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Ten Years Public Domain for the
Original Web Software
[Home] [Document] [ Press release: English -- French ] [Video] [ Story ] [ Photos ]
For more information:
Contact the
CERN Press Office
From a 1997 hand-out for the general public:
World-Wide Web: Made at CERN
Everyone knows the World-Wide Web, but not everyone knows that it was invented at CERN. Conceived to give particle physicists easy access to their data wherever they happened to be, the Web has grown into a telecommunications revolution.
What is the Web?
But what is the Web? In short, it is a world of information at the click of a mouse. To use it, you need a computer, a connection to the Internet, and a browser programme. When you run your browser, it displays a page of information which might be held on your own computer or fetched from somewhere else, you needn't know or even care where it comes from. Certain words, phrases, or images are highlighted, and clicking on them causes the browser to go off and find another page, which probably contains more highlighted items, and so on. The Web knows no geographical boundaries. For example, starting from the CERN “Welcome page” in Switzerland, your next click might take you to the other side of the world. All the information seems to be in the little box in front of you, and in a sense it is. When you click on a piece of highlighted text your browser connects to another computer, asks it for the requested information, and displays it on your screen. You are then free to browse the new page at leisure; the computers have finished their ‘conversation’.
How did it start?
It all began in 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee proposed a distributed information system for CERN based on hypertext. By hiding network addresses behind highlighted items on the screen, information could be linked between several computers. This system became the Web, with the world as its library.
In 1990, Robert Cailliau joined Berners-Lee and Web development at CERN began in earnest. The first browser and server were produced, setting the standard for everything that has followed. The Web as we know it had arrived.
Why did it start at CERN?
CERN is the hub of a world-wide network of computer-literate scientists with a need to keep in touch. By the late 1980s, they were ready for a new communications idea. Because CERN's users come from institutions all over the world, with many different computer systems, they needed an open solution which would be easy to use and would not care about differences between computers. The Web was the answer. No matter what kind of computer you have, you can still read a Web page.
Where has it got to?
In 1991, two practical developments made the Web attractive to other laboratories, as well as to a wider audience at CERN. Technical student Nicola Pellow wrote a simple browser which could be used on many different computers, and Bernd Pollermann produced a server for CERN's main computing databases. Knock-on effects soon made it possible to consult a phone directory in Hamburg from a computer in Chicago, or to look up publications in California from a desk in Geneva.
The European Commission approved its first Web project in 1993 with CERN as a partner. In the same year, NCSA, the US National Center for Supercomputing Applications, produced the Mosaic browsers, opening up the Web to users of Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and X-Window systems. The rest, as they say, is history. By the end of 1997, the Web had 650 000 servers, of which over half are commercial, and 40 million users.
Where is it going?
CERN’s role is pure research and in 1994 the laboatory decided that a new home for basic Web work was needed. With CERN’s active encouragement, the W3 consortium, hosted by the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, INRIA, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, is now steering the Web through to maturity. With about 10 000 new servers appearing every month, the Web is set to become as familiar as toasters and television sets, whilst CERN's computer scientists concentrate on providing a service for the physics community.
The Web is an outstanding example of how basic research can generate progress in a completely unforseeable way: technology transfer at its best. Whilst there is no doubt that it would have appeared somewhere sometime, the driving force of high energy physics research and the productive working atmosphere of CERN made the Web happen here and now.
World-Wide Web Words
WWW, W3, the Web: alternative names for the World-Wide Web
The Internet: a world-wide communications network
Browser: a programme allowing mouse-click access to the Web
Server: a computer holding Web documents accessible to browsers
Hypertext: a way of linking related pieces of information on a computer
HTML: HyperText Mark-up Language, the language in which Web documents are structured
HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol, the rules for communication between browsers and servers
URL: Uniform Resource Locator, an address used by browsers to locate a document, “” is the URL for CERN's home page
© CERN 2003-04-30 Web Communications -- ETT Division
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm trying to create a simple invoice with pdflatex and the isodoc class. Unfortunately, the "INVOICE" opening is appear in all lowercase, and I suspect this warning is the reason why:
LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `T1/lmr/bx/sc' undefined
(Font) using `T1/lmr/bx/n' instead on input line 19.
My best guess at this cryptic output is that LaTeX doesn't know how to represent small caps. What can I do to teach it how?
Here is the preamble of my document:
The system is Fedora Core 4 . pdflatex -version yields:
pdfeTeX 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)
kpathsea version 3.5.4
$ rpm -qa | grep tex
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 1 '11 at 12:37
This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.
2 Answers 2
up vote 14 down vote accepted
The error/warning is fairly self explanatory if you know what to look at.
T1/lmr/bx/sc refers to a specific font declaration:
T1 — so-called ‘Cork’ font encoding
lmr — ‘Latin Modern Roman’ font family
bx — bold
sc — small caps
By saying this font shape is "undefined" simply means that the Latin Modern Roman doesn't have bold small caps. As a fall-back, the default bold font is chosen instead.
As you've now discovered, not writing \bfseries\scshape in the first place will resolve the warning :)
share|improve this answer
I tried changing the document font to times but the bold small caps opening still will not show. How can identify what fonts have bold small caps, or add bold small caps to a font I have? – fuzzyTew Jun 28 '09 at 12:43
I don't think there are any TeX fonts that contain bold small caps. Times doesn't even have real small caps of its own; the ones you're seeing are mechanically produced from the capital letters. You'll probably need to use XeTeX and a fancy OpenType font to have much luck with this, sorry. – Will Robertson Jun 29 '09 at 0:11
That's very strange the isodoc class would use them. I suppose it is a bug. Thank you. I haven't seen any small caps at all -- there is some way to make it mechanically produce them from capital letters? – fuzzyTew Jun 29 '09 at 1:42
You might need to ask a new question about this; I get small caps reliably with both the lmodern & mathptmx packages (the latter being a Times version with mechanical small caps). \usepackage[sc]{mathpazo} has real small caps (with Palatino). None have bold small caps, though. – Will Robertson Jun 29 '09 at 7:26
See [tex.stackexchange.com/questions/22240/… for defining an alternative font for T1/lmr/bx/sc. – Kasper van den Berg Nov 2 '12 at 13:21
I managed to partially work around this by altering the invoice text. I found it defined in the isodoc source with:
\def\invoicetext{{\bfseries\Large\scshape invoice}}
Adding the following after my document setup removed the use of small capitals:
\def\invoicetext{{\bfseries INVOICE}}
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/47845
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010
What I think about Google leaving China
Links to read: Google got hacked yesterday by China (ahem.. the Chinese government agents.. ahem)
Excuse me I have a cough
and in turn Iran hacked China (ahem.. interesting coincidence in timing no?)
What do I think about all this? Well I've read a lot and discussed with coworkers. Some of their views are
1. That Google is trying to use its leverage for greedy under the table bonuses from the government (cynical view)
2. That Google is trying to force the Chinese government to open up in retaliation for hacking its servers, without openly accusing the Chinese government of course, because that's too hard to prove and pointless even if they do. (manipulator view)
3. That Google doesn't make more than 2% of its revenue from China so losing that is no huge blow and a great gain of PR in the eyes of the rest of the world that loathes censorship. (The Google doesn't care about China view)
4. That Google is awesome and might actually pull out of China unless the government bends over backwards and changes its policies (cough.. like that'll happen because of a search engine.. cough) (Idealistic view)
I personally think China isn't going to change anything for Google. It has Baidu (the government arm and leg into the internet) AND Microsoft's heartless, soulless empire in the form of Bing! which has no problem with "Do No Evil" since its not in their constitutional mission statement.
However I'm glad Google is at least being consistent with their statement, albeit after sinning for a while. I think Google is really going to leave. If you disagree and have something constructive to add or say I'd love to hear your opinion. I was personally comforted to hear that the hackers didn't get anything important.
mbp said...
I am not quite cynical enough to believe (1) (although perhaps I could believe that certain US agencies are prodding Google into becoming a stalking horse against China in a new virtual cold war.)
I also don't buy (3). Google is a very smart bunch of people with a global vision for the future. I cannot imagine they would write off a quarter of the worlds population even if they are only worth a few percent of today's revenues.
That leaves 2 or 4 which basically mean the same thing - Google is declaring war on China to try and force the most populous country on the planet to change its policies (for either selfish or altruistic reasons - take your pick).
It is very hard t o see how Google could win such a war. Using any traditional means of analysis the Chinese Government has all the power. Is it possible that the old adage about information being power could come home to roost and Google could turn out to have unexpected strength? I for one am looking forward to finding out just how powerful the world's number one information broker really is.
Thallian said...
hmmm we'll see but I don't think China cares enough to move, though what might get it to move would be a total pullout of western companies. That would be significant. Keep in mind it still has Bing! and Baidu so even if Google leaves the civilians have search engines.
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(Rules for) Living Life on the Lime (515)
A. Appreciate the rain. Other people have so much more or less of it than they need. Just appreciate yours.
B. Remember to use I-statements when expressing your discomfort with someone else.
1. Example: “I feel angry because you ate all the pie, dude!”
2. Example: “I feel happy because I scored three goals on that group of children, which means I win.”
3. Example: “When you poke me in the side, I feel tickled.”
4. And so on.
C. Consider the consequences of your actions.
1. Like if you eat too many blueberries and spinach, it might give you the runs.
2. Or if you get into the shower with your glasses on, they might get wet.
D. Re-use zip-lock bags.
E. There can never be too many raspberries or blueberries, despite what I said earlier.
F. Trust yourself.
About these ads
2 responses »
1. I agree with everything on this list, especially F. Trusting myself has been a struggle, especially working in a field like design where people look to you for guidance and your opinion on these things, while you know that they’ll more often than not want you to create something that you don’t like.
I try to do D but I throw them away more often than not….Blowin Money Fast like Rick Ross and not in a good way
And I steer clear of blueberries and raspberries straight up, unless they’re mixed into something like a drink or bread, so I’m indifferent to that one I guess….?
2. Hold up. WHAT? You steer clear of blueberries and raspberries straight up? That shit cray. Done and done. I do like blueberries in everything, though, so we can compromise on the bread opinion.
Thanks for visiting and appreciating :) xox
I Will Definitely Read What You Write Here
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/47904
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No Symbol Where None Intended:
A Study of Symbolism and Allusion in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
By Michael Gurnow
As with all great literature, there rarely exists anything extraneous in the text, for something that is unneeded, detracts from the work and distracts the reader unnecessarily, thus causing the work to be less effective than it would otherwise be. As such, most everything in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot serves a purpose, be it for reasons involving the strengthening of a character's profile, thematic support, or audience reaction. Beckett implements symbols in the text whenever he deems it necessary and beneficial to the overall work. It is a play that seems inert but rather, upon closer inspection, charged with electricity (qtd. in Guicharnaud 195). Quoting from the poet of inertia (Fletcher 57), "No symbol where none intended" (qtd. in Alvarez 86), the playwright never uses an image, phrase, word, or action without motive.
Beginning in the middle of the play, as the play begins in medias res, the image of the elderly Lucky symbolizes the euphoric mental plight that a lifetime of experience and learning may render and how exponentially quick physical human decline can consume that same individual. In the first act, Lucky is able to espouse words of wisdom upon most every topic with only the burden of repetition that is debatably due to loss of short-term memory. Even though Pozzo states that Lucky's speech is mere rote reiteration, we are given no evidence that this statement is not made out of envy from an otherwise pompous egoist who is attempting to regain Estragon and Vladimir's attention. In the second act Lucky, as well Pozzo, have undergone drastic declines in their physical, and possibly mental, health. Lucky, though plausibly still capable of heightened thought, is no longer able to speak while the once seemingly omnipotent, but now blind Pozzo -- whom Estragon and Vladimir at one time mistook for Godot -- has become yet another piece of baggage in which Lucky must transport in the pair's wonderings.
The coupling of Pozzo and Lucky form a union similar to the figure of Sophocles's Oedipus. Lucky, being extremely intelligent, resembles the Oedipus whom answered the Sphinx's question while Pozzo, aside from navigating a road reminiscent to that which lead to Thebes, is now without eyes (Roberts 38). Here may lie yet another possible clue as to the meaning behind the contents of Lucky's suitcase containing sand. Most commentators suggest this is reminiscent of the sands of time yet it can also be seen as a souvenir of the travels of humanity throughout the ages and literature, from ancient Greek drama to modern French theater.
There exist other references and allusions to Western literature in the play, namely to Shakespeare. We hear mention of Estragon's awakening in a ditch from his previous night's sleep, which has parallels to Pozzo's proclamation, "They [women] give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." This is a paraphrase from Macbeth's speech when the title character contemplates his relation to the murder he recently committed:
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more (V.V.19-26)
If one is familiar with the Shakespearian text, then the play by Beckett possess more meaning, one having realized the allusion to "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow," which is one of the main motifs of the Beckettian work: waiting. Godot is said to come "surely to-morrow." The evidence that Beckett is making the Shakespearian reference lies in his hyphenation of the word "tomorrow" instead of using its more traditional and colloquial non-hyphenated spelling.
Another Shakespearian allusion is made during the course of Godot. As Helen Baldwin points out, this occurs when Vladimir states, "What are we doing here, that is the question." Beckett is obviously reiterating Hamlet's opening lines, "To be or not to be, that is the question," in his soliloquy in Act III, Scene I, of the play for which he is the title character (119).
Lawrence Graver states that there exist references to Chaucer in the play as well. Estragon, after a brief dialogue with Vladimir, states, "That wasn't such a bad little canter" if, for no other reason, because it succeeded in passing the time. Beckett's selection of the word "canter" is two-fold, argues Graver, for it suggests "an easy gallop," thus indicative of an episodic voyage such as life, and of Canterbury, a reference to Chaucer's tales, which depicts pilgrims telling tales in which to pass the time (63).
Throughout the canon of Western literature, night is symbolic of death. If there does exist hope within the course of Godot, it lies in the knowledge that eternal rest is destined to come, unlike the "guaranteed" appearance of the ambiguous Godot. Pozzo voices this sentiment in the first act, "Night is charging and will burst upon us pop! Like that!" This pronouncement also serves as an omen for Pozzo, who is also making reference to the setting sun and, in turn, the closing of the fair where he intends to sell Lucky. He is thus citing the importance of time. The premonition lies in the fact that by the second act, Pozzo will live in a world where there is no visual change, that of blindness, thus in a world where time has ceased to exist.
Unlike other ideas and images in the play that can easily be defined and supported by analysis, the symbol of Godot -- if he is indeed a symbol -- remains somewhat askew. When Roger Blin, the first to direct Godot, play the role of Pozzo, and perform the role of Hamm in Endgame, asked the playwright "who or what Godot stood for," Beckett replied that it was French slang: "Godillot," for the term "boot." Deirdre Bair, author of the award-winning biography Samuel Beckett: A Biography, states this is the most frequently given explanation from the playwright upon the issue (382). One alternate answer given by Beckett as to the identity of Godot was uttered to Bob Thompson, "...there is a rue Godot, a cycling racer named Godot..." (557).
Many readers of the English translation are quick to jump at the coincidental nature of the title "God" in "Godot." Yet, remembering that the play was originally composed in French, in order for there to exist a theological connection between titles, the French "dieu" ("god") would have to have been used, at least in derivation. Yet the French title is En Attendant Godot. Beckett even attempted to release the title from its theological ties by stating to Harold Dobson, "If Godot were God, I would have called him that" (qtd. in Bair 383). However, even though Beckett had yet to achieve any type of praiseworthy recognition at the international level at the time "Godot" was written, it is not unreasonable to believe the playwright used this term with the intention that it might someday reach a broader (in relation to his French audience) English audience.
Anthony Cronin, the Irish author of Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, cites Friedrich Nietzsche's "Gott ist tod" as being a possible source for the title, further instilling the sense of a deity's absence throughout the play (393) and bringing the title back to a theological interpretation. If this is indeed the case, then it seems quite intentional that Godot is God given the description that the second messenger boy provides of his overseer: Godot has a white beard and "does nothing." Indeed, if Godot is God and we are created in His own image, and the characters on stage represent humanity and its plight, then, as the characters "do nothing" during the play, then it is rational that God "does nothing" as well.
Another frequently cited interpretation as to the identity of Godot is that the title character is seen onstage twice during the course of the play. John Fletcher speculates, as does Vivian Mercier, that Pozzo is Godot and merely fails to recognize whom he has come to meet (56, 76). The latter of the two critics supports her claim by citing Pozzo's remark to Estragon and Vladimir that the two characters are "on my land" (173).
In most cases, scholars have been quite content upon the playwright's comment concerning the identity of Godot. Bair concludes that Beckett's staunch declaration, "I meant what I said" in relation to not knowing the meaning of the title character's name, should be taken seriously (383). Yet Vivian Mercier does make a valid remark as to the necessity of Godot to be God: "Obviously those who wait on stage must wait for something that they and the audience consider extremely important. . . . They [the audience] do not have to identify Godot with God; they do, however, need to see the analogy if the play is not to seem hopelessly trivial" (172).
Unlike Godot, the reader is able to assess various identities for the other characters in the play. The heights of Estragon and Vladimir play a symbolic role as to their character traits during "Godot." "Estragon is on the ground, he belongs to the stone" (qtd. in Cousineau 97). Estragon is short and he oftentimes slowly slumps toward the ground as he falls asleep. "Estragon [ . . . ] does not simply sit on the stone: he actually resembles it in certain ways. His sluggishness and immobility suggest the possibility of comparison, which is confirmed when, adopting the fetal position as he falls asleep, he assumes a shape having definite visual analogies with the stone" (101).
This is in contrast to the image of Vladimir, who "is light, he is oriented towards the sky. He belongs to the tree" (97). He is taller and stands throughout most of play. He also looks up at sky numerous times during the play, thus indicative of heightened thought: "He [Vladimir] is [ . . . ] the intellectual who is concerned with a variety of ideas. . . . Vladimir correlates some of their [Estragon and Vladimir's] actions to the general concerns of mankind, seen in his uttering, 'All mankind is in us'" (Roberts 46). In contrast, Estragon is concerned mainly with more mundane matters; he prefers a carrot to a radish or turnip, his feet hurt, and he blames his boots. . . . He is not concerned with either religious or philosophical matters (47). This is reinforced when, at the open of the second act, Estragon's boots -- the only movable objects upon the stage -- serve as metonyms for their owner (Cousineau 101).
The seemingly interchangeable dialogue, when analyzed, is exacting and precise when one begins to look further into the pair's characterization. When Estragon tells Pozzo, "He [Vladimir] has stinking breath and I have stinking feet," Estragon's statement further supports the image of the mentally astute Vladimir, who suffers halitosis due to open dialectic if with no one else other than himself, to that of the physically-preoccupied Estragon, whose bodily pains consume most of his thoughts and time. This theory is further reinforced by Vladimir's quoting Latin, pausing in order to search for the correct word when speaking, deducing that Estragon should first hang himself being the heavier of the two in order to determine if the bough will support himself, attempting to politely converse with Pozzo and Lucky, and dispensing the food rations during the course of the play. Clearly Vladimir's pain is primarily mental anguish, which would thus account for his voluntary exchange of his hat for Lucky's, thus signifying Vladimir's symbolic desire for another person's thoughts (Robinson 249-50) and plight. It is not surprising either that Vladimir reveals he was once a poet.
Estragon, conversely, views the world through its physical aspects and their immediate ramifications. When he first sees the rope around Lucky's neck he questions Pozzo upon the chafing that may be occurring. Estragon is also the one who speaks of hunger, a physical need, during the course of the play. He inquires to Pozzo whether or not he may have the discarded chicken bones from Pozzo's meal. He even creates similes using the images of food: "Such an old and faithful servant [speaking of Lucky]. . . . After having sucked all the good out of him you chuck him away like a . . . like a banana skin." Estragon is aware of this discrepancy between the two character's worldviews, for he laughs when Vladimir must cut his dialogue short in order to relieve himself during the play (250). This is the aesthetic motive behind Lucky's kicking Estragon during the play: Estragon, being physical, will continue to focus upon the pain more than Vladimir, who would arguably mentally abstract the wound.
The characterizations of Pozzo and Lucky can be interpreted in a similar manner. Pozzo, with his leading Lucky to the fair to be sold, has an obvious agenda. He is concerned with material matters: his Kapp and Peterson, vaporizer, and watch. He espouses knowledge, be it true knowledge or not is not his concern, for he has a role in life -- that of a leader. For Estragon and Vladimir, he serves as a temporary Godot, a god-on-earth, a type of Nietzschian Übermensch.
The characters of Pozzo and Lucky also allow Beckett to depict highly abstract philosophical, sociological, and philological ideas into particular personages on stage. Pozzo is master and Lucky is slave, Beckett allows the audience to view the full implications of such binary roles in life. This dual relationship is further embodied by the whip that Pozzo brandishes, which also suggests sadomasochistic themes (thus abbreviated "S and M," the converse of "M and S," or "master and slave"). By their appearance in the second act, Pozzo follows Lucky instead of leading him (255). In master and slave relations, first outlined by F.W. Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit, the role of master is a hollow concept without a subsequent slave that gives meaning to the former role. The latter's existence is the true position of power for it gives significance to both roles, that of the master as well as that of the slave. By the second act, Beckett symbolically displays the true power exchange between the coupling of Pozzo and Lucky. Yet, upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that Lucky always possessed more influence in the relationship, for he danced, and more importantly, thought -- not as a service, but in order to fill a vacant need of Pozzo: he committed all of these acts for Pozzo (Guicharnaud 208). As such, since the first appearance of the duo, the true slave had always been Pozzo.
This idea of Hegelian master and slave duality also coincides with Fletcher and Mercier's earlier cited theory of Pozzo as Godot. If this is the case, then during the course of the play the audience witnesses the true correlation between a deity and its followers. It is not unreasonable to state that the playwright is making the suggestion that the image of God, at least for some, is created in order to give a sense of purpose in a person's life. This is why Pozzo is seen following Lucky in the second act, for Pozzo is (now literally) dependent upon Lucky's image of Pozzo as master in order to -- as Lucky conversely did of Pozzo in the first act -- have a role in which to fulfill. This, once again, has a basis in Nietzschian theory, and further supports the image of the Übermensch, baring witness to the Nietzschian utterance "God is dead." During the second act, the character of Pozzo-Godot-God collapses and, consequently, we see all of humanity, symbolized by all characters on stage, fall as a result. This simultaneous collapse can also be viewed as "the visual expression of their [the characters'] common situation" (qtd. in Graves 67).
From the abstract ideals encompassed by a character that that of an object, Estragon's metonymic boots serve as a metaphor for life's travels, the episodic voyage of life (Cousineau 102). This plebian image of Estragon is contrasted with the image of Vladimir's hat, which is typically associated with the upper class, thus the elite, be it intellectually (as is in the case of the play) or otherwise. Yet, in order to keep the two characters at bay from any hind of hope, Vladimir's elitism is somewhat reduced when his eating of a solitary carrot is cast alongside Pozzo's being served chicken by a slave (102).
This idea of a hierarchy of character value, at least in the characters' minds, is reinforced when another case of metonymy is witnessed. When the seemingly arbitrary act of Vladimir kicking over Pozzo's stool is seen, it is representative of Pozzo's character and what he represents. As such, it only leads one to the conclusion that by Pozzo's stomping on Lucky's hat in order to silence him, that the hat is intended to symbolize the masochistic character of Lucky.
The metaphysical depravity of both character's plights are represented in their poverty stricken appearances. The fact of the Estragon and Vladimir's lifelong poverty is evidenced in the two reflecting back to the time when they were grape pickers, which is not commonly associated as a position of affluence (Mercier 48). The suggestion that Vladimir's knowledge of Latin and the Bible displaying a type of formal education is contrasted with his sporadic, trivial understanding of the latter, which is oftentimes the sign of a person who is self-taught. In Vivian Mercier's words, "...it is hard to put one's finger on anything specific they [Estragon and Vladimir] have read or studied" (48). It is in this sense that, "The tramp [ . . . ] is the modern metaphor for universal man" (Guicharnaud 201). As with the "comedy of the bum" (197) seen in the figure of Charlie Chaplin's cinematic persona and in Federico Fellini's La Strada, the misery is thus escalated because, in Beckett's own words in Endgame: "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that." Comedy's oftentimes two-fold nature, as outlined by Sigmund Freud, focuses upon topics that are otherwise too intense or painful to approach without some type of mental and emotional barricade. By our treatment of such issues in a less-than-serious light, we are thus able to speak of them where we otherwise would be forced to deny the existence of such issues, "...since to laugh at our misery is the only way we have found of coming to terms with it" (Fletcher 58). If we do not act in this manner we are forced to further suppress psychologically painful ideas into our subconscious, creating the groundwork for unnecessary stress, grief, anxiety, all of which may manifest itself into various neuroses and complexes. Such complications may make a person unable to work, thus further perpetuating the cycle of poverty and mental decline.
Freud's theory may account for Estragon's extreme case of amnesia: he has subconsciously blocked out, however ironic, the memory of his life up to the previous day's events due to the mental pain that are associated with such recollections. Estragon's forgetfulness serves yet another purpose in the play. This pausing, hesitation, and reluctance to answer questions directly lend to the image of Godot for it creates an "almost dreamlike haze that clouds the waiting [ . . . ]" (198).
The pairing of Pozzo together with Lucky alongside Estragon and Vladimir allows the metaphor of one person's existential dependence of another to become manifest. As with Ishmael's literal tie and dependence upon Queesqueg to stabilize the monkey-rope that the former is bound while securing a whale in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Estragon's symbolic connection to Vladimir is that of memory, because for whatever reasons the former has extreme amnesia. "Vladimir [ . . . ] uses memory to enforce whatever bond it is [that] binds them to each other" (Robinson 251). The literal binding that appears between Lucky and Pozzo supports this notion of human reliance. Furthermore, the concept of one's emotional livelihood being dependant upon another is witnessed in Pozzo's reluctance to leave the company of Estragon and Vladimir.
An interesting interpretation argues that Lucky's title is emblematic of the character for he is "lucky" in the context of the play. Since most of the play is spent trying to find things to do in order to pass the time, Lucky becomes his namesake because his actions are determined absolutely by Pozzo, therefore the burden of finding preoccupations have ceased to exist for this particular character. When Beckett was asked why Lucky was so named, he replied, "I suppose he is lucky to have no more expectations" (Duckworth 95). This posits the plight of Pozzo, Lucky's overseer, as being "un-Lucky," thus the antipode of Lucky, for he not only needs to pass his own time but must also find activities for Lucky (Smith). Another reading into Lucky's name is that he is fortunate to have found his own Godot, his own master in the figure of Pozzo, for now he has role to fulfill, that of Pozzo's servant (Guicharnaud 206).
Even the falling of a character's pants during the play contains value in Godot. When Pierre Lautour, playing the role of Estragon permitted the character's pants fall midway to the hips -- due primarily to embarrassment from the giggles in the audience during the previous night's performance when he allowed the pants to descend to the floor, Beckett became enraged. He wrote a letter to Roger Blin, who was directing the Lautour production, explaining the necessity of Estragon's pants to reach the floor:
He [Estragon] really doesn't have the mind for that [to mind his pants] then. He doesn't even realize that they're (sic) fallen. As for the laughter, which could greet their complete fall, there is nothing to object to in the great gift of this touching final tableau.... Nothing is more grotesque than the tragic. One must express it up to the end, and especially at the end. I have a lot of other reasons why this action should not be tampered with but I will spare you them. (qtd. in Bair 428-9)
Though there exists comic banter in the falling of Estragon's trousers, the event is not without symbolic meaning aside from the desperation of the character's scenario. The vaudeville and circus atmosphere that is established during the course of the play: the falling of the pants, Vladimir's duck-waddle, the ringmaster's whip of Pozzo, the hat-switching routine reminiscent of the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, also serves as a synonym for the oftentimes irrational, but nonetheless comedic, portion of everyday existence (Fletcher 64; Graves 64). Such comic absurdities are seen throughout the play but, in most instances, are oftentimes subtler, as in life.
When Pozzo finishes his meal of chicken, having discarded the bones, he says, "Ah! That's better." Then, only a few pages hence, Estragon, having finished the discarded portion of the meal, makes the exact same declaration (Fletcher 65). Similar treatment is given to Vladimir when he returns to the stage shortly after the open of the play, as he is buttoning his trousers after relieving himself. Vladimir utters, "Never neglect the little things of life." Though most audience members would interpret this as the character had intended, in reference to the necessity of urination being a nuance of life itself as well as making sure one's fly is fastened, it was by no means a coincidence on the playwright's behalf that the statement could be interpreted in a less refined manner, imparting sexual overtones. Moreover, when Estragon asks Vladimir, "What's wrong with you?" and the latter replies, "Nothing," he is responding with sardonic accuracy (Graves 73).
The abstract symbol of speech assumes its own character and possesses a very particular meaning throughout the play. In "Godot," Beckett shares similar views with Aleister Crowley's character, Peter Pendragon, in Diary of a Drug Fiend:
People think that talking is a sign of thinking. It isn't, for the most part; on the contrary, it's a mechanical dodge of the body to relieve oneself of the strain of thinking, just as exercising the muscles helps the body to become temporarily unconscious of the weight, its pain, its weariness, and the foreknowledge of its doom. (7)
In this sense, throughout the course of "Godot," conversation becomes a temporary dodge from the thought of life. There is good reason for a desire to evasion thought, seen in the character of Vladimir, "He [Vladimir] is unable to abandon the habit of reason which encourages the expectation of an answer. [. . .] Their [Estragon and Vladimir's] nobility lies in their persistent search for meaning; their tragedy is the impotence of the intelligence to overcome the incommensurable that surround it" (Robinson 249). An example of Robinson's sentiment is witnessed in the following dialogue between the two characters:
Estragon: In the meantime let's try and converse calmly, since we're incapable of keeping silent.
Vladimir: You're right, we're inexhaustible.
Estragon: It's so we won't think.
Vladimir: We have that excuse.
Estragon: It's so we won't hear.
Vladimir: We have our reasons.
Estragon: All the dead voices.
"The sound of their own voices keeps back the swaddling cloud of unknowing and reassures them of their own existence, of which they are not otherwise always certain since the evidence of their senses is so dubious" (Alvarez 79-80). Neither character is speaking with the aspiration to communicate, but merely to be engaged in an activity that momentarily preoccupies the character's thoughts from himself, "They remain unknown and unknowable to one another but prefer to continue a relationship which repeatedly stresses their inviolable isolation, rather than separate and endure the inescapable self-perception of life alone" (Robinson 251). Neither character actually hears what the other is saying but rather waits his turn to speak. This is seen in, "Vladimir's refusal to listen [thus] suggesting his fear and apprehension of all of life and of certain things that are best left unsaid" (Roberts 22).
The impetus for this ineffective mode of communication is not without merit. Several times during the play language fails to serve its purpose of conveying the speaker's intended meaning. Such is the case when the blind Pozzo inquires whether or not Estragon and Vladimir are friends. Estragon remarks to Vladimir, "He wants to know if we are friends!" clearly displaying his interpreted meaning of the question of whether or not Estragon and Vladimir are friends. The latter discovers the error in the dialogue and rectifies his partner's misconception, "No, he means friends of his" (Fletcher 62-3). This accounts for Barry Smith's statistic that questions comprise at least twenty-four percent of the play, of which only twelve percent are answered (qtd. in Fletcher 61).
Lawrence Graves argues that there is a high percentage of communication during the course of the play, especially between the characters of Estragon and Vladimir. He states communication does occur in such cases when questions go seemingly unanswered, at least not audibly answered. He argues that, "The two men have long known the answer to all the old questions" (59). As such, this does not permit a livelier, thriving source of dialogue in contrast to the previous mode of miscommunication, but rather it creates a communicative stagnation.
If conversation is a distraction, then any visual spectacle can easily be viewed as a diversion. This is one of the purposes that the repeated appearances of Pozzo and Lucky serve for Estragon and Vladimir. The reply, "That passed the time" by Vladimir is uttered upon the exit of Pozzo and Lucky in the first act as well as in the second act. This idea can just as easily be interpreted as Beckett's commentary upon the nature of the Arts themselves: even though the play is about the aversion from thought, the audience member is taking a voluntary reprieve from similar activity in watching the play. In this sense, the play itself, aside from having become a major work of meta-theater, is now a symbol of lethargy and humanity's reluctance to confront reality, opting for diversion and distraction at any given moment. Also, using techniques that would later be synonymous with meta-theater, Beckett has Estragon refer to the audience as a "bog," after peering into the suggested void. The playwright is insinuating that the world outside the stage is just as much a barren wasteland as the hopeless world which Estragon and Vladimir inhabit (Fletcher 59).
Another abstract symbol seen in the play is the play's circularity. It is a play in which, "...nothing happens, twice" (Mercier, "Mathematical" 144). We witness the same dialogue, uttered in most cases by the same character and oftentimes quoted verbatim from the previous act. We witness the appearances and exits, as well as similar action (and inaction) and sentiments, by the same characters at approximately the same time as they had occurred in the contrasting act (Roberts 43-45). It is easy to interpret this as representative of the mundane, monotonous, existential nature of existence.
The theme of circularity is perpetually insinuated, if not in the action of the play, then by the bleak setting and background. The locale of the play is, "A county road." We quickly discover, due to the desolation of the environment, that the characters are, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere, a figurative limbo where no type of actions or decisions are made. The image of the road, paralleling and reinforcing the leitmotif of Estragon's boots, symbolizes life's journey (Roberts 19). Thus the characters of the play, having found themselves at the end of life's travels, are now waiting for further instructions as to where to go or what to do. The hopeless routine of life is seen throughout the play for one character will disappear from one side of the stage and quickly reenter on the opposite side of the stage. The characters of the play, in this sense, are literally "going around in circles."
The epitome of this redundancy is seen shortly after the open of the second act in Vladimir's singing of "A Dog Come In." The song is a tale of a dog that stole a crust of bread from a kitchen and is beaten to death by the cook. At the thief's wake, other dogs inscribe as an epitaph on the deceased's tomb the opening line of the tale. The song now becomes infinite for, in order to tell of the tombstone's inscription, one must repeatedly sing the tale ad infinitum. This is not readily apparent for many audience members because Vladimir, either due to loss of memory or confusion of the lines, repeatedly -- to an ironic degree -- begins the song again after having stumbled upon the subsequent line of verse. In this sense, the futility of existence lies not in the fact that life is perpetual circle without change, but that we are unable to make the first lap of this routine without having to backtrack. As a consequence, as Lawrence Graver points out, the dog is made immortal by having his story told and retold (59). The same can be said of "Godot" with its circular, seemingly unending pattern. As a result, the play thus becomes a tale about humanity's universal plight in which nothing is doomed to repeatedly (not) occur.
The abstract notion of time is, arguably, the central figure of the play. The theme of waiting is synonymous with time, for it is a distillation of time. In Godot time "is neither that of the scientist nor that of the watch-wearing spectator" (Guicharnaud 196). This means that time is not something that is by any means a quantitative figure but rather one of quality. Estragon and Vladimir spend most of the play attempting to devise ways in which to entertain themselves in order to "pass the time." The reason time is immeasurable in Godot is because it is universal time, Everyman's time, "...it is the synthesis of the time of the anecdote that is played out and the time of ‘All of Life'" (196). Therefore, the absence of quantity within the play deprives the characters of all qualitative merit which any actions they might enact or any inherit worth they might intrinsically possess. This is due to "[the] gestures or words -- taking place in the flow of normal time -- [and thus] lose their inherent finality when considered in the light of eternity" (196). While it is debatable who the character of Godot may be, there is little doubt that Godot is time, at least in the minds of the characters of Estragon and Vladimir, for time is all that they have to account for when considering the figure of Godot. Though, for all of the play's redundancy, there does exist one particular difference between the two acts.
At the open of the play a single tree, without any hint of growth, is seen in the background, yet upon the open of the second act, the tree has "four or five leaves." This might, at first glance, appear to insinuate growth -- spiritual, emotional, or otherwise -- but in accordance with the play as a whole, it is more probable that the leaves merely represent the passage of time (Graver 58). This would further support the theme of inaction that has henceforth dominated the play by insinuating that little has changed over a considerable period of time. Though it would seem as if the play picks up the following morning, upon further inspection a lapse of several months is indicated by the appearance of the leaves (Smith). This idea is substantiated by Pozzo's decline in health, its apotheosis being the character's blindness. Though it is plausible that an accident could have preceded the character's blindness, his age thus suggests that the handicap appeared as a result of old age. Vladimir notes Pozzo and Lucky's transformation in his declaration, "How they've changed!" Furthermore, Vladimir, only minutes into the open of the second act, upon noticing Lucky's hat for the first time, utters, "I've been here an hour and never saw it." Thus, using traditional dramaturgical techniques, Beckett is suggesting that a greater duration of time has lapsed than what the audience has witnessed (Fletcher 59). It is arguable that if Beckett, who was the preeminent advocator of his own phrase throughout his writing career, "No symbol where none intended" (qtd. in Alvarez 86), would have desired the idea of life or growth using the symbol of the leaves, he would have outlined their color being green. Yet, as it stands, the leaves merely are, possessing not particular hue, as are most of the characters seen during the play.
Mercier claims, due to Racine's strong influence upon Beckett, that the playwright tries to adhere, as closely as the play will allow, to the Aristotelian dictum that a play should span, at best, the course of 24 hours in order to remain aesthetically and cathartically effective (76). Yet this hardly seems the case for Beckett who, by ratio, breaks many of the traditional dramatic maxims during the course of the play than those that he upholds.
It is arguable that the tree, under the guise of Christian interpretations, is to infer a sense of hope, however fleeting. However, Christian symbolism and allusion is not to imply optimism during the course of Godot either, but rather "serve his [Beckett's] dramatic intentions" (Cousineau 25). The tree may be construed as being representative of the Garden of Even. Yet this would be an ironic vision for the characters of the play that seem to be waiting, not for salvation, but for a figure, much like God, of which they have no definitive proof of His existence. This Christian association is further reinforced by Vladimir reporting that Godot stated that he and Estragon where to meet "by the tree." Very early in the play the image of redemption being a possibility for the characters is quickly dismissed in the short dialogue between Estragon and Vladimir concerning the Crucifixion:
Vladimir: But all for [evangelists] were there. And only one speaks of a thief being saved. Why believe him rather than the others?
Estragon: Who believes him?
Vladimir: Everybody. It's the only version they know.
Estragon: People are bloody ignorant apes.
This insinuates that believers of the Christian faith are further, however ironical, evidence of Darwinian theory, thus moving the characters further away from any type of possible salvation, for such people have not evolved mentally, at least beyond the point of adhering to such seemingly nonsensical ideals. The irony lies in Estragon referring to such people as "apes," which are what Darwin claimed humans were derived.
Another interpretative possibility is that Estragon and Vladimir have been expelled from the Garden. If this is so, then the tree, as suggested by Helen Baldwin, is a lasting reminder of their condemnation, for it is symbolic of Christ's cross and in turn crucifixion, which now, literally, perpetually hangs over their heads, "Tradition has it that Christ's cross was made from wood deriving originally from the tree in the Garden" (108). If the single tree can be considered a cross then, as does Jaques Guicharnaud, it can just as easily be interpreted as an empty cross, therefore implying the absence of God and thus the implication that Estragon and Vladimir are waiting in vain (212). Furthermore, the Tree of Knowledge and Life, which brought death to humanity, is now a daily source of speculation for the pair. It serves as a possible outlet in which to commit suicide by hanging. Baldwin states that there can be no doubt as to the tree in the play being a metaphor for the Tree of Knowledge because in his translation of the text, Beckett does not have Vladimir tell Estragon that the pair are to meet by "a tree," but rather "the tree" (110). The image of knowledge leading humanity to its own demise is further strengthened by Gunther Anders statement that the stage of Godot, with its single tree as the center of the world, suggests that the world defines itself as an inherent instrument for suicide (141).
There exist other Christian symbols in the play. The image of the boy messenger who reportedly sleeps in the hayloft in a barn, thus resembling Jesus in his manger, is send by, if not God, nonetheless a Godlike figure. The irony is that there are two brothers who live in the barn. The one who keeps the goats, traditionally a symbol of Satan, is well treated, while the boy who tends the sheep, a symbol of God's followers, is beaten. James Roberts also notices this discrepancy and states, "The reasons for beating the brother is unknown" (30). One possibility for this seemingly unfair treatment may lie in the existential plight of all characters in Godot. The seemingly random selection of why Estragon is repeatedly beaten nightly and left in a ditch, as with the exchange of Estragon's boots with another pair, and the purpose in having the pair wait day after day without apparent cause, as well as the selection of Estragon and Vladimir being those who are to wait, would thus parallel and reinforce the notion of irony and clarify this seemingly nonsensical incongruity in an otherwise sound play.
Another Christian image that is seen is of Estragon's symbolic baptism that occurred when he fell into the Rhone River when fielding grapes over fifty years ago. The image of grapes is also a Biblical symbol of fertility, thus the time of fertility and growth are past and the implication is thus made that only stagnation lies ahead. Also, this suggests that Estragon and Vladimir have been cast out of the Garden of Eden and are being eternally condemned (Roberts 33). The pair's exile is reinforced when Estragon startles awake from a nightmare about falling, presumably from God's grace.
Furthermore, when Vladimir reminds Estragon that it is too cold to go barefoot, the latter reminds Vladimir that Christ had gone without shoes. Vladimir retorts that Christ went barefoot in warm climate. Estragon quickly points out that the warm climate was the reason for Christ's quick crucifixion. Thus, by implication, Estragon has an extended period of time in which he will be punished. This further establishes and supports the idea of waiting for an undetermined period of time.
Using Biblical allusion, the maimed character of Pozzo in the second act becomes a universal Everyman. When Estragon suggests calling Pozzo by various titles in hopes of getting Pozzo's attention and Vladimir demands Pozzo's name is indeed Pozzo, the following exchange occurs.
Estragon: . . . try [calling] him with other names. . . . It'd pass the time. And we'd be bound to hit on the right one sooner or later.
Vladimir: I tell you his name is Pozzo.
Estragon: We'll soon see. (He reflects.) Abel! Abel!
Pozzo: Help!
Estragon: Got it in one!
Vladimir: I begin to weary of this motif.
Estragon: Perhaps the other is called Cain. Cain! Cain!
Pozzo: Help!
Estragon: He's all humanity.
By Biblical standards, all of humanity carries with it the mark of Cain and that of Abel, thus Beckett has created in the lame and blind figure of Pozzo a symbol enshrouding all of humanity (39). The Biblical naming does not end with Pozzo. Upon researching the origin of the name "Vladimir," one will find an eleventh-century czar who was converted to Christianity and who is also referred to as Saint Vladimir (Baldwin 114). Also, Pozzo when asking Estragon his name, the latter replies "Adam."
As with most interpretations of great literature, there exist no definitive readings, as such:
This is why the many and elaborate interpretations that have been foisted on Godot seem particularly superfluous. Pozzo and Lucky may be Body and intellect, Master and Slave, Capitalist and Proletarian, Colonizer and Colonized, Cain and Abel, Sadist and Masochist, even Joyce and Beckett. But essentially and more simply, they embody one way of getting through life with someone else, just as Vladimir and Estragon more sympathetically embody another. (Alvarez 86)
It is not unreasonable to state that most critics, after the quagmire of Beckettian scholarship has settled, regardless if the focus was upon the characterization, philosophy, or Christian symbolism in the play, would be content with Alvarez's sentiment upon Godot.
Works Cited
Alvarez, A. Samuel Beckett. New York: Viking, 1973.
Anders, Gunther. "On Beckett's Play Waiting for Godot." Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Martin Esslin. Englewood: Prentice, 1965.
Bair, Deirdre. Samuel Beckett: A Biography. New York: Touchstone, 1990.
Baldwin, Helene. Samuel Beckett's Read Silence. University Park: U of Pennsylvania P, 1981.
Beckett, Samuel. Endgame. New York: Grove, 1958.
---. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. New York: Grove, 1953.
ClassicNote.com by GradeSaver. J. N. Smith. Aug. 1999. 27 April 2001 Gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/WaitingForGodot/Analysis.html
Cronin, Anthony. Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist. New York: Da Capo, 1999.
Crowley, Aleister. Diary of a Drug Fiend. York Beach: Weiser, 1997.
Cousineau, Thomas. Waiting for Godot: Form in Movement. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
Duckworth, Colin. "The Making of Godot." Casebook on Waiting for Godot. Ed. Ruby Cohn. New York: Grove, 1967.
Fletcher, John and Spurling, John. Beckett: A Study of His Plays. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Norton, 1963.
Graver, Lawrence. Waiting for Godot. 5th ed. New York: U of Cambridge P, 1999.
Guicharnaud, Jacques and Beckelman, June. Modern French Theatre from Giraudoux to Beckett. New Haven: Yale, 1961.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm. Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. A.V. Miller. New York: U of Oxford P, 1979.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick Or, The Whale. New York: Random, 1950.
Mercier, Vivian. Beckett/Beckett. New York: U of Oxford P, 1977.
---. "The Mathematical Limit." The Nation CLXXXVIII 14 Feb. 1959: 144-5.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random, 1968.
---. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Penguin, 1982.
Roberts, James. Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Endgame, & Other Plays. Lincoln: Cliffs Notes, 1980.
Robinson, Michael. The Long Sonata of the Dead: A Study of Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove, 1969.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." The Unabridged William Shakespeare. Eds. William George Clark and William Aldis Wright. Philadelphia: Courage, 1997.
---. "Macbeth." The Unabridged William Shakespeare. Eds. William George Clark and William Aldis Wright. Philadelphia: Courage, 1997.
Return to Beckett Papers
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Chris KellyIt's not very often that a young celebrity's sudden death is found to be from natural causes, and unfortunately, it seems rapper Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly's untimely passing is no exception. When the news hit yesterday that the 34-year-old -- best known as half of the '90's group Kris Kross -- had been found unresponsive in his Atlanta home, no cause of death was declared. Today, however, authorities in Atlanta say they are investigating the case as a possible drug overdose.
Paramedics initially responded to Kelly's Atlanta home around 3 p.m. on Wednesday after his mother called 911. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. According to a police report obtained by TMZ, Kelly's medical emergency can be traced back to a dangerous mix of drugs he took the night before.
Assuming the police report is accurate, Chris Kelly's mom, Donna Kelly Pratt, told the cops that her son had an "extensive history of drug use," and said that the night before he died, he'd taken a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball." Donna said she had taken Kelly home to recover, much as she'd done several times in the past, and that Kelly had complained of nausea all morning before he passed out.
Just hours before Kelly slipped into unconsciousness, he did a phone interview with The Streetz Morning Grind radio show in Atlanta. He actually referenced his partying behavior in the interview, causing the DJ -- a friend of his -- to chide him. Here's the clip:
There's no definitive report yet as to Kelly's cause of death, since the autopsy was planned for this morning and results likely won't be back for a while. But it's sounding like a sadly familiar story of a life cut down too soon by drugs. If it turns out he did in fact die from a speedball overdose, he'll join a tragic club of those who succumbed to the often-fatal effects of mixing a stimulant and a depressant. Others who were killed by the same drug cocktail include John Belushi, Chris Farley, and River Phoenix.
Kelly's mother, along with Kris Kross's former record label, has released a joint statement mourning their loss:
Are you at all surprised to hear that Chris Kelly's death may have been drug-related?
Image via MTV
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The Twilight Saga
Friendship is like peeing on yourself. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth from it.
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+ Add Question
Entering Tasks with No Task Addition
This is possibly a perfectionist question, but I'm really starting to rely on Todoist, so I'll ask it.
Scenario: I frequently want to add just one task to a project. So, I'll go to the project, hit shift-A and add it. If I use 'enter,' I get a new task below it, then I have to cancel that new task to do anything else. I get the same behavior if I click 'save.'
How can I enter a new task without then getting an empty second task?
All responses
David Trey staff
Replied on Mar 23, 2013 - 08:38
Hello Mark,
When you save a task, no other tasks are created. The empty box you see is not a task, just an option to potentially add a new task, if you leave the project and get back to it without closing the empty box, you will not see an empty task.
Please note that this box can be quickly closed with ESC and as an alternative, you can use the "Quick Add" option (the plus sign in the top-right corner or Ctrl+Q) which will only allow you to add one task.
Best regards,
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Tolkien Gateway
Here, There Be Dragons
Revision as of 15:19, 9 June 2011 by Mithbot (Talk | contribs)
Here, There Be Dragons
Here, There Be Dragons.jpg
AuthorJames A. Owen
PublisherSimon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ReleasedSeptember 26, 2006
Here, There Be Dragons is the first book in the fantasy series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, a fictional story involving John (J.R.R. Tolkien), Charles (Charles Williams), and Jack (C.S. Lewis).
Editorial review
The unusual murder of an Oxford professor brings together three strangers in World War I London: John, a soldier and the professor's correspondence student; Jack, a young Oxford student; and Charles, an editor at the Oxford University Press. One rainy night they meet a curious man called Bert who tells them that they are the caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of imaginary lands. Forced to flee in Bert's ship, the group sails to the Archipelago of Dreams, where a battle over Arthur Pendragon's throne threatens to place the evil Winter King in charge. Owen brings together elements from well-known works of fantasy and legend: the lands and characters lean heavily toward Greek and Arthurian myth, while clues from the caretakers' works point to the legendary writers they will become. Although the episodic plot is overlong, and the period narration's formality occasionally slows things down, there's still plenty of action, and Owen's amazingly detailed pen-and-ink illustrations, dark and atmospheric, lend a real storybook flavor. This is the first volume in the Chronicles of Imaginarium Geographica series. (Krista Hutle)
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica
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Touchstone Magazine Home
From the December, 2007
issue of Touchstone
World of Tears by Franklin Freeman
World of Tears
Virgil: The Aeneid
translated by Robert Fagles, introduction by Bernard Knox
Viking, 2006
(486 pages, $40.00, hardcover)
reviewed by Franklin Freeman
In Homer’s world, wrote C. S. Lewis in A Preface to Paradise Lost, quoted by both Bernard Knox in his introduction and Robert Fagles in his postscript, “you were unhappy, or you were happy, and that was all. Aeneas lives in a different world; he is compelled to see something more important than happiness.”
The something more is a vocation. As Lewis wrote, “To follow the vocation does not mean happiness: but once it has been heard, there is no happiness for those who do not follow.” Or as Fagles, professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University, who has also translated Homer, Sophocles, and other classic authors, comments, “His [Aeneas’s] destiny, like his character, remains double-edged, a ‘yoking by violence together’ of opposing tugs, of profit and loss, of gain and bitter grief.”
The Aeneid continues the story of the Trojan War, but instead of telling the Grecian story of Ulysses trying to return home, as Homer did in The Odyssey, it tells the story of the Trojan Aeneas’s return, with his countrymen, to his ancestral homeland of Italy.
“I am pious Aeneas,” Aeneas says in the first book. This includes not only religious piety, writes Knox, director emeritus of the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, because “the words pius and pietas have in Latin a wider meaning . . . something like ‘dutiful,’ ‘mindful of one’s duty’—not only to the gods but also to one’s family and to one’s country.” Aeneas’s double-edged “something more” is the vocation to found Rome.
Driven by Duty
In the course of fulfilling his duty, Aeneas goes through many ordeals and obstacles: wars, storms at sea, descent into the underworld, desertions of the womenfolk, who burn a large portion of his fleet, and most dangerous of all, falling in love with Dido, the Queen of Carthage.
For many, Book IV, which describes this affair and Aeneas’s leaving of Dido when reminded by the gods of his duty, is the most moving part of the poem. Aeneas tells Dido that he leaves her “all against my will,” but she swears he will pay for his betrayal of her, and as he sails away, she immolates herself on a funeral pyre heaped with his gifts to her.
There is a moving passage describing Aeneas after Dido storms away from him for the last time:
But Aeneas
is driven by duty now. Strongly as he longs
to ease and allay her sorrow, speak to her,
turn away her anguish with reassurance, still,
moaning deeply, heart shattered by his great love,
in spite of all he obeys the gods’ commands
and back he goes to his ships.
Aeneas obeys the gods and fulfills his vocation, though, as Fagles points out, the note or feeling at the poem’s end is one of unfinished business. It ends as suddenly as it began, with Aeneas killing his opponent, Turnus, and thus winning the war that entitles his nation to be founded in Italy. It ends on a note of bloodshed, not construction:
In the same breath, blazing with wrath he plants
his iron sword hilt-deep in his enemy’s heart.
Turnus’ limbs went limp in the chill of death.
His life breath fled with a groan of outrage
down to the shades below.
Virgil’s poem is in two voices, Fagles writes, “echoing an opposition between action and reflection, patriotism and personal assertion, public exultation and wrenching private sorrow,” that is, between his calling to found Rome and his desire to stay with the woman he loves and rest from warfare. It is an opposition with which we can identify.
A Note of Sadness
But there is a deeper truth here, which Dante, who memorized The Aeneid, exalted in his Divine Comedy: a sense of spiritual exile and frustrated justice. Or as Lewis put it, in the two lines from Book V, “Twixt miserable longing for the present land/ And the far realms that call them by the fates’ command,” Virgil “has described once and for all the very quality of most human life as it is experienced by any one who has not yet risen to holiness or sunk to animality.”
The poem’s “ocean-roll of rhythm,” Fagles writes, reminds us of what Matthew Arnold called “the eternal note of sadness.” It is “a note we cannot, should not avoid. For Virgil’s world of tears, like that of Keats, may become a ‘vale of soul-making’ after all, a place to restore ourselves and our societies to wholeness, health, and peace.”
A word about the translation itself. Though I’m no classicist, my impression is that Robert Fitzgerald’s popular translation is truer to the words, Fagles’s to the lines of Virgil. Fagles very occasionally falls flat in diction, but his translation has stronger narrative momentum than Fitzgerald’s, and you keep reading because he doesn’t let you stop.
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“World of Tears” first appeared in the December 2007 issue of Touchstone. If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more of the same in every issue.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48004
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Bill110 Wrote:
Oct 14, 2012 3:20 PM
It's not hard to understand why some Christian conservatives would be reluctant to vote for Romney. Romney was NOT their choice, and many are still dragging their feet in support. What is hard to understand, is, how can any sane person, who claims to love God and America, support the idiot in the Oval Office. A pro-abortion, gay agenda, anti-American, bowing to Muslim kings, snubbing our allies and feverishly working to destroy capitalism. Anyone who supports Obama has a death-wish for America. Obama supporters are traitors.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48011
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Opened 4 years ago
Last modified 7 months ago
#8058 assigned enhancement
Integration with "Testing workflow" - Allow resolving if dependency status is "testing"
Reported by: sukender at Owned by: rjollos
Priority: normal Component: MasterTicketsPlugin
Severity: normal Keywords:
Cc: Trac Release: 0.12
This is a suggestion. When working with "Testing workflow", a nice idea would be to:
• Show tickets with status==testing in yellow in depgraph
• Allow closing tickets only if all dependencies are closed (as for current implementation)
• Allow resolving tickets if all dependencies have status==testing
Attachments (0)
Change History (1)
comment:1 Changed 7 months ago by rjollos
• Owner changed from coderanger to rjollos
• Status changed from new to assigned
Add Comment
Modify Ticket
as assigned .
Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48023
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
Does Christopher Hitchens Secretly Want to Abuse Children?
"Nothing optional--from homosexuality to adultery--is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate" -- Hitchens, "god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," p. 40
"[I]f I was suspected of raping a child, or of torturing a child, or infecting a child with venereal disease, or selling a child into sexual or any other kind of slavery, I might consider committing suicide whether I was guilty or not. If I had actually committed the offense, I would welcome death in any form that it might take . . . The ignorant psychopath or brute who mistreats his children must be punished but can be understood. Those who claim a heavenly warrant for the cruelty have been tainted by evil, and also constitute far more of a danger" - ibid, p. 52
Since Hitchens thinks child abusers (of all forms) must be punished, and since he implies, and since it is obvious, that almost all instances of child abuse are done by those with the proper control of their actions to be morally responsible, and Hitchens thinsk they could refrain, so it is "optional," then Hitchens, per Hitchens, must "have a repressed desire to participate."
Really, people lauded this drivel?
The New Atheism?
What a threat.
Perfect instance of "The No-god Delusion."
Satin doll universalism
Jason Pratt said...
“Yeah, Steve was more than a little testy with me, too, when Thomas Talbott and I were discussing universalism with the Triablogue crew…”
“He's referring to the discussion with Talbott that I linked to. Frankly, his review of your book is a lot more temperate than the denigration of me he posted up on Triablogue…”
“As for getting off light--at least he didn't start hurling invective about you being some Satanic-level blasphemer pretending to use orthodox theology to mislead people.”
On the one hand, Jason Pratt holds out hope that everyone will be saved. God would literally be Satanic if he didn’t try to save Nazis who turn Jews into lampshades.
On the other hand, we’re treated to this crybaby rhetoric when Jason Pratt feels that he’s been verbally abused. The poor thing!
Universalism is like a lady’s club in which they politely debate the optimistic fate of Josef Mengele and Vlad the Impaler over tea and watercress. It’s such a civilized debate inside the lady’s club. No one every raises her voice. One lump or two?
But if someone barges into the lady’s club and says something “denigrating,” well, that’s very indecorous and hard on the nerves. How could people be so mean to sweet old Jason and interrupt her pretty little speech about how God wouldn’t be God unless he rescued Vlad the Impaler from hell? Why, it’s downright rude! What’s the world coming to?
Jason Pratt is to universalism what Leonard Bernstein was to the Black Panthers. He inhabits his theological dollhouse, where he can wax expansive about his hypothetical compassion for the damned—as long as no one in the real world hurts his feelings by talking disrespectful to him. One wonders what would happen to his cosmic philanthropy if someone tried to turn him into a lampshade.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Lying for Mammy Nature
Dawkins called those associated with "Expelled," liars for Jesus. So I'll assume he thinks my terminology fair.
"I shall simply say that those who regard [Saddam Hussein's] regime as a 'secular' one are deluding themselves" -- Christopher Hitchens, "god is not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything", p. 25)
Let's see what the "About Atheism/Agnosticism" web site claims (do I need to point out that I'm invoking a source not sympathetic with my own view of the world?):
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti
Important Dates:
Born: April 28, 1937, in al-Awja, Tikrit, Iraq
Executed: December 30, 2006
Joined the Baath Party: 1956
Married his cousin, Sajida: 1958
Attempted Assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister: 1959
Aided in Baath Party Coup of Iraq: 1968
Seized Power in Iraq: 1979
Invaded Iran: 1980
Married Second Wife, his daughter's teacher Samira Shahbandar: 1984
Invaded Kuwait: 1990
Captured by U.S. forces: December 13, 2003
Great Uncle
Glorious Leader
Field Marshall
Born in a mud-brick house to a family of sheep-herders, Saddam Hussein rose to become one of the world's most brutal dictators of the latter-half of the 20th century. Key to this was his participation in the secular and nationalist Iraqi Baath party. Originally this party was united with a Syrian Baath party, but the two eventually split due to doctrinal differences. The Arabic word ba'th means "resurrection" or "renaissance" and is used here as a reference to the ideal of a renaissance of Arab power in the world — a curious stance, given that the power they were striving for was secular while the historical power was constituted at least largely on the basis of religion. This secular/religious contradiction in Baathist ideology would play a role in Saddam Hussein's own rule.
Socialist and secular in nature, the Iraqi Baath party has a great deal in common with European fascist movements, both religious and secular, with its reliance on developing extremist national consciousness as a means of uniting the people against enemies, both internal and external. Islamist movements in the Arab world have much the same goal, though they base their political philosophy on Islamic religious ideology rather than secular socialism. The fact that both secular and religious ideologies can achieve popularity with the same goals despite being opposed to each other indicates that they are both are tapping into something important.
Saddam Hussein received law degrees from the University of Cairo and the University of Baghdad, with the latter occurring after a non-violent Baathist coup in Iraq. At this time Hussein served in various positions within the party and the government, but in 1979 when President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr announced his retirement, Hussein managed to assume the positions of Chairman and President, consolidating a great deal of power in his hands alone.
Saddam Hussein: Secular or Religious Ruler?
Saddam Hussein's popularity in the Muslim and Arab world varied greatly, depending upon whom one asked and what the political situation at the time was. Because of his repression of the religious Shi'ite minority in Iraq and his long war with Shi'ite Iran, it was difficult for Shi'ite Muslims to find anything good to say about Hussein. In addition, because of his staunch secularism and his secularization of Iraq, it was been difficult for devout and conservative Muslims of any type to think well of him.
On the other hand, Hussein was also one of the few Arab leaders to have been able to stand up to the West on a regular basis, asserting Iraqi and Arab independence from Western interests and power. This, rather than the brutal repression of his own people, was the point upon which many Arabs and Muslims focused the most. In a region which has had few powerful leaders to whom people could point with pride, Saddam Hussein became something of a folk hero.
As poor of a hero as he was, the lack of any better candidates assures him a position of respect and honor for Arabs and Muslims for generations to come. Usually Muslims are regarded by Westerners as putting religion above everything else, but here we have a clear example of many Muslims doing just the opposite: even though Saddam Hussein was staunchly secular, he can still be a hero among devout Muslims because of his political accomplishments. Is this merely a contradiction in some Muslims' worldview, or a sign that their politics is more complicated than Western critics normally give them credit for?
Saddam Hussein's conflicted relationship with religion has also created a conundrum for conservative critics in the West: should they condemn him as an example of what happens with Islam is allowed to control society, or should they condemn him as an example of what happens when a fully secular government is allowed to control society? Religious conservatives would like to attack both, but they can't attack both in the person of Saddam Hussein at the same time.
Iraq under Saddam Hussein was very secular and, as a consequence, there was far more freedom for women and non-Muslims than in most other Arab Muslim nations. In contrast to the religiously authoritarian direction which Iraq has taken under the American occupation, though, such secularism is a difficult target for criticism for religious conservatives who otherwise treat secular governments as inspired by the Antichrist. Indeed, it's not unusual to see religious conservatives complaining about events in Iraqi politics that they might otherwise praise in American politics.
On the other hand, Saddam Hussein only turned to religion near the end of his reign when he desperately needed anything that would bolster support. Conservative critics in the West have tended to focus on this, ignoring the fact that he was only using religion for political purposes - something we see in the West as well. Lumping Saddam Hussein with other Islamist leaders and movements is also likely to be inaccurate because Hussein himself was a frequent target of Islamist criticism for being too secular and not enforcing Islamic religious laws.
If anything Saddam Hussein and his rule can serve as a bad example both to secular atheists and to religious theists. First, he is a good example that a secular government cannot necessarily be trusted to be completely just or good and that removing religion from government will not necessarily lead to great improvements. Secularization means little without democratization and liberalization. Second, Saddam Hussein is also an example of how donning a cloak of religious piety will not automatically provide political legitimacy to a troubled, unpopular leader. Religious theists shouldn't trust a politician merely because they use the right religious language and proclaim their desire to serve religious tradition.
A Muslim I once knew told me that it was not against Islamic law to lie to infidels. He was a used car salseman. I guess that same type of thinking is how Hitchens justifies his repeated lies in his book, "god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." Since he affirms qualitative hedonism, and thus is a consequentialist, what does a little lying matter so long as you can "eradicate faith?"
No Wars . . . and No Religion Too?
CNN isn't known as a pro-religious, pro "right" organization.
Suicide bombings as military strategy
Expert: Attacks motivated by logic, not religion
By Henry Schuster
Thursday, June 30, 2005 Posted: 1605 GMT (0005 HKT)
Women, as well as men, are suicide bombers, including Chechnya's "black widows."
For years, suicide bombings in the Middle East have caused death, destruction and chaos. In turn, they have generated news headlines and analyses that often frame the attacks, like those perpetrated by Palestinians or Iraqi insurgents, as weapons in a holy war.
But Pape, author of the provocative new book "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," contends those reports fuel significant misperceptions about the bombers, their motivations and specifically the role religion plays in their actions.
"There is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world's religions," he says.
Before September 11, Pape's main academic focus was the impact of air power in military conflicts. After the attacks, he shifted his attention to suicide terrorism.
Finding out what motivated these bombers and their groups proved challenging, as he discovered little in the way of comprehensive data. So Pape began building a database and then mined it for details.
After studying 315 suicide attacks from 1981-2004, the University of Chicago political science professor concludes that suicide bombers' actions stem from logical military strategies, not their religion -- and especially not Islam.
While American news-watchers may hear more about Israel and Iraq, Pape calls the Tamil Tigers the leading purveyors of suicide attacks over the last two decades -- until now. An adamantly secular group with Hindu roots, the Tamil Tigers are engaged in a struggle for independence and power with the Sri Lankan government.
So what is the suicide bomber's main rationale? It is that the attacks work, Pape found.
Which means, in the case of al Qaeda and like-minded groups, getting the United States out of the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq.
How it started
Suicide terrorism -- which Pape defines as attackers killing others and themselves at the same time -- began in Lebanon after the Israelis invaded in the early 1980s. (He does not include Japanese kamikaze pilots from World War II because they operated on behalf of a government.)
Hezbollah, a new group at that time, began recruiting bombers, and almost immediately had spectacular success with devastating attacks on American and French targets.
Two-hundred forty-one American servicemen died in the truck bomb attack on a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983, leading to an American withdrawal from Lebanon a few months later.
The Tamil Tigers picked up on Hezbollah's strategy, even training alongside them in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The Tamil Tigers perfected the suicide belt, notes Pape, using it to kill former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
Other groups -- including Hamas, the PKK (a Kurdish group in Turkey), Chechen rebels and, of course, al Qaeda -- followed suit, incorporating suicide terrorism in their military strategies.
According to Pape's charts, about half the suicide terrorist campaigns from 1980-2003 achieved some degree of success; the Israelis, for example, withdrew from Lebanon following bombings by Hezbollah.
And with success came a rise in suicide terrorism, even as overall terrorist incidents were declining. It became a key tactic, alongside more conventional attacks, for these groups.
The religion question
September 11, 2001, along with years of suicide attacks in Israel, prompted many to link Islam with suicide bombing -- an assertion that Pape rejects.
Having studied who the attackers were, he points out that Hezbollah's campaigns against U.S. and Israeli forces in Lebanon involved as many suicide bombers who were secular as religious. The same is true for the recent wave of attacks in Israel by Hamas and other groups.
Religion may be the prime motivation for some individual suicide bombers, Pape admits, and some groups may be religiously based, including al Qaeda. But he says that suicide terrorism is used because it works, not because it fits any particular religious ideal.
-- Robert Pape"Suicide terrorist groups are [not] religious cults isolated from the rest of their society," Pape writes in his book. "Rather, suicide terrorist organizations often command broad social support within the national communities from which they recruit, because they are seen as pursuing legitimate nationalist goals, especially liberation from foreign occupation."
Where religion does come into play, he argues, is when the group using suicide bombing points to these foreign occupiers and demonizes them for threatening their local religion. So the United States becomes "Crusaders and Jews" threatening the Arabian Peninsula, according to al Qaeda.
While not everyone in the counterterrorism community has embraced Pape's ideas -- particularly about the lack of a link between Islam and suicide bombing -- his book has gained legitimacy and credibility.
Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was "very impressed and very interested" after reading Pape's book and being briefed by him, according to a Lugar aide.
Suicide bombers in Iraq
What has Pape most worried at the moment is Iraq. That nation will soon overtake Sri Lanka as the site of the highest number of suicide terrorist attacks.
In hindsight -- and he emphasizes hindsight -- he says going into Iraq was bound to create the condition for more suicide bombers, citing a strong national insurgency coupled with the presence of U.S. troops who are seen as occupiers.
And that has allowed for local Iraqi support of suicide bombers, even if many of them seem to come from other countries.
But he contends that the consequences of the Iraq conflict, as it affects suicide terrorism, don't end there.
He points to the history of al Qaeda, which started with suicide attacks against Americans and their allies in other places, then launched the September 11 attacks on U.S. soil.
"The longer the suicide campaign in Iraq goes on, the more at risk we are it will come to our shores," says Pape.
If "religion" (notice these terms are never defined) were gone, would wars follow them? David Livingstone Smith, professor of philosophy at the University of New England, and an atheist, has written a book called "The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War." In it he claims to analyze war as a philosopher and a researcher. He puts in some serious time looking at "war." As an atheist, and an ardent evolutionist (co-founder of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology), what has his hard thinking and long hours of research led him to find?
"War can be approached from many angles. We can consider it from the standpoint of economics, politics, history, ideology, ethics, and various other disciplines. All of these are important, but there is one dimension that underpins them all: the bedrock of human nature." (p. xiii)
"Historically, there have been two broad, sharply polarized views of the relationship between war and human nature. One is that war is human nature in the raw, stripped of the facade of contrived civility behind which we normally hide. In most recent incarnations of this ancient theory, the taste for killing is said to be written in our genes. The other is that war is nothing but a perversion of an essentially kind, compassionate, and sociable human nature and that it is culture, not biology, which make us so dangerous to one another. In fact, both of these images are gross oversimplifications: both are true, and both are false. Human beings are capable of almost unimaginable violence and cruelty toward one another, and there is reason to believe that this dogged aggressiveness is grounded in our genes. But we are also enormously sociable, cooperative creatures with an elemental horror of shedding human blood, and this, too, seems to be embedded in the core of human nature. Strange as it may sound, I believe that war is caused by both of these forces working in tandem; it is a child of ambivalence, a compromise between two opposing sides of human nature." (p. xiv, emphasis original)
"What evidence was that these people [who caused wars or acts of terror or brutal slayings] were insane? There is usually none. The psychologists who painstakingly sifted through the data on the senior Nazi officer brought to justice in the Nuremberg trials found that ‘high-ranking Nazi war criminals … participated in atrocities without having diagnosable impairments that would account for their actions.’ They were ‘ as diverse a group as one might find in our government today, or in the leadership of the PTA.’ If the Nazi leaders were not deranged, what about the rank and file who did Hitler’s dirty work? What about the members of the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile killing units that committed atrocities like the mass killing at Babi Yar, where 33,000 Jews, as well as many gypsies and mental patients, were machine-gunned to death during two crisp autumn days in 1941? Do you think these men must have been psychopaths or Nazi Zealots? If so, you are wrong. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that they were anything other than ordinary German citizens. ‘The system and rhythm of mass extermination,” observes journalist Heinz Hohne, “were directed by … worthy family men.” The men of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, a killing squad in Poland who were involved in the shooting of at least 38,000 Jews and the deportation of a further 83,000 to the Treblinka death camp, were ordinary middle-aged family men without either military training or ideological indoctrination. ‘The truth seems to be,’ writes psychologist James Waller, ‘that the most outstanding characteristic of perpetrators of extraordinary evil lies in their normality, not their abnormality.’ Purveyors of violence, terrorists, and merchants of genocidal destruction are, more often than not, people who fit the profile that Primo Levi panted of his Nazi jailers at Auschwitz: ‘average human beings, averagely intelligent, averagely wicked … they had our faces.’ To Hannah Arendt they were ‘terribly and terrifyingly normal.’ They could be your neighbors, parents, or children. They could be you.” (p. 4)
“Wars are purposeful. They are fought for resources, lebensraum, oil, gold, food, and water or peculiarly abstract or imaginary goods like God, honor, race, democracy, and destiny” (p. 7)
“Hobbes thought that antagonism simmers beneath the surface of all human interactions, constantly threatening to erupt into lethal violence, and the problem lay in human equality.” (p.9, ).
Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris et al. would have us believe that once religion is eradicated, we would all be safe. Their teaching is dangerous, then. It draws many into a false sense of security. Thousands of young atheists will spend their time trying to make religion obsolete. But will it work?
"In broad terms the causes that have commonly compelled people to engage in terrorism are grievances borne of political oppression, cultural domination, economic exploitation, ethnic discrimination, and religious persecution. Perceived inequities in the distribution of wealth and political power have led some terrorists to attempt to overthrow democratically elected governments. To achieve a fairer society, they would replace these governments with socialist or communist regimes. Left-wing terrorist groups of the 1960s and 1970s with such aims included Germany’s Baader-Meinhof Gang, Italy’s Red Brigades, and the Weather Underground (see Weathermen) in the United States. Other terrorists have sought to fulfill some mission that they believe to be divinely inspired or millennialist (related to the end of the world). (See Millennium). The Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, responsible for a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 that killed 12 people, falls into this category. Still other terrorists have embraced comparatively more defined and comprehensible goals such as the re-establishment of a national homeland (for example, Basque separatists in Spain) or the unification of a divided nation (Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland)."
There's no reason to think that it will. The problem, a sinful nature, will still remain. War, violence, terror, and suicide bombings would still remain. Thoese with the ethical grounding to speak out against it, ex hypothesi, wouldn't. Atheists are focusing their energies on the wrong place. Too bad that by their rejection of the Savior, their un-atoned sinful ways, they are opting to spend an eternity at war with each other and with God. The peace the atheist strives for is a false peace. It leads to everlasting war. They will not live in the land where the sword has been beaten into a plowshare but in the land where teeth gnash 24/7. Such is the irony of the Godless life . . .
Van Helsing v. Funkenstein
“Dr Funkenstein” has decided to reply:
“Obviously I'm not familiar with every pro (or anti-) theistic argument ever made, so if Steve had pointed me in the direction of some links or given me a brief outline I would happily have read them.”
Here’s your reading assignment for today:
“Contrary to what he suggested I did in fact read the psychology journal he posted - possession is not recognised as a valid psychiatric illness by the 2 major psychiatric boards in the US.”
Notice that “Funkenstein” dodges the concrete evidence presented in the article by retreating into a tendentious appeal to human authority.
“It is curious that he would present a (fairly obscure) peer reviewed journal on the subject as evidence, when he would no doubt dismiss one on common descent, natural selection and the like as being scientific dogma.”
As usual, Funkenstein is either too dim or too dishonest to follow his own argument. This was his original claim: ““Can I shout 'viewpoint discrimination' if psychiatric journals won't allow me to publish my demonic theory of mental illness?”
So I cited a counterexample. When, however, I answer him on his own grounds, he changes the subject. This is typical of the way in which Rintintin-cum- Funkenstein behaves. When you meet him on his own turf, he shifts ground.
“Some of the points I responded to where Steve mocked my biblical exegesis - these are genuine views of Christians I have spoken to or who put forward ideas in the public domain (eg talking snake, global flood etc). A reading of the English version of Genesis makes me consider these to be fairly reasonable representations, but obviously I don't speak ancient Hebrew and not every Christian denomination interprets these the same way. I am not a mind reader, so being unaware of Steve's specific beliefs my statements might not be applicable to him personally.”
Funkenstein is debating me, not Ken Ham.
More to the point, it’s irrelevant how some Christians interpret Genesis. Funkenstein is attacking Genesis. So his attack depends on his interpretation, not theirs. As such, it’s incumbent on his to justify his interpretation, using grammatico-historical exegesis, and interacting with alternative interpretations in the standard exegetical literature.
For example, if Mary Baker Eddy took Gen 1 a certain way, and Funkenstein demonstrated that her position was scientifically untenable, that wouldn’t prove that Gen 1 is scientifically untenable—but only that her position on Gen 1 was scientifically untenable.
“On the subject of the serpent, my statement that it seems ludicrous was met with a reply that Bronze age people wouldn't have had access to it either. But this doesn't really hold up - they were apparently privileged with an abundance of miracles of equivalent impressiveness for a period of several thousand years. Jesus performs a veritable plethora of miracles throughout the Gospels for example.”
Here he betrays his self-reinforcing ignorance of Scripture. Miracles aren’t commonplace in Bible history. They cluster around major redemptive events. Because the Bible, like any historical work, is selective, and because it’s primarily concerned with the history of redemption, miraculous events are disproportionately represented. But in other historical books of scripture which narrate less epochal periods, miracles are few and far between.
“As far as I can tell, those of us in the modern age have not been given the same benefit.”
This is yet another example of his self-reinforcing ignorance. If you go out of your way to avoid religious experience, you will likely succeed. But miracles didn’t end with the death of the Apostles.
“Seeing as the basic argument is that God, and specifically the Christian God for presuppositonal apologists, is self-evident, this should be as true for me, some guy in an isolated tribe in the Amazon, someone in ancient China or the ancient Aborigines as it was for the people in the ancient Near/Middle East (and apparently van Til et al). Speaking personally, I had no awareness of God until someone told me about the idea when I was a child.”
Presuppositional apologetics doesn’t content that God is self-evident. Rather, the basic argument in presuppositional apologetics is that God supplies the necessary truth-conditions for anything to be true, provable, probable, or knowable.
That’s not the same thing as claiming that God’s existence is self-evident. That’s not a psychological claim, but a metaphysical claim.
Presuppositional apologetics also stresses the noetic effects of sin. Even if God were self-evident, an unwelcome truth will be suppressed.
“Van Til states that ‘God must always remain mysterious to man.’ But obviously not to him and various theologians past and present it would seem. Curiously these theologians with access to knowledge of God don't all agree with each other.”
i) Don’t all agree with each other about what? The doctrine of God? Traditionally, there’s a fair amount of agreement among Christian theologians about the divine attributes.
And where there’s disagreement, it’s generally due to the attempt to reconcile the divine attributes, which they agree upon, with some extraneous precommitment regarding the nature of human freedom.
ii) Of course, scientists don’t all agree with each other. Therefore, by Funkenstein’s criterion, scientists don’t have access to knowledge of the natural world.
“I believe Greg Bahnsen attempted to provide a way of 'knowing the supernatural' while he was alive - yet from reading his words, they gave no real indication of how one would do this or separate it from one's own imagination.”
This is so vague that there’s nothing to respond to. Bahnsen believed in divine revelation. That was the primary way of “knowing the supernatural.” And Bahnsen presented a transcendental argument for the existence of God. What Funkenstein thinks any of this has to do with “imagination,” he doesn’t explain—probably because his knowledge of Bahnsen is so cursory and second-hand that he can’t say anything specific.
“Furthermore, as Frame explains how he knows God illumines the human mind: 'we know without knowing how we know', and also that 'we know that Scripture is God’s Word, but we know very little about the process by which God inspires the biblical writers and texts'. For all the criticism my views have received, these don't exactly seem like rock-solid foundations either.”
i) Frame is simply drawing a distinction between preanalytical knowledge and analytical knowledge. There are many things we know at the level of tacit knowledge that we haven’t bothered to prove. And, in some cases, we couldn’t prove it even though we know it. How does Funkenstein recognize the voice of a friend on the phone?
ii) In addition, Frame doesn’t leave it at that. He marshals arguments for the existence of God. Read the AGG.
“We're also always expected to make concessions for God that would never be made by theists for the alternative - God can 'just exist', yet the universe for some reason cannot (I think Hume pointed this out). The universe needs a cause, since things that exist are caused - yet God does not. I don't see any reason we should agree to these concessions just to suit theists.”
As usual, Funkenstein betrays his self-reinforcing ignorance of Christian theology. The cosmological argument was never that every *existent* is caused, but that every *event* is caused. Everything that comes into being (or goes out of existence) requires a cause. Since God is timeless, he has no temporal origin: hence, no cause.
“A common PA argument for Christianity (often used by Rhology, which is taken from Bahnsen as far as I remember) against atheism is 'the impossibility of the contrary'. But how exactly would someone prove that we couldn't be sitting here having this conversation without a deity of some description?”
Well, if Funkenstein actually bothered to read Bahnsen or Frame for himself, he might be able to answer his own question.
“More to the point how would someone prove that we do indeed need the Christian God - after all Frame's piece simply claims knowledge of the existence and attributes of said God despite there being no way to separate it from pure imagination, then ironically critiques a worldview where an assumption is made then everything shoehorned around it.”
That’s hardly an accurate description of Frame’s position. Read the AGG.
“I've yet to talk to an apologist who doesn't assume everything presented to them that offers a contradiction to their beliefs must be wrong by default (perhaps they might say that of me of course) or can be explained away by ad-hoc miracles.”
Once again, this is too vague to merit a response. What contradictions in particular? What ad-hoc miracles?
“A perfect example is the harmonisation of Genesis 2 with Genesis 1.”
It doesn’t require any ad hoc miracles to harmonize. Just basic reading ability. Gen 1 is a global creation account while Gen 2 is a local creation account. Gen 2 is concerned with the creation of man and his immediate habitant (the Garden of Eden and its “furnishings”). It corresponds to Day 6 on Gen 1.
If this is his “perfect example,” then it shows you what a pitifully weak case he has against the Bible.
“I see a few problems with this. Why so vague that we need to make speculations?”
No speculations needed.
“Why should I assume this attempt at harmonisation to be true unless I have a prior commitment to Christianity being true?”
Why should I assume this attempt at harmonization to be false unless I have a prior commitment to Christianity being false?
Anyway, a Christian could have good reason for his prior commitment to the truth of Christianity.
“Why did God not know Adam would be alone and need companions, and thus make his initial creation right on Adam's doorstep?”
He did. Where does the account say that God didn’t know? It doesn’t. Rather, it says that Adam didn’t know. And there’s a difference between abstract knowledge and existential knowledge. What does it *feel* like to be alone? That’s knowledge by acquaintance. You can only acquire that kind of knowledge through personal experience.
“For a book that is supposed to be the inerrant word of God, having all these vagaries in the first 2 pages doesn't exactly inspire confidence for me.”
It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Funkenstein’s competence when he commits so many elementary blunders.
“A lot of the argument on Steve's post centres around Alvin Plantinga's EAAN - some of his work seems like a kind of 'presuppositional apologetics lite' from what I can gather, since it posits a deity as opposed to the Christian God specifically.”
Plantinga doesn’t “posit” a God. He argues for God’s existence.
And he attacks naturalism on its own grounds. His argument against naturalism isn’t predicated on the existence of God. Rather, Plantinga is mounting an internal critique of naturalism. God would be the alternative.
“As one of the commenters defending my posting said, Plantinga's argument was simply presented as a factual statement, despite there being a lot of critiques of it.”
And Plantinga responds to his critics on a regular basis. Funkenstein is trapped in his self-reinforcing ignorance.
“Henry pointed out that legs didn't initially evolve in tetrapods for walking in land, nor did feathers evolve for birds flying - but would anyone say that they aren't useful for those functions? “
“Useful for x” is a teleological evaluation. Methodological naturalism forbids that.
Moreover, this fails to salvage your claim about the reliability of the senses. Reliability is a teleological concept. As an atheist, you can’t apply teleological explanations to the natural world.
“For example, if someone can assume God as a basic belief/first principle when it isn't a conceptually irreducible idea, what's stopping me from doing the same with Rationality + Naturalism? Plantinga's view suffers as much from circularity as the one I've just presented.”
No, these are obviously asymmetrical propositions. Naturalism undercuts its own claims by raising a presumption against the reliability of the brain or the senses. That hardly presents a parallel to divine creation.
In naturalism, a mindless process produces the brain. Moreover, true beliefs are inessential to survival. Hence, there’s no reason for natural selection to select for true beliefs.
In Christian theism, an infallible mind (God’s) produces the human mind and senses. And God puts man in an environment to which his mind and senses are preadapted. These are not comparable scenarios.
“The pro-deity argument surely relies on assuming a working brain/senses prior to assuming God, since without these the 'self-evident' knowledge of God might just be the workings of a defective brain etc. After all, Frame does say 'we know we know' - yet how does he know this isn't just a defective brain telling him nonsense?”
Funkenstein is merely reiterating his previous missteps.
“From what I gather, naturalism only suffers when the naturalist takes a Cartesian view of the mind (which I believe Plantinga does) rather than a pragmatic one (which I believe eg Daniel Dennett does).”
What makes him think Cartesian dualism is relevant? I’d add that pragmatism doesn’t select for true beliefs. Many mindless things work perfectly well. My lawnmower does a fine job of mowing the lawn without exhibiting any cognitive ability. So the pragmatic criterion is irrelevant.
“I'm genuinely curious to know how theologians know so much about God outside of what is in the bible (or in fact how the original writers were able to communicate God's thoughts onto paper (papyrus?) - after all Moses wasn't around to see the creation or the flood and so on) - a lot of what they say seems a little 'emperor's new clothes' to me, but maybe that's just my ignorance.”
Yeah, that’s just your ignorance, all right. Try brushing on up on natural theology.
Likewise, Moses didn’t need to be an eyewitness to creation or the flood to know about it if he was a recipient of divine revelation.
If knowledge of the world is dependent on direct observation, then Funkenstein doesn’t believe that cosmology or evolutionary biology or historical geology can tell us anything about the prehistoric past.
“This is interesting for 1 reason. Science can investigate these gaps by hypothesising, collecting data, analysing it and drawing conclusions. The same cannot be said of blanks looking to be filled by supernaturalism, which is basically guesswork.”
What’s the difference between “hypothesizing,” and “guesswork”? Isn’t the former just a euphemism for the latter?
“I also responded to this before by pointing out Newton's reference to angels pushing planets, which was later supplanted by Laplace's work.”
Why not stick with biblical theism?
“Theists also have a very selective application of supernaturalism - I see no reason it should be any less applicable to computer science or engineering than it should be to biology, geology or cosmology.”
There are specific reasons for miracles in Scripture. Ordinary providence does just fine most of the time. Funkenstein takes a simple-minded, all-or-nothing approach.
Most of the time I don’t fight gravity. Gravity is useful. But sometimes, like when I want to travel a great distance, that it’s useful to fight gravity. I’d rather take a plane than walk three thousand miles or swim the Atlantic.
Funkenstein is also fixated on Tiktaalik. But he never answered my question about how he distinguishes between an evolutionary intermediate and an ecological intermediate. If, for example, an organism occupies an ecological zone that has a mixed habit, it’s not surprising if the organism is designed to function on land and water (to take one example) or air and water (to take another example), or land and air (to take another example). This is perfectly consistent with special creation.
Moreover, special creation doesn’t exclude adaptive variation.
“Yes, I have - it wasn't exactly supportive of an anti-evolutionary view despite the claims made on its behalf.”
No one said that Gee is antievolution. But he undermines the evidence for common descent. It you can’t establish lineal descent, how do you establish common descent? Here are some examples from his own book:
“Furthermore, it was pretty clearly against a biblical literalist view and typological thinking. Interesting how that was never pointed out when Gee's name was touted as proof 'Darwinism' was in disarray.”
No one ever said that he was a young-earth creationist, or any sort of creationist. Once again, we have to explain to you what an internal critique is. Gee’s argument is predicated on geological time-scales. A young-earth creationist would reject that.
But if we accept that for the sake of argument, then the extant fossils are so isolated in time that you can’t properly sequence them.
How many times do we need to walk you through the basic principles of logical argumentation before the point sinks in? Has atheism left your faculties so atrophied that you can’t follow a simple explanation—or even follow your own argument?
“Why does my lack of ability mean that other design is not poorly done?”
You’re in no position to say that a design is defective unless you—or someone else—can design a superior alternative. Unless you experiment with the alternatives, you don’t know if there are any viable alternatives, much less superior alternatives.
“Note the assumption here - the 'establishment' must be the ones who are wrong. This is a common refrain amongst supernaturalists - if their supernatural views aren't accepted, then they are being discriminated against in some way, or the 'establishment' are running scared of some groundbreaking challenge to accepted reality. It couldn't just be that Sheldrake's methods are deficient, or he's cherry picking data or offering up subtle coercions to direct the study in the direction he wants? This seems like a totally uncritical acceptance of a fairly questionable research program on Steve's part.”
i) As usual, Funkenstein isn’t responding to what I actually wrote. I didn’t say that I agreed with Sheldrake. I merely pointed out that he studies natural phenomena that the scientific establishment routinely ignores since such phenomena constitute an embarrassment to the dominant paradigm.
ii) Sheldrake isn’t investigating the “supernatural.” He’s investigating the paranormal.
iii) And, as a matter of fact, members of the scientific establishment, like Richard Dawkins, do indeed act as if they’re running scared:
“Although not directly related to Sheldrake's work, this is another good explanation of reasons for skepticism when someone claims that natural laws can just break down at the drop of a hat. It amazes me that people (not just Steve) will unhesitatingly accept such supernatural claims purely on the basis of the word of the person making the claim, and because it's the sort of thing they like to believe in rather than anything that stands up to critical scrutiny, yet no amount of objective evidence will convince them of things they don't want to be true.”
Sheldrake isn’t making “supernatural” claims. He’s pointing to evidence for phenomena like animal psi. And I never took a position on his claims. I merely pointed out that he’s investigating natural phenomena which the scientific establishment dismisses out of hand.
Why does Funkenstein keep aiming at specious targets? Is he too dim to follow the actual argument? Or is his problem that he has no counterargument, so he simply “responds” to an argument his opponent never made in the first place?
The Argument from Areligious Experience
"Some of them [people who rejected religious faith] had blinding moments of unconviction that were every bit as instantanious, though perhaps less epileptic and apocalyptic (and later more rationally and morally justified) than Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road." - Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, p. 5.
Frame Reviews Enns
John Frame has a substantial and helpful review of Peter Enns' book, Inspiration and Incarnation, here.
Do Passages Like Genesis 19 And Luke 16 Support Prayers To Angels And The Deceased?
Dave Armstrong recently posted an article on prayers to the deceased and angels. I've written on the subject before (see here, for example), and I won't repeat everything I've said in the past, but I want to comment on some of the issues addressed in Dave's article.
Dave doesn't cite any Biblical equivalent of the Roman Catholic prayers Evangelicals object to, because there is no Biblical equivalent. Rather, he cites some Biblical practices that are somewhat similar to the Roman Catholic practice, and he suggests that the former have implications for the latter.
I don't think many Evangelicals, if any, would argue that it's inappropriate to communicate with the deceased and angels in every context. For example, Dave cites Luke 16:19-31, in which a deceased unbeliever, a rich man, communicates with a deceased believer, Abraham. What Evangelical would deny that if one deceased person appears before another, the two can communicate? I doubt that any Evangelical would maintain that two Christians in Heaven wouldn't be permitted to speak with each other, since they had physically died. The rich man in Luke 16 is no longer living on earth, with all of the limitations and Divine commandments that apply to earthly life, and Abraham is within sight. That context is significantly different than a context in which a man on earth attempts to initiate contact, through prayer, with a deceased person whose ability to hear him he can't verify, sometimes not even knowing whether the deceased person is saved.
Distinctions like these aren't just made by Evangelicals. If a Christian from China visits Dave's church, and he speaks with that Christian while he's visiting, Dave won't assume that he can speak with that Christian through prayer after he returns to China. And when Dave wrote an earlier article discussing whether we can pray to Jesus, he didn't cite the centurion's conversation with Jesus in Matthew 8 or the disciples' conversations with Jesus in John 21, for example, to justify the practice of praying to Jesus. It seems that Dave understands that there's a relevant difference between speaking with Jesus in a context like Matthew 8 or John 21 and speaking with Him today, while He's in Heaven.
Yet, Dave repeatedly disregards such distinctions when citing Biblical passages about the deceased and angels. For example, he cites Matthew 17:1-4 and 27:50-53, even though those deceased believers had returned to life on earth, yet he doesn't cite passages like John 21, in which people speak with Jesus after He returned to life on earth, in order to justify prayers to Jesus. Maybe Dave will begin appealing to passages like John 21 in that context, but his apparent failure to do so in the past suggests to me that he's aware of and agrees with distinctions such as the ones I've made above.
If the people of Biblical times had practiced prayers to the deceased and angels, we would expect to see that practice reflected in the Biblical record. We wouldn't expect angels to have to initiate contact with people on earth before we saw people on earth speaking to angels, for example. Why didn't Saul pray to Samuel rather than attempting to contact him through a medium? The people of the Bible would speak with the deceased or angels if the deceased or angels manifested themselves in some manner, but they wouldn't attempt to initiate communication through prayer to a being who gives no indication of being available for contact.
Dave often makes comments such as:
"Saints in heaven are aware of earthly events."
"Angels are aware of earthly events to an extraordinary degree, being super-intelligent beings."
He claims that deceased believers are "perfectly aware of affairs on earth".
But the deceased and angels can be aware of some events on earth without being aware of every event. Angels have limitations in understanding and interacting with events on earth (Daniel 10:13, 1 Peter 1:12). Passages like 1 Kings 8:38-39 and Revelation 2:23 suggest that only God thoroughly knows the human heart, and 1 Kings 8 is addressed specifically to the context of prayer. We would need some further warrant before concluding that the deceased and angels are aware of people's thoughts and speech. Angels are messengers. They're sent to perform particular tasks. Different angels work in different parts of the universe. The fact that an angel is "aware of earthly events to an extraordinary degree" in the earthly context he's sent to address doesn't suggest that he would be aware of a prayer in the heart of a child in some other part of the world, for example.
The Bible addresses thousands of years of human history in a large variety of contexts. There are hundreds of Biblical examples of prayers offered to God. There are many Biblical examples of people interacting with the deceased and angels if they leave the earthly realm (in Heaven, in visions, etc.) or if the deceased or angels manifest themselves in the earthly realm. But we're never encouraged to attempt to initiate communication with the deceased or angels through prayer. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and others who believe in praying to the deceased and angels do so millions of times every day, and their behavior leaves many and explicit traces in the historical record. How likely is it that there would be no such traces in the Biblical record if prayer to the deceased and angels had been a practice of the people of God in Biblical times?
Or, if we're to believe that it's an appropriate practice that didn't develop until post-Biblical times, then why should we consider it an appropriate development? Nothing in Dave's article leads us to the conclusion that the deceased and angels are appropriate recipients of prayer. Dave doesn't want us to speak with an angel who has appeared to us on earth, as in Genesis 19. He doesn't want us to speak with an angel who appears to us in a vision, as in Zechariah 2. He doesn't want us to speak with deceased believers who return to life on earth, such as the ones in Matthew 27. He doesn't want us to speak with Abraham if we see him in the afterlife, as in Luke 16. Dave wants those of us who are still in this life on earth to try to initiate communication with the deceased and angels through prayer, often when the deceased and angels aren't known to have entered the earthly realm and without our knowing whether the deceased are saved. There's a significant difference, and Dave's article doesn't do anything to bridge the gap.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Pride goeth before a prattfall
Since Jason Pratt is being incorrigible, I’ll take a little time to reply:
Jason Pratt said...
“What's funnier is that they regularly complain when opponents hold back on doing exegesis due to time constraints. So, one wonders, why not deal with your exegesis?!”
Since Jason is far too clever not to know the answer to this question, I must assume that he’s dissembling. So I’ll have to repeat myself, as well as expand on my original explanation:
i) As I said in my original post, I’ve already reviewed three books on universalism. So I’ve already interacted with standard universalistic prooftexting.
ii) In fact, MacDonald frequently piggybacks on the very writers (Adams, Bonda, Talbott) whom I’ve reviewed—including their exegesis.
iii) As I also said at the time, he rehashes annihilationist arguments to blunt the force of certain prooftexts for everlasting punishment. Once again, I’ve dealt with annihilationism elsewhere.
What is more, there are standard rebuttals to annihilationism which I notice that MacDonald doesn’t bother to engage, e.g. C. Morgan & R. Peterson, eds., Hell Under Fire; W. Fudge & R. Peterson, Two Views of Hell.
iv) The only somewhat original thing about his exegetical case for universalism is that he redeploys NPP arguments in defense of universalism. So he’s using one controversial thesis to prop up another controversial thesis.
In a partial book review, I’m not going to get sidetracked on the NPP. That’s become a very specialized field of study. There are many erudite monographs in print critiquing Sanders, Wright, Dunn et al. on the intricacies of the NPP. That’s a separate argument, and I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
v) Finally, it isn’t necessary for me to do exegesis to respond to MacDonald on his own grounds, for MacDonald made clear in the first few pages of the few chapter of his book that exegesis is secondary. For, as he made plain at the outset, if he thought the Bible taught everlasting punishment, that wouldn’t convince him to be a Christian who believes in everlasting punishment. No. That would convince him that he could no longer believe in the God of the Bible. So, for him, the witness of scripture isn’t normative. He will only believe the Bible if the Bible rubberstamps his universalistic sentiments.
Let’s set the record straight on how all this got started. Here are a couple of Jason’s zingers:
“That’s why Satan would be wrong to be doing either of those, too; or me, for that matter. (I’m pretty sure it says in the Bible somewhere that God is not a worker of iniquity. {wry s} In effect that means we can expect Him not to pre-damn Esau to hopeless torture and/or annihilation which is the sort of thing we would normally expect Satan or some other sinful tyrant to do, not God, the One Who is Good.)”
“The sin has to go, and reconciliation of the sinner must be achieved. Otherwise there is no justice. (Except the only kind of ‘justice’ Satan could imagine. I think God is a better person than Satan.”
Jason is the one who initiated the satanic comparisons, not me. The only difference is that Jason applied them to God. That’s so much better, don’t you think?
Jason’s immediate target is Reformed theism, but his target isn’t limited to Reformed theism. He happened to be debating a Calvinist. But his satanic comparison is a special case of his general views on everlasting punishment.
For him, any version of everlasting punishment, where there’s no hope of redemption, is literally satanic. A God who punished a sinner without holding out hope of redemption would be morally equivalent to Satan.
But by that very comparison, Jason realigns himself with the archenemy of God and God’s people. When Jason vilifies God by drawing diabolical comparisons, he’s reciting Satan’s version of history. God is the bad guy, the cosmic despot, the Omnipotent Fiend—for damning Satan and his minions to everlasting hell.
Jason is reciting a page from the Satanic Bible. The Satanic Bible rewrites Gen 3, making the Tempter the good guy. Lucifer. The liberator. The hero.
Of course, Jason would never be that candid. He’ll simply say that any God who damns a sinner to everlasting hell isn’t the true God, so it’s no sacrilege to compare a false god to Satan. That’s the pious way of redecorating his impiety.
Jason thinks that he should be treated with utmost reverence while he treats his Maker with utmost irreverence. I don’t share his infernal scale of values.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
All dogs go to heaven
An author writing under the pseudonym of Gregory MacDonald has penned a book entitled The Evangelical Universalist (SPCK 2008).
The first question I’d ask myself is, why the pseudonym? It’s not as if he’s in imminent danger of being burnt alive at the stake.
Is he afraid of losing his job if he goes public? But he’d only lose his job if he holds a job in which he’s expected to affirm the traditional doctrine of hell. So I have assume he’s holding down his current job under false pretenses. Why else would he conceal his true identity?
Shouldn’t he come clean about his beliefs? If he was hired under the assumption that he affirmed the traditional doctrine of hell, and changed his mind after he got the job, he should inform his employer.
I’ve already read and reviewed three major books defending universalism. I also got into a lengthy debate with Tom Talbott and Jason Pratt on the subject. My debate with Pratt was interrupted by other duties, and I never got around to resuming that particular exchange.
So, why am I writing about yet another book defending universalism? Well, for one thing, MacDonald managed to garner some striking endorsements.
The endorsement by Talbott is predicable enough, both because Talbott is a fellow universalist, and because he’s quoted extensively and favorably by the author. Also, the recommendation of a theology prof. from George Fox University is less than earth-shattering.
However, Joel Green and Andrew Lincoln are major names in NT scholarship. Mind you, they don’t say he convinced them. Indeed, Green says otherwise. But they’re very laudatory.
He also snagged a glowing blurb from Oliver Crisp, who was, at least up until now, a rising star among Reformed philosophers.
So, that’s quite a build-up. It definitely raises your expectations. Of course, high expectations can be hazardous.
When I turn to the actual content of the book, I’m a bit puzzled by why the reviews think this work marks such a significant advance in the case for “Evangelical” universalism.
In defusing prooftexts for everlasting punishment, he borrows some moves from standard annihilationist literature. His prooftexts for universal salvation parallel Arminian prooftexts for universal atonement. So there’s a deja-vu quality to his treatment.
Let me say at the outset that whether or not you’re impressed with a book like this depends in no small measure on whether you’re predisposed to agree with the author. How much preexisting room do you have in your belief-system to accommodate his claims?
An Arminian has more room than a Calvinist. An annihilationist has more room than a Calvinist—just as an Anglican is more inclined to Catholicism than a Baptist.
I’m a Calvinist. And I’ve been doing apologetics for several years now, so my beliefs are battle-hardened. There’s no opening in my belief-system for him to exploit. No crack in the wall.
This is not a choice between open-mined and closed-minded beliefs. If Lincoln or Green is more sympathetic to his thesis than me, it’s not because they’re more open-minded than me, but because they come to the book with their own theological precommitments which predispose them in favor of his arguments.
I don’t plan to comment on every chapter of the book. There’s a repetitious quality to books defending universalism. A predictable set of well-worn arguments. I’m only commenting on this book since it will probably be touted as the standard defense of universalism.
Reviewers will remind us at nauseating intervals that this is a “challenging,” “thought-provoking” book. That thoughtful Christians can’t afford to ignore it. That we must be prepared to “wrestle,” “grapple,” and “come to terms” with his argument. To think “long and hard” about it as we “tackle” his arguments. Well, let’s see about that.
“Have you ever felt that soul-sickening feeling when you know you cannot worship God with sincerity any longer” (1)?
Can’t say I have.
“Have you ever experienced the painful knowledge that the noble words of praise coming from your lips are hollow” (1)?
If he’s alluding to Wesleyan hymns which contain Arminian errors, I simply make allowance for the fact that hymns are fallible.
“I can recall one Sunday morning when I had to stop singing for I was no longer sure whether I believed that God deserved worship. For a believer, that is a moment of despair. Ever since I had been a Christian, I had never waved in my conviction that God loved people, but on that Sunday I didn’t know if I could believe that anymore. I was having a doxological crisis—wanting to believe that God was worthy of worship but unable to do so. The crisis was brought on by my reflections on hell” (1).
What he apparently means by this is the following: God doesn’t love anyone unless he loves everyone; God doesn’t love everyone unless he saves everyone; unless God saves everyone, God is unworthy of our worship.
I agree with McDonald’s self-diagnosis. He couldn’t worship God with sincerity. Up until then, he was worshiping a false God.
In fact, he still is. All he’s done since then is to shore up his false preconception of God. He’s an idolater.
The question at issue is whether God is worthy of worship unless he saves every sinner.
Let’s think about that for a moment. Suppose I commit mutiny. And suppose I have no good reason. Maybe it’s sheer greed. I don’t rebel against Capt. Bligh. In fact, I rebel because the captain is a man of honor. He’s crimping my style. I want to rape and pillage at will.
My fellow sailors and I decide to become pirates. The captain and first mate are decent men who oppose our evil schemes, so we murder them and commandeer the ship. Eventually, we’re captured and sentenced to death.
Yet I receive a pardon. Why? My father did the king a favor, and so the king returns the favor.
But I refuse the pardon. Unless the king extends the royal pardon to all my mutinous cohorts, then he’s not worthy of my respect.
The ironic thing about men like MacDonald who badmouth hell is that they always manage to badmouth hell in such a way as to justify the very thing they reprobate. Their attitude is such a damnable attitude to begin with. It’s not God who’s unworthy of their worship, but they who proves themselves to be unworthy of a worthy and worshipful God.
“I began my Christian life by affirming with a vengeance the mainstream tradition of the Church that hell was eternal conscious torment” (1).
Throughout this book, McDonald will use the word “torment.” This, of course, conjures up the image of hell as an everlasting torture chamber.
In my opinion, this owes more to literary tradition, augmented by a cinematic tradition, than to the exegesis of Scripture. So his entire book is burning a straw man.
“After a few years, a friend of mine managed to wean me onto a version of hell-as-annihilation...Not long after that John Stott ‘came out’ as a tentative annihilationist, giving considerable credibility to our position—a position that is now thankfully considered as a legitimate ‘evangelical option’ by many” (1-2).
Why should a universalist regard annihilationism as a legitimate option? Moreover, is Christianity a Turkish Bazaar in which we go from booth to booth—dickering over the various “options,” or is Christianity a revealed religion?
“My crisis began some years later whilst I was reading a superb book the philosopher William Lane Craig...defending a philosophical position known as ‘middle knowledge’ (or Molinism)...this is a tremendously appealing view, because it enables the Christian to hold together the biblical themes of predestination and free will” (2).
Is freewill a biblical theme?
“However, as I read the book a question crossed my mind: ‘If God can allow us freedom and still ensure that he gets his will done, why is it that he allows anyone to go to hell?’ If William Craig is right, I reasoned, God could saved everyone without violating our free will!...” (2).
Christian libertarians have, indeed, backed themselves into a corner on this issue. Why didn’t God simply instantiate a possible world with only heavenbound agents? Some possible worlds have both heavenbound and hellbound agents, other possible worlds have only hellbound agents, while still other possible worlds have only heavenbound agents. For that matter, some possible worlds are unfallen worlds.
While the totality of agents involves a mix of sinful and sinless agents, hellbound and heavenbound agents, why didn’t God instantiate the subset of heavenbound agents? Why not limit his selection to the free agents who only do good?
(Admittedly, Plantinga tries to solve the problem by positing transworld depravity. But it’s implausible to first attribute libertarian freedom to human agents, then insist that there’s no possible world free of sin. It’s an odd sort of libertarianism that commits you to an inevitable outcome.)
However, you can relieve a contradiction in more than one direction. It’s not as if univeralism is the only game in town.
“The problem Craig’s book raised for me was that the main argument I had used to defend hell, at least when not going through a Calvinist phase, was that God had given humans free will, and if people choose to reject the gospel, then God would not compel them to accept it. Craig’s book began to remove that argument from my armory, leaving me defenseless” (2).
Notice how apologetics is driving MacDonald’s theology. Our main argument for hell should be divine revelation. What do we really know about the afterlife apart from revelation? At best, philosophical arguments and parapsychological evidence might give us some reason to believe in the survival of the soul. But when it comes to the detailed content of the afterlife, how would anything short of revelation fill the gap?
This doesn’t mean that a revealed truth can’t be defended on rational grounds. But MacDonald is making that secondary exercise the primary reason we should either accept or reject a revealed truth. The divine authority of revelation itself doesn’t figure in his calculations.
“The problem was that over a period of months I had become convinced that God could save everyone if he wanted to, and yet I also believed that the Bible taught that he would not. But, I reasoned, if he loved them, surely he would save them; and thus my doxological crisis grew. Perhaps the Calvinists were right—God could save everyone if he wanted to, but he does not want to. He loves the elect with saving love but not so the reprobate” (3).
Which relieves the tension.
“He may love me, but does he love my mother? I was no longer sure. Could I love a God who could rescue everyone but chose not to? I could and did go through the motions, but my heart was not in it. And that was what happened—I sang and prayed; but it felt hollow and so I stopped. I no longer loved God, because he seemed diminished” (3).
Several issues here:
i) Should we only sing and pray when we feel like it? If anything, it’s when we don’t feel like it that we need to sing and pray all the more. The walk of faith has its dry seasons. It isn’t strewn with lilacs and butterflies.
ii) The emotional dimension of the issue is undeniable. And I’ll have more to say about that as we progress. At the same time, this all depends on what example you choose. It’s easy to come up with tearjerkers that make universalism very winsome. But one can come up with counterexamples, no less realistic.
Take the battered-woman syndrome. No matter how often the husband or boyfriend beats her to a pulp, she can’t bring herself to leave him. She’s emotionally dependent on him. She’s hopelessly in love with her abuser.
In the eschatology of wife-beaterism, a battered-woman can’t imagine the prospect of eternity without her abusive husband or boyfriend, so she constructs a heaven for wife-beaters. In heaven, the wife-beater will continue to get drunk and slap her around—cuz heaven wouldn’t be heaven without him. If God didn’t save her abusive boyfriend, he wouldn’t be worthy of worship.
Should we reformulate our eschatology to accommodate the psychology of the battered woman? If she can’t face the prospect of life without her abusive boyfriend, should we remodel heaven to include abusive boyfriends?
iii) This may well be a deal-breaker for the universalist. They would rather spend eternity in hell with their friends than spend eternity in heaven with a God who didn’t save their friends. Mind you, their friends won’t be very friendly in hell.
“According to the traditional doctrine, hell is everlasting, conscious torment” (11).
i) I’m less concerned with the traditional doctrine or traditional formulation that with the Scriptural doctrine.
ii) Apropos (i), I wouldn’t define hell as everlasting, conscious *torment*. Rather, I’d define it as everlasting, conscious *punishment*.
It isn’t necessary to define the punishment as *torment*. It isn’t necessary to specify or narrow down the nature of the punishment, as if “torment” is synonymous with retribution, which is obviously not the case. The retributive theory of punishment does not entail “torment.” Torment may or may not be punitive, but punishment isn’t inherently tortuous, and retributive justice doesn’t necessitate “torment.” This is a straw man argument.
Now, it’s possible that the damned torment each other, which would be a case of poetic justice rather than retributive justice. And to say the damned torment each other is not equivalent to saying that God torments the damned.
I’d add that you don’t have to be tormented to be miserable. Or suffer. To constantly cast the opposing position in terms of “torment” is prejudicial.
“What possible crime is a finite human capable of committing that would be justly punished in this way? Many find the idea absurd, because it is hard to see how even the most hideous crimes humans commit could be balanced by the traditional eternal punishment. The upshot of this is that the traditional doctrine seems to require a theory of punishment that ends up undermining it” (11).
i) Where’s the argument? He poses a rhetorical question, which begs the question. He then asserts that many find the idea absurd—which doesn’t give us a reason to agree with them.
ii) He then objects to the idea of infinite demerit. But this represents a popular confusion. The fact that something is of endless duration doesn’t make it infinite. That would make it a potential infinite rather than an actual infinite. And a potential infinite is an actual finite.
iii) The damned do not experience infinite punishment. They only experience finite punishment. They are punished moment by moment. Of what is conscious punishment conscious? The present. While—to some degree—we remember the past, and while—to some degree, we anticipate the future—we are directly aware of the present. Each instant of the specious present.
He also attacks the idea that hell is a vicious cycle. The damned are sinners. They continue to sin. So God continues to punish them.
He raises a couple of objections to this argument: “this view seems incompatible with a biblical theology according to which in the coming age God destroys sin from his creation” (14).
But that objection merely begs the question in favor of universalism. On the traditional view, God doesn’t eradicate sin from every square inch of his creation. Rather, he quarantines the damned in the penal colony of hell.
MacDonald is smuggling an assumption of universalistic eschatology into his critique of hell. But that grants the very question at issue.
ii) More to the point, guilt has no decay rate or expiration date. If you’re guilty of wrongdoing, you’re not half as guilty five years later. The passage of time is irrelevant to your culpability. You’ll be just as guilty a billion years from now as you were the hour you did it. In Scripture, it’s redemption, and not the lapse of time, that atones for sin.
“Why would God wish to create a situation in which many of his creatures rebel against him forever? Hell didn’t have to be that way” (14).
That’s not a bad question to ask. And we’ll get around to the answer in due course. But in the meantime, we could pose a parallel question for the universalist: Why would God wish to create a situation in which many of his creatures rebel in the first place?
How does universalism justify the Fall? Why must they go through hell to get to heaven?
Remember, MacDonald is a libertarian. He believes that God can save everyone without infringing on their freewill.
But in that event, God doesn’t actually need to save anyone. Salvation presupposes sin. God only needs to save everyone if everyone is lost—apart from salvation.
But why, on libertarian grounds, should we grant the operating assumption? Why didn’t God populate the world with the subset of free agents who never sinned? Think of how much pain and suffering that would avert—both in this life and the next (assuming postmortem salvation via a hellish Purgatory).
Hell didn’t have to be that way. Neither did life on earth.
He also discusses the suggestion that “Hell is everlasting; but, from the perspective of the damned, it is not that bad a place to be” (14).
It depends on how this is formulated. Hell is where sinners sin to their heart’s content—or discontent. They sin without restraint. They give free rein to their evil impulses.
I don’t see how God is wronging a wrongdoer by giving him what he wants. If he makes himself miserable in the process, that’s poetic justice. If he wrongs another wrongdoer, that’s poetic justice.
Even in this life we see men and women who dedicate their every waking moment to the pursuit of an utterly vapid, godless existence. Tallulah Bankhead comes to mind.
MacDonald then presents a syllogism with some of the following premises: “Supremely worthwhile happiness cannot...exist if there are people we know of but do not love” (15).
Yes, well, I see no Scriptural or intuitive ground for thinking that supremely worthwhile love cannot exist unless I love Attila the Hun. All MacDonald is doing here is to beg the question in favor of universalism.
“I can only know the fate of those I love and remain happy if their fate is ultimately a blessed one” (16).
But what about the fate of those I don’t love? Attila the Hun is not one of my loved ones.
“Therefore, the redeemed can only have supremly worthwhile happiness if ultimately no one they love is damned eternally” (16).
MacDonald is try to bundle two different arguments into one:
i) I can’t be happy in heaven if one (or more) of my loved ones is in hell.
ii) I can’t be happy in heaven if anyone is in hell.
But (ii) doesn’t follow from (i). I don’t feel the same way about Attila the Hun that I feel about my father or mother grandmother or best friend.
The emotional appeal of universalism is actually quite provincial. It’s limited to *my* loved ones. Selective universalism.
Now, everyone is related to someone else. Attila may have had a devoted daughter who was grief-stricken at his death. That doesn’t mean that I mourn for his death (or damnation). His death is no loss to me.
Frankly, it’s none of my business. He had his life and I have mine. I’m responsible for what I do with my life.
Of course, this doesn’t prevent me from caring about other people who are not my loved ones. But there’s no logical or psychological connection between ordinary compassion and the counterintuitive claim that I couldn’t or should be happy in heaven in the knowledge that Genghis Khan Joseph Mengele or Vlad the Impaler will spend eternity in hell.
And let’s remember that once you get to hell, all common grace is gone. In hell, everyone is just as evil as Genghis Khan or Joseph Mengele or Vlad the Impaler. Indeed, even worse.
I think MacDonald scores some valid points against Craig on 16-17. But that’s not an argument against hell. That’s just a criticism of certain rational arguments for hell. But the doctrine of hell is ultimately based on the witness of Scripture. Of God speaking to us in Scripture.
“God could stop me loving those I love at present. He could make my heart callous so that I am not tormented by their pains” (17).
One of MacDonald’s problems is a failure to distinguish between virtuous love and vicious love. Not all forms of love are virtuous. Some forms of love are sinful.
Take an adulterous couple. They love each other. Yet their love is sinful.
And they may take it a step further. Because they’re in love, they want to spend all their time together. But the spouse gets in the way. They have to conceal their affair.
So they hatch a plot to murder the inconvenient spouse. This is all done in the name of love. And the love is genuine. Passionate. All-consuming.
Suppose I were a juror at their murder trial. Would I be a “callous” juror because didn’t buy the plea that love excuses all? Would I be callous if I vote to convict them of murder?
To the contrary, I’d be callous to the murder victim if I acquitted the adulterous, murderous couple in the name of “love.”
Should we restructure heaven to create a heaven for adulterous lovers who can’t bear the thought of eternal separation from their beloved? Should we eternify adultery in the name of love?
What about the doting, ambitious mother of a cheerleader who hires a contract killer to murder a rival cheerleader so that her own daughter can become the prom queen. Her mother does it out of love. Maternal love. She loves her daughter. She’ll literally do anything for her daughter. Anything to advance her career. And that’s the problem. Love like that is immoral.
“But would the God who love his enemies (Mt 5:43-48) perform such heart-hardening surgery” (17).
Does God love his enemies? All his enemies? He loves some of his enemies—but does he love all of them? There are many passages of Scripture in which God treats his enemies in a way that seems less than loving—to say the least.
What about Mt 5:43-48?
i) Mt 5:45 doesn’t say that God loves his enemies. The passage does draw a broad analogy between the way in which God deals with his enemies, and the way in which we are to deal with our enemies. But it doesn’t turn that into a one-to-one correspondence.
ii) And when it speaks of love, this has reference, in context, to actions rather than attitudes.
iii) But, more to the point, what God actually does for his enemies in 5:45 is limited to the provision of natural resources. That’s hardly a prooftext for universal salvation. And, in fact, that doesn’t prevent God from raining down judgment on at least some of his enemies—both in this life and the life to come (e.g. Mt 10:15; 24:39; 25:41,46).
iv) Finally, why does God treat some of the wicked better than they deserve? Is it for their benefit? According to the parable of the wheat and the tares, God does it for the benefit of the wheat, not the tares.
In this age, the lives of the elect and the reprobate are intertwined. It’s not possible to judge one without harming the other (Mt 13:29). Only at the end of the age will it be possible weed the world (v30).
“If God himself does not rejoice in the death of the wicked...” (Ezk 33:11).
i) In context, this is talking about death, not damnation.
ii) Apropos (i), does MacDonald think that God can’t prevent the wicked from dying? If he takes no “pleasure” in their death, why does he allow them to die when it’s within his power to save them from the Grim Reaper? God himself is responsible for the fact that sin is a capital offense.
iii) It’s easy to come up with passages of Scripture in which God seems to be fairly enthusiastic about his judicial role (e.g. Ps 2:4-5; Is 30:27-30).
iv) In context, this isn’t talking about the wicked in general, but the Babylonian exiles. Members of the covenant community.
“...or in the pain he sometimes had to inflict (Lam 3:31-33), how could his people” (18)?
God doesn’t inflict pain for the sake of pain. The purpose is either remedial (for the elect), or retributive (for the reprobate).
He then has a section on Calvinism. “It seems to entail a denial of the claim that God’s nature is to love his creatures (as 1 Jn 4:8,16b seems to teach)” (19).
“That Christ died for all people (as 1 Jn 2:2 seems to teach)” (19).
If 1 Jn 2:2 is a prooftext for universal atonement (or universal salvation), then is 1 Jn 5:19 a prooftext for universal possession? Is every human being a demoniac?
In Johannine usage, kosmos is generally qualitative rather than quantitative. If refers to the kind of people we are. The kosmos represents the fallen world order, at enmity with God.
“And that God desires to save all (as 2 Pet 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4, and Ezk 33:11 seem to teach)” (20).
i) 2 Pet 3:9 doesn’t denote all human beings. As Bauckham points out, “God’s patience with his own people delaying the final judgment to give them the opportunity of repentance, provides at least a partial answer to the problem of eschatological delay…The author remains close to his Jewish source, for in Jewish though it was usually for the sake of the repentance of his own people that God delayed judgment,” Jude, 2 Peter, 312-13.
ii) 1 Tim 2:4 doesn’t denote all human beings. As Towner points out, “The purpose of the reference to ‘all people,’ which continues the theme of the universality in this passage, is sometimes misconstrued. The reference is made mainly with the Pauline mission to the Gentiles in mind (v7). But the reason behind Paul’s justification of this universal mission is almost certainly the false teaching, with its Torah-centered approach to life that included either an exclusivist bent or a downplaying of the Gentile mission…Paul’s focus is on building a people of God who incorporate all people regardless of ethnic, social, or economic backgrounds,” The Letters to Timothy and Titus, 177-78.
Ezk 33:11 doesn’t denote all human beings. In context, it has reference to the exilic community.
“In light of the biblical emphasis on the supreme value of love, it seems plausible to think that a being that loves all is greater than a being who loves some but not others” (20).
i) But the Bible doesn’t prioritize the divine attributes in this fashion. It doesn’t say that God’s love takes precedence over his justice or holiness or wisdom, &c.
ii) Moreover, the attribute of love doesn’t imply the love of everything. If I love goodness, I hate evil. If I love virtue, I hate vice. So MacDonald’s argument undercuts his univeralism.
“Thus, it seems plausible, from a Christian perspective, to see the Calvinist solution to the problem of hell as requiring a diminished view of God’s greatness, and a diminished view of God’s greatness is the last thing a Calvinist wants to do” (20).
This argument is cute rather than acute. For it equivocates on how we define God’s greatness. Obviously a Calvinist doesn’t define it the same way as a univeralist, so MacDonald is merely begging the question—something he does on a regular basis.
“A God who loves all seems more worthy of worship than a God who does not” (20).
A God who loves Satan doesn’t seem more worshipful to me than a God who damns Satan.
In fact, you can tell a lot about a person by who or what he loves. If I went into someone’s home and saw a swastika over the fireplace, that one thing would reveal a lot about the homeowner—and the revelation wouldn’t be flattering.
What does it mean to love both the Nazi and the Jew? Aren’t there situations in which you have to choose? What if a Nazi prison guard is about to execute a Jewish child, and you’re in a position to prevent it by killing the Nazi. What’s the loving thing to do? Who lives and who dies? Whom do you save?
Like so many critics of Calvinism, MacDonald never appreciated just how counterintuitive and even scandalous is the love of God for sinners. That God loves anyone who’s wicked is not something we should take for granted. Not something that seems to come naturally to God. Just the opposite.
“The Calvinist may say that by saving some and not others God is making clear that salvation is of grace and thus undeserved. God did not have to save anyone. That he chooses some is wonderful. That he does not choose all is not unjust” (20).
Well put.
“In reply, let me note, first, that it is unclear why the ‘grace not works’ aspect of salvation requires any be damned” (20).
i) It doesn’t. But notice how MacDonald is inverting the issue from whether God is required to save anyone to whether he is required to damn anyone. Even if God is not required to damn anyone (which is a straw man argument), this doesn’t mean he’s required to save anyone, much less that he’s required to save everyone.
ii) And notice another bait-and-switch. He originally framed the issue in terms of God making clear the gratuity of grace by saving some rather than all. He then switches to the question of whether salvation by grace alone requires God to damn anyone. But that’s a different question. And that doesn’t negate the other question.
Even if it isn’t necessary for God to damn anyone for salvation to *be* gracious, it might be necessary for God to damn some to *demonstrate* (“make clear”) that salvation is gracious.
“Surely we could all be recipients of such grace without it becoming less gracious” (20).
That depends. One thing that makes saving grace gratuitous is that it’s merciful. And mercy is not obligatory. Mercy is not automatic. Mercy is not a uniform property. Mercy is optional—discretionary.
“We could also all realize that we are saved by grace apart from works without anyone being eternally damned” (20).
i) Even if that were true, God is still entitled to withhold his mercy. The wicked don’t deserve forgiveness. They deserve retribution.
ii) MacDonald may say in the abstract that we could all realize the gratuity of grace even if no one were damned, but it’s quite clear, as a practical matter, that MacDonald doesn’t realize that at all. There are fundamental elements of law and gospel that have never penetrated into his theology. At the end of the day, he thinks that God wouldn’t be good unless God saves every evildoer. That betrays a perverse and subversive notion of divine goodness.
“Second, the scenario seems frighteningly close to the following analogy: imagine a man whose sons suffer from a disease that makes them constantly disobey him (original sin)” (20).
i) MacDonald is treating original sin as if it were an extenuating or even exculpatory circumstance. That original sin puts us in a state of diminished responsibility—or even excuses our conduct (like the temporary insanity defense). But Scripture never treats original sin as a mitigating factor. If anything, original sin is an aggravating factor.
Of course, we could get into a debate over whether or not this is fair, but it shouldn’t be necessary, in an intramural debate between professing believers, to defend revealed truths.
ii) Does MacDonald believe in original sin? If so, he must think it’s just. Otherwise, God would wrong us by afflicting us with original sin. If not, then why does he introduce the subject?
Indeed, there’s something ironic about sinners who rail against the debilitating effects of original sin. Evidently, the noetic effects of sin haven’t kept them from railing against the noetic effects of sin. So that’s one effect it doesn’t have. They’re sufficiently conscious of their condition to complain about it. So either they’re better off than they thought they were, or else they’re self-deluded.
iii) In addition, a human father/son relationship is not identical with a Creator/creature relationship. God and I are not two of a kind.
In general, fathers are supposed to protect their children. Yet even at a human level, different men have different social roles. A judge doesn’t have the same role as a father. And God is (to some) as well as a father (to others).
For that matter, there are moral restraints on parental love. Consider a rich, powerful father who pulls every string so that his son can commit various crimes with impunity. That kind of love is evil.
“One day, as a result of this, the sons fall through the ice on the pond their father had warned them not to walk on. They begin to drown. They have brought their fate upon themselves. Being afflicted with the disease, they are too stupid to even respond to their father’s calls to grasp the safety ring he ahs thrown in (the gospel). The man has the solution: a ray gun he has will cure his sons of their disobedience and enable them to grasp the ring (irresistible grace). He could, thus, save both; but, to make the point that he does not have to, he only saves one...We would think that if the father could save both and loved both then he would save both” (20).
i) Ironically, his illustration proves the very thing he’s trying to disprove. MacDonald treats sin as if it were a stroke of bad luck—like leukemia. No one blames you for getting leukemia. And if we could cure you, we would. But sin isn’t a synonym for misfortune. Because he doesn’t understand sin, he doesn’t understand mercy or justice or grace.
ii) As a rule, a human father has an obligation to look out for his children. And if he had a grown child who was retarded, that obligation would remain.
iii) However, MacDonald is treating original sin as a disease rather than a culpable condition. His vignette is persuasive to the extent that you buy into his assumptions, and—of course—his vignette is tailor-made to illustrate his tendentious assumptions. But it’s easy to come up with vignettes that trigger a very different intuitive response.
A pedophile kidnaps a child and locks him in the basement. The father of the child breaks into the home, confronts the pedophile, shoots him, then rescues his five-year-old son.
The father could save both of them. If the pedophile received medical care, he would recover. But the father let him to bleed to death. The father doesn’t trust the system of justice to do the right thing. This is a repeat offender. And, in any case, the father is happy to see the man die. He didn’t intend to kill him. He shot him in self-defense. But he didn’t intend to spare him either. He doesn’t love the pedophile. He loves his five-year-old son. And because he loves his son, he hates the man who abducted his son.
“Is God the Father like that? Even if they deserve what they get, how could a loving father let them die when it is in his power to help” (20)?
i) It comes down to storytelling. Who’s a better storyteller. And it all depends on who the characters are. If you want to make a case for universalism, you tell a familial tearjerker about a loving father or mother or son.
But there are stories to illustrate any position you please. We shouldn’t begin with stories. We should begin with the truth.
It isn’t my obligation to be loving to everyone. Here’s another story. Suppose a suicide bomber enters an elementary school. Suppose a policeman has a clear shot. Should the policeman try to talk him out of killing all those children? Or should he shoot him in the head? Should he put hundreds of children at risk for sake of maybe, just maybe, convincing the suicide bomber to reconsider his murderous intentions? I don’t think so. Do you?
We should let some people die. In fact, we should help some people die. We should help a suicide bomber die before he has a chance to take anyone else with him.
ii) Moreover, if MacDonald is going to press the paternal analogy, then there are lots of things a human father would do for his child that God fails to do for his.
If you knew that a natural disaster was going to strike a populated area in a few days, wouldn’t you warn the inhabitants? But God doesn’t do that. How does a universalist explain the discrepancy?
If you knew that your daughter would be sexually assaulted today when she went somewhere, wouldn’t you warn her not to go there? Indeed, wouldn’t you forcibly restrain her from going there? But God doesn’t do that. How does a universalist explain the discrepancy?
It’s child’s play to compile a long list of things that God allows to happen which a human father would do something to avert. Consider all the girls sold into child prostitution. Would you turn your young daughter over to the sex trade? Look at all the orphaned street kids in Rio de Janeiro. If you were omnipotent, what would you do about that situation?
To put it bluntly, if you were God, and you were a universalist, is this the sort of world that you would design?
Of course, a universalist will say this is offset by the eschatological payoff. But, of course, that compensation is only necessary given all the pain and suffering here below. It doesn’t begin to explain, on universalistic grounds, why all that pain and suffering is necessary in the first place.
“There is a specific problem for the Calvinist connected to the psychological possibility of worship: Talbott again: ‘I cannot both love my daughter as myself and love (or worship wholeheartedly) a God whom I believe to have done less than he could to save her from a life of misery and torment. For necessarily, if I truly love my daughter, then I will disapprove of any God whom I believe to have done less than his best for her, less than I would have done if I should have the power; and necessarily, if I disapprove of God, then I do not truly love him” (21n28).
i) As a biographical admission, I don’t take issue with this claim. There are, indeed, people like MacDonald and Talbott who, if given a choice, would choose family over God.
Talbott words this as if he were daring God to either save both of them or damn both of them. That’s an empty threat, for God has nothing to lose. God can get along very nicely without Talbott’s company. Talbott’s salvation or damnation has no affect on God’s beatitude. God doesn’t need us. He doesn’t love the elect because he needs them. His love is truly disinterested. And there’s something refreshing about that.
ii) This is a coercive appeal rather than a principled argument. Indeed, it’s quite cynical. This is not about my love for all of humanity. Rather, it’s like standoff in which kidnappers do a hostage release in exchange for a prisoner release. We don’t release the prisoners because we love them and wish them well. We release the prisoners because that’s the only way to secure the release of our kidnapped friends and family members.
Talbott puts a gun to the head of your loved one and says: If you want you kid brother sprung from hell, then Vlad the Impaler is part of the bargain. It’s a twofer.
iii) This draws attention to a fundamental tension in MacDonald’s argument for universalism. For he’s attempting to combine two different lines of argument. One is an appeal to his universalistic prooftexts. The other is a sentimental appeal to our natural desire to see our loved ones saved. But these tug in opposing directions.
Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that his prooftexts establish God’s universal and efficacious saving will. The problem this introduces into his argument is that, even if God loves everyone, and wants everyone to be saved, the scope of human love is far from paralleling the scope of divine love.
In most societies and subcultures, there’s a distinction between in-group attitudes and out-group attitudes. You love your own. Your kin. Your clan. Your countrymen.
At a minimum, you don’t love everyone with the same intensity as you love your in-group. And oftentimes, the test of love for your own is group-solidarity at the expense of the outsider. Love and loyalty are synonymous. To love the outsider is an act of betrayal.
Now, at the moment, I’m not evaluating this attitude. I’m just describing the way in which, as a matter of fact, human beings feel about other human beings. It’s not distinguished by uniform benevolence.
And it won’t do for the universalist to criticize this attitude, for people either feel a certain way or they don’t. An emotive argument doesn’t evaluate emotion, but appeal to emotion. As soon as you evaluate emotion, the emotive argument loses any independent value. You’re judging it by other criteria. It ceases to be a criterion in its own right.
“God has to be just, they [Calvinists] maintain, but he does not have to be merciful. He has to punish unforgiven sin, but he does not have to forgive sin” (21).
Sounds good to me.
“This is a common view among theologians, but it ought to be seen as problematic for a Christian view of God. To subordinate divine love to divine justice so that God has to be just but does not have to love is odd for a Christian who confesses that God is love” (21-22).
i) How is that any odder than “subordinating” divine justice to divine love? They are both divine attributes. Coequal attributes.
ii) I wouldn’t say that we’re “subordinating” one attribute to another. We’re talking about God’s economic role. His relationship to the world. Certain attributes, and corresponding economic roles, are more suitable to a given situation than others. For example, God is inherently just, but the expression of justice depends on the existence of sin.
iii) Omnipotence is a divine attribute, but this doesn’t mean that God must do whatever God can do.
Suppose we apply MacDonald’s logic to omnipotence. It’s of the essence of God to be omnipotence. That’s his nature. Therefore, whatever he can do, he does. God can damn everyone; therefore, he does.
iv) Notice that MacDonald is equivocating. Love and mercy are not synonymous. The Son loves the Father. Does this mean the Son is merciful to the Father? No. That would be nonsensical.
Mercy presupposes ill-desert. Love does not.
“It could be that it is in God’s nature that he desires to show mercy to all. After all, Christians claim that God is love and that he loves his enemies” (22).
Does God love all his enemies? Does he love the damned? In fact, one of MacDonald’s arguments against damnation is that damnation is incompatible with the love of God. So his argument is viciously circular.
“For God to be love, it would seem to be the case that he has to love all his creatures.”
And for God to be holy, it would seem to be the case that he must judge his unholy creatures. Notice how utterly lopsided MacDonald is in his appeal to the divine attribute of love, as if God had only one attribute.
“This is because if it is God’s very essence to love, then God cannot but love, in the same way that if God’s essence is to hate evil, then he cannot but hate evil” (22).
Except that MacDonald has now backed himself into a conundrum. If it’s God’s nature or essence to hate evil, such that he cannot exercise any personal discretion in the matter, then God can never love an evildoer. Far from constructing an argument for universal salvation, MacDonald has now given us a logically compelling argument for universal damnation—if you concede the premise.
“And if God loves all he has created, then he will want to show saving mercy to all his creatures” (22).
Isn’t that rather tardy? If he loves all his creatures, why does he wait so long to show them mercy? Why not start by showing them mercy here and now? Mercy doesn’t have to be “saving” mercy to be merciful. Why not make life more bearable here-below so that he doesn’t have to compensate for all their earthly misery by saving them in the hereafter?
If it’s God’s “very essence” to be loving and merciful, then it’s not just a question of loving everyone, but loving everyone all the time. Sooner as well as later.
Suppose, to tell the sort of story MacDonald is fond of inventing, a father shows no affection for his son for the first 15 years of his life. Then when his son turns 16, the father showers him with affection.
Does MacDonald think that deferred version of love would be an adequate model of parenting? Would postponing your paternal affection for your own son, then overcompensating at a later date, somehow make up for your neglect for the first 15 years of his life?
On pp23-32, MacDonald scores some excellent points against freewill theism, open theism, and Molinism respectively. Moving along:
“A deep worry about the traditional Christian views on hell is that the implication of them is that very many people who suffer terrible injustices in this life, indeed perhaps most of them, will not actually have those wrongs righted in the life to come” (157).
I’d merely observe that his worry isn’t a Biblical worry. In Scripture, the reversal of fortunes concerns itself with vindication of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked. It’s the unjust suffering of the righteous, the suffering of God’s people, that’s a theodicean issue in Scripture—and not the suffering of the wicked.
“On traditional modes of thinking, her suffering and death take away from her any further opportunities for salvation. If the mother says that God allowed her daughter to die because it was the key to her turning to the Lord, it looks very much like God is not treating her daughter as a person valuable in her own right, but merely as a means to someone else’s good” (157-58).
i) What about the virtue of altruism? What about a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save his comrades?
ii) As usual, MacDonald speaks of “persons” in the abstract rather than sinners. But to be a sinner is to forfeit certain rights and immunities.
“Such [horrendous] evils, which seem to rip the heart of meaning from a life, provide reason to doubt God’s goodness towards any individual whom he allows to experience them. It may be that one could argue that by allowing such evils, God does create a better world overall and that those who suffer horrendous evils may be a necessary sacrifice for the benefit of the whole system. However, Adams responds: ‘I contend that God could be said to value human personhood in general, and to love individual human persons in particular, only if God were good to each and every human persona God created. And Divine goodness to created persons involves the distribution of harms and benefits, not merely globally, but also within the context of the individual person’s life. At a minimum, God’s goodness to human individuals would require that God guarantee each a life that was a great good to him/her on the whole by balancing off serious evils’...Sacrificing some individuals for the benefit of the system is not the action of a God who values individuals. If God values individual persons, he will act with goodness towards them; and this requires, first, that he brings about, a better balance of good over evil for every individual and, further, that any horrendous evils experienced by an individual would have to be defeated” (158-59).
i) Notice the purely stipulative character of the reasoning. Adams and MacDonald posit that God must do thus-and-so. But why should anyone believe them? Do they speak for God? No.
ii) Absent revelation, we can only judge by experience—by the experience of life on this side of the grave. And that sets an ominous precedent for such an optimistic eschatology.
iii) And there’s the continual moral blindness of framing the issue in terms of abstract “individuals” rather than sinners.
iv) Universalism likes to speak in generic terms about eschatological compensations, but how, in particular, does universalism offset various deprivations we suffered in this life?
For example, what if I didn’t get to marry my high school sweetheart? She was the love of my life. She’s the only woman I ever wanted to share my life with. How does universalism make up for that emotional hole in my life? Does it send me back to high school? Do I get to start all over again? Have kids by her? Celebrate our golden anniversary?
Suppose I was an only child. I always wanted to have a brother. But my parents didn’t give me one. So I went through childhood and adolescence without a brother by my side. How does univeralism make up for that emotional hole in my life? I can’t repeat the life cycle, can I?
Just saving someone from hell doesn’t, of itself, explain how you’re going to compensate for all the pain or deprivation he underwent here-below. You’re sparing him additional pain or deprivation in the world to come. But that doesn’t go any distance in explaining how heavenly joys will outweigh earthly sorrows. At this point, universalism must retreat into mystery. Step out on faith.
To say that God will “balance it off” issues a voucher in lieu of an explanation. It’s not as if universalism offers a better explanation. It doesn’t.
MacDonald quotes some more Adams: “God’s becoming a blasphemy and a curse for us will enable human perpetrators of horrors to accept and forgive themselves” (160).
You know, whether Josef Mengele is able to accept and forgive himself isn’t all that high on my priority list. And I also don’t find that urgent concern in the pages of Scripture.
And if Marilyn Adams had a five-year-old daughter who was the subject of Mengele’s experimentation, I rather doubt she’d be so broken up about his infernal fate.
“Clearly punishing the perpetrators of horrendous evils in hell forever and ever is not going to overcome horrendous evils in the lives of the victims” (160).
Have you ever noticed that the folks who pen morally condescending books on universalism aren’t survivors of the Holocaust? You have pampered prigs like Adams and Talbott and MacDonald who presume to speak on behalf of the victims. They don’t allow the victims to speak for themselves. How did Simon Wiesenthal spend his remaining years? Was he trying to track down Nazis so that he could convince them to accept themselves and forgive themselves? To value themselves as individuals.
In my observation, victims often want retribution. They find that morally and emotionally satisfying. Who is MacDonald to deny them their due? Even Job got his day in court.
“And it would certainly not be a display of God’s goodness to the criminals” (160).
MacDonald is equivocating. If we define goodness as mercy, then damnation is not an act of mercy. But justice is another one of God’s defining attributes. A good God is a just God.
“Eternal conscious torment contributes nothing to God’s purposes of redeeming creation. In fact, it would ‘only multiply evil’s victories’” (160).
To the contrary, righting the scales of justice represents the triumph of good and the vindication of the righteous—who persevered in faith in the face of adversity.
“One constantly danger that a tradition doctrine of hell generates is that God’s nature is divided up and set in an internal conflict. The theology goes as follows: God loves humanity and wants to save them but at the same time is holy and cannot stand human sin. Being just, he cannot leave such sin unpunished. So God has an internal dilemma; he wants to save us because he is loving, but he also wants to punish us because he is just. God’s love and his justice are set in opposition. This analysis produces a conception of divine justice that has no integral link with divine love and a conception of divine love that is disconnected with divine justice. The joy of the redeemed in the new creation is the result of God’s love and mercy, whilst the torment of the damned is the result of God’s justice (not his love)” (163).
There is, indeed, a genuine tension in standard evangelical theology. On the one hand, God wants to save everyone, and pursuant to that end he makes provision for everyone’s salvation (universal atonement, sufficient prevenient grace). On the other hand, his salvific intentions are thwarted by human freedom.
But there’s no dilemma or disconnect in Calvinism—especially the supralapsarian variant. God, out of sheer generosity, intends to share his beatitude with a race of rational creatures. Knowing God is the greatest good since God is the greatest good. But an existential knowledge of God’s justice and mercy is unobtainable apart from evil. So God foreordains the fall and redeems the elect. The reprobate are justly damned, and their damnation reinforces the gratuity of grace.
Universalism and supralapsarian Calvinism both deploy a greater good defense, but universalism cannot explain why there would be an underlying situation that called for this solution in the first place. Calvinism can. Universalism lacks a coherent theodicy. Calvinism has explanatory power at the very point where universalism is empty-handed.
“How could tormenting sinners forever and ever be seen as a loving action” (164)?
It isn’t a loving action. It isn’t meant to be. It’s an act of retribution. Retributive justice. A God who allows evil to go unpunished is an evil God.
And MacDonald has never shown that God is “tormenting” the damned. He’s punishing the damned.
“Consider the case of a Christian mother at the funeral of a beloved son who had rejected his Christian upbringing and turned away from the Lord. What hope can Christian faith offer her?...traditional theology can offer virtually no hope at all, for it is more or less certain that her son will be condemned to hell with no hope of redemption” (172).
This is the high card of universalism. This is where it where it taps into something profoundly and undeniably appealing. What are we to say?
i) Let’s take a different example. Consider the case of a mother whose daughter was murdered by a serial rapist. Not only is the mother grief-stricken, but vengeful. She wants to see the rapist suffer for what he did. She wants to see him burn in hell.
But her pastor is a tenderhearted universalist. He tells her that her vindictive feelings are unchristian. God will undoubtedly save the man who murdered her daughter. They will all spend eternity together. She must learn to love him and forgive him.
Universalism sounds nice as long as you’re talking about nice people. Saving all the nice guys. The little old ladies who hand out boxes of chocolates. It instantly loses its sentimental charm when we turn to hateful men and women.
ii) Let’s go back to the case of the Christian mother. What can an orthodox pastor tell the grieving mother? He can hand her Bible and tell her to read Rev 21:4 aloud. He can then tell her to memorize that verse and recite it to herself every day.
That’s the hope he can give her. The promise contained in that verse.
I don’t know how God intends to keep that promise. That’s something we must take on faith. But that’s a promise to live by.
iii) Feelings are mercurial. What about that guy who falls madly in love with a woman (or vice versa). She occupies his every waking thought. He can’t imagine life without her. He’s sure he can’t go on without her.
Yet, five years later, that may all have changed. He doesn’t know what he ever saw in her (or vice versa). What was he thinking?
There are couples who sincerely think they that can’t live without each other. They can’t bear the thought of spending a few days apart.
But after spending a few years in each other’s company, they can’t stand to be in the same room. They can’t bear the thought of spending their lives together. Physical proximity is unendurable. Their honeymoon was heaven on earth, while their marriage is hell on earth.
There are kids who can’t wait to leave home. They find their parents insufferable. They want nothing more to do with them. They hope to put as much distance between themselves as their parents as humanly possible.
Some high school buddies who would die for each other. Fiercely loyal. Inseparable. But then they have a falling out. Maybe they fall in love with the same girl. Friendship turns to bitter betrayal and mutual hatred.
Some brothers and sisters love each other from the moment they’re born to the moment they die. If one were to die prematurely, the sense of loss would be inconsolable. Other siblings hate each other until the day they die.
These are the paradigm-cases of human love. Of our loved ones. And in each case, it cuts both ways.
I’m not evaluating any of this. My point is simply that the emotional argument for universalism is a double-edged sword.
iv) Finally, Christians tend to emphasize the deity of Christ because that’s what makes him unique. All of us are human, but how many of us are God Incarnate? That’s sui generis.
Yet, as we also know, Jesus had a human side. Human emotions.
There are lots of domestic details that didn’t make into the Gospels. They focus on his public ministry. But he had many relatives. Jewish culture was a tribal culture. Big families. Extended families. Kin and clan.
So he had loved ones, too. Aunts and uncles. Grandparents. Cousins, second-cousins, nieces, nephews, and siblings (by his step-dad).
And he had childhood friends. Don’t assume that when he called the fishermen to be his disciples, they never met him before. They fished in the Sea of Galilee. He grew up in Galilee. I’m sure he went hiking and swimming with the local kids as a boy.
Jesus had loved ones, just like us. Felt the same way about them that we do. Were they all pious, God-fearing individuals? No reason to think so.
That doesn’t keep Jesus from preaching on hell. More than that, Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead. He puts them there. If, humanly speaking, Jesus can cope with that, then who am I to protest?
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Saturday, April 18, 2009
The presence of the past
Jason Engwer once did a post on the question of whether God will restore our pets to us. I’d like to approach this question from a different angle and a broader perspective.
In one respect it comes down to the question of whether God values the past, either for himself or for his creatures.
The past is God’s handiwork. Like classic artwork. It reveals his wisdom and power.
The question is whether God regards the work of his hand as essentially disposable. Is it something he does, only to take down, crumple into a ball, and toss into the trashcan of oblivion? Is the past something that, once is past, is not worth remembering or preserving?
Of course, I’m not God, so I can’t answer for sure. But it seems to me that everything he does is bound to possess permanent value–for the simple reason that he did it.
For us, what is past seems to slide out of existence because we can no longer experience the past directly. But that’s because of our position in relation to the past, present, and future.
At present, the past is inaccessible to me. In relation to my present self, the past lies beyond my direct awareness.
That could mean it ceases to exist. Or that could simply mean I’m a timebound creature who can only experience the world one moment at a time.
On one theory of time, the past is just as real as the present. Abraham is still sitting under the oak of Mamre. But that’s not our time.
Yet even if you think the past no longer exists, the answer doesn’t turn on that question. For there’s still a sense in which the past subsists in the mind of God. As his complete idea of the world. The idea he enacted in time and space.
So even if the past is over and done with, it’s still available to God. And if it’s available to God, he can make it, or parts of it, available to others–if he so desires.
In this life, our experience of the world is necessarily limited. Severely limited. We skim the surface of a little bay within a vast ocean.
It all depends on when you live and where you live. You may see a sunset that no one else ever sees–because of when and where you saw it. That unique little moment in time. That particular square of sky and earth.
Then there are many marvels and beauties which go undisclosed. In the words of the poet, “full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
Of course, that’s a bit provincial in the sense that pretty flowers don’t exist merely for the benefit of human observers.
And yet it points to something significant: the world is full of wonders and beauties which, due to our timebound existence, can only be enjoyed by a few people at a time. Or none at all.
Aren’t you a bit curious about the oak of Mamre?
So the question is whether God will share the past, or parts of the past, with his people? This could take various forms.
He could cause us to experience the past. Or he could reintroduce the best parts of the past into the future. And he could also improve on the past.
Indeed, heaven, or the new earth, will undoubtedly be an improvement on what this fallen world has to offer.
And this is not to deny that heaven, or the new earth, may include many novel things as well, for us to explore and celebrate.
Of course, we can only speculate, but it seems unlikely to me that God treats all the treasures of the past as utterly forgettable or disposable. Is this a throwaway world? To be discarded without a backward glance? Does God look upon his handiwork as a beer can or a piece of art? Is the past a junkyard or a museum?
In the world to come, when we are purified from sin, we’d be in a better position that ever to rejoice in all the best that God has done. It will be the first time in our lives that we can truly appreciate the goodness of it all. To see old things through new eyes, as well as riches yet unseen.
Our fallen and fleeting lives afford us such a truncated exposure to all there is. Such a tiny sampling of the whole. A sliver of the Redwood. And in this life, that’s a blessing, too, since a fallen world includes the evil with the good.
I’m not sure what we can expect. But I wouldn’t be surprised if all that best in this world is waiting for us in the next world–restored to vintage condition. Indeed, better than ever. Not to mention many new and wonderful things to come.
Historical writing
In this post I’m going to comment broadly on how liberals and other unbelievers freely impute historical errors to Scripture.
It’s difficult to write accurately about the past. And one major reason is the phenomenon of historical change. Changes come in different shapes and sizes. Big and small. Abrupt and incremental. Big abrupt changes. Big incremental changes. Small incremental changes. And so on.
I’ll begin with a personal example.
Modern Change
i) I was born in Seattle, but grew up on the Eastside. I was born in 1959, but moved out of state in 1999.
I’ve been back there are two occasions since I moved away. And, out of curiosity, I keep up with certain developments via the Internet.
When I was a kid, the Eastside was a bedroom community of Seattle. But it underwent a great deal of change in the 40 years I lived there.
When I was a kid, the Eastside consisted of small towns with a lot of “open space” in-between. Farms and woodlands. Over time, the Eastside underwent a lot of gentrification, urbanization, and suburban sprawl. Towns like Redmond and Woodinville are practically unrecognizable.
When I was a kid, downtown Bellevue consisted mainly of one- and two-story buildings. Two lane roads. Few high-rises. No covered malls.
I spent my growing up years in Kirkland and Juanita.
When I was very young, we used to shop at Roy’s, which was a little mom-and-pop store. After the PX moved in, we stopped shopping a Roy’s because the PX was cheaper and offered a wider selection.
At some point, Roy’s went out of business. Eventually the whole building was demolished and replaced with a gym.
At the corner of the same block there was, at one time, an Arctic Circle fast food joint. It went out of business. Was converted to a private post office.
Across the street was an autoshop that went out of business. It was torn down. A fast food restaurant took its place. Taco Bell? I don’t remember. That went out of business. A Greek restaurant took over.
Behind it was another grocery store–which went out of business. It was taken over by an artsy-craftsy shop.
Downtown Juanita used to have three taverns. Two went out of business.
The PX changed hands many times. Eventually, that shopping center was demolished and replaced with a faux European village.
Juanita used to have a golf course that went out of business. Kirkland purchased the property and turned it into a public park.
Juanita had its own park–Juanita Beach. At one time, Juanita Beach Park had a number of beach cabins–which were torn down.
There was a bridge connecting Kirkland to Juanita. The bridge was closed, and turned into a pedestrian thoroughfare. A new road was put in, rerouting traffic around the old bridge.
At the time I lived in Juanita, some of our neighbors died or moved away. Next door, when I was very young, the Rogers had a front lawn with grassy rolling terraces. When they moved out and the Gardeners moved in, the new owners put in rockeries and flowerbeds.
The house where I grew up was torn down. Across the pond, Sand Point Naval based close. Became a public park.
In Kirkland, my parents ran a private school for the fine and performing arts. They bought the building from the Knights of Pythias. At one time the building was used as a livery stable.
Down the street was Central Elementary, where I attended kindergarten. It was later torn down to make way for the new city hall.
Across the street was Kirkland Junior High, where my father taught. Kirkland Junior High consisted of Terrace Hall, Waverly Hall, and some administration offices.
When Terrace Hall burned down, the school relocated to another school building. That, too, was recently torn down and replaced with a new school facility.
At a later date, Waverly Hall caught fire. Terrance Hall and Waverly Hall were bulldozed. The property was turned into a public park.
The elementary school (Thoreau) where I attended 1-3 grade was built in my lifetime and demolished in my lifetime. Another school facility took its place.
The elementary school (Juanita) where I attended 4th grade was demolished. Another school facility took its place.
My old junior high school (Finn Hill) is still there, although it’s undergone some changes since I was a student. They turned the old library into a classroom, and built an extension to house the new library. They moved the portables. They removed some of the trees lining the baseball diamond.
My old high school (Juanita) is still there, but it underwent drastic remodeling after I left.
According to their websites, I notice that both Finn Hill Junior and Juanita High now have security guards on staff–which wasn’t the case when I was a student.
There are other random changes that I recall. When I was a kid, there was a Time gas station in Kirkland. That’s long gone. A convenience store became a Chinese restaurant.
When I was a kid, the residential part of Kirkland consisted of small, postwar, working-class bungalows or modest apartments.
When I was a kid, Kirkland had a naval shipyard. That was eventually converted into an upscale joint with a marina, hotel, restaurants and trendy shops and boutiques.
ii) In addition to my own memories, there are historical photos of Kirkland. Some of these are available online. It can be interesting to compare my recollections with the historic photos.
There are some old photographs of Kirkland Junior High. There are also some old photographs taken from Kirkland Junior High.
I’d forgotten how big Terrace Hall was, and how, up on the rise, it dominated the landscape of downtown Kirkland. I’d forgotten what the waterfront looked like before they put in Marina Park. I’d forgotten those big ugly telephone poles.
I’d forgotten about the A&W, which was across the street from Kirkland Junior High.
From cars, haircuts, clothing styles, and eyeglasses, you can roughly date some of the photographs.
I can also tell where some of these shots were taken. There’s a shot of residential Kirkland, which was taken from the slope of Terrace Hall. There’s another shot taken from the tennis courts below Terrance Hall.
Some of the chronological cues can be misleading. In one shot, there’s a car from the 1930s. However, in the same picture, there’s a female pedestrian dressed in the fashion of the 1950s. So while the car gives you the terminus ad quo, it doesn’t give you the terminus ad quem.
iii) For someone who didn’t grown up on the Eastside, this must all seem pretty boring. Why do I mention all this ephemeral minutiae?
I do it to make a point. For the past is full of ephemeral minutiae. And to write accurately about the past requires a very exacting command of ephemeral minutiae.
Take the historic photographs. Some of these have captions or labels. But suppose all you had was the unadorned photograph.
Would you know where it was taken? Would you know when it was taken? It requires very specific knowledge to identify the location. A very specific knowledge of the time and place.
I can place the A&W in relation to other buildings. The Creative Arts League is right behind it. To the side is a church I used to see all the time coming and going.
I know that two of the shots were taken at Terrace Hall because I myself have seen the area from that location, as a kid.
Yet much of this is long gone. One the one hand, some of the photographs help to jog my memory. On the other hand, my memory enables me to identify these photographs. To place them in their historical setting.
To write an accurate history requires a very specific knowledge of the time and place. And oftentimes, there’s not much margin for error. Things change. It’s very hard to get it right, and very easy to get it wrong. A few years earlier, a few year later, and your description is out of date.
It’s very challenging to write about a time and place distant from your own. So many different ways to slip up. So many little ways to slip up.
I can write a fairly accurate account of my own life because I lived it. I simply describe what I saw. Much the same thing if I rely on the eyewitness testimony of others.
But if I’m a complete outsider in time and place, and have no good insider contacts, it’s almost impossible to pull that off.
iv) In addition, it’s quite possible for an eyewitness account to contain some anachronisms. Due to change, it’s easy to misremember later developments as though they were identical with earlier events. It’s easy to unconsciously retroject the way things are into the way things were. I see things as they are today. Or the last time I saw them. My latest memory may unconsciously map back onto how I picture the way things used to be. I recall what is earlier through the lens of successive memories.
I’m not claiming that Scripture contains anachronisms. I subscribe to the plenary inspiration of Scripture. I am, however, commenting on a fallacious inference by many Bible critics.
Even if, for the sake of argument, the Gospels contained some anachronisms, that wouldn’t mean the Gospels had to be written by authors who didn’t live at that time and place.
For example, famous people often write autobiographies. And because they’re famous, historians write biographies of famous people. Historians make use of autobiographies. The autobiographies contain information that isn’t available in any other source. At the same time, historians, in commenting on autobiographies, keep a running tally of a little mistakes. Where the autobiographer got the a name, place, or date wrong.
v) There’s a flipside to what I’ve been saying. If it takes very specific knowledge of the past to write accurately about the past, then, by the same token, it takes equally specific knowledge of the past to detect historical inaccuracies in a historical account.
Now, I have many reasons for believing the Bible. And I have many reasons for rejecting facile attacks on the historicity of Scripture.
But one of my reasons is that, when I run across breezy attributions of historical error to Scripture by modern “scholars,” I think of my own experience.
It would be very difficult to fake a history of what it was like to grow up on the Eastside in the 1960s or 1970s. So many time-sensitive changes to keep track of.
And, by the same token, it would be very difficult for a total stranger to detect these mistakes. Unless you were there, there’s quite a lot that you’re in no position to know.
And these are scholars writing 2000-3500 years after the fact, no less! Last year someone phoned me from the reunion committee (for my 30th high school reunion). We feltlinto a conversation about old times. There was the instant recognition that comes between two people who’ve been to the same place at the same time. A flurry of in-house allusions.
iv) This brings me to a related point. Giving how easy it is to make a misstep when writing about the past, if a writer seems to get most things right, that tells you something. How could he get so many things right unless he was in a position to know just what he was talking about?
Unless he was alive at that time and place. Or unless he interviewed other men and women who were alive at that time and place.
Getting a lot of things right creates a presumption about the writer. He couldn’t do that if he were out of touch. Either he’s describing something he’s seen, or he’s describing it through the recollection of other eyewitnesses.
vi) Corroboration can be either specific or generic. Corroborative evidence can sometimes corroborate a specific detail (e.g. person, place, event), or it can corroborate the fact that things like that happened.
vii) Our surviving evidence for Bible times is quite random. It’s quite surprising that we have as much corroborative evidence as we do, given the random state of the extant evidence.
Ancient Change
Someone might object that my comparison with my own life is disanalogous. Rapid change is characteristic of modernity. By contrast, life is ancient times was far more stable.
To that objections I’d say two things:
i) There is a discontinuity in terms of the amount of information we have. But that discontinuity reinforces my point rather than undercutting my point.
For example, an outsider could reconstruct life in Kirkland in the 1960s by combing through back-issues of the Eastside Journal, day-by-day and year-by-year.
But an ancient author wouldn’t have a resource like that.
ii) Life in the ancient world was subject to many dislocations. In some respects more so than in modern times. Due to trade, migration, warfare, famine, slavery, natural disaster, pandemics, political upheavals, and cultural diffusion, &c., life in the ancient world was quite unstable.
For example, ancient cities didn’t have fire codes, fire hydrants, fire engines, fire extinguishers, sprinklers, &c., to prevent or contain fires.
There were no vaccines to prevent pandemics. No weather forecasters. No airdrops of emergency food rations.
Armies used scorched earth tactics. Cities were razed. No smart bombs.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Choose life
“Clearly the Israelites are given a real choice in this passage [Deut 30:15,19]… This is further demonstrated when we consider Moses’ words in verses 11-14… It is extremely important to notice that Moses tells the people that they are fully capable of making the right choice (which is reinforced by God’s desire that they choose life in verse 19). This militates strongly against any form of determinism, for according to necessitarian dogma it is quite untrue that it was not too difficult for many of them to obey.[3] Those who disobeyed (and many surely did) could not possibly have done otherwise than to disobey if determinism is true. However, Moses made it clear that all who heard his voice were indeed capable of obeying the divine command and firmly rebuked any who might dare to declare otherwise… This passage and numerous passages like it lay waste to the Calvinistic doctrine of exhaustive determinism.”
“Moses now returns to the present time and directs his teaching to the people in the plains of Moab He tells them that the Torah is not something too ‘difficult’ for them; this term in Hebrew conveys the idea of something that is extraordinary and marvelous. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gets at the sense of it by rendering the clause as ‘it is not hidden from you.’ The Torah is not in the secret councils of Yahweh, but it has been revealed to the people. It is not too hard to understand and it is not too distant. Indeed, the Word of God is not in the heavens or beneath the earth–it is here among the people.”
“It is not that the law is easy to keep and obey. Rather, this has to do with accessibility and understanding. The law is not incomprehensible, remote, or unintelligible. It is not beyond mankind’s ability to grasp it and to understand it. This truth is in contrast to much belief in the ancient Near East,” J. Currid, Deuteronomy (EP 2006), 270-71.
Universal freedom and universal sin
On the one hand:
It may seem strange to some that there even is a debate as to what constitutes free will. The average person believes that he has free will. Whenever he is confronted with a choice he believes that he can either choose this way or that, and that either choice is a real possibility. In fact, this is what we generally think of when using the word choice. We think of the power to choose between alternatives. But the simple concepts of choice and free will have unfortunately been confused and complicated by Calvinists. As a result of their commitment to exhaustive determinism, Calvinists deny that the will is free in the sense that most people would naturally understand it to be. Yet, they refuse to jettison these commonly used terms despite holding to a theology that denies these concepts as normally understood.
They simply redefine “free will” so that it becomes essentially meaningless as normally understood. It becomes the “freedom” to do what one must in fact do. It is the “freedom” to do what has been predetermined from all eternity for one to do. It is the “freedom” to do what we have been irresistibly programmed to do (and free will has essential reference to “willing” and not just “doing”, i.e one might be hindered from “doing” what he has freely “willed” to do). It is essentially a necessitated freedom (a “freedom” that means “necessitated”) which betrays the inherent contradiction in the Calvinistic use of terms.
For most people this does not seem at all like freedom in the sense that people normally understand it when speaking of free will. In fact, most people understand that a will that acts by necessity is the opposite of a free will. Yet Calvinists want to take the opposite of free will and render that the proper definition of the term. [1]
Arminians, on the other hand, are able to work with standard definitions in using terms like “free will” and “choice”. To speak of free will is to speak of the power of self-determinism in a person. A person wills to either do this or that, or neither as the case may be. When we use the term “free will” we are describing the freedom the person has to choose from available options. The will is free in so far as it is not necessitated. If the will can only move in one direction, and no other directions are possible, then the will would not in that case be properly called “free”. Freedom of the will has reference to the will’s ability to freely choose. A free will is free from necessity. It has alternative power. [2]
It may be better to simply focus on the reality of choices. To speak of a choice is to speak of an agent deciding between two or more possibilities. Again, this is the standard definition that most people take for granted when speaking of choice or the action of choosing. Where there are options to choose from there is choice. If an option is not available, then it ceases to be an “option”, and choice, in that case, ceases to be a possibility.
But, again, things are not so simple when dealing with those who are comfortable using words in ways that are incompatible with (and often the polar opposite of) standard definitions. Calvinists and necessitarians still often want to speak of choices and choosing (there are some Calvinists that freely admit that such language is incompatible with Calvinistic determinism, but at present they are in the minority). But according to Calvinists all of our “choices” have been predetermined by God from before creation and before we were ever born or confronted with anything to choose from. If this is the case, it seems clear that “choice” is emptied of meaning.
If the only course of action available for a person in any given situation is the course of action predetermined by God from eternity, then one never really has a “choice.” The person can only do what he or she must do, and think what he or she must think. The only course of action truly available is the predetermined one. If that is the only course of action truly available, then there is nothing for the person to choose from and therefore there is, in fact, no “choice” at all.
This is an uphill battle for the Calvinist because we all believe that we make choices every day in numerous situations. We recognize that when only one course of action is available, we do not in that case have a choice. Some Calvinists who recognize this difficulty resort to focusing on the distinction between “having” choices and “making” choices. They tell us that while we never have a choice we still make choices. But it is at once apparent that it is quite impossible to “make” a choice without first “having” a choice. One simply cannot choose (making a choice) if there is no choice to be made (having a choice).
The Calvinist who wants to make such illogical distinctions is then forced to define “making” a choice in an illusionary fashion. He might argue that making a choice has reference only to one’s cognitive perception (conveniently forgetting that, according to Calvinistic doctrine, even the course of one’s cognitive perceptions is meticulously predetermined). As long as that person believes he has a choice he can make a choice. But this assertion betrays the need for having a choice in order to make a choice since the Calvinist recognizes that the person must at least “believe” or “perceive” that he has a choice before he can “make” a choice. Furthermore, if Calvinistic determinism is true, then even cognitive “options” are not real options if the mind can only move in a predetermined and necessitated direction.
On the other hand:
We know that all believers do fall to temptation at times (i.e., sin), and fail to make use of the way of escape provided for them by God in His faithfulness.
On the one hand, everyone has the freedom to do otherwise. On the other hand, everyone, including every single Christian, sins some of the time.
Isn’t that a rather incongruous combination of claims? Universal freedom to do otherwise leads to universal sin.
Here’s a population curve from the Christian era (which doesn’t include the pre-Christian era):
Year Population
1 200 million
1000 275 million
1500 450 million
1650 500 million
1750 700 million
1804 1 billion
1850 1.2 billion
1900 1.6 billion
1927 2 billion
1950 2.55 billion
1955 2.8 billion
1960 3 billion
1965 3.3 billion
1970 3.7 billion
1975 4 billion
1980 4.5 billion
1985 4.85 billion
1990 5.3 billion
1995 5.7 billion
1999 6 billion
2006 6.5 billion
2010 6.8 billion
Now, according to kangaroodort, every one of those billions and billions of people had the freedom to do otherwise, and yet, without exception, every one of those billions of billions of people fell into sin throughout the course of their lives.
Of course, I’m a Calvinist, so I’m using to redefining freedom in a way that renders the concept essentially meaningless and all, but it strikes me as an odd sort of freedom to do otherwise that never ever does otherwise. A universal freedom to do otherwise that yields a uniform result. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d almost suspect that such a freedom was...illusory.
If every roll of the dice comes up sixes, then what point may we reasonably conclude that the dice are loaded?
Defining the freedom to do otherwise
Arminians speak of the freedom to do otherwise as if that were a transparent concept. But it’s actually quite tricky to pin down. Here are some popular, but defective, attempts to explicate the concept:
Suppose a certain person in fact did not go to Boston this morning, but suppose it seems that he could have done so. We want to say that though he stayed in Providence, he could have done otherwise — he could have gone to Boston. Surely the statement that he could have done otherwise does not mean merely that it is logically possible that he did otherwise, for superhuman and miraculous bits of behavior are logically possible. But we don't want to say, of a person who failed to perform a miracle, that he could have done otherwise. Nor does our statement mean that it is epistemically possible that the person did otherwise. In a case where we lack information about what a person might have done, we may say that it is epistemically possible for us that he did otherwise. This is consistent with its being the case that his performance of his actual act was entirely necessary and unavoidable.
Some have said that ‘can’s are constitutionally iffy. On a simple version of this view, to say that someone could have done otherwise is just to say that if he had chosen to do otherwise, then he would have done otherwise. Chisholm points out ([P&O], 56–7) two reasons why this is wrong. First, suppose the person was capable of traveling in any direction and easily could have gone to Boston; but suppose in addition that he did not know the way to Boston. If he had chosen to go to Boston, he would have ended up in New London. Then it is correct to say that he could have gone to Boston, but incorrect to say that if he had chosen to go to Boston, he would have done so. Secondly, suppose the person is incapable of choosing to go to Boston. Maybe he is overwhelmed with fear of Boston. But if nothing else prevents the trip, it will be correct to say that if he had chosen to go to Boston, he would have gone, but it is incorrect to say that he could have gone to Boston.
Another account of ‘could have done otherwise’ makes use of the concept of sufficient antecedent causal condition. We might think that when we say that someone could have gone to Boston instead of staying in Providence, what we mean is merely that at some earlier time this morning, his trip to Boston was causally indeterminate — there was no sufficient causal condition either for his going to Boston or for his not going to Boston. Chisholm argues against this idea, too. Suppose another person was lying in wait in Chelmsford. Suppose this other person would have freely interfered with our man's travel plans if he had tried to get to Boston. Then it would not be correct to say that the man could have gone to Boston, but it would have been correct to say that there was no sufficient causal condition then in place that would have prevented the trip.
1 Cor 10:13
I’ve been asked to comment on this claim:
This passage and numerous passages like it lay waste to the Calvinistic doctrine of exhaustive determinism. Passages like these are simply incompatible with such a doctrine, while the intentional language of such passages fits perfectly with the Arminian account of free will, and the accountability attached to the exercising of that God given power to choose. The alternative to a libertarian view of these passages has the unfortunate and inevitable consequence of making God into a liar who deceives His people into believing they are capable of making the right choice, when in reality it is impossible for them to choose at all. A predetermined choice is not a choice at all since it is the only course of action available. The best the Calvinist can offer is that God gives the illusion of choice while controlling the person’s every thought and action to conform to His infallible and irrevocable eternal decree. Consider 1 Corinthians 10:13,
The implications are obvious and unavoidable. Those who fail to resist temptation have only themselves to blame, since God provided a way of escape.[4]
The verse plainly tells the believer that God is faithful, and that faithfulness is demonstrated in the fact that God will not allow the one tempted to be tempted beyond the ability to endure (i.e. resist) that temptation.[5] But how does such a promise comport with exhaustive determinism? We know that all believers do fall to temptation at times (i.e., sin), and fail to make use of the way of escape provided for them by God in His faithfulness. If Calvinistic determinism is true then their yielding to temptation was predetermined from all eternity, and could not possibly have been avoided. In that case, it is simply not true that the temptation was not beyond their ability to endure, nor was it true that God faithfully provided a way of escape. How could there be a “way of escape” for those who were predetermined to fall according to an eternal and irrevocable decre
What’s so odd about this claim is the way in which kangaroodort infers something from the text that simply isn’t there. The text says nothing about Christians succumbing to temptation. And what it does say moves in the opposite direction.
The prospect of Christians succumbing to temptation is not something that kangaroodort got from his prooftext. So what does his prooftext prove? It can hardly prove that Christians succumb to temptation, since that is absent from the text. And, what is more, that cuts against the grain of the text.
Now perhaps kangaroodort would salvage his assertion by claiming that other verses of Scripture speak to the issue of Christian sin.
No doubt that’s true. But that’s not the same thing as exegeting 1 Cor 10:13. You can’t find something is a verse which isn’t there–even if you can find it in some other verse.
And you can’t simply import what is said in one verse to what is not said in another verse as if both passages are addressing the same issue. Ironically, kangaroodort’s grand prooftext illustrates the polar opposite of what he labors to prove. Did someone sneak into the evidence room when his back was turned and empty the box?
We need to interpret 1 Cor 10:13 on its own terms, in light of its own wording and the surrounding context. And when we do the detail work, this is what we come up with:
“It is not clear whether this verse is to be understood generically of every trial that a Christian may face, or the eschatological trial involving one’s salvation? The noun ekbasis, ‘way out,’ certainly could mean the latter, the eschatological trial, but Christians may also rely on God for the ekbasis of lesser struggles throughout the course of life. In this context, Paul seems to be thinking primarily of trials involving idol meat or seduction to idolatry,” J. Fitzmyer, 1 Corinthians (Yale 2008), 389.
“An examination of the context (1 Cor 10:1-12,14-22) indicates that the temptation specifically in Paul’s mind here is idolatry or apostasy. The Lord will not allow his people to fall prey to apostasy,” T. Schreiner, The Race Set Before Us (IVP 2001), 266.
In sum, this verse is not talking about temptation in general. Rather, it’s talking about the specific temptation to deny one’s faith–of which idolatry was a paradigm-case throughout Scripture. And it says that, due to God’s fidelity, a Christian can never give in to that particular temptation.
Far from being a prooftext for libertarian freewill, this is a prooftext for the perseverance of the saints.
Despite his hyperbolic verbiage and sanctimonious tone, kangaroodort is making totemic use of Scripture. He pays lip-service to the words of Scripture in swelling, self-congratulatory rhetoric, but his interpretation doesn’t begin to represent a close reading of the text or context.
He’s like a man standing in the doorway of an empty warehouse, gesticulating about his discovery of contraband merchandise within. Well, I’ve examined every square inch of the warehouse with a flashlight, and the evidence is entirely wanting.
On Tuesday, State Rep. Betty Brown (R) caused a firestorm during House testimony on voter identification legislation when she said that Asian-Americans should change their names because they’re too hard to pronounce:
Rumor has it that Rep. Brown has also sponsored a bill in the state legislature which mandates that Bible translators simplify certain OT names. The list included:
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Lepidopteran torture
For years the Bush administration lied, stonewalled, and obstructed justice to conceal its ghastly record of torture, but the ACLU has finally blown the lid on the cover-up. And the truth is even worse than we could possibly imagine:
The 2002 Bybee memo...also approved a request to lock Abu Zubaydah in a confinement box with an insect. The memo says: "You have informed us that he appears to have a fear of insects. In particular, you would like to tell Abu Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect into the box with him."
Bart Interrupted: part 5
Ben Witherington has posted part five of his review of Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted.
Spies R Us
To: Ben Douglass
From: Spies R Us
Re: Our Vatican plant
Dear Mr. Douglass,
Thanks for your fine work discombobulating Mr. Armstrong. As you know from his dossier, he’s pretty unstable to begin with. It doesn’t take very much to push him over the edge.
Of course, the Armstrong case was just a test-case. During a double agent’s probationary period, we test cadets on minor leaguers like Mr. Armstrong.
Your performance evaluation has been exemplary over the last six months. Now that you’ve completed your internship, we’ll be reassigning you to a more important case. You’ve been booked on a flight to Rome–where you’ll be assuming your new role as chief-of-staff to the Prefect for the CDF. The mission profile is on your BlackBerry.
P. S. Your fee has been wired to a Caiman account in your code name.
Dispatches from the true church, evening edition
Matthew Bellisario said...
"The footnotes are not that important here. I also find them to be pretty liberal in the new edition of the NAB. That being said I do not think that it is Dave Armstrong's fault that this is the case. The fact is that the NAB is the approved translation that is being used now in the US, by the Church in the ordinary Latin Rite."
"The Game"
One of my contacts at the Vatican has just informed me that Mel Gibson is making a movie starring Dave Armstrong. Although the details are still a bit sketchy, here’s a plot synopsis, along with the cast of characters.
Nicholas Van Orton (Armstrong) is an amateur Catholic apologist and used hot-tub salesman.
On Nicholas' 48th birthday, his younger, rebellious, brother Conrad (Douglass) presents him with an unusual gift–a game offered by a company called Consumer Recreation Services–promising that it will change Nicholas' life. The nature of The Game is unclear at first, but it appears to be a sort of live action role-playing game that integrates directly into the player's real life.
After taking a lengthy psychological test and a physical exam, Nicholas is informed that CRS has rejected "his application" for The Game. However, he soon discovers the Game has not only begun, but it begins by focusing on a key traumatic moment of Nicholas's life when he witnessed his “friends” turn against him.
Evidence mounts that The Game is actually an elaborate and dangerous scheme. Each time Nicholas thinks he has uncovered the truth, he finds a new layer of complexity to it.
The game escalates into a no-holds-barred assault on everything Nicholas values, and his carefully ordered life seems to be disintegrating around him as The Game takes control.
He encounters an employee of Consumer Recreation Services, a waiter who calls himself Christopher (Swan), who at first assists him in escaping from the clutches of the increasingly violent CRS operatives, but after a series of narrow escapes and repeated attempts on his life, Nicholas realizes he has been drugged by Christopher. He regains consciousness in a burial crypt in Southern Mexico in a symbolic premature burial, all the while knowing that his miracle-water hot tubs have been confiscated by Christopher and his associates. The Game is now revealed to be an elaborate scam by the “trads” and the “fundies” to make Nicholas miserable.
Nicholas returns from Mexico to San Francisco by hitchhiking and begging rides, and as he believes that he has been alienated from his friends and his trusted lawyer, Nicholas comes to a realization about his life. But he becomes increasingly desperate and retrieves a hidden handgun from his ransacked home. He locates a Game employee and threatens him. With the employee's security clearance, he heads directly into the offices of The Game and takes Christopher hostage.
Security arrives and opens fire. Several of the staff are hit, falling over. Christopher and Nicholas escape to the roof of the company's skyscraper, and he demands answers. Christopher appears surprised by the gun, anxiously telling Nicholas that CRS had provided an automatic for him to use, yet he is carrying a revolver. He says that The Game's company thought it had replaced any real firearms Nicholas could access with unloaded fakes. He insists that the Game is just a hoax, and that his friends and family are waiting on the other side of the steel door, ready to celebrate his birthday. As the steel door opens, surprising the frightened and almost hysterical Nicholas, he fires without looking, only to reveal that he has shot his brother, who was holding a bottle of champagne and dressed in a tuxedo to celebrate Nicholas' birthday, and the successful conclusion of The Game. Several of the staff who have been shot appear again, unharmed.
Stricken with remorse and guilt (and exhaustion), Nicholas walks to the edge of the skyscraper's roof and steps off. He crashes through the glass ceiling of the ballroom. However, he lands safely on an airbag placed there for just that reason, and a doctor and rescue workers quickly restrain him and check him over, brushing bits of breakaway glass from his face and eyes. Then he finds his family and friends awaiting his scheduled arrival, and The Game is revealed to have just been a complex game after all. None of his miracle-water hot tubs has been confiscated, the gun was indeed reloaded with blanks, and his brother is very much alive. As they embrace, Conrad confesses that he arranged the extremely expensive Game as a way to shake his brother back to reality and help him to learn to enjoy life again.
As the party is in full swing, Nicholas meets several of the guests who were operatives in the Game. When he asks about Christopher, Conrad tells him that he is outside about to depart in a cab. Nicholas runs outside and talks to him about his part in the Game. He invites Nicholas to have coffee with him at the airport before he flies to Australia for his next assignment in the Game. Nicholas's Game appears to finally be over (but he cautiously looks over his shoulder, as he isn't sure).
Dave Armstrong as Nicholas Van Orton
Ben Douglass as Conrad Van Orton
James Swan as Christopher
James White as Jim Feingold
Shawn McElhinney as Samuel Sutherland
Gerry Matatics as Anson Baer
Steve Hays (cameo appearance)
A Disingenuous Orthodoxy: Why I Am Everything But a Calvinist Unless Calvinist Means Any Ole Christian
Mclaren offers some words of wisdom to help out those making the church uncool in his blog post Calling All Calvinists.
The terms Calvinist and Reformed can have wildly different meanings, depending on who uses them.
Of course, this is entirely uninteresting. So can the term, 'Christian'.
For example, some of the most misogynist and some of the most feminist folks I know would see their views as being inherently Reformed.
Just like some of the most polytheistic or unipersonalistic folks I know would see their views as being inherently Christian.
So, when people tell me they're Calvinist or Reformed, I generally ask them what they mean.
Does Mclaren ask this while rubbing his chin with his finger and thumb, pretending he has just asked something profound? Or does he ask arms akimbo?
One line of response goes to TULIP (an acronym for five points of a type of deterministic Calvinism) and the Westminster Confession and a list of things they're against. Folks in this camp seem eager to repeat and redo faithfully in the 21st century exactly what Calvin said and did in the 16th.
1. A type of "deterministic Calvinism?" As opposed to, what, an indeterministic Calvinism? Well then, isn't this risible; jejune too. With these kinds of Procrustean dismemberments of basic units of language, postmodernism seems downright rote, rigid, determinate, and modern. Boorish too. On this analysis, if indeterminists count as Calvinists, then monopersonal modalists count as Christians. And why not allow polytheists too? Indeed, I could see a Unitarian write something similar: "I often wrap my fingers around my chin after someone tells me they are a Christian, let out a sigh, ponder it for a bit, and then ask, while letting out a lot of air, slowly and semi-confused, 'What do you mean by that?' One line of response goes to the trinity (an fancy way of saying polytheism) and certain creeds of the early, oppressionistic Church and a list of things they are against and an even larger list of things they're for so as to show that church and God is cool--Jehovah is my homeboy."
2. Ironically, Mclaren tells us that he is "against" this kind of Calvinist.
3. Can we have any names of these Calvinists? And, is Mclaren using hyperbole when he claims that "they" want to redo everything today in the exact same way as Calvin's day? Even the language? Long beard, 'n all? Or does Mclaren just mean the "theology?" But again, we must ask if he is being hyperbolic. I know some hard-core Reformed baptists who hold to Tulip, even call themselves Calvinists, and have most of the nasty stuff in their confession as is in the Westminster Confession. Yet they do not want to redo paedobaptism. Or, are you particularly nasty if and only if you baptize babies?
4. What if the Westminster Confession is true? How come that question doesn't even make it into consideration. Now, I'm not making any claims that it is true all and sundry, mind you. But what if it is? And, what if one believes that it is? Or, is this kind of talk just wrong-headed in today's world? Irrelevant? Well, okay, I guess if this claim is true I can accept it. Read that sentence again. And second time if need be, until you get it.
The other line of response refers to the Lordship of Christ over all of life, the priesthood of all believers, the absolute importance of God's grace, and the integration of faith with every dimension of human enterprise ... seeming more eager to imitate Calvin's general example, seeking to translate into our times what Calvin generally sought to do in his times, even when that means disagreeing with specific things Calvin - and many Calvinists - have said and done.
Since every Christian could affirm this, Mclaren wants to deny the Calvinist any demarcating feature. On Mclaren's warped use of language, 'Calvinism' turns out to be identical with 'Arminianism' as well as any ole hoi polloi version 'Christianity'. Basically, to be a Calvinist means you must deny anything that uniquely makes you Calvinist. Upon analysis, this turns out to be a veiled attack against Calvinists, arguing that the only way to be a cool Calvinist is to not be a Calvinist. Once you do this it's still okay to call yourself a Calvinist. Mclaren's calling all Calvinists to a Roman Christianity. A Roman Christianity says that you can call yourself whatever you want, worship whatever deity you want, so long as you don't claim your way is right to the exclusion of all others. See, the cool Calvinist is a 'Calvinist' who "denies specific things Calvin - and many Calvinists - have said and done. Read, who "denies all those offense things I dislike in Calvinism."
The TULIP/WC group tends to include my most passionate, persistent, and grandiloquent critics. I, of course, am not alone in finding myself in the polemical cross-hairs of these energetic folks who have rightly earned the nick-name "Machen's warrior children."
Yet the author of the piece to which Mclaren links holds to TULIP and much of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
It is doubtful Mclaren even read Frame's paper. One should not be too proud to identify with those in the cross-hairs of these energetic people considering it was "born in the controversy over liberal theology." Furthermore, those in the cross-hairs are fellow Reformed. Thus, Mclaren cites as relevant something irrelevant. Odds are he did it to seem cognoscente. He came off looking knavish. But perhaps the biggest problem is that the article makes clear that the critiques came because of the motto "truth before friendship." Putting aside questions of interaction and debate (though I have the feeling Jesus would agree with this sentiment), can't Mclaren see that to say Machen's Warrior Children have put you in their cross-hairs is to say that they think you are making false claims. Does all your jovialness and glad-handing even matter if you're flat-out wrong. As the emperor would say, they "believe you are mistaken, about a great many things." That's why Mclaren is in the cross-hairs. If Mclaren is wrong about a great many things, even important things, then what is his post supposed to accomplish? Well, it's meant to claim that they are wrong without having to do the hard work of showing it. Maligning and marginalizing those you disagree with, without showing where they are wrong, and without showing why you are right, is just to be uncivil. I mean this in the same sense as Os Guinness's book: The Case For Civility. You know, the one you wrote the praise blurb on the back for? Or, did you also not read that piece?
The other kind of Reformed Christians are much more irenic and include many of the wisest and most thoughtful Christians I've ever met. A great example of this tribe's Reformed thinking can be found here. I hope and pray many in the former camp will migrate to the latter camp in the years ahead.
We have seen that upon analysis this simply means that there are no uniquely irenic or wise Calvinist or Reformed. That's not nice. Hybels Warrior Children!
But the question to ask is, why does Brian get stingy rather than stay "generous"? Didn't he tell us: "The last thing I want is to get into nauseating arguments about why this or that form of theology (dispensational, covenant, charismatic, whatever) or methodology (cell church, megachurch, liturgical church, seeker church, blah, blah, blah) is right (meaning approaching or achieving timeless technical perfection)." But now he cares about the right way to be a Calvinist! Consistency is a will-o-the-wisp.
It turns out that Mclaren isn't really generous. Indeed, his title is disingenuous:
"Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian."
doesn't mean what it looks like it means. Everyone makes it in besides the traditional Calvinist!
The martyrdom of Dave Armstrong, R.I.P.
[Dave Armstrong] I've long noted the fundamentalist - "traditionalist" kinship. "Trads" often think like either fundy Protestants or liberal Catholics…And he was using your same principle of extreme separationism, that unites your mentality (in THAT respect) with fundamentalist and anti-Catholic Protestants.
There’s some truth to this statement. For there is a certain level of affinity, of shared values and common concerns, between religious conservatives with varying religious affiliations.
Why does Armstrong act as if that’s a damning observation, or a damning association?
Conservatives recognize the voice of fellow conservatives. There’s a degree of family resemblance. In some important respects they have more in common with each other than with liberal counterparts in their own theological tradition.
Both White and Doe have been using Ben Douglass left and right as a pawn in order to make fun of Catholics and throw out silly and groundless criticisms.
He's using you as a "useful idiot." The sooner you see this the better.
You certainly are being used as one by both White and Doe. They love to pick out a Catholic who may disagree with another Catholic on one thing or another (generally "traditionalists," which is why they continue to this day to talk about Gerry Matatics, even though he is no longer even a Catholic), as if this has anything whatever to do with doctrinal, magisterial unity that we have and they don't have.
You're free to have your own opinions, of course, but you should object (in their venues) to their cynical use of you in this fashion. They're trying to pit us against each other and do a version of "good cop bad cop." Can't you see this? Is it not blatantly obvious?
i) It’s true that Protestant epologists like me will play one Catholic off against another. I don’t know why Armstrong is so incensed by that fact. After all, Catholics constantly play one Protestant off against another (the “scandal” of denominationalism).
ii) Moreover, we didn’t create these divisions. These are preexisting divisions within Catholicism. Indeed, that’s on display in the study Bible to which Armstrong contributed his “inserts.”
iii) Furthermore, it’s inconsistent of Armstrong to treat this as a purely cynical ploy. While we do exploit these divisions for apologetic purposes, Armstrong also admitted (in the form of an accusation) that “trads” and “fundies” think alike in certain respects.
So it’s not as if we’re merely using the “trads” as a wedge. By his own reckoning, “trads” and “fundies” are, to some degree, genuine cobelligerents.
Your own argument can be thrown back against you, too, in any event, by nothing how you are participating on an anti-Catholic blog: whose owner thinks neither you nor I are Christians: that we belong to a false and heretical church, are not regenerate, and don't believe in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
You aid and abet his purposes and send mixed messages to his readers by providing comfort to Doe's attempts to lie about me and about the Church.The falsehoods, misrepresentations and outright lies on Doe's blog are certainly at least as harmful than some stray footnotes in the NAB that few probably read anyway. So how can you justify your appearance there, agreeing with those who are enemies of the Church? You're not even there disagreeing with them. You're there agreeing, based on what I think is fallacious and misguided reasoning, over against your friend and an orthodox Catholic. And that is unethical and causes scandal. You're participating directly in that by not recognizing how they are using you (complete with pathetic fawning admiration and compliments towards you, for their agenda-driven purposes), and not speaking out against it. Hopefully you will now. In the meantime, you are aiding the falsehoods that that blog is devoted to promulgating.
There are two basic problems with this tirade:
i) Armstrong is falling back on the Mafia code of silence. It’s your duty, always and everywhere, to present a solid front to the world.
This mindset has been the undoing of many secular and religious institutions. For fear of scandal, we must conceal the awful truth.
And, of course, the ironic consequence of his mindset is that, not only does the underlying scandal eventually leak out, but the cover-up becomes the cause of additional scandal.
ii) The other problem is that, in his irrepressible egotism, he turns this into a dastardly deed of personal betrayal. So it’s no longer about loyalty to the truth of God; rather, it’s about loyalty to the person of dear old Dave. His response is laden with bitter envy and resentment.
Given his deep-seated suspicions, I’d advise dear old Dave to take some elementary precautions. He should begin wearing a suit of armor so that he can shield himself from all of the two-faced friends turned foes who lie in wait around every corner to stab him in the back. I trust that he already inspects the closet and checks under the bed before turning out the light. Even then it must be hard to fall asleep as he contemplates all the treasonous “friends” who are plotting against him.
Given the sinister alliance between “trads” and “fundies,” he should hire a private eye to do background checks on his butcher, baker, and grocer. As an added precaution, he should also retain the services of a food taster just in case the cashier swaps out the good mushrooms for bad mushrooms while Armstrong is momentarily distracted by a staged diversion.
When you’re as monumentally important as dear old Dave, you can never be too careful. Danger lurks where you least suspect it. Never let your guard down!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The ice cream parlor at the edge of the alternate world
Last month, Dan responded to something I wrote. Since then I’ve had other things to attend to, like rebutting an Ehrman wannabe (James McGrath). Back to Dan:
“Determinism does rule out possible alternatives. Calvinism isn't equivalant to determinism. Granted some Calvinists hold to exhaustive determinism - the ones who deny God's LFW. But Calvinists who affirm God's LFW deny exhaustive determinism. Granted, for these Calvinists, God not man has LFW. But to the extent that God has LFW, determinism isn't exhaustive.”
I see that Dan doesn’t even grasp the nature of Calvinism. Divine predestination is not self-referential. God is not the object of predestination. The world is the object of predestination. God doesn’t decree himself. God doesn’t predestine himself. God is the subject of predestination, not it’s object.
Predestination has reference to the creature. It applies to contingent things–events. Things which would not be unless God decreed them and instantiated his decree. Occurrents and continuants.
Predestination doesn’t rule out alternate possibilities for God. God can choose among alternate possibilities since, as I already explained to Dan, possible worlds represent the range of divine omnipotence. All the different things that God could possibility do.
Alternate possibilities are a presupposition of predestination, for omnipotence is a presupposition of predestination. God’s ability to instantiate any compossible state of affairs.
Now, because God is timeless, omniscient and wise, if God resolves on a particular choice, then there’s no going back on his choice. God is not indecisive. God was never in a state of doubt or indecision. As a practical and logical consequence of the decree, alternate possibilities are ruled out. But that takes the decree as a starting point. However, the decree is not its own starting point. It presupposes divine omnipotence and omnipotence. God’s omniscient knowledge of his own omnipotence.
Predestination is exhaustive for the creature. The creature can never choose contrary to God’s choice.
“I had already explained this to Paul, but here goes...”
Kane’s definition of choice is consistent with either determinism or libertarianism. It’s about the closest thing you can get to a neutral definition.
Dan has yet to show that there’s anything intrinsically technical or philosophical about Kane’s definition in and of itself. He claims that Kane’s definition is constrained by Kane’s action theory. But he fails to show how the actual wording of the definition is inherently technical or philosophical.
“Kane's definition is fine for discussions, after the definition is understood. It's just not a good idea to assume it's the definition of scriptural terms.”
Neither is the English dictionary. When a translator renders a text into a receptor language, like English, then, by definition, he must use English synonyms, or words that approximate the original Greek and Hebrew.
But the meaning of the words in the English dictionary is based on English usage, whereas the meaning of Biblical words is based on Biblical usage, as well as (to some degree) extrabiblical Greek and Hebrewusage.
If Dan were serious about what “choice” means in Biblical usage, he would do a word-study of Greek and Hebrew usage–and not google words in
“This seems at odds with Steve's claims that ‘Dan is overinterpreting lexical usage and trying to abstract the end-result from the processs’."
Not at all. In depends on whether the English word at issue is a technical word or nontechnical word.
Keep in mind, though, that this whole exercise is a diversionary tactic on Dan’s part since the proper way to determine the meaning of Biblical usage is through word-studies involving Biblical usage.
“How is it that my approach is ‘selectivly technical’ and ‘hicksville’ at the same time?”
Because you’re trying to invest a nontechnical word like “choice” with a technical meaning.
“The dictionary reports a common usage of the term choose, which just happens to rule out determinism. I am not really being all that selective. I simply googled choose and dictionary and's ‘to select from a number of possibilities’ was the first definition in the first link. Granted, at this point I have looked at bunches of dictionaries, but most either use ‘possiblities’ or ‘alternatives’ or both. If I am being techincal, it's because the common usage is technical.”
Once again, Dan is equivocating. Unfortunately, Dan is incorrigibly dishonest. That’s why there comes a point of diminishing returns in debating him.
He makes a false statement. I correct his misstatement. The next time around he repeats the same error as if nothing was ever said to the contrary.
Words like “possibilities” or “alternatives” do not distinguish determinism from indeterminism.
An agent like God can determine another agent’s actions. The fact that the human agent lacks access to several possibilities doesn’t mean the divine agent is under the same limitations.
And keep in mind, once again, that this whole exercise is a decoy on Dan’s part. The nature of human choice should be determined by Biblical theology and anthropology, and not by googling words in
Look at the current debate over the new perspective on Paul. Is the proper way for N. T. Wright and Jacob Neusner to settle that debate to google “justification” in
At one level, I’m grateful to see an Arminian apologist reduced to such an illiterate argument.
“Maybe, but that's what the dictionary seems to be doing. I believe ‘failed attempts’ wouldn't qualify as choices under the dictionary method, since the belief that X was possible was false. Semantically, I can see a case for that. It's a bit awkward to say I choose something, when I wasn't able to execute the choice. If a linebacker stops him, we might say ‘Romo wanted to cross the goal line’, but we wouldn't normally say ‘Romo chose to cross the goal’.Now perhaps this is a failing in the dictionary. Perhaps the dictionary should only talk about things we think are possible (which may or may not be possible), rather than taking about things that are possible. But that's not what it does.”
So where does this admission leave Dan’s original argument?
Moreover, why should we accept your arbitrary restriction? One of Dan’s problems, and a symptom of his linguistic ineptitude, is the fact that he commits the illegitimate totality transfer fallacy. He combines all possible senses of the word “choice” into one collective definition, then he applies that collective definition to every occurrence of the word.
But even in English usage, the word “choice,” has a variety of meanings, and it’s invalid to import every possible meaning into each occurrence of the word. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary offers some of the following definitions of choice: “to determine in favor of a course,” “to decide in accordance with inclination,” “to resolve,” “to will,” “to wish,” “to wish to have,” “to want.”
These definitions refer to merely mental acts. They don’t define choice in terms of action, much less successful action.
Suppose we apply Dan’s illegitimate totality transfer to a word like “run”:
2. to move with haste; act quickly: Run upstairs and get the iodine.
3. to depart quickly; take to flight; flee or escape: to run from danger.
8. Sports.
a. to take part in a race or contest.
9. to be or campaign as a candidate for election.
34. to get or become: The well ran dry.
35. to amount; total: The bill ran to $100.
37. Commerce.
b. to make many withdrawals in rapid succession, as from a bank.
38. Law.
a. to have legal force or effect, as a writ.
b. to continue to operate.
c. to go along with: The easement runs with the land.
49. to continue or return persistently; recur: The old tune ran through his mind all day.
52. Nautical. to sail before the wind.
–verb (used with object)
57. to ride or cause to gallop: to run a horse across a field.
66. to get past or through: to run a blockade.
68. to smuggle (contraband goods): to run guns across the border.
69. to work, operate, or drive: Can you run a tractor?
77. Computers. to process (the instructions in a program) by computer.
87. to sew or use a running stitch: to run a seam.
91. to graze; pasture: They run sixty head of cattle on their ranch.
93. Carpentry. to make (millwork) from boards.
94. to cause to fuse and flow, as metal for casting in a mold.
100. a fleeing, esp. in great haste; flight: a run from the police who were hot on his trail.
101. a running pace: The boys set out at a run.
105. Computers. a single instance of carrying out the sequence of instructions in a program.
108. Military.
a. bomb run.
109. Aeronautics.
b. a routine flight from one place to another: the evening run from New York to London.
110. beat (def. 40b).
113. pressrun.
119. any rapid or easy course of progress: a run from trainee to supervisor.
122. a continuous extent of something, as a vein of ore.
124. a sequence of cards in a given suit: a heart run.
125. Cribbage. a sequence of three or more cards in consecutive denominations without regard to suits.
127. a series of sudden and urgent demands for payment, as on a bank.
131. a small stream; brook; rivulet.
133. a kind or class, as of goods: a superior run of blouses.
137. Australian. a large sheep ranch or area of grazing land.
139. a trough or pipe for water or the like.
140. the movement of a number of fish upstream or inshore from deep water.
142. a number of animals moving together.
143. Music. a rapid succession of tones; roulade.
144. Building Trades.
c. the horizontal distance between successive risers on a flight of steps or a staircase.
145. Baseball. the score unit made by safely running around all the bases and reaching home plate.
147. Nautical. the immersed portion of a hull abaft the middle body (opposed to entrance ).
148. the runs, (used with a singular or plural verb) Informal. diarrhea.
Suppose we generate a collective definition in which we combine all the different senses of run. Suppose, finally, we apply this synthetic definition to Bible verses using the English word “run.” Would that make sense? The question answers itself.
If Dan were a serious thinker, he’d make a minimal effort to consider obvious counterexamples to his arguments. But, no, he’s too lazy to do that. Instead, he leaves it to his opponent to do the spadework. Maybe I should charge him by the hour.
“No. This is the switcharoo to square the dictionary with determinism.”
I don’t accept Dan’s dictionary method of resolving essentially philosophical disputes.
Moreover, dictionaries are neutral on determinism.
“Steve exhanges possibilities for what we think are possilities.”
For that matter, Dan’s appeal to common usage is self-refuting–since many writers and speakers are determinists. For example, many human beings are fatalistic. Therefore, if a dictionary samples popular usage, that would include the usage of determinists.
Determinists use the word “choose” too, you know.
“A determinist wouldn't even think they were possibilities; she would think they might be possibilities, only as a result of our her ignorance of what has been predetermined. So a possibility is being exhanged for ‘I don't know if this is a possibility or not’.”
Of course, this argument either proves too much or too little. For a libertarian doesn’t know what hypothetical alternatives are viable alternatives unless he tries to act on his mental choice. And libertarians also discover that not everything they thought was feasible was feasible. Both libertarians and determinists discover what is possible for them by acting, or trying to act, on their mental choices.
“I have always taken LFW on faith.”
So you’re a libertarian fideist. Fine. Thank’s for the damning admission.
That admission would have saved a lot of ink on both sides of the debate if you’d volunteered that admission at the outset. Pity I had to waste so much time to wring it out of you.
“If choice requires a one-to-one correspondence, then only cases with a one-to-one correspondence are choices.”
Not my argument. I didn’t say that choice requires a one-to-one correspondence. What I said, rather, is that if you’re going to justify the libertarian definition of choice by appealing to intuition, then that entails an equipollent relation between what you imagine to be possible and what turns out to be possible for you.
“’Failed attempts’ wouldn't be choices.”
You’re backpedaling from the intuitive argument for libertarianism. The intuitive argument for libertarianism involves the inference that if we can conceive all these possibilities, then only plausible explanation is if these conceivable possibilities are, in fact, live possibilities.
Once, however, you are forced to concede that many of the hypotheticals we mentally review when we make a choice were never in the cards, then you’re also forced to concede that intuition is not a reliable guide to the scope of human freedom.
“Of course, if determinism is true, there is never a one-to-one correspondence, so we never choose.”
That’s another one of your trademark equivocations. Do you do this because you can’t make an honest case for your own position, or do you do this because you lack the critical detachment to even grasp the opposing position?
All you’ve done in this case is to impute your libertarian definition of freedom to the determinist, then conclude on the basis of your libertarian definition that if determinism is true, we never have a choice.
Surely you don’t think such a blatantly fallacious objection advances the argument, do you?
“But if LFW is true, sometimes there is a one-to-one correspondence, and so sometimes we choose. So even if we grant the argument regarding failed attemps (which I don't), it still doesn't eliminate LFW, it simply limits the cases in which we choose to a smaller subset.”
i) Failed attempts destroy the intuitive argument for LFW. The intuitive argument for LFW infers that we have a range of viable choices from the fact that we can contemplate a range of choices. We can imagine doing X or Y, and there’s no outward impediment to doing X or Y.
Once you sever the link, you lose the intuitive argument. You can arbitrarily deny that failed attempts count as real choices, but you pay a high price for that denial.
ii) If determinism is true, there is sometimes a correspondence between what we think we can do and what we can actually do. We find out what is possible by doing something. Whatever we do is possible. Action is the way we discover what was possible or not.
iii) If you deny that failed attempts count as genuine choices, then the determinist can help himself to that ad hoc restriction as well. In that case, the determinist is uniformly successful in realizing each and every one of his choices. So how does your qualification lend any support to libertarianism?
“I am not sure how Molinism is relivant to the current discussion, but in any case Steve's statement is a false dichotomy - a person can be both classic Arminian and Molinist.”
No, he can’t. Classic Arminianism operates with simple foreknowledge rather than middle knowledge.
“I am not quite sure if this was intended as a ‘reducto ad absurdem’ argument against Molinism or a description of Molinism. If it's a description, it's an incorrect summary of Molinism.God does not choose between possible worlds, He chooses between hypotheticals (sometimes called feasible worlds). Further, the agent is able to choose between possible worlds. God knows they will not (and would not), but they still can choose other possible worlds. God's choice (decree) does not elimitate the alternative possibilities. I think Steve is confusing ‘would’ with ‘can’.”
To begin with, Dan is in no special position to explain Molinism to me. I’ve debated Molinism with academics like Daniel Hill and Terrance Tiessen.
Let’s compare Dan’s makeshift definition with some standard definitions or expositions:
“[Molinism] affords God a means of choosing which world of free creatures to create,” William Craig Lane, “The Middle Knowledge View,” Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views, 122.
“One of the most useful concepts for the explanation and evaluation of middle knowledge is that of possible worlds. The basic belief that things could have been different is commonly described as belief in many possible worlds. Each complete set of possible states of affairs (or way things could be) is a possible world, and although there is an extremely large number of possible worlds, it is not infinite (some states of affairs are impossible), and only one is actual (the way things are).”
i) Notice that both writers take recourse to possible worlds.
ii) In addition, God is the agent who chooses which world will be the actual world, and God is also the agent who actualizes a possible world.
“Here's how it works. Let's say there are 3 possible worlds (one in which I choose chocolate, a second in which I choose vanilla, and a third in which the I don't even go to the ice cream parlor.) God looks at the set of worlds and ‘runs a hypothetical scenario’ in which I am in the ice cream parlor. The result is hypothetical Dan, who can choose either chocolate or vanilla, chooses chocolate. God says, ‘that's what I want’, and He creates that world.”
Like I said, God makes the ultimate choice, and not the creature. God chooses which possible world to actualize, and God actualizes the possible world of his choice.
The human agent doesn’t get to choose which of the three possible worlds (to use Dan’s example) will become the real world, and the human agent doesn’t actualize any one of the three.
So, under Molinism, the human agent has no real freedom of choice. No freedom of opportunity. He merely has different wishes. He wishes one thing or another. But he doesn’t determine which wish, if any, will come true.
“God created the world He saw in the scenario and it's just like the world in the scenario. In the scenario, hypothetical Dan was able to choose chocolate or vanilla (i.e. had access to 2 possible worlds), so actual Dan can choose chocolate or vanilla (i.e. has access to 2 possible worlds).”
i) The Dan in a merely possible world is not a real person. He’s just a divine idea. And since he’s not a real person, he’s not a real agent. He makes not actual choices. Rather, God thinks of Dan making a choice, which is hardly the same thing as Dan making a choice. A possible agent doesn’t do anything–except in terms of imaginary action. It’s akin to the relationship between a novelist and the fictitious characters he conceives in his own mind.
ii) Moreover, actual Dan doesn’t have access to possible worlds, for actual Dan only obtains in the actual world, and the actual world reflects the divine actualization of one possible world to the exclusion of other possible worlds. That’s a fundamental difference between a possible world and an actual world. Actual Dan can’t choose contrary to the actual world. Rather, the actual world exemplifies one particular choice. Actual Dan can’t undo the actual world by opting for another. Not under Molinism.
iii) Furthermore, Dan seems to envision a situation where, in each possible ice cream parlor, possible Dan contemplates all three alternatives, but chooses a different option in each case. That’s the only sense I can make of his statement that possible Dan has access to the other two possibilities–which he rejects. Possible Dan is considering all three possibilities at once.
That, however, doesn’t follow. If three possible worlds represent three different choices, then possible Dan doesn’t have to contemplate all three possibilities in any one world. He can come into the ice cream parlor having already made up his mind about chocolate or vanilla. Indeed, in the possible world where he chooses chocolate, he doesn’t even need to consider vanilla. All he’s thinking about is a chocolate ice cream cone. There may be another possible world in which he also considers vanilla, but that doesn’t carry over for every possible trip to the possible ice cream parlor. Possible worlds semantics does not imply that in each possible world a possible agent will contemplate alternate possibilities. Rather, the basic idea is that each possible world represents a distinctive possibility. A road not taken in another possible road.
“It's a switcharoo to change from things we can do to things we think we can do.”
Once again, Dan can’t keep track of his own argument. I’m commenting on Dan’s intuitive argument for libertarian freedom. By definition, an appeal to intuition involves an introspective appeal to our mental life. Intuition is not something we do–in the sense of extramental acts. At most, intuition includes hypothetical options which we think we can do. It’s a mental act. It may be a mental act about extramental actions, but intuition itself is just a mental act.
“But bypassing that... alternatives are two or more things we can choose, not two or more things we can do.”
Notice that Dan is restricting an alternative to something choose-able rather than do-able. But if we accept that restrictive definition, than an agent could have a wide range of alternatives from which to choose, even though he couldn’t do a single one. How does Dan think that distinction advances his case for libertarian freedom?
“But bypassing that as well... If determinism is true, we don't have alternatives and if one is a determinist, he can't think he has alternatives.”
Is this Dan’s attempt to be cute? To offer a cutesy, question-begging one-liner in lieu of a real argument?
Even libertarian philosophers know better than to mischaracterize determinism is that fashion. For example:
“Before going into the arguments for determinism, it is necessary to remove some misconceptions about the determinist position. To begin with, it must be emphasized most strongly that determinists do not deny that people make choices…Furthermore, the experience of choosing–of seeing alternatives, weighting their desirability and finally making up one’s mind–is not any different whether one is a libertarian or a determinist. For while determinists believe that there are sufficient conditions which will govern their choices, they do not know at the time when they are making a decision what those determinants are or how they will decide as a result of them. So, like everyone else, they simply have to make up their own minds. The difference between libertarian and determinist lies in the interpretation of the experience of choice, not in the experience itself,” W. Hasker, Metaphysics, 37.
Continuing with Dan:
“How can they appear to be alternatives, if one believes in determinism?”
Determinism is perfectly consistent with apparent alternatives.
“If determinism is true, a person can't choose otherwise.”
As usual, Dan is equivocating. A predestined agent can contemplate different hypothetical courses of action. And the hypothetical he chooses to act upon always turns out to be the hypothetical that God decreed to be. Indeed, God decreed the agent to choose that hypothetical option.
A predestined agent doesn’t know in advance which hypothetical is a live possibility. But the apparent alternatives influence his choice of the viable alternative. So they serve a purpose. Although they are merely apparent, they are still functional in the deliberative process. Psychologically useful.
There’s nothing unusual about this. Take a card game. Given the cards that are on the table, face up, along with the cards remaining in the deck, a gambler will decide to bet or to fold based on the possible and probable combinations which remain outstanding.
At a metaphysical level, only one of these ostensible possibilities is a live possibility. For the cards in the deck are (randomly) arranged in just one sequence at a time. But the gambler doesn’t know which combination is the actual combination. At an epistemic level, several combinations are still possible. Are still in play.
That calculation affects his choice. Even though the possible hands which he contemplates are mostly impossible hands (given the actual, albeit unknown, order of the deck), he is still making a choice based on the apparent alternatives which are available to him.
“But if a person is a determinist, he can't think he can choose otherwise. He can't think he can choose either chocolate or vanilla.”
In the deliberative process, apparent alternatives can affect the choice of the one feasible alternative. I don’t know what hand my opponent has. I don’t know what card will be dealt next.
I can’t change the order of the deck. The deck can’t be otherwise that in is (for this particular round). But although I can’t choose an alternate possibility which is at odds with the actual sequence of the cards, I can take the possible combinations into account (‘possible’ in the epistemic sense). Indeed, it’s unavoidable that I’ll take all the variables into consideration–depending on my skill, as a card player.
“His ignorance of what he has been predetermined to do may lead him to think ‘I might be able to eat chocolate but if so, I can't eat vanilla and I might be able to eat vanilla, but if so I can't eat chocolate’, but he couldn't consistently think of chocolate and vanilla as alternative possibilities.”
He doesn’t have to believe that all of the apparent possibilities are live possibilities for all the possibilities–real and apparent–to figure in his decision. In fact, we often make decisions when we’re in the dark as to which apparent options are viable options. In the decision-making process, we don’t always enjoy the luxury of knowing in advance which apparent possibilities are live possibilities. That’s something we often learn about belatedly.
I allow a certain amount of time to get to an appointment. Unbeknownst to me, there’s going to be a traffic accident on my way to my appointment. That, in turn, leads to a traffic jam. As a result, I’m late for my appointment, or miss my appointment.
“If libertarianism is true, there sometimes is and sometimes isn't an equipollent; if determinism is true, there's never an equipollent.”
If predestination is true, then there’s an equipollent relation between the choice I make and the choice that God decreed.
“But if a person is a determinist, it makes no sense to even think they have alternatives.”
You keep repeating the same simpleminded objection. Repetition doesn’t make a fallacious argument gradually sound.
“Since alternatives are a part of the definition of choosing, the definition of choose rule out determinism.”
Only on your tendentious, libertarian definition of what alternatives are and how they function.
“But even the retreated (switcharoo) understanding of alternatives to ‘what we thought were alternatives’ doesn't work. Since it makes no sense for a determinist to think he has alternatives, it makes no sense for a determinist to think he can choose.”
Tell that to a poker player.
“I agree with this statement, but it doesn't answer my questions or explain your statement about time-travel or lingering possibilites.”
Merely stating that it doesn’t answer your questions or explain my statement is not an argument.
“My comment was a description, not argument.”
Which is one of your chronic problems.
“While your previous statement about God and time was one I agreed with and I don't think it explained our differences here; this comment about God's timelessness might. God's decree and/or creation of the world starts time. Once time starts, God is in it.”
That conclusion doesn’t begin to follow from your preceding remarks.
“God has alternative possibilities before creation and does not after creation. For man, the change from one moment to the next is associated with the lapse of possibilites. For God, it's the change from being outside of time to being in time.”
So you say. Where’s the argument?
“But let's say you're right and God remains timeless after the inception of time. This leads us to question if time itself is real, since apparently God doesn't see things that way.”
Does this also lead you to the question whether space itself is real, since God is not a brick?
Time is a real condition for creatures.
“Further, so long as the decree logically precedes the act, alternative possibilities have still lapsed. Given God's decree, there are no possible alternatives.”
Yes, given God’s decree. That doesn’t make his decree an ipso facto given. His decree is the logical consequence of his choice.
“So it still does not make sense to use possible alternatives (indexed to God) as a core ingredient in defining man's choices (logically and/or temporally after the decree).”
Saying it doesn’t make sense is not a sensible argument. It’s just a tendentious denial. Where’s the supporting argument?
“Further still, one questions if God ever had alternative possibilities (temporally or logically), since they seem to entail change.”
How do alternatives entail change? Most alternatives remain unexemplified possibilities.
“It's very relevant. The ‘value’ and rewards are eternal, not temporal. Matthew 6:25-34”
i) That’s hardly specific to Molinism or Arminianism. A Calvinist could lodge the very same appeal.
ii) So you’re still dancing around the issue. It’s an objection specific to your own position. Libertarians contend that freedom to do otherwise (or choose otherwise) is a precondition of moral responsibility.
But unless you foreknow what the various alternatives entail, then you can’t make an informed decision. So, once again, what’s the value of having all these live possibilities at your disposal when you don’t know what they amount to? Absent the knowledge of their respective consequences, you lack the requisite information to make a considered choice between one alternative and another.
“No question remorse is one of the definitions, but it's not the only one. Change of heart and remorse are alternative definitions. You cited some Engish translations that translate naham as sorry, but other versions translate it repent. Interestingly, the newer translations (and dynamic equivalants) tend to go with ‘sorry’, and the older ones tend to favor ‘repent’. The LXX, Vulgate, Tyndale, Webster, KJV, ASV, Youngs, and Darby all go with repent. Translations aside, the Hebrew itself allows for either change of heart or remorse. I disslike ‘sorry’ as a translation, because it's too specific and misses the range of meaning in the Hebrew naham.”
i) Oh, so under pressure, Dan ditches the collective definition for a selective definition. If that’s good enough for Dan, then that’s good enough for me. There are several definitions of “choice” in the Oxford English Dictionary (see above) which don’t define choice in terms of selecting from alternatives or possibilities.
ii) Dan says he dislikes “sorry” as a translation, yet he previously assured us that we should trust English dictionaries to settle meaning of “choice” in Scripture since translators know and use English dictionaries.
“The denotation for divine repentance is not the same as it is for God's repentance, unless you think God, like man, sins, and physically reacts. God has a change of heart, not because of His own sins, but due to His hatred of ours. God previously saw mankind and said "it is good", now He sees mankind as only evil. So before He wished to have a creation, now He wishes their destruction. That's the change of heart from one intention to another, and it's not due to God's sins, but man's.”
The word “repentance” (whether in English or Hebrew) doesn’t take on a different meaning when applied to God rather than man, or vice versa. That’s irrelevant to the lexical meaning of the word. Once again, Dan jettisons his primary argument when it’s subjected to a bit of hull pressure.
“At the beginning of time, God knows the whole of time.”
Does this mean that, apart from God’s creation of the world, he’s ignorant of time, whether in part or in whole?
“Not so. In popular usage knowing what will happen means your knowledge of what will happen corresponds to what will happen.”
Dan is confusing a theory of knowledge with a theory of truth (the correspondence theory). To say that what constitutes true belief is correspondence between the belief and the object of belief is not at all the same thing as how we know the object of true belief.
“Of course, there's usually some degree of uncertainty for us, but we judge the truth or falsehood of future tense propositions based on outcomes.”
If we know the outcomes. In the case of human beings, we know the future outcome when the outcome is past.
“What Steve is talking about doesn't seem to be a common topic of discussion, but it would be better described as knowledge of causal forces and relations rather than knowledge of the future.”
In the case of God, God’s knowledge of the future is grounded in God’s knowledge of his decree for the future. Indeed, to deploy Dan’s own theory of truth, the decree exactly corresponds to what will happen. Therefore, knowledge of the decree entails knowledge of what is decreed.
By contrast, Dan leaves divine foreknowledge groundless.
“Yes, but knowing it as past, before it happens.”
If Dan thinks it’s possible to know a future event before it is past, then, by definition, such foreknowledge would be an indirect rather than direct knowledge of the future. And God’s self-knowledge of his decree fits that bill to perfection.
“Caused and ‘based on’ are not equivalent. The future does not cause God's knowledge, since God's knowledge is immediate.”
That’s an assertion, not an argument. God enjoys an immediate knowledge of the decree since the decree is a divine idea. God’s knowledge of the decree is self-knowledge, a knowledge of his own mind.
By contrast, time, or future time, is an extramental entity. A mode of finite creatures. In the nature of the case, an extramental entity cannot be the object of immediate knowledge. Only one’s mental life can be the object of immediate knowledge.
“That's inductive and can never amout to knowledge of the future.”
This is yet another assertion in search of an argument. If God causes the future, then how does that not amount to a knowledge of the effects? Does God cause something without knowing what the result will be?
“Steve seems to be denying that the future is the basis of truth of statements about the future.”
Dan continues to confuse a theory of knowledge with a theory of truth.
“It's interesting Steve thinks I am sticking to the text of Romans 9:19 too closely.”
Is this another one of Dan’s efforts to be cute? Cutesy, question-begging one-liners are no substitute for counterarguments.
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Upcoming Dodger Appearance - Steve Lyons
Dodger announcer Steve "Psycho" Lyons has been added to the Dodger signing at Frank & Sons on October 1st. The signing is being put on by Hall of Fame Sports. So far the lineup is Don Newcombe, Tim Leary, Wes Parker and now Lyons.
Here is the link to the Tim Leary info linked here
Here is the link to the Wes Parker info linked here
October 1, 2011
Steve Lyons
Current Dodger Announcer
Played for Red Sox, White Sox, Braves & Expos over 9 seasons
$29 - flats, balls, figurines & minis
$29 - equipment, bats, jerseys & artwork
11:30am - 1:00pm
Also made famous for dropping his pants during a game. See the video below.
True to the Blue!
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Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Wednesday Roundup
Quote of the Day
About the DPF damage, HAL has this to say:
Cycling is Life
Thomas A. Fine said...
Hmmm. This DPF thing can't be a mere coincidence. It's clearly the work of our rogue cyclist hacker fiend, whoever that is.
Could it be Floyd, regretting his comments about Greg Lemond that TBV quoted yesterday?
Could it be TBV, known to be sick of the inane arguing between myself and RH?
Could it be RH, frustrated that he was apparently losing his argument to me?
Could it be Lance, just because whenever anything happens anywhere, someone tries to pin it on Lance?
Could it be me, even though I have no motive, I have the skillz...
Could it be L'equipe, or LeMonde, digging for dirt in the PMs of Floyd and others?
Could it be some mysterious unknown entity, with unknown motives?
Tune in next time, same TBV-time, same TBV-channel.
dan said...
Personally, I think it was Dick Pound and his roving band of Nazi Frogmen.
- Rant
Anonymous said...
Rant & Thomas A. "Mighty"Fine, you make me snicker, you make me laugh, you make me guffaw. POW. ZAP. (That's all I can remember from the old Batman show - I was but a tot at the time...)
If this is a poll, I'm voting for DICK & the Nazi frogmen.
As for Floyd's comments about Greg Lemond - currently now only to be seen here at TBV, as I commented on DP - wow, if there is ever a War of Vituperation, I want to be on Floyd's team! When he gets "roostered up", he can sure let it fly!
Cheryl from Maryland said...
Holy Guacamole, Batman. Did you want to add the LNDD to the list of candidates for the Lone Hacker? Or is that the same as L'Equipe/WADA?
Anonymous said...
tbv, found this amusing 'About Floyd' while browsing Al's Internet. In case you haven't seen it:
Anonymous said...
We find out at DPF that their switch to a new server lost 2 days of postings. What a bummer. I'm sure glad TBV quoted Floyd's reply regarding Greg LeMond. I think it would be really helpful to people who are trying to figure out the strange LeMond comments to get a bit of context for Floyd's reply at DPF. I happened to be reading DPF last night when many pages of postings suddenly disappeared. Does anyone remember Floyd's comments well enough to reconstruct the context of the DPF postings? As I recall, Floyd clarified that he DID call LeMond, but not to ask for advice, rather to request that LeMond stop talking about Floyd. Floyd stated that LeMond doesn't know him personally. There was a discussion on DPF about what LeMond's motive was in his statements. So the bottom line is, according to Floyd, that there was a conversation, but not at all the kind of conversation as characterized by LeMond.
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Seminal Image #332
Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs
(Paul Leni, 1928)
Brent McKee said...
Bob Kane, creator of Batman, cited Veidt's appearance in The Man Who Laughed as the inspirationf for The Joker. Kane was, by all reports a huge movie fan.
swac said...
Really? I don't see any resemblance! (Actually, I think the very first published drawing of The Joker was more or less a direct copy of this still.)
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Webcomic: Hero In Training
Hero In Training is an Adventure webcomic exploring ideas about heroism.
While the predominately teenage lead characters, their relationships with each other and colorful character backgrounds may remind people of El Goonish Shive and The Wotch (and the author likes those comics), Hero In Training itself is darker and less wacky.
Hero in Training plays around with tropes the author created the early plot as a satire of Sunnydale Syndrome in other webcomics.
This provides examples of:
• Action Girl Anne
• Art Evolution (the early strips were completely redrawn after the author's art progressed)
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: When Alpha is about to shoot Gareth. We see a hand firing a gun... And then Alpha falls over dead. Turns out Omega was dead serious about not killing unarmed innocents.
• Buffy Speak:
Dr. Norman: "You've heard of ISEC, right?"
Dr. Norman: "Yes. We usually drop the 'thingy' in casual discussion, though."
• Catgirl: Rachel/Kyrin, the girl they find in the secret lab where Jack's father works.
• Compulsory School Age: Gareth suggests this for Sanyiel. Jack points out why it's stupid. They end up going with it anyway.
• Crazy-Prepared: Jack, or Koops as the others call him.
Anne: "Koops, the window."
Jack: "And boarded up the window."
Anne: "Well, he could've..."
• Cutting the Knot: Sebastian, here.
• Everybody Laughs Ending: Chapter five.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Sanyiel gives Ariel (of Disney's The Little Mermaid) this when he misinterprets the phrase "stole the hearts of a whole generation", leading to the Everybody Laughs Ending of chapter five.
• Hollywood Hacking: Subverted.
Gareth: "Can't you just hack the door open?"
• Meaningful Name: Sanyiel means "God hates me" in Hebrew. It's... fairly accurate.
• No One Could Survive That: Mel, after falling off a building. You'd think that Gareth would at least look at the corpse before declaring this, though.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Dr. Norman isn't quite the Absent-Minded Professor that he appears to be. This does backfire on him in at least one respect, though.
• Pals with Jesus is pretty much the basis for the entire comic.
• Pet the Dog: When Sebastian's bullying of Jack and Gareth is interrupted by Jack's dad bleeding to death, Sebastian immediately stops bullying them and saves his life. He's still kind of a dick about it, though. Then he insists on helping them break into a secure facility.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sanyiel, when he was wielding Choran. The trainer as well, at the start of chapter ten.
• Subverted, turns out that's not the Trainer.
• Red Pill, Blue Pill (but Gareth only remembers it when dreaming)
• Self-Made Orphan: Mel
• Shout-Out: Sharks with Frickin' Laser Beams.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
Anne: "Right behind you."
• Taking the Bullet: Jack does this for Gareth. It doesn't hit anything vital, though. It also has the side effect of convincing Omega that they're not bad people.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Anne's Breaking Speech is harsh enough that Mell backs away from her in fear... Right off the edge of a building.
• They Would Cut You Up: Jack seems to think this might happen if Sanyiel gets found out.
• Trauma Conga Line: Is revealed as Annes backstory in the fourth chapter, where the line of trauma is finished off in a tragically brutal manner.
Hanna Is Not a Boy's NameEmbellished WebcomicsThe Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!
alternative title(s): Hero In Training
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Website: Go Ogle
The search engine with the greatest user share, by a large margin. The company that creates/maintains it also works on a wide variety of other products, including things like translators, the webmail provider Gmail, the interactive map GoogleEarth, the web browser Google Chrome (and an operating system of the same name), Android, the social networking hub Google+, The Advertisement Server, and one of their most successful products, YouTube. Find it here. It also has a mirror site called KidRex, a bowdlerised version of Google for kids. The only difference is that KidRex blacklists inappropriate sites. TV Tropes' search engine is also run by Google.
Surely a company this wildly successful can afford to rest on its laurels for awhile? Nope. Fuelled by their success in commercializing software products and services, Google is now using its vast financial resources, data collection and analysis ability to explore the frontier edge of technology. Of particular note are its Augmented Reality glasses, Automated Automobiles, and the Knowledge Graph/Knowledge Vault unified framework and database system to allow its personal assistant Google Now unprecedented ability to understand you and process any kind of information on demand, with the aim to eventually develop it into a true Artificial Intelligence (for which purpose it hired many specialists in the field, including the renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil). To show that the potential of Big Data is truly endless, Google has established the California Life Company (CALICO), whose aim is advancements in personalized medicine through advanced monitoring devices, preventative medicine, coordinating medical data from researchers and medical centres across the world and ultimately the defeat of aging itself.
Currently believed to be the most likely company to result in The Singularity.
Not to be confused with a googol, which is equal to 10100.note
Tropes that fit Google include:
Search: Index
GOG.comOther SitesGoogle+
alternative title(s): Google Earth; Google
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YMMV: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Some people have wondered whether or not Chiaki is deliberately playing the heartstrings of both Hatori and Yanase. Is he truly Oblivious to Love and doesn't mean to hurt their feelings or is that a front and he secretly yearns to make things difficult for both of them sending them mixed messages and then trampling on their hearts. Of course this comes up due to Chiaki's Base Breaker status.
• Hatori gets this too mainly due to his Base Breaker status. Does he truly love Chiaki for who he is or is he want Chiaki just to rub into Yanase's face. Chiaki certainly thought this in episode 5. Also, given the other episodes including episode 16, Hatori does come off as an extremely possessive boyfriend especially episode 10.
• Base Breaker: Hatori gets a lot of flak. He's either the perfect candidate for Chiaki because of how he takes care of him and known him for twenty years or is hated because he's a possessive seme that will use force to hurt Chiaki and Yanase. Episode 16 doesn't help the cause. Same thing applies to Chiaki though. He's either the cutest uke ever or the dumbest uke that needs to see that's he's hurting both of his friends because of his idiotic nature.
• Die for Our Ship: You can guarantee that if you're a Yuu/Chiaki fan, Hatori will almost always get bashed and written as pure evil, kill him off so Yuu can have Chiaki for himself or be written out completely to give Yuu a chance at love.
• Draco in Leather Pants: While definitely not a villain, the fans that defend Hatori for his actions (in the novel concerning him raping Chiaki) being justified in the since that he needed to do this in order to get Chiaki to realize that he had feelings for him. You can see how everything is divided.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Yuu Yanase is generally more liked than Hatori or Chiaki in terms of the love triangle. Despite being the character on the short end of the stick, he stands out a lot due to how his personality is different from what Nakamura usually writes. His voice actor and personality is very similar to a certain troll from another anime helps his case.
• Yokozawa went from being one the least liked character when first introduced to one of the most beloved characters after getting his own case even more than Onodera. (His even got his own movie).
• It's better to understand why after reading about him getting over his heartbreak with Takano and his new budding relationship with the Kirishimas, Zen Kirishima especially.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: A more minor example in that some people would prefer Chiaki with Yanase than Hatori. This has to do with Hatori brutally raping Chiaki and episode 16 that pulled everyone's heartstrings.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Unlike Junjou Romantica, the pairings aren't named by the author. The fandom makes up names for them nonetheless.
• Idiot Plot: Episode 16 is regarded as one given that it focuses on Domestica. So Hatori cancels a date with Chiaki to meet up with his ex-girlfriend about rooms for two people. Chiaki ends up assuming that Hatori is cheating on him again (as he already assumed this in episode 6 when they first started dating), and what does he do? He goes complain to Yanase about Hatori "cheating" on him when in the last episode, Yanase has made it clear to Chiaki that he's in love with him and wants to be more than friends. While things don't end well for Yanase (and he's not really at fault in this episode), Yanase's breakdown could have been avoided if...
• a. Chiaki asked Hatori why he cancelled the date instead of assuming he's cheating on him. (To be fair, Hatori's ex was being too familiar with him and Hatori didn't explain her actions nor did Chiaki bring it up).
• b. Hatori just told Chiaki what he was planning instead of keeping it a secret.
• Internet Backdraft: Do not mention the Hatori/Chiaki pairing online and your opinion about the gruesome rape in the novel if you wish to save your heart from being broken.
• Jerkass Woobie: Takano because he had a crappy family life and when he found out that Ritsu (the only person that cared for him during his high school years) had a fiance and left him shortly afterwards, he had a breakdown and Yokozawa had to pull him out of it. Naturally, he ends up being a huge jerk when he finally recovers but once the audience (and Ritsu) finds out about his past, you will feel sorry for him.
• Yokozawa too would be in this category especially after Takano rejects him one last time telling him not to interfere with his life. Takano is talking to the person who pulled him out of his despair and had been waiting for years to end up with him only to be shot down cruelly.
• Ritsu too would be in this category as the misfortunes he has is caused by him being in denial. Also Takano's breakdown in high school is hinted to be Ritsu's fault and not the other way around. However, we know that Ritsu also has moments like being looked down by his workers at his father's company because he's the son of the cooperation, and being talked behind his back as a result. He also doesn't get any respect from his worker and Yokozawa constantly harasses him to stay away from Takano when all he wants to do is get his life back together.
• And of course Kisa. It's easy to feel sorry for him however, he causes most of the problems in the relationship with Yukina because of his pessimistic personality. However given his age and how he's given up on life (in terms of finding happiness because he feels like he's behind in everything), you can't help but pity him. Luckily, someone like Yukina can pull him out of his depression.
• Mind Game Ship: Takano and Onodera in high school. In the last episode of the anime, Takano notes that he started to go out with crush his illusions.
• Moral Event Horizon: To a lot of people, Hatori crosses the line when he brutally raped Chiaki in the novel. The anime was nice enough to tone it down but said fans aren't going to let what happened in the novel slide and it implies it in the anime as well. Being a Karma Houdini and beating up on Yanase does not help his case in trying to redeem himself.
• Never Live it Down: Hatori gets a lot of flak from people because he raped his childhood friend after Chiaki begged him to stop and he didn't even listen. Mind you that this is one of the few times where Rape as Drama instead of the typical Rape is Love. The fact that the scene is never mentioned again pisses a lot of people off.
• Chiaki may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he's not retarded as you see people peg him to be. He's oblivious to love and has many dumb moments but people only talk about the dumb moments and not the moments where he actually stands up for himself and makes smart comments.
• His insensitive nature is also another thing that people mention. Then again being the cause of Yanase's breakdown will leave a negative impression on his character despite Chiaki wanting the best for his friend (at least at the beginning before the drama happened).
• The Scrappy: Chiaki is not well liked in the fandom at all for his stupidity and his insensitive nature that contributed to Ensemble Darkhorse Yuu's breakdown.
• Ship to Ship Combat: Hatori/Chiaki vs. Yanase/Chiaki. Take your pick and prepare for battle.
• Tear Jerker: Episode 16. That is all.
• Unfortunate Implications: The Hatori/Chiaki pairing gets this. Basically the summary of the pairing is that if your childhood friend is as dense as a rock and your rival might get to him first, the only thing you can do is brutally rape him. He'll love you in the end and you'll hook up. That...leaves a bitter taste in the viewers mouth...
• Another one that adds to the above that makes a lot of people feel bitter. So basically Hatori can brutally rape Chiaki and come out a winner in the end but Yanase can't even make his move on Chiaki simply because he's not the main pairing. To sum it all up, Hatori gets away with his actions because he's paired up with Chiaki but Yanase is treated like the villain for the opposite reason.
• Wangst: Kisa seems to do this a lot especially in episode 20 where the entire episode is him debating whether or not Yukina really loves him or not, but given his personality, it's natural that he would be depressed.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Half the fanbase wonder why Chiaki took Hatori back when he brutally raped him but it's mainly due to Status Quo is God.
• The Woobie: One cannot help but feel sorry for Yanase especially given these situations. He's on the short end of the stick of he love triangle of Hatori/Chiaki, he lost to Hatori because he didn't spill out his feelings sooner and when he tries to confess his feelings to Chiaki, he gets rejected twice. By the end of episode 16 he's on the verge of breaking down and you can't help but pity him.
• Chiaki would also be one if only because he's so oblivious and innocent compared to the other characters. And Hatori raping him in the novel gives him some more sympathy points if he didn't feel sorry for Hatori instead of blaming him.
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Twilight Saga Wiki
aka Kristian Kringstad
250 Edits since joining this wiki
December 19, 2012
• I live in Molde
• I was born on March 22
• My occupation is Pupil
• I am Male
Revision as of 16:27, February 4, 2013 by RalphGV (Talk | contribs)
User talk:RalphGV
Advanced mindpower
Advanced mindpower can: Move things, burn things, read minds, give thoughts to touch the face to the people (you do not need to touch people to hypnotize), reading emotions, controlling emotions, find facts about people and find people. Ralph Geolomin is the only know one as have this power.
Ralph Geolomin
Ralph Geolomin Volturi, the only as have advanced mindpower.
Kind, helpful and almost as good asMarcus (before Didyme died, was Marcus very kind. So if Ralph had lived then, had he not been kinder to a Marcus. But when Ralph was born, was Didyme death. And when Didyme died, was Marcus stricter on the rules. And it did so that he was also a little meaner. So now is Ralph kinder than Marcus. But it was not untilDidyme died). Ralph do not want to drink human blood, but does it because he is in the Volturi clan. He has at least blood thirsty in the Twilight saga. He has even less blood thirsty than Carlisle Cullen and Denali coven. He was the first who found that vegetarians fail to stop to drink them as well because they are tempted of of human blood if they have been living on animal blood for a long time. But Ralph lives on human blood, so he can control himself them. He kills only culprit. The first persons he killed was his parents. He killed his parents because they mistreated him, other children and other adults. But for the most part is it Heidi or any other of Volturi which provides blood to him. His education is bodyguard. He does not speak in the movies. He is not mentioned in any of the movies or books. But even though Ralph is Marcus's personal bodyguard, is he not always nowhere near Marcus. Then it is sometimes Renata protect Marcus and Caius and. In New Moon (film) is Ralph with the door while Marcus is in his usual chair. In Eclipse (film) is not Ralph or Marcus with. In Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is not Ralph, but it is Marcus if you are looking for the credits at the end. In Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is both Ralph and Marcus with. but then is not Ralph so very much near the Marcus, so he can not protect Marcus. When he is out does he always go in the same clothes. And when he does he is in always in the same clothes. When he is out he goes always with a torch, but it looks like an umbrella handle. Once he's inside, he has a sort of thing in the inner pocket of the suit jacket. The thing is there is a button on and it's almost a lighter because if you press the button, you will get a flame that you can throw. But he can also use his ability.
Unamed Volturi
In the Volturi castle
Ralph, Demetri, Felix, Alice Cullen, Edward Cullen, a unnamed Volturi guard and Jane in New Moon (film)
Ralph Geolomin Volturi, the only as has advanced mindpower
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The Replica Prop Forum
The Replica Prop Forum
Very cool site I am also a member of
Day by Day Cartoon
Monday, December 31, 2012
Lethality of lead bullets
Actually the post is called "Firearm Lethality, Part One"
AM discusses the lethality of pure lead bullets, starting from the round ball up to the hollow bae, hollow point of the mid 19th century.
To read it click either the title above or the finely crafted specifically for you link below.
Firearm Lethality, Part One
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
How to not be creepy at a conference
Elevatorgate. The facts, as Rebecca has described the scene:
Rebecca Watson was a speaker at a conference
She spoke as part of a panel discussing the treatment of women
She spent the evening chatting with people
At 4AM, in the hotel bar, she decides to call it a night.
A man follows her into the elevator
The man the asks if she would like to come to his room for coffee.
Elevatorgate is a thing, and apparently it was bad:
Vitreia [M]
As I understood what she was saying, a man who liked her invited her to his room, she declined, and that was the end of it.
He waited until they were alone in an elevator, where she had no choice but to listen to him, and propositioned her for sex. The only way you could not see this as problematic is to fail to understand that women are told, essentially, that they need to be on guard at all times (because if something terrible does happen, they're often blamed for not taking proper precaution). To corner a woman you don't know in an enclosed space and proposition her for sex apropos nothing is extraordinarily inappropriate. Furthermore, Watson had just got done with a speech in which she pleaded with the community to stop sexualizing her.
I'm seriously done with the "elevatorgate wasn't that bad" bullshit. If you don't see any problem with what happened, you don't belong here.
Now, is Dawkins a misogynist? I have no idea. I haven't called him one. But his response to the incident was couched in institutional misogyny, and the defenses of him are, at the very least, wrongheaded and privileged.
Well the incident itself wasn't that bad. It was ignorance, no evidence of malice, on the part of the part of the man.
This is where the "male privilege" part is, right here. Ignorance isn't really an excuse. The male in question didn't respect Watson's boundaries. You're taking it for granted that if you're just nice enough about it, it's okay to hit on a woman in this situation when you've had all of 2-3 minutes to talk to her. That's male privilege. There was no consideration on his part that a) they were in an elevator, and elevators can be close, uncomfortable-feeling places for some people's personal space issues, and b) women aren't automatically impressed and game for sex just because you're bold, male and happen to be polite with your proposition. Assuming either/or is male privilege.
Where did these new data points come from?
Who knows! But they lead to a good set of rules!
How to not be creepy at a conference
DON'T expect sex. Males often aimlessly walk around believing they deserve sex when they in fact do not.
DON'T share elevators with women.
DON'T ask women questions in private. Pose questions with at least two witnesses.
DON'T pretend to just want coffee. It just makes things super extra creepy. Women will detect your true motivations and be very weirded out.
DON'T ask questions of women in situations where they have few choices. This includes, but is not limited to, transit systems, airport gates, airplanes, anywhere there is assigned seating, all rooms smaller than 20x20, obligatory functions like birthday parties, weddings and other situations where they cannot immediately evacuate the area.
DO wait for the conference to be over and send your query over Twitter, Facebook or email. Electronic communications means women will receive your request while they are safe at home. Even though it would seem unlikely, they will in fact refrain from writing a blog post about being constantly asked out by internet strangers!
DO allow the woman to make any and all sexual advances. This is the norm for modern progressive relationships, as females generally have an intuition about how creepy their advances could be to a male. Women at conferences are empowered and demand that they be the one to ask you on a date. As the relationship progresses, the woman will be the party to put forward a proposal of marriage
DO avoid females with 'chick' or 'bitch' in their usernames or abbreviated biography. Similarly, be wary of men using labels such as 'Dude', 'Guy' or 'Bro'. Such titles are meant to convey a certain attitude - perhaps tough, perhaps tendencies towards informal language. In reality it is a red flag for all kinds of needless drama.
Just follow these simple steps, and you will not be creepy in the slightest.
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Discours - ONUSIDA
Opening remarks by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé on the occasion of the African Union High-Level Side Event on Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for AIDS
Mr President, as Chairperson of the African Union, you have made it a priority for Africa to lead and own its own AIDS response. Under your leadership, the African Union adopted its new roadmap for AIDS, TB and malaria this July.
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From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Killed)
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I'll kill your family
What a pretty murderer!If It were said by such a pretty girl, I might forgive that my family is killed!
The act of murder is the legal way of guaranteeing that you will never be homeless ever again. One who commits the act of murder will always be provided with a home, which includes four sturdy walls and a ceiling made of either steel and/or concrete. You will also be provided with free meals for the rest of your life and you will get them, regardless of whether or not you choose to work. Being a murderer is actually a very valued profession. It is one of the best things to do, another thing being kidnapping.
Everywhere you go, the police are out there. But they are not stopping you from murdering anyone. They are only trying to determine you did it after you have murdered someone, so you can get your lifelong free home and meals. Of course they have to get it right that it was you, which does not always work, and a judge and jury have to agree you did it and you should have your prize. button_extlink.png To murder is to kill someone or something, a perfectly normal thing to do. In fact, most people contemplate murder regularly. If you do not wish to murder someone you know or hate, you should ask yourself, "Wouldn't it feel so good to wrap my hands around that person's throat and watch them gasp as their eyes roll back in their head and their soul floats away?" I think you'll make the right choice.
For those without comedic tastes, the so-called experts at Wikipedia think they have an article about Murder.
Murder is perceived as a good thing by the church, it allows people to be relieved from their sins and go straight to heaven. The church strongly recommends going out and murdering someone everyday, however some past governments (for some illogical reason) frowned upon murder, for example, the Hitler Regime.
Murder is the least survivable crime apart from fish smuggling, and many of the survivors (murderees) consider pressing charges against the murderers. Murder is a method of killing made popular by internationally known rap group Konvix.
Murder was quite famously Jack the Ripper's favourite pastime, apart from writing notes. In works of fiction, murder is a perennial plot device, especially in thrillers such as the Winnie the Pooh series.
Scientifically speaking, murder is defined as extroverted suicide.
edit Murder and the law
In Australia for example, For Teh Lulz can be used as a defense for murder and/or manslaughter if it is proven that the act was committed in a particularly humorous manner. If a juror is observed laughing during a description of the act, the judge is compelled to summarily dismiss the case on these grounds. More frequently, the jury will return a finding of not guilty under these circumstances. The landmark case of Commonwealth of Australia vs. Lo Pan is the most widely cited precedent for this defense.
A man killed a security guard and a man in a stormtrooper costume with a bazooka. He thought he would be innocent but instead he was incarcerated.
The World Health Organisation has recently published a phase 2 trial suggesting that murder could lead to death.
edit How to get murdered
You need a person to do it for you, not by yourself
Being murdered is easy! Unfortunately many people have difficulties getting murdered so uncyclopedia will publish this little, hopefully helpful guide. People who get murdered are usually the weaker people in society, for example, illegal immigrants, homeless people, and members of the Kennedy family. But murder opportunities are available to all. In the US, for instance, convenient drive-by shooting services operate in all urban centers, while rural areas are served by inbred, gun-toting volunteers affiliated with a network of over 120,000 meth labs nationwide.
edit Choose an appropriate name
Not every name is suitable for getting murdered. Names like Edward, Robert, John are too generic and and will significantly reduce your chances for being murdered.
Sam and Max
The psychotic, hyperactive bunny Max from Sam & Max, caught in the act.
While a name of course is far from being a guarantee (in fact, many people with names like the ones listed above have only a little chance of being murdered due to other factors such as personality)it is a first step.
edit High school sports
This is for the hardcore! Rugby works best, HOWEVER, if you get the name 'Beckham' printed on your shirt and go play football you wont last five minutes! However it'll most likely be slow and painful. But if you're at least mildly intelligent and live in England, do not despair! Go play Arena Sodomy, and tell the other team you're from Iraq. Another sure-fire way to die!
edit Listen to aggressive music (Grrr!)
You have to build a reputation by listening to aggressive music (Grrr!) that shows everyone how aggressive you are. Again, not every kind of music is suitable. You can listen to Techno (oontz oontz oontz Grrr!), College Rock (I have absolutely no clue what that means, however) or Rap. Note: Rap works best if you happen to be white (or at least Asian). Be sure to play your favorite music as LOUD AS POSSIBLE everywhere. in the car, at home, at school, everywhere. Do not be disturbed by angry comments by your peers.
edit Beat up the weaker (optional)
This will not benefit you directly but it will help you to lose your grasp of reality even more by thinking that you are invincible and do not have to be afraid of anyone.
edit Flash your possessions on public
If you have expensive watches, cell phones, cars, jewelery and boobs, be sure that everyone sees them. Especially the friendly people with knives standing at the corner of the street. Showing your expensive things is a way to signal how rich and therefore lovable you are. If possible, do this in badly lit places at night. You will be amazed at how many people will spontaneously approach you. The best place to show off your possesions especially cash is in down-trodden African American neighborhoods in large cities. They love to take these things from you out of the kindness of their heart; if your lucky you might get a bullet or a free knife out of the exchange.
This murder is the result of other methods.
edit Going to one of the following places
a. Latin America b. The Middle East c. Africa d. Detroit
• This method is most effective for white people and asians, or anyone who even appears to be white.
edit Have a lot of random sex with under age people.
Find young people and have sex with them and you are almost certain that there will be some parents knocking on your door.
Congratulation! You've just got yourself murdered!
WARNING: chance side affects are living, surprise sodemy while incarserated, going to the hospital, baseball bat up the ass syndrome, being shanked, forced suicide, excruciating urination or eating through a tube, or charges filed against you civilly as not all children have fathers with a sac between their legs, or have a father at all. Sex with underaged people is not right for everyone. Check with your local mirror to see if you are pussy, and or fugly-ass creep. If treatment is inaffective, go to an ally and attempt to anally rape a woman with her boyfriend present.
edit Committing Murder
The suggested murder victim Barbie found decapitated by a shuriken at the crime scene. Ken was charged for the deed in absentia.
A typical murder.
Murder has four distinct and individually important steps whose planning and implementation must be carefully made up minutes beforehand.
1. The Victim- If you're trying to kill something, make sure that it does not have the foggiest notion that you are going to do so. It'll help to get a good idea of the victim's habits and schedules by discretely watching them. Take note of situations where they are completely unaware of their surroundings, as that is usually when people have the highest predilection for dying.
2. Method- All creatures die in a variety of interesting and edifying ways, but all deaths basically boil down to three things: massive blood loss, major organ failure, and/or loss of life sustaining necessities, such as water and air. So first decide how you want your intended target to perish. Be creative. Electricity is always a plus.
3. Implements- Now that you have the will and way, you need to find a sufficient vehicle for such ends. If you want to garrote your chosen victim while it struggles helplessly beneath you, you'll want to choose a narrow, strong, and flexible item, like a well-woven rope, or a sturdy wire. Maybe poison is your cup o' tea (ha!). In that case, take a peek under the sink. Remember: Be creative!
4. Actually doing it- Be as quick as you can. If you absolutely must say something witty, do so in your head, or at the very least whisper it into your victim's ear as they slip into the endless entropy.
5. The End- After straggling him/her or doing anything to kill them you have to cover your clues of murder. Follow these steps if you want to slip away like a snake:
A Venn Diagram for murder
• Step 1: Get a bag big enough for your victims and put them inside. Remember to cut a piece of your victim's body and keep it.
• Step 2: Put it into a backpack and walk to your trunk to put it inside.
• Step 3: Drive at high speed to a cliff and open your door, roll outside at the exact moment your car touches the edge.
• Step 4: Watch as it sinks then take out a magnum and blow its fuel tank.
• Step 5: Now with the piece you cut off, find a house to pick on and throw the piece on the roof or something.
Although not necessary, the following steps are important to an arrest-free murder:
• Gloves- Seriously, wear a pair of gloves. Don't be stupid. Even if the gloves you own aren't top notch, just slip 'em on anyway. A ten-year-old can find fingerprints, so I think Inspector Hardboiled won't have too much of a problem himself.
• Dispose of evidence- Having used a common item for the killing, disposal and replacement of said item is a breeze. Bodies themselves will require a pig farm, or, in a pinch, throwing them off a building shortly after shouting "No, don't jump!"
edit Television Shows About Murder
Several television shows deal specifically with the solving of murders. Among these are CBS's entire primetime lineup (at least the shows produced by that Bruckheimer guy), Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Sex n Kids, Law & Order: Change the Damn Channel Already, and several other shows nobody cares about.
edit Murder Elections
A few liberals have proposed doing away with the free enterprise system of murder and replacing it with Murder Elections. To avoid vote tampering by evil corporations like Diebold, they've decided to use Uncyclopedia as the free murder for hire service with vote counts that anyone can edit. So far the top ten vote counts are:
• 1587 Osama bin Laden. Got into some squabble with New York City that the Democrats are still mad about. After receiving enough votes, Osama was recently hell-fired.
• 981 Tina Fey, to prevent her from disgracing the country by running again for Vice President.
• 666 Mickey Mouse. How else are we gonna rid this world of evil? Start at the roots!
• 451 Glenn Beck, to prevent him from propagandizing the public with treasonous meaningless babble.
• 178 David Letterman. Because you can't have a top ten list without him.
• 177 Ted Kaczinsky. Ditto.
• 150 The Duracell Bunny. Write in vote from the peace faction, who think we can't get the job done.
• 123 POTUS. I don't know who the fuck that is, except that NSDAP, NSAWP, NDDAP, and NAMBLA think that he is part of the ZOG.
• 101 Dalmations. Because they're annoying, but they make a nice coat.
• 10 English teachers. Because they make us feel like we can't don't write good write rite right. amirite?
• 42 Justin Bieber. preferably kill by ripping out his heart and show it to his screaming fans while strangling him with his own guts
edit See also
Personal tools
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Slash Boxes
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• I have no opinion on whether Time::Cubic should stay or go. I'm just surprised that it seems that no one realizes this is a joke and reference to [], a long-standing insane internet meme/site.
See its entries at Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Dramatica. [] []
• Had it been put in Acme then maybe I'd believe it was joke but since he didn't, I tend to think that he's trying to push his nutty beliefs on others. After all, there are tons of kooks out there that believe crazier things than this.
I also can't help but wonder if this is the same Joseph Evers who was banned from Digg.
• I tend to think that he's trying to push his nutty beliefs on others.
This may be a little late, but I think the point was that those who knew about Gene Ray and "Time Cube" would know immediately it was a joke (unless they had reason to believe it was Gene Ray himself). The fact that the person who uploaded the "joke" was as ignorant of Acme:: as he was tasteless in his humor doesn't alter his intent.
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• by n1vux (1492) on 2006.04.13 10:12 (#47124) Homepage Journal
I like that theory. I hope you're proven right.
But sot so far, Arroyo has 2 HR to Pena's 1 HR, and we're already putting guys on the DL.
(Looks like Arroyo belongs in the NL, where he can hit and doesn't have to face-down DH's. I hope they give him a good salary adjustment soon.)
# I had a sig when sigs were cool
use Sig;
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• Ovid,
Class::MOP::Immutable is specifically made to be used with Class::MOP::Class instances. It takes those and makes them immutable, meaning your (meta)class cannot be changed. It will not work for random classes (thought some of it's internals could be re-used to build a Class::Immutable).
Class::Immutable could be as simple as calling Hash::Util::lock_keys on the instance (assuming its a HASH based instance of course). Of course some nice class-building sugar would be good too.
- Stevan
• Actually, you'd want to lock the values, too. Mainly, it would simply be a matter of writing a class with only accessors and no mutators. Then you'd just add a clone method which allows data values to be replaced.
• Actually, you'd want to lock the values, too.
Good point :)
This would actually be quite easy to implement within the Moose/Class::MOP frameworks, if I get the tuits I might give it a whirl.
- Stevan
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48101
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• There are a multitude of Vi[m] plugins that are written for specific languages. The matchit plugin works with Ada, ASP with VBS, Csh, DTD, Essbase, Fortran, HTML, JSP, LaTeX, Lua, Pascal, SGML, Shell, Tcsh, Vim, and XML. I use another plugin for SQL with it so that I can jump between IF and END IF, LOOP/END LOOP, etc using %.
• The language is an in-house language with a syntax that is a little like Pascal.
Thanks, for the tip about matchit. That looks interesting.
• You're welcome. Yes, it is very interesting. It also looks like it would be fairly easy to modify an existing rule set or create a new one.
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Edibles and Eateries
click photo to enlarge
La Fiorentina Pastry Shop
25 Armory St.
Northampton, MA
(413) 586-7693
and various locations
Who doesn't know Fiorentina's eclairs, cookies, mousse cake and the famous cannoli (which you're also apt to find at Big Y grocery stores and on the dessert menu in many Valley restaurants)? Eighty-five percent of recipes bearing the Fiorentina name came from a baker in Italy who was the great-grandfather of the Danieles who now run the stores.
2nd: Henion Bakery
174 N. Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA
(413) 253-4909
3rd: 2nd Street Baking Co.
69 2nd St.
Turners Falls, MA
(413) 863-4455
Next » Breakfast Sylvester's
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Deck the Halls
Recently there has been a whole slew of amazing holiday ideas for those of us who love bikes a little too much. It's been a hectic past couple of weeks, but I still managed to collect some of my favorites to share.
I got one of these awesome little ornaments for Christmas last year, but ran out of time this year to make any of my own. If you're curious though, check out how to here! I especially love these because they don't have to be made specific to Christmas - there are many possible shapes, designs, and colors, so it's easy to make something for everybody.
Image via Bicitoro
For something a bit larger (and if you have a buttload of various sized wheels lying around), this awesome Christmas tree is a great idea. I've also seen a mini one made out of a modified cassette. Plus you don't have to water it.
Image via my hard drive - anyone have a source?
Or what about a Specialized Christmas Carol?
Don't want to give up the smell of Christmas trees? I don't blame you, and you can try this DIY bike wreath using any wheel/rim/light combination. Who doesn't have at least one old rim lying around that you can't bring yourself to throw away?
Image via Bike Bliss
In terms of mobile decorations, I've seen a lot of ideas floating around - garland, reindeer antlers, or even ornaments, but I am still a fan of adding Christmas lights to your ride. How cool would it be to roll up to your annual neighborhood Christmas light ride on something like this?
Image via Eleanor's NYC
And while it's not much nor is it very pretty, my little contribution this year was just good old bike parts on the tree.
Mostly just lockrings.
It's still not too late to do any of these things, especially if you adhere to the holidays being celebrated until January 6th (or at least through New Years), but if not, there's always next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell me your bike related thoughts!
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MS Run the US
Milwaukee, WI
User Stats
Profile Images
User Bio
The founder, Ashley Kumlien, of MS Run the US, Inc. started this charitable organization with a plan to run 3,200 miles across America to fight MS.
MS Run the US is a running event that starts in San Francisco and ends in New York City.
Check out the website for more info:
External Links
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Visual studio feeds
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JSON deserialization with caching results
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On January 22 I promised this to be a three-part series. I’ve been kinda busy with upgrading apps, Windows 8 experiments and trivial ;-) stuff like code camps, an MVP summit, preparing my first and second talk about Windows Phone and whatnot and made you wait for the final part for exactly three months – but those who know me, know I stick my promises, so here’s the third and final part of my JSON for Windows Phone series. In part 1 of this series I described the basics of creating classes
from a JSON string and then simply deserializing the string into a (list of) classes. In part 2 I showed how to use JSONConverter subclasses to handle complex stuff the deserializer cannot handle out of the box, like class hierarchies. Part 3, as promised, shows a way to cache results - which makes your application faster, more responsive and more battery/data plan friendly. Using the demo solution of part 2 as a starting point, I first brought in my wp7nl library on codeplex using NuGet. I am lazy just like any programmer (should be)...(Read whole news on source site)
Home : Blog List : .NET by Example : JSON deserialization with caching results
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Thank you, I’m /so/ flattered you think so highly of me.
Well you’re rude to him, not to mention metal and electricity doesn’t really work well together…
Or something like that.
DATE: Oct 17 2012
TAGGED: you're welcome though.
1. militantlyvoltaic said: Electricity doesn’t work well with anything.
2. wallachianprince posted this
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Peter O'Dowd en Scorching Phoenix Plans For An Even Hotter Future It's been a record hot summer in many cities across the nation. Phoenix is no exception. This Sonoran Desert metropolis already records more days over 100 degrees than any other major U.S. city. Now, climate models predict Phoenix will soon get even hotter.<p>A hotter future may mean a more volatile environment — and along with it, natural disasters, greater pressure on infrastructure, and an increased physical toll on city residents.<p>While some city planners around the country discuss ways to mitigate climate change, planners in Phoenix assume that change is already under way. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:19:00 +0000 Peter O'Dowd 5156 at Scorching Phoenix Plans For An Even Hotter Future U.S. Border States Have Stake In Mexico's Presidential election Transcript <p>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: <p>In southern Texas and in Arizona, people are paying a lot of attention to the presidential election - Mexico's presidential election. From member station KJZZ, Peter O'Dowd explains why millions of Americans are awaiting July 1st, Mexico's election day.<p>PETER O'DOWD, BYLINE: Stand on the edge of this unfinished railroad bridge outside of Brownsville, Texas, and you can see across the Rio Grande into Mexico. It's the first bridge of its kind to connect the countries in a century. Tue, 19 Jun 2012 08:58:00 +0000 Peter O'Dowd 1693 at
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Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium
4:15PM, Wednesday, May 23, 2001
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03
Usenet and the Usenet Archives
The Challenges of Building a Collaborative Technical Community
Ronda Hauben
About the talk:
In 1981, Mark Horton, one of the early developers of Usenet, wrote that "USENET exists for and by the users, and should respond to the needs of those users."
Almost twenty years later, in the Fall of 2000, almost 4000 people signed a petition directed to asking them to either maintain the archives online that they had compiled of Usenet posts, or to transfer it to someone who would continue to keep it online and to provide it with an appropriate home.
These two events, separated by almost twenty years, help to highlight an important achievement and yet a significant challenge for our times. Usenet was created as a users's network. What are the implications of this design principle on the continuing development and scaling process of Usenet?
How do the contributions and collaborative efforts by the users affect Usenet's continued development? The technical collaboration and support that Usenet provides for people around the world is valued, as reflected by the petition to Yet there are problems that develop as Usenet develops, such as the problem of archiving Usenet and maintaining that archive and access to it in a way that recognizes the concerns of the online community and provides a means to respond to these concerns.
As Usenet scales new problems develop. But so too does the body of experience of how to understand and approach these problems.
Usenet is not only about open source and user developed content. It is also an example of user involvement in the administration and developing architecture of the network itself. As such, Usenet is a working model of grassroots development. What are the implications of this model toward the broader challenge of the continuing development of a collaborative technical community? Although focusing on Usenet and its development, this talk will also explore the implications of this model toward the general problem of the need for the continued development of a collaborative technical community.
About the speaker:
Ronda Hauben is a researcher and writer who has spent the past nine years studying, writing and participating in Usenet and the Internet. She has her BA from Queens College in NYC and an MA from Tufts University. She is co-author of Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet published by the IEEE Computer Society in 1997, and online in a draft form at She is also a founding editor of the Amateur Computerist newsletter and writes about the social and cultural aspects of Internet developments for Telepolis and other publications. She is currently working on a new book about the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) and the Birth of the Internet.
Contact information:
Ronda Hauben
Amateur Computerist,
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Logo Header
Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation at UC Berkeley, 2008-2010
Assistant Professor of Classics, Univ. of Southern California (starting 2010)
Ph.D. in Ancient History, 2008
Licence ès Lettres (Ancient Greek, History, French), Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Christelle received her Ph.D. in Ancient History in 2008. Her dissertation examined the army in Hellenistic Egypt by drawing on the works of sociologists on state formation. Advised by Joseph Manning, Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris, and Willy Clarysse (Leuven), her study explored the army as a vehicle for land distribution, a provider of group solidarity, and a place of interaction between Greek and Egyptian cultures. Her current research as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley combines documentary evidence (papyri, inscriptions) with social theory to investigate the use of ethnic terminology in the making of administrative categories and individual identity.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Why does Trello always return 12 results after search?
I have 25 "to do" items but when I search only 12 items are displayed. Any solution for this problem?
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1 Answer 1
Returning 12 results is a limitation of the search feature at the moment. Using a more detailed search might yield better results.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48220
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Hunt tables, maps and boundaries
Hunt 3543: CWMU Bull elk
Scofield East
Season dates
9-1-2014 to 10-31-2014
• Nonresident permits: No
• Resident permits: 1
• Total permits: 1
Type: CWMU
Species: Bull elk
Weapon: Any legal weapon
Scofield East
The Scofield East Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit (CWMU) is located southeast of Scofield Reservoir. There are two ridge systems that run north and south on the Unit that form the higher elevations. On the west these elevations range from 8900 feet in the north to 9000 feet in the south. Towards the east the elevations range from 9200 feet in the north to 9500 feet in the south. The Unit is cut by five drainages. On the westside is the Up Canyon a short canyon ranging from 7700 feet to 8400 feet. Long Canyon is probably the longest canyon that cuts the Unit. It ranges from 7800 feet to 8900 feet. Miller Canyon (7800 feet to 8800 feet), Jump Creek ( 8600 feet to 9200 feet) and Beaver Creek (8300 feet to 8800) feet are additional drainages that cut the Unit. The most common elevation is 9000 feet but ranges from 7500 feet to 9500 feet with an elevation difference of 2000 feet. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of the CWMU elevation ranges between 8100 feet and 8900 feet an elevation difference of 800 feet.
Most of the Scofield East Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit (CWMU) is covered by a mixture of Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest and Woodland (22) and Inter-Mountain Basins Montane Sagebrush Steppe (62).
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Juggernaut Festival (Jagannath) India
Juggernaut Festival (Jagannath) , India
***** Location: India, Orissa State, Puri
***** Season: Monsoon
***** Category: Observance
Jaggan-Nathji , Trinity of
Krishna, his brother and sister
Juggernaut the dictionary tells, is "any massive inexorable force that advances crushing whatever is in the path". The word has evolved from Jagannath, the diety of the famous shrine at Puri, which the British could not pronounce correctly. The car (ratha or chariot) of Jagannath is such an enormous and unwieldy construction that it requires thousands of people to pull it in procession.
The temple of Jagannath of Puri is situated in the state of Orissa in the Eastern Coast of India. The whole of eastern coast of India was populated with natives and the wooden image of Jagannath (a form of Lord Krishna) might originally have been a tribal shrine. Most of the tribal gods and monuments are wooden sculptures. The temple of Jagannath was constructed in the 12 the century by Choda Gangaraja (1078-1150 AD) of Eastern Ganga dynasty, of Talakad and which is in present day Karnataka.
The main idols of this temple are Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra (a/ka. Balarama) and his sister Subhadra- a peculiar trinity. The festival of Ashada ShuklaDwadashi (happens to be on July 11th of 2003) is dedicated to them. A very big festival or jatra takes place and hundreds and thousands of devotees through out the country assemble to pay respects. Three thousand priests help them in conducting the various rituals. The three rathas ( temple cars) built of various trees constructed in parts from traditional tools as was done thousands of years ago. Every year new Rathas are built and after the festival they are dismembered. The parts are later used to make wooden artifacts.
There is no untouchability in the temple premises. Poorest and the downtrodden can freely worship and offer the humble fare of khichadi to Lord Jagannath in earthen pots. This is the universal offering in this temple. This free and open entry has given room to the belief that formerly Jagannath was a Buddhist shrine representing Buddha, Dharma and Sangha- The Buddhist Holy Trinity. A small casket supposed to contain asthi (ashes) of Lord Krishna is inserted in the wooden body of Jagannath every twelve years, again confirming the guess that earlier it could have been a Buddhist stupa, containing holy relics of Buddha. True to Hindu tradition of Pantheon, known to absorb all cults and practices of other faiths with variations, tenets of Buddhism might have been amalgamated along with tribal traits.
This idea must have been at the root of the
Trinity of Krishna, his brother and sister.
The Rathotsavam (or driving of chariots) of Jagannath from the temple to sea beach is a distance of two miles. It’s a mammoth affair indeed of three huge and strong rathas with sixteen, fourteen and twelve wheels made for the occasion drawn specially at this time. It must be an Herculean task!
Gandhi rightly observed that places of pilgrimage in four corners of India kept the countrymen together. These shrines common to all Hindus made them travel long distances, to interact with local people, forgetting the entire strain and travails of the entire journey. People offered heartfelt gratitude to each different deity in their own way.
The temperature in Orissa at this time of year can be more than 40 degrees centigrade. And the crowd gets really heated up with holy excitement. Some old men (babu) in white cloths walk around with a water tank on their back and pump water to spray over the heads of the crowd. Read my haiku about this scene.
This festival usually usheres in the Monsoon season, that brings the rains so necessary for the rural areas.
Gabi Greve
Here is an old picture of the Juggernaut Temple in Orissa.
Shree Jagannatha is the "Immovable Lord of the Universe." He is a primal expansion of Lord Vishnu, second in the Vedic Trinity of Brahma (Creator) Vishnu (Sustainer) and Shiva (Transformer) and, for at least the past five thousand years, is greatly beloved throughout the Indian subcontinent. The fourth of India's four holiest temples is dedicated to Him (Jagannatha Puri). Now, thanks in part to the universal awakening of eclectic universalism in its many forms, His popularity is quickly expanding throughout the entire world.
Read more about this famous festival here:
Worldwide use
Things found on the way
Amazing collection of old pictures from the time of the Brithsh Rajh in India and more.
In modern English and American English, the word Juggernaut has more meanings, it also appears as a figure in comic books. Many modern Haiku make use of this meaning, which does not relate directly to the kigo.
The Free Dicitionary
juggernaut - a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way
an avatar of Vishnu
a crude idol of Krishna
Spelling Center
The term juggernaut is used to describe any literal or metaphorical force regarded as unstoppable; that will crush all in its path.
Juggernaut in the comics
is a ficitonal character in Marvel Comics' universe, a former supervillain of incredible power and durability.
Juggernaut is an avatar of the extra-dimensional "god" Cyttorak. His is gifted with infinite strength, stamina, and durability, and cannot be stopped by outside forces when he is in motion. Juggernaut does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe. His armor is made of a metal found only in the dimension in which Cyttorak resides, and the helmet is impenetrable to mind-influencing effects.
jagat trasati
in yoga–nidra
the jagat throbs
on a grass tip
Jagannaatha [ Jagat + Naatha ] ~ Lord of The Universes
yoga-nidra ~ divine cosmic slumber of Vishnu, the All Pervasive Lord ~
jagat ~ all Universes containing all that is born
.. .. .. .. Narayanan
"ja" is a power root means life, giving birth etc.
Examples ~
jan'mam ~ Life
jana'nam ~ Birth
jan'ani ~ Mother , Divine Earth
jan'thu ~ Being
janaa: People
Juggernaut Festival -
the babu sprays water
over the crowd
Gabi Greve
the black juggernaut
trips the guide wire
Related words
***** Krishna Janmashtami
The birthday of Hinduism's favorite Lord Krishna
This auspicious day is called Janmashtami.
source : hinduism.about.com
***** Monsoon ..(India, South Asia)
***** Divali (Diwali, India)
1 comment:
Anonymous said...
Avatara - When, Why and How?
The literal meaning of the word ‘avatara’ is descent. It is no physical climb down however, but rather akin to the teacher, who, when instructing small children, has to come down to the "level" of the child, hold his hand and teach him how to write the alphabet. This is the teacher’s avatara in front of the child. A good guru too is one who first gets down to the level of his disciple’s ability of understanding and grants him knowledge accordingly.
The scriptures explicitly delineate as to when, why and how god takes avatara. In this regard, it is the Bhagavad Gita which gives the clearest picture:
When Does God Take Avatara?
Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
Abhyutthanam adharmasya tada atmanam srjamy aham.
(Bhagavad Gita 4.7)
When when (yada yada), O Arjuna (bharata), there is (bhavati) a decline (glani) of dharma and the rise (abhyutthanam) of adharma, then (tada) I (aham) manifest (srjam) myself (atmanam).
This verse makes it very clear that there is not just any one exclusive incarnation of god at one instant of time. Actually, whenever adharma rises and dharma is subdued, god takes avatara to restore the balance. In fact, he may even take multiple incarnations to fulfill a single task. This is illustrated in the following story:
Once the devatas (demigods), in order to win over the demons threatening the world, set out to churn the ocean and extract from it the nectar of immortality. For this purpose, they carried on their backs a huge mountain, intending to use it as a churning rod. However, unable to support its weight they dropped it on the way. It was then that the Supreme Person, manifesting as Lord Vishnu, came to their rescue and carried across the mountain to the seashore.
Read it all in the LINK above !
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The ten commandments of honorable dueling
Dueling has a bad reputation, I think. Too many players see it either as a way to brag about their own skill (or, more likely, time investment), while many other players see it as a way for the first group of players to do that at their own expense. I love dueling, whether I win or lose, because it's a great chance for me to see if I can use everything in my arsenal to the fullest, as well as see another player working against me, hopefully at their best. A great duel is a chance for two players to duke it out and have a great time without anybody dying, while a terrible duel (and the perception of most duels, I think) can be a humiliating or confusing experience.
And so, in my efforts to bring honor back to dueling, I present the Ten Commandments of Honorable Dueling in World of Warcraft. I've split them up into three sections-- Before the Duel, During the Duel, and Post-Duel-- and each one covers a point that has been corrupted or ignored among the worst players in dueling. No longer should we suffer from duel spamming. And no longer should there be jerks who gloat and taunt after a duel has taken place.
Dueling is a very interesting form of PvP-- it's not the large scale onslaughts of the battlegrounds or the smaller matchups in the Arenas. Dueling can even be held within factions-- it's a one-on-one skirmish between two players in the game. And unlike the Horde vs. Alliance shenanigans held in world PvP or the BGs, I believe dueling should be an honorable and respectful endeavor. Click the link below to read the Ten Commandments of Honorable Dueling.
Before the Duel
I. Thou shalt not attempt to duel anyone more than 5 levels below thine own.
Actually, if you really want to be an expert dueler, you shouldn't try to duel anyone below your level, as you've got everything to lose and nothing to gain-- if they beat you, you're a terrible player, and if you beat them, you're just bullying lowbies. But there are exceptions for friends and guildies around here, so 5 levels is a good limit.
II. Thou shalt not send more than one duel request.
Duel spamming is just plain stupid. If someone cancels the duel request, they don't want to duel you-- leave them alone. Sometimes, they'll ask you to challenge again, and in that case it's fine. Or they may challenge you themselves. But if someone cancels the duel on you, don't be a jerk. /chicken isn't necessary-- save that kind of stuff for real PvP. Just move on.
III. Thou shalt wait until the time is appropriate.
Trying to duel someone while they're busy is a no. Attempting a duel while someone is low on health or mana is also a no. Trying to sneak a duel in while someone is grinding or otherwise fighting is a big no. Both sides should be ready, aware, and set when that countdown starts. Anything less is cheating.
During the Duel
IV. Thou shalt not use uncommon buffs or consumables.
Opinions vary on this quite a bit, but as a standard, any buffs or consumables you wouldn't normally use when grinding a mob one-on-one shouldn't be used in a duel. That means no health or mana pots, no raid buffs, no elixirs, and so on. Otherwise, people differ on the rest of the rules-- if you're a cook, should you get to use your food buffs? These commandments say no. But while long cooldown abilities aren't allowed in arenas, they should be allowed in duels (as long as the cooldown is up). Rogue poisons and Shaman elementals are OK, as are Pally bubbles and Warlock healthstones (for Warlocks). Trinkets are OK. Potion injectors are not. Scroll buffs, in general, are not.
V. Thou shalt not allow mobs to interfere with the fight.
If you're being really professional, you can have a spotter watch the fight, and pull away any mobs that happen to join in. Otherwise, you should set the duel in a low mob traffic area, and either pause or restart the duel if mobs show up and start attacking either dueler.
VI. Thou shalt play to the best of your ability.
You'd think this one would be obvious, but see the next commandment. Play your best duel, every time, and you'll have no excuses.
VII. Thou shalt win (and lose) honorably.
If you win, offer a simple /bow or a /cheer and leave it at that. Friendly gloating among guildies is fine, "U r the worst rouge evar" is not. If you lose, accept the result just as honorably, with a /bow or a /nod. Make no excuses-- simply be better next time.
VIII. If thou hast a healing spell, thou shall use it to heal the other player, then thyself.
If you have mana and can heal, heal the other player first, especially if you're the winner. There's no reason not to, and healing the other person will make them more likely to agree to a rematch, or think of you honorably. Honorably duelers happily help their enemies up (only to beat them down again).
IX. Rematches are appreciated, but never guaranteed.
See commandment II as well. If you made a simple mistake during a fight or were distracted in real life, it's perfectly fine to ask for a rematch. But whoever you just dueled has no responsibility to agree to another round. If they refuse, move on and find someone else to duel.
X. Thou shalt have fun.
As usual, this is the last word on everything that happens in this game. Dueling should be a good time, whether you win or lose, because it's a fun way to test your own skills, as a player and as a class, one-on-one against someone else. It's the simplest and easiest form of PvP there is (not to mention that it's one of the best ways to start learning to PvP), and even if you're not a PvPer, a good duel against a respectable player is always a good time.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, PvP, Features
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14 alternatives to "clunky" for describing rotations
The inimitable Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, lead systems designer, recently hit the forums to talk about warrior balance. Along the way, he dropped some of that classic wisdom that spawned my eternal love for Ghostcrawler. He pointed out that you don't need hard numbers to describe how a rotation feels (though you do when talking about DPS competition), but he did say he thought the community would benefit from some adjectives other than "clunky."
We completely agree. Describing the feel and sense of a rotation can be a tricky business, and clunky is the go-to adjective for most folks. There are other words we can use, though, that help provide a more refined sense of what you intend. We're here to help, so here's our list of alternatives to "clunky."
• Inelegant The rotation is serviceable but lacks poetry. It's like you can feel the rotation trying to be rhythmic, but it's constantly interrupted without meaning. A big proc counts as meaning, for the record.
• Twisted Because the flow of the rotation is interrupted to go backwards, it feels like your fingers get twisted up trying to achieve optimum. Think two steps forward, one step back ... now three steps forward, two steps back.
• Cumbersome So many button pushes are required in a short period of time (what's up, cat druids?) that it feels like you're so focused on your rotation that you can't see the game.
• Ineffable You press lots of buttons, often very quickly, but it doesn't feel like any of those buttons actually do anything in particular.
• Unpredictable or stressful A class's heavy reliance on procs and crits leaves you feeling like you must watch your HUD, so you can't enjoy the flow of events and the gameplay.
• Staccato You tap the same button in succession, without much deviation. It doesn't even feel like you're just a one-button wonder; it feels more like you're mashing that button to save your very life.
• ImageDelicate The rotation itself is relatively fine, but it's prone to error. If you make a mistake, miss a proc, or otherwise don't perform completely optimally, your rotation is thrown off and you suffer a huge DPS decrease.
• Fickle A fickle rotation shows up for certain fights but then disappears for the rest of the raid. Fickle rotations are annoying because you're never sure if you should be using this super-special AE rotation or just using your single-target DPS rotation. Decisions are good; fickle mechanics are annoying.
• Whack-a-mole This one's for all those lovely healers out there. You stare at health bars, waiting to see which one needs the most healing. Then you WHACK that heal. Then you wait to whack it again. This is progressively more difficult as heals require forethought and decision-making, because you're busy staring at the moles.
• Frivolous Tanks had a lot of frivolous rotations in Cataclysm. Essentially, you have a rotation to put out optimal DPS or threat -- but you don't really need to. Sure, you could do it right, but spamming a few big threat abilities gets the job done just as well.
• Unforgiving or punishing An unforgiving rotation is very similar to a delicate rotation. Things are fine if you do everything right. But whereas a delicate rotation breaks down due to an obvious mistake, unforgiving rotations break down because you don't have the reflexes of Superman. What's more, you can pick a delicate rotation backup and rebuild. An unforgiving rotation makes you suffer for the rest of the fight.
• UGH I don't think my keyboard has enough buttons for this class. Do my hands have enough fingers? Which peripheral makers sell footpads? (Thanks to McCurley for this one.)
So here's a nice lexicon of other ways to describe rotation challenges. But this is the thing: The rotations in WoW are actually pretty good. It's not until you compare them against other games' rotations that you get the realization that Ghostcrawler and team have built a pretty amazing button system. So keep that in mind when leveraging this awesome new list of synonyms that the rotations are actually pretty good; we're just describing our challenges with them.
Filed under: Humor, WoW Rookie
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3570 tape cartridges and magazines
High-performance, high-reliability tape storage for midrange and server-based environments
Revolutionary design
IBM Magstar™ MP Fast Access Linear Tape cartridges are the functional heart of the IBM Magstar MP Tape subsystem. Designed for use in midrange and server-based multi-user environments, Magstar MP Tape offers much faster data access times while improving cartridge handling reliability and data integrity over traditional tape technologies.
Midpoint loading for fast data access
Magstar MP Tape revolutionizes how applications can use tape storage. Traditionally, tape has been used primarily for write-intensive operations such as backup, archive, and data interchange-operations that do not require frequent reading of stored information. Today, however, applications that require both write- and read intensive operations can take advantage of lower cost tape storage.
With an industry-leading design that enables exceptionally fast data access, Magstar MP tape cartridges can be used as an alternative to direct access storage for some types of near-online applications that require high performance data access. To facilitate fast data access, the Magstar MP tape cartridge contains two tape spools with the tape positioned at its midpoint. Because of this design, the system, on average, has to search only one quarter the length of a tape to access data-significantly reducing search times.
After data has been located and processed, the cartridge then spools the tape back to the midpoint in preparation for unload. In this way, the midpoint load feature halves average access times to data.
A rugged design and self contained tape path to improve reliability
Compared to traditional tape technologies, the Magstar MP tape cartridge is designed to provide outstanding reliability under heavy use. The extremely durable cartridge case can withstand repetitive handling by automated pickers or human operators, thus protecting the tape from the physical environment. In addition to increasing tape life, the completely self-contained tape path eliminates tape thread time. Because the tape never leaves the cartridge, it is never touched by human hands. Likewise, the tape's only contact is at the read/write heads, which also helps to extend tape life. The absence of a tape threading mechanism enables faster load times that, combined with the midpoint load feature, provide unparalleled time-to-data levels and reliability.
Magstar MP Fast Access Linear Tape family
The Magstar MP Fast Access Linear Tape family consists of a B-format data cartridge, a C-format data cartridge, a C-format XL data cartridge, a cleaner cartridge, and a cartridge magazine. The B-format data cartridge can be used in C-format and C-format XL drives at the B-format data transfer rate or better.
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Harvard University Science Centre
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全景摄影师 DigitalProperties.ca - Bryan Groulx PRO EXPERT 日期和时间 19:45, 09/10/2010 - Views loading...
Harvard University Science Centre
世界 > North America > USA > Boston
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The Harvard University Science Center is the major teaching venue on Harvard University campus for undergraduate science and mathematics.
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A: Oktoberfest Harvard Square
摄影师DigitalProperties.ca - Bryan Groulx, 距离此处340远
Live music, all manners of ethnic street foods, flea market items, people on stilts and one billion r...
Oktoberfest Harvard Square
B: MIT Sidney-Pacific bicycle room
摄影师王渝溥, 距离此全景2.2
One of the two large bicycle rooms in MIT's largest graduate apartment complex, Sidney-Pacific -- als...
MIT Sidney-Pacific bicycle room
C: MIT Lobby 7
摄影师王渝溥, 距离此全景2.7
Panoramic view inside MIT's "Little Dome" located at 77 Massachusetts Ave, the most famous entrance o...
MIT Lobby 7
D: MIT President's Garden
MIT President's Garden, also known as Katherine Willmore Garden, located among buildings 3, 10, 11, a...
MIT President's Garden
E: MIT quick computer station
A small computer station in MIT's "Infinite Corridor" for quick access to the Internet. Also hosts a ...
MIT quick computer station
F: MIT Stata Center 4th Floor Courtyard
摄影师Manolis Kellis, 距离此全景2.7
MIT Stata Center 4th Floor Courtyard
G: MIT Eastman Court
摄影师王渝溥, 距离此全景2.8
Eastman Court, named after the founder of Eastman Kodak Co., is a rectangular area between buildings ...
MIT Eastman Court
H: The BU Beach
摄影师Carrie Corrigan, 距离此全景2.9
This is an image of the Boston University beach along the Charles River. The BU Beach is a popular pl...
The BU Beach
I: Boston University
摄影师Carrie Corrigan, 距离此全景2.9
This is an image of the Japanese Rock Garden designed by Hideo Sasaki in collaboration with Jose Luis...
Boston University
J: Boston Fenway Park - Red Sox
摄影师Pierre-André Bergeron, 距离此全景3.6
This picture was taken before the last game of the 2010 season. Boston was playing against the New-Y...
Boston Fenway Park - Red Sox
此全景拍摄于Boston, USA
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Does Rice Milk Contain Fructose?
Does Rice Milk Contain Fructose?
Rice milk can be used in ice creams, smoothies, coffees, and just about anywhere where you would normally use other milk. It is a great substitute for cow's milk as well as soy milk for those who are lactose intolerant and allergic to soy milk. It is also loved by vegetarians and vegans because is made from rice, and contains no animal products. But does it contain fructose, and is it safe for those who have a fructose intolerance?
Fructose is a natural sugar which is found in fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. Unlike glucose, it is not readily absorbed into the bloodstream, but rather it is processed by the liver which turns it into glucose. Those who are fructose intolerant are unable to turn the fructose into glucose which causes low blood sugar levels. Therefore those who are intolerant need to limit their intake of fructose. However, even if you are intolerant you should never aim to eliminate all fructose.
What Is Rice Milk?
Rice milk is made from boiled rice and water, and is usually left unsweetened as it is naturally sweet. Milk that is made from brown rice contains more vitamins, minerals and fiber than milk that is made from white rice. This is simply because some of those nutrients are removed from the white rice during processing. Some brands of rice milk are fortified with certain vitamins and minerals in order to provide you with more nutrition.
Unlike cow's milk, rice milk does not contain any cholesterol, nor is it high in proteins, but it is high in carbohydrates which break down into sugars in the body.
Unsweetened Rice Milk
Unsweetened rice milk is naturally sweeter than cow's milk, due to the high amounts of carbohydrates which rice contains. Carbohydrates are essential to the body as they provide energy for the brain and central nervous system. There are simple carbohydrates such as glucose, fructose and galactose, as well as complex carbohydrates. Rice contains complex carbohydrates which break down into simple carbohydrates; mainly into glucose, but into fructose as well.
Because of the carbohydrates, unsweetened rice milk will contain small amounts of fructose. However, this fructose is natural, and in small amounts is safe, even for those who are fructose intolerant. White rice does not contain as much as brown rice, and is therefore a better choice if you are fructose intolerant.
Sweetened Rice Milk
Even though rice milk is naturally sweet, some commercial brands still add sweeteners such as brown rice syrup, sugar cane syrup, or other sugars, as well as thickening agents. These sugars or sweeteners usually contain fructose which you should not consume if you are fructose intolerant. Always read the label and buy unsweetened milk if possible.
Making Your Own
Rice milk can be purchased in grocery stores and health foods stores. Or, if you cannot find unsweetened rice milk, you can easily make your own at home if you have a blender or food processor. Simply cook 1 cup of white rice in 4 cups of water until soft. Blend or process in a food processor and strain the milk from the fiber. You may add flavorings, such as vanilla or cinnamon.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48351
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patches for abicocoa
From: R. Payette <>
Date: Tue Oct 05 2004 - 02:21:26 CEST
-Remove a couple of useless duplicate screen redraw
-Fix the horizontal ruler "smudge" ( resize the window small enough to
have a horizontal scrollbar and move the thumb around a little )
-Fix the vertical ruler corruption that happened sometimes when
resizing the window ( usually when almost fullscreen )
if someone could apply these and tell me if it work ok, I hope I didn't
forget a file or anything, i'm kind of new to participating in open
source project
Received on Tue Oct 5 02:22:27 2004
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Oct 05 2004 - 02:22:27 CEST
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48353
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Armageddon & Extinction Scenarios?
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posted on Oct, 5 2004 @ 09:49 PM
How many of you beleive something like a mega tsunami or an asteroid impact is highly likely in the near future?
Site like Armageddon Online give tons of scenarios that could be life ending.
Do these theories hold much water?
posted on Oct, 6 2004 @ 01:11 PM
There is ample evidence of a global firestorm at the time of the Chicxulub impact. Iridium-bearing clay in the boundary layer between the Cretaceous Period (a time when dinosaurs roamed) and Tertiary Period (the subsequent geologic time frame when dinosaurs seem to have disappeared) contains soot.
The quantity and composition of the soot corresponds to the burning of at least 50 percent of the world's forests. Although Hurdle's idea that methane fires were responsible for this firestorm is plausible, there is another simpler explanation.
The Chicxulub impact would have launched millions of tons of rock into ballistic space flight. Over the following hour this debris would have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, causing millions of brilliant "shooting stars." The radiant heat from these meteors alone would have been sufficient to ignite the trees around the world.
This idea is supported by the discovery of charcoal in tsunami deposits near the impact site. The best explanation may be that the trees were ignited by radiant heat, then swamped soon after by the waves.
The shock wave from the impact would indeed have triggered massive earthquakes in the region and indirectly triggered other earthquakes around the globe. A tsunami would have formed from the impact, which occurred in a shallow sea. The giant waves would also have been generated by the earthquakes and undersea landslides triggered by the shock wave.
"Megawaves emanating from an impact site would circuit the earth at high speeds and cause worldwide disruption in the entire ocean in a single day," Hurdle and his colleagues wrote.
So dinosaurs, if they were not consumed in a firestorm, would have had to live through a torturous sequence of events -- from the barbecue to the freezer, to a dip in acid and then a hothouse baking.
The debate continues on whether the Chicxulub impact caused the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period or whether it was one of a sequence of disasters. The Deccan Traps of India are the remnants of a massive upwelling of molten rock from deep within the Earth 65 million years ago. The toxic fumes and dust from the eruption have been put forward as a possible alternative cause of climate change that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
A possible link between impacts and volcanism became evident in 1974 when the Mariner 10 spacecraft flew past the innermost planet Mercury. The planet was found to be covered with impact craters like the moon. One giant impact crater on Mercury was particularly interesting. Directly opposite the impact point, on the other side of the planet (called the "antipodal point") was a region of highly disrupted terrain with no evidence of an impact. The shock waves from the impact on one side of Mercury had traveled around the surface and met simultaneously at the antipodal point to create the chaotic features. Similar features have since been detected on several moons of the giant planets.
Astronomer Duncan Steel has suggested that the same occurred with the Chicxulub impact and that the shock waves caused the Deccan Traps. Taking into account millions of years of continental drift, this region would have been at the antipodal point to Mexico at the time of the impact. Although the eruption may have contributed to the suffering, it now seems more likely that the Deccan Traps were just a consequence of the catastrophic initial event, the Chicxulub impact.
How an Asteroid Impact Causes Extinction
Hunt for Oil Leads to Crater Linked to 'Great Dying'
This is rough partial translation of article from member magazine of Finnish astronomical association. (I did this for one other forum)
Asteroid cuts huge hole through atmosphere and moment later strikes to ocean and bedrock under it. Hundred thousands cubic kilometers of rock vaporises, melts or is blown away instantly. Part of vaporised material escapes to space before hole in atmosphere closes.
Shockwave causes extremely powerfull earthquakes all around the world and in atmosphere it "flattens" everything to distance of thousand kilometer. Explosion also rises huge tsunamis with height about one kilometer.
Vaporised material creates huge fireball which rises/spreads to atmosphere and fireball's heat radiation burns everything within line of sight. Part of fireball's material rises above atmosphere and rains down in following days all over the world in form of small meteorites. This fiery meteorite shower heats up atmosphere causing ignition of everything which is compustible. Heat also vaporizes one meter layer of water from all oceans and boils couple meters more. Nitrogen and oxygen combines in heated atmosphere causing world wide acid rains.
Ash from world wide fires and dust from impact prevents sun light and heat from getting to surface causing dark and cold ice age. After dust settles carbon oxides produced by fires, methane and water vaporized in impact start extreme greenhouse effect wich in turn raises temperature much higher than it was before impact.
And as an ace in the hole:
Some years ago Astronomy magazine (February 2002) had an article in which there was about this hypercane-theory.
It said that air pressure in those could get as low as 500 millibars, compare that to lowest air pressures in hurricanes and other storms.
Wind speeds 300 m/s... that makes even tornadoes look like gentle breeze.
Hurricane From Hell
And for those who want to "shoot Earth" with different sized spacerocks.
Asteroid And Comet Impact Hazards:
posted on Oct, 6 2004 @ 03:51 PM
Then second favorite thing.
Propably biggest eruption to millions of years was Toba's eruption:
There is substantial evidence to show that within the time of the supervolcano Toba's eruption in the Indonesian Pacific, the world's population of homo sapiens decreased from over one hundred thousand to less than two thousand, basically because global temperatures dropped five degrees for many years. This was within the current interglacial and at its start.
The Mount Toba eruption is dated to approximately 71,000 years ago. Volcanic ash from Mount Toba can be traced north-west across India, where a widespread terrestrial marker bed exists of primary and reworked airfall ash, in beds that are commonly 1 to 3, and occasionally 6 meters [18 feet] thick.
Tambora, the largest known historic eruption, displaced 20 cubic kilometres of ash. Mount Toba produced 800 cubic kilometres.* It was therefore forty times larger than the largest eruption of the last two centuries and apparently the second largest known explosive eruption over the last 450 million years.
*Mount St Helens produced a tiny 0.2 cubic kilometres.
Volcanic Winter, and Differentiation of Modern Humans
Mount Toba's eruption is marked by a 6 year period during which the largest amount of volcanic sulphur was deposited in the past 110,000 years. This dramatic event was followed by 1000 years of the lowest ice core oxygen isotope ratios of the last glacial period. In other words, for 1000 years immediately following the eruption, the earth witnessed temperatures colder than during the Last Glacial Maximum at 18-21,000 years ago.
For the volcanic aerosols to be effectively distributed around the earth, the plume from the volcanic eruptions must reach the stratosphere, a height greater than 17 kilometres. Mount Toba's plume probably reached twice this height. Most solar energy falls at low latitudes between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, so eruptions that happen near the Equator cause much more substantial cooling due to the reflection of solar energy. Toba lies 2 degrees north of the Equator, on the Island Sumatra.
The reduction in atmospheric visibility due to volcanic ash and dust particles is relatively short-lived, about three to six months. Longer-term global climatic cooling is caused by the highly reflective sulphuric acid haze, which stays suspended in the upper atmosphere for several years.
Ice core evidence implicates Mount Toba as the cause of coldest millennium of the late Pleistocene. It shows that this eruption injected more sulphur that remained in the atmosphere fo a longer time [six years] than any other volcanic eruption in the last 110,000 years. This may have caused nearly complete deforestation of southeast Asia, and at the same time to have lowered sea surface temperatures by 3 to 3.5 degrees centigrade for several years.
If Tambora caused the " The year without a summer" in 1816, Mount Toba could have been responsible for six years of relentless volcanic winter, thus causing a massive deforestation, a disastrous famine for all living creatures, and a near extinction of Humankind.
Today bottom of caldera is rising again, entire Samosir island is mark of that.
Other "supervolcano" is Yellowstone, actually big part of Yellowstone's valley belongs to caldera.
Also Long Valley is big volcanic caldera.
Volcanic activity began in the area about 3.6 million years ago when trachybasalt and trachyandesite lava flows covered an area of about 1,500 square miles (4,000 square km). A short time later, geologically speaking, rhyodacite was erupted as flows and domes. Geologists interpreted these more silica-rich compositions as the first eruptive products of a growing magma chamber.
The Long Valley caldera was produced by a catastrophic eruption about 730,000 years ago. The roof above the magma chamber collapsed, forcing 150 cubic miles (600 cubic km) of rhyolitic magma to the surface in the form of Plinian ash columns and associated air falls and ash flows. The volume of ash is comparable to similar caldera-forming eruptions at Yellowstone and far exceeds the volume of ash erupted from stratovolcanoes. For example, the large eruption of Tambora in 1815 produced 10 cubic miles (40 cubic km) of ash.
Biggest eruption in Cascades for million years was eruption of Mount Mazama... which is currently known as Crater Lake
Aerial photo:
The cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago started from a single vent on the northeast side of the volcano as a towering column of pumice and ash that reached some 30 miles (50 km) high. Winds carried the ash across much of the Pacific Northwest and parts of southern Canada.
New Zealand has also own caldera... Lake Taupo.
The 181AD Taupo eruption
This eruption took place from a vent or vents near the Horomatangi Reefs, now submerged on the eastern side of Lake Taupo. The eruption lasted between several days and several weeks and produced a sequence of pumice deposits that blanketed the landscape east of Taupo. In total about 100km3 was erupted.
At the climax of this eruption, about 30km3 of pumice, ash and rock fragments was erupted in only a few minutes and travelled horizontally as a liquid flow, moving at speeds estimated at between 600-900kmh. It crossed every obstacle in its path except the top of Mt Ruapehu.
it produced an eruption column 50km high -- twice as high as the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption column.
it was the most violent eruption in the world in the past 5000 years.
Taupo volcano represents a major scientific challenge in that its activity is so variable. In the last 50,000 years, it has had eruptions that vary in volume from 0.05km3 (slightly larger than a typical Ruapehu eruption) to over 800km3.
One the most violent recent eruption was Krakatau.
The Great Eruption
The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa has been assigned a Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI of 6 which rates as "colossal". To be assigned a VEI rating of 6, a volcanic eruption must have a plume height over 25 km and a displacement volume ranging between 10 and 100 km3 (cubic kilometers). Eruptions of this size occur only once every few hundred years on earth.
The total energy released by the four main events of the 1883 eruption was equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT. Most of this energy was released by the third paroxysmal explosion which has been estimated to be equivalent to an explosion of 150 megatons of TNT. To understand the magnitude of the Krakatoa explosion, it will suffice to say that the Hiroshima atomic bomb was only about 20 kilotons).
This frightening display of volcanic power would culminate in a series of at least four stupendous eruptions that began at 5:30 a.m., climaxing in a colossal blast that literally blew Krakatau apart. The noise was heard over 4600 km away, throughout the Indian Ocean, from Rodriguez Island and Sri Lanka in the west, to Australia in the east.
One compeling feature of the Krakatau eruption is that the pyroclastic flows appear to have travelled an incredible 40 km across the Sunda Straits, where they remained hot enough to cause the burn-related fatalities on Sumatra. These same flows, however, were also recorded by several ships located at greater distances. On August 27, the Louden (see above) was located ~65 km north-northeast of Krakatau when it was struck by severe winds and tephra, and the W.H. Besse was located at ~80 km east-northeast of Krakatau when it was hit by hurricane-force winds, heavy tephra, and the strong smell of sulfur. At these greater distances, the pyroclastic flows were at lower temperatures so that the ships and crew survived.
Even these eruptions can cause extinction of local cultures.
Like eruption of Santorini which devastated Minoan culture and might have caused legend of Atlantis.
Like so many other volcanoes this is also growing again and might eventually erupt again.
Compared to those St. Helens is small backyard campfire.
The powerful lateral blast from Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 swept 30 km away from the volcano, blowing down giant trees like matchsticks. The blast, traveling at velocities up to 1100 km per hour, devastated 600 sq km over a broad area nearly 180 degrees wide north of the volcano.
I wouldn't keep eruption of supervolcano so propable but for example there are lot of Volcanoes in western US which could cause big consequencis "locally" (500 mile radius) if volcano has good day.
posted on Oct, 6 2004 @ 06:19 PM
Are they capable of happening? Oh yes... will they?
posted on Oct, 7 2004 @ 01:59 AM
Originally posted by Tusayen
Personally I votes for super Volcanoes LOL you get to at least enjoy a spectacle before the world collapses
Meteor shower after impact would be much nicer...
before its heat burns you and everything compustible.
posted on Oct, 8 2004 @ 03:56 AM
Good info dude - Thanks.
I guess it isn't if, but when...
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Neutron monitor
Neutron monitor
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A neutron monitor is a ground-based detector
Particle detector
In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify high-energy particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a...
designed to measure the number of high-energy charged particle
Subatomic particle
In physics or chemistry, subatomic particles are the smaller particles composing nucleons and atoms. There are two types of subatomic particles: elementary particles, which are not made of other particles, and composite particles...
s striking the Earth's atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere
The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
from outer space
Outer space
. For historical reasons the incoming particles are called "cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s", but in fact they are particles, predominantly protons and Helium
nuclei. Most of the time, a neutron monitor records galactic cosmic ray
Galactic cosmic ray
Galactic cosmic rays are cosmic rays that have their origin inside our Galaxy. GCRs are high-energy charged particles, and are usually protons, electrons, and fully ionized nuclei of light elements...
s and their variation with the 11-year sunspot cycle and 22-year magnetic cycle. Occasionally the Sun
emits cosmic rays of sufficient energy and intensity to raise radiation levels on Earth's surface to the degree that they are readily detected by neutron monitors. They are termed "Ground Level Enhancements" (GLE).
The neutron monitor was invented by University of Chicago
University of Chicago
Professor John A. Simpson
John Alexander Simpson
John Alexander Simpson worked as an experimental nuclear, and cosmic ray physicist who was deeply committed to educating the public and political leaders about science and its implications. The year he died, his instruments in space had been sending data back for nearly 40 years...
in 1948. The "18-tube" NM64 monitor, which today is the international standard, is a large instrument weighing about 36 tons.
Atmospheric cascades
When a high-energy particle from outer space ("primary" cosmic ray) encounters Earth, its first interaction is usually with an air molecule at an altitude of 30 km or so. This encounter causes the air molecule to split into smaller pieces, each having high energy. The smaller pieces are called "secondary" cosmic rays, and they in turn hit other air molecules resulting in more secondary cosmic rays. The process continues and is termed an "atmospheric cascade". If the primary cosmic ray that started the cascade has energy over 500 MeV, some of its secondary byproducts (including neutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
s) will reach ground level where they can be detected by neutron monitors.
Measurement strategy
Since they were invented by Prof. Simpson in 1948 there have been various types of neutron monitors. Notable are the "IGY-type" monitors deployed around the world during the 1957 International Geophysical Year
International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West was seriously interrupted...
(IGY) and the much larger "NM64" monitors (also known as "supermonitors"). All neutron monitors however employ the same measurement strategy that exploits the dramatic difference in the way high and low energy neutrons interact with different nuclei. (There is almost no interaction between neutron
s and electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
Elastic collision
(like billiard ball collisions) that transfer energy but do not change the structure of the nucleus. The exceptions to this are a few specific nuclei (most notably 10B and 3He
Helium-3 is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on Earth, and is sought for use in nuclear fusion research...
1. Reflector. An outer shell of proton-rich material – paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...
in the early neutron monitors, polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...
in the more modern ones. Low energy neutrons cannot penetrate this material, but are not absorbed by it. Thus environmental, non-cosmic ray induced neutrons are kept out of the monitor and low energy neutrons generated in the lead are kept in. This material is largely transparent to the cosmic ray induced cascade neutrons.
2. Producer. The producer is lead
, and by weight it is the major component of a neutron monitor. Fast neutrons that get through the reflector interact with the lead to produce, on average about 10 much lower energy neutrons. This both amplifies the cosmic signal and produces neutrons that cannot easily escape the reflector.
Proportional counter
A proportional counter is a measurement device to count particles of ionizing radiation and measure their energy.A proportional counter is a type of gaseous ionization detector. Its operation is similar to that of a Geiger-Müller counter, but uses a lower operating voltage. An inert gas is used to...
and cause it to disintegrate. This nuclear reaction
Nuclear reaction
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is semantically considered to be the process in which two nuclei, or else a nucleus of an atom and a subatomic particle from outside the atom, collide to produce products different from the initial particles...
produces energetic charged particles that ionize gas in the proportional counter, producing an electrical signal. In the early Simpson monitors, the active component in the gas was 10B, which produced a signal via the reaction (n + 10B → α + 7Li). Recent proportional counters use the reaction (n + 3He → 3H + p) which yields 764 keV.
What it measures
Neutron monitors measure by proxy the intensity of cosmic rays striking the Earth, and its variation with time. These variations occur on many different time scales (and are still a subject of research). The three listed below are examples:
Solar cycles
In a process termed “solar modulation” the Sun and solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
alter the intensity and energy spectrum of Galactic cosmic rays that enter the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. When the Sun is active, fewer Galactic cosmic rays reach Earth than during times when the Sun is quiet. For this reason, Galactic cosmic rays follow an 11-year cycle like the Sun, but in the opposite direction: High solar activity corresponds to low cosmic rays, and vice versa.
Forbush decreases
Occasionally the Sun expels an enormous quantity of mass and energy in a "Coronal Mass Ejection
Coronal mass ejection
A coronal mass ejection is a massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space....
" (CME). As this matter moves through the solar system, it suppresses the intensity of Galactic cosmic rays. The suppression was first reported by Scott Forbush
Scott Forbush
Scott Ellsworth Forbush was an American astronomer, physicist and geophysicist who is recognized as having laid the observational foundations for many of the central features of solar-interplanetary-terrestrial physics, which at the time was an under-developed field of study...
and hence is termed a "Forbush decrease
Forbush decrease
A Forbush decrease is a rapid decrease in the observed galactic cosmic ray intensity following a coronal mass ejection . It occurs due to the magnetic field of the plasma solar wind sweeping some of the galactic cosmic rays away from Earth. The term Forbush decrease was named after the American...
Ground level enhancements
Approximately 10-15 times per decade, the Sun emits particles of sufficient energy and intensity to raise radiation levels on Earth's surface. The largest of these events, termed a "Ground Level Enhancement", (GLE) was observed on February 23, 1956.
Neutron monitor arrays
In the early days of neutron monitoring, discoveries could be made with a monitor at a single location. However, the scientific yield of neutron monitors is greatly enhanced when data from numerous monitors are analyzed in concert. Modern applications frequently employ extensive arrays of monitors. In effect the observing instrument is not any isolated instrument, but rather the array.
Networking neutron monitors yields new information in several areas, among them:
1. Anisotropy: Neutron monitor stations at different locations around the globe view different directions in space. By combining data from these stations, the anisotropy of cosmic rays can be determined.
2. Energy Spectrum: Earth’s magnetic field repels cosmic rays more strongly in equatorial regions than in polar regions. By comparing data from stations located at different latitudes, the energy spectrum can be determined.
3. Relativistic Solar Neutrons: These are very rare events recorded by stations near Earth’s equator that face the Sun. The information they provide is unique because neutrally charged particles (like neutrons) travel through space unaffected by magnetic fields in space. A relativistic solar neutron event was first reported for a 1982 event.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48357
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Biography of General William Augustus Bowles
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Native American Records
General William Augustus Bowles, as much of the embarrassments which Georgia experienced in settling the difficulties connected with the Creek Indians, immediately after the Revolution, arose from the interference of the man whose name is placed at the head of this article, we have concluded to give our readers a short account of his life, chiefly derived from a pamphlet published many years since.
General William Augustus Bowles was born in Frederick County, Maryland, in the year 1764. During the American Revolution, he joined the British army, in which he soon obtained a commission. After the battle of Monmouth, he sailed, with his regiment, to Jamaica, and from thence to Pensacola. At the latter place, in consequence of some neglect, he was deprived of his commission, and dismissed from the army.
A party of Creeks having come to Pensacola for the purpose of receiving their annual presents, being on their return to their nation, Bowles concluded to join them, and accordingly accompanied them to their home. Here he resided for some time, during which he made great proficiency in the Indian language, and married the daughter of one of the chiefs. On the 9th of May, 1781, when Pensacola surrendered to the arms of Spain, Bowles commanded the Creek Indians, whom he had brought there to assist the English. His services upon that occasion were acknowledged by the commander of the British army, and he was reinstated in his former rank. After the surrender of West Florida to Spain, he was allowed to retire with the garrison to New York, where he joined a company of players, and then sailed for the Bahama Islands. Here he remained some months, following the profession of a comedian, as well as that of a portrait painter, thus exhibiting the versatility of his talents. The Governor of the Bahamas, Lord Dunmore, appointed Bowles as an agent to establish a trading house among the Creeks. He returned to the nation, and established a commercial house upon the Chattahoochee; but it was of short duration, for Colonel McGillivray sent him word to abandon the enterprise, and leave the country in twenty-four hours, on pain of being deprived of his ears. He fled to New Providence, and from thence was sent to England, for the purpose of asking aid to enable him to repel the aggressions of the Americans. His applications were successful, and he returned to America; and having taught his warriors the art of navigating the Gulf of Mexico, he began a system of piracy upon the vessels of Panton, an Indian merchant, against whom he had long entertained the most inveterate hostility. His success in piratical enterprises, and other circumstances, gained him great popularity among the Creeks, and he was elected commander-in-chief of their armies. For along time Bowles continued to annoy Georgia, doing every thing in his power to prevent the settlement of her difficulties with the Indians. He denounced Colonel McGillivray as a traitor, and exerted his utmost power to prejudice the Indians against him. In 1792 he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and sent to Madrid. The Spanish government endeavored to conciliate him, but was unsuccessful, and he was finally sent to the island of Manilla, from whence he made his escape, and, after various fortunes, obtained a schooner, in which he navigated the Gulf and seized many Spanish vessels. After this he proceeded to the Creek Nation, interfered seriously with the policy of Colonel Hawkins, and captured the fort at St. Marks. At a feast given by the Indians, to which he had been invited, he was made a prisoner, according to a pre-concerted plan, by Colonel Hawkins and the Spanish authorities, who placed him in a canoe full of armed warriors. They then rapidly rowed down the river. Col. Hawkins and John Forbes, of Pensacola, were in the town, but were concealed, until Sam McNac, a half-breed, had caused Bowles to be made a prisoner. Arriving at a point in the present Dallas County, Alabama, the canoe was tied up, the prisoner conducted upon the bank, and a guard set over him. In the night the guard fell asleep, when Bowles gnawed his ropes apart, crept down the bank, got into the canoe, quietly paddled across the river, entered a thick cane swamp, and fled. At the break of day, the astonished Indians arose in great confusion, but fortunately saw the canoe on the opposite side, which Bowles had foolishly neglected to shove of swimming over to that point, they got upon his track, and by the middle of the day once more made him a prisoner. He was conveyed to Mobile, and from thence to Havana, where, after a few years, he died in the dungeons of Moro Castle.
MLA Source Citation:
White, George. Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc., Relating to Its History and Antiquities, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time; Compiled from Original Records and Official Documents; Illustrated by Nearly One Hundred Engravings. Pudney & Russell. 1855. AccessGenealogy.com. Web. 28 July 2014. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/biography-of-general-william-augustus-bowles.htm - Last updated on Jul 1st, 2013
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View Full Version : help with shootemup game
10-01-2003, 03:51 PM
I'm making a shooting game and I've got alot done on it. In one of the movie clips when it comes to a certain frame I want it to play another movie clip on the stage. How do I do that?
10-01-2003, 03:59 PM
Use absolute paths.
//clip1 frame 10
//clip2 frame 1
10-01-2003, 04:12 PM
wow that was fast....but that still doesn't solve my problem. Let me tell you exactly what I'm doing. The first movieclip is a guy shooting the player. There is a frame where it shows the guy firing towards the screen. When it comes to that frame I want the life meter on the bottom to play, but I don't want it to gotoandplay a certain frame because if the guy shoots at the screen twice I want the life meter to be past that frame and on the frame where it says just one life is left because there are only three lives. So whenever the movieclip loops and goes to that frame where the guy is shooting the screen it will take away one life and there are 4 frames where the first one has all three lives, the second has two lives, the 3rd has one, and the last has none and then on the last frame it goes to a certain frame on the main stage that says game over. Can you help me with that?
10-01-2003, 04:14 PM
The only thing I need help with is that one frame where it plays the life meter movie clip that's all I need help with not any of that other stuff.
10-01-2003, 04:28 PM
Might I suggest something a little more dynamic? Now keep in mind, this AS looks way more complicated than it really is. All the createEmptyMovieClip and drawingAPI can be done at authoring time w/o AS. I just did it this way so that you could cut and paste. To make yours, you would just draw a clip with a border layer and a lifeBar on a layer under that. Make sure the lifeBar has a registration point at the absolute left of it too, because we're scaling against the left side. Anyway, take a look at this code. The point of this is to avoid your goto problem. With this you can simply set the position of the life meter with a function whenever you need to.life = _root.createEmptyMovieClip("life",1);
bar = life.createEmptyMovieClip("lifeBar",2);
function sizeBar(path,life){
// assume full life is 100
path._xscale = life;
// set variables that actually control life here or do anything
// else you want to when the life changes, remeber this is
// only graphical
In the sizeBar function, the second argument controls the life. 50 is half, 100 is full, 0 dead, etc. I'm sure there will be questions, so just holla. I'll be here for a bit.
10-01-2003, 04:33 PM
Here's that mess built at authoring time. Remember, I have it built so the life directly corresponds to the life bar. If that's not the case, like you said you have 3 stages. Then you want _xscale = life/3, not simply _xscale = life. So now you would only enter 3, 2, 1, or 0. I think that the less author-time tweens you use, the better.
10-01-2003, 04:55 PM
I am just a beginner and don't have one clue what your talking about after all this is the newbies forum. The code I have on the frame where it will play the life meter movie clip is this
life meter.play();
plain and simple and not working. All I want to do is make the life meter movie clip play when it reaches the frame where the guy is shooting the screen!!!!
10-01-2003, 05:09 PM
Yes, I understand what you've done. I'm saying you shouldn't be using a movie clip that plays. It would be easier to have a clip that can be changed with a function. Did you check out the attachment I gave you? It is very basic. Play with that a little bit. This solution side-steps your play() problems, because there is no play. No need to get upset. We're all willing to help, but you have to be willing to do some work with us too. We don't know exaclty what your abilities are. Try to play with it and come back with questions a little more specific than "I have no clue.....". I and the other members are more than happy to help.
10-01-2003, 05:15 PM
Function description:
When you call the size bar function in the following way:
In english, you are saying......
"Scale the clip 'lifeBar', which is inside the clip 'life' to 50%. In your case, you've been trying to get a clip with multiple frames to go to the frame that represents 50% health. In this example, there are no frames, so there's no confusion. Rather than having to go through the thought process of.....
"At this point in the game the player should have 50% of his life, which means my life meter clip should go to frame 4"
All you have to do is set the clip to look like whatever you want by passing the clip the scale, throught sizeBar.
"At this point in the game the player should have 50% health, so I have to tell the clip to display 50% health, or sizeBar(_root.life.lifeBar,50)
I hope that helps. If you're trying to build a game, these are very fundamental AS concepts that you will need to do it. So if this frustrates you or seems difficult I suggest trying to understand it rather than trying to get around it. If I can help more, please ask. I'm glad to do so.
10-01-2003, 06:54 PM
it's not really a bar of life it's 3 little glowing squares. Each time you are hit it takes away one it's not a Life bar.
10-01-2003, 10:01 PM
Originally posted by cheezisgoooood
Then make the "Life meter" a single MC, and each time you get hit, have flash advance to the next frame of the "Life meter" MC, where each frame has one less glowing square than the last. Once the Lifebar MC has reached the last frame, the player is obviously dead, so make it tell level0 to display a "you died" screen, or what have you.
To do this, do what dzy2566 said: Use absolute paths.
10-03-2003, 08:34 PM
DUH!!!! that's what I'm asking about!!! pay attention!!! I just want to know a simple piece of code to do that k?
07-30-2004, 03:54 PM
He wants to make one box dissapear when he looses a life. Something like
object.visible=true ( thats the visual basic code for it but its similar to what you want, i know that VB code wont work in flash, its just an example)
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48389
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All About Adolescent Literacy
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Boys and Books
It's a chilly, rainy day with a wind that rattles the windows. The reader settles deeper into the cushions of the sofa, smiling with satisfaction. What a perfect day to read. "I really can't wait to tell my friend about this book," the reader thinks.
Now the question is, as you imagine the above scenario, what sex is the reader? Is it almost automatic to envision a female? In today's culture, is the image of an enthusiastic reader often a feminine one? Certainly there are many committed male readers, but where are they in the popular culture? And, perhaps more important, what images exist that encourage young boys to read?
The statistics are consistent: Young male readers lag behind their female counterparts. According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2001, fourth-grade girls in all of the 30-plus participating countries scored higher in reading literacy than fourth-grade boys by a statistically significant amount. Similar findings show up in the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, as well as in studies in New Zealand, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Searching for "why"
Why does this disparity exist? Theories abound. According to Michael W. Smith and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm in Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men (Heinemann, 2002), research on gender and literacy provides some interesting insights:
• Boys take longer to learn to read than girls do
• Boys read less than girls read
• Girls tend to comprehend narrative texts and most expository texts significantly better than boys do
• Boys value reading as an activity less than girls do
According to a national survey conducted by the Young Adult Library Services Association in 2001, boys of an average age of 14 listed their top obstacles to reading:
• boring/no fun 39.3%
• no time/too busy 29.8%
• like other activities better 11.1%
• can't get into the stories 7.7%
• I'm not good at it 4.3%
Jon Scieszka, author of children's books such as The Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio series, believes that boys are slower to develop than girls biologically and therefore often have early struggles with reading and writing skills. On his Guys Read website, he also says that the male way of learning, which tends to be action oriented and competitive, works against boys in many classrooms.
This video is also available on YouTube.
Serious subject, sensible solutions
The issue is certainly a serious one, and the solutions must come from a multitude of sources: parents, teachers, librarians, and communities. Michael Irwin, a Massey University, New Zealand, professor, claims that "girls talk more than boys, speaking 30% more words over a day than boys. And they talk more from an early age — to toys and dolls and playing school — so it's natural they are more adept with language."
In this Massey Magazine, Issue 14 article, which appears on the Massey University website, Irwin suggests strategies to help boys read better: clear, structured instruction; short bursts of intense work; specific goals; praise; hands-on learning; and use of humor.
Irwin notes that some New Zealand schools have even experimented with splitting classes into single-sex groups for language subjects and have found some success in this. "Boys are very conscious of what their peers think of them," Irwin says. "Their fear of failure curbs their classroom participation. They don't answer questions because they don't want to risk being wrong, and having their peers laugh. And after puberty there are the hormones to deal with, too. They start to worry about what the girls will think of them."
An area that seems to be critical to stimulating reading success among young male readers is the choice of materials. According to Smith and Wilhelm in Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men, boys differ from girls in the choices they make of reading material:
• Boys are more inclined to read informational texts, magazines, and newspaper articles
• Boys are more inclined to read graphic novels and comic books
• Boys tend to resist reading stories about girls, whereas girls do not tend to resist reading stories about boys
• Boys like to read about hobbies, sports, and things they might do or be interested in doing
• Boys like to collect things and tend to like to collect series of books
• Boys read less fiction than girls
• Boys tend to enjoy escapism and humor, and some boys are passionate about science fiction or fantasy
On his Guys Read website, Jon Scieszka concurs with this research, saying that adults need to "let boys know that nonfiction reading is reading. Magazines, newspapers, websites, biographies, science books, comic books, graphic novels are all reading material."
According to Wendy Schwartz in the ERIC Digest entry Helping Underachieving Boys Read Well and Often, the male perspective needs to be considered in the selection of reading material. "Reading choices made for boys frequently do not reflect their preferences, since girls are clearer and more vocal about what books they want, elementary school teachers are predominantly women, and mothers rather than fathers select reading materials for their children," Schwartz says.
"Further, boys, like all children, want to see characters like themselves sometimes," Schwartz adds. "Therefore, materials should feature people of different ethnicities, races, and backgrounds who live in a variety of types of homes and communities."
According to Schwartz, the boy who reads the sports page or instruction manual needs to be applauded. "The reading that boys do should not be dismissed as inconsequential even though it often does not include the novels and other traditional materials usually read by girls," Schwartz says. "The genres preferred by boys can be equally helpful in their development of reading, thinking, and problem- solving skills, and should be considered key resources in their education."
Teachers who allow boys to see the rich variety of forms that the written word can take may help to create more enthusiastic readers. Librarians also can play a key role in providing male-enticing reading materials.
According to Patrick Jones and Dawn Cartwright Fiorelli in "Overcoming the Obstacle Course: Teenage Boys and Reading," an article in the February 2003 issue of Teacher Librarian magazine, there are immediate steps that librarians can take to improve attitudes toward reading among boys. These include:
• planning programs aimed just at boys
• doing book talks in the classroom that include a lot of nonfiction
• buying American Library Association Read posters that feature males
• encouraging coaches of boys' sports teams to participate in a Guys Read program such as having athletes read to younger children
• increasing the number of periodicals, magazines, comic books, and newspapers in the library
• actively recruiting boys to work in the library
• surveying boys about their reading
• buying books that boys recommend
• putting books where the boys are: next to the computers, copy machines, and study tables
Allowing boys to find reflections of who they are and what they like in a library may encourage a return visit.
Males needed as role models for reading
An additional issue that comes up in virtually all resources on male literacy is the shortage of male reader role models. As Jan Greer of New Brunswick, Canada, says in one of her "The Literacy Post" columns, "Research states that young males see reading as a feminine activity and therefore steer away from it. There is only one way to change this perception and that is for men both at home and in the community to read aloud to boys and to show that reading is an activity of value."
"It would also help if men's organizations made literacy one of their primary aims by following the example of Wayne Gretzky, who publicly supports literacy and lifelong learning. A boy will follow the lead of his male role model, usually his father or other significant man in his life. If that man values reading, the boy will too."
To promote that view, the province began Family Literacy Day, encouraging fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, and uncles to become reading role models.
In Ireland the Duleek Library introduced a "Dads and Lads" project to encourage reading among young boys. More than 250 new books that focus on sports were purchased, and boys and their fathers shared a reading program that is also tracked by their teachers.
Another Irish initiative, Boys 'N' Books, pairs the St. Patrick's Primary School with the Newry Library; both are located in an area that was identified as having the worst literacy levels in Northern Ireland. A special feature of this program is to promote performances by storytellers as well as to bring students books that have proven to be popular with boys.
This program makes an interesting distinction: "Teaching boys how to read did not necessarily make them readers. Reading was often viewed as a task to be done, rather than something to be enjoyed." The storytellers, including males, helped the boys to actively enjoy and discuss stories, develop their listening and concentration skills, and build a foundation for enjoying reading.
In England the reading campaign of the National Literacy Trust includes the recruitment of Reading Champions — any man or boy who inspires others with his enthusiasm for reading. The program "believes it is vital to provide boys with positive examples of reading men who they can identify with and relate to, and support families, carers, and practitioners in creating an environment where every boy has access to a positive male reading role model."
These may be male students or teachers, dads, granddads, brothers, family friends, tutors, reading buddies, storytellers, or performers. The program seeks to provide boys with advocates for reading on a national level.
Families play a critical role in promoting male literacy, and the impact is especially powerful if the father is involved to help boys see reading as something that males do. According to Wendy Schwartz, some possibilities include:
• parents modeling reading, sharing what they have learned, recommending good books, and mentioning what they want to learn from reading in the future
• parents and sons reading together, moving into increasingly difficult materials
• parents and sons looking up information together to show the value of reading and the development of problem-solving skills
• taking books along on long trips or to places where waiting is anticipated to help boys see reading as recreation
• keeping a reading log with sons to show what, when, and how much boys are reading
No part of society — parents, teachers, librarians, community members — wants to see boys begin a lifetime of reading deficits, especially as more and more jobs require higher levels of literacy. Perhaps it is time for father–son reading time to become just as customary as that catch in the backyard or television viewing. The Harry Potter phenomenon has proven that boys will embrace books that tap into their interests and imagination; now it is up to the adults in their lives to feed that potential.
McFann, J., (2004, August). Boys and Books. Reading Today, 22(1), 20-21.
I wonder if this why the CCS have made non-fiction their focus?
Posted by: Tracy | August 29, 2011 09:55 PM
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Barney Frank debates Tony Perkins on MSNBC's Hardball.
Barney Frank, Chris Matthews Shred Tony Perkins for Antigay Views
By Lucas Grindley
Originally published on May 10 2012 9:18 PM ET
Perkins made his usual rash of claims, including that kids are made gay because of immoral parenting, and that the purpose of marriage is to procreate. As a result, Perkins reluctantly admitted he doesn't believe same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt.
"The notion that Dick and Lynne Cheney parented in an inferior way to Mr. Perkins is just one more absurdity," Frank announced, noting that they have a daughter who is a lesbian. "No, I don't think the Cheneys' failures in some way to teach their daughter how to interact properly led to her being a lesbian. I know of no such evidence."
Perkins looked bemused at the mention of the Cheneys and denied he'd accused them of wrongdoing, which Frank, who is gay, quickly pointed out seemed like he was ignoring claims he'd just made — that it's the job of parents to "protect" their children from turning gay and from the "environmental factors" he claims exist that cause homosexuality.
Hardball host Chris Matthews heard a weakness in Perkins's argument and asked (but didn't get an answer): "Are you saying that if you were Barney's father he wouldn't be gay?"
Matthews followed up with: "What do you do to make sure that you would doubt that your kid would be gay? That is an enormous power you have."
For his part, Perkins attributed his power to biblical teaching.
When Perkins claimed the purpose of marriage is to have children, Matthews chafed even more. "A marriage is not just spawning," he said.
Matthews has been confronted several times recently at book signings by activists who want Perkins kept off air. He is often called upon as a guest to represent the views of evangelicals in politics, which they say adds credibility to his antigay views, which especially troubles them because the Family Research Council is listed as an antigay "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In the past, Matthews has said Perkins doesn't espouse hateful views while on Hardball, but that he would consider their complaints.
Watch the entire debate below.
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Older blog entries for apply (starting at number 2)
I posted a skeleton proof that P != NP on slashdot, but it's still moderated at 0, while a bunch of speculation about how difficult the problem would be is moderated higher. Interesting, no? I've come to the conclusion that slashdot.org is not a meritocracy, it is a wierd popularity contest. And that posting there is a waste of time.
Why Diaries Suck
It appears that certification entries could use short annotations when they are made. That way we can find out why ESR is a Dimwit, for instance, or why others like him. Then again, perhaps it will be meaningless information, as everyone will just lie or skip the annotations part anyway.
apply(Master) ;; Best sex I ever had.
Also, I'd like to respond to some things in the byte-order thread, but 1) I am apparently not qualified to, and 2) There doesn't appear to be any way to respond to other comments, so they seem disconnected. Anyway:
nether writes about an amazing type interface that handles everything and is powerful. Well, everything except functions and objects. It also doesn't appear that it will handle dynamic structures or symbols, but that's hard to say without an implementation. It's not that hard to make up yet another set of names for unsigned ints, the hard part is handling functions, objects, and dynamic structures. If you've designed an amazing type system without these things, you probably need a redesign.
Several people suggested using text files. Text is good for smallish things, but 1) It inflates most data types, 2) It's difficult to write real numbers precisely, and 3) It's slower to read and write if you have huge amounts of data (Conversion to strings is even slower than byte swapping and unpadding data).
My recommendation: Use whatever formats are already standardized, if you can. CORBA is big and clunky, XML is text and is big and clunky, etc. However, portability is more important in the long run than nearly all efficiency concerns. Also, my experience has been that if you start to implement a cool new type system, you will end up with all this cruft anyway.
As an aside, it might be useful to have a byte or wyrd or whatnot that describes the format of a binary file, particularly temporary ones. That way you can implement simple ones as:
memmap(file, somewhere);
if (NATIVE_FORMAT != fileformat) {
maybe_swap_bytes(somewhere, scratch);
maybe_unpad(somewhere, scratch);
if (swizzling_needed_p(somewhere) {
Since most of the time you will be running the program locally, the formatting changes will fall through anyway. It's not clear where to stick this information though.. It should be out of band so you don't have to copy all your memory to make room for it before you blast a file out to disk or across a network. Also, not every object needs one, just one per file or group of files. NATIVE_FORMAT can be used for network connections.
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Lesson Plan Details
Watchable Wildlife (JHARVNC)
TopicOutdoor Skills - Watching Wildlife
This program includes an introduction to using binoculars as well as basic signs of wildlife, followed by a guided hike.
Grade Level2 - 12
Recommended SettingClassroom, then outdoor hike (dress for the weather)
LocationJanet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center, Fort Smith
Education Program Coordinator, 479-452-3993
Duration45 minutes
Suggested Number of Participants30
Special Conditions
Outdoor portion weather permitting, appropriate dress
• Learn how to use binoculars
• Increase awareness of wildlife
• See the diversity of animal life at the nature center
Key Terms*
Bird guides
Classroom set of binoculars
• How to use
• Focusing
• Adjust width of binocular barrels
• Find nonmoving object and focus with both eyes
• Fine focus
• Finding the critter
Signs of Wildlife
• Scat
• Animal tracks
• Commonly seen tracks and locations
• Tracks show animal behavior
• Markings
• Nests
1. Assemble participants in classroom, multipurpose room or on deck. Introduce basics of observing wildlife in the outdoors.
2. Hand out binoculars and show how to use. Hand out identification guides if using.
3. Lead hike. Encourage participants to focus on wildlife sighted (usually birds) and to observe other signs.
4. Wrap up hike reviewing sightings. What species were seen, or what evidence of them was discovered? (Make a list.) Where were they seen? Where else might they see wildlife?
• If weather limits outside hike, observe animals in wildlife watching area with identification guides. Have participants identify all animals.
• Take a hike around another natural area or school yard with binoculars if possible. How does the wildlife compare to that seen at the nature center? Is it different? Why?
• The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a program called Wings Over Arkansas where anyone can request a packet and fill out a bird list of species they have sighted. Depending upon the number of birds, participants receive a certificate and a pin and can advance to the next level for a new certificate and pin.
• Were you surprised by how many different animals you saw at the nature center? What were your expectations?
• What factors affect the diversity and total number of animals present in an area? How could the nature center increase the total number or diversity of the animals present there?
• What is carrying capacity? How does it affect the number of animals present? What can increase it or decrease it?
• Animals are active in different times of the day. What determines this? (Teacher hint: predator/prey is nocturnal or diurnal, temperature, etc.) Generally, when is the best time to observe animals in the wild? What about times of the year? (Think about migratory birds.)
Related Documents
Bird – any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg
Hiking – an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails
Scat – an animal’s fecal droppings, especially a wild animal
Track – a footprint of wildlife
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Friday, August 15, 2008
What I'm gonna do today
Today is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. (Catholics believe she was taken into Heaven body and soul - think Elijah minus the chariot of fire.) So Happy Feast Day to you!
On this day, my very good friend and Lydia's godmother are going to start praying together. I desperately need a strong Catholic to help keep me accountable, someone who will pray for me, over me and with me. I greatly esteem Katie and asked her if she would do this with me so we can become stronger Christians and better friends.
We'll begin by going to confession, then attending Mass and finally by praying. Hopefully we'll top it all off with gelato or Starbucks.
As you can tell by the previous post, I need this. I'm pretty certain that my current laziness in my faith is part of the reason I'm feeling so lost and uncertain right now.
Postscript: I used the picture I did, which is not a picture of Mary being assumed, because it was a staple in my childhood. You'll notice the rays of light coming from her hands. As a girl, any time I saw sunlight breaking through clouds in similar rays I believed Mary was in the spots the light touched upon. I still love that idea.
1 comment:
1. see, you're finding that stride already! sounds like a great plan for you.
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Author Christopher Hitchens, striving for the uncontested title as the World’s Most Strident Atheist, suggests that our culture is experiencing “something like a change in the zeitgeist” — that that change means a new openness to atheism. His book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, is a direct assault upon belief in God. The assault extends to the Bible. As religion writer Rachel Zoll explains, Hitchens and his fellow atheists dismiss the Bible as “fairy tales posing as divine scripture.” Many do not mince words. That doesn’t go over well with Carlin Romano, a professor and literary critic who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. On today’s program, Dr. Mohler explains why.
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136,031 species and infraspecific names are in the database, 17,520 images, 50,994 bibliographic items, 253,231 distributional records.
We suggest you start here.
Website Design : 249 Design Studio
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48472
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Allina Hospitals & Clinics - Eplerenone (By mouth)
Skip to main content
Eplerenone (By mouth)
Eplerenone (e-PLER-en-one)
Treats high blood pressure. A lower blood pressure can reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Also treats congestive heart failure (CHF) after a heart attack.
Brand Name(s):
There may be other brand names for this medicine.
When This Medicine Should Not Be Used:
Do not use this medicine if you have had an allergic reaction to eplerenone, if you have high blood potassium, or if you are also using clarithromycin (Biaxin®), itraconazole (Sporanox®), ketoconazole (Nizoral®), nefazodone (Serzone®), nelfinavir (Viracept®), ritonavir (Norvir®), or troleandomycin. Some people with kidney disease should not use this medicine, but it will depend on how severe the kidney disease is. Do not use this medicine to lower your blood pressure if you have type 2 diabetes with microalbuminuria, or if you use potassium supplements, salt substitutes, or certain diuretics (water pills, such as spironolactone, triamterene, or amiloride).
How to Use This Medicine:
If a dose is missed:
How to Store and Dispose of This Medicine:
Drugs and Foods to Avoid:
• Make sure your doctor knows if you also use erythromycin (Erythro-Tab®), fluconazole (Diflucan®), lithium (Eskalith®, Lithobid®), saquinavir (Fortovase®), other blood pressure medicine (such as benazepril, enalapril, lisinopril, verapamil, Avalide®, Avapro®, Benicar®, Calan®, Cozaar®, Diovan®, Lotrel®, Micardis®, Vasotec®, Zestoretic®, Zestril®), or pain or arthritis medicine (NSAID, such as aspirin, diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen, Advil®, Aleve®, Celebrex®, Voltaren®).
Warnings While Using This Medicine:
• Call your doctor right away if you have dizziness, confusion, difficulty breathing, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, uneven heartbeats, weakness or heaviness of the legs, or numbness or tingling in the hands, feet, or lips.
Possible Side Effects While Using This Medicine:
• Chest pain
• Cloudy urine
• Unusual tiredness or weakness
Last Updated: 4/4/2014
Copyright © 1984- Thomson Micromedex. All rights reserved.
Thomson & A.D.A.M
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
Establishing Structure
Question of the day: I'm wondering how to structure chapters. I DID start from the beginning and kept writing and writing and it's like one long stream of consciousness, sort of like Stephen King's Delores Claiborne. How do you go about structuring that first chapter and the rest to follow?
This is a great question because I think this is very much a learned skill, at least it was for me.
I think it is very, very common for first-time writers (and I say that with no condescension, because, as I said, I dealt with this very situation) to have more stream of consciousness writing than is necessary. In fact, exposition - too much of it - is a big reason why early manuscript go awry. Again, I speak from experience. Good fiction writing really minimizes exposition: you don't tell readers what you're trying to convey; you put your characters in situations in which they're conveying it for you. By considering this every time you write a scene, your chapters and how they unfold start to happen naturally. Let me explain.
I have a few rules when I'm writing a new scene or chapter: every scene has to move the plot forward. I seriously stop and think about this each scene (and long afterward when I consider whether or not I want to keep what I just wrote): are my characters advancing the plot, are they creating new conflict for themselves and others (this is a good thing), are they offering readers information that readers didn't have before? Every single scene you have should meet these criteria; if not, they're filler - think of when you're watching a TV show and thinking, "Ugh, what's the point of this scene, I'm so bored." That's what happens when you plop in those unnecessary moments in a book too: readers get bored.
Another rule is that I try not to have a scene address a stand-alone conflict. What I mean by this is that, even if it's a very small thing, I try to throw in two issues into one scene. This really gives the plot a sense of momentum and keeps the smoking-fast pace because there's never a down moment. For example, I wrote a scene today in Happiest Days in which my character assesses how to cope with the fact that her husband might want to move out of their small town. In mulling over the repercussions with her best friend, I worked in a quick bite about her friend's own marriage - the friend (who is separated) makes a quick comment about something that happened the previous night with her estranged husband. I don't linger over it, there's no need to, but it reminds readers as to what's going on with that plot line, moves the plot line forward, AND is pertinent to my heroine's own situation. Do you see what I mean? Keep as many things in the mix as possible, and your plot will fly by.
Another rule is that I try not to delve into a more than a paragraph or two consecutive of my character's inner-thoughts. This isn't hard and fast rule because sometimes, it's necessary to convey what she's thinking, things that simply CAN'T be conveyed via action - like when she's mulling over a memory and what it means to her - but these inner-thoughts have a way of veering into exposition territory, into telling-not-showing territory, and that's when - BAM -you lose readers because you're not offering any action.
I know that this sounds like a lot. But it does become second nature the more fiction you write.
So how does all of this lead to chapter structure? (I didn't forget your original question?) Well, for me at least, it leads to chapter structure because I'm always considering what action my characters now need to take - how can I keep the conflict going and the momentum moving forward? What's the next situation that they'd find themselves in to resolve their current conflict? It helps, sometimes, if I have sort of a running rotation of plot lines that I need to move forward. If you read TOML, you'll see that I'll address a work conflict, then a conflict with her mother, then a conflict with her boyfriend, etc, and then return to the work situation. (This doesn't happen on an exact rotation, but I never drop one ball for too long because not only will readers think, "Huh? I can't remember what happened so many pages ago!," but juggling these various plots keeps these scenes humming quickly forward.)
I know this was a lot of info, and I hope it makes sense! I think the key is to creating as much action and conflict as possible...and then your characters naturally place themselves in situations to get themselves to a different place...which, voila, is your next chapter.
Does this make sense to anyone??? Or have I confused you even further? I'm sure that others out there map out their chapters in a much more exacting way - care to share?
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
New Toys!
Sorry the blog is late going up today...I got a new computer last night and have spent the better part of the evening and the morning getting adjusted. I made the switch from PC to Mac, on the recommendation of so many writer friends, and so far, there are some kinks to work out, but mostly, it's not such a big leap.
But it did get me writers, our computers are really our lifelines. Almost literally. I mean, I spend probably 6 hours a day sitting in front of mine, and I have an entire community of friends and places that I pass those hours with. Writing can be a lonely existence but it doesn't have to be thanks to the internet.
So anyway, I started thinking about what tools and software I can't live without, since I am so tied to this beast. Obviously, Microsoft Word - goes without saying. Ditto my email, since I'm much likelier to email someone these days than actually pick up the phone and chat. (In fact, even though I have an office line, it almost never rings.) Beyond that, I love my Sony digital recorder, which I use for my phone interviews, and I will never be able to live without Napster. As some folks mentioned yesterday, I really try to delve into the heads of my characters...I start to think like them...and music is a BIG way that I do this. I absolutely adore Napster to Go, which gives me the ability to test-drive any and all songs that strike my fancy. (In fact, I didn't realize that I wouldn't be able to use Napster - or upload my Sony files - on a Mac, so I'm installing Parallels, which mimics the Windows application, precisely to have access to these applications. That's how much I love them.)
Other than that? Well, those are probably my can't-live-withouts on a day-to-day basis. But I'm sure that I'm missing out on some really awesome programs or I'd love to hear what yours are to maybe make my day pass a little quicker! (And to have more ways to procrastinate.) :) Any super-fun or handy app suggestions?
Monday, January 05, 2009
Bringing Your Characters to Life
Question of the day: Though I've taken classes with several authors in the past, I'm still learning the finer points of fiction and have a big gap in my knowledge when it comes to creating full, robust characters. How did you go about setting up your characters from the beginning? Did you figure out all of their attributes ahead of time, or did you let them form while you were writing the book?
Great question and particularly applicable to me right now, as I'm on about page 50 of The Happiest Days of My Life and am really focused on making these characters as three-dimensional as possible. I think I develop my characters in two parts: the first is before I put a word on page. Although this book, as well as Time of My Life, are very concept-driven - as in: BIG PLOT - a lot of the plot development, when I conceive the nugget of an idea - revolves around the primary characters. So, for example, when I came up with the idea for TOML, I also obviously had to come up with the character of Jillian, as everything about the book centers around her. Ditto the concept for Happiest Days. It revolves around a woman who might be a little too contended in her life, and without her, the book isn't possible.
So, I start with that skeleton. In the case of Tilly (the protagonist in Happiest Days), I considered her occupation, her marital status, her siblings, how her parents (and their history) shaped her, what her hobbies might be, what her emotional limitations might be, what her weaknesses (and strengths) are. So, that sounds like a lot.
But, I inevitably find as I'm writing that the characters still need to become more full-bodied. The little nuances about people that you really don't understand until you see them in action, if that makes sense. Sort of like if you see all the facets of a blind date on paper, but there are smaller things - but just as important things - that you can't pick up until you meet them out on a date. How they carry themselves, how they react to situations that might surprise you, personal tics that only come out through their story.
I dunno, at the risk of sounding totally lame, the characters, like us, are always a work in progress, and there are always going to be some critics who read the book and think that you didn't do enough with them...but, rest assured, I tried to breathe as much life into them as I could think of. The process becomes easier with every book because I understand how important the small quirks are. If you're stuck, I think it can be really helpful to look around at your friends and family (not that you base characters on them, but still), and consider their tics, their subtleties, and ensure that your characters have them as well.
Just my two cents. How do you guys go about and develop your characters? I'd love to hear!
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Refess card problem
ATTENTION! Here is where to post BUGS!
Refess card problem
Postby bashem » Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:31 pm
I think refess cards should have more DEF or HP than they do now. The reason for this is from what I see most other factions have higher agi so the fighters are dying before they even have a chance to fight and when you revive them they just die again before doing anything.
So either give them more DEF or HP so they arn't dying so easy its not very fun when you can't even fight back.
And no the def buffs skills they have are worthless cause they only activate on the card's turn so if they have lower AGI they don't even get to use it. Broken mechanic maybe? I even brought out the 100HP guy he died in 2 attacks didn't even get to use him.
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Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 00:36:06 -0700
How do we differentiate or define among the following:
Mishearings, usually of song lyrics or other public utterance. Thus the
name: from the ballad of the Earl of Murray who was killed. "and they
slew the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green" misheard as two
unfortunately murdered gentles - both the hapless Earl of Murray and Lady
believe by Sheridan, but correct me if wrong.
Using the wrong word. My old neighbor, for instance, would say things like
"indiscreet lighting" and "revolting doors."
Goldwynisms based on quotes from movie producer Sam Goldwyn, the grand
master of the Malaprop without even trying:
Mix and match expressions. A client of my father's used to say "No matter
how you twist and turn, it all comes out in the wash."
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The Peace Of Christmas Eve
The Americans were stunned. Bayard called the terms those of a conqueror to the conquered. Posterity might raise questions, but in that summer of 1814 the government of Lord Liverpool saw no reason to doubt the wisdom or justice of its demands. For most of Henry Goulburn’s lifetime his nation had been locked in a sometimes lonely world struggle with France. The British could not countenance the claims and complaints of a semicolonial neutral when their fate was in the grasping hands of Napoleon. In 1812, he had already penetrated Russia when the English Cabinet received the bitter news that the Americans had treacherously declared war on them. For a year and a half the British were much too busy in Europe to worry about proper punishment for the transatlantic upstarts, but at Fontainebleau, in April of 1814, a forlorn ex-emperor of France waved farewell to his troops and commenced his humiliating journey to Elba. Now it was possible to deal with the would-be invaders of Canada, the distant cousins who brazenly embarrassed the world’s greatest naval power, those noisy colonials who kept insisting they were independent and equal. For the first time in twenty years, all Europe was at peace, and the British lion roared in triumph. “There is no public feeling in the country stronger than that of indignation against the Americans,” said the London Times of April 15, and on English and continental docksides ominous lines of Wellington’s seasoned veterans, the potent symbols of this indignation, waited to board their America-bound transports.
T he five highly independent Americans who composed the uneasy family of “Bachelors’ Hall” on the Rue des Champs were stung but not altogether taken unaware by the severity of the British demands. Yet even the shrewd and usually imperturbable Gallatin was upset by the apparent evidence that the British government was entranced by its own propaganda. He had anticipated lip service to popular demands, but Lords Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Bathurst, the real English negotiators, seemed to be in earnest. And Gallatin’s discomfiture increased when he considered the now seemingly absurd terms so fervently expressed in the instructions to the American commission.
A sorely tried, peaceable James Madison had signed the declaration of war on June 18, 1812, because he sincerely believed that this was the only way to gain respect for neutral rights and to teach the English that they could not with impunity whisk English-speaking mariners, many of them American citizens, oil American ships—on the often debatable grounds that they were deserters from His Majesty’s Navy. Ostensibly, Americans had taken up arms for freedom of the seas.
Not all their aspirations, though, had been maritime. The largely Federalist coastal states, willing for the sake of profit to suffer restrictions on their commerce and to swallow insults to national pride, were almost unanimously opposed to an open rupture with Great Britain. It was this attitude that lay behind New England’s refusal to co-operate in the war. The narrow margin of votes in favor of war came from the West and the South, states that for the most part had neither ships to sail nor oceans to sail upon. One had to be deaf to miss the westerners in Congress, Henry Clay very notable among them, who clearly spelled out the West’s reason for going to war: greedy appreciation of Canadian real estate. The motto of the day became “On to Canada!” and the march had begun even before the care-worn James Madison could put his pen to the war document. Sadly, however, the invasion of Canada became a sort of Gilbert and Sullivan fiasco, and as Adams and his colleagues faced their adversaries at Ghent in the summer of 1814, the military initiative had passed to the British. Yet hope lingered painfully in the battered American breast: the hunger for Canada and the sincere but impracticable desire for a guarantee of the rights of neutrals.
The delay in the start of the negotiations, and the great time lag in communications, made most of the instructions to the American peace mission irrelevant by the time the commissioners received them. The basis for a sizable portion of the American neutral rights objective was removed less than a week after the American declaration of war, when Lord Liverpool’s government revoked the Orders in Council—its legal justification for interference with American ships on the high seas. This left impressment the sole ostensible reason for prosecuting the war, for only incompetent generals and uninhibited politicians could publicly avow American designs on Canada.
In some of his instructions (which, for good reason, were never published) James Monroe, Secretary of State and sometime gratuitous adviser to the War Department, did go so far as to include the desirability of the cession of Canada. He suffered from the delusion that Canada, like an overripe fruit, would drop into the American basket anyway; so England might as well face facts and get it over with. Monroe also wrote to his ministers of the necessity for getting some meaningful definition of a blockade and of neutral rights in general. In addition, he covered other, less significant points, but the bulk of his prose was lavished on impressment.
For assurances that this evil alone would cease, the American commissioners were authorized to sign a peace treaty, but if they failed on this point “all further negotiations will cease, and you will return home without delay.”
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Let's Talk About Emerging Media
July 11, 2012
Marc Landsberg, founder and CEO, socialdeviant, and Alisa Leonard, principal, strategy and content, socialdeviant, discussed how to model a new marketing approach driven by content, audience, and impact.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48522
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Thank you for visiting this website of my visual and relational projects. The works included are arranged in a somewhat chronological order rather than by media. I go back and forth between the fields of painting, installation, and ceramics, and I am also the founding leader of various international projects that promote art and culture in Colombia. Most notably I am director of The Campos de Gutiérrez Foundation through which I have been organizing numerous international exhibitions in different galleries and cultural centers of the city of Medellin.
andres monzon
pit-firing at Campos de Gutiérrez in 2013.
guacharos (birds) on the walls of a marble cave in the Rio Claro Natural Reserve, 2013
Santa Elena
topography of Santa Elena where I currently reside
chair made with branded cow hide at Campos de Gutiérrez
talk at palace of culture
artist talk with Laura Marsh, Palace of Culture Medellín, 2013.
Liminal Marco Chiandetti
Liminal, a work by Marco Chiandetti in the Espiga exhibition Puerto Paraíso, Medellín, 2014.
Emeral Wise's green-ware made from clay processed on-site. See MAATI.
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Audio-only stream below
No scripts. No nets. Just three Android nerds, your questions and an hour to kill before we pack up and head to Las Vegas for CES. Enjoy!
And be sure to swing by our CESlive coverage page!
Want to be on the podcast?
Join us live
Who we are
• Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
• Andrew Martonik
Andrew Martonik
• Jerry Hildenbrand
Jerry Hildenbrand
• Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Podcast sponsorships
There are 12 comments
wsmather says:
Google glass and the Pebble are interesting. But really I'm so satisfied with my smartphone (GS3), it does all the things I need and want, I just can't get excited to the point of spending money for wearables.
BUT I do daydream about a transparent heads-up display in my glass lenses, linked to my smartphone.
HalizDad says:
Now THAT I might buy...
Posted via Android Central App
jwyche007 says:
I love these longer podcasts guys. Really hate it when the shows run under an hour to be honest.
Posted via Android Central App
cslaten says:
What's with Phil's hair?
tr-1 says:
There's already a universal Home automaton solution. And it doesn't require you to spend a dime.
Check this out
Sure, you gotta be rooted but it's not an issue for you
That Samsung fanboy's annoying
Posted via Android Central App
netzwurm says:
I am somewhat confused why the video feed link doesn't have the newest episodes (or really any after August). Do you guys no longer operate that feed? Maybe it would be good to just remove it from the page, then. Or am I just doing something wrong? What is the preferred way of subscribing to the video podcast?
twdawson says:
Can anyone tell me why video of these podcasts never show up in the pocketcasts app on my phone.
Posted via Android Central App
You mean the video? That feed has to be updated manually, I'm told. I'll remind folks.
The audio should be there.
DolphinDroid says:
The VeraLite can control door locks, thermostats, lights, appliances, cameras,, and much more including having security features like windows, doors, and motion sensors. You can receive alerts to your phone as well as control everything from an app. It is very customizable and has a strong developer community.
Posted via Android Central App
Tom Mersy says:
I get these, when i go on the internet on my, - Android, Moto G mobile, - _________________________ | ___ | | |. | | | | ^ | | | ___ | | | |This web page is not| |available | | | | |More| |Reload| | |_______________________| And _________________________ | ___ | | |. | | | | ^ | | | ___ | | | |Confirm Form | |Resubmission | | | | |More| | |_______________________|
Great Info. Thanks for the your effort. Appreciate it.
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Site hosted by Build your free website today!
8th Hillside Scout Troop Camp - July 2004
Dining room! Outside the Naomi Connolly Lodge
Preparing breakfast in the middle of winter! With the scent of wood-smoke
and the sun rising on the tree-tops.
With thanks to:-
John Fitzpatrick - photographer
Rob Mckenzie - for sending the photo in
8th Hillside Thumbnails
8th Camp Thumbnails
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The Manual Testo
Testo The Manual
Scarica la suoneria di The Manual!
Guarda il video di "The Manual"
[Ja Rule]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You talk too much shit
You know niggaz always talkin bout bitches ain't shit
Money over bitches
But give all our money to the bitches any fuckin way
(I love my bitch) So I'ma send some love out
to the bitches, holla
[Verse One]
Shit, here's somethin to remember
When we met that day in September
But, you've been gone since November
Had to finish out yo' last college semester
Her major - brokerage investor
She probably go broke tryin to invest her
time and money in somethin that she call love
Cause, she love fuckin with thug niggaz
That alwasy get high and had to be drug dealers
Eventually, she hooked up with some hood bitches
The hood bitches turned her on to strippin
Now the, gettin is good and it's well understood
That money on the wood can make things get harder
Be glad I'm not a pimp, if I was I'd charge ya
But for all that you go through, just thought I'd let you know
Hoes need love too, I'm fuckin witchu
[Chorus: Ja Rule]
Niggaz need to read the man-u-al
To seperate your housewife from a hoe
Cause there's no rules to this shit here
Am I makin myself clear?
What she don't know won't hurt her y'all
So keep big pimpin on the low
Cause there's no rules to what I do
And I know, hoes need love too
[Verse Two]
You know what they say right? Bitches ain't shit
And all men are dogs cause we just wanna fuck
Sundown to sun up, one up on a hoe
I might go down on the low, that's just me though
From L-A-X to Heathrow, I'm one of them niggaz
that really doesn't need no, introduction
When I met her she was "Girl, Interrupted"
Grew up became a woman not to be trusted
Frustrated and flustered, living amongst
these thieves hoes and hustlers, I'm diggin what's next
She had a studio apartment in the projects
With her and her girl from D.C. used to bus checks
And hold the coke, her niggaz ain't sold yet
In hopes the copes don't know about all this
Shiiiiit, for all that you go through
Just wanna let you know, hoes need love too
[Verse Three]
Fake nails, fake breasts, fake eyes too
It's oh-four, and that's kinda what we used to
But you don't holla back like you used to, but I ain't mad at cha
I'm happy for a bitch, even if I can't have her
I remember when you was down in Atlanta
Workin gentlemen's clubs and you didn't even know what a gentlemen was
Forty to love and I wanna serve
That body like Serena's with less curves
But actions speak louder than words, and you gettin your money
Mami every month, 15th and 1st
Shit could be worse, you could be in the struggle
Or born with no ass and have nothin to hustle
Go on flex your muscle, cause that ain't the case is it?
Go on get your paper keep flossin on these bitches
Cause for all that you go through
Just thought I'd let you know, hoes need love too, I'm fuckin witchu
[Chorus] - repeat 2X
[Ja Rule]
Ha ha ha, yeah, Rule
Scarica la suoneria di The Manual!
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Shaka Testo
Testo Shaka
Scarica la suoneria di Shaka!
Guarda il video di "Shaka"
Uh, ah, uh...
My brother Shaka would have wanted me to do it like this
So raise your glasses for the lost ones in your life...
Dilla Dawg and Master Wel would have wanted me, as well
To propel with the spirit of the mic...
Even if you had one person with you and it's hard
They make it easy, celebrate them, let them just who they are...
Because of these experiences I have some control
On the microphone, I'm bold elevating to the stars...
Here's a demonstration, with the excellence
Reverse the pandemic that's filled with pestilence
Who has his finger on the pulse of the b-boy?
Serving fiends with the stream of a d-boy
Who's well connected, you must respect it
I'm driven with the spirits mentioned in this record
Hopefully this serves as motivation
The never sayin? doc? kind of sensation
Put my stamp on it, the mic clamps on it
Mama I know, let me put lil' thamp on it
Blade runnin through the day with agility
Stay gunnin, make way for possibilities
It's the capital Q, rap it'll do
What I want it to, it's like tamin a shrew, uh
Livin life, the Shakespearean proportions
Knowin better, I've experienced distortions
And through the in and outs, of life's revolvin doors
I'm a see that, I'm still gettin more
Yeah I'm comin in, I'm gon' see my friends
To the top floor, it seems it never ends
Heaven never ends, yeah it never ends
It be goin on, it's phenomenon
Like a new born, or a Stevie song
It be going on, do ya feel it?
(Do ya feel it? Do ya feel it?...)
The snare drum go...
My brother Shaka would've wanted me to say this to y'all
Don't lose sight y'all without giving a fight...
I'm channeling Weldon Irvine - Mr. Clean
He would've wanted me to say what I mean, and mean give it right...
Dilla, havin you in my past has been a blast
You've inspired so many and forever will you last...
And to my father, yo your spirit is drapin me
Never escapin me, I'm happy that I had you in my past...
Uh, uh, let's go...
A-let's go...
Let's go...
Let's go... uh...
Tka, uh...
Scarica la suoneria di Shaka!
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
it's hip to
As I say, these four square Lock & Lock boxes are just so darn easy!
orangey bento
It's probably obvious, but here we go clockwise from top left: mini Rice Krispie Treat square, Cheez-It crackers, clementine orange segments, cheddar cheese.
Notice a theme here? If only I had tossed in some carrots then the quadfecta would have been complete. ;) Not only are 3/4 of the contents orange, but they all start with the letter "C". Ha! :)
As it was my son was begging for a treat from his Halloween treats to be included in his lunch and this was his choice. I was surprised because he had recently been turning his nose up to Rice Krispy Treats we had around recently but as it turns out he just wanted to take that to trade with other kids in the cafeteria. Apparently Rice Krispy Treats were one of the more sought after treats and had high trading value in the lunch room. Who knew? He ended up trading for a mini Kit-Kat, which he still calls "pretzel chocolate", a name he came up with when he was a toddler. Oddly enough, he completely abhors real chocolate covered pretzels. Go figure.
Pin It
Monday, November 2, 2009
big boy snack bento
In the back there are green grapes on picks, a square silicone cup of strawberries with a giraffe fork/pick, in front there are cheddar cheese pieces and another silicone cup with Wheat Thin crackers.
The cute strip separating the front from the back is bento barran. They are little plastic (or sometimes silicone) dividers that keep foods separated. They are washable and I reuse our pieces many times until they are discarded. If you do not have access to a bento supply shop you could always fold down a piece of wax paper or even foil to use as a divider if needed! :) In addition to serving a function purpose in bento boxes, barran also adds a pop of color and cuteness. :)
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Page header image
Mouth Injury: Brief Version
What is a mouth injury?
Cuts of the tongue and insides of the cheeks are usually caused by accidentally biting oneself during eating. Cuts and bruises of the lips are usually caused by falls. A tear of the piece of tissue connecting the upper lip to the gum is very common and harmless.
Cuts in the mouth usually don't require stitches except for loose flaps of tissue or gaping wounds of the tongue. Small cuts and scrapes inside the mouth heal in 3 or 4 days. Infections of mouth injuries are rare.
How can I take care of my child?
• Stop any bleeding.
Press the bleeding site against the teeth or jaw for 10 minutes. For bleeding from the tongue, try to squeeze the bleeding site with sterile gauze. If you don't have gauze, use a clean cloth. Once bleeding from inside the lip stops, don't pull the lip out again to look at it.
• Pain relief.
Put a piece of ice on the area that was injured as often as necessary. Give acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) for pain.
• Diet.
For a day or so, offer your child soft food. Avoid any salty or citrus foods that might sting. Keep food out of the wound by rinsing the area with warm water after meals.
Call your child's doctor right away:
• There is a cut that is deep or gaping.
• The injury is to the back of the throat, tonsil, or soft palate.
Call your child's doctor during office hours if:
• The area looks infected, especially if the pain or swelling increases after 48 hours. (Note: Any healing wound in the mouth is normally white for several days.)
• A fever occurs.
• You have other concerns or questions.
Pediatric Advisor 2012.2 published by RelayHealth.
Last modified: 2009-06-22
Last reviewed: 2011-06-06
Page footer image
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Wisdom Search
Search results
1. Gurudev, what is a Kundli (a person’s astrological chart), and are all the things written in the Kundli true? My mother-in-law says that according to her Kundli she will take Sanyas when she is 50 years old. So will she leave us when that happens?
No, there is nothing like that. Astrologers say many things at times. Like I just explained, the Kundli simply gives you pointers or indications as to how things would happen.
Take your mother-in-law for instance, it says that she will attain ...
2. Gurudev, astrologically I am under the influence of Rahu-Shani planetary combination. This has made me frustrated, angry, and irritable most of the time. I am going away from the spiritual path and creating trouble for others around me. Please help.
At least you have this knowledge. If you have understood this much, then you know that all these negative emotions are just a passing phase. You know this is because of some planetary combination. This is where astrology comes to your help in a big way. S ...
3. Gurudev, How do the planets have an influence on our health?
The macrocosm and microcosm have a big connection.
Each planet is aligned with a particular grain, color, shape, bird and animal. All these are connected; it is also connected to a particular part of the body. Even your fingers!
Do you know, ever ...
4. Gurudev, What are the days of the week based on?
The days of the week are named according to each major planet in the solar system. Each day corresponds to one of the planets. Sunday for Sun, Monday for Moon, Tuesday for Mars, Wednesday for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus and Saturday for ...
5. Gurudev, Gurdev, there is only one sky. What is the meaning of seventh sky, eighth sky?
There is 360 degrees in the galaxy. They are divided in twelve parts, and each one of them is a zodiac sign. This is called Rashi.
When the earth is moving, the earth perceives the Sun to be in one of these degrees, and that becomes One ...
6. Gurudev, you have said that we shouldn't give explanations to people. But if we have something on our heart that is heavy and feel the need to talk about it, then what to do?
There is no one rule for it, sometime you want to speak and become calm and sometimes speaking doesn't help in any way.
Wake up and see, the whole world is like a dream. All those thoughts have gone, the behavior of people will disappear. Some people ...
Displaying 7 results
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Q and A: Why aren’t our franchisee websites being found in search results?
Hi Kalena,
I have just encountered something I am not sure about and I really need some advice on this. The site I am working on has the following issue;
It is a business with 100 franchises. The franchisees are complaining they do not come up in any searches. I have checked it and they don’t. Not even when you type in their exact URL into the search engine.
The URL structure for the business’s franchises work like this;
www.clientsite.com/studio/location (actual URL provided)
A related problem may be that there are 3 separate XML sitemaps:
1) www.clientsite.com/sitemap/sitemap.xml
2) www.clientsite.com/sitemap/location(Alpha)sitemap.xml
3) www.clientsite.com/sitemap/location(postcodes)sitemap.xml
The first is their MAIN sitemap. The other two are sitemaps for all the locations of their franchises (100 in total) These locations and their URLS are not included in the MAIN sitemap. Is having multiple sitemaps detrimental to the SEO.?
Hi Yen,
You may be surprised, but this is a VERY common issue for franchise websites that are based on a template structure, and you’ll realise that the reason the franchisee pages are not being found in search results is actually pretty simple… But first, I’ll address your sitemap query.
Multiple Sitemaps
Using multiple sitemaps is not the problem here. If you do a search for site:clientsite.com in Google you will see that the pages in question are actually indexed – which means that the search engines have found and crawled them.
I think though that it is probably unnecessary for your site (with just a couple of thousand pages) to have multiple sitemaps. Multiple sitemaps are recommended (and in fact required) for very large sites, but there is a specific protocol involving a sitemaps index file (that you do not seem to be using). You can find out more about it, with clear instructions and examples on how to correctly use sitemaps at sitemaps.org.
So the issue with your site is not indexing – it is ranking. You don’t specify what search queries you would hope/expect the pages to be found for, but for all the examples I tried, the franchisees pages did come up for a query of their business name itself – which is more evidence that the pages are indexed OK. From what I could see, all your franchisees seem to have a single page of content – based on a standard template, with just the business name and contact details changed. So in effect each franchisees page is one of 100 essentially “identical” pages on the site.
Website Templates
This is a clear issue of duplicate content which is very common for franchise sites based upon standard templates (which provide templated content rather than just the structure or design). In this instance, each franchisee has just a single page within the same root domain (1 of 100 almost identical pages), with relatively little keyword rich content, so I am not surprised (and neither should you be) that it does not rank at all for general keyword phrases. In fact if each franchisee had their own individual domains, with multiple pages of optimised keyword rich content – if they were based on the same template, they still would not rank any better.
I get asked about this type of issue a lot. Excited and enthusiastic new franchisees (and multi level marketers) have setup their website using a template provided by “the business” and pretty soon begin to wonder why the eagerly anticipated enquiries and sales aren’t flooding in from their websites.
Quality, Keyword Rich, Unique Content
One of the very first things that most SEOs learn is that to get good rankings you need quality, keyword rich and UNIQUE content. Using a templated approach is clearly NOT a strategy you should follow to get unique content. For a graphic example try this search query : “incalculable numbers of real people” – which is snippet of text taken from a website template for a well known international “We are Not Multi Level Marketing” organisation (probably not the one you are thinking of).
The above, fairly specific, and you might expect, “unique” query returns over 40,000 results. Is it any wonder that most of these sites will never be found through organic search?
That’s not to say that there is no value in these templated systems – many have been setup to very cleverly guide people through to the signup process – but if you “own” one of these sites you will need to use other methods to get traffic to it (PPC, Advertising, etc) and not rely on organic search traffic.
So Yen, back to your question… If your franchisees want to be found for generic keyword searches, I suggest that they register their own domains, and create their own unique, keyword rich content rather than depending on the corporate “template”.
Andy Henderson
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@Article{acp-11-13269-2011, AUTHOR = {Sihto, S.-L. and Mikkil\"a, J. and Vanhanen, J. and Ehn, M. and Liao, L. and Lehtipalo, K. and Aalto, P. P. and Duplissy, J. and Pet\"aj\"a, T. and Kerminen, V.-M. and Boy, M. and Kulmala, M.}, TITLE = {Seasonal variation of CCN concentrations and aerosol activation properties in boreal forest}, JOURNAL = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics}, VOLUME = {11}, YEAR = {2011}, NUMBER = {24}, PAGES = {13269--13285}, URL = {http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/13269/2011/}, DOI = {10.5194/acp-11-13269-2011} }
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Infiniti Essence Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
It's not uncommon for an automaker to be evaluating several potential products at the same time, but those models usually hover within the parameters of the company's existing line-up. Not the case with Infiniti. Nissan's luxury division is reportedly looking at going both up-market and down with a pair of new products to give it a much father reach than the current range.
First up is a halo model, and after looking at the competition, Infiniti has reportedly come to the conclusion that, in order to lure buyers into showrooms, they'll need something attractive and high-end. And while a successor to the Q45 flagship sedan was once seen as a potential route, reports indicate that, if given the green light, a sportscar to rival the likes of the Audi R8, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and even the Lexus LFA would be the way to go. The show-stopping Essence concept previewed that notion, but Infiniti is reportedly still mulling the idea over, and the presence of the Nissan GT-R surely isn't helping focus the picture.
At the other end of the spectrum, Infiniti has long been considering the idea of an entry-level hatchback model to take on the Audi A3, BMW 1 Series and Volvo C30. Arch-rival Lexus became the first of the Japanese luxury brands to earnestly pursue the segment with the CT 200h, and if Infiniti is serious about getting a younger demographic, it could opt to follow suite in short order.
Related GalleryInfiniti Essence Concept
[Source: Ward's]
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My Vehicle Add New
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Nitrous System
We have 5 Items for Nitrous System In-stock.
There is a good chance that you have watched at least one of the Fast and the Furious films. If you haven't, it's a film that features cars that can zoom past you with the blink of an eye. The automobiles in the movie are capable of blinding speeds, to the point that you won't even have enough time to appreciate their stunning exterior as they drive extremely fast. And mind you, those speedsters you see on-screen are as real as it gets. They're able to generate insane levels of horsepower due to one thing-NOS. The nitrous system was ingrained into pop culture by the movie franchise. Chances are, it's where you first learned about the nitrous system. Do you remember the blue bottles that were labeled with NOS from the films? They're the central part of the system as they're the ones which house the nitrous oxide-the compound that's used to enhance the engine's power tenfold. The said compound provides more oxygen to the combustion process. And the more oxygen there is, the more power is made available to the engine (pure oxygen isn't used because it would it would only result to an improper combustion and a blown engine). Nitrous oxide can further improve performance by giving off a considerable cooling effect on the intake air when it vaporizes. By reducing the temperature of intake air, its density rises, which in turn provides even more oxygen for the engine. With a single push of a button, you can boost your vehicle's speed to unprecedented heights. But since engines burn through the nitrous oxide quite fast, most drivers choose to use it sparingly. If you're into racing (the legal kind of course, as opposed to the Fast and the Furious films), then you may consider gearing your car with a nitrous system. Auto Parts Warehouse can provide you with the stuff you need to set it up.Auto Parts Warehouse will assist you in turning your car into a beast, as we can furnish you with a top-of-the-line nitrous system. This product normally fetches for a rather high price, but with Auto Parts Warehouse, that's not the case. We offer all of our products at amazingly low prices-much lower than those from most local auto shops and other online car part retailers. At Auto Parts Warehouse, you can go faster with your automobile without getting furious at the costs.
Buying Guides
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Upgrading Your Engine Using a Nitrous System
You've probably already seen it in countless movies where the hero, who needs a burst of speed to catch up, hits up the turbo button and gets and instant boost from a nitrous system. Most folks wouldn't need the extra horsepower from a nitrous system, but serious drivers or those who compete in races will need all the extra performance that they could get from their engines. If you're planning on buying a nitrous system for your car for the first time, then it's best that you consult a professional who could explain and install it for you. To get you up to speed, check out our short guide about nitrous systems so you'll have a basic idea about them before you get one for your ride.
Wet and dry nitrous systems
Nitrous oxide is basically an additive to your engine's fuel and air mixture that provides an extreme boost in power. It will technically allow you to burn more fuel than normal to allow a more powerful gaseous explosion inside the engine. There are actually two basic types of nitrous systems that you could choose from. The most common one will be a wet nitrous system, which uses a premix of fuel and nitrous oxide that is delivered into the combustion chamber during ignition. There's also the dry nitrous system which essentially adds nitrous straight into the combustion chamber.
Pros and cons
It's commonly agreed upon that a wet nitrous system will deliver more power to a car's engine and is much safer to use than a dry nitrous system. On the other hand, a dry nitrous system is usually much cheaper than a wet nitrous system, and could pretty much deliver the same amount of performance if installed properly along with a little bit of fine tuning. In the end, it all boils down to your budget and how much power your engine can handle from a nitrous system. You do not need to get a high-end model especially if your engine can't handle the power that the system will produce. Since prices typically start around $500 for a basic system and goes past $1000 for high-end ones, then you'll only want to spend this much money if you are a dedicated enthusiast or are a professional who needs it when competing.
Repair Guides
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Powering Up Your Ride with a Nitrous System
Adding a nitrous system to your ride is a surefire way of increasing your engine's power. Nitrous oxide gas is commonly used by race car drivers to help deliver more oxygen to their vehicle's engines. Be careful when installing a nitrous system in your car. An add-on like a nitrous system is meant for serious racing applications and should not be installed simply for street use. You could install one yourself but you'll need to have adequate knowledge on how car motors work so you could safely install a nitrous system in your vehicle. Follow our quick guide so we could help you get a basic understanding on how to install this upgrade on your ride.
Difficulty level: Difficult
What you'll need
• Wrench
• Marker
• Bench vise
• Teflon tape
• Inline fuse
• Nitrous system kit
If you are unfamiliar with engine tuning and installing high-performance upgrades like a nitrous system to your car, then we recommend that you have an expert do it for you instead. An improperly installed nitrous system could leak highly flammable gas, which could ignite with a simple spark.
Step 1: Start by disconnecting your car's battery. You'll be dealing with electronic systems and wouldn't want to get accidentally electrocuted in the process. Additionally, you wouldn't want to accidentally turn on your nitrous system while in the middle of an installation.
Step 2: Find a place to mount the gas bottle from your nitrous system. This should be mounted far from the engine and transmission system. The bottle itself could get exceedingly hot and explode if placed too near the engine and other hot components.
Step 3: You'll also have to mount the bottle in a semi-upright position facing away from the vehicle's interior. This is done so that the blow-down tube faces away from the vehicle's interior and prevent gas from leaking into the cabin area.
Step 4: Once you've found a place to mount the bottle, then you'll need to drill some holes for the brackets. Use the appropriate drill bits that match the screws or bolts that come with your nitrous system kit.
Step 5: Secure the bottle into place by tightening the mounting brackets and clamps using a wrench.
Step 6: You'll then need to secure the nitrous fittings into the inlet and outlet port on your nitrous solenoid. Use some Teflon tape and wrap it around the connections in order to prevent leaks.
Step 7: Mount the nitrous solenoid near the nitrous bottle by drilling the appropriate number of mounting holes and bolting it securely into place.
Step 8: Connect the nitrous feed line to the fuel injector and attach the nitrous system electrical connections to the battery terminal through an inline fuse.
Step 9: Most kits will have a switch that you'll have to wire from the nitrous system all the way to your vehicle's dash. Follow the instructions on your nitrous system as it differs from model to model.
Step 10: Once you're done, then you'll have to reconnect your car's battery and perform tests on your nitrous system to make sure that it's working properly.
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Kbal Spean
'Kbal Spean' is a natural bridge which has given its name to the river it crosses and to the sacred site established along the river for more than a millenium. The majority of Kbal Spean's archaeological vestiges date to the 11th to 13th centuries. From just above the natural bridge to the north, down to the waterfall below, the Kbal Spean river bed is covered with sculptures of lingas, the symbol of the God Shiva's supreme essence. Some of the lingas are on pedestals in the form of their female counterpart, the yoni.
Sign at the approach to the Kbal Spean site
The river banks, along with basins carved deep into the river bed, are likewise sculpted with a variety of scenes, symbols and inscriptions. The most recurrent theme depicted is the recreation of the world fallen into chaos.
The God Vishnu reclines on the ocean in meditation, absorbing the watery chaos below; from his navel there grows a lotus flower bearing the Recreator, Brahma.
Flowing past and over these reliefs, the water is sanctified before branching off to form the Siem Reap and Puok rivers which continue south onto the plain and through the temple complexes of Angkor to the Tonle Sap lake.
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© 2005 APSARA Authority This website was built in cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
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Dee Dee Warwick: Foolish Fool
Dee Dee Warwick: Foolish Fool
Dee Dee Warwick
Foolish Fool
The context: In the shadow of Dionne Warwick's success, her sister Dee Dee cut a 1969 album, Foolish Fool, whose liner notes mention Dionne as often as they do Dee Dee herself. And that's a shame: Dee Dee's stark-yet-sophisticated soul was trampled in the mad rush to consume Dionne's saccharine, Burt Bacharach-penned tunes.
The greatness: Produced by Ed Townsend—except for the sublime "It's Not Fair," a forgotten Gamble & Huff standout bearing a sturdier backbone than the team was known for—Foolish Fool is a dark, nuanced record that doesn't sacrifice an ounce of earthy rawness. With harps and harpsichords stretched over sinewy backing, songs like the stomping "Don't You Ever Give Up On Me" and the hymnal "Thank God" let Dee Dee purr, roar, and wring every grain of grit out of her voice. The only misstep is a numb rendition of "Alfie," a song that Dionne rode up the charts two years earlier.
Defining song: Foolish Fool's title track opens the album, and it fleshes out the single version with an extended intro of Keith Richards-esque licks, followed by a loping, syncopated funk that feels like a stuttering heart, the perfect pulse to carry Dee Dee's wracked ode to inadequacy and infidelity.
More Permanent Records
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Who will host the 2016 Olympic Games?
Now the 2016 Olympic Games is under the political situation. No, Olympic Games is always political.
From the four candidate cities including Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Madrid, the hosting city will be announced in October.
According to the opinion poll by IOC in 2008, the approval rating by Tokyo citizens for 2016 Tokyo Olympics was 59%, and it was much lower than the rivals. Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara complained why people were so indifferent to the Olympics.
However, early this year, the approval rating became 70.2%. Maybe this is because of the serious recession. In Tokyo, people want something to stimulate the economy. People are now tired as seen the above photo (laughs).
At the subway station
At the subway station
In AXIS vol. 136, we made the feature The relationship between the city and Olympics and verified how Olympics changed the cities.
In the applicant files to IOC, every candidate city submitted keywords such as ecology, compact, and legacy etc. And it is hard to find the deep reasons to select one of those cities except Rio de Janeiro, which is trying to host the first Olympic Games in South America.
At the pavilion, Tokyo Big Site
At the pavilion, Tokyo Big Site
The main stadium site in Tokyo
The main stadium site in Tokyo
Anyway we will keep watching the Olympic matter from the viewpoint of design.
Follow me jiku twitter
AXIS magazine archives
designers on AXIS cover
Designers on AXIS cover 9 Richard Hutten
The Prototype Archive
The Prototype Archive 9 Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo Display of Sunlight through the Leaves (2006 -)
The book review leads to creation
The book review leads to creation 11 Arte come mestiere (Design as Art) / A book review by designer Naoto Fukasawa
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Answer a question Ask a question
How early can a hospital urine pregnancy test detect pregnancy?
I was sick with a chest cold in the hospital- they did a pregnancy test two weeks after my last period. It was negative, I am wondering if it was long enough though... wishful thinking here.
Posted: 01/09/2011 by a BabyCenter Member
Mom Answers
Well, the hospital doesn't use a fancy pregnancy test or anything that I know of so I would say probably a week before your missed period. You can buy another one and take it yourself or go to your nearest health clinic and get a blood test done a blood test can tell way sooner than a urine test. GOOD LUCK!! :)
posted 01/10/2011 by a BabyCenter Member
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Answer a question Ask a question
How to manage stress when not with my baby????
my husband made me a gift for the birth and that was a trip to the states for 15 days. Still my baby boy is only 5 months old and the thought of leaving him drives me crazy... He is supposed to stay with the grandparents but still i dont feel safe leaving him. I dont trust anyone to be honest I am thinking of taking him with me or not even going....anyone had to manage the same situation?
Posted: 07/08/2012 by stellalovesjake
Mom Answers
Thanks for answering lizloren you see new york is 13 hours away from where we live and in addition we will visit via car 2 more leat that the plan stressing me out if the baby will be ok in the plane and if it worths to change his whole schedule and environment...but your answer made me think of a new idea...maybe we could go and come back earlier...
posted 07/09/2012 by stellalovesjake
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I think your husband's intentions were good, but it's not really a gift if it's stressing you out. Why can't you take the trip with the baby along? It will still be a treat for you, but you won't have to worry. I'm sure he will be fine with the grandparents, but I totally understand how you feel. Especially when they're that little it can be hard to leave them behind. One or two nights might be easier that two weeks.
posted 07/09/2012 by lizlorell
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Quick healthy breakfast #2
Quick healthy breakfast #2
Eggs on salad: (prep time: 10 min with pre-washed salad)
We know, we know, salad for breakfast sounds weird if you're used to inhaling coffee and toast, but trust us, this salad is delicious and nutritious!
Ingredients: Pre-washed baby spinach, 1 apple, almonds and/or walnuts, raisins, vinaigrette, eggs, extra-virgin olive oil, salt & pepper
What you get: Vitamin C, A, E, B, D, K, magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, folic acid, protein, long-term energy, improved insulin absorption and less heart burn.
Directions: Place a handful of spinach on a plate. Scatter thinly sliced apple over the top. Saute in extra virgin olive oil -- or chop up raw, almonds or walnuts & add with a sprinkling of raisins to the salad. Drizzle your favorite vinaigrette* over everything.
Lastly, fry or scramble an egg or two as you like using the extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper as desired then place on the top of your salad; grab a big glass of water and sit down to enjoy a breakfast that gives you more long-term energy than any coffee-n-pastry combo on the planet.
TIP: If you don't like eggs or you're just extra-hungry in the morning, replace the eggs with some chicken breast, salmon or even last night's steak sliced up into thin strips.
World's simplest tangy-n-sweet vinaigrette:
Mix 3 parts extra virgin olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar + dash of salt & pepper + tbsp honey.
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Film: Short Films
'A Ride with Memories'
Casting notice expires: October 31, 2013
This listing has expired.
Search for similar casting calls
Olga Tymshan, dir.
Production Description
Casting "A Ride with Memories," a short student film. Synopsis: A taxi driver unwillingly accepts an old lady as his passenger at the end of his shift. She helps him make a life-changing decision as he takes her on her last ride to a hospice---to have a family with his pregnant girlfriend.
Rehearsal and Production Dates & Locations
Rehearses once or twice the week of Oct. 13; shoots Oct. 18-20 in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Compensation & Union Contract Details
Pays: $100/day, plus meals provided. SAG Student Film Agreement.
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There's a season that calls Chicagoans to gaze out the window and curse the weather. No, it's not the bone-rattling winter. It's summer. During these hot, humid, unpredictable months, in which the thermometer swings between 60 and 100 degrees, Mother Nature can never win.
Korean summer food is a lot like Chicago summer. It's hot when you expect it to be cold, and it's cold when you expect it to be hot. It stokes you into perspiration, it chills you into brain freeze. It's simple and complex, spicy and sweet, sour and creamy. You just never know what to expect, so you learn to enjoy it all.
Chicago's Korean food goes way beyond bulgogi (grilled marinated rib-eye) and bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables and runny egg), though those two dishes are promoted heavily to Westerners. That's a shame because, with almost 5,000 years of history, Korean cuisine offers layers of culture and philosophy, all stirred with a good dose of practicality and ingenuity. You'll find all those aspects in Korea's traditional summer dishes — all available in Chicago.
Here's your quick guide to cooling Korean dishes: what to order, how to eat, where to go — and why.
Sam gye tang
(Pronounced "sum-ghere-tah-ng"): Ginseng chicken soup
Boiled chicken in a steaming stone bowl may sound like the last thing you crave on a sweltering, 90 percent humidity afternoon. But that's exactly what Koreans line up for during the summer doldrums.
Sam gye tang is young chicken or hen stuffed with glutinous rice, garlic, jujube (a prune-y maroon date), ginseng and sometimes ginger, then simmered in its own fat and juices. The two vital "warming" ingredients, ginseng and garlic, are meant to inject you with nutrients lost to excessive sweating, as well as regulate blood flow and metabolism.
The idea of fighting heat with more heat ties to the principle of ki (qi in Chinese) — or life force, a sort of energy that flows within all living systems. Traditional beliefs say our well-being depends on how balanced your ki is. So if your surrounding environment's essence is hot, you must adjust your internal temperature to maintain health and balance, or so the idea goes.
The best place for sam gye tang is Ssyal Ginseng House in Albany Park. Like all sam gye tang places, Ssyal carts the stone pot over to you — a whole bird sitting in burbling broth, served alongside fresh chopped green onions and coarse, pepper-flaked salt ($13.99).
Ssyal's Cornish hen actually includes a whole stem of ginseng, unlike some other places that mutilate the ginseng into a barely 1-inch stump. At least two whole apricot-sized jujubes tumble out of the bird, licorice-sweet and plumped with chicken juices. The stuffed rice is cooked just right — not clumped into a doughy fist, but still sticky enough to hold together for a chewy mouthful, or mash into the broth.
Scatter the green onions over the hen, then taste a small spoonful of the broth. Season the broth with the provided salt, but leave some for dipping white meat. Slurp the broth, letting the vapors unfurl into your face. Sweat it out, then tear into the bird with your fingers. Pick up chopsticks once in a while to pop a kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchee) into your mouth. Pick up a spoon to slurp more broth and rice. Sweat, repeat.
Ssyal Ginseng House, 4201 W. Lawrence Ave., 773-427-5296; lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday
Naeng myun
(Pronounced "naeng-mee-un"): Cold noodles
For a simple, plain dish of noodles and sparse toppings originating from North Korea, naeng myun is wonderfully diverse. The ingredients for noodles vary, from buckwheat to arrowroot to sweet potatoes, sometimes tinted with green tea or seaweed. Toppings and broth differ too. But the two main versions are the mul naeng myun (literally "water chilled noodles") and the bibim naeng myun ("mixed chilled noodles"). Want something refreshing, tangy and quenching?
Go for the mul naeng myun. Want something a little spicier, a little drier and exploding with more flavor? Shoot for the bibim. Chicago offers both versions and more, and does them well.
Mul naeng myun is typically a tangle of long buckwheat noodles in chilled beef broth, waiting to be uncurled with steel chopsticks. You'll have vinegar and wasabi-like mustard on the side to season your icy broth. Bibim naeng myun comes dry and dressed in a spicy red pepper sauce, but with similar toppings: half a boiled egg, thin slices of beef, shaved radish, crisp Korean pear and slivered cucumbers. Both versions typically come in large stainless bowls that keep the contents as cold as possible.
Da Rae Jung in Lincoln Square, a nondescript shop squeezed into a strip mall, specializes in Hamhung-style naeng myun ($9-10). They make their noodles in-house, shipping the flour from South Korea. Get their raw skate bibim naeng myun, because that's what Hamhung (a city in North Korea) is known for. The special noodles, drenched in a light, puckery red sauce, are sprinkled liberally with sesame seeds and topped with sour kimchee and smooth pieces of jerky-like raw skate.
Solga in West Ridge offers chik noodles — a blend of buckwheat and kudzu, a Japanese arrowroot — that are earthier, inkier, chewier ($10). Cho Sun Ok in North Center serves yet another variety: yeolmu naeng myun ($10), basically mul naeng myun with fermented bitter radish greens added in for an even crisper, tangier broth. The best part is the creamy egg yolk. Mash the yolk just a little into the sauce or the broth, add a tiny squirt of vinegar, maybe a sliver of citrusy kimchee — and aaahh.
Da Rae Jung, 5220 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-907-9155; lunch and dinner Monday, Wednesday-Sunday
Solga, 5828 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-728-0802; lunch and dinner Monday-Sunday
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Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Demobilisa’tion of troops.
Dem’iurge (3 syl.),Democ’racy.
Demobilisa’tion of troops.
The disorganisation of them, the disarming of them. This is a French military term. To “mobilise” troops is to render them liable to be moved on service out of their quarters; to “demobilise” them is to send them home, so that they cannot be moved from their quarters against anyone. To change from a war to a peace footing. 1
Dem’iurge (3 syl.),Democ’racy.
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
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Batesville Herald Tribune, Batesville, Indiana
December 10, 2013
Crocodiles and alligators may be smarter than they look
By Jason G. Goldman
The Washington Post
Vladimir Dinets, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tennessee and an author of a new study describing this hunting technique, first saw a hint that crocodilians - which include crocodiles, alligators, and caimans - might use sticks as a lure in 2007. Doing research in India, he watched as a mugger crocodile lay motionless in shallow water with an array of sticks and twigs laid across its snout. When an egret flew by to grab the stick, the crocodile snapped and the bird narrowly escaped. Dinets had heard stories of similar crafty behavior by animals at Florida's St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoo.
But these were just isolated anecdotes, not subject to the rigors of scientific observation. "We needed to prove convincingly that the use of sticks was intentional," Dinets said. He started spending his weekends at two Louisiana lakes and discovered that the use of sticks as bait by wild alligators there was not haphazard. Alligators living beneath bird rookeries used them, while others didn't. Because the trees near the lakes don't regularly shed branches or twigs, this suggests that the gators were intentionally searching out sticks to use.
More significant, the alligators only used twigs as bait during the time of year that the wading birds were busy collecting twigs for their nests, from late March through early June.
This is the first report of a predator synchronizing the use of hunting lures to the seasonal behavior of its prey. And if tool use is rare in the animal kingdom, the use of objects as bait is even more rare. Until now, it has only ever been seen in capuchin monkeys, a few bird species and one insect.
Nathan Emery, a bird cognition researcher at Queen Mary University of London, isn't quite convinced. If the alligators "had detached the sticks from trees themselves, this would be considered true tool use," he says. "They need to do some experimental manipulation to go further in explaining what's driving this." For example, if the alligators were purposely choosing the best sticks and discarding others, that might be sufficient to qualify as true tool use.
Given that tool use might now occur in crocodilians and birds, both of which descend from dinosaurs, might dinosaurs themselves have used tools? According to Dinets, it is "very likely that at least some of the thousands of non-avian dinosaur species used tools as well," but he admits that this is at best an educated guess.
The new study adds to evidence suggesting that alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles are highly social, clever animals, not the plodding dullards of their image. They care for their young and have sophisticated mating rituals, and they might hunt cooperatively. "I do think that we have vastly underestimated the abilities of reptiles," Emery says. "but I don't think we've really got into their heads in the same way that we've been able to with birds and mammals."
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Sochi 2014: Snowboarding 'slopestyle' medal hope for Winter Olympics
27 December 2013 Last updated at 08:16 GMT
Professional snowboarder Jenny Jones is one of Britain's main hopes for a medal at the Winter Olympics in February.
She is one of the favourites in a new event called "slopestyle" where the goal is to perform difficult tricks while jumping.
BBC Breakfast's Mike Bushell went to Austria for a lesson.
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1 Corinthians 6:1-11 (Weymouth New Testament)
View In My Bible
1 If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people? 2 Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgement upon the world? And if you are the court before which the world is to be judged, are you unfit to deal with these petty matters? 3 Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels--to say nothing of things belonging to this life? 4 If therefore you have things belonging to this life which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the Church--is it *they* whom you make your judges? 5 I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there does not exist among you a single wise man competent to decide between a man and his brother, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To say no more, then, it is altogether a defect in you that you have law-suits with one another. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather submit to being defrauded? 8 On the contrary you yourselves inflict injustice and fraud, and upon brethren too. 9 Do you not know that unrighteous men will not inherit God's Kingdom? Cherish no delusion here. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor any who are guilty of unnatural crime, 10 nor theives, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language or to greed of gain, will inherit God's Kingdom. 11 And all this describes what some of you were. But now you have had every stain washed off: now you have been set apart as holy: now you have been pronounced free from guilt; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.
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Hebron [N] [H] [S]
a community; alliance.
• A city in the south end of the valley of Eshcol, about midway between Jerusalem and Beersheba, from which it is distant about 20 miles in a straight line. It was built "seven years before Zoan in Egypt" ( Genesis 13:18 ; Numbers 13:22 ). It still exists under the same name, and is one of the most ancient cities in the world. Its earlier name was Kirjath-arba ( Genesis 23:2 ; Joshua 14:15 ; 15:3 ). But "Hebron would appear to have been the original name of the city, and it was not till after Abraham's stay there that it received the name Kirjath-arba, who [i.e., Arba] was not the founder but the conqueror of the city, having led thither the tribe of the Anakim, to which he belonged. It retained this name till it came into the possession of Caleb, when the Israelites restored the original name Hebron" (Keil, Com.). The name of this city does not occur in any of the prophets or in the New Testament. It is found about forty times in the Old. It was the favorite home of Abraham. Here he pitched his tent under the oaks of Mamre, by which name it came afterwards to be known; and here Sarah died, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah ( Genesis 23:17-20 ), which he bought from Ephron the Hittite. From this place the patriarch departed for Egypt by way of Beersheba ( 37:14 ; 46:1 ). It was taken by Joshua and given to Caleb ( Joshua 10:36 Joshua 10:37 ; 12:10 ; 14:13 ). It became a Levitical city and a city of refuge ( 20:7 ; 21:11 ). When David became king of Judah this was his royal residence, and he resided here for seven and a half years ( 2 Samuel 5:5 ); and here he was anointed as king over all Israel ( 2 Samuel 2:1-4 2 Samuel 2:11 ; 1 Kings 2:11 ). It became the residence also of the rebellious Absalom ( 2 Samuel 15:10 ), who probably expected to find his chief support in the tribe of Judah, now called el-Khulil.
In one part of the modern city is a great mosque, which is built over the grave of Machpelah. The first European who was permitted to enter this mosque was the Prince of Wales in 1862. It was also visited by the Marquis of Bute in 1866, and by the late Emperor Frederick of Germany (then Crown-Prince of Prussia) in 1869.
One of the largest oaks in Palestine is found in the valley of Eshcol, about 3 miles north of the town. It is supposed by some to be the tree under which Abraham pitched his tent, and is called "Abraham's oak." (See OAK .)
• The third son of Kohath the Levite ( Exodus 6:18 ; 1 Chronicles 6:2 1 Chronicles 6:18 ).
• 1 Chronicles 2:42 1 Chronicles 2:43 .
• A town in the north border of Asher ( Joshua 19:28 ).
These dictionary topics are from
Bibliography Information
Easton, Matthew George. "Entry for Hebron". "Easton's Bible Dictionary". .
• Hebron [N] [E] [S]
society; friendship
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names. Public Domain. Copy freely.
Bibliography Information
Hitchcock, Roswell D. "Entry for 'Hebron'". "An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names". . New York, N.Y., 1869.
Hebron [N] [E] [H]
(alliance ).
1. The third son of Kohath, who was the second son of Levi. ( Exodus 6:18 ; Numbers 3:19 ; 1 Chronicles 6:2 1 Chronicles 6:18 ; 23:12 ) He was the founder of a family of Hebronites, ( Numbers 3:27 ; 26:58 ; 1 Chronicles 26:23 1 Chronicles 26:30 1 Chronicles 26:31 ), or Bene-Hebron. ( 1 Chronicles 15:9 ; 23:19 )
2. A city of Judah, ( Joshua 15:54 ) situated among the mountains, ( Joshua 20:7 ) 20 Roman miles south of Jerusalem, and the same distance north of Beersheba. Hebron is one of the most ancient cities in the world still existing; and in this respect it is the rival of Damascus. It was a well-known town when Abraham entered Canaan, 3800 years ago. ( Genesis 13:18 ) Its original name was Kirjath-arba, ( Judges 1:10 ) "the city of Arba;" so called from Arba the father of Anak. ( Joshua 15:13 Joshua 15:14 ; 21:13 ) Sarah died at Hebron; and Abraham then bought from Ephron the Hittite the field and cave of Machpelah, to serve as a family tomb ( Genesis 23:2-20 ) The cave is still there, and the massive walls of the Haram or mosque, within which it lies, form the most remarkable object in the whole city. Abraham is called by Mohammedans el-Khulil , "the Friend," i.e. of God, and this is the modern name of Hebron. Hebron now contains about 5000 inhabitants, of whom some fifty families are Jews. It is picturesquely situated in a narrow valley, surrounded by rocky hills. The valley runs from north to south; and the main quarter of the town, surmounted by the lofty walls of the venerable Haram , lies partly on the eastern slope. ( Genesis 37:14 ) comp. Genesis23:19 About a mile from the town, up the valley, is one of the largest oak trees in Palestine. This, say some, is the very tree beneath which Abraham pitched his tent, and it still bears the name of the patriarch.
3. One of the towns in the territory of Asher, ( Joshua 19:28 ) probably Ebdon or Abdom.
Bibliography Information
Smith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Hebron'". "Smith's Bible Dictionary". . 1901.
HEBRON (1)
he'-brun (chebhron, "league" or "confederacy"; Chebron):
One of the most ancient and important cities in Southern Palestine, now known to the Moslems as el Khalil (i.e. Khalil er Rahman, "the friend of the Merciful," i.e. of God, a favorite name for Abraham; compare James 2:23). The city is some 20 miles South of Jerusalem, situated in an open valley, 3,040 ft. above sea-level.
I. History of the City.
Hebron is said to have been rounded before Zoan (i.e. Tanis) in Egypt (Numbers 13:22); its ancient name was Kiriath-arba, probably meaning the "Four Cities," perhaps because divided at one time into four quarters, but according to Jewish writers so called because four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Adam were buried there. According to Joshua 15:13 it was so called after Arba, the father of Anak.
1. Patriarchal Period:
Abram came and dwelt by the oaks of MAMRE (which see), "which are in Hebron" Ge (13:18); from here he went to the rescue of Lot and brought him back after the defeat of Chedorlaomer (14:13 f); here his name was changed to Abraham (17:5); to this place came the three angels with the promise of a son (18:1 f); Sarah died here (23:2), and for her sepulcher Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah (23:17); here Isaac and Jacob spent much of their lives (35:27; 37:14); from here Jacob sent Joseph to seek his brethren (37:14), and hence, Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt (46:1). In the cave of Machpelah all the patriarchs and their wives, except Rachel, were buried (49:30; 50:13).
2. Times of Joshua and Judges:
The spies visited Hebron and near there cut the cluster of grapes (Numbers 13:22). HOHAM (which see), king of Hebron, was one of the five kings defeated by Joshua at Beth-horon and slain at Makkedah (Joshua 10:3). Caleb drove out from Hebron the "three sons of Anak" (Joshua 14:12; 15:14); it became one of the cities of Judah (Joshua 15:54), but was set apart for the Kohathite Levites (Joshua 21:10), and became a city of refuge (Joshua 20:7). One of Samson's exploits was the carrying of the gate of Gaza "to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron" (Judges 16:3).
3. The Days of the Monarchy:
David, when a fugitive, received kindness from the people of this city (1 Samuel 30:31); here Abner was treacherously slain by Joab at the gate (2 Samuel 3:27), and the sons of Rimmon, after their hands and feet had been cut off, were hanged "beside the pool" (2 Samuel 4:12). After the death of Saul, David was here anointed king (2 Samuel 5:3) and reigned here 7 1/2 years, until he captured Jerusalem and made that his capital (2 Samuel 5:5); while here, six sons were born to him (2 Samuel 3:2). In this city Absalom found a center for his disaffection, and repairing there under pretense of performing a vow to Yahweh, he raised the standard of revolt (2 Samuel 15:7). Josephus mistakenly places here the dream of Solomon (Ant., VIII, ii, 1) which occurred at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4). Hebron was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:10).
4. Later History:
Probably during the captivity Hebron came into the hands of Edom, though it appears to have been colonized by returning Jews (Nehemiah 11:25); it was recovered from Edom by Simon Maccabeus (1 Macc 5:65; Josephus, Ant, XII, viii, 6). In the first great revolt against Rome, Simon bar-Gioras captured the city (BJ, IV, ix, 7), but it was retaken, for Vespasian, by his general Cerealis who carried it by storm, slaughtered the inhabitants and burnt it (ibid., 9).
During the Muslim period Hebron has retained its importance on account of veneration to the patriarchs, especially Abraham; for the same reason it was respected by the Crusaders who called it Castellum ad Sanctum Abraham. In 1165 it became the see of a Latin bishop, but 20 years later it fell to the victorious arms of Saladin, and it has ever since remained a fanatic Moslem center, although regarded as a holy city, alike by Moslem, Jew and Christian.
II. The Ancient Site.
Modern Hebron is a straggling town clustered round the Haram or sacred enclosure built above the traditional cave of MACHPELAH (which see); it is this sacred spot which has determined the present position of the town all through the Christian era, but it is quite evident that an exposed and indefensible situation, running along a valley, like this, could not have been that of earlier and less settled times. From many of the pilgrim narratives, we can gather that for long there had been a tradition that the original site was some distance from the modern town, and, as analogy might suggest, upon a hill. There can be little doubt that the site of the Hebron of Old Testament history is a lofty, olive-covered hill, lying to the West of the present town, known as er Rumeidy. Upon its summit are cyclopian walls and other traces of ancient occupation. In the midst are the ruins of a medieval building known as Der el-Arba`in, the "monastery of the forty" (martyrs) about whom the Hebronites have an interesting folklore tale. In the building are shown the so-called tombs of Jesse and Ruth. Near the foot of the hill are several fine old tombs, while to the North is a large and very ancient Jewish cemetery, the graves of which are each covered with a massive monolith, 5 and 6 ft. long. At the eastern foot of the hill is a perennial spring, `Ain el Judeideh; the water rises in a vault, roofed by masonry and reached by steps. The environs of this hill are full of folklore associations; the summit would well repay a thorough excavation.
A mile or more to the Northwest of Hebron is the famous oak of MAMRE (which see), or "Abraham's oak," near which the Russians have erected a hospice. It is a fine specimen of the Holm oak (Quercus coccifera), but is gradually dying. The present site appears to have been pointed out as that of Abraham's tent since the 12th century; the earlier traditional site was at Ramet el Khalil.
See MAMRE.
III. Modern Hebron.
Modern Hebron is a city of some 20,000 inhabitants, 85 percent of whom are Moslems and the remainder mostly Jews. The city is divided into seven quarters, one of which is known as that of the "glass blowers" and another as that of the "water-skin makers." These industries, with the manufacture of pottery, are the main sources of trade. The most conspicuous building is the Haram (see MACHPELAH). In the town are two large open reservoirs the Birket el Qassasin, the "pool of the glass blowers" and Birket es Sultan, "the pool of the Sultan." This latter, which is the larger, is by tradition the site of the execution of the murderers of Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 4:12). The Moslem inhabitants are noted for their fanatical exclusiveness and conservatism, but this has been greatly modified in recent years through the patient and beneficent work of Dr. Paterson, of the U. F. Ch. of S. Med. Mission. The Jews, who number about 1,500, are mostly confined to a special ghetto; they have four synagogues, two Sephardic and two Ashkenazic; they are a poor and unprogressive community.
For Hebron (Joshua 19:28) see EBRON.
E. W. G. Masterman
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'HEBRON (1)'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.
HEBRON (2)
(chebhron, "league," "association"):
(1) The third son of Kohath, son of Levi (Exodus 6:18; Numbers 3:19,27; 1 Chronicles 6:2,18; 23:12,19).
(2) A son of Mareshah and descendant of Caleb (1 Chronicles 2:42,43).
See also KORAH.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'HEBRON (2)'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48830
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a-bil'-i-ti (dunamis, or ischus):
Variously used of resources, material, mental and spiritual; e.g. of wealth, "gave after their ability" (Ezra 2:69); of mental endowment, "ability to stand in the king's palace" (Daniel 1:4); of talents and character, "several ability" (Matthew 25:15); of spiritual strength, "minister, as of the ability which God giveth" (the King James Version 1 Peter 4:11). It thus may signify either possessions, native capacity, or gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'ABILITY'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48831
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Jeremiah 23:9-19 (New International Version)
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Lying Prophets
9 Concerning the prophets: My heart1 is broken within me; all my bones tremble.2 I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.3 10 The land is full of adulterers;4 because of the cursea5 the land lies parchedb and the pastures6 in the desert are withered.7 The [ prophets] follow an evil course and use their power unjustly. 11 "Both prophet and priest are godless;8 even in my temple9 I find their wickedness," declares the LORD. 12 "Therefore their path will become slippery;10 they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall. I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,11" declares the LORD. 13 "Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal12 and led my people Israel astray.13 14 And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible:14 They commit adultery and live a lie.15 They strengthen the hands of evildoers,16 so that no one turns from his wickedness.17 They are all like Sodom18 to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah." 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets: "I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water,19 because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness20 has spread throughout the land." 16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen21 to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions22 from their own minds, not from the mouth23 of the LORD. 17 They keep saying24 to those who despise me, 'The LORD says: You will have peace.'25 And to all who follow the stubbornness26 of their hearts they say, 'No harm27 will come to you.' 18 But which of them has stood in the council28 of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? 19 See, the storm29 of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind30 swirling down on the heads of the wicked
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48833
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Ezekiel 8:2 (Revised Standard Version)
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2 Then I beheld, and, lo, a form that had the appearance of a man; below what appeared to be his loins it was fire, and above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48840
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Another Hugger
We’re proud to announce the birth of our newest baby Snow Hugger. Manned by me, Snow Hugger is Bike Hugger’s colder, more mountainous cousin: a blog for ski and snowboard enthusiasts.
I’ll be enlisting some of my fellow aficionados to help me post from ski shows, demo equipment, and try out the slopes. We’re going to share our tips, hacks, and experiences, and if you’re a skiing, snowboarder, or other snow enthusiast, we want to hear yours.
Oh, and Byron has promised to own the snow tube beat.
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About this Entry
PezCycling in Girona was the previous entry in this blog.
Photo of the Day is the next one.
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About Bike Hugger
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48877
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Keeping Healthy Bacteria Happy
Wed, 05/14/2014 - 1:23pm
(Source: HMS)Harvard Medical School investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the mechanism by which an enzyme produced in the intestinal lining helps maintain a healthy population of gastrointestinal microbes.
A team led by Richard Hodin, HMS professor of surgery at Mass General, discovered that intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria by blocking the previously unknown growth-inhibiting action of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) within the intestine. Their report is published in American Journal of Physiology—Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.
“We found that ATP is a natural inhibitor of bacteria in our intestines and that IAP promotes the growth of ‘good’ bacteria by blocking ATP,” said Hodin, who is senior author of the paper. “By helping to keep these healthy bacteria happy, IAP protects us against dangerous pathogens that can get the upper hand when the balance is disrupted.”
The beneficial bacteria and other microbes that normally populate the human digestive system contribute to the digestive process and also prevent the proliferation of any disease-causing bacteria that may be present. A drop in the number of beneficial species, which may be caused by antibiotic treatment, poor nutrition or other health conditions, can allow the population of harmful bacteria to rise, contributing to serious medical problems, including chronic diarrhea from pathogenic species such as C. difficile, inflammatory bowel disease and metabolic syndrome.
Hodin’s team previously found that IAP keeps pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract from passing through the intestinal wall. A 2010 study in mice revealed that the enzyme plays an important role in maintaining levels of beneficial bacteria, including restoring levels reduced by antibiotic treatment. That study also showed that IAP does not directly promote bacterial growth, leaving exactly how the enzyme helps maintain the microbial population an open question that the current study was designed to explore.
A series of experiments first confirmed that mice lacking intestinal IAP had significant reductions in the populations of several important bacterial species. Hypothesizing that IAP may act by blocking a growth-inhibiting activity of one of its target molecules, the researchers tested how well bacteria in stool samples would grow in the presence of four known IAP targets. Among the tested targets, only ATP significantly reduced bacterial growth. ATP’s inhibitory effects were reversed by application of IAP.
Best known as the primary energy supply within cells, ATP also acts as a signaling molecule both inside and outside of cells. This study is the first to identify such signaling for ATP within the gastrointestinal system.
Experiments in living mice revealed that animals genetically engineered to lack IAP had 10 times the normal level of ATP within their intestines. Fasting animals, in which IAP levels would be expected to drop, also had elevated intestinal ATP. Adding ATP to the intestines of mice in which IAP activity had been inhibited reduced levels of beneficial E. coli bacteria in the animals’ digestive systems.
Taken together, the results show that ATP inhibits the growth of intestinal bacteria in mice and that IAP’s growth-promoting effects result from the enzyme’s inactivation of ATP and possibly of related molecules.
“Now we need to find out whether IAP also promotes the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria in humans,” said Hodin. “If it does, IAP-based therapies could offer a simple and safe approach to treating the millions of patients who suffer serious health problems caused by disruptions to intestinal microbial balance.”
Source: HMS
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Capture the special moments
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Spring has sprung! Discovered these in our garden this morning... Only about four weeks early!! Never even thought of looking at the pots... :-)
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Save on all your Printing Needs at 4inkjets.com!
Dysphoria (Screenplay Pt 2)
Page 1, A teenager (16) is on the verge of depression. He lost his girlfriend due to rumors spread about him which weren\'t true. The teenager begins to see a counselor to deal with this problem. The counselor ends up helping him in a very unique and strange way... *** I know the description of the scenes will not be very detailed, but I have where I want to shoot the scenes at in my head. For example, in the opening paragraph, I say I will drive by \"Rowdy\'s house\" This is a guy in my grade, he has a big house on top of a hill. But if you can overlook the scence description, and tell me what you think of the overall plot, I would appreciate some constructive criticism. I may also change some parts of the script in the future, this may not be the final draft. If there are any questions, feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer them.***
Kaleb: Will I notice a drastic change in my mood?
Donald: Maybe not right away, but you may over the next few months.
Kaleb: Ok, well I guess I better be going now.
Donald: Ok, take care, I'll see you next week.
*Kaleb leaves Mr. Donald's office*
[transition back to Kaleb looking at phonebook]
*Looking through phonebook*
*After about 10 seconds*
Kaleb: Got nothin to lose.
*Picks up phone and dials the number to Jeff Cunningham's office*
*Kaleb will walk into his bedroom when he is talking on the phone*
*Show a small office type setting, it will be a very small office, it appears to be family operated, not a very big organization, a lady will be sitting by a phone, she will answer it*
Lady: Hello, you've reached Jeff Cunningham's office, this is Danielle, how may I help you?
Kaleb: Um, yes, I was wondering if I could make an appointment with Mr. Cunningham.
Danielle: Can I get your name?
Kaleb: Kaleb Ferguson.
Danielle: Did you have any specific date in mind Mr. Ferguson?
Kaleb: I would like to set one up today if at all possible.
Danielle: (hesitantly) Well, I'm not sure if Mr. Cunningham will be able to do one today, but I can check, can you please hold?
Kaleb: Sure.
*Danielle gets up from her desk and walks over to Mr. Cunningham's office*
*Mr. Cunningham's office will have a sign on it that says "Mr. J. Cunningham"*
*Danielle knocks on his door*
Danielle: Mr. Cunningham?
*Show Mr. Cunningham laid back in his chair drinking a can of beer*
Cunningham: (flustered) Just a second, *he puts his beer under his desk*
(there are also about 2-3 plastic holders for 6 packs of beer beside his desk)
come in Danielle.
(Cunningham is drunk, but you can't really tell all that much)
Danielle: What are you doing in here? (laughing)
Cunningham: Why do you ask that? (nervous)
*Danielle has a stern look on her face*
Dainelle: You feelin' ok today? (concerned/annoyed)
Cunningham: Me? I'm just fine (laughs)
Danielle: This isn't a joke Jeff *Mr. Cunningham cuts her off*
Cunningham. You will call me Mr. Cunningham.
Danielle: Excuse me, Mr.(emphasis) Cunningham, I just received a call from a man that needs your help, but it looks like you're in no shape to help yourself, let alone someone else.
Cunningham: No, no, no, I can handle it, what's the girl's name, is she hot?
Danielle: (annoyed) The man's name is Kaleb Ferguson, and he wants to meet with you today. He is on hold right now, do you want me to transfer him to you?
Cunningham: yeah,yeah, put the ol' boy on.
Danielle: (sighs) alright.
*Danielle walks back to her desk*
*Danelle sits down and picks up the phone*
Danielle: Sorry about the wait.
Kaleb: It's ok.
Danielle: I am now going to transfer you to Mr. Cunningham, please hold for about 30 seconds.
Kaleb:(slightly annoyed) Ok
*Danielle gets up, and goes to Cunningham's office again*
*She walks right into his office without knocking*
Danielle: He's waiting.
Cunningham: Alrighty
*Danielle leaves the room*
*Cunningham picks up his phone*
Cunningham: Mr. Ferguson?
Kaleb: Yes, hello Mr. Cunningham, I was just wondering if you had a session available for me today?
Cunningham: *heavy breathing* Oh yeah, just drop by here in about an hour and we'll be good to go.
Kaleb: Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, do you think we could have the session at my house?
Cunning: I'm afraid that's against our policy here.
Kaleb: (pleading) I'll pay you double.
*Cunningham looks over at his beer holders*
Cunningham: I believe that can be arranged, just to be sure you are going to give me $100 right?
*Kaleb looks at his ad in the phonebook, he notices that Cunningham only charges $100 normally, it would be $200 based on Kaleb's offer, but Cunningham is drunk, and doesn't realize the profit he could make*
Kaleb: Your ad says $100, so...*Cunningham cuts him off*
Cunningham: $100 is $100 what's hard to understand about that?
Kaleb: Nothing (laughing)
*Kaleb starts to walk back into the living room*
Cunningham: Can I have an address?
Kaleb: 413 N. Virgina street
Cunningham: Alright, I'll see you in an hour or so bub.
Kaleb: Bye.
*Kaleb hangs up phone*
Kaleb: (concerned look on his face) bub?
*Show Cunningham pulling into the driveway*
Kale: That must be him.
*Cunningham is walking to the door*
*Cunningham knocks on the door 3 times*
*Kaleb answers the door*
Cunningham: Hey, are you Kaleb Ferguson?
Kaleb: That would be me, and you are Jeff Cunningham correct?
Cunningham: Yes.
Kaleb: Please come in *hand gesture to motion him in*
Cunningham: I'm liking this house you have here.
Kaleb: Thank you, can I get you something to drink?
Cunningham: (hesitantly, Cunningham wants a beer, but he must not drink in front of his patients) Um, no thanks; Shall we begin?
Kaleb: I suppose so.
*As Kaleb begins to sit down in his chair Cunningham stops him*
Cunningham: Would you mind if we go to your bedroom to have the session, I feel it will go better that way.
Kaleb: Whoa!
Cunningham: (laughing hysterically) Aw man (talking to Kaleb like they've been friends for years, Cunningham nudges Kaleb on the shoulder) I didn't mean it like that, (still laughing, not as loud though) anyways, let's move on.
Kaleb: (laughing) Ok.
*They walk to the bedroom*
Cunningham: Now what I would like for you to do is to lie down on the bed and make yourself comfortable (laughing) don't worry, I won't try anything.
*Kaleb lies down on the bed*
Kaleb: (laughing) I hope not, it would be shame to have to report you for sexual harrassment.
Cunningham: (laughing) It sure would be.
Kaleb: Yeah.
Cunningham: So why am I here today Mr. Ferguson?
Kaleb: It's very hard to explain, but I will try my best.
Cunningham: That's all you can do, go on.
Kaleb: Ok, my buddy gave me a ride home earlier today, and when we got to the intersection by the church I saw a vehicle, and in this vehicle there was a girl?
Cunningham: Do you know the girl?
Kaleb: Yeah, she moved about 2 months ago. we were actually going out for a little bit, and then she just ended it after hearing some nasty rumors about me, and today was the first time I have seen her since then.
Cunningham: I see, and how did that make you feel?
Kaleb: As soon as I looked into the vehicle and recognized her, overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger came over me, like nothing else I have ever felt. It was odd. It was starting to feel like I was getting better with handling the heartache of the breakup, but when I saw her today, it all came back.
Cunningham: What do you mean by "it all came back"?
Kaleb: (can not believe Cunningham doesn't understand what he just said, the expression on his face is astonished) The feelings I used to have for her. I guess my brain just blocked out all the thoughts and memories of us being together to help protect from the sadness and anger I would feel all the time.
Cunningham: It sounds to me that you still have feelings for this girl. Do you?
Kaleb: Yes, I believe I made it clear that I still have feelings for her (laughs)
Cunningham: *nods head* Um hmm.
Kaleb: Also, I have been having very strange occurences with my televison.
Cunningham: I don't know much about tvs, so I'm not sure I could help you with that, you might want to contact your cable company.
Kaleb: No, no, no...this is the main reason why I called you.
Cunningham: Go on...
Kaleb: This is going to sound extremely strange, whenever I turn my tv on, and I try to change channels, my remote messes up, but after about 5 seconds, it will work, but it will not change to a television channel I've ever seen, no matter what button I push, it will always go to a channel that shows the girl I like standing in a vacant lot.
Cunningham: What channel is this again?
Kaleb:(annoyed) I'm not even sure it's a real channel, but if it is, I have no clue which one it is, but it gets even more bizarre.
Cunningham: *leans forward* I'm listening
Kaleb: When the tv is on this channel, the girl will be standing there saying things to me like "come here" and she can hear things that I say. Whenever I try to leave the room, I am not able to, some force is keeping me from doing so.
Cunningham: I've never heard anything like this before.
Kaleb: And when I approach the tv to turn it off (because the remote always messes up when Sarah is on screen) the tv acts like a vacuum and sucks me into that vacant lot I was talking about, I don't know how it happens.
Cunningham: Are you currently any type of medication?
Kaleb: Not that I know of.
Cunningham: Very well, carry on...
Kaleb: When the girl and I talk, it seems like everything is normal, but when I say something stupid, or anything that gives her a strong emotional feeling, the area around us starts to disappear and I always end up waking up in my buddy's car.
Cunningham: It sounds like you're just lucid dreaming.
Kaleb: It can't be, this exact same thing with the tv has happened to me multiple times!
Cunningham: (annoyed) Why are you trying to waste my time like this kid, How long did it take for you to come up with this elaborate scheme?
Kaleb: If I made something up, it would sound more believable than this!
Cunningham: (sighs) *stands up* I believe I'm done here, *puts hand forward to shake Kaleb's hand*
*Kaleb grabs his hand very tightly, hurting Cunningham*
*Cunningham holds his wrist in pain*
Kaleb: Don't forget your $100! *slams it in Cunningham's hand*
*Cunningham walks out of the house*
*Kaleb opens the door and yells at Cunningham*
Kaleb: You're a joke Jeff, you didn't help me at all!
Cunningham: *As he is about to close his car door* Why don't you go have some more romance dreams kid!
*Kaleb is enraged, and starts to chase after Cunningham*
*Kaleb starts to punch out the passenger side window, but restrains himself*
*Cunningham pulls out of the driveway*
*Kaleb starts to walk back to the house, when all of a sudden*
Andy's voice: Wake up, Wake up.
*Kaleb looks around to try and find where the voice is coming from, seconds later, he falls down*
[Transition back to car]
Andy: You dozed off there.
Kaleb: Apparently (sarcastically)
Andy: You got any plans for today?
Kaleb: No, I just want to stay at home today.
Andy; Okey dokey
*Arriving home*
Kaleb: Thanks
*Kaleb opens the car door*
Andy: No problem
*Kaleb gets out of the car and goes to his house*
*Kaleb sits down in his chair and picks up a phonebook*
Kaleb: Yellow pages, help me out.
Kaleb: Hopefully Dan Thomas is a lot better than that fraud Cunningham.
*picks up phone and calls Thomas*
Thomas: (Thomas will be at home sitting on a couch, he runs an even smaller business than Cunningham did) You've reached Dan Thomas, how may I help you?
Kaleb: Hello, Mr. Thomas, my name is Kaleb Ferguson I wa...
*Thomas cuts Kaleb off*
Thomas: (angry) Don't call here again, Cunningham told me all about you.
*Thomas hangs up the phone*
*Kaleb has the phone to his ear and hears a dial tone*
Kaleb: Great(angry)
Kaleb: (confused) How did he remember what happened between us? I don't understand, if our session happened in one of my *airquotes* dreams, there is no way he should remember... I don't know what's going on.
Kaleb: (sighs)
Kaleb; Hurry up!
*Pushing buttons on remote*
Kaleb: Right about... now (the remote wil change channels now)
*Kaleb changes the channel*
*Sarah appears on the tv*
*Kaleb approaches tv and gets sucked in*
[Transition to vacant lot]
Kaleb: (attempting to be smooth) Is your last name Gillette? Because you're the best a man can get.
Sarah: (laughs) lame *walks away*
*walks after Sarah lazily*
*area starts to disappear*
[Transition back to car]
Andy: Wake up man!
*Kaleb wakes up*
Kaleb: Important question, what did I say to you the last time you came over?
Andy: About what?
Kaleb: Anything, just tell me anything you can remember.
Andy: I was just over about an hour ago, why is this so important?
Kaleb: (surprised) This may sound weird, but did I mention anything about Sarah and my tv?
Andy: I don't recall you ever mentioning anything about her or your tv.
Kaleb: Oh ( uncomfortable laugh) nevermind then. Hey man, do you think I can hang with you at your house for a while, I need to get away from here for a little bit.
Andy: I guess so man, is there anything you want to get before we go?
Kaleb: No, I'm good
*Show Andy back out of Kaleb's driveway*
Andy: I gotta go get my cousin, he asked if he could come over today also, I don't want to be unfair.
Kaleb: Do I know him?
Andy: Yeah you remember him, he's the video game freak
Kaleb: Yeah, he gets a little too competitive at times though
Andy: Yeah, that can get a little annoying, but other than that he's one of the few people around here that I can actually tolerate.
Kaleb: Yeah
[Transition to Andy's cousin's house]
*Andy and Kaleb are pulling into Chris's (Andy's cousin) driveway*
Andy: I'm gonna go see what he's doing, this won't take long.
*Andy opens the door to get out of the vehicle*
Kaleb: I think I'll just stay out here.
Andy: Ok
*Show Andy walking into the house to get Chris*
*Andy knocks on Chris's door, he will be playing a video game*
Andy: Hey man
Chris: *turns away from his video game* Oh hey Andy.
Andy: I just dropped by to see if you still wanted to come by today?
Chris: Yeah, that'd be fun.
Andy: Let's go then if you're ready.
Chris: * pauses his game* Hold on, let me grab some games.
*Chris will grab a black game case that has about 15 games in it...including Freekstyle*
Andy: Got everything?
Chris: Yeah, let's go.
*Show Kaleb sitting in the car, he gives a slight smile when he sees Chris*
*Andy and Chris walk to the car*
*Andy begins to back out of Chris's driveway*
Kaleb: So what've you been up to Chris?
Chris: Not a whole lot, just sittin in my room all day, there's really nothin else to do
Kaleb: I hear that...
Chris: Hey man, you wanna turn on the radio?
Andy: sure, why not
*Andy turns the radio on, Through Glass/Stone Sour plays*
Chris: This is a good song
*Show Kaleb shaking his head in amusement, he finds it funny how this happened to be the song that's playing*
Chris: Can you stop by the store real quick, I gotta get a Monster
Andy: ( sighs) Why didn't you say that earlier, now I have to turn around.
Chris: Oh come on man, it's only like a minute away.
Andy: Do you have money?
Chris: No.
Andy: Tell you what, since I could use something to drink too, I'll get one for you this time, but next time, you won't be so lucky ( laughs)
Chris: Thanks.
Andy: Kaleb you want anything?
Kaleb: No, I'm good.
Andy: You sure?
Kaleb: Yeah, don't waste your money on me (slight smile)
[Transition to store]
*Andy and Chris will get out of the car and enter the store to get their drinks, Kaleb will stay in the car, Through Glass/Stone Sour is still playing*
Kaleb: This song (laughs and shakes head)
*Kaleb looks back at Chris's game case*
Kaleb: Let's see what he brought for us to play.
*Right as Kaleb grabs and is about to open the game case, a vehicle pulls up and parks next to him, ( The vehicle looks exactly like the one he passed that Sarah was in, (except this car will have a marking of some sort on the back bumper)
Kaleb: No way...*puts down game case* *Has his eyes focused on this vehicle*
*Andy and Chris are walking out of the store, (Kaleb doesn't really notice this)
*Andy and Chris approach Andy's vehicle, and when Andy opens the door*
*Kaleb turns his head quickly to the left*
Andy: What's that all about? (laughs)
Kaleb: I don't know.
Chris: Thanks again for the Monster, Andy.
Andy: Eh, don't worry about payin me back, your my cousin, I was just givin you a hard time.
*Kaleb is leaning against his window*
Chris: You feeling alright Kaleb?
Kaleb: Yeah, yeah, I'm just a little tired.
[Transition to Andy's house]
Andy: Well, we're here guys.
Kaleb: (sarcatically) Really? I had no idea.
Chris: (laughs)
*Andy parks his vehicle*
*They get out and enter Andy's house*
*Walking through the hallway towards Andy's room*
*They enter Andy's room, Kaleb sits on the futon, Chris places his game case beside Andy's ps2 and sits beside Kaleb, Andy sits on the bed*
Andy: What do you guys want to do?
Kaleb: I don't care, just whatever
Chris: I'm kinda feeling like some MKA
Kaleb: Mortal Kombat?
Chris: Yeah, Armagedon
Andy: Man, I haven't plauyed that game in a while.
Kaleb: I used to play it, I don't know how good I am though.
Chris: Let's see how good you are against me.
Kaleb: It's been a while, we'll see.
Chris: I call Sub Zero ( excited)
Kaleb: That's fine with me, put it in.
* Chris takes Mortal Kombat Armagedon out of his game case and puts it in the ps2*
Chris: Who do you think will win Andy?
Andy: That's a tough one, you play games more than anybody I know, but Kaleb can hold his own, he used to beat me all the time; so it's really a toss up.
Chris: It won't be for long (serious)
*The game is now at the character select screen*
Kaleb: *inner thoughts* (not selecting a character yet, Chris already has Sub Zero picked) Sub Zero, it's obvious that he's going to try and use his ice against me.
Chris: What's the hold up?
*Kaleb scrolls down and selects Raiden*
Kaleb: Let's go Raiden.
Chris: None of that cheap pausing and unpausing to look at you moves either.
Kaleb: That's fine.
*Show some game footage*
*Chris will take the first round of the match, he will use Sub Zero's ice move about 4-5 times, he will have about half of his life left*
Chris: ( laughs) I didn't know it was going to be this easy
Kaleb: Don't get too sure of yourself just yet...
*Show gameplay footage of 2nd round*
*Kaleb will start off with Raiden's thunder charge and unleash a combo on him, Chris will attempt to freeze kaleb, but Kaleb will use the teleport move to dodge it and he will hit Chris with another combo,killing him*
Andy: Raiden always was your best character
Chris: Whatever, all he uses is that stupid teleport move, I'm done, you win (annoyed)
(Chris can not take losing very well, so he challenges Kaleb to something else)
Chris: You're rather athletic aren't you?
Kaleb: I'm nothing to brag about.
Chris: Alright, what do you say we go outside and see just how athletic you really are.
Kaleb: In what?
Chris: Andy, how far can you throw a football?
Andy: I can throw about 30 yards on a good day, but I'm not all that into sports anymore.
Chris: Eh, good enough; here's what I'm thinking, you play 5 downs as a receiver and I'll be the lockdown corner that shuts you down, if you can catch 3 of the 5 passes, you win.
Kaleb: Um, ok I guess.
Chris: Good, let's go...
*They walk outside to the backyard*
Chris: *pointing to a tree about 35-40 yards away* you gotta get past that tree to get a touchdown.
*Kaleb will tell Andy what route he is going to run*
Andy: Hut.
*Kaleb runs an In route, the bullet pass is thrown behind him*
Chris: 0 for 1.
*Kaleb jogs back to Andy*
Kaleb: Hitch
*Andy nods his head*
*Kaleb runs a hitch, Chris will play excellent defense, Kaleb will catch the ball and juke out Chris*
Kaleb: *looking at Chris* 1 for 2.
*Jogs back to Andy*
Kaleb: Out
Andy: Hut
*Kaleb runs a 10 yard out route, the pass has plenty of strength, but is thrown behind him again*
Kaleb: Come on Andy.
Andy: Sorry
Chris: 1 for 3, gotta get these next 2 or you lose.
*Kaleb jogs back to Andy*
Kaleb: Slant
Andy: Hut
*Kaleb does a studder step to the right, runs a slant and catches the ball for a touchdown*
Chris: (grunts)
Kaleb: 2 for 4.
*Kaleb jogs back to Andy*
Kaleb: Andy, we need to get this one, (sighs) Deep Post.
Andy: Kaleb, I haven't been able to throw anything accurately over 10 yards today.
Kaleb: You can do it, you have the arm strength, just take a little off of it, if you get it in my general area, I will catch it.
Andy: I'll try my best.
Kaleb: That's all you need to do.
Chris * moving towards kaleb to jam him at the line* This is it right here.
Kaleb: yep (confident)
Andy: Hut
*Chris jams Kaleb at the line, Kaleb uses his hands to deflect the jam, he runs the post, Chris bites on a double move and loses his footing, Andy throws a ball that is way over Kaleb's head, but he catches it with one hand. As Kaleb is running with the ball, he sees Sarah's vehicle suddenly drive down the driveway, it causes Kaleb to fall down in shock. Chris runs towards Kaleb to touch him down...Kaleb fails to get the touchdown*
Kaleb: (astonished) (screams in fear) No!
*Chris is too excited about his victory, he is running towards the house*
*Kaleb is still on the ground*
*Andy begins to run towards Kaleb*
Andy: ( to Chris) Where you goin?
Chris: In your room
Andy: Ok
Kaleb: What is she doing here?
Andy: Who?
Kaleb: Sarah!
Andy: What? (confused)
Kaleb: (urgently) Did you not see that car pull in, follow me
Andy: Ok??? (skeptical)
*Andy and Kaleb walk back to the front yard*
Andy: Where's she at?
Kaleb: (has a confused/amazed look on his face) I'm seeing stuff, forget I said anything. (shaking head)
Andy: You ok?
Kaleb: I think I'll be ok
Andy: Sucks that you can't go see Mr. Donald anymore
Kaleb: Yeah, I don't even know why he lost his job, something about illegal practices.
Andy: Hmmm
Kaleb: You want to go in now?
Andy: Yeah
*Kaleb and Andy walk inside the house*
Kaleb: I'm gonna get something to drink.
Andy: Me too.
*They walk to the fridge*
*Kaleb opens the fridge and pulls out a container of Kool-Aid*
*Kaleb sits it on the counter and gets two glasses down from the cabinet*
Kaleb: *As he is pouring drinks* He gets a little excited when he wins doesn't he?
Andy: Yeah, he's always been competitive, maybe too much (laughs)
Kaleb: I'd say.
Andy: Let's go see what he's doing.
*Kaleb and Andy walk back into Andy's room*
Kaleb: What's goin on in here?
Chris: Madden 06, that's what's up.
*Show Chris playing Madden 06*
Kaleb: Cool
Chris: Want to play?
Kaleb: No thanks man, I'm really tired.
Chris: How about you Andy?
Andy: No... I'm not good at sports games at all, I'd be no match for you (laughs)
Andy: Yeah, me and Kaleb are pretty tired, so I don't know about him, but I'm gonna take a nap.
Kaleb: That sounds good.
Andy: Chris, you should sit in the floor so Kaleb can sleep there.
Chris: Ok (reluctantly) *moves to the floor*
*Kaleb lies down on the futon*
Andy: You can do whatever you want in here, try not to wake us up matter of fact, why don't you mute the tv.
*Chris mutes the tv, he sits the remote beside him on the floor*
*Chris plays Madden 06 for about 20 seconds (he will stop playing Madden when he gets a Touchdown, and then puts in Freekstyle*
[Transition using the alarm clock]
*About an hour later*
*Show Chris playing Freekstyle, he is about to win a race*
Chris: (after he wins the race) *stands up in excitement* Yes! *he unmutes the tv by stepping on the remote*
Chris: Oooh (makes a facial expression reacting to his accidentally unmuting the tv)
*When Chris starts the next race,Kaleb rolls over*
Kaleb: *rolls over, (sees Chris playing Freekstyle)
Kaleb: (blinks eyes repeatedly) What are you doing? (angry)
Chris: Just playing this game, what's your problem? ( defensive and yelling)
*Andy wakes up*
*Andy notices that Chris is playing Freekstyle*
Andy: Why are you playing that? (confused)
Chris: Because I like it, what's the problem guys? ( defensive)
Kaleb: (sighs) I used to like it.
*Kaleb holds his head down, Andy looks over at Kaleb*
Andy: Why don't you play a different game.
Chris: I'd rather not.
Kaleb: He can play what he wants.*gets up and walks towards the door*
Chris: Where you going?
Kaleb: Home.
Andy: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you serious, that's like a 40 minute walk, let me give you a ride.
Kaleb: It's 30 if I run *walks out of Andy's room*
Chris: What's his deal, it's just a game.
Andy: Not to him it isn't (sincere)
[Transition to Kaleb's house]
*Kaleb is running up his driveway*
*Kaleb is breathing heavily as he walks towards his door*
*He unlocks his door, walks in, goes to his bedroom, lies flat on the bed, punches his mattress 3-4 times, rolls over and goes to sleep*
[Transition backs to Andy's vehicle]
Andy: (coughs)
*Kaleb wakes up*
Kaleb: Great ( annoyed)
Andy: What?
Kaleb: Here we go again (sarcastically amused)
*Pulling into Kaleb's driveway*
Andy: Talk to you later.
Kaleb: Later.
*Kaleb gets out of the vehicle and goes inside his house*
*Turns on light, sits in chair*
Kaleb: Video games (laughs) *shaking his head*
*Kaleb remembers playing Mortal Kombat, we show clips of Madden and MK we show Kaleb using Raiden's teleport move last*
*Kaleb makes an excited facial expression, he has an idea*
*Kaleb gets up and picks up a nearby hat*
*returns to his chair*
Kaleb: I wonder...
*turns on tv, waits 5 seconds*
*Tries to change channel*
Kaleb: yeah, yeah, yeah, I know...you're messed up (looking at control)
Kaleb:(sarcastically) I hope the remote's not broken *hits button* *changes channel to Sarah on it*
*walks toward tv*
Kaleb: I wonder what's going to happen.
*Kaleb grips the hat firmly with both hands*
*gets sucked into tv*
[transition to vacant lot]
Kaleb: Hello
Sarah: Hi
*Kaleb walks over to some bushes*
Sarah: What are you doing?
Kaleb: Just putting my hat over here, it's uncomfortable, and i don't feel like holding it.
Sarah: Ok then.
Kaleb: (thought) The hat can't blow away, the weather has been the same everytime I've been here. *puts hat down* *zoom in on hat*
*walks back over to Sarah*
Kaleb: How are you doing today?
Sarah: I'm ok.
Kaleb: *laughing hesterically and sarcastically* that's great, want to write me an essay about it?
Sarah?What's your problem dude?
Kaleb: (rudely) Don't know.
sarah: Whatever, I don't need this.
*Sarah starts to walk away*
*world starts to disappear*
[transition back to car]
*Kaleb wakes up*
Andy: Do you...
*Kaleb cuts him off*
Kaleb: shut up! (angrily)
Andy: Ok ( laughs)
[Transition to Kaleb's house]
Andy: You really need to calm down man.
Kaleb: Don't worry about it.
*exits car*
*walks to house, unlocks and enters door, turns on light*
*Kaleb sits in his chair turns on tv*
Kaleb: I don't want to watch this.
*remote is broke*
*Kaleb tries to change the channel*
Kaleb: Gosh darn the luck!(sarcastically)
*changes channel to Sarah about 5 seconds later*
*Kaleb gets sucked in the tv*
[Transisition to vacant lot]
Kaleb: Hey
*walking towards the place where he previously put the hat*
Sarah: Where are you going?
Kaleb: I'll be right back.
*Kaleb walks to where the hat was, and discovers it is gone*
Kaleb: (thought) Where is it? (Angry) whatever, I'm sure I'll be back.(loud enough so that Sarah hears it, but doesn't understand)
Sarah: What?
Kaleb: (inner thought, he says this sadly) This is getting old. Did I stutter? (yelling at her)
Sarah: No, why are you like this, I don't know you and if this is the way you are, I don't want to know you (angry)
*Sarah walks off*
Kaleb: (whisper) I'm sorry (sincerely)
*Show Kaleb's face, we can see that he does not feel comfortable acting the way he has been*
*world disappears*
[Transition back to car]
Andy: Wake up sleeping beauty, we're almost there.
Kaleb: I'm up.
Andy: so you want to go to the arcade later?
Kaleb: No
Andy: Ok, maybe tomorrow
*pulling into driveway*
Andy: Later
Kaleb: Later
*exits car*
*Kaleb walks to the door, unlocks it, turns on light, and sits down*
*Kaleb is bent over with his hands on his head thinking*
Kaleb: ( thoughts) Here's what I got so far ***Show flashbacks***
I don't think I can take items into the alternate universe, I can't fall asleep in my room, I always wake up in the car, and no one remembers the events that happened except Cunningham, because how else would that Mr. Thomas know who I was? Why is he the only person that remembers things? I still don't get that (angry)
Kaleb: (rubbing his temples) (thoughts) I have no clue, but it might have something to do with my bedroom, hopefully! I guess it would make sense, since Cunningham was in there, I don't really know, but it's worth a shot I suppose (sighs).
*Kaleb goes to the bedroom and takes a watch from the top of the drawer and sticks it in his pocket*
*Walking back to chair*
*Kaleb is about to attempt to turn on the tv, he suddenly hears a noise at the window*
Kaleb: What's that? ( whispering angrily)
*Kaleb walks to the window to check what the noise was*
*Kaleb sees a masked man outside*
*Masked man drops a crowbar*
*Show the crowbar hitting the ground*
*Masked man starts to run away from the house*
*Kaleb takes a deep breath and heads out the front door to confront the Masked Man*
*Kaleb notices the crowbar on the ground, and begins to chase the Masked Man*
*Kaleb runs, catches the Masked Man and tackles him*
*Kaleb is holding Masked Man down with his left arm, he takes the mask off of the man, it is Dave*
Kaleb: (has an angry expression on his face) he begins to punch Dave at least 7 times*
Kaleb: You caused this!!!
*Dave is lying helplessly on the ground*
Kaleb: Almost as easy as the first time (amused)
*Kaleb lets Dave up, and he walks away slowly*
*Kaleb walks back to house he rubs his knuckles on the way back*
*Enters house*
*sits in chair, turns on tv*
*tries to change channel, remote is broke*
*5 seconds later, Kaleb changes channel to the Sarah*
Kaleb: It's about that time again!
*approaches tv, gets sucked into it*
[transition to vacant lot]
*Kaleb walks over to bushes where he had previously placed the hat*
*Kaleb places the watch from his pocket down there*
*show watch lying on the ground*
Sarah: What are you doing over there?
Kaleb: It looked dangerous over there, I was checking to see if any snakes were over there.
Sarah: Do you like snakes?
Kaleb: ( very hesitantly, but keeping composure to make it sound like he is trying to hurt her feelings, but we can tell Kaleb is very uncomfortabe talking like this) No, but I would if they injected you with venom!
Sarah: Wow ( shocked)
*Kaleb walks after Sarah*
*Kaleb starts counting off 3 seconds on his fingers, when he gets to 0 and makes a fist, the world disappears*
[Transition back to car]
*Wakes up in car*
Andy: Have yourself a good nap?
Kaleb: Yeah, I'm just ready to be home.
Andy: Alright
[Transition to Kaleb's house]
Kaleb: Thanks
* exits car*
*walks towards house, unlocks door, turns on light*
*Sits down in his chair and turns on tv*
Kaleb: I know the drill, you're not going to work * hits button on remote to change channel, ( it doesn't work)*
Kaleb: But if I'm patient, it will work
*5 seconds later, Kaleb changes channel to the one with Sarah*
*Kaleb walks to the tv, gets sucked in*
[Transition to vacant lot]
*Kaleb runs over to the place he put the watch, it is there*
*Kaleb smiles in a way that is similar to Donnie Darko's confident smile*
*Kaleb walks back toward Sarah with the smile on his face*
Kaleb: Hey
Sarah: Hey
Kaleb: How are you doin today?
Sarah:Great, yourself
Kaleb: Things could be better, but for the most part, no complaints.
Kaleb: So I can't help but notice those headphones, (Sarah will have headphones overlapping her shirt) what kind of music's on the Ipod?
Sarah: Oh, um, Sarah names various bands*
Kaleb: Really? (amused) I actually went to a *insert band* concert last month.
Sarah: You lucky punk, where at? ( smiling)
Kaleb: OKC
Sarah: I bet it was a great show.
Kaleb: It was... so what are your preferred foods and or drinks?
Sarah: Pizza for sure, and probably Dr. Pepper.
Kaleb: ( laughs) No need for me to answer, you answered for me.
Sarah: (laughs)
Kaleb: *looking at Sarah's eyes* Your eyes are gorgeous.
Sarah: Aww, thanks.
Kaleb What's your favorite movie?
Sarah: *says movie*
Kaleb: That is a pretty good one.
Sarah: Yep.
Kaleb: Yeah, it's one of those that can be interpretted in so many ways.
Sarah: You know, I'm really enjoying this, I know it hasn't even been a minute yet (laughs) but I haven't been able to enjoy things in a while.
Kaleb: Why is that? ( concerned)
Sarah: Well, my mom hasn't had a job in the past 3 months, and God knows where dad is, so I've had to keep 2 jobs for my mom and I to get by, there is almost no free time for me.
Kaleb: I understand.
Sarah: I've also been in terrible relationships in the past, I've been abused, neglected, cheated on, you name it...it hasn't been pretty.
Kaleb: ( mocking Sarah, crying sounds) *(this is by far the hardest Kaleb has had to insult Sarah, he somehow manages to do it) he shakes a little bit while doing it* I've been abused, yeah...so have 1,000,000 other girls, what makes you so special?
Sarah: (annoyed) Wow, what a surprise, I thought you were a nice guy. *Sarah starts walking off*
*As Sarah is walking off, show Kaleb's face, he is on the verge of crying*
* world disappears*
[Transition back to car]
Andy: Hey, wake up
Kaleb: *wakes up* (sighs).
Andy: What's up?
Kaleb: I got some stuff to take care of man.
Andy: Ok
[Transition to Kaleb's house]
Andy: Hey, if you get all the stuff done you gotta do, you wanna hang with me and Chris later?
Kaleb: No, that's ok ( laughs)
Andy: Ok, see you later.
*exits car*
*walks toward house, unlocks door, turn on light*
(Kaleb has a confident smile on his face)
*Kaleb is walking to the bedroom to grab an envelope, paper and pen from his drawer*
*Kaleb sits down on the bed and begins to write a letter*
*Show Kaleb writing a letter, (we will show him doing this at 200% speed)
*after Kaleb is done writing the letter, show Kaleb looking over the letter*
Kaleb: This'll do. *Kaleb folds up the letter and writes "Urgent" on the letter.
*Kaleb walks to his chair, (he doesn't sit down) he grabs the remote and turns on the tv*
*He tries to change the channel, (remote will not change channels) *
*After 5 seconds,Kaleb changes channel to the one with Sarah*
*Kaleb holds the envelope in his hands firmly, and enters the tv*
[Transition to vacant lot]
Kaleb: excuse me?
Sarah: Yes?
Kaleb: you may not know me, but trust me, this letter is extremely important,
*Holds letter in front of his body* please read it. *Holds the letter out towards Sarah*
Sarah: Why?
Kaleb: It's important.
Sarah: What's it about?
Kaleb: (pleading, confessing) It's from me ok, just read it.
*Sarah takes the letter, unforlds it, and begins to read it*
*As Sarah is reading the letter, a voiceover of Kaleb will read the letter*
Kaleb: (voiceover) I never thought I would build up the courage to tell you how I feel, but I think, no I don't think...I know you are the most magnificent person I will ever get the privelege to meet. I can't explain it, but it feels like I have met you before. I know you don't know me very well, but given the chance, I will never allow you to get mistreated or heartbroken again. I am not selfish, I'm not the kind of guy that makes his girl pay for a ticket for *name of movie*, a drink of Dr. Pepper , or a piece of pizza. Whatever makes you happy...makes me happy. I promise if you give me a chance, you will never be treated better. P.S. I pre-ordered 2 *band* ticket next month, if you're interested.
Kaleb: (hesitantly) I hoped you liked it.
Sarah: Liked it? *Kaleb starts to frown* I loved it! ( very happily)
*world starts to disappear*
Kaleb: NO! ( extremely angry, the equivalent of his sadness of making fun of Sarah)
[Transition back to car]
Andy: Wake up!
Kaleb: Shut up! ( the angriest he has been towards Andy)
Andy: Chill
Kaleb: Just shut up! (angry)
*Andy stops the car*
Kaleb: What are you doing?
Andy: You can walk! ( angry)
Kaleb: Whatever! (angry)
*Kaleb gets out of the car and starts running home*
*Show Kaleb running for about 30 seconds or so to Celldweller/Narrow Escape*
[Transition to Kaleb's house]
*Kaleb approaches his house, unlocks the door, turns on the light*
*Kaleb walks to the kitchen*
*Kaleb will make himself a glass of pop*
*He will go to the kitchen table to sit down and drink it ( he drinks it fast)
*Kaleb puts his head down on the table, (In the End/Linkin Park will play in the background) he will sit there for about 10 seconds, then he will throw his glass against the wall, he will lay his head back down*
(After he throws the glass against the wall, we will show flashbacks with In The End/Linkin Park playing in the background... [probably about 30 seconds worth of flashbacks sped up])
*Back to Kaleb at the table*
*Kaleb hears a knock at the door*
Kaleb: (whispering angrily) What is it now!
Kaleb: (yelling) Come in.
*Sarah enters the door*
*Sarah walks to the entrance of the kitchen*
Sarah: Kaleb?
*Kaleb jerks his head up quickly*
*Kaleb get up and walks towards Sarah, they look into each others eyes*
The End
© Copyright 2014N1NJA All rights reserved. N1NJA has granted theNextBigWriter, LLC non-exclusive rights to display this work on Booksie.com.
© 2014 Booksie | All rights reserved.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/48998
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Newsweek/Daily Beast Author: Bachmann's Faith Comes from Daddy Issues
Nothing is off limits when the left attacks conservatives.
As soon as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced that she would not be seeking a new term, it was time to brace for a barrage of vile, lying bile from the left-leaning media.
We didn't have to wait long.
Newsweek / Daily Beast Special Correspondent Michael Tomasky quickly posted a piece called "Michele Bachmann, Daddy, Jesus, America" that allows him make up things about Rep. Bachmann but also to go after Jesus and America, too. Tomasky is an avowed liberal, and his attack piece is revealing in its nastiness and self-serving guesswork:
To me, the most important thing about what Bachmann represents is the profoundly undemocratic impulse of adopting a world view that took her own personal life experience and attempted to impose its lesson on the rest of us.
He goes on to explain that his suspicions about Bachmann were confirmed by a New Yorker slam in 2011. Tomasky sums up his takeaway:
When she was 14, Bachmann's father, whom she'd adored, left her family. They became impoverished. It probably didn't help that dad was a liberal. Two years later, she joined a prayer group, and she found a man to take daddy's place.
The term "misogynist" gets kicked around by liberals as much as a hacky sack outside a Phish concert, but Tomasky's last clause--and she found a man to take daddy's place--is a darned strange way to talk about a person. It indicates the same deep-seated of disrespect for woman that's been on display from Bill Clinton to John Edwards to Anthony Weiner.
Can you think of another politician--a man, perhaps--who was abandoned by his father, had his world view changed by this personal experience, and then took it a step further and actually wrote a book about it called Dreams from my Father
Of course, President Obama isn't a conservative, and so his motivations aren't picked apart by the hypocritical and sneering Tomasky.
The "man" Tomasky says Bachmann found is Jesus, and so Tomasky is able to get in his first not-so-subtle hit on God and religion. With his double-standard smear laid out, Tomasky goes on to muse about Bachmann's motive for getting into politics:
When you've had an experience like that, an experience that persuasive, you quite naturally proceed through life on the assumption that everyone needs such an experience, and that if only they will open themselves to such an experience, their lives will change, too. So I think it's probably fair to conclude in her case that she wasn't in politics to build senior centers or alter Medicare. She was in politics to give people fathers in Jesus, to give them her experience.
No reason for Tomasky to guess, though. As she told National Public Radio in 2011, Bachmann entered politics after winning a battle with state authorities over education policy. And Rep. Bachmann herself explained her motivation in running for office in her announcement video today:
My decision to seek federal office, both in my initial running for the House and my decision to run for the presidency of the United States, was based solely on my heartfelt concern for our country's future.
Concern for her country was her motivation, not the Christian conversion crusade that Tomasky created out of whole cloth. Bachmann's politics are rooted in her spiritual beliefs--but likely many believers, so is everything in her life.
Yet Tomasky's real target isn't just Bachmann; he's taking aim at God, as well. This comes out in his lame attempt to create an illusion of balance he says:
One finds zealous types like this on the left too, of course, but since they don't wrap themselves in the Shroud of Turin, they don't usually come across as quite so demagogic, or at least not demagogic in quite as threatening a way, since their words don't ring with all that bleak history of God and state that has produced so much misery and hatred over the centuries.
Naturally, he ignores the mass graves around the world filled with the bodies of men, women and children who had the misfortune to live in a time and place when demagogues of the left ruled.
Tomasky sees a woman who loves God and country and finds it bleak and threatening and undemocratic. It's her patriotism and piety that chaps Tomasky's hide. It bespeaks of the deep nihilism that Andrew Breitbart repeatedly pointed out was at the heart of liberalism.
Bachmann herself knew the hits would be coming when she announced she wasn't going to running for the House again. As she said in her video, "I fully expect the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision not to seek a fifth term", adding: "They always seem to attempt to find a dishonest way to disparage me. "
And so, they did.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/49004
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When HP released its TouchSmart series, we were taken away by excellent multi-touch features and HP’s custom UI that turned Windows Vista into a very capable multimedia machine. HP positioned these machines into the upper-end scale, with 22" and 25.5" screens.
Now, Dell is taking over the entry-level segment with a PC that takes all of the discussions about Mac vs. PC out the Window. You can get a touch-screen all-in-one desktop with a quad-core processor, 4GB of memory and nVidia’s GeForce 9400 chipset for less than a grand. Studio One 19 Desktop is full name of the machine, and under a tagline "Begs to Be Touched", this 18.5" screen is priced anywhere between $699 and $994. Out of four launched models, three carry Multi-Touch features [$799, $899 and $994 models]. Processing power varies from a dual-core Pentium to a quad-core Core 2 Quad, 2-4GB DDR2-800 memory, 320-500GB hard drive and so on. For $150, you can get a slot-loading Blu-ray drive, but somehow we don’t see the purpose of Blu-ray drive on a non-FullHD screen.
Dell's multitouch PC for $799.
As you can see for yourself, the machine is very elegant, yet affordable… is it any good? We’ll leave that when we receive the system for a review…
The key of this machine is a solid 18.5" LCD screen with 1366×768 [16:9 aspect] with an [alleged, Co-Ed.] scratch-resistant multi-touch surface combined with Dell’s Touch Zone UI and a special driver that brings Multi-touch to your standard desktop screen such as internet browsers, office applications and many more.
Personally, I had the opportunity to work on the HP TouchSmart for couple of days and the system intrigued me – if you install Windows 7 on this machine you can literally get a "computer for 2010" and "2010 desktop" today, no strings attached. We won’t touch the subject of a weak graphics card here, since all-in-one machines are not for gaming. If you’re into gaming, we would advise HP’s machine with GeForce 9800GTX upgrade option. HP’s multi-touch machine starts at $1150, but comes with 3.5" larger screen.
Dell wins our brownie points for bringing a multi-touch desktop computer in the price range of an iPhone 3G 16GB without contract.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/49013
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life cycle
• TITLE: swan (bird)
...eggs on a heap of vegetation while the cob keeps close guard; in some species he takes his turn at brooding. After repulsing an enemy, swans utter a triumph note, as geese do. The young, called cygnets, emerge short-necked and thickly downed; though capable of running and swimming a few hours after hatching, they are carefully tended for several months; in some species they may ride about...
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Greek law
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Greek law, legal systems of the ancient Greeks, of which the best known is the law of Athens. Although there never was a system of institutions recognized and observed by the nation as a whole as its legal order, there were a number of basic approaches to legal problems, certain methods used in producing legal effects, and a legal terminology, all shared to varying degrees by the numerous independent states constituting the Hellenic world. It should not be forgotten, however, that such common foundations as there were gave rise to a great variety of individual legal systems differing as to their completeness and elaboration and reflecting the tribal (i.e., Dorian, Ionian, etc.) and historical backgrounds as well as the changing social, economic, political, and intellectual conditions of their respective societies.
Greek legal life of the 5th and 4th centuries bce was determined by three dominant factors. One was the existence of a multiplicity of city-states (poleis), each of which possessed and administered its own set of laws. The second element was the fact that in many, if not most, of the poleis (one certain exception was Sparta) the laws were laid down in written statutes, some of them being elaborate and more or less complete codes setting forth procedural methods and substantive rules for the administration of justice. This was the result of a great movement for legal codification that from the 7th century had swept the Greek world. Solon of Athens (594 bce), who had been preceded in 621 by Draco, is the best known of a number of famous lawgivers, other outstanding ones being Zaleucus of Locri Epizephyrii (south Italy) and Charondas of Cantana; Lycurgus of Sparta is considered legendary. A number of enactments rightly or wrongly attributed to Solon still are known from literary quotations rendering them in a modified form that reflects a legislative reform of 403–402 bce. One of the Draconian laws has been preserved in an Attic inscription giving it in a revised version dating from 409 or 408 bce. The law code of Gortyn, which is itself the revised version of an older code, is the only one that comes close to being fully preserved.
The third determining factor for Greek law was the absence of a body of jurisprudence comparable to that of the Romans. Even the Attic orators, for all their practical familiarity with the laws of the city, were mainly interested in presenting arguments suited to persuade the mass juries before whom they had to argue, not in analyzing the legal system with the object of obtaining a deeper insight into its implications. Nor, for that matter, did the philosophers care for the law as it was, their aim being the discovery of abstract standards of justice.
The three characteristics outlined here were important influences on the general character of Greek law. The first two of these factors resulted in a rather stiff positivism. Contrary to views held by scholars until recently, new research has shown that the Athenian dicasts who sat in judgment did not feel free to base their verdicts on vague notions of equity but adhered, at least in theory, to the literal meaning of the written statutes (nomoi), which they were bound by a solemn oath to observe. This somewhat narrow clinging to literal interpretation, combined with the absence of any attempt to deal with statutes or legal situations in an analytical manner, led to the result that Greek law never attained the doctrinal refinement of Roman law, notwithstanding the remarkable technical flexibility that characterized it in Hellenistic times.
At the present stage of research, the only judicial system sufficiently known to warrant description is that of 4th-century Athens. In the democratic period its justice was administered by magistrates, popular courts (dikastēria), and the Areopagus. Functionaries received the actions and arranged the trials that took place before the courts, with each functionary having a specific jurisdiction: the archon over matters pertaining to family and succession, the “king” (archōn basileus) over religious matters (including murder), the thesmothetai (“determiners of customs”) and others over the rest. A special jurisdiction was that of the polemarchos (literally, “general”) over the metics (resident aliens). The trial competence of the dicasteries rested on the principle, first introduced within certain limits by Solon and made universal after the establishment of full democracy, that the citizenry in its totality should judge the affairs of its members. The dicasts were selected by lot, every citizen over 30 years old being eligible. In rare cases of great political importance, the whole hēliaia (i.e., the popular assembly organized as a court of 6,001 men) was convened. Normally sections of the hēliaia (specifically called dikastēria), composed of 1,501, 1,001, or 501 men in criminal cases and 201 men in civil cases, were charged with the decision.
Murder cases were argued before the Areopagus, a body composed of former archons. Probably transformed from an original council of the nobility, it was a relic of the predemocratic period.
In the Greek view, the trial served to determine the justification of a claim to seize the defendant’s person or belongings or both by way of an enforcement proceeding (praxis). The claim (dikē) might be raised by the plaintiff in pursuance of a private right or as a “public” (dēmosia) dikē for the purpose of obtaining the defendant’s punishment. The filing of a public dikē (technically called a graphē) was open to every citizen. Apart from this, the differences between private and criminal procedures were slight.
Both private dikai and graphai had to be initiated by summoning the defendant (who might be under arrest) to the magistrate having jurisdiction in the matter and by filing a written complaint with the latter, who would subject it to a preliminary examination (anakrisis). Parties to a civil suit concerning pecuniary affairs were then sent to a public arbitrator (diaitētēs). If one of them refused to accept the award or if the matter was not subject to compulsory arbitration, the case was referred to a dicastery presided over by the magistrate. The dicasts, after listening to the arguments and evidence submitted by the parties, found their decision, which could only be a choice between the two proposals made by the parties, by secret ballot without debate. Their judgment was final between the parties, but the loser might bring a private tort action (dikē pseudomartyriōn) against a witness whose false deposition had influenced the verdict. A victorious plaintiff in a private lawsuit had to enforce the judgment himself by attaching property of the defendant.
In distinct contrast with the Greek philosophy of justice, the positive law of ancient Greece had little influence on later developments. Its concepts and methods did, of course, widely determine the legislation and practice of Hellenistic monarchies, and a few institutions of Greek origin, such as the “Rhodian” maritime law of jettison or certain methods of documentation (mostly Hellenistic, to be sure), were adopted by the Romans. Contrary to views held some decades ago, however, the late Roman law, and with it west European legal doctrine, did not undergo any notable degree of Hellenization. Only in the customs of isolated places in Greece itself do some ancient traditions seem to survive; their extent is still a problem for legal historians.
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MLA style:
"Greek law". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
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Greek law. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
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Greek law. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 29 July, 2014, from
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