coping mechanisms to get through the every day hum drum of the two year old's basic ignorance of anything she hasn't started by herself.
Now, I'm not saying these coping mechanisms will work for everyone, but they do help me keep my temper in check (most of the time). So if they help anyone else, even a teeny tiny bit, then that's all good!
This one has been the biggest one for me. I used to ask S to get her shoes, or come here, or whatever, and she'd ignore me. She would ignore me again, and again, and again regardless of whether I raised my voice, got cross or upset. So to save my own sanity, I decided to accept that she's not quite in that place yet where she can listen all the time, and that me getting cross doesn't benefit any of us.
So I now ask her once. If she doesn't move, I take her hand and gently (but firmly) lead her to her shoes, or to have her nappy changed, or to have her dinner. This lessening of expectations has really helped my stress levels, and I even feel that S listens to me more as a result, because the way that I ask has changed because I'm not gearing up to have to shout.
I don't really like the idea of Time Outs, because they are often perceived as abandoning your child. But sometimes, they are just necessary. Like when S pushes her baby brother so hard he falls over and bangs his head, for the fifth time that morning. Or when she runs off in the park and I have to scramble to grab L and chase after her.
Our Time Outs take place in the pram. I try to not make it about punishment, although sometimes I am REALLY mad that her brother has hit his head HARD. I explain that she needs to be nice to her brother and that if she can't be calm with him, she needs to sit in the pram until she calms down.
At most she gets left for a minute and then I go back and calmly explain what went wrong, and how we can fix it. She then says sorry and kisses me and L before moving on. This does seem to work temporarily, but not for long. Although she is a toddler so I'm not sure it would work for a long period of time no matter what tactic I used.
This one has been a big revelation for me. I forget in the hustle and bustle of the day that S doesn't always know, or remember, what's happening that day, and so she doesn't know why I'm asking her to do things.
I now try to continually give her cues throughout the morning about where we are going and why, so that she is really for the changes that are coming. So while I'm making breakfast I'll tell her that after breakfast we can get ready and go to the park/see friends/go to nursery, and I repeat it as I move through the morning tasks like dressing and brushing hair.
I've found it makes her much more willing to sit still and have her hair brushed, to go and get her shoes and to generally move a little bit quicker.
I also give her count down warnings before we leave places. I'm pretty honest about timings, but S knows the order the warnings come in, so she is much more prepared to leave by the time I am ready to go. It's made the upset at leaving a lot easier to handle.
Spending all day with young children does wear on me quite quickly. I love them to death but it's really hard trying to think for three people, to keep everyone entertained and on track and teach them about the world and how to live in it all at the same time.
I don't always succeed in keeping calm, in fact I shout and stress more than I would like. So on the days when the stress threatens to take over, I make sure that the kids and I have had doTERRA's Balance blend applied to the backs of our necks. It really helps to bring everything back into perspective, especially when all three of us get a dose of Balance all at the same time! i think it's one of my most used essential oils, and I think I'll be needing it for the next few years, while S gets out of and L gets into the toddler tantrums.
So those are the mechanisms that I employ at the moment to keep myself sane and to get through the day unscathed, do you have any more tips?
I feel like I say this all the time, but I wish I had known about essential oils when I was pregnant and when my kids were really young. I could have really offered them some additional support (and something to help me get through those tough early days too!).
For those of you who have young babies, or are pregnant and expecting your bundle of joy, here are the five essential oils that I would arm myself with if I were pregnant again!
On Guard is such an important blend in this house! Babies and toddlers seem to get every single germ that comes within a ten mile radius of them! I use a single drop of On Guard in 10mls of coconut oil or olive oil and apply it to their feet every day to give their immune systems a much needed boost!
Lavender is the ultimate essential oil for babies. It's fantastic for general calming, so would be amazing during the witching hour (if you don't know what that is, don't ask, better to remain oblivious!), it also helps to wind a baby down for bed.
I also use it in the bath as it's great to support the skin as it repairs and renews itself. Now I have a crawling baby and a running toddler, Lavender comes in handy for all those cuts and scrapes that come with moving targets!
I don't think I mention Lemon too much but it's great oil for babies. It can be used to help the body to bring down a fever (rather than peppermint which can be too strong for some babies) and it's a great essential oil for supporting the body as it deals with the aftereffects from vaccines. Given our babies get so many in the first year, it's a nifty little oil to have on hand.
Fennel is my first essential oil I reach for when my baby's reflux flares up. It's really gentle on the stomach, but it helps to strengthen and support the digestive system. I would also use it on babies who have colic as often babies with colic have some kind of digestive upset and could do with the additional support.
I feel like I've been using this everyday for months on end. When my baby and toddler are sick, they are always sick with a massive snotty nose. I have no idea where my kids get all the green mucus from! Breathe is fantastic at helping the respiratory system as it tries to clear out all the gunk. It's particularly useful at night, because if your baby can't breathe, they can't sleep, and if they aren't sleeping, neither are you.
Are there any other essential oils that you think should in the new baby survival kit?
These brownies have been on my mind for sometime. I love love love mint chocolate, sometimes a little bit too much!
So I've been dying to make these triple chocolate mint brownies from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind and see if they are really as good as they look.
They are. In fact, I think they are better!
They are really rich and squidgy, but the mint makes that all work perfectly! I'm always struggling to really make Paleo recipes that make people want to eat the whole lot in one go, but these are definitely one of those desserts.
So take a look at the recipe and then go make some! I also substituted the peppermint extract for doTERRA peppermint essential oil because I couldn't find peppermint extract in Dubai. I swapped the 1/4 of a teaspoon of peppermint extract for just 8 drops of the peppermint essential oil. I think any more than that and you would swamp the recipe, because the chocolate bar you are adding in also has mint in it.
If you taste the batter after you have added the eight drops, you'll be able to check whether it has enough mint for you.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C.
3. Once the chocolate is melted, slowly stir in the liquid coconut oil.
4. Then stir in the almond butter, maple syrup, peppermint extract and eggs.
5. Now whisk in the dry ingredients, the coconut palm sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder.
7. Grease an 8×8″ square glass pan with coconut oil or butter and pour in the brownie batter.
8. Cook for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy! | 2019-04-20T10:31:06Z | http://the21stcenturymama.blogspot.com/2015/05/ |
The European Road Championships 2015 in Tartu, Estonia are about to begin. Here's a quick look on all you need to know about the race.
Trofeo Karlsberg is one of the hardest races in the Juniors racing calendar. It's a UCI race and has the status of a nations cup stage race, meaning the teams competing consist of national teams. Representing 19 countries in total including some strong cycling nations such as Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, USA and Italy, just a few to mention. The race consisted of 3 days of racing and 4 stages in total between 5th and 7th of June 2015. Together with part of the Finnish team we started our journey towards Gersheim, Germany on June 2nd.
Last week I got a call and that changed my plans for the upcoming week. I was supposed to go to Pirkan Pyöräily and ride the 217 km long route, but instead I will head towards Germany tomorrow. More precisely, Trofeo Karlsberg together with the Finnish Junior National Road Cycling Team. We will leave Turku tomorrow evening and will arrive at our destination in Gersheim on Thursday.
It's now more than a week ago since the TS Kortteliajot was ridden and I finally got time to put together a small race report. The TS Kortteliajot Sunday started off with slight rain in the morning, meaning the race would be ridden in wet conditions. That would make the hard race even harder. Fincycling had a 5 man strong team for the race.
The Simo Klimscheffskij memorial race opened the Skoda Maantiecup last weekend in Turku, Finland. Fincycling had a 6 man strong team for the race consisting of; Joel Bergman, Simo Terävä, Jaakko Hänninen, Aku Keloneva, Ville Hirvenoja and Jonas Nordström.
This weekend is the official grand opening of the Finnish road cycling season. Simo Klimscheffskij memorial ride will be ridden on Saturday and TS Kortteliajot will be ridden on Sunday. Fincycling will be racing on both days.
It has been a great couple of weeks with a lot going on around Fincycling. As I am writing this, the team is heading for Otepää, Estonia for the second training camp this spring. The first training camp was held in Tikkurila between March 21st and 22nd. Another important event, a press conference, was held on Monday March 30th. A new team and new sponsors were introduced and the event was well noticed by the Finnish press. In this article you can read about the first training camp, the Fincycling 2015 team, the schedule for 2015 and about the Fincycling press conference.
The Fincycling project continues to grow as we saw an agreement between the Cycling Union of Finland (Suomen Pyöräilyunioni ry) and Fincycling take shape January 6th 2015. The great efforts done by the whole Fincycling team has paid off, and for the coming years 2015 - 2017, Fincycling will be taking care of the U19 boys training and racing schedule. This if something is a proof of a job well done and shows the level of trust for this project.
First season for Fincycling is now behind. A first year is often a year of learning, both for the cyclists and the staff. And this was exactly what the first year was for Fincycling as well, learning by doing. And there was a lot of doing.
The Cup of Zemgale stage race in Latvia began today in a great way. The 3,1 km long prologue was won by Niklas "Nikke" Henttala representing Fincycling with an average speed of 47,29 km/h in 3 minutes and 56 seconds. Niklas is one of the talented Junior riders in the team, and he will be wearing the leader's yellow jersey tomorrow. You can find the full result list here.
The race will continue with a 70 km stage tomorrow following by another ITT stage. The race will end on Saturday August 30th. Five stages with somewhat short stages will make the race really explosive. Juniors from many strong cycling countries are represented, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Finland of course.
What's great about this week's race is that the Fincycling squad is actually "bigger" than usual. Besides juniors who have been competing with Fincycling throughout the season, also juniors who will join the squad next year have the opportunity to race with the team. The only way to become a professional is to compete on a high level, and with Fincycling this opportunity is given to our young talented riders.
At the beginning of the season talking with the Fincycling people, we heard that the first year will be dedicated to the junior boys aged 16-18 and that the project would aim to support even girls and U23 men in the future, maybe in some years. Well the Fincycling squad has already done something supportive for both of those. Earlier this month in Norway, the Fincycling team introduced girls in their squad in the Arctic Heroes of Tomorrow Race (more of this later). And again, in Cup of Zemgale the Fincycling team is introducing Laura Vainionpää (W U23) to the racing field. It's a great way to gain experience competing with the guys.
It is with joy I watch the Fincycling team, that began as a project only less than a year ago, grow and do so much good to the sport in Finland. More than any Finnish national organization has been able to do in a long time, maybe ever? Having heard how the boys have learned during this year, and been able to improve as cyclists both in and out of the saddle makes me really feel positive about the future of Finnish cycling. Of course there are lots and lots of work to do and we know the road to the elite is tough, but all the hard work done by the Fincycling team gives a solid ground for our juniors to build on.
Fincycling season is well on its way, and so far the team has been racing in Estonia, Finland and Poland. Next up is a stage race in Finland this weekend (AHH etappiajot) and Switzerland (46ème Tour du Pays de Vaud) next week. Aleksi Hänninen, Niklas Henttala, Lauri Koski, Erik Relanto, Jaakko Hänninen and Antto Tunkkari build up the Fincycling team in AHH etappiajot and the team representing Fincycling in 46ème Tour du Pays de Vaud is Aleksi Hänninen, Niklas Henttala, Lauri Koski, Erik Relanto, Antto Tunkkari and Marco Tapio Niemi.
As a small wrap up from the early season start here is a small recap of day 2 in Turku a couple of weeks ago, part 1 you can still find here.
After a great day one and a successful gala-evening Fincycling was ready for day two, TS Kortteliajot in Turku, a real spring classic in Finland. Every team and rider in Finland wants to win this race, and usually it ends up in a bunch sprint. Team Fincycling was having five riders for the race, Sasu Halme, Aleksi Hänninen, Antto Tunkkari, Waltteri Lepistö and Arttu Suvisaari.
And off it went, Fincycling at the front, of course!
The boys reacted to all breakaway attempts, strong performance once again!
Who's keeping up the pace and making the race difficult for everyone? Fincycling of course!
Sasu had a super strong day! He was attacking and attacking and closing gaps, working like Voigt one could say!
Antto was misplaced in the bunch and lost control to the front and was flagged off towards the end.He really fought until the end! Charly giving feedback and support for a good job done.
TWD Länken had a stronger team this time and Ilari Kahila took the win after a perfect leadout.
A superb job all day by Sasu, he finished 7th with the same time as the winner.
Fincycling after the finish. Good job all weekend!
It was great to see the guys executing the tactics set up for both days and they really made the race hard for everyone. Experience is what is needed to win, the boys are on their way on the learning curve, and having seen the attitude the whole team has it is a promising start indeed.
So let's wish our guys the best for AHH etappiajot and the 46ème Tour du Pays de Vaud next week.
Kilpapyöräily ry., founded in October 2013, has started the season 2014 with a great pace. The association aims to lift the Finnish cycle racing scene to a level where it deserves to be – it’s after all one of the most popular competitive sports in our neighboring countries. The founding members of the association (27 members) have all achieved an internationally successful career, and some are still active in the world of elite cycling. Such members are Jussi Veikkanen, Kjell Carlström, Charly Wegelius, Joona Laukka, Mika Hämäläinen, Jukka Heinikainen and Kimmo Kananen – to name a few.
Ambitious goals were set up for the first season: 16-18 year old junior cyclists from national teams around the country will be participating in both international and top national races, resulting in some 65-70 race days during the 2014 season. The operations are made possible by dedicated voluntary work by the founding members and by the financial support from the sponsors, SKODA, Helkama, PowerBar, Sportful, Shimano, EuroSport, Polar, dmp, Javatrans and Leijona-tuote. During the 2014 season, at least 14 boys will participate in international races, following the international rules of attending with a six man strong team in each race.
The first kickoff was held with 14 boys at Solvalla Idrottsinstitut between January 31st and February 2nd. The aim of the camp was to inform the boys, their coaches and parents about the project and what it would be all about. Charly Wegelius (Garmin-Sharp), Kjell Carlström (IAM Cycling), Kimmo Kananen (Shimano), Jani Paju (Fustra), Juho Suikkari and Marko Vauhkonen all acted as instructors during the weekend. Focus was also set on the comprehensive training programs and the professionals shared their knowledge with the coaches. As cycling is a sport where proper set-up and equipment matter, the boys were instructed about the importance of an accurate bike fit and the impact it can have in both comfort and efficiency on the bike. These instructions were provided by Shimano Nordic and Fustra. The technical and tactical aspects were also highlighted and presented both with interactive conversations and through watching some interesting videos. The importance of nutrition during both training and racing was equally highlighted. Fincycling team is energized with PowerBar products.
Our boys made a trip to Estonia during Easter. The team consisted of Simo Terävä (16), Jonne Itkonen (16), Jaakko Hänninen (17), Ville Hirvenoja (17), Walteri Lepistö (18) and Lauri Koski (18). In Estonia we lived and trained together with the National Junior cycling team of Estonia who live and train in Audentese Sports-school in Otepää. A race was also scheduled for Sunday, a national race with 271 cyclists at the start line, among them ex-professionals and team Alfa Baltic, a professional team from Latvia. The Fincycling team started off well and the boys executed and followed the pre-planned race tactics all the way. A good effort was rewarded with a great 14th place for Waltteri Lepistö (5th in the youth classification). Toomas Kirsipuu, a legendary Estonian ex professional cyclist was also impressed by the Fincycling team effort. Toomas, who today actively supports the local junior cyclists, also participated in the race and therefore closely followed the Fincycling team in action.
April 26th and 27th marks the official cycling season opening in Turku, Finland. Fincycling took part with a team consisting of Aleksi Hänninen (18), Sasu Halme (18),Waltteri Lepistö(18), Antto Tunkkari (18) and Arttu Suvisaari (18). Charly Wegelius, former world-class professional cyclist and today one of the sports directors at Team Garmin-Sharp flew to Finland and joined the team on Saturday morning. Charly Wegelius was the sports director for team Fincycling during the weekend. Having such a person in the team as Charly gives the boys in Fincycling the best possible guidance and support on their way to the world elite. The race tactics was again executed close to perfection and our rider Aleksi Hänninen was in the 12-man breakaway, which went all the way to the finish. The race was won by a Latvian professional rider, Maris Bogdanovics, and Aleksi finished 10th overall being the best junior.
The Finnish spring classic, Turun Sanomien kortteliajot the following day was another good performance by the team. The race plan was executed once again well, and especially Sasu Halme had a strong day in the saddle being at the front throughout the race and fighting at the final bunch sprint. TWD-Länken, the number one road cycling team in Finland this time had more riders and a stronger team and made a good leadout for the winner Ilari Kahila. Sasu Halme crossed the finish line as 7th rider and secured the junior overall win with Aleksi Hänninen taking overall second place for team Fincycling (Pavel Sveshnikov 3rd).
During the weekend Kilpapyöräily ry. also organized a cycling season 2014 - opening gala as a part of financing its own operations. The work done by the association has drawn a great attention in significant cycling countries, therefore many professional teams and cyclists donated valuable items for an auction held at the gala. Items were donated by reigning road cycling world champion Rui Costa (Team LAMPRE-MERIDA), Team SKY, Sylvain Chavanel (Team IAM Cycling), Daniel Martin (Team Garmin-Sharp) and the reigning Finnish road cycling champion Jussi Veikkanen (Team FDJ.fr) to mention a few. The project also awoke interest and enthusiasm, which culminated in the auction.
–A great project to support our youth, educating both internationalization and cycling at the same time, Marko Toivonen, Sales Manager of DMP Diesel added.
He became the owner of a valuable Team Sky signed jersey.
The first international race, La Coupe du Président de la Ville de Grudziadz (UCI 2.1), was ridden in Poland between May 1st and May 5th. The race included 5 stages with a total length of 408,1 km.
A UCI 2.1 race is the highest category for juniors where only national-, Team- and clubs can attend. 176 riders, 36 teams with 10 nationalities entered the race. A major part of the roads were in bad shape, which would make the race really hard. Aleksi Hänninen (18), Marco-Tapio Niemi (18), Lauri Koski (18), Waltteri Lepistö (18), Arttu Suvisaari (18), Erik Relanto (17) formed the Fincycling squad with Mauno Uusivirta as soigneur (former professional cyclist with both Olympic and world championship experience) and Marko Vauhkonen as sports director.
Few Fincycling boys have international experience. The objectives were to work well as a team and use the knowledge learnt during winter and spring from both Kjell Carlström and Charly Wegelius. The race began with a 12, 5 km team time-trial, Marco-Tapio was the only boy to have previous experience of a team time-trial. With a great support from Mauno Uusivirta who has lots of experience of team time-trials the team ended up with 21st place having an average speed of 49, 8 km/h, a really good effort. The following stage was ridden that same day and the rest of the stages in the coming days. Fortunately the condition of the roads was a bit better towards the end. Unfortunate was that two boys did catch a cold in the really chilly weather.
Sports director Marko Vauhkonen was really pleased by all the actions during the race. Attitude, willingness to learn and team spirit could not have been better.
– I really got emotional when I watched our boys execute everything they’ve learnt during the project so far, a really great way to show their respect for all people involved in the Fincycling project. The race in Poland was a great boost in the team self confidence, to the grade where Fincycling actually dominated the race events during the last stage. The whole team worked really hard to push Aleksi Hänninen to a podium place and top 15 overall position that day. Despite hard work, this time the goal was not reached, but the confidence within the team really grew a lot. Experience and confidence are key success factors in developing as a team and a cyclist.
1. Placing among the top third in the team classification. 36 teams started (5-6 man teams) where only 24 managed to finish the race, Fincycling being the 12th best team.
Now it’s time to rest, go to school and prepare for future races. The next race will be between May 24th and May 25th where team Fincycling will participate in AAH Etappiajo, a Finnish national stage race (Elite) in Hyvinkää. When the race in Hyvinkää is finished, the team will immediately head for the next race in Switzerland, where they will participate in 46ème Tour du Pays de Vaud UCI 2.1 between May 29th and June 1st.
Part 2 of the cycling weekend in Turku will be released soon, stay tuned! You can find Part one here.
Fincycling opened the national racing season last weekend in Turku.This is the first part of the race report from the weekend and includes the story from Simo Klimscheffskij’n muistoajo - race on Saturday (and loads of pictures and a video). The second part will cover the following day of racing - TS Kortteliajot on Sunday.
Saturday began with the team arriving to Turku at around mid-day. The team for the weekend was built up by 5 guys, Sasu Halme, Aleksi Hänninen, Antto Tunkkari, Waltteri Lepistö and Arttu Suvisaari. Usually the team consists of 6 riders but this time Jaakko Hänninen was unfortunate to be ill just before the race and couldn't participate.
Marko Vauhkonen would serve as the mechanic and Charly Wegelius, also known as the sports director of Team Garmin-Sharp would be the sports director for Fincycling during the weekend. So again, the boys would have a highly skilled and experienced team to back them up.
After a proper briefing by Charly Wegelius, it was time to change to race outfit. I have to say this team kit is really good looking. Not to mention it is the same quality Team Tinkoff-Saxo is racing.
The race would be in Hirvensalo, just outside of Turku, this served as a good warmup for the guys, some 6 km to spin the legs before the race would start.
The race would be 73 kilometers long and be ridden on a circuit with a length of 4 kilometers. The finish would be on top of a 800 m long hill, hard after many laps riding it over and over again.
The race was pretty hectic. On each lap there was at least one breakaway attempt, and the Fincycling guys did a great job in having at least one cyclist at the front at all time, catching up those breakaways. And on one lap the breakaway was succesful, and there was Aleksi Hänninen working to form a proper gap to the peloton.
The final climb was hard as expected and blew the legs out of many riders. Aleksi managed to hang in the last hundred meters and finished 10th. The other guys did tried to attack from the peloton in the final lap but didn't manage to create a gap to the peloton, and finished with the main group. All in all, a strong ride by the whole team, the boys were riding like men.
Aleksi took 1st place in the M-18 class, next year the whole race!
The next part will cover the Finnish spring classic TS Kortteliajot. Last but not least a little sneak peek in the Fincycling team car where Charly Wegelius gives instructions to Aleksi riding in the breakaway.
Note! If you do want to use any of the pictures, please contact me!
Fincycling, the cycling project started by Kilpapyöräily ry. is really moving forward in a great pace. The first race in Estonia 18th - 21st of April is just behind the corner and this is the first time we will see the young boys competing in their Fincycling equipment. Not long after that we will see the boys competing in Turku, Finland where also I will be reporting from. This will be the 26th and 27th of April, with Simo Klimscheffskij muistoajot on Saturday and TS Kortteliajot on Sunday.
Besides these races, on Saturday 26th of April a cycling Gala will be held in Turku. Present will be some big names from the world of cycling as well as influential people in Finland. During the evening some of the names in the Fincycling team will be presented. To support the team, an auction will be held. There are some great items in this auction, for instance the current road cycling world champion jersey by Rui Alberto Faria da Costa, just one great item to mention. All the proceeds from the auction and the Gala will be used to support the Fincycling cyclists. If you have any questions regarding the Gala, you can for instance shoot Suomen Pyöräily nousuun facebook page with a message. The official invitation (in Finnish) you can find here.
Another great thing for supporting the Fincycling team is the Kjell Carlström pyöräilyleiri (Kjell Carlström cycling camp). This is a training camp held in Solvalla idrottsinstitut 1.4 - 4.5.2014 and is a complete package with information about nutrition, how to train right, equipment, how to ride in group and much more. The coaching will be done by professionals such as Carlström himself. This is a unique chance for any active cyclists to improve both knowledge and results with the help of real cycling professionals. More information is found in Finnish and Swedish.
It is great to see the Fincycling team gain more and more attention all the time, and it will be really exciting to have the race season opened soon. Besides the Fincycling team schedule, these young boys also compete for their local cycling teams in Finland. So a lot of racing coming up for the young cyclists. And as we all know, that's the only way to make progress and that's the way to do a name for yourself if you want to become a professional cyclist. These boys are on the right track. Let's keep the wheels turning!
Read more about the Fincycling official launch here.
The project launched by Kilpapyöräily ry, to lift the Finnish competitive cycling to a level where it deserves to be at, was finally publicly presented yesterday. Fincycling.com is the site where you will in the future be able to find all about the Fincycling Team and the progress. Of course I will be closely following this team and the project as well. To have such a professional and experienced squad including big names in cycling, both nationally and internationally known names (Carlström, Veikkanen, Wegelius, Laukka, Kananen and the list goes on and on) makes this project really stand out.
Fincycling is a great example of what passion and will can create. The people involved have invested a lot of their spare time and money to this project, for many it is about giving back to cycling what cycling has given them. It is with great warmth and joy I watch this project progress day by day closer to the season start.
It was also great to see that media had found interest in the project, our national public broadcasting channel YLE also presented Fincycling in the evening sports-news in both Finnish and Swedish. Link to Finnish here and in Swedish here.
We also connected with Kjell Carlström, live on stage 6 of Tirreno-Adriatico with 120km to go.
In a couple of months the Fincycling team has taken great leaps forward, and knowing the pace and the passion for the ones working on this project, we are surely going to see some great news in the upcoming months as well.
So stay tuned, the season begins in April, I will keep you updated!
As some of you might remember I wrote about the Finnish cycling project that aims at lifting our road cycling future to a whole new level. We have a strong history in endurance sports such as cross country skiing and running, but in cycling we've never been able to reach a level such as our Scandinavian neighbors Sweden, Norway and Denmark has. One could blame it on the weather conditions, but that doesn't make sense since our neighbors have the same conditions.
I’m really happy and at the same time super excited about this new project that will hopefully have a huge impact in our cycling culture and finally help our young talents to reach the top elite in cycling. Suomen Kilpapyöräily ry (freely translated Finnish Cycle Racing association) was founded by 27 members not just anybody, but by the cycling elite in Finland including such names as current professional cyclist Jussi Veikkanen former professionals Charly Wegelius (directeur sportif, Team Garmin Sharp) and Kjell Carlström (directeur sportif, IAM Cycling Team) who are both still involved in the professional cycling today.
Just last week I had the opportunity to meet one of the founding members of Suomen Kilpapyöräily ry., Marko Vauhkonen. Marko has a strong background in cycling, as one of his best personal achievements as a cyclist he mention the year 1984 and the Nordic championships (track) where he took a bronze medal. He has a strong background in international cycling as well, having experienced both European and world championships in both road- and track cycling.
Marko Vauhkonen - Suomen Kilpapyöräily ry.
I was really excited to meet him. Since I hadn't heard a lot about the project, but I knew there were many really big names behind it, I knew it would be big. We took a coffee and sat down, I thought it would be an hour, but I guess it took more than two and a half hours at the end. I guess when you have two cycling freaks talking about cycling, you shouldn't assume such things.
Juho Suikkari, Kimmo Kananen, Kjell Carlström, Jari Vanninen, Peter Selin, Patrick Wackström, Sixten Wackström, Marko Vauhkonen, Mika Hämäläinen, Kimmo Karhu, Oscar Stenström, Tauno Hietala, Peter Klimscheffskij, Vesa Rauttu, Pertti Linna, Jouni Hakala, Joona Laukka, Jussi Veikkanen, Harri Hedgren, Veikko Sinisalo, Juha Poutiainen, Kari Myllymäki, Vesa Mattila, Jukka Heinikainen, Christian Selin, Charley Wegelius and Jyrki Tujunen.
Many of you recognize some or most of of these names for sure. So after a "short" introduction of presenting myself to Marko and vice versa, I was eager to know how and why this project got started? It was easy for Marko to answer this question.
It struck me how fast everything was built up. This of course is just a sign of how passionate these guys are about cycling and about their will to really do something important and big for cycling. At this point I was eager to know more and tried to take in all information possible.
Q: What are the main goals for the project?
“We want to look at this, not just as a single thing that will take our youth quickly to the top, but as a complete learning experience for our young riders. We have a clear mission to build sustainable, competitive and healthy youth. Money should not be an obstacle for anyone and our mission is to help, support and advice young riders how to be independent and help them gain international experience, which is such a crucial component in being successful.
Cycling races were won by individual efforts back in the 1930’s, but today you win and lose as a team.
All of us involved, we have a strong knowledge in the world of cycling all the way from the early -80’s, and we want to share that experience with our youngsters. We really want to emphasize the fact that cycling is a team sport more than anything else. We want our riders to really feel and internalize that what you give to the team, you’ll have back doubled. A team is as strong as its weakest link. Cycling races were won by individual efforts back in the 1930’s, but today you win and lose as a team.
All of that makes sense, right? Think about being a young rider and having a team like that behind you, supporting, sharing thoughts and advice with you. Being together with your role models and having them support you must be a “dream come true” for any athlete.
Q: What can you tell us about the support and visibility of the campaign so far?
So at this point, having the backgrounds I really wanted to know more about the cyclists, the team the first training camp, well everything. I tried to hold myself together.
Q: About the team, can you tell us more about the age group, what type of riders you have selected and how is the selection done?
Q: In social media we saw a couple of weeks ago pictures and some stories from your first training camp. How was it, what was the agenda and how would you sum up the training camp?
“Honestly, I’d say it was as good as a training camp can be. No, actually it was even better. It was one of the best training camps I've seen and experienced content-wise in my life. Probably it was so rich in content that the youngsters weren't able to assimilate everything, but if they were able to memorize 30 % of what was said, they already took a great leap forward as cyclists. Besides great lectures and support by Kimmo Kananen, Kjell Carlström and Charly Wegelius, we had an individual bike fit for the guys, surprisingly all had to make some adjustments in their positioning on the bike.
We also had the opportunity to have Jani Paju with us, who introduced Fustra to the guys. Fustra has been a success in many countries and is also used by the top elite as a way to improve especially your core strength. In cycling, Fustra is used for instance by IAM Cycling Team.
We also focused on activities that were not related to cycling where the focus was on building team spirit. And I think we nailed that as well, better than expected.
As a final question I wanted to know when we’ll see a Finn on the podium, either in a spring Classics race or on a grand tour. Marko didn't need to think for long.
And so, two and a half hours later we realized it was already pretty late. Time goes by so fast when you talk about cycling. I’m really excited to follow this project, and having heard many details I cannot yet reveal here, I’m looking forward to a year in cycling I've never experienced before. It was also really great to meet Marko, such a great person! I will be reporting about the project as it progresses so stay tuned! We will see the new team compete for the first in Finland in Turku, April 26th and 27th. So stay tuned for updates, there will be some great news, I promise you that! | 2019-04-22T22:30:47Z | https://www.invisiblehillcycling.com/journal?category=Fincycling |
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Moon eclipse in full moon and super moon by night. Total Lunar eclipse with moon turning red cause of closer Mars planet. Astronomical background.
Smiling woman with orange sarong and greek clothes enjoying Ancient Theatre Epidaurus amphitheater in Peloponnese, Greece. European travel destination. Historical heritage and landmarks.
Kamakura, Japan - April 23, 2017: Romon the Great Gate at Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shinto shrine.Above the gate is a plaque bearing the name of the shrine, Hachimangu, written in 1629 by Prince Ryoujo.
Woman traveler enjoying at binocular from Oue Skyspace Bank Tower in Los Angeles, California, United States at sunset light. Happy tourist at panoramic terrace above Downtown of LA skyline.
Beach volleyball net at sunset at Fort DeRussy Beach Park which is part of eight sections that make up the popular and long Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii.
Palm trees along marina walkway in Porto Arabia at the Pearl-Qatar, Doha, with skyscrapers of West Bay skyline at sunset sky. Scenic sunset landscape of Persian Gulf in Middle East.
Albany, Australia - Dec 28, 2017: iconic Albany Town Hall with clock tower is opened in 1888 is the first civic building constructed in Albany, York Street, Western Australia, at twilight.
Carefree woman with raised arms at Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada Sign, popular landmark on Las Vegas Strip at entrance of the city. Happy tourist in Nevada, Unites States. Blue sky.
Sweet and tender little australian wombat in position marsupial. Isolated on white background. The Wombat is a crepuscular and nocturnal marsupial.
Spectacular aerial view of Shoshone Falls or Niagara of the West, Snake River, Idaho, United States.
Pillars and sandstone formations seen from Praia do Camilo, Lagos, Algarve, Portugal. Camilo Beach consists of two beaches connected through a tunnel. This part of beach is visible at low tide.
Singapore - May 2, 2018: Universal Studios with luminous globe in Sentosa island at blue hour with pink lights. Universal Studios Singapore is southeast Asia's first Hollywood movie theme park.
Cervantes, Australia - Dec 22, 2017: Four-wheel-drive car on Pinnacles Drive, dirt road in Pinnacles Desert, Nambung National Park, Western Australia. Discovery and adventure travel concept.
Tokyo, Japan - April 17, 2017: green line of Yamanote for Harajuku, the most important train line in Tokyo. Crowd of commuters waiting for rail train at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.
Rows of grapes in picturesque Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, wine region with Thelema Mountain on backdrop. Stellenbosch Wine Routes are one of most popular attractions of South Africa. Summer season.
Elefant calf protected by mum. Safari game drive in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. The African Elephant is part of the Big Five.
Hanami in spring season with unidentifiable women with green Japanese kimono in bamboo grove of Take-dera Hokoku-ji Temple at sunset in Kamakura, Japan city. Japanese culture and lifestyle.
Tourism and travel in California, West Coast. Mobile phone with American flag cover taking photos of San Diego By skyline. Smartphone shoting in summer holidays from Coronado Island, USA.
A couple of Quokka, Setonix brachyurus. Rottnest Island near Perth, Western Australia, is the primary home of the quokka, a type of marsupial. Quokka is considered the happiest animal in the world. | 2019-04-18T15:29:19Z | https://www.shutterstock.com/g/BennyMarty |
Gorogoa is a puzzle game where you must slide 4 tiles around the screen, zooming in and out and overlapping/joining their features to progress a fantastic story. There are 11 Steam Achievements, all documented in the walkthrough below.
This chapter begins with a single scene of a colorful creature making its way through a village. Zoom out, then wait as the boy flips through his book. Click on the colorful creature diagram, then on the blue bowl twice. Zoom out and you will now have access to 4 tiles.
Top Left: Drag the white window frame to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom out of the window frame, then scroll right to see the boy in his closet.
Top Left: Zoom in on the city view with the red symbol on a door. Drag the door frame to the top right, overlying the boy in the closet, and he will walk outside.
Top Right: Drag the boy down to the frame below, and you will see him thinking about the red symbol. Zoom out of the closet, then into the painting of the apple.
Top Left: Scroll left from the door with the red symbol, then zoom in on the bird after it lands on the branch.
Bottom Left: Zoom in twice on the blue bowl, then the red apple will fall into the bowl First Fruit.
If you load this chapter directly, it begins with a bird flying away from the branch at the top left, as the red fruit falls from the top right into the bowl at the bottom right.
Top Left: Zoom out, then zoom in on the 2 towers connected by a stairway.
Bottom Right: Zoom out and you will see the creature in the background again. Drag the boy up to the top left.
Top Left: After the boy enters the doorway, drag the frame back to the bottom right, and he will climb the stairs to the left tower.
Bottom Right: Zoom in on the buildings in the back to see a new doorway on the left. Drag this up to the top left.
Top Left: After the boy enters the top doorway, drag the frame back to the bottom right, and he will walk out to the balcony, then continue right.
Bottom Right: Click on the sign and the view will scroll right, where the boy notices an archway has been bricked over; he will walk back to the left. Scroll to the left, then zoom in further on the sign. Drag the frame of the sign to the bottom left.
Bottom Right: Drag the garden archway to the bottom left.
Bottom Left: After the boy walks through to the garden, zoom in twice to the statues. When the boy has placed the blue bowl down, zoom in once more. Drag the bowl and fruit outline to the bottom right. Zoom out twice to see some ruins and a boy on crutches. Zoom in 4 times on the flames, until you reach a close-up corner of Gorogoa. Swap this tile with the one in the top right.
Bottom Right: Drag the bowl and fruit outline to the top right Second Fruit.
Top Left: Drag the tile to the bottom right.
Top Right: Drag the tile to the top left.
Bottom Left: Drag the tile to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom out, scroll right and focus on the lantern.
If you load this chapter directly, it begins with the green fruit falling from the statue's hand into the bowl.
Top Left: Zoom out and scroll right to see the boy sitting on a rock, then zoom out to see the boy sitting in a darkened building.
Bottom Right: Scroll up to see a star in the sky.
Top Right: Drag the lantern down over the star at the bottom right.
Bottom Right: Zoom out, then focus on the mirror and zoom in twice more to reach a room with a shelf and another round window. Zoom in on the left side of the shelf. Drag this tile to the bottom left.
Top Left: Zoom in on the shelf at the top left, then drag this tile to the bottom right. Once the shelves are connected, they will tilt and several items will fall off.
Bottom Right: Zoom in on the box of pencils, then drag the frame to the top right. Zoom out from the pencil image, and zoom in on the rocks.
Top Right: Drag the frame back down to the bottom right.
Bottom Right: Zoom back out to the shelf.
Bottom Left: Zoom in on the box of nails, then drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out from the nail image, and zoom in on the cloud image.
Top Left: Drag the frame back down to the bottom left.
Bottom Left: Zoom back out to the shelf. It should now tilt to the right. Zoom back out, then click on the round window above.
Bottom Right: Drag the lantern to the bottom left to light it.
Bottom Left: After the moth lands on the lantern, zoom in on it twice to see the yellow symbol. Drag the frame to the bottom right. Zoom out to see a standing statue pointing to the left, and the colorful creature will glide past in the background.
Bottom Right: Zoom out 3 times, then click on the thought bubble of the garden statue - the boy will walk across the linked garden balcony scenes to the left. Drag this tile to the top left.
Bottom Left: Scroll left to see a broken horse statue, then zoom in once to see a tower with a yellow banner near the top.
Top Left: Zoom out and scroll left, then zoom in on the top shelf. Wait until the first rock falls and smashes the vase, then immediately zoom in further. The yellow banner here will line up with the one below.
Bottom Left: Wait until the rock falls from the top left tile to the bottom left. Drag this tile to the top right.
Top Left: Quickly zoom out once, then zoom in on the banners just below. Drag this tile to the bottom right.
Bottom Right: Wait until the rock reaches the top of this tile, then drag it to the top left.
Top Right: Zoom in to the window, then zoom in on the red and blue banners on the left. Drag this tile to the bottom left. Wait and the falling rock will smash open the moth's container. There is an achievement for getting this right on the first attempt First Try.
Top Left: Zoom out, scroll right, and zoom in twice to the thought bubble of a constellation. Drag this to the bottom right to find a star.
Bottom Left: Drag this tile to the bottom right to light the unlit lantern.
Bottom Right: After the moth lands on the lantern, zoom in on it twice to see the yellow symbol again. Drag the frame to the top right. Zoom out to see an angel statue pointing to the left. Drag this tile to the top left.
Top Right: Zoom out 4 times to return to the broken horse statue, then scroll right. You will see the boy carry his bowl to the far left, across the linked frames.
Top Left: Scroll left to find the boy sitting in a graveyard. Zoom out to find a boy in a library.
Top Right: Scroll left to return to the broken horse statue. Zoom in twice, then click on the strange device at the top right, and zoom in once more so the gauge is in the middle of the picture.
Top Left: Click on the boy and watch his thoughts, then drag him to the bottom right, leaving a clock tower behind in the background. Zoom in twice on the clock tower, and drag this frame to the bottom left. Zoom out, then focus on the compass with the blue dial.
Bottom Right: Zoom out and scroll right to see a fireplace, then zoom in 3 times, so you can see flames and the bottom half of the bronze cauldron - this should cause the gauge on the strange device to change so the red dial points to the maximum pressure.
Top Right: Zoom in on the dial so that it stays fixed in this position.
Bottom Right: Zoom out 3 times, then click on the globe, followed by the magnetic star on top - the compass will rotate to point at the star.
If you want an extra achievement, follow these instructions, but if you are going for maximum speed and minimum moves, skip this section. Move the bottom right tile to the bottom left, so the compass dial points down. Drag the top right tile over the top left tile, so the time looks like approximately 6:30. Drag the bottom right tile over the top left tile. Zoom out twice to see a horse at night time Right Wrong. Zoom back in to the clock twice. Drag the bottom left tile to the bottom right. Drag two tiles from the top left to the bottom left and then the top right.
Top Right: Drag the top right tile over the top left tile, so the time looks like approximately 6:20.
Bottom Left: Drag the bottom left tile over the top left tile.
Top Left: Zoom out twice, then click on the star in the sky.
Bottom Right: Zoom out from the star and focus on the moon, then drag this to the top left.
Top Left: After the moth lands on the lit moon, zoom in on it twice to see the yellow symbol once more. Drag the frame to the top right. Zoom out to find a night scene.
Top Right: Zoom out twice, then scroll left. Look out the window, then scroll right. Wait for the boy to walk to the far left across the linked frames.
Top Left: Scroll left and watch as the boy collects the yellow fruit Third Fruit.
If you load this chapter directly, it begins with the boy walking to the right after collecting the yellow fruit in his bowl.
Top Left: Scroll right, then zoom out to see a group of photographs. Zoom towards the top left photo, then the gap between this and the one to the right.
Top Right: Scroll left, then zoom out and click on the boy in the library to see that he is dreaming. Drag this frame down to the bottom right, to reveal another scene with a boy sitting inside a window. Drag this down to the bottom left. Now drag the map tile from the top right to the bottom right, to show a different part of the map.
Bottom Right: Zoom in on the star 3 times to show two doorways linked by stairs. Drag the two doorways up to the top left.
Top Left: Drag the two doorways back to the bottom right. Now scroll to the right and zoom in.
Bottom Left: Zoom in on the bell 3 times, then scroll up to see a boy walking with a bell.
Top Right: Zoom in on the books, then the 2 yellow books, then the left yellow book twice.
Bottom Right: Zoom out 2 times, then zoom in once. Drag this tile to the top right.
Top Right: Wait until the white scene is on the left, then zoom in on it twice, and the boy will walk across into this tile.
Top Left: Zoom out twice, then zoom in twice on the bottom right photograph.
Top Right: Drag this tile over the top of the one on the top left.
Top Left: Drag the frame back over to the top right, and the boy will leave here and continue to the left. Zoom out, then focus on the gap between the current photograph and the one to the left.
Top Right: Zoom out twice to see a round stained glass window with a symbol of a tower currently on the left (with a white background).
Bottom Left: Scroll down, then zoom out. Zoom in on the candle twice, then scroll down. Focus on the wheel of the wheelbarrow.
Top Right: Drag the stained glass frame down to the bottom left.
Bottom Left: Wait for 3 rounds of turning of the wheelbarrow wheel so that the tower with the white background is at the bottom, then drag the stained glass frame back to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom in 3 times on the white tower at the bottom. Drag this to the top left.
Top Left: After the boy climbs the stairs, drag the frame to the top right. Scroll left and then zoom in to see the boy waiting at the top of some stairs next to some blue paint.
Top Right: Zoom out 3 times to find a blue pattern with four symbols around the edge - the one you need is a castle that is currently on the left side.
Bottom Right: Zoom out twice, then zoom in twice on the blue book. Drag this frame to the top right.
Bottom Left: Zoom out, scroll up and zoom out again, then focus on the silver ladel. Zoom in and scroll right - you will see a boy with a cane slowly climbing some stairs. Drag this frame to the top right.
Top Right: Wait for one set of stairs to be climbed, then drag the frames back to the bottom left and then bottom right. Zoom in on the top symbol 4 times, then drag this tile to the top left (to swap positions).
Top Right: Zoom out twice, then focus on the bottom left photo and zoom in twice more. Drag this tile to the top left (to swap positions again).
Bottom Right: Zoom out twice, to be back at the 2 yellow books.
Bottom Left: Scroll left and zoom out twice.
If you load this chapter directly, it begins with the boy walking to the left to collect the blue fruit.
Top Right: Zoom out 3 times. Scroll left, then drag this frame to the top left Fourth Fruit.
Bottom Right: Zoom out 3 times, so you see the old man in the yellow window.
Bottom Left: Scroll to the right. Click on the calendar, then the picture of the rings, and finally the single gold ring. Drag this frame to the bottom right to create a gold coin.
Top Left: Scroll to the right. Look at the sign on the right, then click on the purple symbol. Drag the frame to the top right. Zoom out to find the purple train stop.
Top Right: Zoom out twice, and a train will pull up next to the boy. Zoom in twice on the coin slot.
Bottom Right: Drag the coin to the top right.
Top Right: After the train leaves, zoom in twice on the map that is revealed by the piece of paper falling to the ground. Zoom in twice more on the green segment of track. Drag this tile to the bottom left.
Top Left: Scroll left twice, then zoom in on the green arch and the tracks will line up with the tile below. After the train goes past this track segment, zoom out and scroll right twice. Wait for the train to arrive at the purple station and then leave again. Go left twice to follow the boy, then back to the right. Drag this tile to the top right.
Bottom Left: Zoom out once, then zoom in twice on the pair of hands with the scissors and needle/thread. Drag this tile to the top left, and it will connect with the other tile.
Top Right: Click on the boy's thought bubble, then drag the frame to the bottom right. Zoom out, then back in on the hand pointing to the left.
Bottom Right: Drag the frame up to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom back out, and the boy will walk across to the left. Zoom in on the small door near the ground, then drag this tile to the top left (to swap positions).
Top Right: Focus on the thought bubble, then drag the frame to the bottom left. Zoom out, then back in on the hand pointing to the left.
Top Right: Zoom back out, and the boy will walk across to the left and through the doorway.
Top Left: Zoom out then focus on the circular window and zoom in to see the boy is now tiny. Zoom in on him twice, then focus on his thought bubble. Drag the frame to the bottom left. Move the tile to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom in on the picture of the girl pointing up.
Bottom Left: Drag the frame up to the top right.
Top Left: Zoom out, then focus on the junction of red and yellow train tracks. Drag this tile to the bottom right.
Top Right: Zoom out. Scroll up to see the boy at the top of the red ladder, then watch him climb down to the linked tile below. Scroll back down and zoom out twice, then focus on the yellow ladder. Drag this tile to the bottom right (to swap positions).
Bottom Right: Zoom out, then scroll up and zoom in on the boy at the top of the tower.
If you load this chapter directly, it begins with the boy collecting the purple fruit at the top of the tower.
Top Right: Zoom out 3 times.
Bottom Right: Drag the frame to the top right Fifth Fruit.
Top Right: After the boy falls from the skies, zoom out and scroll up 3 times. Focus on the thought bubble. Now there are 5 puzzles you can complete in any order by clicking on the circular offerings. They will be shown here from left to right.
Top Right: Drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out, then drag another frame to the bottom right. Zoom out, go through the doorway and scroll to the left. Click on the boy, then focus on his thought bubble.
Top Right: Zoom in on the red symbol.
Top Left: Drag the frame over to the top right.
Top Right: Drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out, then drag another frame to the bottom right. Zoom in five times on the only section you can view, and you will end up in a garden.
Top Right: Zoom in on the green symbol.
Top Right: Drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out, then drag another frame to the bottom right. Zoom in on the glowing star.
Bottom Right: Zoom out, then focus on the moth and wait for it to fly up to the star and burst into flames. Zoom back out, then focus on the boy again. Drag the frame up to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom in on the yellow symbol.
Top Right: Drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out, then drag another frame to the bottom right. Zoom out once more to see a series of gears. Focus on the yellow gear, then drag this frame to the bottom left. Scroll down to see the boy walking in the desert.
Top Right: Zoom out once. Wait until the blue symbol in the top left gear has reached the top position, then zoom in on it.
Top Right: Zoom in on the blue symbol.
Top Right: Drag the frame to the top left. Zoom out, then drag another frame to the bottom right. Drag this tile to the top left (to swap positions).
Top Left: Zoom in on the colorful image. Drag this tile to the bottom left.
Bottom Left: Zoom in on the cushion. Drag this tile to the top right (to swap positions).
Top Right: Zoom in on the purple symbol.
Bottom Left: Drag the frame over to the top right.
Once you have completed all 5 offerings, you will have completed the main game Devotion. There are additional achievements that you may now receive for completing the game in under 500 moves Dexterity and in under 30 minutes But Why?. From the main menu, you should now also be able to scroll to the far right and select to play the demo.
The demo begins with a single scene of a colorful creature making its way through a village. Zoom out, then wait as the boy flips through his book. Click on the colorful creature diagram, then on the blue bowl twice. Zoom out and you will now have access to 4 tiles.
Top Left: Zoom in on the city view with the circular hole in a wooden door. Drag the door frame to the top right, overlying the boy in the closet, and he will walk outside.
Top Right: Drag the boy down to the frame below, and you will see him put down the blue bowl. Zoom out of the closet, then twice into the painting of the apple.
Bottom Right: Zoom in twice on the blue bowl, and this tile will link with the one above.
Top Left: Zoom out from the wooden crate, then focus on the bird that lands on the branch. After the apple falls down into the bowl, zoom out, then focus on the 2 wooden buildings linked by stairs in the background.
Top Left: After the boy enters the doorway, drag the frame back to the bottom right, and he will climb the stairs to the left building.
Bottom Left: After the boy walks through to the garden, zoom in twice to the statues. When the boy has placed the blue bowl down, zoom in once more. Drag the bowl and fruit outline to the bottom right. Swap this tile with the one in the top right.
Bottom Right: Drag the bowl and fruit outline to the top right.
Top Right: Zoom out and scroll right. Drag the frame to the bottom right. Move this tile to the top left (to swap positions).
Top Right: Zoom in on the broken window.
Top Left: Focus on the top left picture, then drag this frame to the bottom right.
Top Right: Part of the window will break some more, so now you can go inside. Scroll left, then zoom in on the yellow bench.
Bottom Left: Zoom out twice, then focus on the yellow bench. Move this tile to the top left, and it will link with the top right tile, with a yellow fruit rolling to the left.
Top Left: Drag the frame to the bottom left, then zoom out.
Bottom Left: Zoom out, then focus on the right picture, and zoom in further on the gold ring. Move this frame to the top left (to swap positions) and the boy will end up collecting the yellow fruit.
Bottom Left: Zoom in once on the boy. Move this tile to the top right, and the boy will climb down and open the shutters.
Bottom Right: Zoom out, and you will see the creature move past in the background.
Top Right: Zoom in, scroll down, then zoom in on the train once it pulls to a stop. Drag this frame to the bottom right, and the boy will climb out towards the train.
Bottom Right: Drag the frame back up to the top right. Zoom in twice on the man in the yellow window.
Top Left: Drag the ring frame down to the bottom right to create a coin.
Top Right: Zoom in twice on the the coin slot.
Bottom Right: Drag the coin up to the top right, and the boy will board the train Old is New. | 2019-04-22T20:18:51Z | https://www.walkthroughking.com/text/gorogoa.aspx |
2015 NBA Power Rankings: Who's on Top Heading into Playoffs?
No, Jim Mora. We're not kidding you. We, too, are excited for the NBA playoffs. After five-and-a-half months of back-to-backs, TNT Thursday nights and countless hours debating who's better and who's best, it's finally time to let the players and coaches decide a true champion.
To be sure, you'll hear no complaints from me about the season that was. The 2014-15 campaign was arguably the most exciting and intriguing one the Association has seen in some time. From the rise of the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks to the depth of competition out West to the scramble to fill out the Eastern Conference bracket, there was nary a dull moment from start to finish in the league's schedule.
That being the case, it might seem like a tall order for the playoffs to live up to the regular season that just transpired. But without a clear-cut favorite to take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy, this postseason is shaping up to be every bit as captivating as the slate that preceded it, if not more so.
Before we get wrapped up in all the best-of-seven series to come, let's look back to see how the NBA as a whole finished up by ranking each of the 30 teams based on how they played down the stretch and which players they had available.
Another year, another sad slate of basketball for the Minnesota Timberwolves. An incessant spate of injuries—from Kevin Martin's wrist to Kevin Garnett's knee to Shabazz Muhammad's finger to the ankles of Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic and beyond—doomed the Wolves to their 11th straight trip to the lottery from start to finish in 2014-15.
LaVine might (eventually) be one of those teammates. The UCLA product nearly averaged 19 points, five rebounds and five assists while shooting better than 40 percent from three over his final 18 games (17 starts).
The Wolves can look forward to a summer marked by growth from their youngsters, rather than one consumed by the inevitable ouster of an anxious franchise cornerstone. That, in itself, could be enough to ignite a productive offseason in Minnesota, along with whatever the team yields from its latest lottery pick.
And if the Wolves can exterminate their infestation of injury bugs before October, they just might make something meaningful of 2015-16.
Nerlens Noel won't likely wind up as the NBA's Rookie of the Year, but unlike last year's winner (Michael Carter-Williams), the Kentucky product can probably count on a long-term future with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Noel did plenty to make up for lost time after missing what would have been his maiden campaign in 2013-14 while recovering from a torn ACL. He led all rookies in double-doubles and was the only player in the league to finish in the top 10 in both steals and blocks, all while missing a mere six of his team's 82 games.
Each game, eight Sixers staffers would track different metrics, including shot contests, hustle plays and how quickly players attacked different areas after an offensive miss and filled sections of the court defending in transition. After the game, the overall team and each player would receive a grade, 1-20, with the latter being the highest.
Brown said more than 60 percent of the time in games this season, the team finished at a respectable 16. As for Noel, more than 60 percent of the time he was better than 12 in games. But the most significant number is this: When he was an 18 or higher, the Sixers won 15 of the 18 games.
Noel may not be the star of the future for the Sixers, but if everyone else plays as hard as he does, the team should still be in good shape long-term.
The Orlando Magic were never likely to so much as sniff the playoffs this year, even in the weak East. From the get-go, their roster was more smorgasbord of useful pieces than cohesive whole and wasn't likely to move much from the former toward the latter under the uninspired auspices of Jacque Vaughn. The team's decision to can Vaughn during the season confirmed as much.
Whoever fills Orlando's void on the bench more permanently will be charged with that same daunting but doable task—of molding the likes of Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and the fruit of the Magic's lottery pick into an honest-to-goodness team.
James Borrego, who replaced Vaughn on an interim basis, will get a look at the gig, following a so-so second-half audition.
"I absolutely believe that I can do this," Borrego told NBA.com's John Denton. "My confidence is very high, and this position has forced me to get there. Give our players credit and our staff credit because they have helped me get through this."
Granted, Borrego isn't out of the woods just yet. According to the Orlando Sentinel's Brian K. Schmitz, Michael Malone, who was one of the finalists to succeed Stan Van Gundy three years ago, is among those eager to interview for the gig.
If there's any consolation for Orlando's post-Dwight Howard doldrums, it's that the team's job opening could be the most desirable one in the NBA this summer.
If the Los Angeles Lakers didn't, in fact, hit rock bottom this season, then they're going to need some sturdier digging equipment.
After losing a then-franchise-record 55 games last year, the purple and gold managed to fall even further in 2014-15. They registered their first 60-loss campaign and their lowest single-season winning percentage while logging more games lost to injury than 2013-14's snakebitten bunch.
Steve Nash was done before the schedule began. Rookie Julius Randle broke his leg in Game 1. Kobe Bryant's shoulder gave way in January. By the time the Lakers made it to the finish line, four more guys (i.e., Nick Young, Ronnie Price, Wayne Ellington and Dwight Buycks) would suffer season-ending injuries.
Lin really wanted this to work, entering this season with one of the most unstable career paths in sports history. And in search of feel-good stories in an unquestionably dry spell for the franchise, the Lakers hoped bringing Lin back to his birthplace would spark the sort of special stuff we all know he's had in the past.
Instead, Lin was downright disappointing night after night early in the season. He was unnerved by Lakers coach Byron Scott's lack of belief in his game and discouraged by the rising negativity all around him.
Chances are that Lin will find employment elsewhere this summer. In his place, the Lakers will likely turn to rookie Jordan Clarkson, the lone bright spot amid this year's cloudy misery, or a high-priced free agent of some sort to run point.
And, with any better luck, the Lakers will have the pieces in place to restore some of their signature shine next season.
Like the Lakers, the New York Knicks came into the 2014-15 season intending to win, even though the circumstances were ripe for failure.
Injuries and roster turnover all but assured the Knicks of a return trip to the lottery, as did the 5-36 start that the instability precipitated. Carmelo Anthony's decision to undergo knee surgery after the All-Star Game was merely another nail in New York's orange-and-blue coffin.
As miffed as many folks in the Big Apple may be with the job Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher have done in leading the Knicks so far, not everyone in town is so down on the team's prospects.
Nobody expected the season to be like this. We all expected at least to somewhat compete in the Eastern Conference. At the end of the day we wanted to make a playoff push, but that's not how the season played out.
This next season for me and for the organization and for Phil this is where we earn our money. This is where it starts. We got to put our money where our mouths (are) at. We've been put in a situation where the pieces are broken and a lot of things have been changed around here. Now we got a clean plate. We got a chance to get a top draft pick. We got a lot of money in the cap. So we got to put that to work. We got to put something together.
The Charlotte Hornets could have easily blamed their 5-16 finish to the 2014-15 season—and the playoff shortfall it sealed—on the incessant spate of injuries, but they didn't.
"This is a disappointing year. We took a step back," head coach Steve Clifford admitted, per The Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell. "We weren't as disciplined, we made too many mistakes, more nights when we weren't ready to play. We're not a 33-win team. And I'm primarily responsible for that."
The players, to their credit, aren't running from their failures. Lance Stephenson, for one, doesn't intend to shoot 17 percent from three forever.
"My three-point percentage was the lowest ever in history. That's terrible," Stephenson said, per The Charlotte Observer. "I have to come in and figure out how to be a better shooter. Being a good shooter will help my overall game. When people sag off of me (playing him to drive), it's harder for me to be successful.
"It's confidence—just wanting the shot to go in so bad and then you lose your confidence. That plays a major part when you don't have confidence in your shot. This summer I'm going to find my confidence."
While Stephenson spends his offseason trying to gain confidence, Al Jefferson will be doing his darndest to lose weight—before and after he officially opts into the final year of his contract.
"I've got unfinished business here. That's not even an option for me," Jefferson said, per The Observer. "Unless something dramatic changed, I can't see myself opting out, and leaving that bad taste in my mouth. And in the Charlotte Hornets' mouth. I can't walk away from that."
What could be worse than a ninth straight year without playoff basketball for the Sacramento Kings? How about another tumultuous summer, perhaps one featuring DeMarcus Cousins' departure?
Rumors are already swirling about Boogie's availability, courtesy of head coach George Karl's candid comments on Monday.
"I've had some great players and I've never had one player that I have said is untradeable," Karl said, according to CSNBayArea.com's Bill Herenda. "You always got to be ready for the possibility of a great trade that could come your way.
"I know I respect him (DeMarcus Cousins) a tremendous amount...I think our give and take and our communication has been almost on a daily basis...until we can really get to a special place together, I think we've got to continue to communicate, what he wants and what I want."
The relationship between star player and coach will be crucial to the Kings' fortunes going forward. Cousins and the Kings seemed ready to thrive early on, when they got off to a 9-6 start under Mike Malone. But Boogie's 10-game absence on account of viral meningitis gave Sacramento's higher-ups the daylight they needed to part ways with Malone. That move ushered in two months of rote mediocrity under interim coach Tyrone Corbin, before Karl came aboard during the All-Star break.
Though a lukewarm convert to a faster tempo, he has thrived in a system that emphasizes spacing, passing and movement, not unlike Mike Krzyzewski's philosophy last summer with Team USA. It isn't a coincidence that Cousins had triple doubles in two of his last three games and is ranked fifth in the league in scoring (24.1), third in rebounding (12.7) and 11th in blocks (1.75).
And, of course, first in the hearts of Sacramentans.
Coaching played a pivotal role in the Denver Nuggets' ongoing doldrums this season.
Head coach Brian Shaw continued to push his square-peg/round-hole approach by playing slow with a team and in a city for which a faster pace would have made more sense. His philosophy backfired, to the tune of a 20-39 start and a subsequent pink slip.
According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Nuggets' search for a long-term replacement is already underway. Melvin Hunt, the Nuggets' interim coach, will get a crack at it, though he'll hardly be the only one to get an interview. His competition will likely include former head coaches (Michael Malone, Mike D'Antoni, Alvin Gentry, Scott Skiles), current NBA assistants (Portland's David Vanterpool) and eager college guys looking to make the jump (Florida's Billy Donovan, Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg).
"I'm not a coach, but I do think we're Denver," said general manager Tim Connelly, per The Denver Post's Chris Dempsey. "We've got to play with pace, we've got to play uptempo basketball. And uptempo basketball can take on various styles. We're certainly looking for a coach that understands how we've been successful in the past and probably how we'll be successful in the future, with fast basketball and playing with pace."
Whatever hopes the Phoenix Suns had of battling for the West's No. 8 seed for the second year in a row went right out the window during a 1-10 stretch over the final three weeks of the 2014-15 season.
"I don't think that truly reflects where we are and the season we had," said Suns president Lon Babby during the team's exit interviews, according to AZCentral.com's Paul Coro.
Perhaps not, though the fact that Phoenix bobbed its way into and out of the playoff race as often as it did was reflective of an unsteady situation on the court and in the locker room.
"We didn't have all guys that were just concerned with winning," head coach Jeff Hornacek said, per Coro. That much was clear once Goran Dragic publicly demanded a trade (and got his wish) and Isaiah Thomas followed him out the door at the February deadline, albeit to a different destination.
All told, the Suns' point guard experiment didn't pay off like they'd hoped. Fortunately for folks in Phoenix, the team will be flush with cap space to restock the roster, once the front office decides how to spend its fifth straight lottery pick.
"This year was more of a humbling experience," said general manager Ryan McDonough, per Coro. "I think we'll all learn from it and get better from it and bounce back."
A busy season will give way to an even busier summer for Detroit Pistons head coach/team president Stan Van Gundy. The shocking decision to cut Josh Smith in December breathed new life into the slumping squad. The trade-deadline arrival of Reggie Jackson eventually did the same, albeit after a slump in the wake of Brandon Jennings' Achilles tear.
"We made some progress—not enough—but some progress at both ends of the floor," Van Gundy said during his exit interview, according to MLive's Brendan Savage. "Going forward, we feel like we've established a base of good young players. Over the last two-thirds of the year, which is not a small sample size, we played .500 basketball, which would have put us in the top five in the East over that time period.
"So we think things are looking up going forward."
How Detroit's fortunes fare from here on out will depend on what Van Gundy is able to accomplish from his front-office post this summer. Come July 1, Greg Monroe will be an unrestricted free agent, Jackson will be restricted, and Andre Drummond will be eligible for a sizable contract extension. Those three aside, the Pistons figure to make a pitch to at least one Michigan native: Golden State's Draymond Green.
If Van Gundy plays his cards right, his Pistons might (finally) be in position to snap their six-year playoff drought next spring.
Last year, the Miami Heat finished up in the NBA Finals, fighting an ultimately futile battle for their third straight championship. This year, their summer will start two months earlier, without a seventh straight playoff appearance.
The biggest difference, of course, is LeBron James. He left South Beach; therefore, the sands aren't quite as warm as they otherwise would be for the Heat.
But the story of Miami's demise is much broader than that. Between Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Josh McRoberts, Luol Deng and Hassan Whiteside, the Heat racked up frequent flyer miles going to and from the training room to cover the cost of travel for their summer vacations.
"It's just tough, man," Deng told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick. "It's just been that type of year. It seemed like the whole year, we were always fighting and dealing with something, instead of staying consistent and just kind of playing our game. I'm not making excuses or anything, but no one on this team can tell you that they've had a consistent rhythm the entire year. It's been tough to be consistent. We've had guys in and out. You have different roles."
Those roles may be more defined next season if Pat Riley has his way in the coming months. With better health and the retention of Goran Dragic and Deng, both opt-out candidates, the Heat could field one of the best starting fives not only in the East but in the entire league.
Lose either or both of those guys, though, and Miami's path back to relevance might not be so smooth.
Paul George's comeback from his devastating leg injury serves as an all-too-perfect microcosm of the Indiana Pacers' season as a whole.
Like their wounded superstar, the Pacers fought through pain, uncertainty and doubt to put themselves in position to control their own destiny at the end. Aside from George, Indiana had to survive lengthy stretches without stalwarts like David West and George Hill, along with newcomers Rodney Stuckey and C.J. Miles.
Against all odds, the Pacers hung around the muck at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, just in time for George to return to action. His mere presence gave Indiana a much-needed shot in the arm; the Pacers won their first five games with George in the rotation, despite him never playing more than 18 minutes in a given game.
But, on the final night of the season, the calf in George's other leg gave way, as did the Pacers' postseason hopes in Memphis.
"Just came off a screen and felt a pop, but they looked at it and it's nothing more than just a calf strain," George said afterward, according to The Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner. "It wasn't a knee injury but it's tough, you work so hard in rehab and have something else pop up. The good thing is, I know we've got a long summer and a lot to look forward to."
So do the Pacers, assuming West and Roy Hibbert—both of whom can opt out of their contracts—don't leave Naptown this summer.
Russell Westbrook's response to his first scoring title could easily double as the Oklahoma City Thunder's thoughts on this lost season of theirs.
"S---. It doesn't mean nothing," Westbrook said after OKC's season-ending win over the Timberwolves, according to ESPN.com's Royce Young (h/t Bleacher Report). "Good job. Hooray. I'm at home, watching other teams play. Doesn't mean nothing."
Westbrook's disappointment is understandable, if not downright appropriate. He wound up with career highs in nearly every counting category, including points (28.1), assists (8.6), rebounds (7.3) and steals (2.1).
But Westbrook's best efforts weren't enough to overcome devastating injuries to Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka. Nor could general manager Sam Presti's moves make up for those losses, though the additions of Dion Waiters, Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin and Kyle Singler should serve the Thunder well going forward.
With that supporting cast in place and its stars in better shape, OKC should find itself back in the title hunt next season.
Whether Scott Brooks is there to guide the Thunder is another story. According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the team will evaluate its relationship with Brooks, who has one year left on his contract—much like the injured superstar whose absence doomed OKC.
Lionel Hollins' assessment of his Brooklyn Nets' chances against the Atlanta Hawks was as harsh as it was accurate.
"I don't think we have any advantages over the Hawks," Hollins said, per The Brooklyn Game's Devin Kharpertian.
That may sell his team a bit short. Surely, Atlanta doesn't have anyone who can compare with Brook Lopez's size and skill in the post. Lopez finished the season on an absolute tear, averaging 23.7 points and 9.4 rebounds over a 16-game stretch that saw the Nets go 11-5.
Nor can the Hawks claim to boast the best individual perimeter player in this series. That distinction belongs to Brooklyn, courtesy of former ATL resident Joe Johnson.
Other than those points of contention, Hollins is probably right. By and large, Brooklyn has been mediocre and uninspiring this season.
Then again, as much of a sting as Hollins' comments may have carried, they still paled in comparison to the five-alarm fire that spewed out from Paul Pierce's mouth, courtesy of ESPN Boston's Jackie MacMullan.
Lost amid the hubbub over Paul Pierce ripping the Nets a new one in public were his comments regarding the Toronto Raptors, the Washington Wizards' first-round playoff opponent.
"We haven't done particularly well against Toronto, but I don't feel they have the 'It' that makes you worried," Pierce told ESPNBoston.com's Jackie MacMullan. "There isn't a team I look at in the Eastern Conference that makes me say, 'They are intimidating, we don't have a chance.'"
To Pierce's point, the Raptors swept the Wizards in their three regular-season meetings. But the most recent two of those tiffs were decided by a total of six points.
And if the games are close between Toronto and Washington, Pierce certainly won't be one to hide from the moment, especially in Canada.
Forget about all the usual tropes about how terrible the Eastern Conference is and how that somehow degrades the Milwaukee Bucks' finish as the sixth seed. The fact that the Bucks are in the playoffs at all right now is nothing short of a Wisconsin miracle.
Milwaukee won a league-worst 15 games last season and could have plunged back to similar depths this time around in light of all the setbacks this squad suffered over the course of 2014-15. Instead, the Bucks fought through injuries (Jabari Parker, Ersan Ilyasova, John Henson), trades (Brandon Knight) and outright defections (Larry Sanders) to nearly triple their win total from a season ago.
And how, pray tell, did they do it? Among other things, behind a long-armed, switch-heavy defense—orchestrated by head coach Jason Kidd—that wound up second in the league in efficiency, per NBA.com.
These fans hate each other, too. This isn't a theory — it's scientific fact proven by years of mutual enmity between Bears and Packers fans. Now imagine that same level of anger and hostility, but on a basketball court. Spectacular, right? Joakim Noah calling Giannis Antetokounmpo soft in the playoffs could create our first Internet civil war. Now imagine future battles between Chicago South Side natives and Simeon's own Jabari Parker and Derrick Rose. I can't take it.
The Boston Celtics needed quite a bit of outside help to secure a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Between the Cleveland Cavaliers resting their stars during a recent home-and-home with Boston and the rest of the East's fringes falling off, the C's benefited from a conference-wide "effort" to get them into the postseason—in addition to their own 24-12 surge over the final 36 games.
But it was another outside assist that might have given a certain Celtic the extra energy he needed to nudge this scrappy squad up the standings. According to The Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach, Isiah Thomas—who had his fair share of battles with the C's as a member of the "Bad Boy" Pistons in the 1980s—texted words of encouragement to Isaiah Thomas upon the latter's arrival in Beantown at the Feb. 19 trade deadline.
"This is gonna change your career," Zeke wrote. "They're one game out of the playoffs. Lead them to the playoffs."
That's precisely what the younger Thomas did while averaging 19 points and 5.4 assists off the bench.
Thomas could use a few more texts like that from his almost-namesake in the days to come, as his C's prepare to take on LeBron James' Cavs in the first round of the playoffs.
No team did more to boost its collective stock after the All-Star Game than the Utah Jazz. Once the break came and went, the Jazz went 19-10—the fifth-best record in the West—while holding opponents to a league-low 94.8 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com.
Enes Kanter's trade-deadline departure and Rudy Gobert's subsequent explosion as a starter had plenty to do with that. For his efforts, Gobert figures to garner plenty of votes for Most Improved and Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Of course, Gobert wasn't the sole reason Utah finished with a record good enough to qualify for the playoffs in the East. Gordon Hayward's borderline All-NBA play had plenty to do with it, as did Derrick Favors'. As Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote of that duo, "They've been really good on both ends, and Hayward carried Utah's offense without much help from any perimeter threat until Rodney Hood emerged over the last 25 games."
"Clearly we sit here today in a better position than when we started," general manager Dennis Lindsey said during the team's exit interviews, according to The Salt Lake Tribune's Aaron Falk. "The group is moving in the right direction."
If three-point shooting is, indeed, all the rage in the NBA, then the Toronto Raptors are as fashionable as any team around. They finished among the top 10 in three-point makes and attempts, went 19-2 when they made more than 10 threes in a given game and became the second team in league history with five players who knocked down at least 100 treys apiece.
The only other team to pull that off? The 2008-09 Knicks.
Of course, this year's Raptors fared far better than those Knicks did. New York lost 50 games that year. Toronto, on the other hand, fell just one win shy of 50 on the other side of the ledger but still came away with a second straight Atlantic Division title and a franchise record for victories in a single season.
Next up: a first-round date with the shooting-averse Wizards, whom the Raptors swept during the regular season.
The Portland Trail Blazers aren't short of reasons to worry about their postseason prospects. Their wing depth has been decimated by injuries, with Wesley Matthews, Arron Afflalo, Nicolas Batum, Dorell Wright and C.J. McCollum all falling victim. Worse still, the Blazers will have to begin their playoff push on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Halfway through the season, Portland looked like a dark-horse contender — a two-way powerhouse seasoned with rare roster continuity and some playoff experience. Their starters could hit the marks of Terry Stotts's "flow" offense while wearing blindfolds, and they had improbably sharpened into a borderline top-five defensive team.
Despite the doom and gloom around Rip City, the Blazers still have two huge factors in their favor: LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard. Those two carried Portland past Houston in last year's playoffs, combining for 55.3 points, 17.5 rebounds and 8.7 assists in a six-game victory.
The Memphis Grizzlies won't exactly be a picture of health for their first-round series against Portland, either. Marc Gasol returned from a sprained ankle in time for the Grizzlies' season finale, but he wasn't joined by Mike Conley and Tony Allen. They've been sidelined by foot and hamstring injuries, respectively, and may remain so for some time, per The Commercial Appeal's Ronald Tillery.
Those absences figure to be massively problematic for Memphis, despite the decimation that Portland has suffered. As much as the Grizzlies' universe revolves around Gasol and Zach Randolph in the middle, it's Conley, who would otherwise be charged with checking Damian Lillard, and Allen (aka "The Grindfather") who serve as the heart and soul of this squad.
There are many ways to compare the strength of the West to the weakness of the East, but perhaps none is more striking than where the Dallas Mavericks stand at season's end.
In the Western Conference, the Mavs' 50 wins were only good enough to snag the seventh seed. Were Dallas an Eastern Conference squad, it would start the playoffs at No. 3, matched up against the Bucks in the first round.
Instead, the Mavs will have to face the Houston Rockets in a series whose subplots have their own subplots.
"That's for the media to talk about," Dirk Nowitzki said, referring to the off-court drama between Mavs owner Mark Cuban and Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, per Mavs.com's Earl K. Sneed. "That's for fun little side notes, I guess, which the players don't really care that much about. It's about which team comes out at the end. Obviously, they have home-court advantage. We'd love to go down there and steal one or steal the first one, but it's going to be tough."
It'll be even tougher if Chandler Parsons—one of the sticking points in the ongoing feud between these two teams—isn't ready to play in Game 1. He missed the last six games of the regular season while resting his swollen right knee.
Head coach Rick Carlisle, though, is confident that Parsons will be available. Parsons' offensive versatility and familiarity with Dallas' Texas foe will be vital to the Mavs' attempt to spring the seeded upset.
For every transcendent superstar, there is an initial foray into the playoffs, one that sets the stage for the years to come.
In 2006, LeBron James averaged about 31 points, eight boards and six assists while carrying the Cleveland Cavaliers to a second-round loss against the Detroit Pistons. In 2010, Kevin Durant poured in 25 points per game (albeit on a subpar 35 percent shooting) in a six-game loss to the eventual-champion Lakers.
What will 2015 bring for Anthony Davis? Probably not much in the way of victories. His New Orleans Pelicans will have to contend with a Golden State Warriors squad that is coming off a historically great regular season.
However Davis fares from here on out, folks in the Crescent City won't soon forget what The Brow did to put the Pelicans back into the playoffs for the first time since 2011, when they were still the New Orleans Hornets. In what was, to date, the biggest game of his NBA career, Davis dominated the streaking San Antonio Spurs, piling up 31 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks in 43 minutes of a 108-103 win for New Orleans.
"Honestly, I know I all told ya'll before this game it didn't mean nothing, but I tried to downplay it because I didn't want to get too excited," Davis said afterward, via ESPN. "It meant a lot—and we played like it meant something.
Now, they'll have to locate their hearts and put them back in place, lest they let the Warriors stomp them from the get-go.
Physically speaking, Derrick Rose may not be the same player he was prior to his three knee surgeries. But from a confidence standpoint, he's as sturdy as ever.
"I believe I'm one of the best players in the NBA...still," Rose insisted, even after leaving the Chicago Bulls' season finale early with soreness in his left knee, per ESPN.com's Nick Friedell.
The Bulls can only hope Rose's confidence will pay actual dividends in the playoffs. With Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich all battling injuries, Chicago will need whatever it can squeeze out of the former MVP if it's going to be more than a dark horse in the East.
After all the ups and downs, the injuries and roster changes, the Houston Rockets wound up with the No. 2 seed in the West—which probably beats out most preseason predictions.
It's one thing to snag such prime seeding on the strength of James Harden's MVP-caliber campaign. It's another thing to capitalize on it.
To that end, the Rockets may have help on the way if they can stay alive long enough. Patrick Beverley, who was recently ruled out for the season after undergoing wrist surgery, could be back at point guard in Houston...assuming the team hasn't been eliminated by mid-May.
"I don't care about the pain. I can play through pain. I've been playing through all type of stuff the whole year, so I can play with the pain," Beverley told Fox26 Sports' Mark Berman. "I just have to get this cast off. When the cast comes off May 18, May 20th, wrap it up with tape and (I'll) be good to go. I don't care how weak it is. I don't care how strong it is. I don't care about that.
"As soon as this cast is off I'm back to business."
In the meantime, the Rockets will have to contend with the likes of Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker at the point, with the hope that whatever Harden, Dwight Howard and their supporting cast can do will be enough to see Houston through to the Western Conference Finals.
However and whenever the Atlanta Hawks' surprising season winds up, they can take pride in what they've accomplished together. Despite turmoil at the front-office and ownership levels, the Hawks managed to set new franchise records for consecutive wins (19), All-Stars (four) and total single-season victories, among other things.
In the bigger picture, the Hawks earned the respect of the rest of the league, which could pay off handsomely (i.e., via free-agent signings) in the years to come.
"I think there's been a couple of times during a game, end of games, when we're gonna win, and the other team will come up and say 'man, I love how you guys play,'" Kyle Korver told NBA.com's David Aldridge. "They just got, you can tell, they're like, I would love to play for your team. That's the ultimate sign of respect in the NBA. When you're on a team, and your team's supposedly good, but man, I'd rather be on your team. It feels good to hear that."
You know what would beat that? The Hawks' first trip to the penultimate round of the playoffs since 1970.
Remember when all the Chicken Littles huddled in northeast Ohio (and across the country, for that matter) were wondering why the sky was falling on the Cleveland Cavaliers and how they'd ever survive it?
A second-place conference finish did wonders to erase memories of the panic that set in amid the Cavs' disappointing 19-20 start. Cleveland now looks like the favorite to win the East (and a co-favorite to win it all), thanks in no small part to a second half that saw the Cavs win 34 of 43 games.
Well, maybe not right away. The Cavs should make quick work of the Celtics in Round 1.
After that, though, Cleveland's path through Chicago and Atlanta will put this team's title-contending chops to the test.
There were eight scenarios for a first-round playoff opponent for the Clippers heading into Wednesday’s final day of the regular season.
Four of the scenarios had the Clippers playing the Memphis Grizzlies for the third time in four years.
Two of the scenarios had them facing Dallas and one had them meeting Houston in the first round.
The last scenario – a scenario some would classify as worst-case – had the Clippers, the league’s second-hottest team, facing the San Antonio Spurs, the hottest.
And wouldn’t you know it, the worst case became the reality.
The Clippers, though, aren't about to complain about their cruel fate. "I'd rather go through them now while we're fresh," said DeAndre Jordan, per ESPN.com's Arash Markazi.
They'll have to hope that their own season-ending hot streak (seven in a row, 14 of 15) gives them enough juice to overcome a San Antonio Spurs squad that was riding an 11-game spurt prior to a defeat to the Pelicans in the finale.
Has there ever been a stronger sixth seed in any postseason in any sport than this year's San Antonio Spurs? All they did was win 11 games in a row and 21 of 24 prior to the season's final night. They might have made it 12 in a row and 22 of 25 if not for a poor opening to what turned out to be a 108-103 defeat in New Orleans.
"That first half was the worst we've played in a long time," head coach Gregg Popovich said afterward, via ESPN. "The Pelicans were on fire. They were committed. They were playing hard. They had a lot to play for and it showed."
The Spurs had plenty to play for themselves. A win would have locked them into the No. 2 seed in the West as the Southwest Division champions, with a first-round matchup against the Mavericks. Instead, San Antonio will begin its title defense in L.A., opposite a Clippers team that the Spurs swept out of the second round three years ago.
Tiago Splitter's ongoing calf troubles have cast some doubt on San Antonio's chances of repeating. But if the Spurs can get him back in time for the Western Conference Finals, they'll pose a serious threat to Golden State's dream season.
A great regular season guarantees the Golden State Warriors nothing more than the No. 1 seed in the West and a pitfall-filled path to the NBA Finals.
And, of course, the No. 1 spot in the last power rankings of the regular season.
To be sure, the Dubs didn't just coast their way to the top. Rather, they fought to the very end for each of the 67 wins they racked up.
Stephen Curry certainly didn't take anything for granted. Over the final 18 games of the season, the presumptive MVP knocked down 52.3 percent of his long-range looks on the way to shattering his own record for single-season three-point makes (286).
As easy as Golden State made the regular season seem, the playoffs will look like anything but that. First comes figuring out how to contain Anthony Davis. Then, the Warriors will likely have to contend with the "Grit-N-Grind" Grizzlies.
And before the Dubs can book their first trip to the Finals in 40 years, the defending champion Spurs will have a word or two to offer.
Golden State had better hope, then, that the same stroke that helped Curry knocked down more than half of his treys over the last month of the season and another 77 in a row in a single practice holds true during the pressure cooker of the playoffs.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter. | 2019-04-25T06:33:14Z | https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2431688-2015-nba-power-rankings-whos-on-top-heading-into-playoffs |
"And they're off!" My grandpa would begin one of his classic jokes. In the fast-paced clip of a horse race announcer, he continued, "It's cabbage by a head, carrot in a bunch. Toothpaste being squeezed out on the rail.
"And Diaper, bringing up the rear!" That last sentence always came with a special gravitas.
It was a perennial favorite. We would ask him to tell it to us again and again. Recalling it now, I can still clearly hear his voice.
Those familiar words came back to me yesterday.
The day after Halloween, and the holiday season is upon us. So often it feels like the gates opening with the crack of a starting pistol as we bear, full speed ahead, towards the Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Part of the joy of the holidays is the sense of anticipation they create. Sharing them today fulfills some of my own anticipation. After testing pie crusts and sampling fillings, those recipes are now displayed on magazine racks around the country, and I finally get to share the tear sheets. I think the images are among the best that Stephen and I have worked on together.
I hope you enjoy this visual taste of the holiday sweets to come. For the recipes, get your copy of Simply Gluten-Free.
My great grandmother Virginia Goettl sat at the kitchen table of my parents' Denver apartment when someone started the tape recorder.
"I was born in 1906 in Europe," she began. "I was a year old when I—"
My grandma, Virginia's daughter Betty, cut in. "Whereabouts in Europe, mom?"
"I was born in Bosnia... Bosnia was a province of Austria-Hungary that they recaptured from the Turks in the early 1800s," she explained after my hearing-impaired grandpa mistakenly thought she said Boston.
It was a quiet family evening in August 1982. My parents were there (my mom was seven months pregnant with me) with my grandparents and my dad's cousin Julie. You can hear the sound of plates being cleared in the background as my dad and grandma set out to capture Virginia's story. "Okay, what we wanted to record mostly was about history, about family history..." Betty starts to explain at the beginning of the tape.
Earlier this year, I borrowed the three tapes they created, and started what I've come to call the "Family History Project." My great grandparents had a life of unplanned adventure after my great grandpa John was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1929. Their story is beyond the scope of a single blog post.
Those tapes, though, and some of the simple and straightforward statements that emerged from them have shed unexpected light on questions I've had about my family history.
Since my first family recipes post about kiffels, I've wondered why my "German" family prepared so much Hungarian food.
We have a cookbook of different family recipes that my aunt collected for a reunion in 1999. All of the ones attributed to Virginia indicate a strong eastern European influence. And it's not just hers, but several of her relatives' recipes for goulash and paprikash, as well as my mom's kiffels, all point to a past situated well outside the borders I grew up associating with my family.
I don't have all the answers for why my family continually talked about their strong German roots yet were actually located in the southeastern territories of Austria-Hungary.
But the straightforward sentence, "I was born in Bosnia," explains why I grew up with the hearty and comforting flavors of foods infused with Hungarian paprika.
It made me excited to try a recipe for "Real Hungarian Goulash," that my Aunt BJ submitted, explaining that her Aunt Helene Kailer made the stew for her after her first son was born. Preparing the simple, tomato-based beef stew connected me to a part of my family's past that I now perceive more clearly.
I will continue exploring the various facets involved in my Family History Project, examining how a disease led the Goettls from Ohio, through the Deep South, and eventually landed them in Phoenix, Arizona. I can see that path laid out in the food we love, and the recipes we've shared with one another.
So, we'll start at the beginning, with the Hungarian food that I grew up believing was German. Here is Aunt Helene's goulash. And, as my mom was careful to instruct me, be sure to get the Hungarian paprika in the red tin! It's the best.
1. In a dutch oven or stock pot, heat oil to low. Add chopped onion and cook slowly until onions are transparent (about 15 minutes).
2. Add red bell pepper and continue to sauté until tender (5-10 more minutes), stirring regularly.
3. Cover the onions and peppers with the stew meat, and allow meat to brown.
4. Stir in paprika and tomato paste, and then add enough water to cover the meat. Add carrots (if desired). Cover and let cook over low to medium-low heat for 1 1/2 hours, uncovering the pot for the last 30 minutes so that the stew thickens slightly.
5. Serve over noodles, and garnish with parsley.
A warm and crispy hash brown potato shell filled with cheese, eggs, and sausage. In my family, this particular breakfast was a staple of potluck brunches, family gatherings, and, most memorably, Christmas morning. It’s easy—spread the hash browns in a pie plate, layer in sausage and cheese, and then pour in a few whisked eggs on top. The result is an appetite-inducing, eye-pleasing addition to the breakfast table.
When Simply Gluten-Free Magazine asked us to work on a brunch menu for the March/April issue, this breakfast casserole was one of the first recipes I thought to include. A few phone calls to mom, and I had the details of the recipe sorted. It became my favorite part of a story on hearty brunch dishes that I ended up developing, which also included a potato medley hash and a creamy grits bar (a nod to my adopted home in the South). Working on these recipes gave me a chance to write about one of my favorite ways to share breakfast: a gathering of fellow soccer fans on a Saturday morning to watch English Premier League soccer and cheer on our favorite team, Chelsea FC (Go Blues!).
The breakfast casserole had the most personal significance to me. Like Mom’s Chicken Soup, it conjures up happy memories. This time, it's Christmas morning and I can instantly see mom behind the stove in the little kitchen of our house in Longmont, Colorado, pouring the egg mixture into the pie plate just before popping it into the oven. Those memories make it a favorite family recipe. It’s also a recipe for classic comfort food. This recipe is durable, satiating, and delicious. And it’s versatile. It will always be a crowd pleasure with breakfast sausage and cheddar, but swap in swiss and use turkey sausage or even ham and it will be equally tasty. For a healthier option, one could do egg whites and toss in some chopped kale or spinach, or make it vegetarian by eliminating the meat entirely.
It’s the perfect recipe for the cook who loves to experiment. A few ingredients, simple instructions, and a world of possibilities—I’m increasingly convinced those are the elements behind a family favorite that just about anyone can enjoy.
Breakfast casserole that I food and prop styled for Simply Gluten-Free Magazine. Photo by Stephen DeVries.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and brown hash brown, flipping them once (about 3 minutes on each side).
Mold hash browns into a 9-inch pie plate.
Layer turkey sausage on top of the potatoes, then add the shredded cheese.
In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, half & half, salt, and pepper. Pour mixture over cheese layer.
Note: The hash browns do not need to be fully cooked before placing them in the pie plate, and slightly undercooked potatoes will make for a firmer casserole crust.
Growing up, I counted my grandma among my biggest heroes. She always had things for us to do, and new adventures to embark upon. From homemade fetticini noodles, to little water color painting sets and embroidering lessons, to kitchen-sink science experiments—everything we did had a little lesson to be learned, a nugget of knowledge to take away. I can see so much of who I've become in the natural curiosity she helped cultivate in me.
Grandma "running eggs" at their chicken farm in Colorado. She was nothing if not a hard and dedicated worker.
Was our celebration of George Washington's birthday a little silly? Perhaps. I suppose the whole idea was birthed out of trips to Colonial Williamsburg, and a shared love for history among my parents and grandparents. As a kid, it was full of imaginative possibilities. No wonder I went on to pursue history full-time. The best part was that grandma never broke character. There was no cynicism in her recreation, no laughing at herself, only a little flair for the dramatic. It lent gravitas to the scene, and made it that much more realistic and significant to everyone else.
A young me, proudly posing before our dimly-lit colonial dinner table. Apparently, they pulled out all the stops in George Washington's day with blue paper napkins.
The memories of George Washington's birthday came back to me while making my mom's chicken soup the other day. Since my immediate family no longer lives in Colorado, and my grandparents' farm—the setting for the birthday festivities—was sold 20 years ago, food has become an important link to fond memories of the past. As I smelled the soup on the stove, I thought, "It smells like home." Not our physical house, but the feeling of being at home. If the smell of home exists, for me, it is made-from-scratch chicken soup.
I don't remember exactly what we ate during the birthday. Considering grandpa's sweet tooth, I have no doubt that a historically inaccurate cake was involved, probably of the chocolate variety. Whatever else was on the table, I'm sure it was hearty, warm, and satisfying—like my mom's soup.
So in honor of George Washington's upcoming birthday, and the precious memories I have attached to it, I thought I'd share mom's soup recipe. It cooks slowly, as good things do. Hopefully it will warm your heart the same way it continues to warm mine.
Heat oil in the bottom of a large stock pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion, and stir regularly until onion is clear — about 2 minutes.
Add the whole chicken (including the skin and bones) to the pot, and add enough water to cover. After water begins to boil, reduce heat to a simmer with cover slightly ajar for 2-3 hours, or until chicken is completely cooked and the meat is coming off of the bone.
Turn stove back to medium heat, and return strained broth to the stock pot.
While allowing the chicken to cool slightly, chop the carrots and celery and add them to the broth.
Skin and debone the chicken. Then return the meat to the stock pot.
Add rice, and allow the pot to simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and/or a chicken bouillon to enhance the flavor.
Top with chopped parsley before serving.
Allowing the chicken to cool slightly before deboning eases the process, and makes the fatty tissue and bones much easier to remove — it will also keeps you from scorching your fingertips.
This soup freezes well, and makes great leftovers. My mom always said the second bowl was the best.
If you're looking for a little extra kick, throw in some hot sauce for added spice. Trust me, it's delicious.
My Twitter feed is an eclectic hodgepodge. There will be 140 characters worth of organizing ideas from Real Simple, followed by a thoughtful question about women and faith from Rachel Held Evans, and then there's the Arabic-language update with news from Cairo. In a way, it's evidence of the many directions my life has taken in the last four years. And as Twitter reminded me a few days ago, I just passed my four-year "Twitterversary."
Stephen while stuck on an icy Hwy 280 for four hours.
Late-January is full of odd anniversaries for me. Yesterday, Facebook was abuzz with recollections of the South's Snowmageddon from a year before. People across the region were hit by a surprise snow and ice storm that left them either stuck in their cars or abandoning them and walking home. Kids and teachers couldn't leave school. I had the good fortune of only making a four-hour round trip drive to Tuscaloosa, while Stephen's casual drive to Home Depot turned into a 12-hour trek across town that included walking six-miles in the ice. I have not gone a week in the last year without hearing someone regaling their experiences during that storm, or relating my own.
But something strange occurred to me during those frozen, snowed-in days last January. They marked three years since I was also stuck at home, but this time for a completely different reason. On January 25, 2011, the Egyptian Revolution started, and like so many other millions, I was there. With tight curfews and no police force, people generally stayed close to home. That's when I joined Twitter. It had become the most effective way to track the news—at least until Mubarak turned off the internet. Three years later, I found myself again feeling simultaneously cut off and exhilarated. Yet in January 2014 I ultimately felt safe and secure, just a little bit cold. In Cairo, things were much less certain, and while I did not feel I was directly in harm's way, our circumstances were defined by a lack of security.
Me after evacuating Cairo in early February, and making my way to Cambridge, UK A cozy seat at a warm pub with a good friend was exactly what I needed. Photo by Galina Mardilovich.
As people have continued to recount their Snowmageddon experiences for the last year, there has been a cathartic quality to all of it. People were traumatized. And trauma leaves a deep psychological mark. It has to be expunged, and for me and the Southerners around me that meant talking about it.
It would have been awkward to bring up in those conversations how privileged we are to be able to talk and laugh about our experiences. To be able to recount our trauma and breath a large sigh of relief with smiles on our face at the end.
Not everyone gets to recall their trauma that way. Not everyone gets such quick relief. For those most hopeful in Tahrir Square in 2011, their dreams of democracy and real change have been largely dissolved by a new military dictatorship.
It was 50˚F in Birmingham one year after Snowmageddon. It was literally a warm balm on the storm's temporary wounds. At the same time, Egypt's revolution is being recalled with images of the new leadership's most recent victims—Shaima Al-Shabbagh brutal shooting in the midst of a peaceful anniversary protest and the death of at least 18 other people.
There is no need to diminish the trauma of last year's storm. But there's a perspective we could take in recalling our own discomfort—one where we realize that we found quick relief where so many others are still waiting.
When it comes to holiday traditions, Easter can be confusing. For many Christians the celebration of Christ’s resurrection stands at the heights of the sacred calendar. Yet most of traditional practices — including the name of the holiday — have pagan roots. Where did the word Easter and its bunny come from? Well, that would be a reference to Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility whose sign was a rabbit.
While the Easter table might lack the kind of nostalgic grounding in tradition that one experiences at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I find this freeing. For us, Easter has become a time to create new holiday memories and traditions with our friends. Since it takes a two-hour drive or a four-hour flight to spend the holiday with family, I try to incorporate family by including some traditional family recipes on the menu.
For this year, I’ve adopted the traditional Hungarian kiffel (something we usually eat at Christmas) to our celebration of the resurrection. The kiffel combines cream cheese pastry and a touch of jam for a mixture of savory and sweet that’s hard to resist. This also kicks off a series on traditional family recipes that I plan to continue sharing on the blog. I figure, what better way to explore the history of what we eat, than to delve into the foods I associate with my family history?
Whenever I eat a kiffel, I think of my dad sneaking a few each time he passed through the kitchen and my mom telling him to save some for the rest of us. It makes them all the more special to think about my grandma and great grandma making them before me. While our families will be celebrating Easter across the country, our little Alabama duo will think of them fondly and enjoy a cookie in their honor. It’s not a bunny or an egg — but who said those had all that much to do with celebrating the resurrection in the first place?
Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut in cold butter and cream cheese.
Working with your hands add in sour cream and egg yolk so that the dough forms a soft ball. Be careful not over mix the dough — if it has a marbled look, that’s okay.
Divide into two balls, wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (can be refrigerated overnight).
Working one ball at a time, unwrap roll out on a sheet of parchment paper dusted with tapioca starch. Roll out dough until it is 1/8 inch thick.
Cut dough into 2” squares and place a 1/2 tsp. of filling in the center. Fold into triangles or cylinders.
*My information on the history of Easter came from Cathy K. Kaufman’s “Easter” entry in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (1ed.), Andrew F. Smith, ed., Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed online at http://www.oxfordreference.com.libdata.lib.ua.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780195154375.001.0001/acref-9780195154375-e-0280?rskey=iQtsmi&result=7 on 18 Apr. 2014.
It sits perched in the health food aisle of the grocery store — bags of flax seed lined up among the organic granola, peanut butter, and other natural, specialty foods. I sprinkle a little of it on my breakfast yogurt nearly every morning. Some even use a combination of flax seed and water to replace eggs when baking. While flax has become a fixture in the modern market for green living, its journey into today’s diets was more laborious and nuanced than one might expect.
The original production of flax focused on textiles rather than dietary consumption. Flax is the plant behind linen, and historically its value comes from its fibers, not its seeds. Cultivation of flax for linen was especially prominent in northern Europe, where people in France, Flanders, Germany, and Ireland began cultivating the crop as early as the Bronze Age (2300-500 BC in Europe) and the practice rose to prominence during the medieval period.
With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, and Stephen and I planning a trip to Ireland for later this month, it seemed appropriate to give a few details on the Irish experience of flax production. For the Irish, linen became especially profitable by the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by which time the British government began investing in expanding linen production. While traveling in Ireland, Arthur Young, an Englishman, remarked, somewhat condescendingly, on the importance of linen to the Irish economy, commenting, “The only considerable manufacture in Ireland which carries in all its parts the appearance of industry is the linen, and it ought never to be forgotten that this is solely confined to the protestant parts of the kingdom...” Young continued that considering the French example, this was not to say that the Catholics were incapable of such production, but that the Irish Catholics of the south had yet to capitalize on linen in the same way as the northern Irish protestants. Apparently, even the history of flax and linen are riddled with the confessional divisions of Anglo-Irish, Protestant-Catholic rivalry that run throughout Irish history.
Young was right in seeing the promise of commercialization in the linen market. By 1810 farmers had sewn 70,000 acres with flax, and that number more than doubled by the 1850s when flax grew on some 175,000 acres. But the mid-nineteenth century also saw blight to potato crops and the devastating Irish Potato Famine, which left a million people dead and saw another 1.5 million emigrate, mostly to the United States. While that traumatic and devastating loss is responsible for the growth of a robust Irish heritage in the U.S., it also marked the decline of the Irish linen industry.
The flax seeds — a byproducts of linen production — not only became an eventual ingredient in health food, but the oil derived from pressing the seeds, known as linseed oil, is used in oil paints, varnishes, and linoleum.
What does all of this have to do with the Linzer Torte, you might ask. Well not a whole lot, except that the Linzer Torte traditionally uses walnut flour — something that I am allergic to, so I thought I’d try an alternative. I combined almond flour and flax seed meal to arrive at a delicious and hearty crust for my torte. When I started thinking about what laid behind that creation, I decided to explore the history of flax in greater detail.
2 1/2 sticks butter - cold, unsalted, and cubed.
Optional: 1 cup slivered almonds.
Note: You can make the torte as either a circle or a square. This recipe makes enough for two 9 inch round pans, two 8 inch square pans, or one 9x13 rectangular pan. Because I wanted to cut mine into square bars (as opposed to wedges) I opted for the single 9x13 pan. If you are making a circular torte, it is preferable to use a cake pan with a removable bottom.
Stir together the almond flour, flax seed meal, and sugar.
In a large bowl stir gluten-free flour, cinnamon, clove, and salt together until well blended.
With a fork or pastry blender, work cubes of butter into the almond and flax mixture until it as a course, crumbly texture.
Stir in the sugar, almond, and flax seed mixture.
In a small dish, beat together the egg, egg yolk, and lemon zest until combined, then stir into almond and flax crumbs.
Gently kneed the dough to fully incorporate the egg mixture, and the dough forms into a ball.
Divide dough in half if making one torte, or into quarters if making two.
Place one portion into the bottom of the pan and use your fingers to press it evenly across the pan and about 1 1/2 inches up the side of the pan. It should be evenly distributed across the bottom of the pan, but does not need to be smooth.
Bake the shell or shells for 12 min.
While the shell(s) bake, roll out the remaining dough between sheets of wax or parchment paper until it is 1/4 inch thickness, and one inch bigger than the pan. Then place it in the freezer to chill for approx. 20 min.
Remove shell(s) from the oven and let cool slightly.
I put dry, gluten-free bread in the food processor to create my bread crumbs until it was as fine as possible.
Stir jam until it is soft, and spread it across the shell(s).
Remove dough from freezer and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips, cutting through the dough and waxed paper. Use the lift the waxed paper, and place the strip, dough side down, onto the filling.
My dough was fairly stiff after coming out of the freezer, so I was able to handle it without cutting through the wax paper.
Arrange strips on a diagonal about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch apart, layering them in a criss-cross patterns to make the lattice top.
My dough was not pliable enough to weave into a traditional lattice, but layering them on the diagonal still created a nice, diamond-shaped effect.
Use leftover pieces to fill in any gaps.
Mix egg yolk with water and brush all of the lattice and border. Sprinkle with slivered almonds, if desired.
Bake torte for 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove from oven and place on rack.
For best flavor leave the torte or tortes stand uncovered overnight before serving.
Note: I adapted my recipe from one posted last December on Smitten Kitchen. If you are looking for a traditional recipe that uses walnuts, I would recommend following her example.
*Earlier this month I had the opportunity to share my experience of being diagnosed with celiac and going gluten free with fresh style magazine. I shared a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and my go-to gluten-free flour blend on the magazine's blog, You can download a printable version of the recipe for the cookies and the flour blend here.
Information on the history of flax and linen came from The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, and The Oxford Companion to Irish History. For those especially curious, you can read all of Arthur Young's eighteenth century observations about Ireland on Google Play. | 2019-04-18T16:59:17Z | http://www.annalisedevries.com/blog/ |
Phew, anyone else feeling overwhelmed this month? And are in desperate need of a getaway?One that’s affordable, relaxing and totally submerged within energising surroundings… It’s ok,I have this covered!
From my hectic day to day life to the tranquil surroundings of the Formby Hall Golf Resort and Spa, this place was a true breath of fresh air. Just when work becomes overwhelming, is it wise to book another getaway?! Of course, it is. There is nothing more mentally purifying than switching-off, relaxing and unwinding, away from the craziness of reality.
On this occasion, I was stopping at Formby Hall for leisure, to sample their facilities, their spa treatments and their delicious food. However, this is also the perfect pit-stop for business, girly weekends, golf weekends away or for pure bliss away from the madness of everyday life. Their retreats would make an awesome gift for a friend, or this would make the perfection location for a hen weekend away; spa treatments, afternoon tea and luxury suites for the cosiest nights in. Comfortable and luxurious, this location offers a little bit of everything for everyone.
Vibrant food, sophisticated beverages, stylish furnishings, rejuvenating surroundings and relaxation at its core, Formby Hall have really ticked the boxes. After an incredible refurbishment in 2017, I recommend that you embrace every moment you have here. I am guaranteed, before you leave, you will be planning your next trip!
Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the countryside, the greenery, the fresh air and the beautiful noises of nature. What I adored about Formby Hall was their surrounding greenland. It enriched the location and made everything feel incredibly energising and relaxing. The view out of my loft suite was incredible, it was refreshing to wake up to and it instantly made me feel motivated for the day. Although the surrounding areas of Formby Hall are stunning, there are a number of nearby attractions waiting to be discovered too! Which are only a short drive away from the hotel.
From exploring the shops in Liverpool to visiting the large seaside town of Southport, there are an array of places to explore. Why not breathe in the fresh air of Formby Beach, take a stroll and enjoy the sunset before dining at Formby Hall and relaxing in the Spa. Liverpool Cathedral, Knowsley Safari Park, Southport Botanic Gardens, Albert Docks and many more – take a few days off to fully submerge yourself and get a true experience of all things entertainment, relaxation and culture. Although Formby Hall can become popular at times, there is still an element of tranquillity at this location and it’s truly beautiful.
Tasting the culinary delights of Formby Hall was one of my favourites, from gourmet grills to comforting roast dinners to delicate afternoon teas. This restaurant prides itself on outstanding and award-winning food. Each ingredient is locally sourced and the chefs take huge pride in the quality and the preparation of their food. Attention to detail, carefully selected ingredients and flavours that create taste-bud explosions, a true foodie experience!
As the food arrived throughout our stay, we were overwhelmed by the flavours, the freshness and the inner food passion that shone through each dish. From breakfast to dinner, each dish was absolutely delicious and crafted with perfection.
The Fairway Grill was a wonderful chic location for our evening meal and it made things feel very very special. Chic, modern and newly refurbished, this dining location is stunning and boasts some of the best views of the surrounding golf course. Fine dining at Formby Hall is taken to a whole new dimension, in relaxed and stylish surroundings, the Fairway Grill is definitely on my ‘must visit again’ list! Sunday lunch, steak special, two courses for £16.50, light lunch or dreamy stone baked pizza, there is a little something for everyone!
However, if you’re dropping by for a small bite to eat, having a business lunch or celebrating an event, Formby Hall can cater to every individual occasion. this is the perfect pit-stop location.
Formby Hall also offers a diverse range of beverages, you’ll be spoilt for choice! The bar is dressed in the most sophisticated way decorated with an array of beautiful alcoholic beverages. They have a highly trained team of Mixologists onhand ready to create classic, creative and original cocktails for you. With their extensive knowledge and passion for beverages, you’re going to be impressed with their creations using an array of spirits, fresh fruits, rare liqueurs and special blends – yum! I am not a huge alcoholic drinker, however, I am definitely partial to the odd cocktail or G&T! A current trend at the moment is flavoured gin, Formby Hall now has their very own Gin Bar and have some incredible flavours waiting to be tried. Again, chic, sophisticated and totally creative.
As the evening drew to a close, I was already thinking of breakfast. Breakfast in the comfort of your room or choose from a fresh, vibrant and delicious buffet in the Fairway Grill– served from 8am until 10am. This buffet breakfast was one of the best I have ever seen in a hotel! Choose from a selection of English breakfast specials; poached eggs, sausages, bacon, baked beans, black pudding… The list goes on! Or why not opt for freshly baked pastries, granola, fresh sliced fruit, yoghurt or toast with a huge line-up of delicious spreads.
A choice of a starter and a main course or a main course and a dessert.
On this occasion, I opted for the 2-course meal deal, with a precise and carefully chosen selection of dishes to choose from, I knew instantly that they take pride in their products and ingredients. A variety of cuisines are combined, flavours are maximised using the freshest of ingredients and some true classics have a strong place on the menu; fish and chips, fish pie and steak and chips.
For the main course, I chose the pan-fried teriyaki salmon with wilted greens, a sushi rice ball and the best char-grilled baby gem lettuce. The salmon was cooked to perfection and was moist and rich in flavour with a crispy caramelised outer skin. The wilted greens added a touch of crunch to the dish and the baby gem lettuce added freshness! Warming, comforting and rich in spice, delicious. This whole dish was brought together with a generous drizzle of a rich teriyaki dressing. Honestly, this was just what I needed.
*Drum roll please* – The best sticky toffee pudding I have ever eaten! Rich, gooey, sticky, fluffy and fresh – the best combination of elements when creating the perfect pudding. After eating a large main course, I did want to choose a lighter dessert and this worked perfectly. This modern British classic takes comfort food to a whole new dimension, however, Formby Hall has created a fluffy and light version of this pudding. It won’t leave you feeling lethargic like it would usually, but it will leave you craving for more. Drizzled with the most decadent caramel sauce and paired with creamy vanilla homemade ice cream; let’s just say… I wanted some to take home too!
On this occasion, I had the wonderful opportunity of staying in one of their newly built loft rooms. This refurbishment took place in 2017 and it definitely exceeded my expectations and it goes beyond ordinary relaxation and comfort. Attention to detail, plush furnishings and copper accents, each element of the loft room has been considered to make your stay the most relaxing and the most re-energising. After initially browsing the website, I couldn’t wait to tuck myself up in the sheets, try out their luxuriously decorated bathroom and view the sunrise over the golf course.
King size bed – this bed was heaven… As soon as you relax, there is no going back. Sleep easy in their king-size bed and make the most of the body-hugging duvet and pillows, a luxurious nights sleep! That’s for sure!
Rainfall shower – (I made the most of this facility! No low pressure in sight. With a chrome finish, this shower is beyond luxury).
Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi internet access (however, I did not make use of this and tried to embrace my time here as much as possible).
Some of the loft suite rooms have interconnecting doors which are ideal for groups or families. Keeping everyone together and allowing the larger groups to celebrate in style.
At Formby Hall, there are 76 rooms in total, contemporary classic, executive and deluxe hotel rooms as well as their loft classic, loft executive and loft deluxe rooms (14 of which were added in 2017 and have been part of the exciting new-build).
As if the loft rooms weren’t exciting enough! They have recently just completed a full refurbishment of their current bedrooms. So not only are the loft rooms luxurious and contemporary, so are their bedrooms away from the loft suites. All of which have new furniture, curtains and carpets, refurbished bathrooms and much more. They also have 2 guest rooms which are perfect for disabled guests, enjoy luxury and relaxation at it’s finest.
Wellness and fun are taken to a whole new dimension at Formby Hall. From golf to fitness classes, to relaxation in their 20m heated swimming pool. Whether you’re wanting to lift weights, unleash your inner zen in yoga or have a high-intensity workout, you’ll find everything at Formby Hall. Whether you’re wanting to achieve a new personal fitness goal or simply learn how to use the equipment effectively, Formby Hall has a team of highly trained and motivated fitness coaches ready for you!
Their Health Club features a 40-plus station gym with the latest Technogym Equipment controlled by a WELLNESS system. The gym is in a welcoming, motivating and organised environment overlooking some beautiful views; running on the treadmill has never been so easy! Let’s not forget, their cardiovascular equipment has integrated touch screen TV’s, radio stations, integrated fans and iPod docking stations.
Spring into Shape offer, 1 month from £49 trial membership.
Formby Hall is, of course, known for its 18 hole Championship golf course and PGA golf academy. However, I didn’t explore this area of this resort. On my next visit, I want to book some lessons and get experimenting! If you are interested in their golf facilities, use the following links below for more information.
After attending The Spa at Formby Hall, I felt renewed, relaxed and totally revitalised. I reached a state of calmness and relaxation that I now crave every day and I am already planning my next visit. The Spa at Formby Hall offers a pleasant and peaceful location for you to relax in the midst of your hectic everyday life. Formby Hall has created a haven for relaxation, reviving therapies and serene comfort, honestly, it was bliss.
Their list of treatments is diverse, you’ll be spoilt for choice! That’s why a Spa break may be something you may want to opt for, that way you’ll experience the true essence of The Spa at Formby Hall. They have 7 luxury treatment rooms; including 3 doubles which are available for massages and ESPA treatments such as wraps and facials, manicures and pedicures by OPI. All of the therapies and treatments are carried out by passionate, driven and highly trained therapists who hold a wealth of knowledge in their area of work.
When I arrived at The Spa, I was greeted with a sudden hit of relaxation. As you approach The Spa reception, ESPA diffusers infuse the air with calming fragrances and you instantly take a deep sigh of relief because you can finally switch off. Once I had settled, I was shown around The Spa and each area was explained to me. This allowed me to fully embrace The Spa experience and feel at ease with my surroundings. Shortly after, I was taken to my treatment room and I experienced my aromatherapy massage, this was a 50-minute treatment with personal ESPA products selected for my specific needs.
An aromatherapy massage is a treatment that relaxes and heals the body through essential oils. This specific treatment can help treat pain, muscle spasms, stiffness, depression, insomnia, asthma, congestion, hypertension, and much more. If you’re feeling stressed, sore and overtired – in other words, in need of a message, then I would highly recommend this therapy! Not only is it gentle, relaxing and soothing, it mentally purifies and cleanses your body using natural plant essences from ESPA.
Once I had stepped outside of the massage room, I felt a whole lot lighter mentally and some tension had been relieved in my shoulders (a problem area of mine).
In the afternoon, I headed to the Spa Bistro for some light lunch and drinks, I was greeted by the waitresses as I entered and almost immediately I felt uplifted in this calm environment. The walls are decorated with positive affirmations which reinforces their uplifting approach to spa wellness. With pastel accents, this bistro definitely creates the perfect post-spa lunch environment.
For my lunch, I opted for the bento box which came with a glass of prosecco. A bento box is a great choice if you want variety. Bento boxes are common in the Japanese cuisine and usually include noodles, fish, meat and pickled vegetables. However, Formby Hall has used the traditional bento box and made it their own; using fresh local ingredients, superfoods and a combination of cuisines to create a diverse range of bento box options, to cater to everyone’s tasting. Honestly, it was delicious and I was stuck for choice, all of their options sounded exciting… Especially their chocolate cake!
Each compartment of the bento box can be personalised to your taste, whether you fancy a sweet chilli chicken wrap or a duck and orange salad, you decide. This time, I chose the sweet chilli wrap, the tuna salad and a fruit salad. Not forgetting, all bento boxes come with fresh bread and butter, comforting and wholesome! Honestly, what more could you want before ending your spa day?
Whether you’re planning a girls weekend away or simply want some downtime with your partner, both males and females will enjoy this relaxed and welcoming Spa environment. Embrace calmness, eat fresh food, relax mentally and physically and enrich your body with the good stuff. Check out the offers below for more information.
I am so grateful for these opportunities. Thank you for reading my content and making this possible. | 2019-04-24T13:51:50Z | https://positivelyjessicaward.com/2018/04/15/and-breathe-the-perfect-getaway-formby-hall-golf-resort-and-spa-review/ |
Background The distribution of cigarette prices has rarely been studied and compared under different tax structures. Descriptive evidence on price distributions by countries can shed light on opportunities for tax avoidance and brand switching under different tobacco tax structures, which could impact the effectiveness of increased taxation in reducing smoking.
Objective This paper aims to describe the distribution of cigarette prices by countries and to compare these distributions based on the tobacco tax structure in these countries.
Methods We employed data for 16 countries taken from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project to construct survey-derived cigarette prices for each country. Self-reported prices were weighted by cigarette consumption and described using a comprehensive set of statistics. We then compared these statistics for cigarette prices under different tax structures. In particular, countries of similar income levels and countries that impose similar total excise taxes using different tax structures were paired and compared in mean and variance using a two-sample comparison test.
Findings Our investigation illustrates that, compared with specific uniform taxation, other tax structures, such as ad valorem uniform taxation, mixed (a tax system using ad valorem and specific taxes) uniform taxation, and tiered tax structures of specific, ad valorem and mixed taxation tend to have price distributions with greater variability. Countries that rely heavily on ad valorem and tiered taxes also tend to have greater price variability around the median. Among mixed taxation systems, countries that rely more heavily on the ad valorem component tend to have greater price variability than countries that rely more heavily on the specific component. In countries with tiered tax systems, cigarette prices are skewed more towards lower prices than are prices under uniform tax systems. The analyses presented here demonstrate that more opportunities exist for tax avoidance and brand switching when the tax structure departs from a uniform specific tax.
Significant increases in cigarette excise taxes have been shown to be the most effective policy for reducing smoking.1 Tobacco excise taxes can be levied in two forms: specific and ad valorem taxes. A specific excise tax is a monetary tax levied based on the quantity of tobacco products (eg, per pack or by weight). While an ad valorem excise tax is a tax levied as a percentage of the value of tobacco products (eg, manufacturer's price or retail price).2 Although most governments impose certain excise taxes on cigarettes, the structure of these taxes varies markedly by countries. For instance, while many high-income countries (HICs) rely solely on specific excise taxes on cigarettes, European Union (EU) countries are required by the Council of the EU to impose excise taxes consisting of specific and ad valorem components, with a minimum floor. In addition, individual EU countries decide on the share of each component in total taxes under rules stating that the specific component must be between 5% and 76.5% of the total tax share of the weighted average price of cigarettes.2 ,3 As a result, individual EU countries rely differently on the specific and ad valorem components of their total cigarette excise tax.
Despite these various excise tax systems, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how cigarette prices, through which taxation ultimately impacts smoking, are distributed in different systems. In particular, for LMICs where smoking is prevalent, the importance of tax structure as a factor mediating the effectiveness of tobacco taxation in controlling tobacco use has rarely been studied or discussed. For example, recent studies from China suggest that cigarette demand is relatively unresponsive to price, which might be a result of China’s complicated tiered tax structure that results in very low prices for some brands.5 ,6 Therefore, it is important to understand how cigarette prices are associated with tax structures in order to maximise the impact of tobacco taxation on tobacco use.
From an economic perspective, given that the cigarette market is usually dominated by a small number of companies in most countries, cigarette price distributions may largely depend on taxation systems. Economic models have implied that, compared with specific excises, ad valorem excises tend to lead to lower prices and may encourage trading down, for example, the purchase of cheaper cigarettes.2 This is because an ad valorem tax structure creates incentives for manufacturers to produce low quality, low price cigarettes. In contrast, specific excises, in the form of taxes or a tax floor, tend to lead to higher prices, in that producers have incentives to raise prices when they can claim all the increased revenue (which is not the case for ad valorem excises). In addition, specific excises would reduce consumers’ incentives to switch down when taxes increase by raising the relative price of lower-price to higher-price brands. In their examination of cigarette prices in 21 EU countries, Chaloupka et al7 find that the price gap between premium and low-priced brands is smaller in countries with a greater specific component to excise taxes. However, that study is based on empirical evidence from EU countries that all use mixed taxation systems with different shares of specific and ad valorem taxes and, as a result, cannot directly compare pure specific, pure ad valorem and mixed systems, or tiered and uniform systems. Moreover, the price gap in that study is based on prices collected by the Economists Intelligence Unit for one leading international brand and one leading local brand, thus not reflecting the full distribution of cigarette prices in the market. Meanwhile, other than the aforementioned reasons, if the relative price of lower-priced brands relative to higher-priced brands increases, the market share of low-priced brands will likely fall. Therefore, compared with ad valorem excises, specific excises might lead to even higher prices with less price variability. The empirical evidence on the former hypothesis is shown in studies using data from HICs with purely specific tax systems. Nargis et al8 used four waves of data from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) Surveys in Canada and the USA to examine the association between brand choice and relative prices and found that an increase in the relative price of lower-priced to higher-priced brands is associated with a decrease in purchasing of lower-priced brands in both countries. Sobel and Garrett9 also found that increases in the specific taxes in the USA lead to a lower market share for lower-priced generic brands.
Several factors other than tax structures, such as tax avoidance and tax evasion, are likely to shape the cigarette price distribution as well. In some countries, taxes on tobacco are levied differently across jurisdictions such as states, provinces and Indian reservations. Therefore, cross-national-border and cross-jurisdiction-border shopping is one way to avoid taxes. For instance, in Canada and the USA, some excise taxes are exempted in aboriginal reserves and Native American reservations.1 In a recent paper Merriman17 assessed the extent of avoidance/evasion by collecting littered cigarette packs around Chicago, and found that three-fourths of the packs collected in Chicago did not bear the Chicago tax stamp. Using data from 15 ITC countries, Guindon et al18 found that more than 10% of smokers report engaging in tax avoidance or tax evasion in Canada, the UK and Malaysia.
Tax evasion, such as large-scale smuggling, could also contribute to an increase in the share of low-priced cigarettes. Although there is insufficient evidence that large-scale smuggling lowers average retail prices, some research has indicated that illicit trade could burden low-income countries disproportionately, where illicit cigarettes constitute 16.8% of the market compared with 9.8% of the market in HICs.19 The cigarette prices that we examine in this paper are survey-derived prices that reflect the combined effects of tax structures, tax avoidance and tax evasion. Although it is impossible in this study to disentangle the contribution of each to the distribution of cigarette prices, we hypothesise that the tax structure plays the most important role in cross-country differences in the price distribution. Moreover, unlike tax evasion and tax avoidance by switching to cheaper cigarettes, which may have a greater effect on prices at the lower end, differences in tax structures would have an effect in shifting the overall distribution of cigarette prices.
In summary, a greater price gap among brands could reduce the effectiveness of taxation in reducing tobacco use by increasing opportunities for substitution to cheaper brands as taxes rise. Among many tax structures, the uniform specific tax structure simplifies the taxation system and has advantages in raising the average prices and the relative price of lower-priced to higher-priced cigarettes. As a result, a uniform tax structure can increase the effectiveness of tax increases in reducing smoking.1 Therefore, analysing the price distribution using survey-derived data will add to the empirical evidence on how price distributions and gaps differ under alternative tax structures. Tax structures that lead to higher average prices and smaller price gaps can lead to a more effective tax system for reducing smoking. In this paper, we use data taken from 16 countries of the ITC Project, which cover many types of tax structures, to describe and compare cigarette price distributions across different tax structures.
Cigarette prices were derived for each country using the most recent data from the ITC Project Surveys.ii The ITC Project consists of parallel longitudinal surveys of smokers and other tobacco users (and non-users in most countries) conducted in 22 countries inhabited by more than 50% of the world’s population, 60% of the world’s smokers and 70% of the world’s tobacco users. The ITC Surveys are designed to evaluate the policies of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.20 For the analyses reported in this paper, we selected ITC countries where cigarette purchase information was collected from smokers. The price per pack of 20 cigarettes was thereafter derived from the money spent in the last purchase and the number of cigarettes that were bought.iii In order to compare prices and their distributions across countries, we converted the derived prices in local currencies into constant 2010 international dollars using the purchasing-power parity and consumer price index of the country. Purchasing-power parity conversion factors and the consumer price index for each country were obtained from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook database. In order to reflect the market share of cigarettes at different price levels, we use consumption weights to obtain aggregated measures of cigarette prices. Namely, for each individual smoker, we calculate how many cigarettes they smoke per day and construct a consumption weight as the ratio of his or her own consumption to the total consumption of respondents to the survey. These consumption weights are applied to cigarette prices when reporting mean, median and quartile prices.
Survey-derived prices are likely to better reflect the price distribution in the market than are other sources of prices, especially when we are interested in comparing the price distribution under different tax systems.21 These comparisons shed some light on the association between tax structure and price distribution, and resulting opportunities for tax avoidance under different structures. As discussed above, the tax structure could be exclusively specific, ad valorem, or a mixture of the two. Alternatively, taxes can also be levied uniformly or by tiers. Economic reasoning implies that tax structures with tiers or that rely more heavily on ad valorem excises will yield more opportunities for tax avoidance and branch switching. In the ITC Project sample of countries, a majority rely on uniform taxes, with only Brazil, Republic of Korea, China and Bangladesh applying tiered taxes. Most non-EU HICs including the USA, Canada, Australia and Republic of Korea, and some LMICs including Brazil, Uruguay and Mauritius solely rely on specific excises. In contrast, Bangladesh and Thailand rely on purely ad valorem excises; and China, Malaysia and EU countries apply mixed systems of specific and ad valorem excises, while individual countries may largely rely on one of the components.
The analyses in this paper proceed as follows: In table 1, after ranking countries by tax structure, the percentage of the specific component among the total excise tax, and the amount of total excise taxes, we present comprehensive statistics for price distribution by countries. In particular, mean, median, SD and skewness of prices are reported to show how much prices are skewed towards lower prices under alternative tax structures. The first quartile, third quartile and IQR, which is measured by the difference between the first and third quartile, are also reported. In addition, we calculate and show the ratio of the IQR to the median, which shows price variability around the median price. Other important statistics such as the minimum price, maximum price, price range and the ratio of the price range to the mean are also shown in table 1. Also, in figure 1, we exhibit price distributions by countries using boxplot to visualise the statistics that are reported in table 1 and to present the price distribution and variability in one graph. In table 2 we show, by tax structure, countries where prices are skewed in different directions and those where prices are most heavily skewed (skewness statistics are greater than 1 or smaller than −1). Finally, in table 3 we select and pair countries that are close in income levels and in the amount of total excise tax but that employ different tax structures, in order to compare their mean and variance using a two-sample comparison test.
Boxplot of cigarette price distributions by country. AU (Australia), CA (Canada), MU (Mauritius), US (the USA), UY (Uruguay), KR (Republic of Korea), BR (Brazil), NL (The Netherlands), MY (Malaysia), UK (the UK), DE (Germany), MX (Mexico), FR (France), RC (China), TH (Thailand) and BD (Bangladesh).
In table 1, we categorise countries by their tax structures and the percentage of specific taxes among total excise taxes; VATs are excluded. Among countries with a mixed uniform tax structure, The Netherlands has the largest share of the specific component while France has the smallest (range: 9.4–67.3%). Although China imposes a small specific excise, the system largely relies on the tiered ad valorem component. And in general, for countries that impose a similar amount of total excises, those with simpler tax structures tend to have higher average prices. For instance, Mauritius and Mexico impose total excises of $2.45 and $2.29, respectively, but the mean price for Mauritius which uses a uniform specific tax structure is $1.29 higher than Mexico where a mixed tax structure is used. Among EU countries, The Netherlands and France impose total excises of $3.37 and $3.80, respectively, while The Netherlands with a larger specific share has a mean price $0.49 higher than France, which has a larger ad valorem share. The skewness statistics show that in countries where tiered taxes are applied, prices are more likely positively skewed, indicating that there are fewer higher prices in the distribution. In contrast, most countries with a uniform tax structure have skewness statistics close to 0, suggesting prices are relatively symmetric. When comparing Malaysia and Mexico, where a mixed structure is applied in both cases but Malaysia has a larger share of the specific tax component, more prices in Mexico are lower while more prices in Malaysia are higher.
The ratio of the IQR to the median reported in table 1 shows how prices deviate around the median. In countries with a purely ad valorem tax system, such as Bangladesh and Thailand, and China, which largely employs ad valorem taxation, this ratio is as high as 0.51–0.89, which suggests greater price variability around median prices. On the other hand, other than Uruguay, the USA and Canada where cross-jurisdiction shopping opportunities are relatively available, countries with mixed and specific uniform structures tend to have prices that vary less around the median, with ratios less than 0.25. When looking into the price range measured by the distance between the maximum and minimum prices, there is no clear pattern by different structures. However, if we compare how great the range is in contrast to the mean, the results indicate that the range is six to nine times as large as the mean in Bangladesh, China and Brazil, where taxes are levied by tiers, while other countries have ratios in the range of 1–4. In addition, China has a price range of $17.6, which is extremely wide compared with its average price.
Table 2 summarises countries by comparing mean and median prices, as well as the skewness of prices. In the upper panel, we report countries where the mean price is higher than the median and those where the price mean is lower than the median, respectively. In contrast to the median, a higher mean suggests a positively-skewed price distribution that prices concentrate at lower values; and a lower mean suggests the opposite. These measures show that among the seven countries with the purely specific tax structure, four countries have mean prices larger than the median and three have mean prices smaller than the median. However, the mean and median prices are very close in magnitude for most countries with a specific tax structure. The skewness statistics reported in the lower panel show that prices are largely skewed to lower values in China, Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh and Republic of Korea, where either tiered or ad valorem taxes (ad valorem component in mixed structures) are applied. This finding suggests that tiered and ad valorem taxes may distort cigarette prices towards lower values, increasing opportunities for switching to cheaper cigarettes as tax increases. In addition, prices are heavily skewed to lower values in the USA, which might reflect tax avoidance by cross-jurisdiction shopping.
Finally, we select and pair countries that are close in the amount of total excise taxes but that use different tax structures, to compare their mean and variance using a two-sample comparison test. The selected country pairs are as follows: for LMICs, Uruguay (specific uniform) and Brazil (specific tiered) are paired to compare uniform and tiered tax structures; Mauritius (specific uniform) and Mexico (mixed uniform) are paired to compare specific and mixed structures; Malaysia and Thailand are paired to compare mixed and ad valorem uniform structures; and Malaysia and Mexico are paired to compare mixed structures with different shares of specific components. For HICs, Australia and the UK/France are paired to compare specific and mixed uniform structures. In addition, The Netherlands and France/Germany are paired to compare mixed systems dominated by specific and ad valorem components, respectively. The hypotheses that more complicated tax structures tend to have a higher price mean and present a smaller price variance are tested, with the rejection of these hypotheses suggesting the opposite. The results of the two-sample mean and SD (variance) comparison tests are shown in table 3.
Although the mean comparison tests do not reject the hypothesis for one set of paired countries (Australia vs the UK), the remainder do. The rejection of this hypothesis for a majority of the comparisons indicates that countries where tax systems are simpler tend to have higher average prices than countries that impose similar total excise amounts but that have more complicated tax systems. The two-sample SD comparison tests of prices within each development group (HICs vs LMICs) yield similar results: cigarette prices show greater variability in countries where tax structures are more complicated. For example, the specific tiered system of Brazil has a higher SD than the specific uniform system of Uruguay. In particular, when comparing within the uniform tax structure, the mixed system of Mexico has a higher SD than the specific system of Mauritius, and the same conclusion holds for the SD comparison between Australia and the UK. Although the SD comparison of Australia and France suggests the SDs of the two countries are about the same, Australia has a much higher mean price than France. The mixed system of Malaysia has a higher price SD than the pure ad valorem system of Thailand, which suggests that mixed system in LMICs may not be superior to a pure ad valorem system in lowering price variability. The mixed system of France, which relies heavily on the ad valorem component, has a higher SD than The Netherlands, which relies heavily on the specific component. The same conclusions are found when comparing The Netherlands with Germany and Malaysia with Mexico. In sum, more complicated taxation systems tend to have greater price variability, and therefore are likely to provide more opportunities for tax avoidance by brand switching.
In this paper, we employed data for 16 countries taken from the ITC Project to construct survey-derived cigarette prices for each country. These self-reported prices were weighted by cigarette consumption and described using a comprehensive set of statistics. We further compared these statistics for cigarette prices under different tax structures. In particular, countries that are close in the amount of total excise taxes but that impose different tax structures were paired and compared in mean and variance using a two-sample comparison test.
There are a few limitations to these analyses. First, we presented direct evidence of price distribution in countries where different taxation systems are imposed. However, we did not estimate or analyse the associations between the type of tax structure and measures of the price distribution. Therefore, we cannot conduct a formal test of these associations. In addition, tax structures were grouped using two characteristics: the component of specific and ad valorem excise taxes, and if tiered rates are levied. As a result, it is difficult to disentangle the extent to which tiered and ad valorem tax structures distort the price distribution. Finally, we did not explicitly control for various forms of tax avoidance or evasion, such as cross-border shopping. Further research using times series data from many countries with different and changing tax structures is needed to address these limitations.
Our investigation illustrates that, compared with uniform specific taxation, other uniform tax structures (ad valorem uniform and mixed uniform structures) tend to have price distributions with greater variability. Also, compared with uniform taxation, tiered tax structures tend to have price distributions with greater variability. Countries that rely heavily on ad valorem and tiered taxes generally have greater variability in prices around the median. Among mixed taxation systems, countries that rely more heavily on the ad valorem component tend to have greater variability in prices than countries that rely more heavily on the specific component. Among different tax structures that impose similar total excise taxes, simpler structures tend to have higher price means. In countries with tiered tax systems, cigarette prices are more skewed to lower prices than prices under uniform systems.
The analyses presented here demonstrate that when the tax structure departs from uniform specific taxes, more opportunities exist for tax avoidance by switching down to cheaper brands. These results also provide a potential explanation for why smokers in countries with a complicated tax structure, such as China, are often found to be relatively unresponsive to cigarette prices. In light of our findings, countries that solely rely on ad valorem excises would see tax increases have a greater impact on tobacco use if they were to switch to a pure specific taxation system. Similarly, for countries with a mixed taxation system such as Mexico, Malaysia and EU countries, increasing the share of the specific component or switch to a pure specific taxation system would enhance the effectiveness of the tax in reducing tobacco use. Finally, our findings indicate that tax structures have a substantial impact on price variability in cigarette markets, thus likely impacting smoking behaviours, including prevalence, consumption and cessation. Future research should explore how tax structures affect these smoking behaviours.
Economic models have suggested that a simple taxation system that applies a uniform specific excise tax has advantages in raising average cigarette prices, reducing tax avoidance and switching down, and discouraging manufacturer's incentives for pricing strategies that lower market prices. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence on how prices are distributed under different tax structures.
In this paper, we present and compare price distributions under alternative tax structures. We find that, compared with a uniform specific tax structure, tiered structures and other uniform tax structures tend to have price distributions with greater variability.
Among mixed taxation systems, countries that rely more heavily on the ad valorem component of the total tax tend to have greater price variability than countries that rely more heavily on the specific component.
In countries with tiered tax systems, cigarette prices are skewed more towards lower prices than are prices under uniform tax systems.
We would like to thank Anne Chiew Kin Quah for her valuable comments and support.
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BMJ Publishing Group Limited takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation from the published English original and is not liable for any errors which may occur.
Contributors The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors.
Funding The data collection for the ITC Project is supported by grants R01 CA 100362 and P50 CA111236 (Roswell Park Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center, and P01 CA138389, R01 CA090955) from the National Cancer Institute of the USA, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (045734), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (57897, 79551 and 115016), Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging, Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative (014578), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (265903), the International Development Research Centre (104831-002), the International Development Research Centre (African Tobacco Situational Analysis), New Zealand Health Research Council (06/453), New Zealand Ministry of Health, Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Salud-2007-C01-70032), Bloomberg Global Initiative—International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the French Institute for Health Promotion and Health Education (INPES), the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), Observatoire français des drogues et toxicomanies (OFDT), The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) (The Netherlands), German Federal Ministry of Health, Dieter Mennekes-Umweltstiftung and Germany Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Cancer Research UK (C312/A6465), NHS Health Scotland (RE065), Flight Attendants’ Medical Research Institute (FAMRI), GlaxoSmithkline (3516601), Pfizer (Ireland), the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Malaysian Ministry of Health and Thai Health Promotion Foundation. A Senior Investigator Award from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and a Prevention Scientist Award from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute for the third author and the SILNE Project is funded by the European Commission through FP7 HEALTH-F3-2011-278273.
Ethics approval All ITC Surveys were conducted with the approval of the Office of Research Ethics Committee at the University of Waterloo, Canada and the respective internal ethics board for each country.
↵i Ex-factory price means the price at the factory, and does not include any other charges, such as delivery costs or taxes imposed later in the distribution chain.
↵ii These are 2011 surveys of the USA, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Mauritius and Mexico; 2010 surveys of the Republic of Korea, the UK and Bangladesh; 2009 surveys of Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand and China; and the 2008 Survey of France.
↵iii The cigarette price is derived from price per carton, price per pack, price per stick and the number of cigarettes in each carton or pack.
↵iv Throughout the paper, total excises do not include value added taxes (VATs). The amount of ad valorem taxes in China were imputed using the weighted average retail cigarette prices and average VAT and ad valorem tax rates reported in China Statistical Yearbook. The ad valorem tax in Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico and Bangladesh were imputed using ad valorem tax and VAT rates and average cigarette prices. Ad valorem taxes in EU countries were imputed using the ratio of ad valorem to specific components and the amount of specific taxes.
↵v From this point, taxes refer to the taxes for a pack of 20 cigarettes. | 2019-04-25T16:09:12Z | https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/23/suppl_1/i23?ijkey=4522b13a2e2f84e5230fa0dd82da29a17c867c80&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha |
John L. Hilton is adjunct professor of statistics at Brigham Young University. This chapter is reprinted by permission, with slight alteration for clarification. First published in BYU Studies 30/3 (1990): 89—108.
In 1980 Wayne A. Larsen, Alvin C. Rencher, and Tim Layton published the first complete analysis of the Book of Mormon using the then adolescent tool of computerized stylometry, or wordprinting.1 They analyzed author-specific word-use rate to show that the purported authors in the Book of Mormon are statistically different—that not one but many authors contributed to the book. Since then the science of wordprinting has continued to undergo considerable critical evaluation, particularly in its application to the Book of Mormon.
Shortly after BYU Studies published Larsen, Rencher, and Layton’s pioneering work, I joined forces with a small group of scientists in Berkeley, California, who were attempting to verify the accuracy of wordprinting in general and to check the Larsen-Rencher-Layton results specifically. After seven years of study and development, we concluded that wordprint measurements are now at the stage where scholars can use such tests confidently and without personal bias to analyze contested authorship in many literary works, including the Book of Mormon. This paper explores our conclusion by (1) discussing some general ideas about wordprints and wordprinting, (2) reviewing some early wordprint studies in the evolution of wordprint science, (3) summarizing the development of a new measurement technique, including important control studies to verify the objectivity of that technique, and (4) setting forth some verified Book of Mormon measurements. Before proceeding, I will establish the need for wordprints for the Book of Mormon and also discuss one important caveat.
The need for rigorous, legitimate wordprint measurements is obvious in attempting to settle some of the most prominent controversies surrounding the Book of Mormon: Are the word patterns of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, or Solomon Spaulding measurable in the Book of Mormon? Can wordprinting show that different sections of the Book of Mormon were written by different authors? Does Joseph Smith’s role as translator obfuscate patterns unique to ancient authors? Fortunately the Book of Mormon is a near-ideal document for such objective wordprint studies, provided the measurement is made correctly.
Of course, wordprint analysis, while it can measure certain facts objectively, cannot prove the holiness of the Book of Mormon. The understanding that the Book of Mormon has a divine origin is obtainable only by developing faith. Thus, while valid and objective wordprinting is no substitute for faith, wordprinting can, nevertheless, bolster the establishment of faith by rigorously demonstrating factual information about the book.
Wordprinting is a developing science, notwithstanding that the first written suggestions that something like wordprinting might be useful in objectively identifying authors appeared at least as early as 1851. Yet, because of the complexity of the measurements, the first credible studies had to await the availability of modern computers with their precise counting accuracy and high-speed computation. Therefore, wordprinting has undergone almost all of its significant development during the last thirty years.
Most modern wordprint techniques measure only the placement of “noncontextual” words. Noncontextual words like the, and, a, of, etc. are often capable of being interchanged or even dropped without a loss of overall meaning; they seem to add little in context information, often being consciously ignored by writer and reader alike. Obviously, measuring noncontextual words makes word-printing less sensitive to the subject matter. In addition, the technique improves statistical accuracy. Noncontextual words typically make up 20% to 45% of the total text, thereby providing a high number of statistical “events,” and the larger the statistical measurement is, the more reliable the results are. Wordprint measurements made from large numbers of noncontextual words continue to show that an author’s free-flow writings use these words in a habitual, nearly subconscious, unique way.4 However, if the author consciously imposes an external structure, the free flow of the author’s wordprint pattern is modified, and accurate wordprint measurements become more difficult to obtain.
Wordprinting measures the difference in the way noncontextual word patterns occur in two compared texts. Usually one of the texts is of disputed authorship while the other is by an author suspected of writing the disputed text. If the same word pattern is found to be statistically different between the two texts, we identify the difference as a rejection.5 The total of the rejections measured when the two texts are tested for a large number of word patterns is identified as the number of rejections. The larger the number of rejections, the more likely the disputed text was not written by the author of the other compared text. Thus, testing a contested document against comparable texts from all possible candidate-authors will identify the most likely writer by eliminating authors whose texts generate high numbers of rejections.
Finding the most likely writer depends on the word-printing technique’s accuracy. The accuracy (and usefulness) of a wordprint measuring technique critically depends on the statistical reliability in detecting which of its tested text pairs are not written by the same author. Statistical reliability is rigorously demonstrated by using the technique with a large number of control-author texts for the purpose of verifying the authorship of known texts. These texts correspond in size and include examples of the different literary parameters (genre, subject matter, writing period, position in an author’s career) that are to be studied later. The verifying measurements made between two control texts written by the same author are identified as within-author tests. The tests between texts written by different authors are called between-author tests. The statistical separation measured between the overall distributions of a large number of the within-author and between-author tests is the valid measurement of what will be expected when a contested author is later tested with the same technique. In other words, the difference between the number of rejections found between texts by the same author and texts by different authors will serve as a standard. This standard is used to evaluate the numbers of rejections found when testing texts of contested authorship.
Measuring the differences in word patterns between texts is the basic process of a wordprinting technique. Verifying such a technique, while straightforward in principle, is in practice very tedious. Thus, during the years of wordprinting development, many proposed wordprint measuring systems were verified only superficially on a narrow set of texts. Unfortunately, researchers often assumed that a wordprint measuring technique shown valid for one set of literary parameters would also be valid for all others. We now realize such assumptions are not valid; we must successfully verify each wordprint measuring methodology with control texts which represent all the literary parameters that are to be reliably measured later on.
Perhaps one of the earliest successful wordprint studies in the United States was the classical work by the statisticians Frederick Mosteller and David L. Wallace, who published their work on author identification in 1964.6 While not the first scholars to attempt computer-assisted stylo-metry, they published one of the first complete and internally consistent studies on a set of historically important documents. Their work convincingly identified the author of several anonymously published Federalist Papers. Mosteller and Wallace measured the rates at which simple, noncontextual words were used per 1000 words of text. This statistical model appeared adequately sensitive and valid to unambiguously show that James Madison was the author of the disputed documents. They showed that the other two possible candidate-authors were overwhelmingly excluded as authors of any of the twelve disputed documents.
The wordprint study on the Federalist Papers had several advantages which facilitated statistical measurements. First, the documents are lengthy, were written in the same genre on the same subject, and have essentially the same vocabulary. Additionally, for control texts Mosteller and Wallace were able to use uncontested writings by the suspected authors, writings which are of the same length, genre, subject, and vocabulary as the suspect texts. That the simple Mosteller and Wallace wordprint technique had been shown to be valid only for their single, nearly ideal class of texts was at first not appreciated as important.
Not all succeeding studies had documents that presented as favorable a situation as did that of Mosteller and Wallace. In addition, most later wordprinters did not execute their studies in such a thorough way. Many omitted any independent control studies to confirm that their wordprint techniques were valid for their given case. As a consequence, some published studies purportedly giving objective answers later proved to be inaccurate.
The first extensive wordprint measurements of the Book of Mormon appeared in 1978 when Alvin C. Rencher and Wayne A. Larsen began reporting their pioneering study in author identification. This work was followed by their complete report in 1980.9 They also coined the term wordprint, and introduced to Church and world scholars the interesting possibility of objective author identification in the Book of Mormon. They used information gained from earlier approaches and applied the simple noncontextual word-use rate of Mosteller and Wallace’s technique but coupled it with a powerful, multivariate statistical analysis.
Unlike previous studies which introduced the concept of hand-tabulated word measurements to the Book of Mormon,10 the 1980 wordprint study published by Larsen, Rencher, and Layton was widely recognized as important both within and without the Church.11 If the measurement technique was in fact objective and verifiable, any competent student could duplicate the calculations to determine answers to a number of questions that have remained controversial among Book of Mormon believers and detractors.
Along with others who found the reported work of the BYU team of Larsen-Rencher-Layton interesting and challenging was a small group of scientific researchers in northern California to which I belonged. Our group, later known as the Berkeley Group, included major contributors from different scientific disciplines and differing religious persuasions. All of us shared the scientific curiosity which led us to test the intriguing Larsen-Rencher-Layton claim. In the fall of 1980, we began our study. As the major LDS contributor in the group, I was little different from my agnostic and Jewish colleagues: each of us seriously questioned whether objective measurement could determine who did or did not write a controversial document like the Book of Mormon. Therefore, armed with a healthy skepticism, we began a confirmational study—the kind of study scientists typically perform in the physical sciences—to recalculate the wordprint measurements while correcting any procedural or calculational flaws which could potentially have confused the results of the original study.
During the time our Berkeley Group was doing its work, other Book of Mormon scholars were also studying the approach proposed by the Larsen-Rencher-Layton team. One of the most notable of these is the University of Utah statistician, D. James Croft. His work is that of a competent scholar as well as a conscientious believer in the divinity of the Book of Mormon. His published work is a carefully reasoned critique of the Larsen-Rencher-Layton paper.14 As would be expected from a scholar of the exact sciences, he cautioned his LDS readers about the unverified nature of the methodology: “Close scrutiny of the methodology of the BYU authorship study reveals several areas which seem vulnerable to criticism.” After calling for a redevelopment of methodology which could circumvent the specific areas he found questionable, he concludes, “Certainly any research done in the future will be indebted to Larsen, Rencher and Layton, who called our attention to an interesting and challenging area of Book of Mormon study. At the present time , however . . . it would be best to reserve judgment concerning whether or not it is possible to prove the existence of multiple authors of the Book of Mormon” (21).
We kept in close contact with Dr. Croft and others15 who were contributing to the continuing refinement of wordprinting during the years when our independent methodology was under development. We appreciated the continuing contributions of these scholars as they helped us insure that the suspect areas recognized in the earlier methodologies would be avoided and that the verification of our new wordprint measuring technique would be complete enough to insure reliable answers.
Our new conservative measurements incorporate six points which were not used in earlier Book of Mormon wordprint studies. These points contribute to improved reliability when 5000-word texts are tested. They are (1) measuring the author’s wordprint by studying the use rate of sixty-five noncontextual word-pattern ratios as proposed by Morton (1985); (2) abandoning the commonly accepted statistical assumption of “normality” of word distribution and instead using the Mann-Whitney nonparametric statistic, which does not require the unverifiable normality simplification; (3) developing a “wrap-around” word-group counting method which helps break apart clusters of similar words in the sampled text words (this method helps provide the statistically required word-group homogeneity); (4) making comparison measurements between just two texts at a time; (5) using the oldest extant Book of Mormon manuscripts (the texts used do not include the repetitive use of the phrase and it came to pass, nor do they include significant direct quotations from the King James Bible—including such text would distort the noncontextual word counts for each author); and (6) verifying the sensitivity of the computer coding and measurement methodology by measuring a diverse set of texts of nondisputed authorship which represent the appropriate literary parameters.
Deriving the model becomes relatively unimportant compared to designing the control studies which verify or disprove the validity of the method. For our control studies, we specifically chose a representative set of literary texts which would test the extremes found in English-language writings. When we tested these control texts, we found that our technique yielded well-defined, bell-shaped distributions, showing that our new wordprint technique is essentially insensitive to the textual changes introduced by the differing literary parameters of genre, subject matter, writing period, position in an author’s career, or normal publication editing.
Specifically, this extended verification study tested the validity of our model by calculating 325 diverse wordprint tests. These tests studied 26 noncontroversial 5000-word texts which had been written under various conditions by nine different control authors (see Appendix 3). The within-author and between-author results rigorously supported the basic wordprint assumption: although all authors have many writing habits in common, they each show measurably unique, stable rates for some noncontextual word patterns. Among the nondisputed documents that were used in the testing were texts by Oliver Cowdery and samples of Joseph Smith’s autographic and dictated writings.
The results of our verification tests are displayed in figure 1. Thirty-three of these tests are made by comparing texts written by the same author; 292 of the tests compared one author’s writing against that of another author. The black bars represent the 33 within-author measurements, which yield a statistically smooth distribution peaking at about 2 rejections, a result that is theoretically expected.19 The distribution peak for between-author comparisons is about 7 rejections. Therefore, about two-thirds of the true between-author measurements fall above even the extremes of the within-author distribution. This result means that when any 5000-word disputed text is tested against a known author’s comparable works and measures 7 or more rejections, the two texts are very likely not written by the same author.20 The lower the number of rejections, the greater the likelihood that the two texts were written by the same author; the higher the number of rejections, the more likely that different authors composed the two compared texts.
If we have only two 5000-word texts and their paired testing measures 1 to 6 rejections (as is expected for a true between-author pair in about one-third of the cases), we cannot assign authorship unambiguously because the within-author and between-author distributions overlap each other in this range. Similarly, for the few tests (about ten percent of the true within-author cases) that measure zero rejections, there is a high probability that the compared texts were written by the same author.
We wished to make the most conservative measurement possible; therefore we compared the two Book of Mormon authors who have the largest number of 5000-word texts. Further, even though our verification testing showed that our new wordprint measuring technique is not unduly sensitive to normal changes of genre, we still chose the more conservative comparison by testing only within the same literary form. Therefore, we selected for our critical Book of Mormon verification measurements three independent, 5000-word texts from the didactic writings of each of the two major purported Book of Mormon authors, Nephi and Alma. Those texts are the largest same-genre pair in the book. Besides eliminating any possible lingering concern that changing genre might artificially cause additional rejections, the use of the didactic genre has the advantage of essentially excluding the possibly troublesome phrase and it came to pass. This phrase is the only phrase used repetitively enough in the Book of Mormon to be troubling to wordprint measurements.
Our results are displayed starting with figure 2, which shows the distribution of the number of wordprint rejections for the six possible within-author tests of Nephi against Nephi and Alma against Alma. The within-author tests for both show the same distribution as the within-author tests of our control studies, shown in grey in figure 2.
Figure 3 is a plot of the rejection distribution calculated from the between-author tests of direct interest to the Book of Mormon authorship question. The black bars show the comparisons of the texts purportedly written by Nephi when tested against those purportedly written by Alma. The tests show the same relatively large number of rejections found in the between-author distribution in figure 1 (shown in figure 3 in grey), which was derived from the comparisons made between the texts of the different control authors.
Table 1 shows the measurements for the individual wordprint tests used in producing figures 2 and 3. Taking the comparisons of Nephi versus Alma, we found that in eight of the nine tests, 5 or more rejections resulted. Four of these tests produced 7, 8, 9, and 10 rejections. These four high-rejection tests (which yielded 7, 8, 9, and 10 rejections) independently measure a statistical confidence of greater than 99.5%, 99.9%, 99.99%, and 99.997% probability that the measured rejections show that the author’s patterns are very different consistent with Nephi’s texts having been written by a different author than wrote Alma.21 Therefore the Book of Mormon measures patterns of different authors according to its own internal claims.
By using a new wordprint measuring methodology which has been verified, we show that it is statistically indefensible to propose Joseph Smith or Oliver Cowdery or Solomon Spaulding as the author of the 30,000 words from the Book of Mormon manuscript texts attributed to Nephi and Alma. Additionally these two Book of Mormon writers have wordprints unique to themselves and measure statistically independent from each other in the same fashion that other uncontested authors do. Therefore, the Book of Mormon measures multiauthored, with authorship consistent to its own internal claims. These results are obtained even though the writings of Nephi and Alma were “translated” by Joseph Smith. We also described control studies of modern language academic translations where, in practice, a single translator can consistently preserve the unique wordprints of the several original authors he has translated.
Useful noncontextual word patterns meet the following conditions: they yield an unambiguous count, they occur frequently, they have common alternate expressions, their use rates tend to become habitual, and they are minimally affected by the period of the writer’s career, the subject matter, and the genre. Therefore, useful word patterns are typically made up of key words such as common articles, conjunctions, and prepositions. Measurements are calculated from the ratio of the overall key-word-use rate against the same key-word-use rate in certain sentence positions, word collocations, proportional pairs, or the use of key words adjacent to certain parts of speech and novel vocabulary words.
# represents the number of end of sentence markers fws represents the first word in a sentence lws represents the last word in a sentence 2nd lws represents the second to last word in a sentence fb means “followed by” pb means “preceded by” x represents any word r+l means that the word to the right and left are unique within the original 1000-word block.
The photonegative of the 1966 filming of the Book of Mormon printer’s manuscript was courteously supplied, without endorsement, by the History Commission of the RLDS Church. By October of 1982, a board of seven editors prepared a primitive Book of Mormon text using the following sources: (1) a computer file of the 1830 Palmyra first printed edition of the Book of Mormon developed in the BYU Language Research Center by L. K. Browning, (2) the photo-offset copy of the first edition printed by Wilford C. Wood, (3) a copy of the text of extant sections of the original dictation manuscript collected by L. K. Browning, and (4) the complete printer’s manuscript. The editors prepared a composite file of the oldest sections from each manuscript to complete a Book of Mormon text computer file which we named “The Most Primitive Book of Mormon Manuscript Text.” The editors also prepared and verified line headers which identified the apparent original author, the literary form, modern book, chapter, verse, and line notation for each line of text. Similar line headings are now published in Book of Mormon Critical Text: A Tool for Scholarly Reference, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (hereafter cited as FARMS) STF-84aa, 3 vols. (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1984—87).
Does the Race of Man Love a Lord? an essay on American and European mores (1902) in The Complete Humorous Sketches and Tales of Mark Twain, ed. Charles Nelder (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1961), 686—96.
“Early Days,” a narrative (1875) in Mark Twain’s Autobiography (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1875), 81—123.
“Extracts from Adam’s Diary,” fanciful fiction, a spoofing translation, likely a satire on the Book of Mormon (1893) from “The Diary of Adam and Eve” in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, ed. Charles Nelder (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1985), 272—80, 288—94.
“Eve’s Diary (Translated from the Original),” companion to “Extracts from Adam’s Diary” (C. above), author attempting to write for two different people (1905), 281—8.
Written religious discourse and biographical essays from Messenger and Advocate (1830).
A second selection from the same article series as used in (A) (1830).
Life of William Shakespeare, an essay, only 3528 words (about 1770). Photocopy in possession of the author, original found in Yale Library.
The Number of the Beast, fanciful science-fiction narrative; first-person narrative chapters simulating the writing of his character Hilda (New York: Ballantine, 1980).
A second selection from The Number of the Beast, chapters simulating the first-person narrative of his character Deety (A. above).
The Rambler, first part of the newspaper essays (1750).
A second selection from The Rambler (1751).
The Idler, newspaper essays (1758).
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, a personal travelogue (1775).
A second selection from (D) above (1775).
The Fountains: A Fairy Tale, fanciful narrative (1766), only 4879 words (London: Elkin Mathews and Manot, 1927), 9—48.
Autographic letters to wife Emma, friends, and the Church (1834—38) in The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, comp. and ed. Dean C. Jessee (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1984).
A second selection from (A) above (1836).
Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:1—75, dictated and carefully polished with the assistance of his clerks (1834—38).
“The Novella,” an essay, written in English, in Twelve German Novellas, ed. and trans. Harry Steinhauer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), Introduction, ix—xxiii.
A second selection from (A) above plus 1000 words from (C) below (1977 and 1974).
Heine and Cecile Furtado: A Reconsideration, biographical essay, written in English, Modern Language Notes 89 (April 1974): 422—47.
Michael Kohlhaas, novella, written in German (about 1850), trans. Harry Steinhauer (1977—see VII. A. above).
A second selection from (A) above (about 1850).
A third selection from (A) above (about 1850).
Love and Friendship Tested, novella, written in German (about 1770), trans. Harry Steinhauer (1977—see VII. A. above).
A second selection from (A) above (about 1770).
1. For Larsen, Rencher, and Layton’s Book of Mormon wordprint study, see “Who Wrote the Book of Mormon? An Analysis of Wordprints,” BYU Studies 20 (spring 1980): 225—51.
2. For a detailed discussion of wordprinting single-authored texts with a few thousand words, see John L. Hilton and Kenneth D. Jenkins, “On Maximizing Author Identification by Measuring 5000 Word Texts” (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1987).
3. Works known to be written prior to computer-aided authorship are essentially immune. In principle one can argue that a modern, computer-assisted forger could manufacture a document capable of deceiving an authorship measurement. To attempt such a forgery would be an enormous task and would still leave the forger unsure beforehand as to which of all of the possible word patterns the wordprinter would ultimately use to test the manufactured document. Of course, such a fraudulent document would be susceptible to detection by the standard procedures now used to identify any pastiche.
4. To be a valid measurement, the words must be essentially the free-flow choice of the purported author. Extensive quoting of someone else’s words is different from free paraphrasing and, of course, tends to produce a wordprint closer to the pattern of the one being quoted. Further, deliberately writing to an externally imposed pattern which restricts the normal noncontextual word choices of the writer or repetitively using normally noncontextual words in textually important ways can also change the wordprint patterns. For an example of deliberate change in a wordprint, see Tim Hiatt and John Hilton, “Can Authors Alter their Wordprints? Faulkner’s Narrators in As I Lay Dying,” Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Symposium, ed. Melvin Luthy (Provo, Utah: Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 1990). Examples of these wordprint problems found in the Book of Mormon are the extensive quotations from the King James Bible and the repetitive use of the phrase and it came to pass. Proper wordprint testing must take these special problems into account.
5. A rejection results from the statistical calculation of a null-hypothesis rejection (p<.05) for any one of the tested word patterns as the two texts are compared. A rejection is considered statistically useful only for word patterns that can be found five or more times in either of the compared 5000-word texts.
6. For the 1964 study, see F. W. Mosteller and D. Wallace, Inference and Disputed Authorship: The Federalist Papers (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1964); second edition published as Frederick Mosteller and David L, Wallace, Applied Bayesian and Classical Inference: The Case of the Federalist Papers (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1984).
7. Morton’s arguments for using word-pattern ratios instead of simple word-use rates are found in A. Q. Morton, Literary Detection: How to Prove Authorship and Fraud in Literature and Documents (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978).
8. Kendra L. Lindsay, “An Authorship Study of the Pauline Epistles” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1986).
10. Perhaps the most significant of the precomputer studies was Glade L. Burgon’s “An Analysis of Style Variations in the Book of Mormon” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1950).
11. Some publications that support Larsen, Rencher, and Layton’s work, besides those referenced in nn. 8 and 14, include New Era 9 (November 1979): 10—3, and Noel B. Reynolds’s Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, Religious Studies Monograph Series, vol. 7 (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1982).
Perhaps the latest neutral reference to their work, representing those in the scholarly community, would be Joseph Rudman at the Dynamic Text Conference, Toronto, Canada, 7 June 1989. In his presentation on authorship attribution in the literary computing session, Rudman noted their work as significant.
Among the anti-Book of Mormon references, likely the most extensive work provoked by the Larsen-Rencher-Layton study was an attempt at a wordprint measurement by Ernest H. Taves as reported in his book Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1984), 225—60. Unfortunately, the Taves study was fundamentally flawed as described in the critique of his work (John L. Hilton, “Review of Ernest Tares’ Book of Mormon Stylometry,” [Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1986]), and therefore did nothing to add to or detract from their work.
14. D. James Croft, “Book of Mormon ‘Wordprints’ Reexamined” Sunstone 6 (March—April 1981): 15—21.
15. Significant assistance was received from Yehuda Radday of the Department of General Studies, Technion University, Haifa, Israel; Kenneth R. Beesley, graduate student working with Sidney Michaelson and A. Q. Morton, University of Edinburgh, School of Epistemics, Edinburgh, Scotland; and A. Q. Morton, The Abbey Mannse, Culross, Fife, Scotland. Personal communications.
17. Subsequent to our study of the works of two German authors, we extended our work to include three more semiclassical German novella authors, all of whom had been translated by the same German-to-English translator, Harry Steinbauer. All of our new measurements gave the same results as before: each German author’s translated work was internally consistent but distinctly different from all other translated authors’ measurements.
18. Not all translators need show these differing patterns. Some translators think their nonliteral “free translation” is preferable. Complete free translations could be expected to yield only the translator’s personal paraphrase of the ideas from the original text. In the extreme, free translations would produce only a single wordprint pattern for all of the translator’s personal writings and translations of different foreign authors’ works.
19. Typically between 40 to 47 of Morton’s 65 word patterns are measured often enough to be accepted as statistically useful. We therefore expected that true within-author comparisons show an average rejections number at slightly over 5% (i.e., .05 x 40=2) as we compared the two texts, at alpha .05 or 95% probability. Our results confirmed our expectations.
7 rejections (t=2.76) gives >99.5% confidence that the two texts are statistically different and therefore written by different authors.
8 rejections (t=3.39) gives >99.9% confidence that the two texts are statistically different and therefore written by different authors.
9 rejections (t=4.02) gives >99.99% confidence that the two texts are statistically different and therefore written by different authors.
10 rejections (t=4.64) gives > 99.997% confidence that the two texts are statistically different and therefore written by different authors.
21. Furthermore, because the data are categorical and in a statistical sense (approximately) independent, the probability is vanishingly small that Nephi and Alma could have had the same author in spite of all four texts measuring with high rejections. The combined probability would approach 1.3 x 10-14. (This calculation is simply the product of each of the four probabilities for same authorship—one minus the probability for different authorship reported above—which would be .005 x .001 x .0001 x .00003 = 1.3 x 10-14.) Approximate independence of the four paired-test texts is assumed, as is customary in wordprinting (see A. Q. Morton, 154—5, n. 7). This approximate simultaneous calculation shows an enormous statistical overkill, demonstrating overwhelming statistical separation between the didactic writings of the purported Book of Mormon authors Nephi and Alma.
22. Care was taken to insure that the texts used to represent the free-flow writing of Oliver Cowdery, Solomon Spaulding, and Joseph Smith were correctly chosen for minimal editorial rework and that they were correctly entered into the computer. In the case of Joseph Smith two of the three 5000-word files were taken from his own autobiographic writings, the third from the earliest version of his dictated work used for Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:1—75. Solomon Spaulding was sampled from a certified transcript of his manuscript labeled “Manuscript Story.” Oliver Cowdery is represented from bylined articles taken from numbers of the Kirtland, Ohio, newspaper Messenger and Advocate printed during the time he was the active editor. | 2019-04-25T06:39:24Z | https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1099&index=12 |
Eon Kid is based in a world that was once ruled by robots, however a long time ago a great hero used an item called the “Fist of Eon” to destroy their leader. Now the robots and humans have made peace, mostly, but the world is still in disarray. Some new villains are on the rise along with a new villainous plot. When Marty finds the Fist of Eon, as well as the task of saving his new friend Ally, he discovers his part to play in resolving this quickly building threat.
While the basic premise and storyline of this cartoon is fairly interesting and solid. I found that the problem I had with this show was the way in which it was presented. Not only was the animation amateurish in appearance and the voice acting lacking, but there were many moments added into the show that may have been designed for comic relief, but that I found were quite tedious. It may be okay for young children, however for the regular person, some of the humour is a bit dry.
The characters were your average cookie cutter ones, I found. Although this is usually to be expected in a children’s cartoon, I still found it to be quite a shame.
I wouldn’t recommend this cartoon, it was mediocre at best.
This time I decided to draw Renji from Bleach. I think I’ve gotten better.
It’s still a little rough, however it’s a huge improvement.
I’ve shown the basic sketch and the coloured in version.
I decided to try making art digitally. As you can see, my first attempt wasn’t very good. I didn’t really have a character in mind when I made it, which was probably a big mistake.
I was also playing around a bit with software to see what I could do.
I realised after I made it, that it looked a bit like one of those eyeball youkai from anime, if they were wearing a festival mask that looked like a human face… I may need more practice/focus.
The world is ending, Hibiki and his friends must not only fight against the looming creatures threatening humanity. They must also decide what they’re fighting for. This is actually based on a video game, and is in my opinion one of the best adaptations I have ever seen.
I am a huge fan of this anime, it’s the first anime I actually watched, and is the reason why I’m such a fan of the medium in general.
The storyline is fairly good. It doesn’t have the best one ever written, but it’s pretty solid and the ending is very well done. The action scenes are epic. One of the best things about this show is the group of five main characters. Hibiki, Daichi, Nitta, Alcor and Yamato. Their backstories, personalities and the way in which they all interact is what makes this show truly special in my opinion.
This is one of the few reviews in which I’m actually going to mention the ending theme. This ending theme is one of the best I’ve ever seen. It is the same sequence each time, where you see all the characters from the show walking casually, scattered around a regular patch of cityscape both before and after the event. However, whenever a character dies in the show they disappear from the ending. The final ending is the most important one to watch. I won’t spoil it though!
Yuki Nagato really did disappear!
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki – Chan is a spinoff of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is a spinoff of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
This was simply a miracle, in my review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I mentioned that I wished that they would’ve spent more time focusing on Nagato. Well, I found this and was really pleased.
After watching, I did really enjoy it, however I am a little disappointed by how far from the original Yuki the main character was. They were a different person completely.
The art style was also drastically different, which didn’t bother me much.
However, I still thought the story and characters were really well written and fun to watch despite deviations from the original.
I look forward to seeing the rest of this show.
A lot of reviewers have mentioned that they were disappointed with the “boring” slice of life appearance of this show, however I predict that supernatural elements will turn up at some point. I just can’t believe that it will stay the way it is.
To me it feels like the writer has been trying to make it seem like an overly normal slice of life for a reason. If the supernatural elements appear as I think they will, my extremely high opinion of this show will climb even higher. If not I’ll be somewhat disappointed.
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is a spinoff movie, of and occurring after the series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. They are sequential, so you have to watch the series before watching the movie or it won’t make sense.
I loved this movie, I couldn’t stand the series but I really love the movie!
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya depicts a situation where Kyon wakes up to find everything and everyone he knows, missing or changed in some way. There is more to it, but I don’t want to spoil it.
Firstly, I loved the basic principal, such a creative and thoughtful idea as this is very unique. Secondly I was quite pleased to see all the ways in which it tied in to the series, I got a kick out of every one. Such a thing shows careful planning and forethought which really makes me respect the writer.
Mostly the characters were pretty similar to what they were in the show, and I mostly have the same opinions of them.
I noticed that the art style was different from the series, which was a little unfortunate. It wasn’t too bad, but I would have preferred it to keep the same art style, or at least for it to have only changed when the continuity between the show and movie is altered.
It was quite touching, and the truth behind it was a little predictable, but still had just as great an effect.
Whether you loved The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, or hated it, I highly recommend you watch this movie.
I quite enjoyed seeing the basic direction of this show.
I liked the way the characters had progressed and especially the way Naruto was still the same person (albeit slightly more mature). I would have been really disappointed if they had radically changed his character.
However I felt that the progression of the actual storyline was much too slow. I still don’t understand how the scene at the very beginning fits into the current timeline. While it will probably be explained later, it was still fairly off-putting.
Despite this I will probably continue to watch Naruto Shippuden.
This is a truly stunning anime, with an intriguing, but tear jerking storyline (towards the end). It focuses on Kujo, who finds a girl called Victorique on the top floor of his school’s library. He befriends her, and then finds himself caught up in an array of different mysteries, from murder to theft. Victorique solves them, however, the most important mystery is the one that’s surrounded her all her life. Everything depends on Kujo, and if he can rescue her from her fate.
This series has some really interesting characters, the main characters were very well developed and very likeable, both with extraordinarily detailed pasts. The side characters were all extremely quirky, although I thought that they didn’t spend quite enough time on some of them. Some of them became a bit confusing and hard to keep track of towards the end of the show. The last episode, however, resolved it all very well.
In conclusion, this is an extraordinarily well written show, which I recommend to anyone who doesn’t mind a bit of tragedy.
When I was first starting to watch anime, I actually heard about Naruto Shippuden before I heard about Naruto. I decided to give it a try, completely unaware that it was a “Sequel Show”. What I remember from when I started on this show was feeling very confused about what was actually happening. I waited for what seemed like forever to see if I would work out what was going on, but I still had no clue so I gave up on it for the time being.
Later on I found out that I had only waited for three minutes before I gave up! I was an impatient kid, wasn’t I?
However, this goes to show that it is much better to watch Naruto Shippuden after watching Naruto.
I later watched Naruto and proceeded to try Naruto Shippuden again. To find out what I thought of it, keeping checking this blog for updates. | 2019-04-21T11:08:32Z | http://theanimatedsky.com/2015/04/ |
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is “moderate” and “pragmatic,” while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a “radical” and “extremist” government.
These descriptions are all from the news pages of the largest and most influential newspaper of the Spanish-speaking world, El País, and represent its approach to reporting on the region.
El País claims Hamas leader is moderate and Netanyahu’s government is extremist.
The year 2009 marked a turning point. The newspaper changed its approach to the region with more balanced reporting. Tel Aviv ceased to be incorrectly identified as the capital of Israel and articles from the Middle East began to include viewpoints from both sides of the conflict.
Over the past year, however, El País has drifted back to its previous pattern, disregarding the voice of one of the parties in the conflict.
It is now rare to see the perspectives of any Israeli who does not sharply condemn his or her own country in the newspaper. For example, for the 49th anniversary of the “occupation,” El País published a series of articles, graphics and photographs over the course of a month that were authored by the paper’s correspondent, as well as other envoys to the area. Because these were not time-sensitive, breaking news stories, journalists had the opportunity to contextualize and delve into the background of the conflict. Yet none of the articles included a single voice explaining the situation from an Israeli viewpoint.
The day after an Israeli 13 years old girl was assassinated, El País dedicated its front page to the “Ravages of the Occupation”.
With the death of Hallel, there are already 33 Israelis killed in the wave of violence that began last October and which also killed two Americans, an Eritrean immigrant – lynched in Beer Sheba, having been mistaken for an assailant – and about 220 Palestinians.
The newspaper gives no indication that most of the 220 Palestinians were attackers.
When the newspaper does include an Israeli viewpoint in its reports, it is generally in the form of a press release or an official statement. This is entirely different from the frequent first-person testimonies and interviews with Palestinians or organizations representing them.
An exception to this is the newspaper’s citing of Israeli organizations that focus on attacking their own country. For example, Breaking The Silence, an Israeli-based NGO whose mission is to “expose” alleged war crimes by Israeli soldiers, invited journalists and executives from El País to visit the area, guided by the organization’s ideologically- biased point of view. This organization’s voice became a prominent one in the newspaper’s reports –mentioned in about twenty articles published in the last two years. But nowhere in all that coverage, did the newspaper mention the fact that the NGO is mired in controversy. There is nothing about the fact that the “testimonies” that form the foundation of the organization’s exposés are anonymous and unverifiable, based on hearsay, which gives rise to much skepticism about the veracity of the allegations.
Thus, the only Israeli voices given room in El País are those that reinforce an anti-Israel narrative.
Between the offices of the young Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely in Jerusalem, and the one of the historic Palestinian leader, Hanan Ashrawi in Ramallah, there are less than 20 kilometers, but the distance separating their political speeches is unbridgeable. Hotovely reflects the mentality of a broad sector of Israeli society that aspires to control all disputed territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Ashrawi, who has spent her entire adult life under the Israeli occupation, like most Palestinians, wields the international resolutions that protect the rights of her people, although they have not been fulfilled.
In fact, polls show that a majority of Israelis support a two state solution, while a minority of Palestinians do.
It is not uncommon to read opinion columns in the newspaper that promote the work of openly belligerent, anti-Israel organizations. Recently, the daily published one such piece followed by a request for readers to financially support UNRWA, an agency that caters exclusively to those they classify as Palestinian refugees, as well as their descendents. Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), an organization that boycotts Israel, was also given a platform in El País to spread its message. Both organizations were presented as neutral actors or observers – without any mention of their anti-Israel agenda.
El Pais asks its readers to support UNRWA at the botton of an op-ed. This call to action was removed after complaints.
One wonders, especially if he is Andalusian, what would have been our response had the heirs of the Syrian Umayyads decided, following the tragedy they are suffering, to settle in Andalusia, the homeland of their ancestors. It is not necessary to go very far to predict the violent rejection that this would have generated.
Of course, Andalusia was never the homeland of the Umayyads. But at El País, truth is apparently expendable in the pursuit of demonizing Israel.
In another example of uncorrected error, El País published a piece claiming that the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation provides no news because of a Knesset law forcing the channel to split into two departments (El País called it “segregated news”). This is false. The Israeli Supreme Court overturned that law and the channel did in fact provide news programming. The newspaper was alerted to the error but issued no correction, and the false information remains on its website.
At left, wrong information that can still be read in El País‘ site claiming the news department was “segregated” in KAN. At right, the Jerusalem Post explains this did not occur.
A special mention should be made of the partisan lexicon that is routinely used. “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” “1967 borders,” “illegal occupation under international law,” etc., all terminology that is generally avoided –for good reasons- in the mainstream English-speaking media.
, and which conceals from its readers the nuances and subtleties of the story.
It is important to remember that all binding agreements and resolutions call on the parties to resolve the conflict –including the territorial conflict- through negotiation. Until that happens, those territories are not (as they, in fact, never were) Palestinian. The 1967 dividing lines were simply armistice lines, never a border. The word “border” implies legality, political significance, and permanence, none of which applies in this case.
CAMERA`s Spanish department contacted the paper to inquire about their refusal to change the erroneous language, but didn’t receive a response.
Unfortunately, the combination of a narrow selection of sources (without fact-checking) along with the biased and unprofessional way of covering events taking place in the region is a very common phenomenon in Spanish media, but in the case of El País, the leading newspaper in the Spanish-speaking world, it is especially worrisome. Taking into account that Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world, the unilateral and misleading message that fills its pages on a daily basis reaches a good part of the global population. In fact, the newspaper defines itself as “the global newspaper,” and not in vain does it have its own “America” edition.
Reading the articles of El País conveys the impression that the occupation appeared by spontaneous generation, always framing it as the cause of the conflict. Actually, there is almost no mention of any responsibility that Palestinian leaders might have for the suffering of their own people and for the continuity of the conflict. In short, Palestinians are portrayed in El Pais‘ coverage as objects irremediably exposed to external action: always reacting to Israeli actions.
It is true that from time to time the newspaper publishes an isolated op-ed in which the author tries to show another perspective — perhaps an article about Israeli start-ups or one about the success of agricultural technology. But one wonders how many cherry tomatoes are needed to offset the constant rain of errors, distortions, and omissions like the ones that are disseminated to the massive Spanish-speaking population across the world.
A shorter version of this article was originally published in the Gatestone Institute.
Masha Gabriel Masha Gabriel is Director of ReVista de Medio Oriente (CAMERA's Spanish Language Division). Born in Argentina and raised in Spain, Masha monitors the Spanish-language media in monitors media from Spain, Latin America, and the U.S. and tries to ensure that reporting about Israel and the region is balanced and accurate. With a background in journalism, television, and film, Masha has intimate knowledge of Spain's journalistic world. In her previous capacity as director of a Madrid radio program, she interviewed journalists and politicians from around the world. | 2019-04-24T05:56:10Z | https://www.camera.org/article/why-spanish-people-get-it-wrong/ |
Sometimes, she says, she is out on Dublin bay in her Laser and wonders why she didn’t pick a team sport, asks herself why it has ended up like this?
There are no regrets, no second guessing her choices, no criticism of the sport she loves. Just passing thoughts on how things become the way they become?
How it is she ended up a solo sailor, alone for hours trimming fractions from her boat and from the wind and two stone from her body to coax her Laser to go faster?
Here in Dun Laoghaire they fondly call her Annalise, an Olympian who carries her status lightly. People know her name, know what she looks like. After Rio they hung a giant poster of her down the side of the National Yacht Club and each morning the commuters driving to into the city and the people walking the east pier, could share the pride.
Around here the Murphy is silent. She is simply Annalise like Sonia remains Sonia and Katie has always been Katie.
She says she is naturally gregarious and that doing it on her own, the hours on the water in Rio or Dublin Bay and recently in Lisbon, can get lonely.
Talking up her success and position in sailing is anathema to her and if she does, it is guarded and almost begrudging. She is tough on herself. She has anxiety about her ability, questions whether she can do the things people expect of her, will it all be a success or a big flat belly flop? And all this after Rio.
“I’m still the same person,” she says. “I don’t think the Olympic Games changed me that much. I still have the exact same fears that I had before.
“I’ve got a little bit more confidence in my sailing ability, but not that much more. I still have fears that that I’m not going to be good enough.
It’s an eternally searching position from a sailor who dramatically fell off the podium in London 2012, then turned a crisis of confidence into a silver medal.
When she knew everyone was watching to see if she would fall, she rose. Rio and Irish Olympic history now define her.
Still, the confidence wanes and grows with each achievement, the doubt an incitement to drive and build. Her internal disposition is a steady stream of self provocation. It never allows her stay still.
Today though, she has her eyes on the world and all of its water in the Volvo Ocean Race. The name alone is majestic in its breadth and sweep. From her solo success, Annalise has ‘crewed up’.
For almost a year, the boat will own her. As one of 10 she has now declared herself a team player.
“I get lonely all the time,” she explains. “I don’t really like being by myself. Generally I like to be around people, hang out with people. Chat away.
She has more plunged than dipped her toe into the high end of muscle boats, the Ocean going Volvo 65 designed specifically for the race.
No paint on the inside, just a black carbon canvas. Spare. “It’s dark downside,” she says. A coat of paint to brighten it would be another layer of weight. Too much.
All seven teams in the 45,000 nautical mile journey have exactly the same boat, one design and an allowance of two sets of sails for the entire race, a restriction to stop money talking too loudly.
The bunk beds are sweet, she says. They are rigged to a pulley system so if it’s rough the crew can haul themselves the whole way up and wedge against the carbon fibre wall, snug like a burrito on a grill.
It means in their four hours on, four hours off around the clock roster they don’t flip into the water sloshing around inside the sleeping quarters.
Prior to her recent stints of training she had never slept overnight on a boat. Whether it was racing her Olympic Laser, or against men in the foiling Moths, she has been successfully sailing, but until now it had always been a few hours on the bay then back to shore.
“I’ve only ever slept on this boat. I’d 48 hours, the longest I’ve been on it,” she says, coolly pocketing that challenge.
“Being thrown into this team is refreshing. It’s a whole group of people doing the same thing and all wanting the same outcome.
“It’s cool. It’s different. It’s terrifying, the whole race. It’s so hard. I think it’s going to make me feel that Olympic sailing was the easiest thing in the world. Not in terms of the technical preparation but in terms of the mental attitude.
The first leg from Lisbon in Portugal to Alacante in Spain is a sprint, 700 nautical miles, the same as around Ireland and only few days ride. Leg three, Cape Town to Melbourne is 6,500 miles and leg seven, Auckland to Itaja in Brazil may define their race.
It’s the longest leg and cruel, 7,600 nautical miles and almost all of it through some of the coldest, roughest ocean in the world.
The fleet leaves Auckland on March 18th and heads south past New Zealand’s East Cape and into the Southern Ocean.
Once far enough south they will turn and race from west to east, catching the low pressure systems circulating around Antarctica. There will be big seas. There will be big winds. And there will be icebergs.
Once across that vast expanse of wilderness the boats take on the legendary Cape Horn and turn north, following the coast of Argentina, Uruguay and finally Brazil and Itajaí.
“Excited. Terrified,” says Annalise of the challenge ahead. “Worried about the dangers involved in the race . . . I’m looking forward to what our team can do . . . we are young and enthusiastic.
“I guess my family are excited for me. They are definitely worried. But they’ve done mad things as well in their life.
For all of her wise cracking and underplay she is the most successful female sailor Ireland has ever had. Those who watch carefully know that her natural cheer is authentic and the gallows humour her way of deflecting from a talent and success that keeps moving forward.
Ocean racers are not Olympic racers. Like frontiersmen, mountaineers or free divers they bear the miles of endurance like battle scars. The moulded unadorned fibreglass interiors are not so much a disdain for comfort as preparedness for sacrifice.
She throws a pitying smile when hardship is mentioned. It’s as though comfort is the most virulent kind of serial killer. She is empathetic, benevolent and kindly to a land lubber. But unflinching.
“I think people have dealt with worse than not showering for three weeks. I don’t think it’s going to be a deal breaker,” she says calmly. “I guess we’ll all be smelly together.
“I feel it’s going to be the best thing I can do. This is the first time I have thought I could actually do professional sailing. It’s hard when you are just an Olympic sailor. You are so well skilled but if you want to get onto a big boat, to be a tactician . . . this gives me opportunity.
“I mean Olympic sailing is so hard and I’m hard on myself.
“I found it very difficult between London and Rio because I started to sail badly in 2014 and then my whole idea of an Olympic medal began to disappear. I thought maybe it’s not going to happen for me, that I’m going to work so hard over the next years and I’m just not good enough.
“I couldn’t even see the light at the end of the tunnel. All I could see was three more years. Do I have to do three more years of this? Feeling that I’m not good enough. That I’m never going to get to where I want to get to. This gives me a perfect 10 month break even though I’ll be sailing 24 hours a day.
The boat ‘Turn The Tide On Plastic’ has an overt environmental theme as well as gender equality. There is an even split of five men and five women. Most of the crew are under 30.
Veteran Irish sailor Damian Foxall is also in the race and part of the Vestas team. He has competed in five Volvo Ocean Races and won it as part of Groupama in 2011-12.
He also set a round-the-world speed record onboard G-Class catamaran Cheyenne. Kerry of course, he is a Derrynane boy gripped with ocean fever.
Foxall has fallen overboard in the race only to be picked up by a boat that was coincidentally taking the same course. In five-metre waves 1,200 miles from land, Dutch friend Hans Horrevoets was fatally washed away from ABN AMRO.
Death is there and all the sailors know it. But it is not what the race is about. It is an eye opening, life changing voyage.
“Oh,” Murphy adds. “I’m the medic too.” She raises her arm in the air to show the veins running from her wrist along the inside of her forearm and describes her efforts to insert a canella. The simple medical procedure becames a splatter movie with blood fizzing into the air like a shaken bottle of cola.
She recites the drill as if by rote.
“We have a camping gas stove. We have a kettle. Pour it into the freeze dried. Mix the freeze dried. Leave it to rehydrate. Eat it. Make sure you leave it for 15 minutes. Otherwise it will make you sick.
“It will be hard for me mentally every day to get through each day,” she adds more earnestly. “When you are on each leg you have to think that it is never going to end. You can’t be counting down the days. It’s an endurance test. You have to think like that. That’s mentally very hard.
Asked for five words that define what she is doing, how she feels about casting off and she gives back 59. Ideas and emotions swim in her head, almost in overload, banging off each other.
And off she goes rubbing her lower forehead for the imaginary lost eyebrows. Off she goes, infectious, self deprecating, talented, doubting, conquering. Off she goes to discover a new world.
The total distance for the 2017-18 edition will be 45,000 nautical miles and is the longest route in the history of the race that was formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race. It typically sailed a distance of about 32,000 nautical miles.
A total of 12,500 nautical miles will be raced in the Southern Ocean, a hostile, freezing environment renowned for boat-breaking storms and gruelling conditions. Most stages of the race range in length from 700 to 6,500 nautical miles. Port stopovers are usually less than two weeks in duration but there are also several ‘pit-stops’ of just a few days at key locations.
The fleet comprises seven teams while an eighth - for which a brand-new boat is available - did not materialise.
Out of 77 sailors, there are a total of 18 female sailors, the biggest proportion ever following a concerted effort by the organisers to ensure teams would be mixed. As an incentive, teams opting for an all-male line-up must race with fewer crew; none have taken this option. Teams are also required to have under 30’s included in their crew panel.
There are 28 sailors participating for the first time and 14 sailors across the seven teams that have won the race before. There will be 18 nations represented in the total crew line-up.
Annalise Murphy is one of several Rio 2012 Olympic medallists selected to compete in this race. Her inclusion required a crash course in offshore sailing including Sea Survival training, Yachtmaster theory courses as well as medical training as she is also the designated medic on board “Turn the Tide on Plastic”. She has not previously competed in an offshore/trans-oceanic race.
Ireland has been represented in the race on winning teams on three separate occasions. Cork sailor Justin Slattery won the race in 2005-2006 on board ABN AMRO 1 with skipper Mike Sanderson. He also won the last edition of the race with Ian Walker on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Kerryman Damian Foxall won the race in 2011-12 with French skipper Franck Cammas on Groupama, lifting the trophy on home turf as that edition of the race finished in Galway.
Murphy is only the third Irish woman to compete in this round the world race. Previously, Susan Kavanagh raced on Norsk Data in the 1985-86 Whitbread. Angela Farrell raced in the first all-woman team with Tracy Edwards on Maiden in the 1989-90 race.
Ireland has had two previous flagged entries in the race. NCB Ireland was the Irish designed and built 82-foot maxi skippered by the late Joe English that competed in the 1989-90 Whitbread race. Green Dragon skippered by Ian Walker competed in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race. Both projects were conceived by Galway’s Enda O’Coineen who mounted his own Vendee Globe solo ocean race entry last year that ended prematurely with a dismasting close to New Zealand’s South Island. | 2019-04-23T12:18:10Z | https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/annalise-murphy-racing-headlong-to-the-edge-of-the-world-and-back-1.3260854 |
Just a hurried note. We are all well and delighted with your bright letters. We are very busy with work and pleasure. Francis and Ella must tell you of their outings with your mother.
Your Auntie Aggie came to tea so that I do not feel quite free. She is working overtime at office until Thursday week and does not reach home until about 9:20pm and we only see her on Sundays.
Do you know anything yet about your volume for presentation to St Paul’s School library?
How you offer money? I will send a £1 next week but do not hesitate to let me know directly you need any, if it does arrive before.
We have had mild weather and much wet until yesterday when it turned over a new leaf. Yesterday and today have been bright and dry and consequently colder but not serious. We shall get it yet.
Our vicar devoted half of his sermon this morning to an idea I touched upon in the January Magazine - the apparent failure but real triumph of many lives. I felt flattered.
Another week I will try to get my letter in advance during the week. I might have done so yesterday but was rather rushed with other matters before the evening was over and did not do all I wanted.
Your aunt Maria has had another nasty attack of bronchitis.
and then it is payable only through a bank and if it goes wrong it can be traced and recovered. But for small amounts we do not usually care to give the trouble of paying the order into a bank. It is no trouble to tradesmen, - they pay in almost every day.
I shall hope to hear your health continues good hand that your work and your cocoas agree with you. We had to 3 bright days about last Sunday - then returned to rainy mild weather, - and today it has got cold again. The Sun however more than repays.
Cyril and I have been up at seven working before breakfast every morning. His algebra and trig: are rather difficult and though I can help a little, he wants even more. Still he finds it encouraging to have someone to discuss his difficulties with and I shall help him up to revision which is the most important factor.
Francis was later at her social last evening.
Ella and your mother have kept to the usual quiet routine.
Did you mean that 3/6 was charged for blacking the bike in addition to 2/6 for cleaning and storage? I should not have had it done. We could have put on enough black in 10 minutes at a cost of a few pence. But never mind. Learn by experience.
it is usual for us to confirm to the proverbial English custom of talking of the weather and the rapid passage of time. As I wrote a few days ago it is not surprising that the well worn topics occur to me most naturally. To date this letter February strikes me forcibly that the New Year flies as quickly as the old ones and then, looking out of the window, I noticed the rain falling as it did so freely last year.
Francis has just gone to Sunday school but Cyril has abandoned the idea of going to the Crusaders. I had intended taking your mother out but the rain was too bad. I wonder how it is affecting my daughters who have gone away and left me! I hope they did not suffer this morning. I shall be curious to know whether you have it much colder at Cambridge than we get it here.
This has been a quiet working week so that I have not much to tell.
Mr Williams preached his last sermon at St Mary’s this morning. He has left Huran Rd and I understand Mr Johnson is taking the flat. Mrs Heath is forming a working party for Lent and has asked your mother to assist which of course she does with some deprecating remarks to me.
It will be delightful for you if Mildred can come and see you for Commem: but I should think the journey would be rather expensive.
Are you still thinking of taking science for your second and third years at Cambridge?
We shall be interested to know how you get on with your time papers.
Sir Walter Howell, (photo right) - a man who entered the civil service by a similar exam to mine but seven months later, became Assistant Secretary Board of Trade died suddenly of angina pectoris (heart disease) last Wednesday. I had tea with him about six weeks ago and when he told me he was a bachelor I thought to myself I did not envy him with all his luxurious surroundings.
I suppose you do not get much time for reading fiction or news. The picture papers help one to keep up with the times quickest but I prefer to read a good article, or a good letter, or a good debate. The debate on Woman’s Suffrage I sent to Mildred. I wish the militants would behave themselves. If you are in favour of votes for women you need not trouble much as votes would not make much difference, - certainly not as much as they think.
I was very interested in your doings and understood them better when I saw the notice of the doings at Cambridge given in the Church Times. That you were disappointed with Bishop Gore I can quite understand. He is supposed to write better than he can speak. When I heard him I thought him rather tedious with regard to Suffrage for women. You know I am in favour of giving some of them votes but I am not enthusiastic and should not be ready for any sacrifice at the present time. After you have had greater experience you will hesitate about yielding to one side until you have heard all that can be said on the other. Mildred has been converted very slowly and reluctantly and consequently has deeper roots than if she had adopted the ideas very readily.
I don't often drop on your spelling but I may tell you Gymkhana is one word and has an h.
My view on Parliament and voting and laws is this - In cases of need people have to be convinced of the need for a change. If they are not convinced it does not matter who votes the laws won'tbe made and even if they were made they would only create opposition, - they would not work, - they would not be obeyed.
When people are convinced again it does not matter much who votes, the alteration is soon made if it works. But apart from that is no reason why a woman who pays taxes should not vote. One even might admit that in the case of man and wife they pay equal shares. But bringing in all the poorest and greatly increasing the electorate by adding all undesirables is not to my mind. What is to be gained?
Of course I should like to see degrees of the legal profession thrown open to women so that they might have a chance.
But don't let this interfere much with your Maths.
I wonder whether your weather has been like ours, mostly very wet and mild. Yesterday was exceptional, excellent, charming, dry, balmy, brilliant sunshine; but wet again today.
Cyril is not much at letter writing. He continues to rise early although was not very good last week. He had a good turn with the Scouts yesterday felling trees in some grounds belonging to Mr Carmichael.
Last Tuesday at the Whist Drive low scores were made by your mother, me, Francis & Uncle Satlker but Aunty Stalker took first prize. She got a lovely scent case or box. The Stalkers are coming for the evening tomorrow.
When do your .....? commence? - The first week in March? You will be able to get Mildred to help you with difficulties if she comes on the 22nd. I think she will.
Ella is having a contest for the Gym team that day & I have been wondering whether I will go. Francis says she will write to you during this week. You know Sunday is a busy day for her.
Do you want more money yet? Let me know when you do. Aunt Maria came over to tea with Aggie this afternoon & brought a picture of Grandma enlarged from the group. It is good when thoroughly examined but the veil spoils the first glance.
Aunt Maria says she is allright now. She will come to stay for a time next Saturday.
We are delighted when we hear you are in good health. Take great care of my precious daughter, and bring her home safely in a few week's time.
I was about to commence by writing that your great time had passed but I remember you have a great many times at Newnham. However one happy time has gone and I hope you will have many more in store.
Next Saturday a party is coming down and I expect Aunties Aggie & Maria. Your mother and Ella will be in the party. They are due to arrive at Cambridge at 12.40 and will go to the centre by tram and have lunch. You will have to decide whether you will meet them at the Station and lunch with them or meet them afterwards. Mildred took me to a very nice place where we had table d'hote I think for 1/6. Perhaps you would find out about it beforehand and also whether there is a Lyons or any similar place where they can obtain cheaper refreshments if they desire them. Then you will want a programme ready. They will want to see the Chapel at Kings and had better proceed there immediately as Aggie will be at the Chess Board from 3 until about 6pm.
I suppose you can entertain three at tea in your room and it will be well to have preparations made in the morning. I will send a sovereign about Tuesday and your mother shall bring more when she comes.
I suppose it will not interfere unduly with your studies as you ought to have a rest just before an exam. However if you decide you ought not to give up the time let us know at once so that we can arrange accordingly. I am not certain when they will return but probably about 7 when you go to dinner.
They must do all their sightseeing about the town between 1.30 and 4.30, and they will then be quite ready for rest and a cup of tea. You can then show them your college Grounds about 5.30.
Now for our record. Ella will have told you of her success yesterday. I must admit I sympathise with Godolphin. They did everything so well it was hard for them to lose. But they took it very nicely. It was a great pleasure for your mother and me to witness the display.
It was very delightful to have happy letters from you and Mildred this morning. They were the best of birthday presents in themselves. I am sure you know how glad I am to have your loving thoughts. Your puzzle tomorrow will be how to make the best of the time between 12.40 and 6.40. I think they (Mother, Ella etc) should take tram or bus into centre, go to lunch, then on to Kings' by way of such places as occur to you. Then gradually meander by way of the backs to College to tea.
Aggie has to be at the Boar's Head at 3pm to play Chess & may not be free until about 6. I think she ought to leave Newnham College until then but if she wishes to see it by daylight you must leave your mother & Aunt Maria somewhere whilst you take Aggie to and over the College.
You will howver be able to discuss matters at lunch.
I can only hope you may have sunshine. Best wishes for the Exam next week and for a safe arrival home. Your mother brings more money. She & I are just going to Brondesbury for the evening.
The enclosed catalogue came here some days ago addressed to you and Ella might have brought it yesterday. Anyhow it is no use here and it may be to you.
We were rather surprised last evening to see the travallers back home again so soon but very glad to hear such a good account of you. I hope the exam: this week will not kill you, - that you will not be very anxious about the result. It is only preparation for May or June. Have you decided what to do with your bicycle? There would be some advantage in bringing it up so that we could take it to pieces & thoroughly examine it & put anything right, but if you are only home for a month it is just questionable whether it is worth the trouble and expense. Do just as you like but let me know beforehand so that I can arrange accordingly.
I am hesitating what to write as I suppose you heard everything yesterday.
Mrs Balding is still laid up and has a touch of bronchitis but she has been assured that an operation for her other disorder is unnecessary.
I expect you know your mother and I went to the Revell's on Thursday and to Buff's on Friday.
Now I will wish you goodnight, - and that you may speedily pass your week's work and return to a haven of rest.
bracelet in commemoration of her 21st birthday. It is very handsome and she is very delighted.
I got very fagged twoards the end of the week and have not kept up the early rising with Cyril very well. We get some teasing Maths and shall be very glad of your assistance. He could go forward much more rapidly with a good coach. I hope you will take him on when you return although he is an awkward customer.
Ella keeps herself exclsuivelty to herself although I am sure she would do much better if she would talk about the history she is reading. It would help her to fix it in her mind. Both she and Cyril seem fairly well in health just now. The latter is keen on scouting and chopped down a tree yesterday.
Aunt Maria has a nasty cough through not taking proper care after washing her hair.
Roy Bennett has gone to Nottingham to work.
The new curate arrives tomorrow.
Your mother has been busy in trying to arrange for a home for her half-sister Polly & has found some difficulty but we shall surmount it.
It is shockingly late (11.20) so I must wish you Good Night and God bless you. | 2019-04-25T10:18:49Z | https://hooke.org.uk/index.php/hooke-history/george-archer-ellen-hooke/g-a-hooke-letters-1912-1914/hooke-letters-to-trixie-1913 |
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I've been sick with sinus infections, and anemia. So, I haven't been on much. God is always blessing me in spite of the setbacks.
Continue to pray for Toby and Hunter. Toby is my son-in-law's brother, whose wife died a month ago, leaving him with their 2 month old infant. Toby has heart disease, congenital, and is right now trying to pick up the pieces right now.
Definitely, do NOT listen to David. If you are on antidepressants and mood stablizers, it means you have been diagnosed, by a psychiatrist with clinical depression. Having these meds, and the doctor to prescribe them for you, is something to give thanks to the Lord for.
One thing that helped me tremendously, in addition to proper medication, is psychotherapy, with a licensed psychologist. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been proven to help with clinical depression, in addition to the medication.
One of the assignments he once gave me was to make a daily gratitude list, at the end of each day. My lists started small, but at the end of a month, my lists were extensive.
My father-in-law committed suicide when my ex and I were young, married parents. My ex was very deeply wounded because of it. His Dad suffered from clinical depression, and had been hospitalized three years earlier, because of a previous attempt.
One of my pastor's in lost his 18 year old son to suicide. There are no words you can say to the family members.
It's very important to pray for the family.
It's not our place to judge. Scripture says that believers are sealed, and our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Suicide does not break the seal, or erase our names. Romans 8:38-39.
Thank you everyone, for your prayers and love.
The viewings are Tuesday, and the funeral is Wednesday, at my church. My church is arranging meals for my daughter's in-laws, and the young lady's parents, who are not believers.
Jessi was 32 years old. Her husband has Marfan Syndrome, which caused him to need open heart surgery at a young age. He was reluctant to have children, but became willing knowing if the Lord took him, Jessi would be there to raise the baby. Poor little guy, he's barely two months old. Prayer for his poor Daddy.
Hugs to all. Prayers are so important right now. Family members are coming in from out of town, including from Maine to here in Michigan. Weather could be a problem.
I'm heartbroken as I write this prayer request. Please pray for my daughter, and her family, and her in-laws, especially Toby and baby Hunter. The Lord chose to take Jessie, Toby's wife, home to heaven today. Their baby, Hunter is only 7 weeks old. My 6 year old granddaughter was inconsolable for 20 minutes when her Daddy told her. Also, please pray for Jessie's parents and family. I'm not sure of their relationship with the Lord. My daughter's in-laws all know the Lord. Thank you.
Oh my, Darlene. That is just awful. Those poor children, and your poor granddaughter. My Mom stayed with my Father, after every violent, drunken rage, because she had no way to support us kids. Also, because, her parents, who were only common-law married, split up, with five kids between them. She swore her kids were not going to grow up in a broken home. Also, during the 60's, police didn't handle domestic violence calls effectively.
I know how hard it can be to sit back, and hope your children, grandchildren, are safe from potential harm. I'm so grateful I did not fall apart, when my kids were little, and would need stitches, or to be admitted to the hospital. It made me stronger, for the bigger challenges.
Darlene, I know how proud you are of your son. I feel the same way about my daughter-in-law. She appeared in the national tour of "Les Miserables," in the ensemble, and as an understudy for one of the leads. Last year, she appeared on the Academy Awards who, with the actors from the movie. She has also starred in many regional theater productions, as well as off-Broadway shows. I'm also proud of my son, because as an executive in Nielsen Corporation, he gets to travel a lot, which allowed him to see her a lot during her tour.
Monk: Any amount of alcohol can set me off, that's why my doctors won't prescribe me any cough syrups with alcohol. Nor do I use mouthwash with alcohol. Nyquil has alcohol, so I don't buy it.
Unless you've walked in our shoes, don't be so dismissive about such matters.
Thank you for checking on me, Lidia. I haven't been on the computer lately.
My dog is doing better, now that the snow's not as deep.
I'd appreciate prayer for my hands. I saw a hand surgeon, and he referred me to hand therapy. They made custom hand splints today, and I am to wear them whenever I am doing anything with my hands. I am just getting used to them. The doctor says if the hand therapy and splints don't help, he'll do cortisone shots in two months.
Lydia, I am praying for you, as you deal with these uncertainties. God is in control, and has you in the palm of His hand.
I'd appreciate prayer. The snow is so deep, and it has been so cold, my dog is refusing to go outside to go potty. When I do get him out there, he doesn't go. As a result, he is having accidents. I'm renting this house from my daughter and son-in-law, and they will be upset with this behavior.
Here in Mid-Michigan, we are in a state of emergency due to the amount of snow, plus freezing cold weather, we have right now.
A couple of weeks ago, this area was hit by an ice storm, and the entire town lost electricity, for almost a week. I was in Pennsylvania then. I'm just praying we don't lose power again.
Jed: I understand what you're saying, BUT, feel I must remind you that is why out Founding Fathers created THREE branches of government. The Judicial Branch's job is to rule on the Constitutionality of laws passed by the Legislative Branch.
If you believe YOUR personal rights have been violated, you have the right to appeal it, which I suggest you do. There are Christian and secular legal groups which should help you in that.
Please pray for me. I lost my MedicAlert bracelet, which I only need if something happens to me and I'm not conscious to speak for myself in a medical emergency. I've needed it since August 2006, and have only ever taken I off for surgery. I have never had that kind of medical emergency, but will be traveling starting Saturday, and won't be able to replace it till January.
JMarc: I thought Jesus said we were to pray in our prayer closets, not as the Pharisees do, in public. I see the prayer you posted on three separate threads, as just like the Pharisees' Take the log out of your own eye, before trying to take the speck out of mine.
Jed: I could be mistaken, but I believe the question means, have YOU, Jed, ever been arrested, or physically prevented, from practicing any of your FIRST Amendment rights.
Example: I once had a Sunday School student tell me that a teacher ordered her to go to the bathroom, and turn her shirt around, because it had something about the girl's faith in Christ on it. The girl went to the principal's office, and told her that she would get a lawyer and sue, because to be forced to change her shirt is a violation of her First Amendment right to Free Speech and Freedom of Religion. The principal agreed with my student. Teacher was corrected.
Karen: The stockings sound wonderful. I hope the party was a success.
Elder: I read, today, that the sign interpreter at Mandela's funeral was suffering a "schizophrenic episode." His exact words.
Shira: I know plenty of people, earning much more than I am, who voted for Obama in both elections. Not all of his voters are on TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, SNAP, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or Medicaid. A lot earn more than $100,00, and have college and graduate degrees. They pay their fair share in taxes, and donate to charity.
I'm going to research this to get an accurate demographic. I've done some research, but don't have all the information yet.
Darlene, I'm praying for your husband, and you. Please keep us informed.
I'd appreciate prayer. I've had pain in my hands for months now. I had x-rays done, and my doctor referred me to a hand specialist. When he read the x-ray report to me, I could not comprehend what he was saying. Translated, he ordered blood work and an x-ray of my left wrist. The blood work is to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, which my mother has. I'm not very happy about this prospect. Please pray. | 2019-04-21T12:14:25Z | https://christianblogs.christianet.com/cgi-bin/christianblogs.cgi?q=150594082014194&mode=viewmember&name=Trish |
Who never wears a helmet? And why don't you wear a helmet?
Organ donors I would assume.
I wear a helmet because I prefer my brain in my cranium as opposed to spread all over the highway. Fools ride without them.
No choice! ..................... But I would anyway.
I never have worn a helmet. I have one accident (not my fault) under my belt.
It's a tricky question because it seems to really polarize folks.
My reasoning is: Helmets reduce my peripheral vision and eliminate my ability to hear. Further, they haven't invented a neck protector. Any wreck bad enough to do that kind of damage to my skull is very likely going to break my neck anyway.
Like seatbelts in a cage, use of helmets or not begets controversy.
When I see those road signs that state, BUCKLE UP... I say YES, buckle up.
We motorcyclists DON'T need you ejected from your vehicle and hitting us riders.
The question is not tricky! As note above it does make folks take sides for or against. Yes, you do have to turn your head a little further to see and execute necessary checks. One of the wonderful aspects of the Gold Wing is the quietness of the bike which greatly enhances ones ability to hear.
I would urge you to do some study on head injuries and concussions to learn how small an impact to the head is required to cause damage. A helmet is not perfect nor is a seatbelt but both can measurable improve your chances for survival in a crash.
You live in a state with a mandatory helmet law. It's accepted that you do wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle.
If you're riding across country, who would likely remove their helmet when riding through a state with no helmet law? And why would you do that?
Always a topic that guarantees conflict and controversy . Almost as bad as trying to discuss the 2nd Amendment and gun rights with a left-wing radical , anti-gun advocate .
In my fifty-five years of riding ; this subject is a one ; or the other . With absolutely no middle ground from one side . And one side only . Those who support mandatory helmet usage seem to think they have the right to every other rider that they are dumb , stupid , ignorant , Organ Donors , sub-human knuckle draggers , and a plethora of other names , not fit to print here . Sad . Very , very sad .
I was heavily involved in the crafting of the Ohio helmet laws way back before many on this board were old enough to throw a leg over , and the one thing we sought was the "MIDDLE GROUND", that was acceptable to the riders , law-makers , and Insurance Companies . I think we got it right , cause there has been but a minor amount of tweaking to that law since . And I commend the tweaks . As they were directed at keeping new , and younger riders safer .
I am not against helmet laws . Just pious , holier-than-thou Hypocrites who would , and do "bag" there helmets as soon as they cross that state line into a helmet free state . But play the "I ALWAYS WEAR MY HELMET", and "EVERYBODY ELSE SHOULD HAVE TO , TOO" card at every opportunity . I see it every year at Arizona Bike week , and the Laughlin River Run . And please don't try to tell me that's just the H-D crowd . I've been to over a dozen ABW's and 20 River Runs . Not buyin it .
Simply stated . No ! I do not wear a helmet unless I am in one of those Blue-state , Nanny states where one over-bearing , over-reaching political party thinks they have the right to tell me when to think , what to think , and how to think . I've logged almost four million miles on a motorcycle and the only injuries I've gotten was the two accidents I was wearing a helmet . Neck injuries due to the weight of the helmet displacing and separating C-4 and C-5 vertebrae .
For all you folks who like to quote data , and safety reports , go way back to around 1973 and get the British data on fatal crashes in the U.K... If memory serves ; there were approx. 110 riders killed in a two or three year period . Over 80% of those fatalities were the direct result of spinal separation between the 3rd and 5th cervical vertebrae . Anybody want to take a guess what is the only item that touches that part of the human anatomy , in a motorcycle wreck ? The bottom of your freakin HELMET . We used that data in arguing our case for the Ohio Helmet laws .
Get over yourselves ; and let others live as they choose . "Let those who ride" --- DECIDE !
My opinion was asked for and I have stated it , clearly , and succinctly . If it offends you , that's on you , as I was highly offended by some of the snarky comments I've read in this thread . Brain-dead , Brain-bucket wearin morons who think they have a license to be insulting to anyone who disagrees with "their" point of view .
The word FREEDOM has a million definitions, this was one of them (slight RIP from Dragnet).
Ah, found it... "Unsubscribe topic"
Last edited by FM-USA on Fri Jun 30, 2017 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Always a topic that guarantees conflict and controversy.
That's what I was looking for!! A little bit of constructive conflict and controversy, to spice things up.
MANY years ago, in the bike shop where I bought my first bike, there was a sign by the helmets that said, "If you have a $10 head, buy a $10 helmet."
I think most riders, unless they have a good head bunt (like, say, Gary Busey) can revise that quote to a ZERO value helmet.
"Most folks who don't think they need a helmet probably don't."
As I recall, that was the advertising slogan for Bell Helmets at the time.
Don't worry about dying, you're gone. Don't worry about brain damage what's left of you won't care. But nobody thinks about the other injuries.
A number of years ago while out on a Sunday fun run with friends, I had a major malfunction at freeway speed. Long story short, after 3 months in the hospital I'm home and checking out what's left of my helmet. The entire left side of my full face helmet from chin bar to brow vent was road rashed severely (and not just the paint). Without my helmet that day, that ride, that instance, my face would be something from a horror movie today.
That being what it is, I will fight for your right to ride helmet free, BUT I will make you listen to my story before you ride off.
My personal 2 cents. The operator should have the right to choose, but not the passenger.
My reasoning, the operator has control of the machine and has the passengers life in their hands and skills.
At 17 years old, I had a pickup truck turn left in front of me. I went over the hood of the truck, more or less flipped in the air, landed on my feet - still doing 30+ mph, and immediately slammed face first into the road. I slid on my front for a bit (don't remember this, but my jeans were worn through to the skin in front), and then must have tumbled, because I distinctly remember sliding along on my back, until I hit the curb, head first.
I learned two lessons that day: 1) jeans don't protect at ALL against road rash, and 2) wear a helmet if you want to live. My life would have ended at 17 years of age if I hadn't been wearing one. The amount of damage my helmet took, while leaving my head completely unscathed made me a huge believer in helmets.
I always wear a helmet and not because of any law or political opinions relating to the laws. Most of the time I use a 3/4 because they are so much cooler. One of the prerequisites when purchasing is related to the peripheral vision argument. There are helmets out there that don't block your vision. I can't see the sides of my helmet except for the extreme lower portion. No blocked vision at all.
Since this thread is for those who never wear a helmet I won't submit this post.
I wear one 99% and am nervous if I don't. Took the grand daughter out last evening and she wore the helmet I use. Felt good in great weather but it was like eating clowns. Tasted funny.
Friend flew over a car three years ago. No helmet. Still blind.
Your math is a little off ; but close . I've been riding for 55 years and my motorcycle has always been my primary transportation . Many own motorcycles as a weekend recreational vehicle , but I'm not one of , "those guys" . For years ; my daily back and forth to work was 145 miles . Buy gas for a cage for that trip for a year . The only state I haven't ridden in is Alaska ; and I've logged a almost trans-Canada trip back in the days when you didn't have to have a passport to go there . And gas stops were not within reach of your tanks capacity . Phoenix to Cleve. , Ohio to Montreal to Calgary and back down to Phoenix . And people spent more time behind a set of "bars" , than a key-board . Couple of short trips into Mexico , just cause it was close , and not the political issue it is now .
I rode for the simple pleasure of riding . I've crossed country on Triumphs ; Ariel Square-four , Norton's and Honda's and like the catch phrase , it was about the ride . Had the pleasure of riding two Vincent's . A Black Knight and a Shadow . A Suzuki Rotary , and one of the first 750 Tridents in the country . I was a long-haired , dope-smoking , stretched front-end , chopper-ridin "Biker" , before "Easy rider" hit the big screen . And yup ! Even spent some days in some local county jails , livin the life-style . No big thang .....Don't mean nothin . Rode "Patched" , and solo . But I rode .
Pretty simple really. Should just be the rider's choice. Same with seat belts in my opinion. I always wear a helmet but it doesn't bother me if anyone else does or doesn't. | 2019-04-23T22:29:01Z | https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=38024 |
The Basques (Basque: euskaldunak; Spanish: vascos; French: basques, English: /bɑːsks/ or /bæsks/) are an indigenous ethnic group characterised by the Basque language, a common Basque culture and shared ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria), a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.
Basque in French and English.
Basco in Gascon and Portuguese.
The English word Basque may be pronounced /bɑːsk/ or /bæsk/ and derives from the French Basque (pronounced French pronunciation: [bask]), which is derived from Gascon Basco (pronounced /ˈbasku/), cognate with Spanish Vasco (pronounced /ˈbasko/). These, in turn, come from Latin Vasco (pronounced /wasko/), plural Vascones (see History section below). The Latin labial-velar approximant /w/ generally evolved into the bilabials /b/ and /β̞/ in Gascon and Spanish, probably under the influence of Basque and Aquitanian, a language related to old Basque and spoken in Gascony in Antiquity (similarly the Latin /w/ evolved into /v/ in French, Italian and other languages).
In Basque, the people call themselves the euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed from euskal- (i.e. "Basque (language)") and -dun (i.e. "one who has"); euskaldun literally means a Basque speaker. Not all Basques are Basque-speakers. Therefore, the neologism euskotar, plural euskotarrak, was coined in the 19th century to mean a culturally Basque person, whether Basque-speaking or not.
Alfonso Irigoyen claimed that the word euskara comes from an ancient Basque verb enautsi "to say" (cf. modern Basque esan) and the suffix -(k)ara ("way (of doing something)"). Thus euskara would literally mean "way of saying", "way of speaking". One item of evidence in favour of this hypothesis is found in the Spanish book Compendio Historial, written in 1571 by the Basque writer Esteban de Garibay. He records the name of the Basque language as enusquera. It may, however, be a writing mistake.
Since the Basque language is unrelated to Indo-European, it has long been thought to represent the people or culture that occupied Europe before the spread of Indo-European languages there. A comprehensive analysis of Basque genetic patterns has shown that Basque genetic uniqueness predates the arrival of agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula, about 7,000 years ago.
It is thought that Basques are a remnant of the early inhabitants of Western Europe, specifically those of the Franco-Cantabrian region. Basque tribes were already mentioned in Roman times by Strabo and Pliny, including the Vascones, the Aquitani, and others. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that at that time and later they spoke old varieties of the Basque language (see: Aquitanian language).
In the Early Middle Ages the territory between the Ebro and Garonne rivers was known as Vasconia, a vaguely defined cultural area and political entity struggling to fend off pressure from the Iberian Visigothic kingdom and Muslim rule to the south, as well as the Frankish push from the north. By the turn of the first millennium, the territory of Vasconia had fragmented into different feudal regions, such as Soule and Labourd, while south of the Pyrenees the Castile, Pamplona and the Pyrenean counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, Ribagorza (later Kingdom of Aragon), and Pallars emerged as the main regional entities with Basque population in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Kingdom of Pamplona, a central Basque realm, later known as Navarre, underwent a process of feudalization and was subjected to the influence of its much larger Aragonese, Castilian and French neighbours. Castile deprived Navarre of its coastline by conquering key western territories (1199–1201), leaving the kingdom landlocked. The Basques were ravaged by the War of the Bands, bitter partisan wars between local ruling families. Weakened by the Navarrese civil war, the bulk of the realm eventually fell before the onslaught of the Spanish armies (1512–1524). However, the Navarrese territory north of the Pyrenees remained beyond the reach of an increasingly powerful Spain. Lower Navarre became a province of France in 1620.
Nevertheless, the Basques enjoyed a great deal of self-government until the French Revolution (1790) and the Carlist Wars (1839/1876), when the Basques supported heir apparent Carlos V and his descendants. On either side of the Pyrenees, the Basques lost their native institutions and laws held during the Ancien régime.
Since then, despite the current limited self-governing status of the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre as settled by the Spanish Constitution, many Basques have attempted higher degrees of self-empowerment (see Basque nationalism), sometimes by acts of violence. Labourd, Lower Navarre, and Soule were integrated into the French department system (starting 1790), with Basque efforts to establish a region-specific political-administrative entity failing to take off to date.
There are three other historic provinces parts of the Basque Country: Labourd, Lower Navarre and Soule (Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa in Basque; Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Soule in French), devoid of official status within France's present-day political and administrative territorial organization, and only minor political support to the Basque nationalists. A large number of regional and local nationalist and non-nationalist representatives has waged a campaign for years advocating for the creation of a separate Basque département, while these demands have gone unheard by the French administration.
There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Autonomous Community (279,000 in Alava, 1,160,000 in Biscay and 684,000 in Gipuzkoa). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centers, are Bilbao (in Biscay), San Sebastián (in Gipuzkoa) and Vitoria-Gasteiz (in Álava). The official languages are Basque and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory under the Spanish constitution (article no. 3), and knowledge and usage of Basque is a right under the Statute of Autonomy (article no. 6), so only knowledge of Spanish is virtually universal. Knowledge of Basque, after declining for many years during Franco's dictatorship owing to official persecution, is again on the rise due to favourable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 33 percent of the population in the Basque Autonomous Community speaks Basque.
A world map showing the estimated distribution and concentration of people of Basque descent by country.
Miguel de Unamuno said: "There are at least two things that clearly can be attributed to Basques: the Society of Jesus and the Republic of Chile. Chilean historian Luis Thayer Ojeda estimated that 45 percent of immigrants to Chile in the 17th and 18th centuries were Basque. Over 2.5 million Basque descendants live in Chile; the Basque have been a major influence in the country's cultural and economic development.
A large wave of Basques emigrated to Latin America. Substantial numbers also settled in North America. In addition to Chile in Latin America, they settled in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Basque place names are to be found, such as New Biscay, now Durango (Mexico), Biscayne Bay, Sacatepequez, Antigua Guatemala and Jalapa, Jalapa (Guatemala), Aguerreberry or Aguereberry Point in the United States, and the Nuevo Santander region of Mexico. Nueva Vizcaya was the first province in the north of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) to be explored and settled by the Spanish. It consisted mostly of the area which is today the states of Chihuahua and Durango.
As a result of state language promotion, school policies, the effects of mass media and migration, today virtually all Basques (except for some children below school age) speak the official language of their state (Spanish or French). There are extremely few Basque monolingual speakers: essentially all Basque speakers are bilingual on both sides of the border. Spanish or French is typically the first language of citizens from other regions (who often feel no need to learn Basque), which maintains the dominance of the state tongues of both France and Spain. Recent Basque Government policies aim to change this pattern, as they are viewed as potential threats against mainstream usage of the minority tongue.
The Basque language is thought to be a genetic language isolate. Thus Basque contrasts with other European languages, almost all of which belong to the broad Indo-European language family. Another peculiarity of Basque is that it has been spoken continuously in situ, in and around its present territorial location, for longer than other modern European languages, which have all been introduced in historical or prehistorical times through population migrations or other processes of cultural transmission.
Basques have a close attachment to their home (etxe(a) 'house, home'), especially when this consists of the traditional self-sufficient, family-run farm or baserri(a). Home in this context is synonymous with family roots. Some Basque surnames were adapted from old baserri or habitation names. They typically related to a geographical orientation or other locally meaningful identifying features. Such surnames provide even those Basque whose families may have left the land generations ago with an important link to their rural family origins: Bengoetxea "the house of further down", Goikoetxea "the house above", Landaburu "top of the field", Errekondo "next to the stream", Elizalde "by the church", Mendizabal "wide hill", Usetxe "house of birds" Ibarretxe "house in the valley", Etxeberria "the new house", and so on.
In contrast to surrounding regions, ancient Basque inheritance patterns, recognised in the fueros, favour survival of the unity of inherited land holdings. In a kind of primogeniture, these usually are inherited by either eldest male or female. As in other cultures, the fate of other family members depended on the assets of a family. The wealthy Basque families tended to provide for all children in some way while the less affluent had only one asset to provide to one child. However, this heir often provided for the rest of the family. Unlike England with the strict primogeniture where the eldest son inherited everything and did not provide for others. Even though they were provided for in some way siblings had to make their livings by other means. Before the advent of industrialisation, this system resulted in the emigration of many rural Basques to Spain, France or the Americas. Harsh by modern standards, this custom resulted in a great many enterprising figures of Basque origin who went into the world to earn their way, from Spanish conquistadors such as Lope de Aguirre and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, to explorers, missionaries and saints of the Catholic Church, such as Francis Xavier.
A sprout of Protestantism in the continental Basque Country produced the first translation of the new Testament into Basque by Joanes Leizarraga. After Henry III of Navarre converted to Catholicism to become king of France, Protestantism almost disappeared.
Bayonne held a Jewish community composed mainly of Sephardi Jews fleeing from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. There were also important Jewish and Muslim communities in Navarre before the Castilian invasion of 1512-21. The Banu Qasi, a muladi dynasty descended from Count Cassius, even ruled a small predominantly Muslim Basque emirate in the Ebro valley for over two centuries.
Nowadays, according to one single opinion poll, only slightly more than 50% of Basques profess some kind of belief in God, while the rest are either agnostic or atheist. The number of religious skeptics increases noticeably for the younger generations, while the older ones are more religious.
Pre-Christian belief seems to have focused on a goddess called Mari. A number of place-names contain her name and would suggest these places were related to worship of her such as Anbotoko Mari who appears to have been related to the weather. According to one tradition, she traveled every seven years between a cave on Mount Anboto and one on another mountain (the stories vary); the weather would be wet when she was in Anboto, dry when she was in Aloña, or Supelegor, or Gorbea. One of her names, Mari Urraca possibly ties her to an historical Navarrese princess of the 11th and 12th century, with other legends giving her a brother or cousin who was a Roman Catholic priest. So far the discussions about whether the name Mari is original and just happened to coincide closely with the Christian name María or if Mari is an early Basque attempt to give a Christian veneer to pagan worship have remained speculative. At any rate, Mari (Andramari) is one of the oldest worshiped Christian icons in Basque territories.
Although the kingdom of Navarre did adopt feudalism, most Basques also possessed unusual social institutions different from those of the rest of feudal Europe. Some aspects of this include the elizate tradition where local house-owners met in front of the church to elect a representative to send to the juntas and Juntas Generales (such as the Juntas Generales de Vizcaya or Guipúzcoa) which administered much larger areas. Another example was the fact that in the medieval period most land was owned by the farmers, not the Church or a king.
The largest symbol of Basque identity in football is Athletic Bilbao. While there are other clubs within the Basque Country, such as Real Sociedad, Deportivo Alavés and CA Osasuna (the only club in La Liga that has a Basque name — osasuna means "health"), Bilbao's cantera policy has meant the club refuses to sign any non-Basque players.
Each April the week-long Tour of the Basque Country showcases the beautiful rolling Basque countryside.
In Navarre, Basque has been declared an endangered language, since the anti-Basque and conservative government of Navarrese People's Union opposes the symbols of Basqueness, highlighting a Spanish identity for Navarre.
As with their language, the Basques are clearly a distinct cultural group in their region. They regard themselves as culturally and especially linguistically distinct from their surrounding neighbours. Some Basques, especially in Spain, are strongly nationalist, identifying far more firmly as Basques than as citizens of any existing state. Others do not, feeling as much Basque as Spanish. Many Basques regard the designation as a "cultural minority" as incomplete, favouring instead the definition as a nation, the commonly accepted designation for the Basque people up to the rise of the nation-states and the definition imposed by the 1812 Spanish Constitution.
Initially Haplogroup R1b was theorised to be that a Palaeolithic marker, introduced when Europe was repopulated after the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 years ago. As such, Basque populations were used as proxy representatives for the "Palaeolithic component" in admixture studies that tried to quantify the extent of Neolithic diffusions. Such studies concluded that the main components in the European genomes appear to derive from ancestors whose features were similar to those of modern Basques and people of the Near East (or Western Asia), with average values greater than 35% for both these parental populations, regardless of whether molecular information is taken into account or not. The smallest degree of both Basque and Near Eastern admixture is found in Finland, whereas the highest values are, respectively, 70% "Basque" in Spain and roughly 60% "Near Eastern" in the Balkans.(p.1365 Table 3) This theory encountered inconsistencies even prior to most recent chronological re-evaluations. That R1b should be a Palaeolithic marker was an ad hoc assumption suggested by Semino et al. (2000) and propagated by subsequent scholars without further analysis. Higher resolution STR analysis of R1b lineages from other western European populations (e.g. Italy or Britain) show that their populations appear to derive from the Basque ones.
Several ancient DNA samples have been recovered and amplified from Palaeolithic sites in the Basque region. The collection of mtDNA haplogroups sampled there differed significantly compared to their modern frequencies. The authors concluded that there is "discontinuity" between ancient and modern Basques.
In 2015, a new scientific study of Basque DNA was published which seems to indicate that Basques are descendants of Neolithic farmers who mixed with local hunters before becoming genetically isolated from the rest of Europe for millennia. Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University in Sweden analysed genetic material from eight Stone Age human skeletons found in El Portalón Cavern in Atapuerca, northern Spain. These individuals lived between 3,500 and 5,500 years ago, after the transition to farming in southwest Europe. The results show that these early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to present-day Basques.
The official findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States America. "Our results show that the Basques trace their ancestry to early farming groups from Iberia, which contradicts previous views of them being a remnant population that trace their ancestry to Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups," says Prof. Jakobsson.
Among the most notable Basque people are Juan Sebastián Elcano (led the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe after Ferdinand Magellan died mid-journey); Sancho III of Navarre; and Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus. Don Diego de Gardoqui Arriquibar (1735–1798) was Spain's first Ambassador to the United States. Miguel de Unamuno was a noted novelist and philosopher of the late 19th and the 20th century.
1 2 "Diáspora vasca, la octava provincia" [Basque diaspora, the eighth province] (in Spanish). eke.eus. Retrieved 2 November 2016: There are about 10 million Basque descendants who continue to live for their language and culture.
1 2 V. inkesta soziolinguistikoa 2011 [V. Sociolinguistic Survey] (PDF) (in Basque). Vitoria-Gasteiz: Central Publications Service of the Basque Government. 2013. ISBN 978-84-457-3303-5. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
↑ "INE". INE. 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
↑ "Census 2000: Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question by Detailed Ancestry Code: 2000" (XLS). U.S. Census Bureau. 22 January 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
↑ "Basque". Britannica Online for Kids. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
↑ "Basque". Oxford Reference online. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ Totoricaguena, Gloria Pilar (2004). Identity, Culture, and Politics in the Basque Diaspora. University of Nevada Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-87417-547-9. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ "The Basque Paradigm: Genetic Evidence of a Maternal Continuity in the Franco-Cantabrian region since Pre-Neolithic Times". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 90 (3): 486–493. March 9, 2012. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.01.002. PMC 3309182 . PMID 22365151.
↑ "See EUSKALTERM, the Basque Public Term Bank, maintained by the Basque Government for these and other terms and their common translations". .euskadi.net. Archived from the original on May 10, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
↑ Douglass, William A.; Jon Bilbao (2005). Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World. University of Nevada Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-87417-625-4. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ "Basque Culture Day". Basqueed.org. 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
↑ Arturo Escobar Uribe (1950). Mitos de Antioquia. Introducción.
↑ "Sociolinguistics". Eke.org. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
↑ Gallagher, Brendan (27 February 2002). "France look to Basque prodigy". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
↑ Aierdi Urraza, Xabier (24 July 2006). "Routes to linguistic and cultural integration for immigrants in the Basque Autonomous Community". euskara.euskadi.net. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
1 2 3 Trask, Robert Lawrence (1997). The History of Basque. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-13116-2. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ Moreno Cabrera, Juan Carlos (19 October 2006). "Misconceptions about Basque". euskara.euskadi.net. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
↑ MITXELENA, Koldo, Apellidos vascos (fifth edition), San Sebastián: Txertoa, 1997.
↑ "Opinion poll on religion by GIZAKER" (PDF). EITB the Basque Country's public broadcast service. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
↑ Hadingham 1992. Note that Logroño is not a Basque town, but it was the see of the diocesis covering Zugarramurdi in 1610. The Spanish Inquisition rarely acted against witches, devoting most of its attention to Judaizers, Moriscos and Protestants.
↑ "Athletic Club sporting philosophy". Athletic-club.net. Archived from the original on 13 June 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
↑ "64% des maires basques favorables à un département Pays Basque". Maire-info.com. 2 Nov 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
↑ Resolution of the General Assembly of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, 13 September 2003 (Helsinki), on the situation of the Basque language in the Autonomous Community of Navarre. Reported in MERCATOR Butlleti 55: "Speakers of a regional or minority language should have the right to use their language in private and public life. Contrary to these principles, local authorities from Iruña/Pamplona (capital city of the Autonomous Community of Navarre in Spain) have been implementing a series of reforms to the Autonomous Community legislation limiting the use of the Basque language. Basque is the only endangered language in the Autonomous Community of Navarre..."
↑ "EITB: ''Basque parliament adopts resolution on self-determination''". Eitb24.com. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
↑ "Evolución de la identidad nacional subjetiva de los vascos, 1981-2006" [Evolution of the subjective national identity of the Basques, 1981-2006] (in Spanish). Euskobarómetro. 2007. Archived from the original on 22 June 2007: 33% of the Basque Autonomous Community in late 2006 identified as only being Basque.
↑ Li, J. Z.; Absher, D. M.; Tang, H.; Southwick, A. M.; Casto, A. M.; Ramachandran, S.; Cann, H. M.; Barsh, G. S.; et al. (2008). "Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide Patterns of Variation". Science. 319 (5866): 1100–4. Bibcode:2008Sci...319.1100L. doi:10.1126/science.1153717. PMID 18292342.
↑ "The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective". Sciencemag.org. 2000-11-10. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
↑ "Y chromosome genetic variation in the Italian peninsula is clinal and supports an admixture model for the Mesolithic-Neolithic encounter". Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 44: 228–39. 2013-01-30. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.11.030. PMID 17275346.
↑ Balaresque, Patricia; Bowden, Georgina R.; Adams, Susan M.; Leung, Ho-Yee; King, Turi E.; et al. (2010). Penny, David, ed. "A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages". PLOS Biology. Public Library of Science. 8 (1): e1000285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285. PMC 2799514 . PMID 20087410. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
↑ Arredi, Barbara; Estella S Poloni; Chris Tyler-Smith (2007). "13. The Peopling of Europe". In Michael H. Crawford. Anthropological Genetics: Theory, Methods and Applications (PDF). Cambridge University Press. pp. 380–408. ISBN 978-0-521-54697-3. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ Sjödin, Per; Olivier François (2011). "Wave-of-Advance Models of the Diffusion of the Y Chromosome Haplogroup R1b1b2 in Europe" (PDF). PLoS ONE. Public Library of Science. 6 (6): e21592. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021592. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ Levy-Coffman, Ellen (17 August 2006). "We Are Not Our Ancestors: Evidence for Discontinuity between Prehistoric and Modern Europeans". Journal of Genetic Genealogy. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ González, Ana M.; Oscar García; José M. Larruga; Vicente M. Cabrera (23 May 2006). "The mitochondrial lineage U8a reveals a Paleolithic settlement in the Basque country". BMC Genomics. 7 (1): 124. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-7-124. PMC 1523212 . PMID 16719915. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
↑ Grant, Bob (9 September 2015). "Ancient DNA Elucidates Basque Origins". the-scientist.com. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
↑ "Ancient DNA cracks puzzle of Basque origins". BBC.com. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
↑ "Ancient genomes link early farmers to Basques". phys.org. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
The Oldest Europeans, J.F. del Giorgio, A.J.Place, 2006, ISBN 980-6898-00-1. | 2019-04-23T04:22:05Z | https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Basques.html |
Just a point of information for some folks. Yesterday I was working on some other things in the shop and I saw my rear stock springs laying on the floor off the race car. Now I say "stock" because they are factory, but they are factory WS6 springs and, IIRC, supposedly the highest rate available from the factory based on the tag on the spring.
I made a little fixture in the press to see how heavy the springs were. When I was done, they ended up measuring about 170#/in deflection. I thought that was pretty light so I went to my spare parts bin and rummaged around and found another set of stock rear springs. I don't know what their spring number was and they are, most likely, off an '84 4 cyl/auto car. They measured at 145#/in deflection.
I bring this up because in parts of the thread people are talking about spring rates anywhere from 200 to 300 pounds, so people have an idea of what the stock springs actually were. When we did this conversion on the roadster a couple years ago, we went with 250# springs just on a guess because of the small block Chevy in the back. It is not too stiff, I don't think. I intend to run about 275# or 300# springs in the rear of the race car, with the stock front WS6 springs cut one coil and a spring rubber in each side, which should stiffen the front springs up by about 30% or so, give or take.
Sooooo... logically, 7 in threaded collars would allow more height adjustment? Most places ahve the same price for 5" or 7".
And 12" springs allow stock height, 10" springs are better for a moderate drop but still can be adjusted to stock ride height with 7" collars... or not? I want to make sure I know exactly what I need to get.
And are these in pairs or single wheel kits...? Because they only show parts for a single wheel on most websites, but I found one that said it was for a pair of wheels for about the same price as everywhere else.
and also, is this as good as buying a new coil-over kit?
Just got done converting the Koni's on the race car.
7" tubes, made to fit over 2" OD shock bodies.
I have over 2" of drop available to me with just the springs touching and unloaded. Total drop would probably be over 3" before the nuts got close to the base, maybe more.
Cut the perches off as close as comfortable with plasma cutter. Chucked the body in the lathe and turned the rest of the perch off. Turned the shock body top nut down so it was 2.050" which made took a few layers of paint off the body, maybe a little more than that. For those not familiar, the upper end of the Koni body is larger than the bottom where it bolts to the knuckle, and the nut that holds the seal in is larger yet. If you simply bore the tube out it would be very thin.
As it was, after getting the body to 2.050", the tubes would not slip over so I threw the tubes in the oven at 400�F for an hour and then they did just drop over fine. Anything over about 400� is going to cause discoloring of whatever color the tube is and if they're not high quality, it might happen at a lower temperature.
All of my parts came from Speedway Motors. They cost a little more, but if you buy more than $400 total, and I needed other stuff, shipping is free and they are overnight to me UPS Ground. They also only care top quality stuff.
so, how would i go about making an adjustable coilover? thats what i really wanna know.....how about an adjustable coilover-able to drop it 3 inches?
Just do what's outlined in this thread. Of course you're only going to have about 3 inches of suspension travel, but it's your car.
so how big of a sleeve/ring would i need to use to get that much of a drop?
and also, i heard that aluminum adjustable coilover's are bad, because the aluminum will seize together, is that so with this mod?
and one last thing-how do you adjust the height-with an allen wrench?
2" ID, 7" long sleeve.
So what else would you like to use? Any metal can seize, aluminum is no different.
The allen screw is to lock the setting once you get it where you want it. You need to look at the pictures in this thread and most of your questions will be answered.
what i mean to say here, is how much will i be able to drop it/lift it?
I built my own coil overs using Monroe Sensi Trak struts and the usual aluminum sleeves, QA1 12" coils etc. They were easy to build, and a little research on stock spring rates led me to use 250 lb/in. springs. They seem to be just right for the stock 2.8 V6 with a front sway bar mounted @ the rear. I thought of switching to 300 lb/in. springs just 'cause everyone seems to use them, but I think that they would "over power" the rebound on the Monroe struts. I'm happy with what I've built!!
Ok I am planning on doing this for my wife's car. I have 5 inch threaded collars that I got pretty much for free as I am selling the struts/springs they came on for more than what I paid for the struts, springs and collars. Now I plan on running 300lbs springs. I think I have 325lbs springs on my IMSA Held set-up and they ride nice. My problem is what struts to get. I hear that the KYB's are that great. But what else is there? I know of the Koni's. I have them on the IMSA Held set-up on my IMSA and they need a bigger diameter collar. Or is that just on the adjustables? Any advice is welcomed and appreciated.
This is based off the GM manufacturing prints for the springs as well as measurements taken by others. See the link above.
I assume you mean 1000 lb front weight?
Anyway, 1950 lbs rear axle weight is much heavier rear weight than a stock Fiero. An 88 Fiero is around 1550 rear 1150 front. Mine with a 3.4 DOHC V6 weighed 1650 rear. It's a heavier engine than the stock 88 Fiero engine. With that extra 400 lbs over the rear its no surprise you ha to up the spring rate! Stock 88 Fiero rear spring rate is 142lb/in.
Is anyone making these for sale? Just wondering since I have all the rear end out of my Formula and I need new struts anyway. I'm just wondering what the price difference is.
Held and WCF sell kits specifically for the Fiero. I think there are a few other vendors as well.
Thanks, but I was looking for somone who is building one of these cheaper alternatives - and selling it cheaper than Held and WCF. Even buying all the parts together would help me out. I never have enough time to get these things together.
Send me some struts and I'll cut/turn the perches off for you and send them back to you. All it will cost you is the shipping.
I imagine shipping costs will take the total price up to where the other finished coilovers are, but if I get in a pinch, I'll let you know.
You da man, John! Thanks!
Probably not, if you want new struts I could probably just pick up what you wanted, cut off the perches, and then ship them to you. Depends on what you want, it would save shipping at least ONE way. I've been happy with several brands. In my order of preference, they are Koni's, KYB, then Sensatrac's. Not surprisingly, that's also the order of pricing, most expensive to least expensive. PM me if you want to work this out. The Konis need a little more machining on the body and the 2" ID tubes have to be heated to almost 450� to slip over the belled top of the struts, but they DID go over the Koni's on the race car. It did take the anodized finish off of the sleeves though.
I also apologize for seeming to be a little short with you. I don't know of any steel sleeves being made and that would really be the only other material. You have to remember that it's not something you're going to normally change every day on a STREET car. It does get adjusted regularly on a race car to put wedge in the car, but normally once you set your ride height on a street car, you leave it alone. The threads are fairly coarse and while I'm sure it CAN seize, I haven't had one do it to me yet.
There are a lot of pictures in this thread and I don't know what else one could add to it, but if there is a particular step in the process you're unclear of, post it and I'm sure that someone can either post a picture or point you to one in the thread that you might have missed.
No matter what material, to drop the car 3" you are taking about 50% of the travel out of your strut and that translates into leaving about 3" of suspension travel before bottoming. It's also going to make the car extremely difficult to drive on the street through dips and over speed bumps, so be aware of that as well. You're also going to have to lower the front end a like amount, naturally, or the car will ride WAY nose high. a 3" drop on springs alone means some lowering springs (and I don't know of any of those that will give you 3" of drop) or cutting at least 2 1/2 coils off your front springs. That will put the suspension nearly on the front bump stops as well so they will need to be trimmed or removed.
It's your car, make it to your desire, but just consider the practicality of what you're doing while youre at it.
Thanks, John. I will check out the struts and other parts I need and get back to you. I also need to look this thread over a little closer to get a better understanding of how these go together - and where to get the other parts needed.
I want to do this one the 84 V8 Fino for sure, but I'm not sure if it is worth it on the 88 Formula because I may be putting it up for sale to fund the Fino improvements.
Just so you know, to use the 2" ID sleeves you almost MUST have a lathe to turn the tops down on the struts, the Koni's are belled at the top.
Yea i kinda knew that. I have a set on my IMSA but was hoping thye changed that. Guess not.
The rubber belt that he used can be purchased at Tractor Supply. I saw it there.
At this point you now have the spring removed by someone else unless you had the correct equipment/skills to do it yourself.
I tried using an impact with a 21mm socket to remove the top nut that holds the upper retainer plate to the strut shaft, I then had to use a 21mm wrench on the nut and a 10mm wrench on the shaft to remove the nut as the shaft spun with the impact.
The next pic shows the coil retainer "A" and upper spring perch "B" along with 2 washers and the 21mm nut.
The small bushing on the right is actually the center of the dust boot, it had seperated from the boot.
The next pic shows the spring, rubber cushion from the upper spring perch and the dust boot, all of which are no longer needed.
The next pic shows the bare strut.
You need to remove the lower spring perch from the tube and grind the top of the strut to the same diameter as the tube.
Just Dremel, file or grind the weld away to remove the perch, try not to put too much heat into the tube just to be safe and don't grind a hole through the side of the tube.
Don't you need a spring compressor? Isn't that spring a loaded gun at this point?
Those rusted things are small springs compressors people installe to lower their car without changing or even removing the springs.
The springs were probably already enough compressed by those to avoid the need to use a spring compressor here.
You are correct, to play it safe once you get the struts out take them to a service station and pay a couple bucks to have them taken apart safely.
What part number for the Sensa-Tracs? The ones I just looked at (for 84 Fiero) could not be modified for use. It had a feature at the end that couldn't be removed that was larger than the strut diameter.
If stock rear springs for a v6 are 142lb/in why are many looking for 250lb/in?
I just want some lowered and ride stiffness similar to stock.
I'm going to use 300# QA1's because I no longer have the stock drivetrain. I have a 4.0 Aurora with the boat anchor sized 4L80E.
Bump. Can someone explain? Seems 250# springs would be stiff as compared to stock.
From: Chatsworth, California; Clearwater, Florida, and Milwaukee, Wisc.
Imagine a stock spring with a rate of 150 lbs./in. of compression. Say total movement of the suspension is maximum 6 in. in full compression. That would be 900 lbs. of force to compress the suspension fully as designed. If you lower the car 2 in. you are left with 4 in. of total movement before fully compressed. To prevent the suspension from bottoming out prematurely, you would want at least 900 lbs. force to still be required to fully compress the springs. So your new springs would probably be rated at 225 lbs./in. as a starting point. Your street ride is compromised to some degree no if ands or butts. Spring makers have some tricks to moderate this but they increase cost and I doubt that is done for Fiero springs. We are after all, the cheapest hobby car owners in the known universe.
I understand. Thanks for the explanation!
Anyone else have problems getting this nut to break free?
Finally! PB Blaster, impact wrench, elbow grease. Finally got it. | 2019-04-22T14:03:10Z | http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum9/HTML/000018-8.html |
DD1, when in school, used to sing out songs on days and months. But, I have never probed her much or asked her to recite on purpose. For me, a child who has been reciting all day would recite, but is the meaning understood? No one knows better than the child herself.
Now, at home, she has tools to navigate through. With respect to days and months, she has some boards with names written and movable pointer. She spends time, little bit of time, may be lesser than the time taken to memorise the songs, to read the names written. She tries to make sense of what is written. She counts and numbers the days and months. She observes the sequence of days and months. She says what day it is even when she doesn't look at the board. She thinks of birthdays while analysing the sequence on months. She repeats all month names, moves a year ahead, tells her birth date, her age and repeat. She does more than just singing and repeating what the teacher has said.
All this, on her own, without any exercises on paper, without any questions from the teacher.
She was provided with resources and time. Nothing beyond that.
Time and the freedom to learn(be) would be the two most precious gifts that could be given to a child.
DD1 is fond of making shapes and structures with wet red mud or wet sand.
She made ganesh, ganesh's brother, noodles, peda and some laddoos for ganesh. She has occupied the puja area with all her stuff.
Since that place was needed for something, I had to clean up and we created this play puja room for all her items.
She said she needed a bolt to close the doors and suggested some ways for it.
Everyday morning, both DD1 and DD2 pluck flowers and place at their play gods.
She says both the ones she made and the picture gods are toy gods.
And, true that! real gods are within us. real gods are us!
How can a child intuitively do maths in her daily life without instructions? Read here.
DD1 counts. Everyday. Some items that she sees.
She has been adding single digit numbers in her mind.
Sometimes, when she seems to think long before coming up with an answer, I get tempted to show her a specific way to count. Yet, I refrain. I love watching her making her own way.
It is not a very uncommon method among school going children to count in the following manner: 3 plus 4 : take 3 in the mind, count four with fingers, 4, 5, 6, 7, answer is 7.
I wanted to see how else a child could figure out ways to count. I waited. I watched.
One day, she was into adding. Adding single digit numbers was done in mind.
Then came double digit with single digit. I kept watching. Say, for, 12 plus 5, she counted 12 with fingers and then 5 with fingers and again counted the total by repeating counting of fingers appropriately.
She again saw a similar one, say 14 plus 5, this time she counted 14 with fingers and continued to count starting from 15 with 5 more fingers.
Next, another, say, 15 plus 4, she just counted 4 fingers starting with 16.
Next, another, say, 16 plus 4, she mentally counted 4 numbers starting from 17 and stopped at 20. No more using fingers too.
So, you see, children find their way.
They are provided with resources, they come across problems, they find ways to succeed.
All they need is time. Not a drill by doing additions repeatedly just so the child solves problems faster than the rest. Once their mind is set free, it is bound to be faster. We, adults, even those who have hated Maths, manage to add those, that we come cross in daily life with ease. The ability will definitely be there. It is the system which demands to get things done only in a specific manner that has managed to implant hatred for a subject within the child. And everyone starts to blame the child for not liking the subject or for being lazy to finish or for being slow. All these labels are just illusions. Reality is that the child is capable of DOing.
In doing what the system demands, the adult might be successful in teaching, but is the ground for learning set for the child?
Joy of open learning lies in the fact that the child can learn the way he wants to learn and not the way an adult asks to.
Here is the post that has the same title as this one also relevant as a pre-read.
Since early days, I had some beliefs about life and thoughts that I been pondering over ever since.
1. We are all born with a purpose: To realise and to know our purpose is the first step that one can ever take towards achievement in life.
2. We are born free. As a child, we still remember the purpose of our birth. Gradually, our mind falls in the fears and threats of the environment and it succumbs to the external power, that is when we start to forget about ourselves, move far from ourselves and think of ways of navigating this complex environment filled with threats, fears and bullys. If one is still wise enough to stay close to the self, one gets lucky to still have the thought of 'knowing one's self' as one of his aim though not sure when and how it would happen.
3. A child who does exactly what an adult asks for, is either over-matured to know what was asked for, the reason behind it, do it and still stay away from the egoistic society OR the child has absolutely lost the power of thinking and deciding what he is here for and what he is being asked to do and JUST does it, for the sake of the adult involved in the situation. These could be very simple tasks to complex tasks. As simple as reading, writing to as complex as making decision to buy some item of personal use. In short, we tend to take our children farther from themselves when we try to succumb them to our fears, threats and bullys to get things done in daily life.
4. One can still invest in knowing about the self even without moving far from the society he lives in.
5. All pervasive god, universal energy, spiritual energy and the many terms that it has in the various sections of the seen and unseen world is all one and all within us. To KNOW this, REALISE this and ACT upon this are life's most important tasks. No, pleasing adults with so-called 'nice' behaviour is not something very important for a child. Obeying adults to finish the daily tasks is not something that is important.
"children were taught to show their parents obedience"
"vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience"
Do we wish to ponder, think and decide all by ourselves, may be, with a partner's guidance about things that affect us and immediate circle around us?
Do we wish our child to be obedient, lost his thinking skill completely and just keep saying 'yes' to an authoritative voice without even knowing what, why, how, when of that is being asked?
Do we wish to raise empowered children who can think, decide and act on their own, to the best of their knowledge, their experience and in the best interest of themselves and the immediate circle around them?
So, the terms 'obedience', 'child obeying an adult' are to be revisited by every parent individually.
And, no, being obedient is not one of the needed trait for a child.
8. Then I began pondering and reading about life after death, life before birth, birth and death and how they are perceived in various sections of the society. Starting from my pregnancy, I have started thinking and realising about how a child actually remembers her soul's journey and purpose of present life and how best to not disturb her intuition.
There is a lot more rotten about society than just education and we need to raise our children to question everything that is rotten about society, and they can only do that when they are supremely in connect with their inner selves. This is going to back to Hobbes’ State of Nature, and starting over from first principles. Allowing children to be at their own will and follow their desires also felt like an Epicurean way of living.
10. We could be non-judgmental and still resolve conflicts instead of being judgmental and labeling people, more happens for children. What is the reason to be judgmental on any person if not for all the fancy terms that a language holds and that the adult thinks he has a right to use them over little ones? Good, bad, beautiful, dirty, messy, clean, sweet, arrogant, timid, fearing, ferocious, over-powered, lazy, naughty, harsh, unmanageable and many more. Would an adult accept if the labels were thrown at him? Why do we treat children and adults differently?
11. So, what do we do to let the child still be close to his intuition and know more about the self?
Allow the child to be free.
Allow the child to make a decision.
Allow the child to just be without imposing rules.
Do not disturb the child's relation with his self by using labels, fear, threat, bully.
Child are curious thinkers until this authority dawns upon them to submit their inner nature.
This 'allow' that is mentioned in the above statements is not SOMETHING that we need to do as a favour for our child. A child acts according to his intuition if we back out with our rules, fears, threats, labels and just be with the child at the moment. May be, a little bit of facilitation is required at times. All that is needed is JUST BE in the moment. Nothing more, nothing less.
Experience the joy of living and let the child experience the joy of living. A child already knows how to enjoy living and is already doing it unless there is an intervention by an authority to not be so and be only in a specific way.
Can we be a little kinder to the little ones, please?
There are spiritual gurus who say, vedas are not to be learnt by rote. They are to be heard and recited. It is how it has been passed on from one to another.
If you look at how a child learns, a child who is not yet put in a system, a child who is still free to learn on her own, a child who is still free to be her own, you realise that it is exactly the same way as told by the guru. So how does it happen? It happens by nature. It is instinctive.
Learning does not come by force.
A child who has been (free)playing with numbers would some day intuitively understand that the sequence of numbers actually are so that next number comes with an increment of 1.
A child who has been playing with water will intuitively understand the concept of float/sink and many more.
And all this would not take much time if the child was really not bound by a system and instructions. We are so much used to following a system that we are baffled to even know that a child can actually learn reading on her own, not by rote, not by showing site words, not by memorising groups of words. And, we would start making statements like not all children are the same. Some need rigid instructions. Etc etc. Sorry, I'm not with it.
Every child is a genius. Every child is capable. Every child is capable of doing whatever the environment is asking them to. But whether the genius is nurtured or not depends on how much the environment around a child is in line with nature or her intuition. Children work by their intuition. The more you get close to their intuition will you see their intention behind the action. What do we want for the child becomes an important question to be asked for the parent.
DD1 has been away from a rigid curriculum for some time now. She is on her own. She chooses how she spends her time. She reads the words that she can, she makes an attempt at reading any words that she comes across. This, on her own, I do not usually ask her to read it out in an intention to test her or something.
I read a book by her side, she grasps the sounds of letters and meanings of words. If she cannot get the meaning right away, she asks me. If she notices that two words sound same but used in different contexts, she points it out so I tell her the spelling of the words(like chute and shoot).
She likes solving mazes and finding differences between pictures. So much that she creates mazes and draws two real life pictures for me to find difference (our home and neighbour's home with precise differences that even I never noticed).
She observes a lot. She analyses all of her observations.
She questions a lot. Though the questions are not answered right away, she knows she can look for answers or find out the answer.
She talks to older people, walks our neighbours dog, plays with children her age or older age with ease.
She does lot of imaginary play, which an adult could find silly, but she talks logic even in her plays.
We take public transport to local places. She sits/stands considering everyone's needs in the transport. She observes people, various kinds of people, various ages of people, what's happening on road, buildings that she notices, asks questions, identifies the road the next time we are on it. Public transport also involves a bit of walking so she is actually seeing the beautiful world around and not from within four walls of a vehicle.
She spends most of her play outdoors. So she gets the good sunshine that most of us adults and children miss out in our routine busy schedules.
She plays in rain, she plays with mud, she plays with sand, she creates play objects out of wet red mud. Red mud is proven to be healthy for the skin(it has the needed microbes).
She has been watching video of a girl doing classical dance so much that we got bored. But, one day, she did the exact same steps as seen in the video and still does it with ease.
She listens to me singing and sings beautifully in exactly the same tune (not by listening to the sound of a teachers cane, yes, I have seen music teachers doing this) so much that she is asked if someone taught her the tune. No, she learns, just by nature. I can recall incidents where I casually hummed tune of 3rd line of a bhajan and she sang out the line(at 3 years).
If only, there was no external force, judgement, labelling, comparison, force disciplining, punishing, threatening, bullying, bargaining and the many instructions on them.
She listens to me reading and learns the various sounds. I didn't have to show her flash cards with various combinations like ch, sh to make her remember their sound. She heard me read out many ch words, sh words and understood the sounds of ch and sh and not by flash cards.
She writes mails, letters, stories, lines whatever she wishes to write. She asks me for the spelling and she pronounces as she writes not upon my instruction, but by her very nature.
She keeps pondering over the number system. She keys in some big number in the calculator app and tries to know what it is. She, once heard, the term million and learnt about all number names. She can write thousand or ten thousand and numbers of the like.
She draws various things, many designs, some stories and even mandalas.
She does various pretend plays.
She grasps by all her five senses and learns.
All the things that go by complex terms like self confidence, self esteem, bold etc that the various coaching classes claim to impart the primary and middle school children.
If you look at young child, she already has all the confidence needed to accomplish her task.
Learning about self - physical, emotional, social and spiritual.
And many more that cannot be expressed by the five senses.
Life is not only about learning, reciting alphabets, numbers, rhymes, getting sticky stars, doing what the adult says, getting good grades, pleasing the teacher, pleasing the parents.
Life is much beyond what we see in the physical plane.
Life is about discovering ones own self.
Life is about living and not rushing.
Why do we bind a child to a system and a set of instructions?
Why don't we let the child be, just be, and grow just as nature has intended to. | 2019-04-23T00:56:14Z | http://www.nurturinglove.in/2018/08/ |
Learn how to make these healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles from scratch! They’re only 31 calories with no added sugar! With their sweet flourless and eggless cookie dough centers paired with the rich dark chocolate coating, they taste just as indulgent as ones you’d buy from a fancy chocolate shop!
Nearly every year, my parents host Christmas at their house. As part of the holiday preparations throughout my childhood and most of college, my brother and I helped put up and decorate their artificial tree with strands of rainbow colored lights and our massive collection of ornaments, always with festive carols playing through the stereo in the background.
On Christmas morning, we all stumbled out to the family room before the sun rose to gather around the tree and open presents. As my brother and I grew older and started sleeping in past 6 am, we pushed back the time by an hour or two (or more!) to let everyone get enough rest, but we always began with the stockings carefully laid out on the fireplace.
A small box of chocolate truffles! After unwrapping the container and peeking inside, we found three decadent truffles, each a different flavor, varying from purely dark chocolate or peppermint to buttery caramel or chocolate chip cookie dough.
I nearly forgot about opening presents… I was so excited to sample each one!
By the end of the day, nearly everyone’s truffles (not just mine!) had completely disappeared without even a teensy morsel of chocolate left behind on the wrappers. Although they all tasted deliciously sweet and chocolaty, the chocolate chip cookie dough ones were almost everyone’s favorite.
And now, way too many years later, I finally made a healthier version of them with these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles! With a soft flourless and eggless cookie dough center and a coating of rich dark chocolate, these taste even more decadent than the ones in our stockings that Christmas.
And unlike those originals, these healthy truffles contain no artificial ingredients or added sugar (just lots of indulgent chocolate flavor!), and they’re just 31 calories!
So let’s go over how to make these healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles!
You’ll start by making the cookie dough centers, and to make things as easy as possible, you just need one bowl to do that! As the first ingredients in that bowl, you’ll add a teensy tiny bit of melted butter, vanilla extract, and liquid stevia. Whereas many cookie dough recipes call for ½ cup or more of butter, this healthy one only requires 1 teaspoon. That really helps keep your healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles low fat and low calorie!
Also unlike traditional cookie dough recipes that call for refined granulated sugar, you’ll sweeten your healthy version with liquid stevia instead. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that contains nothing refined or artificial (aka it’s clean eating friendly!). It’s also highly concentrated, which is really important for this recipe!
To make this healthy chocolate chip cookie dough taste just as sweet as traditional recipes, you’d need to add around ½ cup of honey or pure maple syrup. Unfortunately, that would add way too much liquid to the cookie dough, and it’d be as wet and runny as muffin batter! That would mean you definitely couldn’t roll it into balls, let alone make truffles out of it.
So that’s where the liquid stevia comes in! Because it’s so concentrated, you only need ¾ teaspoon to sweeten your entire batch of healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. With that small volume, it makes them really sweet and the right texture!
Tip: I buy my liquid stevia online here because that’s the best price I’ve found, and you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine too!
Next, you’ll skip the eggs (to make sure your cookie dough is safe to eat raw!) and replace them with unsweetened cashew milk instead. This is one of my all-time favorite milk options! It’s thicker and creamier with a consistency similar to whole milk, and it’s just 25 calories per cup. Since many of my family members are lactose intolerant, I use it (and unsweetened almond milk!) all the time in my baking recipes. I’m obsessed!
After whisking in a bit of salt, you’ll stir in oat flour. Technically, oat flour is just really finely ground oats… But “oat powder” doesn’t quite have the same right as “oat flour!” So I never know whether to call these flourless or practically flourless healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles… But regardless, they certainly taste delicious!
Tip: I love this oat flour (or this one, for the gluten-free version!) because it’s so fine and powdery! You can also make your own at home. I show you how here!
Just remember to measure your oat flour correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. (← That’s the one I own and love!) Oat flour is much more absorbent than regular flour, so adding too much will dry out your cookie dough centers and make them hard to roll into spheres. I promise it’s worth taking the extra time to measure so your healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles turn out perfectly!
And of course, there’s one last component in the centers of your truffles… The mini chocolate chips! It’s basically impossible to make healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles without them, right?
Just one word of caution… You must use mini chocolate chips! Regular sized chocolate chips are too big and will make your cookie dough centers fall apart. If you only have regular sized chocolate chips, them chop them into smaller pieces before stirring them in. Also, don’t add too many mini chocolate chips—that will have the same effect as using regular sized ones, and your cookie dough centers will fall apart when you try to roll them into balls!
Besides… There’s more chocolate to come (you’ll dip them in melted chocolate later!), so you’ll still get lots of chocolate in every bite, even with the small amount of mini chocolate chips in the centers!
Time to roll! Working with a small amount of the filling (these are bite-sized truffles!), roll it into a sphere in between your palms, and place it on a large sheet of wax paper. If the cookie dough falls apart in your hands, it’s probably because there’s too much oat flour in the cookie dough. But not to worry! Just moisten your palms or fingers with a teensy bit of water, and try rolling it again. That’ll help the cookie dough stick together!
Here comes the fun part… Dipping your healthy chocolate chip cookie dough into melted chocolate! I always use high quality bars of dark chocolate, like Ghirardelli or Lindt.
Do not use chocolate chips! Those contain a stabilizer, which prevents them from melting as smoothly as bars of dark chocolate. I also haven’t had luck with “milkier” brands of dark chocolate, like Hershey’s special dark or Cadbury. Those are thicker and goopy-er (if that’s a word!), whereas the ones I prefer from Ghirardelli and Lindt melt into a really thin liquid. That thin liquidy texture makes them perfect for dipping truffles!
I use a panini press! I know, that sounds a bit strange… But here’s why it works!
After plugging in my panini press and melting the dark chocolate in the microwave, I fold a washcloth in half and place it on the metal top of my panini press. (The one I own isn’t sold in stores anymore, but this one is similar!) Then I put my bowl of melted chocolate on top of the washcloth.
This set-up keeps my melted chocolate warm and liquidy throughout the entire dipping process. When your chocolate stays warm and liquidy, it’s easier to work with, you get a more even coating on each truffle, and your healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles don’t have any speckles in their coating. The coating is smooth and gorgeous, just like what you’d see at a fancy chocolate shop!
Tip: An electric pancake griddle also works well, if you don’t have a panini press with a metal top like this one!
To dip each healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffle, you’ll gently drop one filling sphere into your bowl of melted chocolate. Using two forks, roll it around until it’s completely coated. Lift it out of the melted chocolate with one fork, and rock it back and forth between the tines of your two forks to let the excess melted chocolate drip off. Place your fully dipped truffle back onto your sheet of wax paper.
And for a fancy finishing touch, I added a sprinkle of this flaky sea salt onto the tops of my healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles! I found that it was best to let the melted chocolate start to set for a minute or two before sprinkling the salt. But that bright pop of salt really brought out the rich flavors of the chocolate and sweetness of the filling—and made these homemade healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles taste just like they came from a gourmet chocolate shop!
Although I may be biased, I definitely think these taste a billion times better than the ones we found in our Christmas stockings! 😉 And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 😊) I’d love to see your healthy chocolate chip cookie dough truffles!
These homemade truffles taste just like the ones you’d find in a fancy chocolate shop! They have sweet, soft cookie dough centers and a coating of decadent dark chocolate. Although optional, I highly recommend sprinkling a little flaky sea salt on top. It really brings out both the sweetness and richness of these truffles! Leftovers will keep for at least 4 days (if not longer!) if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Place a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper on a baking tray.
In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, vanilla extract, and liquid stevia. Stir in the cashew milk and salt. Add in the oat flour, stirring until just incorporated. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
Working with a small amount of the mixture at a time, roll into a bite-sized sphere. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
Working with one cookie dough sphere at a time, carefully dip it in the melted chocolate using two forks, and let the excess drip off by rocking it between the two forks. Place back onto the wax paper. If using the flaky sea salt, sprinkle a small amount on the top of the dipped truffle. Repeat with the remaining chocolate and cookie dough spheres.
Once all 24 truffles have been coated, place them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes (or the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes) or until the chocolate has hardened. Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
Notes: Any milk can be substituted for the unsweetened cashew milk. Make sure your milk is at room temperature! Cold milk will re-solidify your butter or coconut oil.
If you'd like to make your own oat flour, I show you how here! Any flour except coconut flour may be substituted for the oat flour. When substituting gluten-free flours, the texture of the cookie dough bites will vary (and typically be grainier).
I highly recommend using the liquid stevia! It’s one of my favorite ingredients, and you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too! I buy mine online here because that’s the cheapest price I’ve found. For sweeter bites, increase the liquidy stevia by an additional ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon.
You must use miniature chocolate chips! Regular sized chocolate chips are too big, and they’ll make the cookie dough centers fall apart when you try to roll them into spheres. If you only have regular sized chocolate chips, then chop them first. Also, do not add more miniature chocolate chips! Too many will also cause the cookie dough to fall apart when to try to roll it into spheres.
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy candy recipes!
What can I use in place of Stevia ?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Anna! I’ve actually covered this in the Notes section (located directly underneath the Instructions). I know it can be easy to miss! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try making these truffles!
Stevia is really concentrated. How much sugar or maple syrup is the equivalent to 3/4 tsp stevia?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Janice! I’ve actually covered what to do if you don’t want to use stevia in the Notes section of the recipe, located directly underneath the Instructions. I know it can be easy to miss that section! (Every stevia brand and product is slightly different, but the amount of the one that I use and link to in this recipe is the equivalent of 6 tablespoons of maple syrup. I don’t recommend substituting that much though — see the Notes section and my blog post above for more information!) 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try making these truffles! | 2019-04-22T11:19:37Z | https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2019/03/27/healthy-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-truffles/ |
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The Joshua Tree: Which patch? Dispatch.
**Authors note: I started writing this post a year ago. Hence the references are a bit dated, but the content is relevant.
At the behest of the good people of reddit, I figured I would talk a little bit about a recent issue that cropped up in Planetside 2: a runaway thread in our threading library that went mostly unnoticed and caused reduced performance.
However, the availability of hardware is favoring power by having increasingly larger numbers of cores. To take advantage of that power, you need threads.
Threads are a solution to the problem of trying to make a computer seem to do multiple things at the same time. In the olden days, threads didn't exist, but systems could start other processes by forking the process. This would create a copy of the process that could do different things without affecting the parent process. By being a copy, changes that one process made to its memory and variables wouldn't affect the other process. The two processes would still be able to communicate somewhat via IPC, but this is generally much slower than, say, setting a variable within a process.
But sometimes you want one process to be able to do multiple things at the same time. That's where threads come in to play. Since threads allow multiple things to happen "simultaneously" within the same process, you have concurrency.
I put "simultaneously" in quotes, because multi-processor systems of yore were generally limited to server-class hardware. It was uncommon to find a user's home machine with more than one processor. This means that the system could really only do one thing at a time, but it looked like it was doing things simultaneously because it was switching threads (i.e. things that it was doing) very, very quickly. These days, everything is multi-processor. My house thermostat is probably multi-CPU (ok, not really). The focus in hardware shifted from doing one thing very fast (higher clock speed aka GHz on CPUs) to doing many things pretty fast at the same time. The previous generation consoles (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) had three to four CPUs whereas today's console generation (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) have eight. My work computer has 12 "logical" cores.
Early threading involved creating threads for very specific tasks. For example, EverQuest II largely runs in a single thread, but creates specific threads for loading files, talking to the streaming asset server, updating particle effects, etc. Most of the time those specific threads are doing nothing; they're just sleeping. As the number of processors in a system grew, it becomes less practical to have dedicated, specific threads, especially when the number of processors in a system differs from system to system.
Let's take a break for a second to talk about a related topic. Synchronization is a big, huge, gargantuan topic wherein lies most of the problems with multi-threading. I'm only going to say a few words about Synchronization.
Nearly everything in the computer system can be considered a resource that must be shared: files, memory, CPU time, DVD drives, graphics, etc. What must be shared must be synchronized so that separate threads don't counter-productively stomp on each other. Process memory is probably the most often shared and problematic resource because everything interacts with it. Something like a file is fairly easy to synchronize because nearly every access of it requires a function call. Memory, on the other hand... For instance, here is an example of a function that just increments a number. What would the value be if you had two threads on a multi-processor machine calling this function 1000 times?
Hint: it's usually not 2000. Surprise! Incrementing a number is not an atomic operation, it's actually a read-modify-write operation. This is one of those things that makes multi-threaded programming so hard! To protect the section of code that increments the number, you have to use some sort of synchronization primitive, like an atomic intrinsic, mutex, spin-lock, or the like.
When you have more processors available, it makes more sense to break problems down in to logical tasks or units of work. Instead of having a dedicated thread to load files, now you just have a "load file" task. You have a "collect garbage" task. You have an "animate entity" task. Task, task, task.
This concept of tasks helps you to fill all available processors with work to do. Theoretically, if you can keep the task backlog full, CPUs will always have work to do. If you're using 100% of the available processors, you're doing the maximum amount of work that the system can do.
In 2009, Apple launched Mac OS X 10.6 with a programming API (libdispatch) marketed with the name Grand Central Dispatch (GCD). It is, among other things, a generic task execution system. You have a function or a task that you want to run in the main thread or a separate thread at specific priority levels, immediately or at a scheduled time in the future. You just take that function or task and throw it on a "dispatch queue" and let it run. Simple. Powerful. Efficient. I quickly fell in love with what GCD could offer when I used it for my iPhone game, Bust a Mine.
Fast forward to mid-2014. I became Technical Director of Planetside 2. The team was working on porting Planetside 2 to the PlayStation 4. Performance profiling was showing that the CPUs on the PS4 were slower than average CPUs on our PC players' machines, and Planetside 2 was still largely single-threaded. We started looking at threading technologies like Intel's Threading Building Blocks, OpenMP, and even the C++11 thread support library. However, given my experience with libdispatch and the approach of looking at the problem as tasks rather than dedicated threads, we decided to look around for something similar. We found xdispatch, a port of libdispatch to Windows and Linux (libdispatch was originally written for Mac OS X which is based on BSD). However, it had some issues: namely it didn't support the PS4 (few things did) and was based on a much older version of libdispatch. We began adapting it to the PS4 and it gave us a solid framework to start multi-threading Planetside 2.
We developed a threading sub-team on the PS4-on-PS2 project that had a primary requirement (increase performance) through two primary points of attack: 1) tune xdispatch to do what we needed and 2) adapt existing threads and operations into tasks that could be done concurrently. Ideally these changes would carry over to the PC version of the game as well.
Both of these facets were challenging. On the tuning front we discovered that part of the reason that GCD works so well on Mac OS X is because the kernel--the core of the operating system itself--is controlling the dispatch scheduling. We didn't have that ability on the PS4, nor could we get the information about how busy the system is! We went several iterations on how to deal with this, but eventually settled on working around this by setting up some guidelines--the standard dispatch queues would only be used for CPU-intensive work (calculation, animation, decompression, etc.) and we would limit them to the number of CPUs available.
The second facet was a much longer pole that would continue throughout the project. Converting existing dedicated threads and PS2's old job-queue system to Dispatch was easy and quickly done, but that didn't net nearly the performance that we would need to see to be viable on PS4. We would have to go much deeper. This would involve taking core aspects of PS2's main loop and breaking them into tasks--entity processing, physics, animation, rendering, etc. This is difficult to do with C++ because non-thread-safe side-effects are nearly impossible to find; we would have to identify everything non-thread-safe that was happening in the single-threaded code before converting it to tasks.
That was the song, right?
The reddit post that originally spawned this blog post sheds some insight on to a problem that still existed a year after the PS4 version originally launched. Namely, PC players identified that a thread would take a whole CPU, but they found that if they killed it, performance got better and nothing bad really happened (or was not immediately visible). This was found to be a bug in timers in xdispatch that, to my knowledge, still exists. You can read the above link for more technical information, but it had to do with bad assumptions in the PC port of software originally written for BSD. Shockingly, the problem also existed in the PS4 build even though it shouldn't have. It looks like the timer implementation in xdispatch (and the libdispatch version that it was based on) was functional but not very efficient, so we wrote a new timer outside of xdispatch and used that instead.
Still later, we finally got a handle on one of our long-standing (post-PS4-launch) crash bugs. This was a crash bug that we had never seen internally (see my above point about bugs becoming a statistical problem). It looked like a memory corruption problem, which just made all of the programmers reading this shudder in horror. Memory corruption is terrible. It is an evil problem and few good tools exist to locate it assuming you can figure out how to make it happen. But find it we did, and it was also an issue with converting systems to multi-threading. In this case, an 'animation complete' flag was in a data structure that was getting freed before the task performing the operation finished and set the flag. Since the memory was freed before the flag was set, sometimes the memory had been reused for other things, hence the corruption. This was a problem not with Dispatch itself, but with how a previously single-threaded operation had been converted to a task.
Most recently, we began hearing reports of 'lock-ups' and 'hangs' from PS4 players. This coincided with an update to PS4 SDK 3.500 (from 2.000) for Planetside 2, which, among other things, gave us an additional half of a CPU to use for game logic (with 2.000 the system would reserve two whole CPUs for itself, whereas after 3.000 it only used one-and-a-half). Because of this, we ramped up Dispatch (now a completely retooled version no longer based at all on xdispatch but based on a more current version of libdispatch) to take advantage of that half-a-CPU. Eventually we determined this to be the cause of the lockup, but for unexpected reasons. The game was not experiencing a dead-lock, but a form of live-lock; all of the CPUs were running threads, they just weren't making any progress. This was because of a degenerate case between the design of libdispatch and the PS4 scheduler. Basically, the internals of libdispatch (and our Dispatch library that was based on it) are lock-less--they are doing atomic operations rather than locking mutexes. Some of these atomic operations are loops waiting for conditions to be met, or multiple compare-and-exchange operations in a loop; they try to do an operation based on old information and retry with updated information if it fails. But the PS4 scheduler will not run any thread of a lower priority if a higher priority thread is runnable. We could end up in a state where a lower-priority thread would be preempted after it changed conditions for a higher-priority thread. This would cause a sort of priority inversion that would never resolve. Most operating systems will at least give some time to lower priority threads to prevent starvation, but the PS4 does not. Indeed the default scheduler for the PS4 is the FIFO scheduler, but even the round-robin scheduler will not run lower-priority threads. Our solution to this involved applying a progressive algorithm that would eventually put threads to sleep in extreme cases in order to allow the live-lock to resolve. Generally this might look like a slight momentary dip in frame rate or may not even be noticed at all.
Make sure your blinker is on.
We're always looking for ways to increase performance across all platforms. As other Daybreak games ramp up we're finding new ways to eke out increasing frame-rates and sharing that knowledge among the teams. Our internal Dispatch implementation is moving into other Daybreak titles and future projects, and it all started here, on Planetside 2. Efforts have been made to keep these types of changes in parity between the different games.
Forces a read for every access so the compiler will not look at the register that contains the old value, nor will it decide to optimize out the code as it never changes.
Using two volatile variables both reader and writer can use them as a mutex without the system overhead of same. That isn't always necessary if the threads communicate with pipes.
Also, I normally allocate memory from the outer-most process. Then pass a pointer to the structure instead of using globals. If two processes need to communicate then a message (or some such) is written to the blocked reader.
I learned most of my OS work on the job. We wrote a real-time kernel that ran on unprotected systems. No write protected memory, if you wanted it write protected we burned it into EPROMs. Took a board full of EPROMs to test the kernel in a system. | 2019-04-23T00:15:43Z | http://blog.joshuakriegshauser.com/2017/02/which-patch-dispatch.html |
The Shakespearean tragedy, Othello, was written and set during the mid 16th century. The play has set in Cyprus and Venice. Shakespeare intends to break the stereotype of black characters through this play. He represent the black hero of outstanding qualities, and it was hard on Shakespeare’s audience to appreciate the out standing figure of black, as they were familiar with the character of the black man as a villain. Moreover, Shakespeare expressed his desire for social by doing this play. Through out the play, considering the point of how a black mans kindness and honestly has been destroyed by the racism and sling of whites but it has yet be be proven beyong doubt that Shakespeare sympathises for blacks and this is my hypothesis.
The quote “I may profess due to the Moor my lord” by Desdemona. In this scene Othello shows his heroic nature when he stand up to Brabantio about his marriage to Desdemona. Here he proves that to be a noble character. People are more shocked by Othello’s appearance on the stage. When Brabantio says, “Where hast thou stowed my daughter”, Othello remains calm. This shows that he respects Desdemona’s dad and he thinks that her dad will stand by his decisions. “Her farther loves me; often invited me; from year to year – the battle, siege, fortunes that I have passed. There was a lot of difference between the ways he has described at the start to now. Although he has been accused by Brabantio and almost by the whole Venetian society he still pay attention to the tradition.
As well as he is confident in what he says. Compare to Othello, Brabantio was out of control this is known by his broken language, when he speaks. Even though he treats Othello with the lack of respect, once Othello got married to his daughter, he also turned to be a racism man. This has been proved when he looses his control. Shakespeare shows audience that Othello is contrast with the stereotypical view of blacks in Elizabethan times so now doubt this created considerable force from a racial point of view and the audience clearly stood by this. (WWW.Ebscohost.com)As Othello perform to be a very noble, charm and dignify character whereas the black people at that time expected to be villains with characters such as untrustworthy and anger. (WWW.Ebscohost.com) Othello’s good character only corrupted when Iago puts his plan of revenge into actions. Iago has mainly ruled with racism.
It’s not hard to imagine that Othello was probably Shakespeare’s most controversial play. In the play, Othello Shakespeare’s shows the audience a transformation of a barbarous black man into a respected soldier and nobleman. At the time this play was written, black people were only known as slaves. That is why there is a clear theme of racism throughout the play and it captures the audiences imagination. Society rejects the marriage of Othello and Desdemona, sees it as an act “against all rules of nature”(act 1.3, line 102). Society has no real reason to reject the marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Othello matches or even exceeds the other men trying to win Desdemona hand in marriage. Nothing separates Othello from “the wealthy, curled darlings of our nation”(act 1.2, line 68) except his skin-color. Iago, Brabantion, Roderigo and Emilia are all main characters that have racist feeling toward Othello. Out of these main characters Iago shows the most racist in the play.
IAGO: Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.
Iago even goes so far as to tell Brabantio’s grandchildren will be animals.
Roderigo also calls Othello racist names such as “thick-lips”(act 1.1, line 63 Shakespeare, 2004). Playing on prejudices, Iago provoked Brabantio to take action against Othello by sending out guards to catch him and put him in prison. Othello tells the audience later, “Her father loved me, oft invited me”(act 1.3, line 128 Shakespeare, 2004). All it took to change that was a few crude words from Iago to make a respected figure turn against a close friend of equal stature simply because of skin color.
Brabantio challenged the marriage by accusing Othello of witchcraft in front of the court. Brabantio was unable to imagine that his daughter would willfully deceive him and could not believe she would ever “fall in love with what she feared to look on”(act 1.3, line 99 Shakespeare, 2004) without the aid of spells. Brabantion suggest that Othello’s race makes him capable of these powers of BLACK magic. We have to ask ourselves, if Desdemona had eloped with Roderigo, would he be accused of witchcraft? The answer, if you have not figured it out by now, is most obvious. This event supports the idea of white purity equals goodness and that other race, such as African-American, represents darkness and evil. When cabining the blackness of Othello and the fair whiteness of Desdemona in marriage, the audience will see nothing but chaos coming from it. This seems to be the concept that Shakespeare was playing with. That White and Black natural can’t mix, which by today’s standers in society is considered very racist.
Everyone seems to think that marrying Othello was not a smart thing for Desdemona to do because of Othello’s skin color. All characters seem to see the marriage as becoming an inevitable failure.
In Act 3, scene 3, the audience starts to see the methods of Iago in progress to make Othello doubt Desdemona, by making him doubt himself. Following Othello’s refusal of believing that Desdemona has cheated on him with Cassio. Iago reminds him of his nature as an outsider and assures Othello that “I know our country’s disposition well”(act 3.3, line 204 Shakespeare, 2004). Making Othello believe he is an outsider, Iago can also makes him believe that he is lacking in the knowledge of Venetian woman. Iago is playing on Othello’s insecurities of his lack of experience with woman. Doing this Iago is forcing Othello to confide in him for advise about the world of woman. Facing losing Desdemona love to a younger white male is just too much for Othello to handle. Othello then sees the love between him and Desdemona as unnatural, “nature erring from it self” (act 3.3, line 231 Shakespeare, 2004). The audience then sees Othello make a reference to his blackness in a negative way and starts to compare himself to Cassio.
Despite Iago’s efforts, when Othello sees Desdemona he refuses to believe Iago, but the damage has already been done. As the audience will see, Othello returns to Iago to find “ocular proof” (act 3.3, line 363 Shakespeare, 2004). Othello is then deceived very easily by a thin illusion. After easily falling into this illusion he vows to kill Desdemona, without first confronting her. The ease at which Iago was able to trick Othello was frightening. Iago was able to do this by playing on his insecurities, which a large portion of is his race.
Richer than all his tribe (act 5.2, lines 345-346, Shakespeare, 2004).
All of this was brought about by Iago, but only because he was able to play on the insecurities that Othello had about his race.
Although Othello is not made out to be the cleverest and most cunning character in the play, he does have a certain wit about him that is uncommon among a European Moor. Othello is a romantic man who has won the heart of Desdemona, the senator’s daughter, with his stories of battles. Othello is also a hero whose life is full of good deeds. With all he has accomplished, he should be able to escape from preconceived notions of his race. But the play shows all too clearly how thin the value of his reputation was, in the eyes of others and to himself. Othello is an example of a noble black man at a time when black men and woman were not known except as slaves. The racism in the play reduced a black nobleman to a barbarous state, which everyone, at the time the play was written, expected. We can be critical towards Shakespeare’s use of racism, but we have to remember that racism was part of the culture in which he was present. So, it’s clear for everyone to see that the racial element of the play made the play very interesting and intriuguing indeed as an issue of race was created which is rife around the world right now. Without racial issues in the play, the play just would not have been the same. Judging from the entire play I now feel that shakespeare does indeed symopathise for black. | 2019-04-20T09:03:55Z | https://blablawriting.com/racism-in-othello-essay |
Tuesday October 23: I walk in the fog again this morning at our camping spot on Mineral Point Road outside Canyonlands National Park. So strange to see the fog in the desert when there is not even a river nearby.
After breakfast, I play viola and write in my journal in turns so as to get more out of each, send texts with pics to my kids, finish the blog I started yesterday, and do some editing on the next book of the Novels of Shannon series, Emperors and Exiles. Clifford is working on the next animation video for the CI website, introducing some aspects of the research in a way that is easy for folks to understand.
Wednesday October 24: Today features many of the same activities as yesterday, but no day is exactly the same. More fog, but not the same fog; more editing and journal writing, but different words; check texts and FB, sending and receiving messages different than yesterday’s messages; and play viola for awhile, but different vibrations than yesterday. Like the wind, never the same wind from one moment to the next, so it is with the stream of activities that are not necessarily noteworthy, but have value anyway.
Today is our last day here. Tomorrow we will be moving to nearby Dead Horse State Park to meet up with friends from Colorado. We have liked being here, but life on the road means moving where the weather and the situation takes one.
Sunday October 21: Clifford and I are boondocking with Cougar on Mineral Point Road outside Canyonlands National Park. Even though our original intention was to find a spot in Horsethief Campground, we are liking the view and the quiet of being further out on the road away from the busyness of the campground.
Today is spent at camp taking care of things that we need or want to do. I take photos, post photos for friends and family, and finish editing the revised Princes and Priests for my daughter, Ang. This is a big deal, as we are preparing her novel to be presented to a literary agent.
It is nice enough that I am able to play viola outside in the afternoon, alternating it with writing in the journal so as to play longer.
Clifford works on the animation video for CI for a good part of the day, but we also walk up the road to explore a campsite, now vacant, that we had seen from the road. It does, indeed, look like a good spot for a future trip.
Monday October 22: It is a pleasant temperature outdoors in the sunshine this morning, so after breakfast, I play viola and write in the journal on the sunny side of Cougar.
Clifford is working on the animation video for the CI website, but in the afternoon he takes a break and we go for a drive to nearby Canyonlands National Park. Even though it was nice outdoors earlier, by time we leave for the park, it is windy and jet trails mar the sky. But we go anyway, visiting the Visitor Center and then walking to the viewing point across the road from the Visitor Center. The view of the canyons with the La Sal Mountains in the background is quite spectacular.
Back at camp, we get the Suburban in place to tow Cougar out, as thunderheads are forming and the weather forecast shows the possibility of rain. The set up here was awkward and challenging, and getting out will have its own set of problems, particularly if it rains. Getting Suburban situated while the ground is still dry is a smart move under the circumstances. And indeed, there is rain in the evening hours.
Wednesday October 17: It is cloudy and rainy today and we spend the day at our campsite on Mineral Point Road near Canyonland National Park.
I take photos, send texts with photos to family and friends, play viola, and edit Princes and Priests. Clifford is working on preparing his CI lab notebooks for digital copying. While none of this sounds super exciting, it actually is what we want to do.
Thursday October 18: This morning I walk about taking photos of the fog. It is not often in these desert regions that I get to see such.
Taking photos, making business calls, writing in the journal, editing, playing viola, and blog writing fill my day, a good day for indoor activities with the high only 45 degrees. I start reading “Anatomy of the Spirit” by the medical intuitive, Caroline Myss. Clifford is working on video animations for the CI website, an interesting way to introduce certain papers.
Friday October 19: Frost on the ground this morning! Today is a Moab town day and off we go after making tea and coffee. We have breakfast at Denny’s, then run errands. We also spend time at the library with free power and wifi, which allows for downloading of bigger files, necessary for some of the work that Clifford is doing.
Back at camp, we find new neighbors in the spot right next to us; we are glad they found a place to camp. We have learned that it is fall break and thousands of people flock to the scenic camping areas of the country, like the national parks of southern Utah. We are happy to have found a niche to call home for a couple of weeks.
Saturday October 20: Another coolish morning, but after tea and coffee we go for a drive further out the road to look at other possible camping spots. There is a good one not far from us, should it be available at some future time. We are fine with staying where we are for the time being, however.
After a late breakfast, I edit photos, edit Princes and Priests, then sit outside to write the next blog (Sedona in March). Later I put the text and the edited photos together and publish the blog. We are lucky to have that much cell service when camped out in the boonies like this.
Clifford continues with his projects, mostly the animation, but also plays his dulcimer, and works with his ham radio. After dinner, reading and playing viola finish out the day for me.
Saturday October 13: It is 32 degrees, clear and windy this morning at Beas Lewis Flat, west of Capitol Reef National Park. The sunlight on the mesa at sunrise is amazing!
Clifford has been watching the weather forecast; a storm is coming and he figures we should leave. I want to stay and hike in the park as planned and leave after the storm, but my brother Rollie has had enough of chilly weather and is also ready to move on south. So, we pack up and head out, even though I think moving to a popular area (Moab for us) on a Saturday is a bad idea.
We arrive at Horsethief Campground outside Canyonland National Park in the late afternoon and sure enough, there is not a single site available. We keep on going out Mineral Point Road, as we know there is some dispersed camping about a mile further on. When we reach this dispersed area, we discover that it has been closed. We continue on and it seems that every available pull-out is taken. Finally we choose a spot that is small, hard to get into, and close to the neighboring campers, but the best we can find. We are barely off the road, the ground is far from level, and the sand is soft. It is one of the hardest parking and set-ups we’ve ever done, but at least we have a home for the night.
Sunday October 14: It is a windy chilly day here in this sagebrush desert. We had thought we’d move to Horsethief Campground this morning, but decide there really is no point in doing that since we are set up here now. It is very peaceful here and the neighbors left, so we don’t feel so much like we are crowding someone. And interestingly enough, we have better cell service at this location with the slightly higher elevation and a view of the snow-covered La Sal Mountains (cell service is better when there is line-of-sight to La Sal Mountains).
Since we are not moving this morning, I walk down the road to take photos, send texts with photos to family and friends letting them know where we are, redo the fire ring at the campsite, and rake out unsightly tire tracks. In the afternoon I edit, making good headway on the revised and updated version of Ang’s epic fantasy, Princes and Priests. Clifford has kept himself busy with working on video projects for CI, ham radio, and his dulcimer.
Monday October 15: It is 25 degrees outside and 34 inside! That is a bit chilly for an inside temperature, but we can’t run the furnace without electricity. Ah well. Making coffee and cooking a big batch of applesauce with the last of the wild apples warms Cougar up.
Clifford continues working with the video project and his ham radio set-up today, and I continue editing.
Tuesday October 16: Another chilly morning, but luckily Cougar’s living space is small enough that it warms up adequately with making coffee and breakfast. Today we go to Moab for errands and a stop at the public library where we can use power and free wifi. I post a blog of our brief stay at Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona on our way north last spring. Clifford always has research to do when the opportunity presents itself.
Back at camp, we have a late dinner, and even though it is near bedtime by time dishes and cleanup are done, I take out the viola and play for a bit. Sending texts with photos rounds out the day for me, while Clifford stays up to listen to the radio.
Friday October 12: The low last night was 32 degrees, but the morning is calm with some puffy little clouds against a blue sky, a nice day for an outing.
I make sandwiches and thermoses of tea, and then we – Clifford, Rollie, Ninja, and I – head off to Capitol Reef for another day of sight-seeing there. First stop is Twin Rocks, right alongside the highway, then Chimney Rock where we hike up the trail a ways. Photos can’t do justice to the enormous size of the mesas here.
Photos can’t do justice to the enormous size of the mesas here. If you look closely, you can see Clifford where the path drops off.
Panoramic Point is next and we walk out onto the rocks for the panoramic view of the colorful striated mesas, imagining the tremendous geological activity that took place eons ago to create such a landscape.
At the Visitor Center we sit on a bench to enjoy our sandwiches and fruit cups. While we are there, I cross the highway to get a better shot of the iconic rock formation.
After lunch, we visit Gifford House, once part of the original farm settlement, now renovated and operating as a living demonstration of the life of the early Mormon settlers. Pies, candles, soaps, and such are made and sold at this “home.” We visit the nearby orchards, 200 acres of fruit trees. One orchard has been designated as available for tourists to pick an apple. We walk through the orchard, but it has long since been thoroughly picked over, so my thoughts of eating a freshly picked apple do not come to fruition, so to speak.
As we head back to camp, I am able to get a few more photos of the scenic landscape through the open window, but no more stops.
Back at camp, dinner is sloppy joes. Cribbage with Rollie, dishes, and journal round out a very full day for me.
is Wednesday October 10: A very windy and rather chilly day here at Beas Lewis Flat west of Capitol Reef National Park. Too chilly for this early in October, in my opinion. Big hurricane, Michael, is in the gulf and hitting Florida, so guess I don’t have much call to complain.
Beautiful first light renders the landscape to the west an awesome rich golden color, but soon the moment passes and usual daytime color returns. I make my French press coffee and then go over to my brother Rollie’s rig where it is warmer while Clifford is still sleeping.
Later, Clifford and I go to the nearby town of Torrey for errands and the laundromat. Back at camp, I do some editing before starting dinner. After winning a game of cribbage with Rollie, I do dishes and then play viola for a bit. Start putting away clean clothes until I reach our pj’s, and then off to bed. The rest of the clean clothes can wait until tomorrow.
Thursday October 11: There was some rain in the night and this morning is overcast and calm. After breakfast, Rollie gets out his fire pit and we have a little campfire, but being outdoors is still kind of chilly. Some sun broke through for a bit, followed by more clouds and a little rain. Definitely a fall-ish kind of day.
In the afternoon we all go to Red Cliff Cafe in Torrey and have pizza, a fun thing to do on a chilly day. Back at camp, I continue with a reorganizing project that I started this morning. Rollie and I play music at his rig in the later afternoon before having a light dinner, since we had a big lunch today. Cribbage, dishes, and journal writing finish out the day for me.
Tuesday October 9: It is 32 degrees this morning here at Beas Lewis Flat Road outside Capitol Reef National Park, but it is not snowing and the blue sky shows off yesterday’s snow on the mesas. I make coffee and then go visit my brother Rollie for a few minutes.
After breakfast, Clifford and I make a trip to the nearby town of Torrey to pick up our mail. We stop at the market; it doesn’t have much, even for a small town, but there is a bakery in the back, so the bread is good and fresh. We get water and propane, and then we stop at the Visitor Center to use their wifi to check email and post photos on FB.
Back at camp, I make tuna sandwiches for a picnic and clear a seat in the Suburban for Rollie and Ninja, and then off we go to Capitol Reef National Park.
and then we rush back for the ranger program at the Fremont Petroglyph Site. We learn about the Fremonts, the Native Americans of the area who began incorporating farming into their hunter and gatherer lifestyles about 1,300 years ago.
We then drive to the east side of the park to explore BLM dispersed camping outside the park boundaries. Although we find several places that could be used, we like our spot on the west side of the park the best.
Back at camp, I make “breakfast” for dinner, play cribbage with Rollie, do the dishes, and then tidy up. Keeping tiny homes (RV’s) neat and organized makes living in a small space comfortable, especially when being full-time or nearly full-time nomads as we are.
Monday October 8: The overnight low is 36, but it gets colder and begins to snow by 9:00 this morning.
I go have coffee with Rollie, as his rig is warm, and then walkabout to take photos of the snow. Coat, hat, and gloves are thoroughly wet by time I return.
After breakfast, Clifford and I go over to Rollie’s to play music – a good day for it. Later I go for a longer walk up to the big rock feature on the north side of the road, and to the highway, to the rock quarry that is further in on the road, and back to camp. Quite muddy, but I picked my way carefully.
Rollie wants to get out, so I walk the road with him, again picking our way carefully so as not to get too deep into the mud.
We have homemade soup and rice for dinner, taking it over to Rollie’s so he doesn’t have to come out again. This chilly weather is hard on him. After we eat, we play music again. When Clifford and I get back to Cougar, we discover that the propane ran out while we were at Rollie’s. The burners were on low to keep the place warm, so now it smells bad in here and we have to leave the door open for fresh air in spite of the chill outside. Not he best way to end the evening! | 2019-04-21T18:23:12Z | https://quietwalkphotography.com/tag/boondocking/ |
The laboratory programs at Hennepin Healthcare are conducted under the guidelines of the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS, 5600 N. River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018; phone 773-714-8880). NAACLS is an international agency for accreditation and approval of educational programs in the medical laboratory sciences and related health professions.
Download the Medical Laboratory Scientist Application Form.
The Medical Laboratory Science Program is a nine-month clinical internship, from September through May, with intensive study in the areas of chemistry (including toxicology and instrumentation), coagulation, hematology, immunohematology (blood bank), immunology, microbiology (including parasitology, mycology, mycobacteriology, and virology), urinalysis, management, and education. Each area of study includes practical laboratory experiences, lectures and/or workshops, self-instruction learning modules, patient case studies, and exams. Students receive individualized instruction as they learn and work with teaching technologists in the laboratory. Students perform tests on patient blood and body fluid specimens and, under supervision, report results. General hours for the internship are 7 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. One to two weeks of evening-shift experience, from 3 p.m. -11 p.m., is included. Clinical enrollment is limited to a maximum of 8 students per year. An academic calendar is available upon request.
Upon completion of the program, graduates receive a certificate that is not contingent on passing a certification examination. Graduates are then eligible to take the national certification examination of the American Society of Clinical Pathology Board of Certification. The pass rate for this exam over the last three years has been 100%.
Download the Phlebotomy Application Form (PDF).
The Hennepin County Medical Center Phlebotomy Technician Program is a twelve-week clinical experience with coursework in medical terminology, quality assurance and legal concerns, safety and infection control, specimen processing, point-of-care testing, anatomy and physiology of the circulatory system, and venipuncture, arterial puncture, and skin puncture techniques. Students are also introduced to the healthcare environment, other healthcare professionals, and use of the electronic medical record. Lectures, laboratory demonstrations, and experiences, and technical evaluation are utilized for the learning process. The academic portion of the program exceeds the required 40 clock hours.
After initial experience with artificial phlebotomy practice blocks, students receive individualized instruction as they learn and work with clinical instructors. The first few weeks are concentrated in the outpatient setting. During weeks five through twelve, they spend at least four hours per day drawing in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. The inpatient experience includes intensive care units, burn unit, pediatrics and newborn units in a very busy Level I Trauma Center. The clinical experience is documented to exceed the required 100 clock hours and the required 100 successful unaided collections. There is also a focus on patient interactions and providing an excellent outcome and experience for our patients and their families.
This course is currently offered twice each year, once beginning in January and once beginning in September. The hours for the internship are 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for the first four weeks. Earlier shifts, starting between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. for weeks five through twelve will be required to ensure appropriate experience. These shifts will be scheduled with each student. This course is not offered for either evening or part-time hours. There will not be a class on the following major holidays if they occur during a course: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve Day, and Christmas Day.
Upon completion of the program, graduates receive a certificate that is not contingent on passing a certification examination.
Students are then eligible to take the national certification examination of the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification. The pass rate for this exam for Hennepin Healthcare graduates in the last three years is 100%. Although job placement is not provided, in the last three years 100% of HCMC graduates have been employed following graduation.
The Hennepin Healthcare Phlebotomy Technician Program is licensed as a private career school with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, sections 136A.821 to 136A.832. Licensure is not an endorsement of the institution. Credits earned at the institution may not transfer to all other institutions.
Biological Sciences: A minimum of 16-semester credits is required. The required courses are general biology, hematology, immunology, microbiology, anatomy/ physiology, genetics/molecular biology. Recommended courses include an introduction to medical laboratory science, medical or pathogenic microbiology, parasitology, and virology.
Chemistry: A minimum of 16-semester credits is required. The required courses are general chemistry and organic or biochemistry. Recommended courses include analytical chemistry and instrumentation.
Application forms are available from affiliated universities (in the MLS/CLS/MT Program), the HCMC program director, or you may download an application.
A complete application form, including signature form and biographical sketch.
The application fee is $50.00. Make checks payable to "HCMC MLS Program"
Official transcripts from all universities and/or colleges attended. Students must have a cumulative and science GPA of 2.6 or higher to be eligible for the program.
Two recommendation forms, to be completed by a science professor and the affiliated university’s MLS/CLS/MT program director.
HCMC tour: Tours are required as part of the application process. All tours must be completed by Oct 1. No tours will be scheduled after that date. Students may tour the fall, spring, or summer prior to applying. Please contact the Program Director for scheduling.
The ability to follow detailed directions correctly and completely is an essential characteristic when determining suitability for the laboratory science profession. A complete application is a requirement for admission and students with incomplete applications will not be considered for an interview.
A student must complete the pre-clinical curriculum or equivalent at an affiliated university with letter grades of C or better in each course. The pre-clinical curriculum consists of the biological science, chemistry, mathematics, and pre-clinical courses listed under Admission Requirements.
A student must complete a Minnesota Department of Human Services background study (as required by Minnesota state law) and receive clearance for direct patient contact.
A student must be able to satisfy the Technical Standards for the Medical Laboratory Science program at Hennepin County Medical Center based on existing skills and abilities, or through the use of corrective devices. A copy of the Technical Standards is included with the application form.
A student must complete the HCMC pre-clinical competency objectives for each major laboratory area. Students demonstrate their readiness for the program through responses to each of the stated objectives. The responses will be evaluated for completeness by the HCMC education technologists. Feedback will be provided to both students and their affiliated university in order to plan for improvements in the university curriculum.
Updated Pre-Clinical competency objectives, along with instructions on their completion, will be provided to accepted students in late spring for each upcoming fall program start. Further instructions on their completion will be provided at that time.
High school graduation or equivalent; college courses and related healthcare experience are not required but preferred (official transcripts required).
No transfer credits are accepted. No credit will be granted for any previous training in phlebotomy or related instruction. The entire course must be completed with passing scores to receive a certificate of completion.
Students with a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale (on their most recent transcript) will be considered first.
Download the application form. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this document. The deadline for submitting applications for the course that starts in January is November 15th. The deadline for submitting applications for the course that starts in September is July 15th.
At least two letters of recommendation from an academic instructor or employer sent directly to the Program Director, or in a sealed envelope.
A brief biographical sketch including a statement of interest in the program.
Documentation of a negative Tuberculosis screening within six months before the start of the program, if accepted into the program. It does not need to be provided with the application form.
A student must be able to satisfy the Technical Standards based on existing skills and abilities, or through use of corrective devices. A copy of the Technical Standards is included with the application form.
All application materials must be complete and received by the specified deadline.
The HCMC Laboratories provide comprehensive laboratory services in Clinical and Anatomic Pathology. The state-of-the-art laboratories are staffed by more than 180 FTEs, plus 10 medical staff members (pathologists/PhDs), who perform and analyze more than 3 million lab tests per year. The central lab supports several ancillary labs (off-site and on-site clinics and point-of-care settings), offering students outstanding educational environments in both large and small laboratory settings. | 2019-04-21T05:16:01Z | https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/for-medical-professionals/laboratory-education/ |
One of my daughters is an esthetician, and as she studied for her state certification so she could be sanctioned by Sacramento as worthy to give facials and wax eyebrows, she had to learn two completely separate and conflicting approaches to her chosen work. First, she learned how to give facials and wax eyebrows. Then she learned how to pass the California’s esthetician certification exam, which is based on practices no one uses anymore and maybe never did.
I thought of her experience on Friday afternoon as I found myself in a conference room with several other business people, trying as hard as we could to share our point of view about how to fix what ails California with two representatives of California Forward, the outfit that brought us open primaries and new state budgets on a simple majority vote. They’re cooking up some new reforms that made me so frustrated I could have ripped out my eyebrows – if I didn’t have a daughter who knew how to wax them. At the same time in Sacramento, a group of state employees was in another conference room with another group of California Forward representatives, sharing their perspective of the same topic. I have a feeling they had a much easier time of it.
The two meetings were part of California Forward’s current effort to gather input from all over the state so it can by synthesized into a new model for governing California, one that would fix things for good, with consensus support. Or, as the group puts it on its Web site, “We want a government that is small enough to listen, big enough to tackle real problems, smart enough to spend our money wisely, and honest enough to be held accountable for results.” Good luck with that – especially that last bit about honesty and accountability. After all, we live in the state that designed the California esthetician certificate examination.
I am no fan of California Forward’s work thus far. Their successful effort to allow the Democrats to pass a state budget without blinking an eye put Sacramento even more firmly into the hands of public employee unions – if such a thing can be imagined – which explains the devious union-funded ads that carried the measure to victory. And the switch to open primaries? California Forward thinks it will bring more moderate politics to Sacramento, but it is the sort of progressive reform that spins out unintended consequences like a galaxy spins out stars.
Still, doesn’t it all sound great? Let’s improve government performance, shift power from Sacramento to local governments that are closer to the people, invest in the future and promote an inclusive democracy. Only their plan for investing in the future makes much sense. They would like to see reserves from bountiful tax years committed to paying down debt, with a slice going into an infrastructure fund, so new stuff can be built without taking on more bonded indebtedness. Although I’m no fan of propositions, I’d vote for that one because the idea is far superior to the state’s current method of using extra money in surplus years to commit the state to more long-term obligations it can’t meet in more meager years, and paying for infrastructure by taking on even more debt.
Everything else the group proposes, unfortunately, is steeped in government-think that actually assumes there is a way to make the heads of government agencies put the public good ahead of their desire to say what’s good for the public, all the while increasing their budgets, staff and power. California Forward thinks government can be effectively reined in by basing budgets on performance, so good practices get bonuses and bad practices get cuts. That’s the basis of most government reform efforts, and California Forward is taking the approach because it is, at its core, immersed in government-think.
Take the group’s executive director, Jim Mayer, a man with one of the best resumes you’ll find in the California reform business. He started as a journalist, so he has that high sensibility about government doing things right, and the nose to sniff out wrongdoing. Then, after picking up a dreaded public policy degree from Cal State Sacramento – the spawning ground of well-pensioned bureaucrats by the thousands – he went on to the reform-bent Little Hoover Committee in 1994, and then to the reform-bent New California Network, and finally to the reform-bent California Forward. In other words, for 17 years, Mayer has been trying to make California better, and it’s only gotten worse. Our facilitator, Senior Policy Advisor Fred Silva – who offered to buy lunch for whoever asked a question that allowed him to promote the California Forward program – is cut from the same cloth, except that he’s been at it for 36 years.
I can’t speak for everyone in our room of business people, but we sure seemed to agree that this “best practices” government-think approach would lead to nothing more than another series of failed reform efforts. Most of us are in business and in our world the measurements are pretty straightforward: If you make money, you advance. If you don’t, you don’t. But government doesn’t think that way because it’s in the business of spending money, not making money, so government reformers steeped in government-think come up with reforms based on defining, then incentivizing best practices. The best recent example is the Bush/Kennedy “No Child Left Behind” federal legislation that tied school funding to best practices. All it got us was more government spending and a generation of students well-schooled in exactly what was needed to ratchet up a school district’s No Child Left Behind best practices measures, as opposed to learning real-world skills. It’s like the esthetician exam on PCP.
Despite all the best efforts of the truly bright people at California Forward and dozens of similar think tanks, I don’t think you can write a proposition or piece of legislation tight enough to stand up to the empire-building trickery of those who have clawed their way to the top of the government biz. In 30 years of public affairs work, I have seen too many analyses by California state agencies lauding the benefits of programs that in truth accomplished little. Ah, but the wrap-up studies themselves accomplished a lot. They justified the money wasted on the last program and glorified the efforts of the staffers, so more money could be taken from the taxpayers, and more staffers could be hired. These new graduates of Cal State Sacramento’s public policy administration program would then join their local public employee unions, contribute a slice of their paychecks to fund a continuing stream of easily manipulated reform propositions, all the while resting assured of comfy CalPERS-funded retirements.
Writing more best practices won’t stop this, because the best practices government is best at are those that justify their spending. Still, there’s hope for California Forward. One point of its mission statement is to bring government closer to the people, so I told Fred Silva that no measurements should be established at all. Just send the money to the most local level of government that can implement what’s to be implemented, and tell them what it can be spent on, without mandates or red tape. Then, let local government rise to the occasion or fail. If they do well, the people will re-elect them and allow them to do it again. If they don’t, we’ll toss them out and vote in someone who will try harder.
He didn’t offer to buy me lunch.
The resolution to the gridlock in Sacramento is simple. The State of California needs to be split into North & South as what is important to the South is not important to the North & vice versa. Then each state can deal with the ever greedy/bloated public unions that screw taxpayers.
Any time a California politician or reform lobbyist uses the term “BEST PRACTICES” run for the hills. They have no idea what it means, have yet to practice it themselves, and use it as a way to prove to idiots they can talk business talk.
I don’t think the devolution of government to the lowest possible level will change anything unless the lowest possible level is subject to the voters. However, increasingly, government functions are given over to special districts and “non-profit” organizations whose agendas, policies, finances, and personnel practices are well hidden. From the outside looking in, it sometimes seems that government hates you or fears you, or both…mostly because voters have the abilty to upset their carefully tended apple carts. So, they try to remove as much as possible from voter choice.
A guy makes the absurd claim that everything wrong with America comes from California. And not only do you not laugh him out of town, you give him a place of “honor” on your blog. That says a lot about CalWatchdog’s legitimacy.
Read this on dec. 18 after reading bee opinion piece from CF today. Tx for explaining what I suspected….these people have never met a sacramento pol or their lobbyist handlers or they’d have an appreciation of the silliness if the best practices model.
Your piece touches on the heart of the matter which is the self interest of all involved – is there any good government model to aspire to? | 2019-04-24T18:33:09Z | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/02/13/ca-forward-offers-slate-of-phony-fixes/ |
Modifying plans: My original plan was to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey, then go down to Syria and Jordan and through Iraq to Iran. However, because of a disease outbreak in Syria, the Turks had closed the border. This is why I decided to go down through Greece, then Cyprus and take a boat from there to Lebanon. In Vienna, I had met a young American named Bob. He was intrigued about my plans to go to the Middle East and we decided to travel together for awhile. While we had originally planned to meet up again in Athens, we bumped into each other in Sofia, and traveled together for the next six weeks, as far as Teheran.
Beirut descended into civil war in 1975, but there was not active fighting at the time we arrived.
That said, Bob and I traveled out of the boat accompanied by two other backpackers as we tried to get our orientation and to figure out what to do next. Any hotels around the port area were semi-destroyed or pock marked and we definitely did not like the “vibe” of the place. After a couple of abortive attempts to find a reasonably secure place to stay, I suggested taking a cab to the Canadian Embassy on Rue Hamra. After a couple of kilometres of driving through a devastated urban wasteland we crossed what was the “green line”, then manned by Syrian troops, and headed to a different part of the city. By the time we got to Rue Hamra, it was like we were in a completely different country. There was virtually no evidence of the war, there were lots of shops and cafes, and it looked like any other normal busy urban centre.
A couple of days later, we headed back into the “war zone” for an hour or two, only because that was the departure point for taking a collective taxi to Damascus. Driving out of Beirut, and almost all of the way to the Syrian border, scenes of structural damage and devastation were everywhere. And once across the border in Syria, all evidence of war and damage totally disappeared.
For whatever reason, in my experience in visiting “pariah states” in the Middle East, such as Syria or Libya, the level of inquisitive interest and hospitality was among the warmest I have found anywhere in the world. While I only visited Damascus, my memories of interpersonal interaction with the Syrians was universally polite and positive. At the youth hostel in Damascus, I met two blonde Austrian women who were hitch-hiking through Syria. I asked if they considered it dangerous. They said they were “street savvy”, were aware of the cultural context, knew how to avoid trouble, and did not believe themselves to be at seriously greater risk than a male, if they took appropriate cautions.
From Damascus, we took a bus down to Amman, Jordan. Two of the great highlights are Petra and the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is so saline that one floats above the water more dramatically than in any other body of water. Petra is one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world. Jordanian truck drivers were great at giving lifts to hitch-hikers, even two males traveling together, though we did have a three hour wait in the midday heat at the turnoff for Petra. We stopped for a bite of dinner at a hotel at the entrance to the Siq, then proceeded at sunset to walk through the Siq, a narrow canyonlike defile that is the entrance to Petra to arrive at the first and most impressive temple of all, the Treasury. We decided to sleep in our sleeping bags inside the Treasury overnight. At about 0300 in the morning, I could see a shaft of blue light entering the Treasury from outside. I woke up Bob and we both walked outside. What we saw was not the moon, but the most intense display of stars and the Milky Way that I have ever seen in my life.
Getting a visa to go east out of Jordan proved to be a rather vexing problem that took some time to resolve. Saudi Arabia did not give tourist visas, and was only prepared to give a 3-day transit visa if you already had a visa for the next country. Kuwait and Iraq, the two countries en route east towards Iran were petroleum wealthy. Their Embassies were overwhelmed by Jordanians and other Arabs from less prosperous states trying to get visas to work there. But the biggest problem was that the Gulf countries were very conservative in orientation, and had enough petroleum reserves that tourism, especially from backpackers, was irrelevant and usually unwanted. We had to give up on Iraq, then give up on Kuwait. Then we checked with the Embassy of Bahrain. The officials said that if we flew into the country, we could get a three day transit visa on arrival. So a few days later we boarded a Lufthansa flight from Amman to Bahrain, en route to Bangkok.
Our “free form” travel came to an abrupt halt on arrival in Bahrain at 0130. Without an onward ticket, immigration would not let us leave the airport. We waited a few hours for everything to open and about six hours later bought a ticket to Shiraz in Iran. The cheapest hotel rooms in Bahrain were running around $25 per night. So we asked around at a couple of churches and a missionary kindly offered us a place to stay. Two days later, one of the missionaries arranged for us to participate in a meeting with Bahrain’s then head of state, Sheikh Isa Bin Sulman Al Khalifa.
Later our benefactor mentioned that he had a friend named Bert, who was living in Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. To close the story, Bert met us at the airport, we spent a few days in Dubai, Ajman and Sharjah, then changed our flights to Bandar Abbas in Iran. In the late 1970s, the Emirates were one vast construction zone. I estimated that in many parts of the country there were at least as many modern buildings under construction as completed buildings. Compared to the comparative austerity of Eastern Europe, Syria and Jordan ( indeed almost anywhere else I was to visit over the following year in Asia), the material wealth and excess was remarkable. We flew from Dubai to Bandar Abbas across the Gulf into Iran. Shortly more than a decade later, the shooting down of that aircraft brought the long war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s to a close.
The cultural shift from Arabia to Iran was dramatic. In my experience, the hospitality to strangers in the Arab Middle East was replaced by hustle, and even a certain amount of aggression. There were also many beggars. Demonstrations against the Shah had already begun, which may have accounted for the palpable tension in the air. Once into Iran, and throughout the rest of my time in Asia, I no longer hitch-hiked, but traveled by local transportation. Iranian busses between the major cities invariably traveled overnight, usually arriving inconveniently at around 0400 in the morning.
Overland travel through Asia in the late 1970s was popular and well established. Global political and security developments wax and wane over time. However, the major events in the 1960s to the mid-1970s which rendered parts of Asia inaccessible all occurred in Southeast Asia. The expanding war in Indochina first put Vietnam, then Cambodia, then finally Laos off limits. The convulsions from Portuguese Timor and the Indonesian occupation broke the cheapest “overlanding” route – island hopping through Indonesia to Dili, then capital of Portuguese Timor, then catching a cheap flight to Darwin, also off limits. Yet the huge convulsions which were to envelop West Asia and continues to this day, were only just beginning. Within a year of my trip, these well established and widely used backpacker routes were no longer accessible.
And the cheapest trade routes were the most traveled. Once we had left Athens for the Middle East, for the most part, there were very few backpackers. In the few weeks we traveled in the Arab Middle East, I could have counted the travellers I met on the fingers of both hands. Starting in Shiraz, more notably in Isfahan, and overwhelmingly once I arrived in Teheran at the famous Amir-Kabir Hotel, this was a well trodden route and on almost all local transport, Western backpackers were a significant contingent of those traveling.
Travelling on the cheap in West Asia in those days was different than in Europe. With the “Eurail/Interailpass” mentality in Europe, you constantly met other travelers. Yet for the most part, save for remote parts of Scandinavia, there was such an array of choice for your next destination, that while you might bump into the same people from time to time, it was not a constant feature. From Iran to Kathmandu, however, I was constantly meeting the same travelers over and over again. While the comfort of other travelers provides an always stimulating way to experience travel, it differs in solo travel in that your encounters, save for the transactional, tended to be with other travelers..
To Afghanistan: I followed the “thick red line” that went across to Mashad in eastern Iran, then across to the border town of Islam Qala. We arrived in Afghanistan just after the border had officially closed for the day, though the customs official also ran an inexpensive hotel next door. We were processed the following day. About a dozen of us eventually took a bus to Herat. The amazing thing about entering Afghanistan was the sense of almost literally going back to the 13th century. Herat had a wonderful reputation in the 1970s. To me, it was a relief of getting out of Iran, combined with the quiet Wild East, where you saw more people on horseback than in vehicles. Afghanistan was a very popular adventure destination in those days. In a typical bus ride in Afghanistan in those days, between 20 and 40 percent of the passengers would be Western backpackers.
Local buses were good. Afghanistan had used its neutrality during the Cold War to have a series of paved roads built by the Soviets and the Americans during the 1960s and 1970s. As late as the 1950s, places like Bamian were only accessible after horse or foot journeys lasting weeks. By the time I went through, the main trunk roads from the Iran Border – Herat – Kandahar – Kabul – up to Mazar-i-Sharif, and from Kabul, down through Jalalabad to the Khyber Pass and on to Peshawar were all along good paved roads.
Using Kabul as a base, I went up north for a few days to Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh, then back, then into central Afghanistan to Bamian and the lakes of Band-i-Amir and back, then down through the Kabul Gorge to Jalalabad, across the border at Torkham, and into the tribal regions of Pakistan to Landi Kotal, through the Khyber to the Indo-Gangetic plain and on to Peshawar.
“Afghanistan is already on my list of “must return” countries”.
“Yet another fine day in Afghanistan”.
“Such an magnificent mountain topography en route to Band-i-Amir which looked like a one sided Grand Canyon – with a series of crystal blue lakes at the bottom”.
Many travelers at the time lingered for weeks in Afghanistan, then usually scooted quickly through Pakistan to India. Once in India, there was an enormous amount to explore, but the overland route generally headed across the north to Varanasi and then on to Kathmandu. I too, did not linger long in Pakistan. However, I did take a flight from Rawalpindi up to Skardu in Baltistan for a few days. For me, Baltistan was even more austere toward women than Afghanistan. On the streets in Afghanistan, you would at least see the burqas wandering along the street (I am excluding my experiences in what was then the comparatively cosmopolitan city of Kabul). In the bazaars and along the street in Skardu, there were only men.
The cultural change crossing from Pakistan to India was also dramatic. Suddenly, not only were there women on the street, they were also police officers, directing traffic and running commercial shops. India always invokes strong reactions in travelers and will not leave you indifferent. For all its contradictions, I am a great fan of India. I coined a phrase that for me sums up the reality of first coming to India. “The rest of the world is in black and white, India is in technicolour”.
My route to Nepal followed a fairly typical route at the time, from Amritsar up to Srinagar and the fabled houseboats of Dal and Nagin lakes. Then along the well traveled route to New Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, and then by a combination of trains and buses across the border to Raxaul and Kathmandu.
For me, and for a great many other travelers in the 1960s and 1970s, Nepal was the ultimate Holy Grail. The Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara and the lake of Phewa Tal, and going trekking in the Himalaya – the Annapurna Circuit, Annapurna Sanctuary, the Everest Trek, Langtang and Helambu were the most popular choices at that time. Because of the great restaurants and cheap prices, and people coming back from and heading out on treks, Kathmandu was the place where I bumped into many people I had seen along the way. When I first got there, I met those who had been going at a faster pace than me, and after coming back from my trek I once again saw those arriving who had been going at a slower pace. I spent the better part of a month in Nepal, some of it exploring the Kathmandu Valley, some of it chilling with other travelers, as well as a sixteen day trek in the Annapurna Region to Mutkinath and the Thorong La. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Trekking in the Nepal Himalayas had been, for me, the most anticipated part of my entire trip. It did not disappoint. | 2019-04-21T02:51:11Z | http://deglobalnomad.com/leg/overland-to-kathmandu/ |
Walking down the main street of Reims, the compact city in France’s historic Champagne region, you could be forgiven for not realising its tramway even exists.
Opened in 2011, Tramway de Reims moves passengers from place to place while barely interrupting the signature French lifestyle going on around it.
Quiet, aesthetic trams roll gently down the Cours Jean-Baptiste Langlet, past the railway station and towards the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, where generations of French Kings were crowned. They round the bend to Rue de Vesle, which hosts the Seventeenth Century town centre, fine art galleries, boutique retail outlets, and bars where tourists sip the sparkling white wine bottled just minutes down the road.
Of course, the tram line is not just there for tourists. At one end is the northern neighbourhood of Orgeval. At the other, the neighbourhood of Croix-Rouge and a general hospital. Between the two termini is the city centre.
Given a city footprint of just 47 square kilometres, Reims’ population comes in at a relatively dense 221,000. The opening of a TGV high speed line between Paris and Reims in 2007 – connecting the two cities in 45 minutes – drove a transformation of Reims’ economy from champagne and textiles to manufacturing, services and retail. In the five years up to 2011, 4000 new jobs were created.
Launching its first studies into a potential light rail line in 2003, public transport authority Reims Métropole had several problems to solve. An extensive bus network already served more than 100,000 trips a day, and clogged the main streets, severely detracting from the historic facades lining them. A light rail network would need to be able to handle the passenger base, while providing a cleaner, better-looking alternative to buses. Most important, it needed to be financially viable.
The solution was to form what is commonly referred to as a public-private partnership, something rather unique to France at that time. Through a contract signed in 2006, the authority delegated the entire management, and a substantial portion of financing, for the construction and operation of a light rail line, to a private concessionary consortium.
Known as MARS, the private consortium consisted of Alstom Transport, to provide rollingstock, systems, infrastructure works and maintenance; Bouygues, to provide civil works, buildings, roads and pavements; engineering firm SNC-Lavalin; operator Transdev; financial advisors and lenders Natixis and Caisse d’Epargne Lorraine Champagne-Ardenne; and long term investor CdC Infrastructure.
Reims Métropole provided €174 million (A$287 million in 2006 dollars) to the MARS consortium, made up of €75 million in a grant from the city, €45 million in a grant from the state, and €54 million in a 1.8% transport tax billed to companies in the region with more than eight employees.
The consortium’s financial partners, meanwhile, forked out €239 million (A$394 million) for the project, bringing the total value to €413 million (A$681 million).
Transdev took over as bus network operator at the start of 2008, as part of a plan to create an integrated transport network in the city. Construction on the light rail line began in May that year. The first tram arrived in March 2010, making way for testing and commissioning of the line in September 2010.
The network opened commercially in April 2011, with an opening ceremony which drew thousands of spectators; locals who had come to experience their town’s new asset. In 2014, the new line was put on the international stage, when the Tour de France cycle race went through Reims.
Two of the key consortium members in the Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail project are shared with the Reims project. Rollingstock, rail infrastructure and maintenance provider Alstom Transport is once again joined by operations specialist Transdev on the Sydney project, as part of the ALTRAC consortium.
It’s clear that in planning its pitch as part of the consortium in Sydney, Alstom and Transdev looked to leverage their experience in Reims. An Alstom representative confirmed to Rail Express that the French manufacturer learned a lot from, and drew comparisons to its work in Reims during the bidding process for Sydney.
Like in Reims, Alstom will install its catenary-free technology, which it calls Aesthetic Power Supply (APS), on certain sections of the Sydney network. APS features a ‘third rail’, which runs down the middle of the tramway, parallel to the main rails, providing power to the rollingstock through the ground, thus eliminating the need for overhead power.
More expensive to install than a traditional catenary system, APS is designed for instances like those down George Street in Sydney, and the Cours Jean-Baptiste Langlet and Rue de Vesle in Reims, where the goal is to provide a solution which complements the surrounding aesthetic, often historic architecture, the catenary-free solution is preferred.
Alstom says its APS is currently installed on 42km of track around the globe. As a tram passes over the ‘third rail’, power is supplied to its conductive segments via coded radio dialogue between the tram and the ground. This is designed to ensure power is not supplied to uncovered sections of track.
APS is therefore designed to be safe in all weather situations, including rain, snow, and heat. In Reims, grass surfaces 60% of the line, and this grass is watered from ground-based sprinklers – which spray directly onto the APS power line. It is thought natural grass won’t be practical in the Australian climate, so the same grass covering probably won’t be seen in Sydney, but it’s certainly an indication of Alstom’s confidence in the safety of the APS technology.
“The safety of the APS system has been proven through dedicated studies and confirmed by five certifying authorities,” Alstom reiterates on its website.
Aside from the need for catenary-free infrastructure, the Sydney project also shares a number of logistical similarities with Reims: A main road, clogged with buses, will be closed to traffic and passenger flows will be taken up by light rail. The project will be financed through a PPP. It will link tourist sites, utilities, and living areas, with the greater transport network.
Sydney’s new line will feature Alstom’s Citadis X05 trams, the latest evolution of the Citadis trams which already feature in Reims. Like in Reims – where Alstom’s designers created a suitable ‘champagne flute’ shaped front for the rollingstock – Sydney will receive its own unique outer design, as specified by Transport for NSW.
The use of a global network of projects and experience, combined with a localised approach, is key to Alstom’s business strategy, according to the company’s new chief executive officer, Henri Poupart-Lafarge.
Poupart-Lafarge joined Alstom as in 1998. In 2004, when he was 35, he became chief financial officer. He moved to the role of president of Alstom Transport in 2011. With the ‘other half’ of Alstom, its Power Generation and Grid business, now sold to General Electric, Poupart-Lafarge will has taken up the role of chief executive of Alstom Group.
Rail Express spoke with Poupart-Lafarge, then in charge of Alstom Transport, in June at the UITP World Congress and Exhibition in Milan, Italy.
As is demonstrated through the Sydney light rail project, he said Alstom was focused on providing localised solutions to transport projects, based on the company’s globally-successful, tried and tested range of products.
“The winning formula – if you can manage it – in transport, is to try to combine localisation … with engineering products and solutions,” he told Rail Express. “We need solutions which are tailor-made for the customer.
Proximity, he pointed out, is also important at times for political reasons: “A number of countries are asking for some kind of localisation,” he asserted.
“But at the same time, for example, our product for a metro, is a metro. So our product in Sydney [Metro] will be similar to our metros elsewhere in the world. You want to pursue a common technological platform, and common processes, so the way to manufacture is similar in one place to another.
“So that’s the formula: to be close to the customer, to answer to their needs, but at the same time, to benefit from the global coverage, through a common technological platform, common processes, and a common supply chain. That’s what we try to pursue.
The 46-year-old, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), replaced former Alstom CEO Patrick Kron when the sale of Alstom’s energy business to GE was finalised at the end of 2015.
Poupart-Lafarge said the new Alstom will be able to provide a more focused solution for the transport sector. He said the sale of the non-transport business units would benefit Alstom “in two ways”.
He said: “The first way is, I strongly believe by being re-focused on transport, by having all Alstom around the same type of activity, same markets, same world, same jargon, it will create much more cohesion, dynamism and momentum in the company, and people are waiting for that. It will simplify our processes, and make us much more agile.
Poupart-Lafarge is interested in the urban sector in Australia.
“[South East Asia and Australasia] is a booming region,” he said. “Australia, as you know, has a number of projects going on, particularly in the urban area.
Oliver Probert visited the Reims tramway courtesy of Alstom Group.
This article originally appeared in the AusRAIL 2015 print edition of Rail Express. To read the full magazine, click here. | 2019-04-19T17:07:12Z | https://www.railexpress.com.au/from-the-mag-how-a-small-french-city-helped-inspire-sydneys-light-rail-transformation/ |
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