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BP oil spill animals affected Federal wildlife officials reported that 1, 144 ocean turtles, 609 which had been dead, and 109 marine mammals (mostly dolphins, the majority of which had already died) were gathered on or near the coast. Many of these animals were visibly oiled, however may have died of other causes. In the case of sea turtles, researchers genuinely believe that a number of the fatalities might be owing to drowning in shrimp trawls in angry dash that occurred in expectation of fisheries closures as a result of spill. Whatever the cause, the turtles were rendered more in danger of the oil spill effects. Wildlife rescuers collected significantly more than 8, 000 birds; tragically, about 6, 000 among these wild birds had already died if they had been collected. Other people were rehabilitated but might not have ultimately survived the traumatic experience. Many more wild birds were oiled because of the crude polluting coastal marshes. Many species of seafood, seabirds, marine mammals and water turtles have already been impacted from oil spill. Obtaining the stranded creatures shows only a portion associated with the oil spill’s casualties. It might be years until the real consequences of oil spill on wildlife tend to be grasped. Through the oil spill, about one-third for the Gulf of Mexico’s waters were shut to fishing. Some fisheries remain shut, and concerns stay about meals security. Within height of this oil spill, Atlantic bluefin tuna, a critically imperiled species whoever numbers have now been decimated by overfishing, had been spawning inside gulf coast of florida. This location — specially the area suffering from the spill — comprises the sole known spawning reasons the western population of Atlantic bluefin tuna. The oil proved poisonous to eggs, which float near the surface, also to younger fish concealing in drifting sargassum seaweed, which might have gathered oil and increased the fish’s exposure. May 24, 2010, the guts petitioned the us government to guard Atlantic bluefin tuna underneath the Endangered Species Act, pointing aside the few person tuna that made it after dark gauntlet of longlines returning to their Gulf spawning reasons had been then threatened by oil and poisonous dispersants. Experts estimate that the oil spill killed a lot more than 20 % of juvenile western Atlantic bluefin tuna this season — and therefore estimation does not look at the anticipated long-term unwanted effects associated with oil spill within the tuna’s reproduction habitat. Jeopardized sperm whales were spotted moving through giant slick. Blue, fin and sei whales in addition swim through these oceans. As air-breathing mammals, whales taking a trip through the area had no option but to surface amid the oily sheen for air. Breathing toxic fumes can damage mucous membranes and airways. In extreme situations, it could also trigger demise. Furthermore, specialists predicted that plankton that baleen whales like blue whales and fin whales count on would endure significant declines from the air pollution. Another species in the base of the system, the menhaden, might also feel the impacts of the spill. Along with encouraging a fishery harvesting on average one or more billion weight per year, the menhaden is a vital meals source for sharks, tuna, swordfish and marine animals. It’s a particular specialty of fish-eating wild birds like herons, gannets, gulls, osprey and brown pelicans. As with a number of other species, the oil spill hit during the middle associated with menhaden’s spawning season. The sea-grass beds south regarding the Chandeleur Islands and elsewhere across the coast provide food, protection and nursery websites for a multitude of marine life, including many fish and shark types. Sea-grass beds provide crucial habitat for West Indian manatees that nibble on the sea lawn and boost their particular young within these superficial, peaceful waters. Oil can smother sea grass, robbing these mild giants of their meals resource. Additionally, oil can get into manatees’ eyes and physical hairs on the noses once they surface to breathe, causing irritation and disease that impair the pets’ ability to breed and give. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles forage and nest along the Louisiana coastline. Breton Sound plus the Chandeleur Islands, the very first coastal places to-be struck with BP’s oil, tend to be specially crucial places for this species. Ironically, the turtle’s success in crawling toward recovery may have place it at an increased risk due to enhanced amounts of juveniles coming to nearshore oceans during the spill to forage on blue crabs, many of which were contaminated by poisonous oil. Adult females also passed through the area on their way to nesting beaches along the coasts of Texas and Mexico during the height of the spill. Oil make a difference sea turtles in many different techniques. Ingestion of oil through contaminated food and absorption through direct physical contact can cause damage to the turtle’s intestinal tract as well as other organs. Oil may also cause irritation of mucous membranes when you look at the eyes, nose, and throat, that could trigger infection. Eggs laid in oil-contaminated sand — or by an oil-contaminated mom — cannot develop properly, while newly hatched turtles may become oiled while crossing a contaminated beach. Hopes continue to be that attempts to move sea turtle eggs were successful, and that the turtles will survive their migrations and come back to nest one day. Another species whose success story was turned on its head may be the brown pelican. Delisted during 2009, the brown pelican was one of the most prominent sufferers of oiling, reduced habitat and loss of food supply. COASTAL WETLANDS AND BEACHES Oil coating seaside marshes as well as other wetlands contaminated sediments, poisoned wildlife and smothered salt-marsh grasses as well as other wetland plant life. The loss of plant life in wetlands could cause considerable erosion and habitat reduction. Sandy coastline habitat additionally experienced significant oil contamination. Oil still persists into the marshes with little being done to replace these painful and sensitive habitats.

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Jude, Zeta where have you been? We've been looking all over and here we find you at the psychiatrist's office raising awareness about mental health within the community. Well, I personally want to say that "We love it". "Side Effects" is an intriguing film providing a little insight into the world of depression, along with a dash of embellishment clearly for the purposes of making it into a motion picture. Anyone experiencing a mental illness or even treating a mental illness will testify that one's mental health is no laughing matter, by any means. "Side Effects" is a must-see film for the simple fact that it deals with real topics and issues that most have experienced either first hand or indirectly through someone we know. So let's pop open the Xanax and see what this movie is about. Jude Law stars as Dr. Johnathan Banks, a psychiatrist confident in his practice, until he encounters a seemingly harmless client named Emily(Rooney Mara). Emily comes to his attention in a depressed state via recent suicide attempt that lands her in the emergency room. Banks being a doctor overworked and maybe even ready to go home allows Emily to leave with only a script and her word that she would meet with him for outpatient treatment. Now, anyone knowing 2 cents about mental health would know that you don't get to go home after attempting to take your own life in the same night. Anywho, he releases her to her husband, Martin(Tatum) that reassures Banks that his wife will take her medications and attend scheduled appointments. Sounds like an open and shut film huh? Well, it's not. Emily attends the appointments and goes through the normal dialogue of her childhood troubles and sources of stress while experimenting with medications to find something without too many "side-effects". Everything seems to be going along according to plan, until Emily wants to try this new wonder drug called "Ablixa". Ablixa is to be the drug of the century, the cure all, but no drug is without side-effects and this one has some that aren't so easy to eliminate. You ever hear of Ambien and all the sleepwalking that it has caused? Well, multiple the intensity of it's side-effects by 100 and you have your new cure for depression. Emily begins to take this new pill and this is where the movie starts! "Side Effects" puts Banks face to face with either one of the most clever people to walk the planet or the sickest client in mental health cinema history. This movie is guaranteed to have psychiatrists thinking twice before pulling out their blue pads and prescribing the next "It" drug on the market. The obvious question is "Who would prescribe a new drug without doing the proper research"? Any idea, Banks? Catherine Zeta Jones give an eye opening performance in the film as Dr. Seibert, a mature female psychiatrist that becomes interested in the work of Banks and Emily. One has to wonder why she has taken such an interest in the work of Banks, hmm? It's always nice to see Zeta take on a role as she gives it 110 percent every time. I first started following her films after watching her performance in "Traffic", great film by the way if you haven't seen it. I've got to say, her role as Seibert definitely adds some "essence" to the film and I'll leave it at that. Now for the true star of the film, Rooney Mara, she takes on the role of Emily Taylor, a depressed and very suicidal young woman that flips Bank's world upside down. The way in which Mara portrays the character shows that Soderbergh put a lot of effort into researching depression and communicating his needs for the film. I personally have worked in mental health for the past 12yrs and I would say that she gives a convincing performance, but that's just my personal opinion. Mara is going to be someone to look for in future films, but if this is your first introduction to her, it's definitely a treat. To wrap things up, "Side Effects" is a movie about mental illness, but it does not reflect the issues and concerns of everyone experiencing depression. "We don't want anyone making assumptions about themselves or anyone else that they know diagnosed with an mental illness". Unhinged Reviews recommends this film for those curious about the mind and how serious it is for both clients and doctors to do the research on medications before starting treatment. Unhinged Reviews also recommends this film for those in search of a good drama with an unexpected plot twist or two. Enjoy. Click a button to share this review with others Leave a comment to discuss the film or open a dialogue about your experience with mental health.

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Thank you, Sheriff Zaruba. I appreciate your kind words. I also want to thank you, and the NSA's outstanding leadership team, for inviting and welcoming me here today. It's good to be among friends. Over the years, I've been privileged to work with many of you, and, today, I'm proud to stand alongside each of you in answering our nation's call to attain justice. In that effort to attain justice, enforce our laws, and -- most importantly -- protect the American people, America's sheriffs serve as essential partners to the Justice Department. This morning, I'm eager to discuss the work we share. But I'm also here to ask for your help in building the future we all seek. In looking toward this future, and to the needs that must be met and challenges that must be faced, I'm reminded of the wisdom that our nation's most iconic sheriff left us. As John Wayne once said, "Tomorrow hopes we've learned something from yesterday." It's true that tomorrow's success is informed by our past experiences. And I'm certain it will be defined by our current priorities. In establishing the Department's agenda for this year and beyond, we are guided by the knowledge that moving forward effectively requires a commitment to getting back to basics. We've begun by reinvigorating the traditional missions of the Justice Department and by re-instilling an ethos of integrity, independence and transparency in everything we do. Even as we confront the complex challenges posed by global terrorism, and even as we recognize this work as the Department's top priority, we must also embrace the historic and most fundamental roles of law enforcement: fighting crime, protecting civil rights, preserving the environment, and ensuring fairness in the market place. Your entire membership, indeed every person in this room, can play a role. And your guidance can make a critical difference. In the work of making our neighborhoods and communities safer, you are the front lines. You know what works. You know what doesn't. And you have taught me that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer to the dynamic and evolving problem of crime. This lesson became clear to me years ago, when I served as a young federal prosecutor. And it's been reinforced by my experiences as a judge, as a U.S. Attorney, as Deputy Attorney General and, today, as Attorney General. I have learned, repeatedly and unequivocally, that good police work is a critical first step to understanding, punishing and preventing crime. It's the cornerstone of sound policy and the basis for effective resource investments. But good police work is not done in isolation. It's done in partnership. And it's done with a commitment to exchanging information, ideas and experiences. I know that collaboration is the most powerful law enforcement tool we have. This effort begins with the brave men and women who police our neighborhoods, manage our jails and help secure our borders. This work -- your work -- makes a difference in communities, in families, and in individual lives. And it will be a key component in meeting the Justice Department's goals for this year and beyond. I want to talk more specifically about several of our priorities. And I want to tell you about some of the ways the Justice Department is working to provide much-needed support to sheriffs and other law enforcement personnel. One of the top priorities of this Justice Department is to re-establish our relationships with state, local and tribal authorities. These partnerships are critical. Yet, in recent years, many of them have suffered, been neglected or been taken for granted. No longer. We are committed to rebuilding these bonds. And we are actively working to open new channels of communication and collaboration. At every level, we're focused on strengthening the Department's core missions of combating terrorism and fighting crime. In the months ahead, we plan to give particular emphasis to initiatives aimed at tackling economic crime, international organized crime, youth violence and the exploitation of children. We will also be focusing on improving our corrections system and ensuring that conditions are secure, humane and aimed at rehabilitation. There's no question that problems in our jails and prisons are alarming, especially the increased prevalence of sexual assault. The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently found that 12 percent of young offenders in our juvenile facilities have been sexually victimized. This is horrifying. It's also unacceptable. As we work toward making improvements, many of you have raised practical concerns about some of the recommendations included in the Prison Rape Elimination Act Commission Report. I am committed to working with you. And I'm determined to address this problem effectively, collaboratively, and as quickly as possible. Sheriffs must be a part of this work. I'm pleased that several of you will be meeting with the Department's PREA Working Group on Monday. And I want each of you to know that there will be additional opportunities to offer input and to comment on proposed regulations. We'll also be soliciting your assistance in our reinvigorated drug enforcement efforts. This work is driving an enhanced focus on Mexico and on our southwest border. To date, the Department has launched a series of efforts aimed at confronting the threats posed by Mexican cartels, by sophisticated criminal organizations, by smugglers of guns, drugs, and cash, and by those intent on illegally crossing into our country. Some of you work along our southwest border. You know, as surely as I do, that we simply cannot afford to ignore the problem of illegal immigration. Several of you have reached out to us and to our colleagues across the Administration. You've warned that tension is building. And you've described its consequences: spikes in hate crimes, an increased fear of local law enforcement, and growing concerns for public safety. We hear you. And we are working to ensure that the federal government lives up to its responsibility to create and enforce effective immigration laws. President Obama has signaled his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform. He's engaged the Justice Department in finding a workable solution for the millions who are in our country without lawful status. And he's called on us, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, to provide technical assistance on issues of enforcement, administrative and judicial review, and civil rights. As we encourage and pursue reforms, let me be clear about two points: We will fulfill our obligation to enforce current immigration laws. And we will also honor our commitment to safeguard civil rights in our border areas, as well as in our workplaces, our housing markets and our voting booths. I realize that achieving the goals I've laid out will not be easy. Success will depend on how well we support our law enforcement partners. It will also depend on our ability to provide the investments you need to do your jobs well. In this time of mounting deficits and budget cuts, I know that your work has become more difficult. But it's never been more important. The needs of your offices cannot be ignored or overlooked. You deserve better, and our communities deserve better. That ' s why, from day one, this Administration has been focused on providing local law enforcement officials with sufficient resources. And the Justice Department is an enthusiastic partner in this work. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act alone, we have awarded more than $2 billion through the Office of Justice Programs. And we ' ve allocated more than $1 billion through the office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Many of you - but not enough of you - have benefited from these investments. As part of our OJP Recovery Act rural law enforcement program, $36 million was awarded to sheriffs' offices. And sheriffs have received nearly $9 million under our Southern Border program. However, addressing the challenges faced by law enforcement requires more than simply moving money out the door. We must match resources effectively with local needs, something that can only be achieved through strong federal-local partnerships. We must also recognize that, in the work of ensuring public safety, these partnerships go far beyond funding decisions. We must seek out new ways to deepen and extend these partnerships. This includes participating in each others' task forces. It includes sharing data and research. And it requires taking what we know, and what we have learned from each other, and making sure this information is put to good use. There's no question that this type of cooperation among law enforcement agencies is vital to fulfilling our missions and responsibilities. And one of our core objectives must be to work together to protect the safety of our law enforcement officers. A key part of this work is the Department's Body Armor Initiative and our Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program. Through our National Institute of Justice, we run a rigorous standards and testing program to ensure that body armor does what it's supposed to do: keep law enforcement safe. Through our Bureau of Justice Assistance, we've helped law enforcement personnel in more than 13,000 jurisdictions purchase some 800,000 protective vests -- vests that can make a critical difference to our officers in the field. Unfortunately, in the past, some body armor was poorly manufactured. Some materials degraded to the point of being ineffective against the bullets they were designed to defeat. The Justice Department's Civil Division has been in litigation with several companies over defective vests made from a material called Zylon. In October 2008, one of the companies -- Armor Holdings Products -- agreed to pay $30 million as part of a settlement. Today, I'm pleased to announce that $11 million from this and other settlements will be invested in law enforcement officers across the country. These resources will not be going back into the Treasury. They will be pumped into our Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program. And, this year, they will enable us to purchase an estimated 26,000 additional bullet-resistant vests. Through this and other programs, we will take every step possible to protect your safety. I want you all to know that violence against law enforcement will not be tolerated. At every level of your Justice Department, and in every corner of our country, acts of violence against law enforcement will be pursued. They will be prosecuted. And they will be punished. There is nothing more basic, or more important, to our work than keeping our law enforcement officers safe. Recently, our nation, and our law enforcement community, was tragically reminded of this truth. As you well know, less than two months ago, in a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington, four police officers sat together, preparing for a work day they would not live to see. At 8:30 that morning, these officers were ambushed by a gunman and killed in cold blood. It's believed that they were targeted, murdered, simply because of the uniforms they wore and the public service they provided. These victims, of course, were members of Lakewood's 100-member police department. But they were part of something much larger. They were part of a law enforcement community that includes federal, state, local and tribal officials. They were part of our nation's law enforcement family. Their memorial service was attended by more than 20,000 people. Officers from as far away as New York, Boston and Chicago drove hundreds of miles to be there, creating a processional that lasted nearly three and a half hours. But tragically, this type of senseless killing of law enforcement officers is not an isolated incident. Just last week, Captain Chad Reed of the Dixie County Sheriff's Office in Dixie County, Florida lost his life in the line of duty during a gunfight with a murder suspect. Captain Reed and his family are in our thoughts and prayers- today and always. The program from the Lakewood officers' memorial service included the Police Officers' Prayer. A prayer for courage, for strength, for dedication and for compassion. These are the qualities I see and admire in law enforcement officials across our country, and within this room. It is your gifts, your dedication and your leadership that will enable our Justice Department to make a positive, historic difference. Let us commit to this work. Let us learn from each other. Let us work in partnership to develop law enforcement programs that are sophisticated, smart, tough and effective. And let us do so today. I look forward to working with you, and learning from you, over the next several years. Together, we can make a better America. Thank you.

The Filly Funk How coaches, parents and athletes deal with female runners' maturation plateau. The main reason I lost interest in running was because I wasn’t winning any more. It wasn’t fun,” Molly says of her later years of high school. “I was working just as hard as when I was a freshman, but running slower. And being beaten by eighth-graders.” Ouch. The filly funk. High school boys usually follow a linear progression, getting stronger and faster as they age. Girls, however, often run fast right out of the gate and then plateau or even regress as juniors or seniors. This vexes girls, their parents and coaches alike, and sometimes short-circuits what can be a lifelong, rewarding activity. The funk involves a swirling myriad of factors, unique to each runner. We’re not going to talk about the unalterable why here, but about how to minimize negativity, bridge frustration, maintain motivation and keep running. Strategies gleaned from coaches, parents and athletes fall into four broad categories: Switching It Up, Health, Fun and Goals. SWITCHING IT UP Comparison causes suffering. But if it’s apples and oranges, there’s no comparison. If it’s your first 800 or 400 or (fill in the blank) — it’ll always be a PR. And fresh, and exciting. “If a girl ran a fast mile as a freshman and is struggling to repeat or improve on that performance, I’ll suggest the 4 x 800 or, heck, even the 400 or 200,” says Bev Docherty, parent and longtime high school track and cross country coach at Mounds Park Academy in St. Paul. “I really don’t think young athletes should focus on one event, or even one sport.” Because cross country offers less opportunity to switch distances, Docherty is a strong proponent of keeping younger harriers in junior high or JV competition, regardless of their ability, simply because the variety of distances, unlike the regulation high school 4K or 5K varsity course, making comparisons difficult. “I recommend they have their serum ferritin level checked several times per year, preferably by a physician who knows running,” says Matt Gabrielson, head girls cross country coach at Edina High School in suburban Minneapolis. The combination of increased mileage, onset of menstrual cycles and rapid growth depletes stored ferritin, resulting in fatigue and decreased performance. Many endurance athletes, he finds, need iron supplementation. Sleep is another cornerstone of health that’s often overlooked, Gabrielson observes. Juniors and seniors are more likely than eighth- or ninth-graders to have hours of homework, jobs, college applications and boyfriends, putting the squeeze on sleep. “Some of the juniors couldn’t figure out why they weren’t running as fast. I discovered they were sleeping four hours a night.” Weight is, of course, the great unmentionable. Most coaches and parents are hyperaware of the delicacy of the topic and steer discussions toward food as fuel for health, energy and fitness. “It’s not about weight, it’s about fitness,” Gabrielson says. Fun, as in sleepovers. Even top-level athletes need to balance their commitment to the sport with being a teenager. An athlete choosing a sleepover over an optional post-season meet shouldn’t be a cause for concern but a sign of a healthy, balanced perspective. Fun, as in diversity. “I always try to make workouts as fun as possible,” Gabrielson says, “but in the off seasons, I think seventh-, eighth-and ninth-graders should be playing basketball, soccer, whatever. They’ll be fresher when they come back.” Fun, as in winning. Kathleen Miller is the mother of four girls and was a high school cross country/track coach for nine years. “I’ve seen so many seventh- and eighth-graders who run varsity, get injured or bored or whatever and never run again,” she says. “I’d like to take a longer view.” So when her own talented eighth-grader went out for cross country, Miller insisted she run with the junior high program, even when her daughter’s eighth-grade friend moved up to the varsity team. “Initially she was upset about not being able to run varsity, but after winning several big eighth-grade races, she admitted, if she’d run varsity, she would have been back in the pack and would have missed the accolades, the fun of winning and of running with her friends,” Miller says. “I’ll meet with the runner and her parents, and we’ll talk about how it’s common for all athletes to plateau,” Docherty says. “It’s easier to discuss because it’s not personal, it’s not a failing, it’s not tied to having a woman’s body. Plateaus are a normal feature of any athlete’s career.” Once the negativity is replaced with a more objective view, they can set a course for the future. Docherty finds that young runners often focus on only one goal: running faster. She helps them take a step back and examine how their lives are constantly changing, and how running fits into that dynamic tableau. During particularly stressful times, such as when athletes are taking college entrance tests and applying to colleges, Docherty may suggest different, equally worthwhile goals like contributing to team points, developing speed (e.g., for a 3200 meter runner), remaining injury-free, serving as a team leader and role model or even, paradoxically, learning how to lose. High school coach Erin Block Ward, of Central High School in St. Paul, tells the story of a fast filly who enjoyed great success until junior year. “We suggested she go out for Nordic skiing, instead of running over the winter,” Ward says. “She was awful. Dead last in every race. But she would finish, last, and say, ‘That was fun!’” Learning how to enjoy a sport without winning put things in perspective, and ultimately helped a successful high school runner become a successful college runner

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia dead at 92WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert C. Byrd, the longest serving member of the U.S. Senate, a fiery orator and hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to his beloved West Virginia, died Monday. He was 92. WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert C. Byrd, the longest serving member of the U.S. Senate, a fiery orator and hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to his beloved West Virginia, died Monday. He was 92. A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said that Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week. At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years. A man of humble, Depression-era upbringing, Byrd held his seat for over 50 years, working tirelessly all that time to make sure his state never missed out on its share — or even more, in some cases — of the federal largesse. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Flags at the Capitol and the White House flew at half-staff Monday as Washington mourned Byrd’s passing. Byrd’s desk in Senate chamber was draped in black. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his “greatest privilege” to serve with Byrd. “I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone,” Rockefeller said. The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Byrd “combined a devotion to the U.S. Constitution with a deep learning of history to defend the interests of his state and the traditions of the Senate.” “We will remember him for his fighter’s spirit, his abiding faith, and for the many times he recalled the Senate to its purposes,” McConnell said. Former President Jimmy Carter said Byrd “was my closest and most valuable adviser” during his presidency, when Byrd served as Senate majority leader. Byrd was skilled “in using arcane Senate rules to achieve his goals, and was proud of his ability to count votes and forge prevailing coalitions,” Carter said in a statement. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, will appoint Byrd’s replacement. For a declared vacancy more than two years and six months before the expiration of a senator’s term — Byrd’s term was to end Jan. 3, 2013 — the appointee serves until an election is held to fill the rest of the term. Manchin issued a statement Monday saying Byrd “was a fearless fighter for the Constitution, his beloved state and its great people.” He told The Associated Press that he will not appoint himself to fill the seat, and had no timetable for naming a replacement. Byrd’s death followed less than a year after the passing of venerable Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a nationally recognizable figure who had been a most vociferous spokesman for liberal causes for years. In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates. Yet there was nothing particularly courtly about Byrd’s pursuit or exercise of power. Byrd was a master of the Senate’s bewildering rules and longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls a third of the $3 trillion federal budget. He was willing to use both to reward friends and punish those he viewed as having slighted him. “Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him,” former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office. In 1971, Byrd ousted Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator, as the Democrats’ second in command. He was elected majority leader in 1976 and held the post until Democrats lost control of the Senate four years later. He remained his party’s leader through six years in the minority, then spent another two years as majority leader. Byrd stepped aside as majority leader in 1989 when Democrats sought a more contemporary television spokesman. “I ran the Senate like a stern parent,” Byrd wrote in his memoir, “Child of the Appalachian Coalfields.” His consolation price was the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, with control over almost limitless federal spending. Within two years, he surpassed his announced five-year goal of making sure more than $1 billion in federal funds was sent back to West Virginia, money used to build highways, bridges, buildings and other facilities, some named after him. In 2006 and with 64 percent of the vote, Byrd won an unprecedented ninth term in the Senate just months after surpassing South Carolinian Strom Thurmond’s record as its longest-serving member. His more than 18,500 roll call votes were another record. But Byrd also seemed to slow after the death of Erma, his wife of almost 69 years, in 2006. Frail and at times wistful, he used two canes to walk haltingly and needed help from aides to make his way about the Senate. He often hesitated at unscripted moments. By 2009, aides were bringing him to and from the Senate floor in a wheelchair. Though his hands trembled in later years, Byrd only recently lost his grip on power. Last November he surrendered his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee. Byrd’s lodestar was protecting the Constitution. He frequently pulled out a dog-eared copy of it from a pocket in one of his trademark three-piece suits. He also defended the Senate in its age-old rivalry with the executive branch, no matter which party held the White House. Unlike other prominent Senate Democrats such as 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq, Byrd stood firm in opposition — and felt gratified when public opinion swung behind him. “The people are becoming more and more aware that we were hoodwinked, that the leaders of this country misrepresented or exaggerated the necessity for invading Iraq,” Byrd said. He cited Iraq when he endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in May 2008, calling Obama “a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure.” Byrd’s accomplishments followed a childhood of poverty in West Virginia, and his success on the national stage came despite a complicated history on racial matters. As a young man, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a brief period, and he joined Southern Democrats in an unsuccessful filibuster against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. He later apologized for both actions, saying intolerance has no place in America. While supporting later civil rights bills, he opposed busing to integrate schools. Byrd briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and later told associates he had once been approached by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, about accepting an appointment to the Supreme Court. But he was a creature — and defender — of Congress across a career that began in 1952 with his election to the House. He served three terms there before winning his Senate seat in 1958, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House. He clashed with presidents in both parties and was implacably against proposed balanced budget amendments to the Constitution. “He is a fierce defender of the Senate and its prerogatives in ways that I think the founding fathers really intended the Senate to be,” said one-time rival Kennedy. In a measure of his tenacity, Byrd took a decade of night courses to earn a law degree in 1963, and completed his long-delayed bachelor’s degree at West Virginia’s Marshall University in 1994 with correspondence classes. Byrd was a near-deity in economically struggling West Virginia, to which he delivered countless federally financed projects. Entire government bureaus opened there, including the FBI’s repository for computerized fingerprint records. Even the Coast Guard had a facility in the landlocked state. Critics portrayed him as the personification of Congress’ thirst for wasteful “pork” spending projects. Robert Carlyle Byrd was born Nov. 20, 1917, in North Wilkesboro, N.C., as Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr., the youngest of five children. Before he was 1, his mother died and his father sent him to live with an aunt and uncle, Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who renamed him and moved to the coal-mining town of Stotesbury, W.Va. He didn’t learn his original name until he was 16 and his real birthday until he was 54. Byrd’s foster father was a miner who frequently changed jobs, and Byrd recalled that the family’s house was “without electricity, ... no running water, no telephone, a little wooden outhouse.” He graduated from high school but could not afford college. Married in 1936 to high school sweetheart Erma Ora James — with whom he had two daughters — he pumped gas, cut meat and during World War II was a shipyard welder. Returning to meat cutting in West Virginia, he became popular for his fundamentalist Bible lectures. A grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan suggested he run for office. He won his first race — for the state’s House of Delegates — in 1946, distinguishing himself from 12 rivals by singing and fiddling mountain tunes. His fiddle became a fixture; he later played it on the television show “Hee Haw” and recorded an album. He abandoned it only after a grandson’s traumatic death in 1982 and when his shaky hands left him unable to play. At his 90th birthday party in 2007, however, Byrd joined bluegrass band Lonesome Highway in singing a few tunes and topped off the night with a rendition of “Old Joe Clark.” After six years in the West Virginia legislature, Byrd was elected to the U.S. House in 1952 in a race in which his brief Klan membership became an issue. He said he joined because of its anti-communism. Byrd entered Congress as one of its most conservative Democrats. He was an early supporter of the Vietnam War, and his 14-hour, 13-minute filibuster against the 1964 civil rights bill remains one of the longest ever. His views gradually moderated, particularly on economic issues, but he always sided with his state’s coal interests in confrontations with environmentalists. His love of Senate traditions inspired him to write a four-volume history of the chamber. It also led him to oppose laptops on the Senate floor and to object when a blind aide tried bringing her seeing-eye dog into the chamber. In 2004, Byrd got Congress to require schools and colleges to teach about the Constitution every Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

Photos and VideosMore Photos and Videos FILE - In this Monday, April 11, 2011 file photo, U.S. envoy Chris Stevens speaks to local media at the Tibesty Hotel where an African Union delegation was meeting with opposition leaders in Benghazi, Libya. Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The officials say Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff. The protesters were firing gunshots and rocket propelled grenades.(AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) In the wake of the deaths of a U.S. ambassador and three other American foreign service workers in Libya, the governor has directed that flags be flown at half-staff and local officials are condemning the attacks. Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, was killed when he and a group of embassy workers tried to evacuate staff under attack by a mob angered by an anti-Islam video reportedly made by an American. An information management officer named Sean Smith, a married father of two young children, was also killed. The names of the other victims have not been released. “Our prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, friends and colleagues of Ambassador Stevens and the American personnel who were killed in this brutal attack,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement. “We know that the work to build nations and strengthen our global relationships is difficult and dangerous, and we are cognizant of just how many Americans undertake these efforts in embassies and consulates across the world. We stand with the President and the rest of the country in condemning the perpetrators of this attack.” Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman: “The attacks in Libya are a terrible reminder of the dangers that American personnel continue to face in some of the more troubled parts of the world,” said Lieutenant Governor Wyman. “Ambassador Stevens and the rest of the embassy staff served our country with honor and dignity. Our hearts go out to everyone who is grieving their loss today.” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro “I am deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and two other Americans in the horrific attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. My thoughts and prayers go out to their families during this difficult time,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said in a statement. “I condemn those that committed this deplorable act of violence and support efforts to further ensure our diplomatic personnel in Libya, Egypt and around the world are protected.” She said the four Americans made the ultimate sacrifice while working to secure a better future for the Libyan people. “We owe them, as well as all Americans serving tirelessly around the world on behalf of our country, our deepest gratitude,” DeLauro said. U.S. Rep Jim Himes: “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the attack on our embassy in Libya, which took four innocent lives yesterday. We owe so much to our diplomats, who put their lives on the line every day in far corners of the Earth to represent America’s commitment to democracy, freedom, and cooperation abroad. Ambassador Stevens was instrumental in representing U.S. interests in Libya during tumultuous times, supporting the nation’s transition to democracy and adding a human touch to international relations. My heart goes out to the families of those we lost yesterday. And though I am outraged that representatives of our peaceful mission would be attacked and killed, I remain committed to seeing a Libya that embraces democracy and freedom for all its people. The best thing we can do to ensure those four diplomats did not die in vain is to continue their mission of promoting and embracing a democratic Libya. Though they are no longer with us, may they live on through a legacy of peace, freedom, and justice in North Africa. I will work hard to make sure that the terrorists are brought to justice and that Libya understands that we expect their full cooperation.” U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy released a statement saying he condemns “in the strongest terms” the attack on American diplomats in Benghazi. “Ambassador Stevens, a former Peace Corps volunteer, was dedicated to helping the Libyan people build a better, more democratic future. Attacks on our diplomats cannot be tolerated and those responsible should immediately be brought to justice,” Murphy.

Larry Sparks has said that he's the youngest old-timer around, and the self-description is an apt one. Emerging from the Stanley Brothers' Clinch Mountain Boys band, Sparks carried on with the sounds created by bluegrass music's first generation. His style was no knockoff, however; it had a distinctively bluesy tinge anchored by Sparks' own guitar, a comparatively unusual lead instrument in bluegrass, where the triad of mandolin, banjo, and fiddle had defined the musical texture since the genre's early days. Sparks grew up in Lebanon, OH, in the southwestern part of the state that has produced several other top bluegrass artists. His parents came from Appalachian Kentucky, and one of his grandfathers was a fiddle contest champion. Sparks heard Cincinnati country star Wayne Raney on the radio when he was young and learned to play the guitar. His skills put him in demand not only for bluegrass but also for country and rock bands while he was in high school, but after sitting in as lead guitarist with the Stanley Brothers as they toured Ohio in 1964, bluegrass took first place among his musical interests. Sparks played increasingly often with the Stanley Brothers and made his recording debut in 1965 on a small Dayton, OH label. He spent three years as lead vocalist with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys after Carter Stanley's death at age 41 in December 1966. Around 1970, Sparks formed his own band, the Lonesome Ramblers, and it's a rare bluegrass festival or concert series that hasn't played host to Sparks multiple times in the years since. Numerous younger bluegrass players have passed through the Lonesome Ramblers or appeared on Sparks' many recordings, Ricky Skaggs and fiddler Stuart Duncan being only two of the best-known examples. Sparks recorded for various labels in the '70s and early '80s, moving to Rebel in 1982 for the Dark Hollow LP. It was the first in a long string of recordings that sold steadily and won critical acclaim; most of Sparks' Rebel catalog remained in print in the early 2000s. Along the way, Sparks made several songs into bluegrass standards. He unearthed an obscure folk-rock composition by Lawrence Hammond entitled "John Deere Tractor" and turned it into a perennial anthem of discontented rural folk adrift in the big city; the cover of the song by the Judds on their Love Can Build a Bridge album of 1990 was likely traceable to Sparks' own numerous performances. The Stanley Brothers' "Goin' Up Home (To Live in Green Pastures)" was one of several gospel pieces that every parking-lot pickup band wanted to learn after hearing Sparks sing it, and Sparks tended to focus on gospel in his own numerous compositions as well. Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers barely slowed down in the 1990s, releasing several albums over the course of the decade, and 2003's The Coldest Part of Winter showed him in undiminished form. Sparks released Last Suit You Wear in 2007. Recorded primarily with his road band, the Lonesome Ramblers, Almost Home appeared in 2011. ~ James Manheim, Rovi

NAIROBI Kenya, Jun 16 – As the nation mourned the late minister for Internal Security George Saitoti, a young man who largely kept off the public eye despite the high profile his father held stood up to eulogise him. Zachary Musengi Saitoti, the only child of the late minister marshaled the courage to extol his late father as a man of great determination, fortitude and one who wanted to exceed his targets. Until Saitoti’s death last Sunday, his family life remained very private and little was seen of his wife and son in public. Saitoti’s son expressed pride in a father he termed as his “legend and hero and who was the backbone and the strength of the family.” Zachary said that the helicopter crash last Sunday robbed him of a loving father whom he thanked for ensuring he never lacked anything. “On the fateful day of the accident, I lost my rock, my Goliath and my dad. As his son, my father gave me more than I could ever dream of… more than I could ever want. He gave me everything, he gave me his love,” he stated. “He was a man of such wonder that he gave the same that he gave to me and his family but also to thousands if not millions of people around the world,” Zachary recalled. Zack hailed his father as the pillar of his life and a great mentor who had played a great part in shaping the attitude and the life that he lives. He did not run shy of acknowledging the various roles that his late father served in the nation of Kenya insisting that he succeeded due to the love he had for the country. “My father loved this country and its people with every possible fiber of his body. In his illustrious career he poured out his heart and soul in strengthening this nation and securing its future as a land of tremendous opportunity and prosperity,” he said of the man who had served in the ministries of finance, education of internal security as well as vice president for 13 years. “I will not let you down or the family; you were our backbone, our father, our brother, our uncle, our everything. May the way you lived guide us… empower us and bring us close together,” he said concluding his tribute. Zachary who describes himself as creative photographer and graphic designer graduated from the University of the West of England with two Bachelor of Arts degrees in photography and in graphic design. In her tribute, Saitoti’s widow Margaret recounted her life with her departed husband terming it memorable. In the tribute read on her behalf by a friend Lucy Maoga, Margaret admitted that that she had recognized early that her late husband had a higher calling which focused on public service and that she provided him with the support of a wife. “My dear George, what a life we have shared; a lovely and memorable companionship, a love that has known no bounds. When we met we were young and full of hope there was no doubt that we were meant for each other. Our union got compete with the arrival of our son… my duty to you was to provide you with all the support that a wife should give. On your part you did not leave me behind. Our love will always remain in our hearts forever,” read Margaret’s tribute. She insisted that he never stood in the way of her husband whom she said had a deep love for the country. She attributed the love of country for the successes Saitoti had in various dockets that he served.

Young Africans Who Want to Be Porn Stars May 31 2011 Download right click "save as" Hundreds of youths try to escape poverty by going into Africa's porn industry. Few realize how difficult and unsafe it can be. By contrast, the largely Web-oriented African market is small but emerging. The leader on that continent would be South Africa, which hosted Sexpo, a public expo focused on all aspects of sexuality, in the second half of 2010. "The size of the entire adult industry in South Africa is said to be worth 60 million rand ($8.9 million), but that cannot be independently verified. It is probably the biggest in Africa. Nigeria should be worth about half of that," says Tau Morena, co-founder of Sondeza ("Bring it closer" in isiZulu), an African adult online network with more than 39,000 members (almost half of them South African) and an average of 7,000 unique visitors daily. No wonder, says Koh Bela, that some African youths see pornographic actors as examples of success -- all the more because some manage to earn far more money with one film than the average African does in a month. What these young people do not always know, though, is that big money is rare in this sector. Besides, the threat of human trafficking -- the third most widespread criminal activity worldwide, according to the United Nations -- is worrying in some countries. - Russian Union of Journalists, OSCE Manual on Reporting on Human Trafficking - IOM Manual Human Trafficking and Legalization of Criminal Profits. Russian. - IOM Manual on THB crimes typologies. Russian. - IOM International Conference. “Improvement of International Cooperation in Counteracting Human Trafficking” Russian - ILO OSCE Anti-Trafficking Response in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia - ILO Preventing Forced Labour in Russian Construction Industry - Trafficking in Persons to Europe for sexual exploitation - First Aid Kit Russian - IOM Direct Assistance to Victims Handbook 2007 Russian - Needs Assessment Toolkit Russian

Search America's historic newspapers pages from - or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more title: 'The Ogden standard-examiner. (Ogden, Utah) 1920-current, July 17, 1920, LAST EDITION, Image 8', meta: 'News about Chronicling America - RSS Feed', Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library All ways to connect Inspector General | External Link Disclaimer | I Sto &tan&arb-xattmt?r ogd utAH M SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 17, 1920. a (K,w. VI I t LADIES SHOULD SEE THIS AND jj I BIDING THE HUSBAND I A BIG SCREAM I ajgfj DOROTHY ; I -f PiXif ; 4 DOROTHY GISH I II 11 III II 5 I 5 A Paramount-Artcraft Picture JJL 11 IJ J 11 11 11 t Her friends warned her that he was a devil among the ; j X girls, but well, you know that pretty tale about "marry j j to reform." j j I J Then ft FIRST A mysterious beauty with a black bag' An : . 5 erring kiss ! Flop ! ; J SECOND An alluring manicure lady who Another ; . t flop1 ; j THIRD Enter Friend Wife! With her dander up and . j all sails set! J Now he's eating out of her hand1 ; j J A picture so crammed with laughr it will leave you j limp. 5 i g Written by a woman. Directed by , woman Starring ; j X the funniest woman on the 9creen. ' j Bring HIM!!! 3 i Hi !! ALSO SUNSHINE COMEDY UTAH THEATRE time I TEST LOT Gi IN LENGTHY RUN Stock Overland to Start From ! New York Tomorrow on Coast to Coast Test H A coast-to-coast dash, unusual in R , history of automobile runs In this Bj country, will bo started at midnight on July 18th when a stock Overland car will leave New York for San F'ran- BBBBfl The run will be made by a relay of drivers men who have never before BBBBI snt (he wheel .f this The M drivers will he furnished by Willys BBBBJ Overland distributors. Each driver will pilot theiur through the territory H The purpose of the relay race Is to H establish the eCODOmj and the stamina H of the now light Overland car. In par- BBBBfl tlcular. and the genera desirability of H the light car not only for the tangle ) H traffic the city but for Cross-COun- BBBBfl With that end in view, the fl been removed as far as possible from H the staged cross-country test run. H There will he no expert drivers H lake the through the entire run H from New York to San Frani isco ex- H tr-ctltiK mileage from gasoline that H only an expert knows how to get. BBBBB The mileage obtained from the fuel be that which the average, or- Binary driver can obtain. BBBBI The 3300 milt run start at nilfl- fl night of July lth regardless of weath- H cr or other conditions. H This drive is expected to estubllah beyond iuetlon the claims light cut manufacturers of the dawn of the H in motor car construction. B Every pos'ibi" condition of wreath of roads. mud H Mils, mountain passes, should he en- H countered on this seven day drive. H will he a test to detcrm'ne the stamina H of any car regardless of size. BBBBfl Pally reports of the-projrrcss of th' H car and Its record of economy anJ H RMinilna will be flushed to the factor) ind to distributors and dealers througr j Per Subscription and jvertilng j Pcrartment, Call Phono No. 56. i . A Room to let. Kelly & Herrick I WHAT IS THE PEARL OF Dr. Ray Palmer will preach Sun- , lay at 11 a. ro... at the First Baptist . Lurch, ou the above topic Ogden TjJMNflUMl House ror type writers and repairs. 2422 Hudson Are. J ogden Examiner, date of April 2, 1-920, vant4 ths office of Stand -iird-Ewmlner Headquarter for berry eases, cups, fruit boxes and baskets. Grout's Grain ggpgi SSI Twenty fourth street. 2911 Phone to: for messenger. Beautiful 9-piccc. dining room set, uLino. other furniture. So. 3. Brown m; AptS. '611 l will not be responsible for any debts except those contracted by my self. (Signed! GEO. M. SHIRLEY. The Swiss government experl BBBBfl n.entlng with compressed turf as a Price Put At 25 Cents Per I Cup: Apricots Appear; Utah Tomatoes Next Week. 1 l tah tomatoes In S limited qiiantlt I Will put In the:r appearance on the lo , cal market next week - other vege 1 tables expected are green corn, and I The tomato crop. It is reported, is being delaved considerably due tojhe i .. ness of the BSaaon, but Will be much larger than last year's crop, do I spile th- setback. Raspberries, blackberries, dewber ! rles am d currants irre the new Ismail fruits whibb have matured and jare being offered for sale The firsl 'three mentioned are somewhat high at present, selling nt 25 i-nts- per cup I Lower prices are expected as the crop Apricots were marketed thi morn ing. Housewives who intend to can this fruit are warned by grocermen to get wli.it thev can 'arly. and not wait for the lowering of prices. The crop will be vrj short, t is reported The pach crop, while not ready J el will ' also bo short rta'n nev. potatoes are being offered I at f and 7 cents per pound. In addl ' lion to the above named fruits and I vegetables, there .is a large supply of string beans, peas, turnips, carrots, lettuce, onions and other vegetables well as imported cantaloups and wat'-r Ogden Young Ffian ' Dies in Colorado Clifford Anderson, son of Mr", and lira , J Anderson of 807 Twenty third street, died at La Juntn. Colo., yastarda of peritonitis, following as 'operation for appendicitis. He hud, Ibrcn working with his brother at La He was bom in HuntsvUIe, Nov. 16, i 1892. Surviving him are bis parents nnd the following brothers and sis ' tera, Lester, Walter, Mrs. v. l. All red, Mra. C. Warren Wood, Mis Eva I Auderson, Vernal. Ora John and He was a member of the American Legion. The body will be brought to I Ogden today for burial, time of which will be announced later by Larkin ; & Son. Official in Ogden J. D. McLcmoro, secretary of the. South eastern Millers association with offices at Nashville. Tenn . was In Often yesterday renewing his ac quaintance with B. L. Slack, Ogden The South-eastern Millers associa tion includes in its membership mills eaat of the Mississippi river and has a combined output of &1,000 barrels of flour dally, said Mr. McLemore. who remarked that Ogden is fast gaining prominence as a grain cen ter "The association is appreciating more each year the milling value of the Inter-mountaJn region " CARD OF THANKS We hereby thank our kind friends who assisted OM during the slckneatt and death of our beloved wife and mother, and for the beautiful floral offerings and words of mpth. ' John Kanmdtn and Family. Killed When Hit By Electric Car Miss Inez .oynd, 21 year old. was I instantly killed when struck by a I north-hound Bamberger freight train I yesterday at 2. 30 o'lock at a point "between Kaysville and Farmlngton ! Every hone in tho girl's body was j broken and she was badly mutilated, I according to Sheriff C E. Malder of Davis county, jjrho lnvetigated the ac cident Lester Fayne of Ogden was con ductor of the train and Frank Kunkle of Salt Iike the motorman Miss Loynd is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Loynd of Kaysville. Sheriff Nalder reports that Bliss Loynd had been picking cherries at 'the farm of C. P Hose of Farmlngton She was returning home and was I either walking nlong th' traek or was ! crossing the track The accident oc i urred where !(! f is i sharp ur c UTAH CROPS GO Combined Condition Reported 106.3 Per Cent of Ten According to flnires announced by the Fnited States bjreau of crop es timates yesterday the combined con Idltlon, of all crops in Utah July I, was per cent of the ten year average for this state. The condition has de clined eight-tenths of one per cent dur ing Juno For the I nited States afe j whole i he combined condition of all crops on that date was 99 7 per cent of the average. This was an increase of, 4 9 per cent during the month The Figures were given out yester day by Miner M Justin, agru 'Ittiral I statistician for the bureau. The bu reau also has some figures as regards I prices on the farm, as follows "The level nf rrlcps Pid producers of the I'nited Statrs for the principal crops decreased about 17 per cent during June, in the past ten years the j price level decreased about 0 3 per cent ti irlng June On July 1 the in 'd' figure of prices was 20.6 per cent I higher than a ear ago; 30 6 per cent highe r than two years ago. and lo.1", per cent higher than the average of the past ten years on July 1 "The prices of meat animals hogs, cattle, sheep and chickens to pro ducers of the United Stales decreased 0.8 per cent from May 15 to June IE In the past ten years prices decreased I In like period 1.0 per cent On June 15 the Index flguf' of prices for these meat animals was about 17.8 per cent lower than two years ago, and 09 0 pet .cent higher than the average for the past ten years on June 15." ' The bureau estimates indicate that I apples will prove the banner of the t nation this year in point of produc ition, the condition June 1 being 116 . Jper cent of the average for the last ! ten years over Ue nation as a whole. Fears sre next v.iih 1114 per cent Spring wheat runs 106 8 per rent, peachf.- luC",; alfalfa ha 104; pota itoes, 103.2: sugar beets. 101.4; corn. 1 101; tomatoes. 100.9; winter wheat. 1 96.3 . prunes. 92 4; cotton, 88.6. and 'apricots, the lowest of the crops enu merated, show s condition of T3 6 I Wyoming crop? ,as a whole, show I he beet condition in the nation, with I an average of 112.4. which v. as a gain of 11.9 points since June 1 The hlch est gain during June is Indicated in 1 Texas. 21.3, while North Dakota shows ithe same gain as Wyoming, 11.9; Mon tana's gain was 14.9, and the condl tlon there la given as now IOC. 4 per cent of the ten-year average. I Other states in the western groups show condition and change in p.-n i at ageb as follows. Colorado, 107.6 per cent, a gain duiing June of 2 9 per nt; New Mexico, 100.6, a gain of 6.6; Arizona. 100.6. a gain of 3.9. Nevada, 101, a gain of 0 6. Idaho 1U3.2, ! of 3.3. Washington, 94. 5. a gain of 2.5; i iregon, 102.1. S pain Of 6 6, and Call , lornla, 95 4, a loss of 0 4. UNDERWAY IN CHI CHICAGO, July 16. Another political movement, the Liberal party, was launched today by for mer members of the Committee of Forty-eight, who bolted from 1 hiii organisation. JudKf Arthur O Wray. mayor of York. Neb., and Allen McFurdy. keynoto speaker at the Forty-eight con VSntlon head the new party. It Is probable no presidential ticket will bo named. It was said. The meeting was confined to those persons, some fifty to sixty In number, who signed Its call and all other Forty-lghters were e cludcd from the hall. lister Barlow, leader of th World War Veterans, attempted to make an address, but was In vited to leave. He threatened to call still another convention with himself at the helm. I have never seen so many nuts collect ed tn Chicago a during the past few days." Barlow declared as he If oCurdy announced that the principal purpose of the gather ing was to oppose any attempt to nominate Senator Robert M. La Follelte for president and Wil liam Jennings Bryan for vice DALLAS. Texa. July It. Kev Dr. J. Frank Smith of Dallas, for years a prominent leader In the Presbyterian church, l S. A., and at one time moderator of that ch ir.-li, died at hU honu- here late tonight Dr. Smith suffered . n-r.ons ir-ak-don about a year ago and nj in a New York hospital fr sewral e.-k. He returned here greflv i:nproed In health but suffered a relapse last Jan uary and since had teen confined to I In the d ark and Indications w ere that 'Miss Loynd did not hear the approach The motorman caught a glimpse 0 the Rirl and realized that stopping the train in time was Impossible. He sounded the whlstb' fr.mtlculh and rang the bell, at the same time apply ing the brakes. The girl did not turn I he affirms, and the next moment had been struck with terrific force, the Impart hurling her down the bank and causing instant death. Sheriff Nalder immediately in vest I gated the aeeldenl and decided that 'an inquest was not necessary. George I Hrlggs. undertaker at Layton. took 'hirge of the body. Miss Loynd is survived by her sis ter. Mrs. Frnest Blood of Kaysvlllo. a sister who lhes in California, and a brother Edward Loynd RATE RAISE TO BE FELT HERE Four Ogden Companies Will Be Affected by Proposed Vour lirge I gdi'n companies will be subjected to a big incr"asi- in power rates If the schedule for the service of power to the larger customers of the Utah Power & Light company pro poseel by the power company go Into effect. The revenue of the power com pany would be about doubled over that it Is now recejin- from such ser- ice. ar-cordlng to an exhibit prepared l by order of the public Utilities com mission of Ftah and submitted es terday In connection with the applica tion for an Increase In power ratc3 1 now being considered by the comnus I If the new schedule Is put in effect I the eigden Portland Cement compan I will be increased from $20,000 to 46, 1 000. according to the exhibit. The I L'nlon Portland Cement company will ; be increased from 158,000 to 1142,000"; The Utah-Idaho Centra from $9r.. 000 to $192,000 and the Ogden Pack ing & Provision company from $12, I Oud to $25,000. The exhibit was prepared by R. H. : Ashworth. rate expert repri'snt ing the I power company, L p. Hockett, auditor ! for the commission .ind Hodge M.ir I shall, assistant to the chief electrical engineer, who ! agreement, repre sented the power consumers Their exhibit shows that tho actual revenue derived hy the power eompuny j from consumers of fifty horsepower and over In 1919. was $2. i 1 3,239.71. Had the proposed schedules been In 'effect, the exhibit shows, In accordance I with what Is designated ;ls "Commis sion Plan N'o. 1." the revenue to the I company on exactly the same business would Ire e I" n $ I, Si' ..Hi -' This I Is an Increase of 102 per cent. The exhibit also shows that if the pieqpnl special contract now ui jftre before the commission had no ef- feet, and Instead all the power users were on the present standard sched j ules, the revenue to the eohtpanj : would be $3,23706.90. an Increase of I 31 per cent oxer the present revenue. The revenue that would come from ithe proposed sohedules, however, would be 51 per cent higher than the revenue obtained even If all the pow er users were placed on btandurd DIDN'T KNOW THEY !W BE 50 TOUGH Filming "The Sea Wolf" Brought Him Into Contact With "Hard Cases" George Melford. the veteran motion picture director, who handled the (screening of The Sea Wolf" which 1 shows at the AlhambrS theatre begln ! nlng tomorrow, wai given a big scare lone morning when he arrived at the Ir.tudlo to work on the picture A race I assortment of the toughest character.- I ho had ever seen were awaiting him' at the entrance. Pressed In sweaters 1 and dungarees, with unshaven md scowling faces, tho surged toward him as he approached. .Mr. Melford recoiled a bit and expected to M - knife or revolver flash out. but deem-j Ing forced courage the best policy, he continued his wa through the crowd1 ana Into the studio office "Who are the gang of thilgs out-1 side" ' he asked the assistant director.! "The looked ready to do me up for a nickel. ' "I guess you mean the gentle groue of seafaring men Pve gathered fori "Wolf I-arsens crew, laughed the as-1 Blatant "You know you told me to I get the toughest Mrda I could find. 1 1 I think I'VS found them." " You certainly hvc." said .Mr. Mel ford grimly. "Walt until Ueery sees N'oah Beery plays the role of "Wolf" : In the picture nnd has several rough-and-tumble fist fights with his crew, lit Is to Beery's crodlt that there are I no "pulled punches" ln the film and that he ts easily the physical master Of ;my of the hnrly "extraa." Van Men Canning Co. Amends Its Articles An amendment 10 the articles of In corporation of the Van Alen Canning company was filed ith the secretary 'Of state through its officers. E. K. Van I Alen. president, and F. Rudiger. If provides that the 70.000 treasury (rhares of Hock nay not be sold with out the consent of a majority of the outstanding MjOM shares of stock, ob Jtalned at a stockholders' meeting S. Abbott Magmnis Gets Hon orary Degree from Bolivia 1 1 : s. .bboit Maglnnls. Samuel Abbott Siaginnll smi of Mrs. Letla A M.iginnis of Ogden who Is now minister to Bolivia has had conferred j upon him the degree of honorary 'lawyer by, the University of Chuqulsaca .the oldest Institution of higher learn I log In South America. The degree has I been conferred but on.'o before, on the present president of Uruguay, Bai I tazar Brum. The letter conferring the it"gree by the "i niversldad Mayoi de S;m STrah I clsco Xavler of ChUQUisaca" follows: "The university council bars .lssem hled together In extrarodinary ss-,.-.n and has unanimously ds Ided to con fer uion your er.cclleney the title of I honorary lawyer of this University, j bearing In mind your very hlgll merits 'and as a. proof of sympaihy of t.ie j educational elements of this eity to I wards your person, who. Interpreting the Ideals of Justice and liberty of your country, has sympathized with '.he "On transmitting to you this resolu tion by which you are incorporated in the 'I' niversldad de San Francisco Xavicr" with rank of honorary lawyer I I beg to inform you that the diploma 1 interpreting the thought of the uni versity will he sent to you at La l'az." Police Raid Chinese Estabhsh lishment on Lincoin That the campaign recently Inau gurated by the board of city commis sioners to eliminate professional igafbbllng among 'hlnese is being rigid -! ly carted out by the police department was made evident last night when an alleged R-.imbling house at -t G 2 Uncoln ! aVenue was raided and three celestials j taken into custody The men charged 1 with gambling Were Jim Han. Charley j K 11 ti and Tom Lee. Detectives W A. Taylor and Walter I Moore' were the arresting officers. J The poUee say that las: night's ram (was the fourth attempt to arrest In dividuals at i49t Llnfcoln aVSnue, which i allegfil to be a systematically organized gambling resort. Dctectle Walter Moore, telling of the raid this morning sld. "officer Taylor and myself entered the house and listened utside a door. The clinking of coins could easily be heard. After listening for a mlnut" or two. we demanded that the door tie opened. Upon receiving no compli ance to the request, we turned tne knob of the door. Jim Ham. one of the occupants of the room, opened the door nnd upon .-eeing w ho was peeking entrance, attempted to shut the door In our face. We pushed the door open and entered and caught two Chinamen whom among a number of others, were making an effort to crowd through a doorway, eine was carry ing a sack of silver coin slung ovir one shoulder. Others escaped to an other part of the house, where they apparently started waahlng dishes, sweeping and performing Other menial "Directly under the rays of power ful electric light, was a table, upon which cards were scattered about." Moore's utory was corroborated by Detertlve W. A. Taylor. The Chinese were released upon payment of $oi Tho case will come before the city court Monday morning, the officers said. City Attorney Wade Johnson will represent the city In the case. The case of, Charley Sloan. Mayor of Chinatown, and Jane Doe. a nsgress, who were arrested charged with S statutory offense Is also eiISI led to come before the city court on Monday. Scouts to Make Night Trip to Mountains Scoutmaster Delbert Foulger of Troop 16 together with scouts of tne troop will hike to Mulun's hollow this evening where they' will pitch camp for the night. Tomorrow morning an oyster stew bre.1kf.1st wifl t the re ward for the hiker. Next Thumday evening a meeting of the troop will be held ln the Tweitn ward at which time thanks will be ex. tended the people of the ward fur their assistance in the rtccnt drive. LAST TIMES TODAY RIO GRANDE I From the Famous Play by Augustus Thomas a'"SBssESiifliES8MfcM-. sfrw--.. j s Emerson Hough's Great Story "The Sagebrusher" J The Picture You Will Alviyi Remember OGDEN THEATRE M PICK OF 'EM ALL COMINC SOON . "Jess Call Me Jim," "Butterfly Man," "-5 Minutes From Broadway" "The jH Deep Purple," "The Fortune Teller," "Virgin f Stambout." Arimgton G. Jones Returns From Fishing Trip and Suc cumbs Within Week Arlington Goodale Jones, Ogden tailor, died shortly after 7:30 last cening of leakage of Ihe heart. Hla illness was brought on by overexer tion during a fishing trip which con I eluded last Wednesday. Returning home he took to his bed and steadily He was born In Ogden, Sept. 24, 1881. son of the late Thomas W and Mrs Lonlsa tioodale Jones About ten years ago he succeeded his father in the tailoring business on Twenty-fourth strrt He was prominent in the Modern j Woodmen of America, for several I years acting as head consul. BurviVBg are (he widow. two daughlers, Phyllis Louise Nedra Mary and the following brothers and ; sisters, beside his mother, ."Irs. Annie Maw, Mrs. Cora Cross Irving W. ijone.s, Winifred S. Jones. Thurinan ! Jones. Mrs liuby McCormick, Mrs. j Myrtle Freeman. Mrs Beatrice Stew art, and Allen Jon :L The body" was takeTi in charge by 1 Larkin & Son to be prepared for "Big Roy" Stewart Is Star at Ogden Sunday As with all cinema stars, picture! fans have raxed over liny Stewart in j j All manner of descriptive terms to be found In- Xoah Webster's dictionary. I I Bravo, beautiful, thrilling, niunly. hus-l ky, heroic those ami dOSSns 0 other! Him liar terms have been worked to! death by Roy Stewart nthuslastn. 1 There is. however, a sense of th. fit Jneas of things in the normal human that keeps some te'ms of description from beinjf applied to some object. Mr. Stewart had been protected by thin, so far as his own ears or eyes registered, most of his career as a j 1 screen star. But while out in a far away sagebrush town on the western j I plains, playinc l)r Barnes" In the I all star cast of the Llen.l B. Hampton j photoplay of Kmcreon floush's novel "The Sagebrusher," which comes to I the gdcn theatre beginning Sunday. 1 he was hit right between th" eyes with 'one of thorn unfitting terms. lie was strolling along the town street for relaxation after a hard duy I of work, and passed three part-grown j girls, who had heard that he was the famous Itoy Stewart and were using their eyes to the limit. Just after they passed him tho star heard one of I them observe: "Oh. Helen ain't he cute?" Judge Johnson Moves to Cottage in Canyon Judge Tilman D. Johnson of the' I'nited States district court in Salt Lako City arrived here yesterday I bound for his summer cottage In Og den canyon, where ho will spend the remainder of the summer except for such periods as court work requires Rev. Matthews Back; Rev. Godfrey .Matthews and Mrs. Matthews have returned from San 1 rlego. w hero the ogden minister filled l the Congregational church pulpit xtnl the absence of the prwher. Ll The Rev. Matthewj will officiate otii the morning serleo of worship to-l morrow at 11 o'clock. His subject j mil be The Voice of Many Watars."4 MOOSE LEGION 1 ! GOES TDEUHEM I Lodge Prepares for Big Outing I at Lorin Farr Park K Next Thursday I About 5f Leplonnnires of Ogden BtJ lodge No 1814 l. 'i Moose wei t. d p in in sutomobilea al 1 o't lot i B. f this afternoon for Eureka for i lodgi frolic In connection with their trip B the ogden lodge men will do a little iLiVi advertising for Mo'.-u- day to bo held v 1 1 I .r in rr park. 1 hurl.i -Br C ! Th Mooae ill their ' cimmlttee declares the M006C will 1(1 Btt'i demonstrate again what good enter- I Wi tnlners they ar- and Incident. ill will II I i ii i n more i gd i m citizens should Join the order Information about the Moose Le- I :nn and the Moose In gen ral la con- ,talnefl In the following excerpt from iibbF'1 ithe Mooseheart Maaasine in an article K'sj on "What 1 Saw at Mooseheart." I I "Mooseheart a thlr'.y-five miles m fl from the city of Chicago and has near- ly eleven hundred seres ol land and M'l j about fifty buildings of eoncrete con- aiBBalF I struct Ion and fire 'roof. There la a bbbbHh! central heating and power plant with aWn red tile roofs. Large modern faro) Bisn plant Industrial buildings, hospital a aEES jand reaideacea IBVery child is given Pvk a high school education. The hoys Wfl 1 1 i 1 i . i . . i . y.. e,ri are taught rnlUlnery, drssa mak- I Ing and stenography. My Impression Oil '!.' h"llle i lir I lei ni i- B PVj pectatlons. It is a city in Itself. The IBBv children looked so happy and carefreSi aH healthy and perfeetlj at home in svsrj ICiSil i i i" l word m Orphan e If lum or a Friendly asylum, no walla BW- i o aaaw Iron bars on the windows. It is non- k' ' irlan Jew i G Prol H ... i ILaaaai H;e faith of Him parents There I no corporal punishment tolerated by H I (he governors. There- Is a large nurs- H cry for the very young Infants with BBBB competent nurses ajid doctors always BBBp. at hand, a large and up-to-date hos- VBBBJ .pltal. erected ut a cost of one hundred Waaakisl m from Philadi BBBT I phis ludKe No. 54. There is one of the BJBJ I largest dairy farms ln this section of ftn the country on the grounds with BBBH i r.f t Holsteln i nth to furnish milk I '1 and '-ream and butter fir the atudenta BSa There large aW boating and fishing arc indulged in LaaWP The- have mllttar training for rhe LaaaiaV' boys, under a V s. arm officer. They aaaBrVt have a crack baseball and football LaaViai team. A Iks' band of fifty pieces and aaPalt a KirK orchealra nnd r compel . tenchers. A savings bank which teaehe thrift to th children , . their pennies. I have traveled In aaaaaEF4 Kurope and have visited Germany. aaaaHS; orwa. Sweden and Austria ll unKar aaaarJ hut 1 have nuer Keen an pla, ,. dia'. LaaaTsMsiv oould compan with th training and II voeatlonal education that the boys and L 1 1 ' if Hr they lire ready to go out Into the uorld aaaaaaaaL 1 1 1 rnakt an honest living tnd become Bf self-sustaining and women BM loyal American citizens. ' And noav. my brothers, n word in aVtarJ KsTsi regard to the Mooseheart Legion. If t&i you have not yet lolned th- . the second degree and playground of tesLi! the Loal tirder of Moose, someone aial has been negligent In falling to udvige tfH mission. Whili & true that a part ot our" work is de- Vafl voted to fun and frolic, these ur,. Jaaal merely incidents. our prlmarv ob- fm Ject is to -help the kiddles at Moose- heart, ana for those who haVe not v vet taken the second degree and whose 11 iissUttance wo arc row soliciting The w L I k-ijo whl!' i part oi the lyal r- s der of Moose, has ( m its aim and ob- B ject a greuter betpfulnes to Moon-. heart and a happy, contented chlio Ji I I t"T I'- Ogden Grain Lxchange , Elects New Officers f r i . erg and directors of tb 0 RV Bschangt v. . r. elected al fesjBJ iinuul meeting as follow, according f' lo an announcement mad today: aaarJa - ' I H Hollister, preeidenl 11 L Hoi- fcw ley. vice president: B. L. Ulack. eec- " aaafsf !'i sad director! H 9, R. Flack. J. If. Barnhnrt of ogden aaaaaT I McCoy, l-oeatelio: David Robin-, Laafjl jnd William Barrett, Salt Lake LBS

|The First Storm Author: HaloFin17 PM Ereinion experiences his first storm after being sent to the Havens. A fluffy CirdanEreinion fic, partially inspired by a few lines from my story 'Weakness'. Please enjoy, and feel free to review!Rated: Fiction K - English - Family/Hurt/Comfort - Gil-Galad & Círdan - Words: 2,442 - Reviews: 5 - Favs: 8 - Published: 07-24-07 - Status: Complete - id: 3678467 |A+ A- Full 3/4 1/2 Expand Tighten| Summary: Ereinion experiences his first storm after being sent to the Havens. A fluffy Cirdan/Ereinion fic. Please enjoy, and feel free to review! Disclaimer: I will never own Cirdan or Ereinion no matter how much I love them. Yet no small amount of credit for this fic must also go to Dragon Confused and Levade. Even if they never read this, their own superb writings have helped inspire this story, and I would be honored if they would consider it as a sort of tribute story to some of theirs. Incidentally, f you like this, check out their profiles for some more amazing young Ereinion stories! You won't be disappointed! Author's Note: This oneshot was kind of inspired by a very small part of my story "Weakness," in which Cirdan gently teases Gil-galad about how he used to wake him up during the storms of the Havens as a child because he was scared. So hopefully those of you who have also been reading along in that story will have a special appreciation for this one as well. Enjoy! The First Storm The rumbling thunderclap was rapidly followed by yet another strobe of lightning and the subsequent cacophony. Ereinion shivered beneath his covers and anxiously pulled them tighter over his head to muffle the echoing noise. He tried to still his involuntary trembling, reminding himself that such fear was most unfit for a High Prince of the Noldor who was nearing his eleventh begetting day. But he had never experienced such monstrous weather back home. There had been occasional thunderstorms, yes – but nothing like this. And besides, back home he had always had his parents and his grandfather to comfort him during the storms and keep him safe, to tell him that it would all pass and that everything would be calm again in the morning. They were still there now, without him – his Ada and his Naneth. But not his grandfather. Not anymore. Fingolfin had fallen in battle shortly before Ereinion had been sent here, to the Havens. And though the young prince knew no details concerning the late High King's death, he did not ask about it. It was enough to see his parents' grief and know that his beloved grandfather would not becoming back. Ever. Stubbornly shoving away those bittersweet memories and melancholy thoughts, the Elfling experimentally poked his head out from under the blankets, but another round of lightning and thunder sent him retreating back under them in seconds. And suddenly, Ereinion yearned for his parents so badly it was almost painful – for someone to hold him and be strong for him until the raging storm had passed. Such longings were nothing new to him now, but that did not make them any easier. And somehow he did not think Cirdan would be overly inclined to cuddle an intrusive little Elfling late at night. Indeed, the grumpy old shipwright with whom Ereinion now dwelt seemed to be extraordinarily inept when it came to comforting a scared and lonely child, very rarely taking the initiative in a hug or any other such physical contact. He always seemed so awkward and…stiff. The ancient Elf had even required his new charge's guidance in something as simple as holding hands when the two of them walked about the Havens together! Ereinion simply did not comprehend how anyone could live for so many years and not know how to hold hands. Although, he did have to admit that, after almost a month now of practice in that particular art, the shipwright's intuition had improved considerably. But Cirdan would most certainly be irritated if his tiny ward were to disturb his rest, seeking refuge from a blustery storm. Being such a seasoned sailor, the older Elf was probably sleeping right through all of this in perfect peace. Although, perhaps Ereinion would feel better if he simply knew Cirdan was close by. Encouraged by that thought, the Elvish princeling clambered hurriedly out of bed, taking care to bring his favorite stuffed toy with him, and tiptoed down the hall as quickly as he could until he had reached the shipwright's bedchambers. Still cowering from the erratic flashes of lightning and the terrifying explosion that always followed, he slumped down onto the floor with his back against Cirdan's door and brought his knobby little knees up to his chin. Ereinion still clutched the soft toy fawn against his chest, but it was reassuring to know that his guardian was just on the other side of this sturdy wooden door. At least this way he wouldn't be waking Cirdan. Cirdan the Shipwright lay in bed with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as the storm raged on outside his window. He usually was not disturbed by such squalls, but this one was exceptionally violent. It would have to be in order to wake even him. But he was not too concerned. There were no ships out on the open water that night, and they'd had sufficient warning to secure everything down at the harbor before the storm hit, both facts for which he was exceedingly grateful. Hopefully there would be equally minimal damage to his own well-constructed home. And surely all those within his household were also well, for they were likewise familiar with the potentially destructive tempests of the Havens. But then the shipwright grimaced beneath his silver beard. On the contrary, not all within his walls were accustomed to such storms. No doubt the young Noldorin prince a few doors down had never experienced such intense weather back in Hithlum. He really should check on the boy, to see that he was content in his bed and not lost in a fit of panic. It would only be fair, as such turbulence could be most terrifying to a child who had never before endured it. Now, if only he could get himself out of bed… It proved to be a most difficult task, for he actually found it quite relaxing to just lie here, listening to the wind and the rain. But at last he made it, his body responding grudgingly despite its well-earned strength. Stifling a yawn, Cirdan ambled over to the door and swung it open, only to have a very startled and very sleepy little Elfling come tumbling down in front of him. Ereinion yelped in understandable surprise when the support behind him suddenly gave way, and he fell over backwards onto a large pair of stocking-covered feet. He looked up, in a sense relieved to see his guardian now here with him, but his tiny heart still pounded uncontrollably within his chest. "Ereinion!" Cirdan exclaimed, almost as startled as the small form crumpled at his feet. "Whatever are you doing out here, child?" He did not mean for the question to sound so harsh, but he was rightfully concerned to find his priceless charge sneaking out of his room in the middle of a dark and stormy night. But judging by how the child still cowered on the floor beneath him, grey eyes wide and fearful, the genuine concern in his motives had clearly not come across. Ereinion did not say anything, just continued to look at him with those bright eyes that shone like stars even in the darkness until another abrupt clap of thunder suddenly made him jump and grab hold of the hem on Cirdan's nightclothes until his small knuckles were white with the effort. The shipwright sighed wearily, comprehending, and crouched down next to his young ward. "Are you frightened by the storm, child?" The boy nodded quickly, his mop of tousled black hair bobbing up and down with the movement. He looked so helplessly pathetic, Cirdan could not help but pity the poor child. Although, of course, he could not be too obvious in the fact. So he stood and held out his hand down toward the shivering bundle of Elfling. "Come then, Ereinion." The prince scrambled to his feet and gratefully accepted the proffered hand, feeling rough calluses beneath his own smooth little fingers. Cirdan led them back inside his own chambers which were still pitch black except when illuminated by the sporadic flashes of lightning. Ereinion looked around nervously. He had only been in Cirdan's room once before, and that was when he had first arrived and been told that this particular chamber was off limits. But the typically gruff shipwright made no complaint about his company, only sat down in an overstuffed chair near the fireplace that had long gone cold and pulled the frightened child onto his lap. Ereinion curled up there and rested back against Cirdan, glad for the comfort even if his guardian's beard was prickly beneath his cheek. But the shipwright's arms were warm and strong around him, and he felt sheltered and secure. Almost as though he truly were back home. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to pretend that it was his grandfather who held him now, not Cirdan, but the omnipresent beard made that impossible. So Ereinion reopened his eyes with a sad little sigh and accepted the truth of where he was. There was little point in pretending, really. But at least he was learning little by little that he was safe here. Cirdan was not going to let anything happen to him any more than Fingolfin himself would have. And so he buried his face in Cirdan's chest, fisting his tiny hands in the shipwright's simple tunic while the storm raged on. Cirdan gazed down at the precious burden in his lap some time later after the thunder and lightning had begun to diminish. The boy was still awake, staring off aimlessly into the darkest corner of the room. "Are you ready to go back to bed now, child?" But Ereinion vehemently shook his head. "Why not?" the Lord of the Havens asked with a tired yawn. "The worst seems to have passed." "But you told me once that sometimes more storms come, and then they last all night," the little one protested nervously, miraculously managing to tighten his grip around the cloth in his hands. "Could that not happen now?" Cirdan let out a longsuffering sigh, ruing his decision to disclose that fact to the child several days back. "Aye, I suppose it could." "And if it does, I do not want to be alone, Cirdan." Ereinion turned around to try to see his guardian's face better but ended up sticking his bony elbow directly into the shipwright's stomach, earning a painful wince from Cirdan as he deliberately rearranged the mass of thin limbs into a more comfortable position. "You will not be alone, Ereinion. You know I am always nearby should you need me." The child nodded reluctantly, but he still showed no sign of releasing his viselike grip on the older Elf. Cirdan closed his eyes and wearily ran a hand over his face. He was in need of his own rest, as was the stubborn Elfling on his lap, but there appeared to be little hope of separating the two of them anytime soon. Deciding to concede to the inevitable sooner rather than later, the Telerin lord gathered his diminutive charge up in his arms and walked over to the bed. He carefully set Ereinion down near the pillows and began to arrange the blankets over him. "Sleep here then, child, for I know you are tired." Ereinion let Cirdan tuck him in, but he was still clearly uneasy about the storm and the prospect of being left alone. "Are you going to leave me?" he asked timidly. "No, Ereinion," his guardian answered him. "I will stay here with you. This is my bed, after all." The prince smiled wide and looked about ready to thank the shipwright, when his face suddenly fell. "Wait, Cirdan!" he exclaimed with sincere urgency and pointed back to the doorway they had previously deserted. "We cannot leave him there alone all night!" Cirdan followed the extended finger and complied in total understanding. It was an oddity he could never empathize with, but the child loved that stuffed toy as though it were a living, communicative creature. He retrieved the fawn from the floor and handed it to Ereinion who immediately snuggled it lovingly up against his nose. "There now, go to sleep. And I promise I shall not leave you. If the storm returns, child, I will be here." "Thank you, Cirdan." The small voice was muffled as Ereinion spoke into his toy, but that did not make his gratitude any less heartfelt. The shipwright favored his charge with one of those rare, genuine smiles that emerged from beneath his beard, though he wasn't sure the child could even see it in the dark. "You are welcome, Ereinion." With that, Cirdan settled down beside the now peaceful Elfling. He sat with his back against the headboard of the bed and wrapped a reassuring arm around Ereinion, even though he knew that the young prince was already sleeping soundly. Ereinion did not know how long it had been since he'd fallen asleep in Cirdan's bed when he next woke up, but it was still dark out even though the storm had passed completely. Sleepy and content, he stretched and yawned, his little mouth opening far wider than would have been thought possible, and glanced up at his guardian. Cirdan may have been in an upright position once, but now he was slumped down against the bed frame, half sitting and half lying down, with his head drooping over one shoulder. Ereinion thought it looked most uncomfortable. Suddenly, another noise startled him, and he jumped against the shipwright's body. But it was not thunder. This time, the sound had come from directly above him, and Ereinion tilted his head upward, just to be certain that his ears had not deceived him. Cirdan was snoring. The Elfling repressed a giggle, not wanting to wake his guardian, but he was unspeakably amused nonetheless. He had heard his Ada snore on rare occasion, but somehow it did not seem to fit the shipwright. Indeed, the grouchy old Elf did not look so scary at all when he was like this. Suddenly reassured, he snuggled back up against Cirdan's warm side. Perhaps living here would not be as unbearable as he'd first thought. After all, if the two of them could survive the trials of a storm like this, they could withstand just about anything.

9:44 PM CST, February 23, 2013 Jordan Samuels-Thomas had to leave home to find out how much he missed home. And if that sounds like something out of a Disney movie, well, that's probably a good a place to start. As he stood there with his family Friday night after Quinnipiac, the nation's top-ranked hockey team, dusted No. 13 Yale 4-1 at High Point Solutions Arena, Cliff Thomas needed only three words to answer why he got his son involved in the sport. "The Mighty Ducks," said Thomas, who coaches track at Prince Tech. If the Bobcats were to win the national title this April in Pittsburgh, if Samuels-Thomas were to tuck in a huge goal in the Frozen Four, you've got to wonder if they'd thank Gordon Bombay, Jesse Hall and the trilogy of Mighty Ducks movies from the nineties. "Loved 'The Mighty Ducks,'" said the junior right wing, who at 6-4, 198 pounds, is built like a tight end. "I got so excited watching it. Hockey was the first sport I remember watching on TV. I was attracted to the speed. My parents were great to get me into it right away." Jordan was barely 5. By the time he was 7, he already was quoted in The Courant saying he wanted to play in the NHL and Ray Bourque was his idol. Well, by 22, he has been drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers, now Winnipeg Jets, and entered the weekend third in scoring for No. 1 Quinnipiac. Those facts also tell only a portion of the story. Climbing the ranks of North American ice hockey — regardless of race or creed — is a road traveled differently from other major sports. For an African-American player, born in West Hartford, it has meant going away to prep school at 14, to the cornfields of Iowa at 17, to college in northwest Ohio and one day probably to Manitoba. Yet it also has meant returning to Connecticut to play for a team that is catching the sporting fancy of his home state. "We don't have any teams in the four major sports," Samuels-Thomas said. "UConn basketball is our pro team. I know we're not getting the same attention they do in one of their better years, but we are getting attention. Having that No. 1 ranking in Connecticut, it's important. It's exciting." He started at 5 playing house league in South Windsor for a year. Developing quickly, he played for the Newington Nighthawks for a few years. Nick Bonino, who now plays for the Mighty Ducks' NHL offspring in Anaheim, was on that team. When he was 8, Jordan moved on to the Springfield Junior Pics for three years. He would play "up" with kids a couple of years older on the Junior Coyotes Bantams. At 14, he went to Canterbury School in New Milford for two years before leaving to play in the AJHL for the Hartford Junior Wolfpack. He made the big move to Iowa at 17 to play for Waterloo in the USHL, the top-tier U.S. junior league. "I had to grow up quick at prep school, it wasn't the easiest time for me," Samuels-Thomas said. "I would say my transition to Iowa actually was easier." He billeted with a family in Waterloo. He also had long drives around the upper Midwest to games. He had to learn the responsibility to handle money and get to high school. He went to Waterloo West High — alma mater of wrestling great Dan Gable. "Our team's a big deal in that area. Everybody at school knows you play and you're a bit of a celebrity in town," Samuels-Thomas said. His first year at Waterloo, he needed to figure out what would make him more successful at a higher level. He could shoot the puck. He could protect the puck. Size and strength were assets. His combativeness caught the fans' fancy. He needed to improve his skating and his defensive zone awareness. "I was scoring primarily in Connecticut so nobody gave me a hard time about my D-zone play," Samuels-Thomas said. "It's a business out there. You've got to be an all-around player, especially if you want to play in college and get noticed by NHL scouts." His game began to flourish his second year. He scored 32 goals. He was drafted in the seventh round. He accepted a scholarship to Bowling Green. "At that point, I kind of liked being away from home," Samuels-Thomas said. "And being a big guy going against other big guys in the CCHA, I thought it was good preparation for the NHL." Ice time worked for him. He had a chance to develop his open-ice offensive play. The school didn't work for him. Bowling Green went through three coaches in two years. "There wasn't much stability and I felt I wasn't getting much better except what I was doing on my own," he said. "On top of that, we were losing a lot." He led Bowling Green in scoring in both of his seasons. The bad news: Bowling Green was 15-52-10 during that time. "When hockey doesn't go well and you're not really happy where you are, that's a lot to deal with," Samuels-Thomas said. He decided to transfer. The kid who liked being away from home was eager to return to New England. "Being close to home was really important for me," he said. He talked to UMass-Lowell. He talked to Maine and a few other Hockey East schools. He met with Rand Pecknold. He was sold on Quinnipiac's future. Even though he had to sit out a year, he knew Quinnipiac would be strong this season. That didn't make last year easy. "It didn't really hit me until the first game, an exhibition game," he said. "I'd been able to do everything until that point, and then you walk into the locker room. Your name isn't on the lineup sheet. Wow. "Until then, my life was all hockey, hockey, hockey. It's all I did since I was little. My life is still pretty revolved around the game, but sitting a year out allowed me to find out who I was outside hockey. It was a blessing in disguise." He spent more time with his family than he had in a long time. He drove home to Windsor. On weekends when the team was on the road, he'd be with his mom, Joan Samuels, talking about life, and with his dad. He'd go to church with them. He'd read the Bible. "I found out a lot more about who I want to be outside the rink," he said. When discussing a transfer, Pecknold had shown Samuels-Thomas exactly who was on the team and who was coming. "I'm thinking this could be really good, but I wouldn't say we would have been the No. 1 team in the nation," he said. "This is even beyond what I thought it would be." After not playing a game for a year and seven months, Samuels-Thomas had trouble finding his rhythm at the beginning of the season. "I'm still finding it, really," he said before scoring a pair of goals in a 3-3 tie with Brown Saturday night. "Game speed, intensity, it was hard for me to adjust back. The coaches have been great being patient with me and I've had to be patient with myself." As Samuels-Thomas skated on a line with Ben Arnt against Yale, he stood out as unique. No, not because he's African-American. Thankfully, a once lily-white game has evolved to where there are at least 25 players of color in the NHL. Unique because he was the only player from Connecticut on either roster. The state has turned out a bunch of elite college players over the years and most matriculated to the banks of the Charles River. With Quinnipiac and UConn's move to Hockey East, that can change. "If you're from Connecticut and you're a top young player, you think about BC and BU," Samuels-Thomas said. "When I played for the Junior Wolfpack, I really had no idea about Quinnipiac. With the success of the program, I think you'll see more Connecticut kids wanting to stay." And who knows? Connecticut kids may see Samuels-Thomas on television, in or out of skates. A communications student, he's had his major picked out since he was 12. He wants to work in sports television. I met him last year when he interned with sports director Rich Coppola at FOX CT. "Rich was awesome, he taught me a lot about things in the industry and helped me narrow my focus," Samuels-Thomas said. "I want to love my job when I'm out of college. I hope my hockey career can be strong enough so I'll have an upper hand." So there was Jordan Samuels-Thomas anchoring the news for the school station Thursday night. And there he was skating right wing on a nationally televised game against Yale on NBC Sports Friday night. All this, 40 minutes from his home. Even Gordon Bombay would say that's a pretty good weekend. Copyright © 2013, The Hartford Courant

Irishman John Donovan served with the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry in the first major battle of the American Civil War, at Bull Run, Virginia. His unit fought side by side with the 69th New York State Militia, as part of the brigade commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman. For Donovan, this first day of fighting on 21st July 1861 would also prove to be his last. He recounted the incredible story of his survival against the odds to the Irish-American newspaper, who published it on 9th September 1862. John Donovan described his day as follows: Went into an engagement at Bull Run, Sunday, July 21, 1861, at 10 o’clock, a.m., or thereabouts. Marched up the hill after getting over a fence, and on reaching nearly to the brow I was struck by a rifle ball in the calf of my right leg, outside, passing through to the skin on the other side. In the cars on the way to Richmond the next evening, a young man, looking among the wounded prisoners, wanted me to let him take it out and keep the ball, to which I consented, and he cut it out. After being hit as above I stepped back to the fence, sat down and bound up my leg to keep it from bleeding. I then got up and loaded and fired from where I stood. After firing three times, another ball hit me in the left heel, glancing up along near my ankle joint. This ball remained in about eight weeks, when my leg, being badly festered, the prison hospital surgeon lanced it one evening, and in the night the ball worked down, so I got it out the next morning. After being hit the second time I still kept loading and firing as fast as I could. In about ten minutes, as near as I can judge, a third ball struck me in the right side, which still remains somewhere within me. This disabled me somewhat for a short time, but I again loaded and fired two or three times as well as I could, when I was struck in the right arm (while in the act of firing) about midway between my elbow and shoulder joints, the ball running up towards my neck. The ball was taken out about nine weeks afterwards by the hospital surgeon at Richmond, about half away from my shoulder joint to my neck bone. I fired my musket but once after this, as the recoil of it hurt my shoulder so, I was unable to bear it. I then left the fence to get behind a tree standing some two hundred and fifty yards off, and picked up a revolver which lay on the ground, just after I left the fence, at which time a bullet struck on my right wrist glancing off from the bone. I went a little further towards the tree, when some twelve or fifteen Confederate soldiers came out of the woods directly towards me. I fired the revolver at them three times, and just as I fired the third barrel, a bullet fired by one of this company struck me just below my left eye, going into my head. I knew nothing more until about noon the next day (Monday). When I came to I found myself lying right where I fell the day before. I tried to get up, but could not. After this I made several ineffectual attempts to crawl away to the shade of a tree, the sun shining very hot. About four p.m., a couple of soldiers came along, picked me up, and carried me to the cars, and I was sent to Richmond, afterwards sent to Alabama, and finally released on parole. The bullet still remains in my head; the hospital surgeon says it lies somewhere near my right ear (the sense of hearing being entirely lost in that ear), the drum, or typanum having been injured by it. The slightest touch on my chin, or near it, causes a sever pain in my right temple and over the ear. I cannot see at all with my left eye. I cannot bear to be out in the sun; it makes me dizzy and my head pains me severely; so also does more than ordinary exercise. Ordinarily, when sitting quiet, my head only occasionally troubles me- a little dizziness and heaviness is about all- except when out in the sun or heated, as before stated; and also when I attempt to lift anything, it puts me in severe pain in my head, and my eyes pain me exceedingly, as well then as when heated or out in the sun. I am obliged to keep out of the sun as much as possible on account of this excruciating pain in my head and eyes, and when I read my eyes fill with water, and I have to rest. I cannot write a letter of ordinary length. I have to stop several times for this and from dizziness. There is occasionally a dimness comes over my right eye even when quiet, but not very often. The surgeon said the bone around my left temple was shattered, and that pieces thereof would work out; none has to my knowledge. The bullet which entered my right side has not yet given me any great trouble. (1) Records confirm that John Donovan enlisted as a Private in Company B, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry, on 22nd May 1861. At that time he resided in Houston, Minnesota. The Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers states that he was wounded five times at Bull Run, made a prisoner, and discharged due to disability on his release. His survival despite receiving so many wounds is remarkable; despite this, the severe impact these injuries had on his life highlight the legacy of suffering that many American Civil War veterans had to endure long after the guns fell silent. (2) (1) Irish American; (2) Roster 1886: 351; Irish American, 9th September 1862: ‘A Man Wounded Six Times in One Battle’ Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office 1886. Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861- 1865, Volume 1

Fenced in, the young men launch themselves high into the air, twisting and turning in a playful high-speed attempt to escape – at first from gravity then from their prison. They pull off several seemingly impossible feats, like landing in a handstand on another performer’s upturned palms or running across a ministage inclined at a steep angle.

"My true role is that of a 'teacher.' My subject is human development, as it allows people to live together harmoniously." Hidy Ochiai, a native of Japan and an U.S. citizen, came to the United States in 1962 with the mission of teaching the martial arts. In 1966, after receiving his B.A. from Albright College, Master Ochiai moved to Binghamton, NY and established Washin-ryu (wa–harmony, shin–truth) Karate-do in the United States. Washin-ryu now includes 25 branch schools across the United States. From 1967-1980, Master Ochiai established himself as one of the world's premier martial artists. He was rated the number one kata (form) competitor by the PKA (Professional Karate Association), having won the United States Grand National Karate Championship for five consecutive years, an unduplicated record. He has been inducted twice to the Black Belt Magazine's Hall of Fame in 1979 as “Instructor of the Year” and in 1980 as “Man of the Year.” In 2004, Hidy Ochiai was inducted to the Martial Arts History Museum's Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. He received a record number of votes. In 2001 Hidy Ochiai founded the Hidy Ochiai Foundation, which encompasses his philosophy and life-long teachings, the basis of which is expressed in the dynamic relationship between the mind and the body. With training, the mind and the body become unified in such a way that the individual becomes the true master of the self. Dedicated to promoting the principles of non-violence, the Foundation especially focuses on helping children and young adults learn and practice a positive and peaceful way of life – based on respect, self-discipline, self-confidence and mental and physical health, so they become constructive citizens, living in harmony with others. Hidy Ochiai is the author of five books, including two comprehensive texts on self-defense, The Complete Book of Self-Defense and Hidy Ochiai's Self-Defense for Kids: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. His book, A Way to Victory: Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings is an English translation and commentary of Musashi's ancient text and represents a seven-year effort to render the wisdom and spirit of Musashi's timeless teachings. First released in Japan, A Way to Victory has been republished in the United States by the Overlook Press. Additionally, he created two permanent college course offerings for the State University of New York first, "Zen and the Martial Arts of Japan" in the Anthropology Department at Binghamton University and secondly, “Self-defense in the Martial Arts” for the School of Professional Studies at SUNY-Cortland. His accomplishments have been praised by the media both nationally and internationally, including Black Belt Magazine, and ABC's Wide World of Sports, You Asked For It, and ESPN. In 1994, Hidy Ochiai founded the non-profit organization called the Educational Karate Program (EKP), which was validated by the NYS Education Department as a program suitable for all public schools in New York State. EKP teaches students of all ages an attitude of anti-drugs and anti-violence. EKP is currently taught in several hundred schools by over 800 certified teachers. Hidy Ochiai's humanitarian efforts have been recognized worldwide. He has been named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International, is the recipient of the Albright College's 1999 “Distinguished Alumnus Award” and SERTOMA's 2001 “Service to Mankind Award.” On November 1, 2002, the Japanese Government honored Master Hidy Ochiai as “an ambassador” of traditional Japanese culture and art. His Excellency, Ryozo Kato, the Ambassador of Japan, recognized Hidy Ochiai during the Embassy's celebration of Japan's Culture Day, which was held at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. Master Ochiai, was one of twelve traditional martial arts masters chosen by the Japanese government to receive this honor and recognition. In the pursuit and expression of his art, Hidy Ochiai's fundamental aim has been to help individuals walk the path of self-development with dignity. "To become a master of an art is a fine thing, and to become an expert of a craft is a great achievement in any person's life. But it is more important to become a master of the self – to exert control over oneself in life." Hidy Ochiai is perhaps best known for his spectacular demonstrations. He is considered to be one of the world's premier karate performers. His unique exhibitions have thrilled audiences from coast to coast at the nation's major tournaments, and the showman seldom fails to gain wild and enthusiastic ovations wherever he appears. The finale of his unusual demonstration occurs when he lies on a sharp bed of nails and permits an assistant to smash with a sledgehammer, several concrete slabs supported on Ochiai's stomach. He performed internationally in 1974 when he toured Europe as a member of the U.S. Professional All-Star Team along with Mike Anderson, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Al and Malia Dacascos, Jeff Smith, Fumio Demura, Takayui Mikami, Howard Jackson, and Jim Harrison. One highlight of the star-studded tour came about when Ochiai performed before 7500 spectators at the Deutchlandhalle in West Berlin, one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe at the time. Ochiai's demo in the World Professional Karate Championships in Los Angeles took place before more than 10,000 spectators and was later televised twice nationwide on ABC's Wide World of Sports. As a form competitor, Ochiai was rated five consecutive times as the number one kata performer in the U.S. by Professional Karate Magazine. And though he slipped to the number two position in May of 1975, his impressive record is yet to be duplicated. Even before the kata ratings were conceived in late 1974, Ochiai had won top honors at the U.S. Pro/Am in Maryland, the Top 10 Nationals in Missouri and the USKA Grand Nationals in Wisconsin, an annual event. Known also as an excellent judge, Ochiai has collected awards at both the USKA Grand Nationals ('71 to '75) and AKA Nationals ('73 to '75). The veteran instructor/competitor operates 25 schools in New York and surrounding states, branching out from one location in 1970. Ochiai's headquarters in Vestal is said to be the single largest facility dedicated to the study of Martial Arts in existence today. To learn more about Hidy Ochiai visit his website www.HidyOchiai.com.

FOCUS: The Pew Center on the States Report: Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril, a report released by the Pew Center on the States on November 11, 2009, highlights the ten states troubled most by the recession: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Researchers identified six factors contributing to California's difficulties and used these as a scoring system for the other states: loss of state revenues; the relative size of budget gaps; increasing joblessness; high foreclosure rates; legal obstacles to balanced budgets—specifically, a supermajority requirement for tax increases or budget bills and poor money-management practices. Michigan received a score of 27, three points ahead of California's 30, but 10 points below the United States as whole at 17. Michigan's revenue change percentage was the highest at -16.50%. More Michigan Woe Forecast (Detroit News, 11/13/09) Michigan Will Be Among the Poorest States for Years, Study Says (Detroit Free Press, 11/12/09) Pew Study: Michigan on Track for California-Style Money Woes (Detroit News, 11/12/09) Study: Michigan Crumbles Under Outdated Tax System (Detroit Free Press, 11/11/09) In the Capitol The Michigan House of Representatives and Senate will be in session Wednesday, November 18 at 1:30 p.m. and 10 a.m. respectively. November 18 is the only anticipate session day for both chambers in the next two weeks. House Session Schedule Senate Session Schedule Committee Meetings of Interest for the Week of 11/16 11/17 House Judiciary: Corrections Reform Agenda: HB 4497 Restore good time system for all prisoners and eliminate disciplinary credits and disciplinary time; HB 4498 Eliminate provisions of prison code relating to disciplinary time and disciplinary credits and restore good time credits; HB 4499 Eliminate reference to disciplinary time in provisions concerning sentencing multiple felonies. 11/17 House Health Policy Agenda Item of Interest: HB 5043 Make license revocation or denial upon conviction of first, second, or third degree criminal sexual conduct permanent. 11/18 House Appropriations Agenda Item of Interest: HB 5592 Remove sunset on crime victim's rights fund excess revenue provision. 11/18 House Judiciary Agenda: HB 4403 Expand immunity for national ski patrol member to include nonski emergencies; HB 4098 Eliminate driver responsibility fee; HB 4101 Allow driver responsibility fee to be assessed for only 1 year instead of 2; HB 4604 Revise responsibility and payment method for driver responsibility fees; HB 4885 Revise jury pool selection process; HB 4886 Allow names and addresses of taxpayers to be disclosed to jury boards for selecting jury pools; HB 4969 Require use of e-verification system by employment agencies; HB 4355 Require state contractors to verify legal residency of employees; HB 5603 Revise procedures for imposing driver responsibility fee; and any other business properly before this committee. Litigation Section Position on HB 4403: Oppose SBM Position on HB 4885 and HB 4886: Support the Concept of Expanding Jury Pools Complete Committee Meeting List New Public Acts Legislation Introduced 11/10–11/12 Of Interest to the Legal Community HB 5592 Crime victims; rights; crime victim's rights fund excess revenue provision; remove sunset. HB 5601 Courts; juries; individuals who fail to return jury questionnaires; ensure continued eligibility for jury service. Of General Interest HJR OO Legislature; legislators; term limits; revise to combination of 14 years total legislative service. In the Hall of Justice 2009-18—Proposed Amendments of Rules 7.211, 7.313, and 8.119 of the Michigan Court Rules These proposed amendments of MCR 7.211, 7.313, and 8.119 would clarify that materials filed with a trial court, with the Court of Appeals, or with the Supreme Court that relate to a motion to seal a record are nonpublic until the court disposes of the motion. Issued: November 13, 2009 Comment period expires: March 1, 2010 Public hearing: To be scheduled 2009-01—Appointment of Chief Judges of Michigan Courts Issued: November 10, 2009 At the Bar The State Bar of Michigan's Public Policy, Image, and Identity Committee and the Board of Commissioners will meet on November 19, 2009. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Judicial Crossroads Task Force Committee Rosters Announced Young Lawyers Section Hosts November Food Drive and Networking Event Two Former SBM Presidents Elected to Cooley Board of Directors Sections and Committees The Real Property Law Section submitted a Public Policy report on SB 0791 Property; other; uniform real property electronic recording act; create. Creates new act. Supreme Court Weighs Juvenile Life Sentences (U.S. News, 11/11/09) For University of Michigan Innocence Clinic Students, Experience is the Best Teacher (Ann Arbor.com, 11/10/09) Grand Rapids Judge William B. Murphy Named New Chief Judge for Michigan Court of Appeals (Grand Rapids News, 11/10/09)

Create! Pattern Cutting - What:Young People's Events - Where:Design Studio, Sackler Centre YOUNG PEOPLE'S EVENT: Develop your pattern cutting skills and design and make a pattern to create your own top. Monday 13 August (13–15 years) Tuesday 14 August (16–19 years) Once you have booked a ticket, please complete the emergency contact form and the model release form and send them in before the event. It is advisable to bring a packed lunch for the day-long sessions. One free place is available to a carer accompanying a disabled person.

Budget 2013: $1.7 billion to help households with cost of living The Government will provide $1.7 billion of direct assistance to help households cope with the increase in the cost of living, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his Singapore Budget 2013 speech on Monday. Singapore Budget 2013 will give low-income and middle-income families an additional Goods and Services Tax (GST) voucher, in addition to the permanent GST voucher scheme which was introduced last year. This will mean a doubling of the amount that eligible households receive, which is $740 for regular households or $1,240 for a retiree household. Singapore Budget 2013 will aslo see all Housing Board households getting a reprieve on their service and conservancy charges. Households living in one- to two-room flats will get a three-month rebate, while those in three- to four-room flats will get two months. Those living in five-room flats will get a 1.5 month rebate while those in executive flats will get a month's rebate. Direct assistance for cost of living Source: Ministry of Finance Families with young children, elderly dependent and person with disabilities will get a concession on their foreign domestic worker levy. The levy will be reduced from $170 to $120 a month for those who are eligible, saving them $600 a year. A segment of Singaporeans - those aged 45 and above - will get a $200 Central Provident Fund Medisave top-up. These top-ups will benefit 1.5 million Singaporeans and cost the Government $300 million. All Singaporeans will also get personal tax rebates for the Year of Assessment 2013. Residents aged below 60 years will get a 30 per cent rebate, capped at $1,500, while those aged 60 and above will get a 50 per cent rebate capped at $1,500. Having the cap, said DPM Tharman, will allow the Government to provide the "greatest benefits" to those at the 80th percentile and below of taxpayers. For more news and analysis on Singapore Budget 2013, click here for ST's Big Story coverage.

Pamela Horton – Babe of the Day This pretty young thing is Pamela Horton, a gamer girl who likes to fight off the Alliance in ‘World of Warcraft’—when she isn’t posing for Playboy. Pamela is a double threat: She works as a freelance model while pursuing a career in video game concept design, as evidenced by her roles as Miss October 2012 and Playboy’s Gamer Next Door. The girl’s talented, that’s all we’re saying. And not too bad to look at, either.

The Disney Princess Set is a simple but fun costume set that your young daughter will love. The costume package features a tutu, glove set, and a choker necklace that come together for a cute and eye catching look. The pink satin skirt features a two tone look in a powder pink and a neon hot pink. The skirt features a tulle fabric overlay with silver trim and a white ruffled trim on the second tier. The skirt also features a character image and sequin dot accented bow focal point at the waist. The gloves included are white with a pink sequin trim and a hot pink choker necklace with a character pendant. Just add your own top and tights to the outfit and you have a great ensemble all put together. Don't miss out on this simple, no fuss outfit and order our Disney Princess Set today.

Alright guys...here's my gift from me to you. I was going to use this idea myself but I can't get free of other stuff tonight so won't be needing this...It's simple and when people ask what you are, and you tell them, you'll probably get a few laughs. Just wear nothing but gray clothing....from head to toe: shirt, tie, pants, shoes...light grays, dark grays...then get some gray or silver spray for your hair and if you're really ambitious, gray face paint. Maybe a gray hat. What are you??? 50 Shades of Gray!!! hahaha By the way...here's what I did the last two halloweens if you wanna try and pull off these! You've probably seen the infomercial for Insanity. It's brought to you by the marketing geniuses that brought you P90X. This workout is totally different. Here are the plus and minuses of Insanity: Plus: it's only 60 days long workouts are short the first month...about 40 minutes you will lose bodyfat and improve your cardio endurance DRAMATICALLY you don't need a single piece of equipment. Nothing! Not even a mat. Nothing. Sean T. is a great motivator and everything is explained well including the meal plan (super easy to follow and you won't starve at all) Minuses: It's BRUTALLY hard and it's mostly plyometrics (jump fitness) the lack of equipment means less exercises to choose from which means it can be repetitive at times You will sweat like you never have before and you should absolutely wear a heart monitor! It's that intense. The second month will probably make many people give up! (don't!!!) And most importantly, your kness will take a pounding from the excessive jumping, day after day, six days a week Here's my thoughts: It's great if you're an athlete looking to improve cardio strength or leg strength. It's GREAT for flexibility too and for losing bodyfat. But for anyone with joint issues or prior knee injuries, I would choose a different program. If you haven't exercised on a regular basis in awhile, I would NOT start with this program. Beach Body has tons of great programs like P90X, P90X2, Brazilian Butt Lift, Ten Minute Trainer and about 10 others. You can check all of them out at my website nepa90.com. That;s how much I believe in this company....Feel free to email me with any questions. And just for the record, after having tried virtually all the workouts (with the exception of their new bodybuilding program Body Beast, which I start Tuesday), I would rate P90X as still the best program I've ever experienced. Good luck! You know I'm a guy that attends alot of weddings and really care about how I look. I am absolutely in LOVE with my newest suit aquisition; this Hugo Boss masterpiece sold exclusively at Friedman's in Dunmore. If you are really discriminating about your wardrobe, I wanted to tip you off to a rare chance to see exclusive new lines at SPECIAL pricing for one day only! The trunk show is Wednesday, October 10th from 12noon to 6pm (later by appt). The hot new lines for men and women include Hickey Freeman, Allen Edmonds Footwear, the incredibly hot Barbour Footwear line and all new for the fall, the Blackstone shoe line (designed and priced for trendy young men). Tell Phil I sent ya!! I don't have any kids, but I have lots of female friends that do. And kids in this country have fallen in love with soccer. (well...til high school then they'll rejoin us big kids for for football, basketball, baseball, etc.....) But I quickly realized soccer is ALOT more than driving the little ones to a game once a week! It's more like practices, practices, buy equipment, meetings, practices and eventually the games. And more games. I get exhausted listening to my friends run down their schedule! Of course this is in addition to the million other things parents have to do. But naturally you try do anything and everything for your kids. Good for you! Hopefully they'll remember all this one day when you're in a rocking chair thinking about the good ol days when you were racing all over n.e. Pa on your way to soccer! I know many of you love P90X so I thought I would give you my thoughts on the new version. (P90X 2). It's really hard like its predecessor but focuses more on your core. Great if you're into sports or simply need a change of pace from the original( which I still prefer) but it's definitely challenging and wll greatly increase your fitness level. (and your balance!) Btw...Ab Ripper in X2 is far better! Friedman's in Dunmore has some amazing shirts that are both hip and trendy, and you won't find these babies at the mall! And now thru sunday, almost the entire store is on sale (and I mean HUGE price cuts!)....Friedman's is on Drinker Street in Dunmore...Happy Dad's Day!

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition - n. The act of announcing. - n. An announcement; a proclamation. - n. Christianity The angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary of the Incarnation. - n. Christianity The feast celebrating this event. - n. Christianity March 25, the day on which this feast is observed. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License - n. The act of annunciating. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English - n. The act of announcing; announcement; proclamation. - n. The announcement of the incarnation, made by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. - n. The festival celebrated (March 25th) by the Church of England, of Rome, etc., in memory of the angel's announcement, on that day; Lady Day. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. The act of announcing; proclamation; promulgation: as, the annunciation of a peace; “the annunciation of the gospel,” - n. Specifically The announcement to Mary, by the angel Gabriel, of the incarnation of Christ. - n. [capitalized] Eccles., the festival instituted by the church in memory of the announcement to Mary that she should bring forth a son who should be the Messiah. It is solemnized on the 25th of March. - n. An order of nuns founded about 1500 at Bourges, France, by Queen Jeanne of Valois, after her divorce from Louis XII. - n. An order of nuns founded about 1604 at Genoa, Italy, by Maria Vittoria Fornari. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. - n. a formal public statement - n. (Christianity) the announcement to the Virgin Mary by the angel Gabriel of the incarnation of Christ - n. a festival commemorating the announcement of the Incarnation by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary; a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland Sorry, no etymologies found. Let us now address her with the prayer that recalls the annunciation by the Angel. Quivering as at some "annunciation", she went slowly forward. I thought of the medieval Netherlandish altarpieces I love so much: Sometimes the central panel -- be it a picture of the annunciation, the crucificion, or a martyrdom -- is flanked by panels depicting portraits of the altarpiece donors (often husband and wife, male and female). Regarding his miraculous birth, the Qu'ran narrates the transcendent annunciation dialogue between the Angel Gabriel Jibril and Virgin Mary: She said: When shall I have a boy and no mortal has yet touched me, nor have I been unchaste? (Mary's consent at the angel's annunciation tells us everything we need to know, except for most folks the connotation conjures up 'automobile company' or 'ex-nihilo' currency creation favored by political administrations who like to avoid concepts like "consent" not something young men desire to imitate: ancilla Domini heroism) The mystery of the annunciation to Mary is not just a mystery of silence. Why should it not be possible to appreciate the depiction of modesty in portraits of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, yet bypass the doctrine of the annunciation; admire Christianity's emphasis on compassion, yet shun its theories of the afterlife? Part I began with a swinging overture and maintained sprightly tempi and bright colors throughout, befitting the optimism of its subject: the annunciation of the birth of Christ. Has this world apology tour and annunciation of mistakes made us feel better about ourselves at a time we need optimism? In this version of the annunciation, Mary had a book before her in a stand, and her hand was resting on it as if to hold her place in the passage.

1:14 PM PT -- Prince William's daddykins -- Charles the Prince of Wales -- has just released a statement on the birth of the baby ... saying, "Both my wife and I are overjoyed at the arrival of my first grandchild. It is an incredibly special moment for William and Catherine and we are so thrilled for them on the birth of their baby boy." Source TMZ Forbes Magazine introduced the list of the year's most influential people and back-up quarterback Tim Tebow (who is currently without a contract) was named Most Influential. Other Athletes such as Derek Jeter and Michael Phelps also made the list. Mario Williams just signed a $100 million contract with the Buffalo Bills, making him one of the highest paid defense ends in history! However, he is suing his ex fiance for an engagement ring that cost a whopping $750,000! She broke it off so should she give it back? Martha Stewart has been looking to the web for love. Recently Stewart made a match.com account to try and find someone to "Go to bed with". Would you want to go on a date with Martha Stewart? Those pancakes in the morning would be AMAZING! NBA player Jason Collins has recently become the first athlete in a major American sport to come out. He has been receiving praise from ambassadors of the gay community and from the NBA. To the fans who disagree with Collins let me say this - It doesn't matter if you are gay, straight, white, or black...if you can ball, you can ball!! Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are having troubles. No ring, no wedding date, a lot of time apart, baby on the way, this could only mean trouble in paradise. You know it feels nice whenever karma comes back to "celebrities"! Just when you thought Lindsay Lohan was gone, she pulls something like this. Earlier today it was announced that Lohan could be late to her scheduled rehab date causing an extension to her probation. We need to look at Lohan as an example of what NOT to do! Possible drug overdose has taken the life of 90's hip hop star, Chris Kelly. Kelly was announced dead at Atlanta Medical Center earlier this morning at the young age of 34. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. This years Kentucky Derby is putting a hold on backpacks, large purses, and coolers for the annual horse race that occurs every May. The hyped security is due to the recent attacks in Boston and other places. You would think if someone would bomb the Kentucky Derby, they would do it with something else besides a backpack, purse, or cooler!

This weekend's countdown begins toward the Monday debut of the hour-long special The Sarah Jane Adventures. The episode, broadcast Monday 1 January from 4.50 to 5.50pm on BBC1/CBBC, is the pilot episode for a limited-run series that will air later in the year and brings Elisabeth Sladen back to the screen in the title role of Sarah Jane Smith, the role she was last seen as in the last Doctor Who season's episode "School Reunion". Joining Sladen in the episode is Samantha Bond, best known as Miss Moneypenny in the Pierce Brosnan "James Bond" films and for her role in the series "Distant Shores," as Mrs. Wormwood, and Jamie Davies as Wormwood's henchman, Davey. Sarah Jane's young sidekicks in the episode are Yasmin Page as Maria, Porsha Lawrence Mavour as Kelsey and Thomas Knight as Luke. K9 (possibly voiced by John Leeson) is to be seen briefly in the special but will not be in the series to follow. The episode is entitled Invasion of the Bane, and is written by Gareth Roberts and Russell T Davies. Davies and Julie Gardner executive produce; Phil Collinson and Matthew Bouch are the producers. Below is the episode's press release, as well as a collection of photos from the episode, presented here as a teaser for the Monday airing; click on each for a larger version. (As always, all photos are copyrighted to the BBC and used solely to promote the episode.) Elisabeth Sladen -- Doctor Who's former sidekick -- is back as Sarah Jane Smith in a brand-new, fast-paced children's drama, created by Russell T Davies and from the makers of Doctor Who. The Sarah Jane Adventures ensures that children never look at fizzy drinks in the same way again... Sarah Jane is fascinated by Bubbleshock, a strangely addictive organic drink that is taking the world by storm. She is almost oblivious to the arrival of her new neighbour, Maria, a young girl starting a new life with her father. Maria becomes intrigued by the strange goings on at Sarah Jane's house but, before she can investigate, she's whisked away by her new friend, Kelsey, to the brightly coloured, but sinister, Bubbleshock factory. As Sarah Jane tries to find out what the mysterious Mrs Wormwood is doing at the factory, Maria and Kelsey embark on a tour which leads them into the path of a monstrous creature and a strange young boy with no name or past. When Sarah Jane and Maria discover the secret ingredient of Bubbleshock, they realise they are the only ones who can stop Mrs Wormwood and her evil plans for the human race.

There is no more noble occupation in the world, than to assist another human being and to help some one to the point where they can succeed and be all they want to be. Nobody taught me this in school or college - One of the greatest laws in the universe is the law sowing and reaping - Put another way, what you sow in life, you also reap We see this sowing principle in action all around us. People who live generous, giving lives often receive great rewards. Great friends attract equally great friendships. And those who are lazy, more often than not, live a life that’s wasteful and unfulfilled. Since the beginning of creation farmers have cultivated crops by this same principle. They would never expect a crop which they hadn’t planted in the first place. It is the same in our lives. Robert Kiyosaki in his brilliant book “Rich Dad’ poor Dad” states “Whatever you want in life, you have to give it away first.” Isn’t it amazing that the things you give away often return to you? When you give something away you will always get something better in return! Never miss the opportunity to give. Never disregard those heart-felt prompts, because what may seem silly to you might mean everything to someone else. Giving need not be just in monetary terms, you can also give your time, your effort, heart.. Use your common sense and judgement when giving. Giving or helping someone more than their ability to self help is going to back fire. Seeds Turn into Harvests I heard a man once say that one can count the seeds in an apple, but cannot count the apples in a seed. What seeds of opportunity are you creating for other people? Opportunities don’t just happen; they are created. We create opportunities when we share them, when we show them and when we give them away. We often think entrepreneurs are only creating wealth for themselves, when in fact they are also creating many opportunities for others. A successful venture creates job opportunities, wealth opportunities and opportunities for people to buy homes, not to mention opportunities for them to educate their children and create a future. Successful businesses help others fulfill their dreams. Anybody who has a harvest of prosperity today, has sown seeds in the near past. Former Chrysler Corporation chairman, Lee lacocca said, “In the end all business operations can be reduced to three words – people, product and prof’its. People come first.” A key to making the most of opportunity is to know that we must also create opportunities for others. Brian Tracy, author of Maximum Achievement said, “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others, unsuccessful people are always asking what’s in it for me?” We create opportunities by networking with other people. Networking is people working together for self betterment. I enjoy being connected. I have lost count of the times I have been able to connect other people. Perhaps it was a printer who needed a great graphic artist, or a great graphic artist who needed someone to print something. Perhaps it was someone who was looking for an opportunity to become successful, and I had the opportunity to link him with someone who has been financially successful. Many times I have been able to help young people struggling with addictions and crisis in their life meet someone who has overcome similar difficulties. Their triumph has provided inspiration for those young people. This is connecting people together. It is the art of networking. We must learn the art of working together. Its the power of synergy, where the total sum is greater than the individual parts. No man or woman will ever be a success by him or her self. We must learn the art the engine, the transmission and every other individual part that makes up the car working together is very useful. Synergy is the power of each individual part working together. We can do more collectively, with co-operation and with an interconnection, much more than we ever could just on our own. That’s the very reason we have tremendous success in our business.

Finding Patriot material in this Senior circuit Preparations for the April 28-30 NFL draft kicked into high gear with the week of practice at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. The game was a mere formality. What really counts is what happens during the first three days of practice. What follows is a list of the top players at each position who could fit with what the Patriots like to do on either side of the ball. Think of this as the Patriots’ All-Senior Bowl team. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Nevada (6-4 1/2, 225): The Patriots obviously don’t need any immediate help here, and Brian Hoyer has shown enough promise to keep developing him, but Kaepernick was by far the best quarterback of the week. Very accurate. Needs to improve on the deep ball a bit, but there’s time for that. The Vikings and Dolphins seemed very interested in him, and they should be. Running back Roy Helu Jr., Nebraska (5-11 1/2, 216): The Patriots could use another every-down running back if Fred Taylor retires as expected, and Helu was the most complete back in Mobile. Has a good burst and ran away from defenders. Also was very sound in his blocking and showed good hands out of the backfield. Honorable mention: Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State (5-7 1/2, 199). If the Patriots need another Danny Woodhead, this is their guy, and Hunter is much better at blitz pickup. Fullback Owen Marecic, Stanford (6- 1/2, 246): The Patriots haven’t had much use for a traditional fullback since Heath Evans left town, and the selection isn’t great. Marecic was the most well-rounded fullback at the Senior Bowl and did everything above average. Good feet. Tight end Luke Stocker, Tennessee (6-5, 255): This position certainly isn’t high on the Patriots’ list of needs after the drafting of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez last year. When it comes time to replace Alge Crumpler, a gifted blocker such as Stocker would fit the bill. An adequate receiver who needs to work on agility drills. Wide receiver Titus Young, Boise State (5-11 1/2, 174): This is where the Patriots’ needs start — with a big-play deep threat, and Young is that. For most of the week, he was the most explosive receiver on either team and easily got separation. Reminiscent of the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson — even with his questionable attitude. Hands were a little uneven, but he had a good week. Niles Paul, Nebraska (6-1, 225): A strong and physical receiver in the Larry Fitzgerald mold, but will he run a 4.48 like the Cardinals star? Paul is versatile. Can win the battle on the outside but also in traffic. Honorable mention: Vincent Brown, San Diego State (5-11, 184): Sneaky-fast and able to put his foot in the ground and cut without losing any speed. May not time well but he knows how to play. Left offensive tackle Derek Sherrod, Mississippi State (6-5 1/2, 312): Was a bit inconsistent during the week but the skills are there, along with 35-inch arms. Had some memorable battles against Texas A&M speed rusher Von Miller and was not outclassed. Honorable mention: James Carpenter, Alabama (6-4, 313). Might be the most game-ready of the group because he’s fundamentally sound for this level. Left offensive guard Danny Watkins, Baylor (6-3 1/2, 312): Probably the best interior lineman in Mobile. Holds his own against bigger and more physical linemen. Shows a nasty disposition on the field and displays explosion when he needs it. Really interesting prospect because he’s 26, having gone the firefighter route in his native Canada before being discovered. Center Kristofer O’Dowd, Southern Cal (6-4 1/2, 303): Not a great year for centers, and O’Dowd was decent. Needs to hold up better but showed good hand work. Could flourish under the right coach, such as Patriots offensive line guru Dante Scarnecchia. Right offensive guard John Moffitt, Wisconsin (6-4, 314): Displayed some nastiness and loves to compete. Not great in space or as an athlete, so in the Patriots’ system, he’d have to be on the right side. They like guards that can pull on the other side. Honorable mention: Steve Schilling, Michigan (6-4 1/2, 302). Had his struggles, but the potential is there. Right offensive tackle Anthony Costanzo, Boston College (6-7, 305): Had his struggles when moved to guard, but was very consistent at tackle and probably could play either side in the NFL. Scouts remarked on his improved footwork since the Eagles’ season concluded. Honorable mention: Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin (6-7, 315). Excelled in the run game, as most Badgers linemen do. Also looked uncomfortable at guard. Wisconsin linemen usually don’t get appreciably better in the pros. They’re solid from the start. Honorable mention: Nate Solder, Colorado (6-8 1/2, 314). Bends well for a tall player and has solid tools. Needs to add strength. Right defensive end Christian Ballard, Iowa (6-4, 288): Might be a bit of a stretch for him to play end in the 3-4. More of a one-gap player than two-gap, which the Patriots use. But Ballard is a very good pass rusher and was tough to handle for any of the linemen he went against. Nose tackle Phil Taylor, Baylor (6-3 1/2, 337): Showed the ability to stand up against double teams and also to split them to apply pressure on the quarterback. Type of guy who could spell Vince Wilfork but also rush the quarterback in sub packages. Left defensive end Jarvis Jenkins, Clemson (6-4, 309): Showed good burst and pass-rush moves but had a tough time finishing plays. Always hustling and seemed to take coaching well. Outside linebacker Von Miller, Texas A&M (6-2 1/2, 237): Wouldn’t appear to be a fit for a team such as New England that prefers bigger outside linebackers, but he’s an unbelievable athlete and pass rusher who was also good at dropping into coverage. Can carry more weight effectively, and the success of a Clay Matthews shows there’s a place for a player like Miller in any 3-4. Cameron Jordan, Cal (6-4, 287): Had a terrific week and showed off great athleticism and versatility that will endear him to both 4-3 and 3-4 teams. Several scouts mentioned Adalius Thomas as a comparison. Has a great attitude and would make a top-notch 3-4 outside linebacker who can rush, hold the point, and cover. Honorable mention: Brooks Reed, Arizona (6-2 1/2, 257). Was an end in college but looked natural standing up. Very solid at the point and showed a good burst in pass rush. Honorable mention: Ryan Kerrigan, Purdue (6-4, 255). Jury is still out on whether he can make the transition to standing up. Also had trouble disengaging from blocks. Inside linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, LSU (6-2, 250): Plays bigger than his size against the run and can also cover. Not the ideal size but a tough player who will be in the league a while. Mark Herzlich, Boston College (6-3 1/2, 250): Did not show much of the pass rush scouts were looking for but has a future inside if he’s not asked to cover man-to-man. Teams have a lot of concerns about his cancer battle and the two rods he has in his leg. Herzlich will have a long day of medicals at the combine but he has shown the character and determination to battle through anything. Cornerback Rashad Carmichael, Virginia Tech (5-10, 185): Did not look good in drills but seemed to always be on point in scrimmages. Battled an ankle injury during the week. Not a first-round talent but could be developed. Kendric Burney, North Carolina (5-9, 181): Shows great footwork and quickness, and can flip his hips naturally in coverage. Doesn’t appear to make a lot of plays, so that will have to be developed. Free safety Quinton Carter, Oklahoma (6- 1/2, 211): Earned a spot off his performance in the East-West Shrine Game, so scouts like what they’ve seen. Tends to play a bit high but he’s physical. How he times at the combine will be important. Strong safety DeAndre McDaniel, Clemson (6-0, 213): Showed good instincts coming up in support and can take on tight ends in coverage. Would make an immediate impact on special teams. Honorable mention: Ahmad Black, Florida (5-9 1/2, 183). Lack of size will cause him to slide down the draft, but Black is just a good football player who will find a way to stick. We all know how Bill Belichick loves former Gators. The rating game Pro Football Weekly published its “Super 50’’ rankings last week, and there were some interesting results. Coaches and evaluators from around the NFL gave their input, and players were ranked using performance and value to team as the criteria. The Patriots had two players appear in the rankings. Quarterback Tom Brady took the top spot, and inside linebacker Jerod Mayo came in at No. 49. Receiver Wes Welker and nose tackle Vince Wilfork were among the 25 players in the honorable mention category. In the AFC East, the Jets also placed two players in the top 50 (cornerback Darrelle Revis at 13 and center Nick Mangold at 48), as did the Dolphins (linebacker Cameron Wake at 45 and tackle Jake Long at 46). Jets tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson was an honorable mention. The Bills had no players listed. Across the NFL, the Packers and Ravens each placed five players. Aaron Rodgers (second) and Terrell Suggs (22d) were the highest-rated players from Green Bay and Baltimore, respectively. The Colts, Steelers, Bears, Falcons, and Chiefs each had three players. Cassel (47) was the only former Patriot to make the list. Samuel was an honorable mention. Short yardage There are reports out of Philadelphia and Wisconsin that the Eagles favor Packers safeties coach Darren Perry as their next defensive coordinator. But that doesn’t make complete sense. Perry, while an excellent coach and certainly ready to be a coordinator, doesn’t have any ties to the Eagles. He has coached almost exclusively in the 3-4 under Dick LeBeau (Pittsburgh) and Dom Capers (Green Bay). Eagles coach Andy Reid has said the team is sticking with a 4-3, and his hiring of defensive line coach Jim Washburn from the Titans certainly backs that up. That being said, Reid hasn’t always lived up to his word (see: Donovan McNabb, Sean McDermott, Kevin Kolb). If the Eagles are waiting for a Packers assistant, the best fit may be defensive line coach Mike Trgovac, who coordinated a 4-3 defense for the Panthers. Trgovac also coached the Eagles’ line from 1995-98 . . . It has taken until the fifth year of Mike McCarthy’s tenure as Packers coach for any of his assistants to generate interest on the coordinator front. Interesting that it is coming from a defensive staff that is only in its second year together, and not the offense, which is McCarthy’s specialty. All of McCarthy’s offensive assistants have been with the team since at least ’06. Only quarterbacks coach Tom Clements has had an interview requested. It was denied because it came from the rival Bears last year . . . Steelers rookie receiver Antonio Brown, who has made a couple of Pittsburgh’s biggest receptions during the playoffs, is the son of Arena Football League legend Eddie “Touchdown’’ Brown, now head coach at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan. The elder Brown was a two-time league MVP and retired with a league-record 303 touchdowns, including nine in one game. Brown was chosen as the league’s No. 1 all-time player when the AFL celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006. View from the outside From Aaron Schatz of Boston-based FootballOutsiders.com: Green Bay averaged 10.9 yards this year when using play-action. No other team averaged more than 10 yards. Denver was second at 9.6 yards per play. The Patriots ranked eighth at 8.7. Green Bay’s Super Bowl opponent, Pittsburgh, was 10th at 8.5. The league average was 7.5 yards, compared with 6.3 on all pass plays (including scrambles). Greg A. Bedard can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @greg_a_bedard. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.

JOHN YOSHIO NAKA IN CELEBRATION OF A GRAND MASTER'S LIFE HE TAUGHT US. HE TAUGHT OUR TEACHERS. It has been estimated that in all the international world of bonsai, John Y. Naka was easily considered among the top five contemporary greatest masters, the grand masters of the art. The following is a partial and beginning but representative run-through of this great teacher's life. This Page Last Updated: December 15, 2014 Born on August 16, 1914 in the farming community of [Ft.] Lupton, Colorado (northeast of Denver), John Yoshio Naka was the third child of Kakichi and Yukino Naka. John's father had left his wife and first two children in Japan in 1903 to come to America to find his fortune. A few years later, John's mother came to Colorado to join her husband with his son. The daughter stayed in Japan with the grandparents. John's mother was one of the first women to come to here from Japan, so her small child -- John, eighteen years younger than his brother -- was a novelty to his father's friends, who all pampered him. In November, 1922, when he was eight, John's family moved to Japan. (John's oldest brother Sadao stayed behind in Colorado to continue farming.) His father, an only son, went back to the ancestral home in Kurume on Kyushu island to care for his elderly father, Sadehei, when John's paternal grandmother died. John and his grandfather formed a close relationship -- John's father serving as a translator for the first year or so -- and Sadahei encouraged the John's dynamic zest for life. Sadehei-san taught him bonsai as well as a repertoire of Japanese proverbs. These were part of the philosophies which John heard also on long walks in the woods with his grandfather. One day these proverbs would continue to roll off of John's quick tongue. Being just a boy, John initially could only watch the old man trim and shape the trees. Then he was only allowed to do such things as watering and pulling weeds until he was older. John grew very close to his grandfather, and through him learned to train and love bonsai. John's artistic abilities had not gone unnoticed. He was invited to study landscape design. It was then that he learned the basics of the relationship of trees, stones and space. When he had nearly completed his formal education in 1935, John received notice that he had been accepted into one of Japan's most prestigious art schools. However, his father had heard rumors of an impending war and feared for his son who was now of warrior's age. The family members met and decided that John should return to Colorado. All the other Nakas would spend the rest of their years on the family farm in Kurume (less than sixty miles northeast of Nagasaki). At age 21, John returned to Colorado to live with his brother, Sadao, and established a truck farm near Boulder. There in the spring time he met the young daughter of his brother's friend, Alice Toshiko Mizunaga. John and Alice married by the end of 1936 in Brighton, CO and went on to raise three sons: Eugene, Robert, and Richard. On snowy days John would sit in front of a large window sketching trees, especially those with large trunks. After several years of fighting late springs and early frosts plus hail storms during the summer, the Nakas decided that they had had enough of farming. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in late 1946, where John did landscaping with a special emphasis on Japanese gardens. His business grew, and he would continue this until 1968. In 1947 he met Sam (Tameichi) Doi, one of the early knowledgeable bonsai men in Southern California, after hearing about him at the local barber shop. Their friendship lasted until Doi returned to Japan in 1948. He encouraged John to read books on bonsai techniques and even gave him several volumes. John sought out additional works and subscribed to the Japanese-language magazine Bonsai which was edited and published by Norio Kobayashi. The reference work John preferred over all others was the 1934 Bonsai Geijyutsu (The Fine Art of Bonsai) written by Sawada Ushimaro. John began serious bonsai creation, memories of his days with his grandfather having not faded. John Naka's Montezuma CypressIn 1948 John created a three-foot tall informal upright Blue atlas cedar ( Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca') bonsai. 1 (International Bonsai, 1988/No. 4, pg. 26) In November of 1950, the Southern California Bonsai Club was officially formed by John Naka and four friends, Fusaji ("Frank") B. Nagata, Morihei Furuya, Mrs. Ai Okumura, and Joseph Yamashiro, to bring bonsai within the reach of everyone. The first three had been introduced to John by the aforementioned Mr. Doi, who worked for Mrs. Okumura and took care of her bonsai collection. (Doi had become teacher to Nagata and Furuya before WWII. The three of them happened to be assigned to the same relocation camp in 1942 -- near Granada in eastern Colorado, Amache was the smallest camp with only an 8,000 person capacity. While there, they managed to put on a makeshift bonsai exhibit for their fellow internees. After the war they returned to Los Angeles.) Mr. Yamashiro had met the Nakas in Colorado during the war and they were distant acquaintances. It just so happened that the Yamashiros later moved next door to the Nakas in California. On Sundays the two families would regularly get together. While the poet and philosopher Joseph Yamashiro and John worked on miniature trees in the yard, Alice Naka and Hanna Yamashiro pursued their own interests. The five students of bonsai became close, spending all their time talking about and working with bonsai. Now, Mssrs. Nagata, Furuya, and Naka decided to show their trees at the November 1950 San Gabriel Valley Fall Flower and Garden Show at the Fannie E. Morrison Horticulture Center in Pasadena. When they arrived they were informed that individuals could not display unless they were sponsored by a club. Without a moment's hesitation, the quick thinking Frank Nagata spoke up and said they were a club. And what was the name of the club? Again, without hesitation or benefit of conference: The Southern California Bonsai Club. They were now allowed to enter their trees, which did win a trophy and a blue ribbon at the Show the next day. Founders of The Southern California Bonsai Club (later the California Bonsai Society, Inc.) (Bonsai in California, #1, 1967) A demonstration was also given then by the group's youngest member, John. His inaugural exhibit of trees was the first time many Americans had the opportunity to see bonsai after the war. Within two years John would be teaching, first his immediate friends, and then others By the way, John and his friends decided to make an honest man of Frank, and they founded the organization that Frank had named, in Mrs. Okumura's backyard. In training by John from this year was a 30" tall silvery blue Atlas cedar ( Cedrus atlantica var. glauca). 3 -11, 1951 the club won another first prize, this time at the California International Flower Show at Hollywood Park in Inglewood. And the following month the club won a special award in the Southern California Spring Flower and Garden Show, again in Pasadena. His son Robert's science teachers, Ronald Mark and Francis "Jerry" Hill, were brought home to show them John's collection of bonsai. So impressed with the trees were they that they invited John to accompany them on a Saturday morning excursion into the desert mountains in southern California. This was in 1952. Off they went, and John saw for the first time these magnificent trees only a few feet tall but gnarled and twisted unlike anything he saw in the local nurseries. That was the beginning of the weekly trek to the "Valley of the Junipers" for the next twenty-five years. Interest in bonsai was climbing, the club was growing, and the exhibits were improving. At the Spring Show the club again won the blue ribbon. Prior to the April 1953 show, the organization which now was made up of more than forty members -- including a few caucasians -- changed its name to the Southern California Bonsai Society. Its listed purpose was the promotion and popularization of the art of bonsai. In addition to the first prize blue ribbon that year the club received a special award and a bronze medal. Again in 1954, the Society won a first award, but this was the final year of the Spring Flower and Garden Show at Brookside Park in Pasadena. During the next three years, the Society did not participate in any shows. The monthly meetings were devoted to the improvement of the bonsai of the now more than hundred members. 3 In 1957 John gave a demonstration on Channel 5 KTLA "Garden Chats" with Joe Littlefield. On April 20, 1958, the Southern California Bonsai Society, hoping to make itself a state-wide organization, was renamed The California Bonsai Society. John would be its president for thirty-two years, except for 1959 and 1960 when co-founder Morihei Furuya helmed the club. The group presented its first annual exhibition of miniature trees at the California Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park in Los Angeles. John acted as show chairman for the April 27 - May 4 event which was themed "What is Bonsai?" The exhibit was judged a huge success and scheduled as an annual affair. 4 See also this b&w photo of John from April 26 at the State Museum building, plus "View Resource" for this one and this one from color slides taken on an unspecified day in that year. One of the students he started with this year was Ben Oki. John quickly realized Oki's extraordinary talent and would eventually invite him to assist John at many conventions across the country. A 27" moyogi style wisteria ( Wisteria brachybotrys ) and an eleven-tree raft style elm ( Ulmus sp., eventually 17" tall and 37" wide) began their training with John in 1958. On July 4 he collected an olive tree from an olive ranch in Fontana, CA. 5 John Catlin was the show chairman for "Bonsai -- New and Old" in 1959. Frank Nagata supervised "Early Spring Bonsai" in 1960. By this time the annual show was recognized as the largest exhibit in the United States and that year a congratulatory message was received from the Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi of Japan. John Naka founded the Seinan (Southwest) Bonsai Club in 1961 (renamed Nanpu Kai in 1964). This club for select teachers only would see many of California's greatest talents over the next few decades. John also presented a lecture/demonstration to the Southern California Gardeners Association this year (and the Japan America Society the next). Earl Donovan chaired the California Bonsai Society show themed "Bonsai -- A Living Art." "Forests and Root-over-rock Plantings" were featured in the 1962 show for which Hunt Lewis was in charge. And that March the Society incorporated as the California Bonsai Society, Inc. (ABS Bonsai Journal, Summer 1985, front cover) In November, another California juniper was collected. At 32" in height, this would be named Ryu (Dragon) because there is a mythical rivalry between a "Tora" and a "Ryu" to see who can strive to obtain something that only one can possess. This year John began to travel to other states, including the East Coast to teach and demonstrate. For the next three years William Hatashita was chairman of the shows: "Preview to Summer" (1963), "The Art of Miniature Trees" (1964) and "Welcoming Spring with Bonsai" (1965). Since John was fluent in Japanese, he began writing to Norio Kobayashi in 1963 and the two exchanged letters and information. This led to an invitation from Kobayashi to John to see the Kokufu-ten Bonsai Exhibition in Ueno Park, Tokyo. This would be John's first visit to Japan since he returned to the U.S. in 1935. In 1965 John and Alice Naka first visited the Kokufu-ten, the ultimate exhibition in the world. At this 39th presentation of the world's finest trees -- which are chosen ahead of time by a panel of judges who see a photograph of each of the perspective entrants -- one of the bonsai was by a blind artist. His beautiful tree had been lovingly shaped by careful touch only, knowing the size and position of each branch, the feel of healthy leaves. John was moved by this pinnacle of interest in his chosen art. John appeared on Channel KNBC "Survey 65" to talk about bonsai with host Bob Wright. 9 The 1966 show, "Nature in Bonsai," was headed by George Yamaguchi. He also helmed the following year's "Bonsai -- Yesterday and Tomorrow." This tenth annual show was extended to two weeks in length and allowed nearly 60,000 spectators to view the display. At what was the first showing of a "new" work by John Naka, Leroy Fujii of the Phoenix Bonsai Society was in attendance. Afterwards Leroy and his brother Tad ran into John at a restaurant, and Leroy congratulated the teacher on Goshin's perfection. John expressed that he was not satisfied yet with it... (During several of the Phoenix club's nearly annual visits to the California Bonsai Society shows and L.A.-area bonsai nurseries, John's private collection was occasionally visited or else a few moments were gotten with the teacher between sessions at the show.) 11

Leading the field by two overnight, Mina eased to 15 under for the tournament, four shots ahead of Korean Lim Hyun-seok (66), with Canadian Ryan Yip (69) and American John Young Kim (70) two strokes further adrift. Nearly 200 players signed up for the final stages of 2013 Q-School, with 10 spots up for grabs in California and 14 at Sutera Harbour Golf Club in Kota Kinabalu from February 5 - 8. The aim for the California leg was to attract the Asia-Pacific players who base themselves on the U.S. west coast for college or training during winter, and also young professionals from north America with roots across the Pacific. Mina, 25, who hails from California but has family in the Philippines, turned professional only last year after finishing studies at Berkeley. Compact and measured, he has a clear path mapped out for his future and refuses to be distracted along the way. "I'm really pleased with the way I played today, but it is a four-day tournament and there is a lot to play for," said Mina. A win in Los Angeles or Malaysia next week is rewarded by a start in all OneAsia's world-ranked million-dollar tournaments -- including the national Open championships of Australia, China, Korea and Thailand -- but Mina wouldn't mind having to rethink his plans. "It would be a great accomplishment," he said. "When a tournament is said and done, and you've done well, you've got to congratulate yourself." Second placed Lim, born in Korea but brought up in southern California, said he probably wouldn't have entered Q-School had a leg not also been held in Los Angeles as he couldn't justify the travel. "Having the tournament here was a big advantage for me as I'm not sure I could have gone to Malaysia. However, now I really want to do well tomorrow. This is a big opportunity for me," he said. "It would be a really big thing if I could get to play on OneAsia." Masamichi Ito, at 17 the youngest player in the field, was delighted to be in seventh place after learning about qualifying on the Japan Golf Tour Organisation's (JGTO) Challenge Tour. "I heard about OneAsia in Japan and thought it was better to come here for me," said Ito. The JGTO and OneAsia have forged a growing relationship that includes two tournaments being co-sanctioned by both bodies this year -- including the season-opening U.S.$ 1 million Thailand Open from March 14-17.

When Ron Cooper boxed for Great Britain at the 1948 London Olympics, his mum sent him on his way from their home in Limehouse in the capital's East End to the old Empire Pool in Wembley with a bellyful of custard and jelly. As much as he loved it, it was not sufficiently nutritious to help the slim lightweight get past the second round in front of a similarly hungry crowd. Ron, the youngest of 10, was the breadwinner in the Cooper household, and custard and jelly was a cheap if unsubstantial staple of their diet in times when austerity was generated by the lingering hardship of a world war, not government policy. Ron, 84, lives not far from the site of the 2012 Olympics in Stratford and, as a surviving Olympian, he has tickets to the boxing. When he witnesses the fitness and stamina levels of the current squad, however, he might wonder how well he could have done if he had had the benefit of the hi-tech training methods and diet-to-the-minute eating regime of British boxers who will be as well prepared as those from any country in the competition. In 1948, their training was basic, with roadwork and sparring on alternate days, and their diet even more so. "We were absolutely starved," says Ron, looking back on the days of wartime rationing, which went on until 1954. In 2012, a few weeks before the Olympics, a day at the Sheffield training headquarters of Robert McCracken's excellent group reveals how investment pays a dividend. The former British and Commonwealth middleweight champion and his team of strength coaches, nutritionists, physios and performance analysts will deliver a team of 10 super-fit boxers, seven men and three women, capable of winning a swag of medals, maybe even a couple of golds. It is a quite superb squad, maybe one with even more potential than the one Terry Edwards took to Beijing and which returned with a gold and two bronze. Edwards was poorly treated, a victim of the interminable squabbling that has dogged the sport for as long as anyone can remember, but McCracken has benefited from the subsequent full-scale structural shake-up of the sport. Boxers are virtually full-time athletes on fixed salaries, with weekday accommodation in Sheffield for easy access to the English Institute of Sport, where they have access to the latest developments in sports science. "From here, it's full steam ahead," McCracken says in one of the many well-appointed offices in the EIS complex, while his fighters work the pads and three rings downstairs, each clicking to a meticulously worked-out timetable. "They're really close, there's no issues with this lot, no prima donnas or egos. Your character in the squad is the captain, Anthony Stalker, who's ranked No1 in the world. They're a down-to-earth group. You'd maybe expect big [Anthony] Joshua to be a little bit [big-headed] but you couldn't meet a nicer, hard-working kid." Joshua could be the British star of the Olympics. He's big, fast and articulate, and professional promoters are already barraging him with offers. "People forget when he arrived here he was a raw novice, nothing more," McCracken says. "We took him to a couple of international training camps to show him how tough it was. He struggled. "He won the ABAs but I didn't take him to the Commonwealth Games because he was very inexperienced. He took it fine, and developed. He's got a great attitude. Now to see him boxing the best [a silver that might have been gold at the world championships, in only his third senior tournament] it shows how he's improved. Above all he has the speed and that's the key: speed beats everything. "There's good camaraderie between them – and they don't bat an eyelid with the girls in the gym. They never did two and a half years ago when they came in. They're just boxers to them. They work together, train together. There's a lot of experience there too: Nicola Adams, Savannah Marshall – as young as she is, she won a silver at the worlds two years ago. "I was in China with the women [at the final qualification tournament] and Callum Smith sent a good luck message every day. And this is a kid who was really unlucky not to qualify [woefully judged in the last tournament, in Turkey, then passed over for a wild card in favour of a Montenegro boxer, Bosko Draskovic, whom he'd beaten by 10 points in April.] So, you'd think he'd be really down." They are used to success, their own and each other's. In three major tournaments before London – the world championships in 2011 and the Euros in 2010 and 2011 – the squad have won 13 medals: two gold, seven silver and four bronze. Mark Ellison, a nutritionist from EIS who works with GB Boxing – as well as Manchester United and Andy Murray – feeds them with scientific precision. So exact is the regime that weekly weight loss leading up to the Olympics will be measured in the tiniest amounts. "You'll see the targets on the door for the next few weeks," Ellison says. "No one's losing more than about 0.4kg to 0.5kg a week. It sounds like almost nothing but, at this level of elite sport, you've got to get that right over four, five weeks. Some of these guys are so good they're only dropping about 0.2kg a week, because that's all they need to do." In the gym kitchen, a fridge holds several boxes of pre-prepared food, individually sorted for each boxer. "This is Nicola Adams's breakfast for tomorrow," Ellison says, "chicken fajitas, there's the wraps to go with it. Nicky is the smallest boxer in the team so the portions reflect that, whereas Big Josh likes to eat two or three of these boxes. "We get 48 hours' worth of food delivered to their door at a time. But then Nicky comes to me and says she's tired. We predicted her to lose 0.3kg over the week but the fact is she's lost 0.5kg. Tomorrow it's just a phone call to the company and Monday's delivery for Nicky is up by 200 calories, and I want all of that to come from carbohydrates. I ask them to put it all in the afternoon meal, because that's when she was feeling tired. Totally specific." Joshua walks in with a weighted neck-belt hanging around his shoulders, ready to do some serious strength work. He dips into the fruit box and peels back a couple of bananas. "Nothing that fancy," he says of his cooking, but he attests to the claims that the diet, "is really helpful. Best of both worlds. I've just got to take it home and eat it. But then I'll get some fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh salmon, maybe some potatoes. Couldn't survive on Nicola's diet. It's important to stay close to my best fighting weight, even at super-heavyweight. My best is around 106.5kg. At the minute, I'm at 107.1kg. I wouldn't want to be, like, 109kg. After competition you lose a lot of weight, sweating and so forth. I could weigh in after a fight at 104kg. If I sat back, that's losing energy. So I have a shake, something to eat, put the energy back in. It's all about smaller portions, no carbs at night. This [his condition] is going to stay on me now. I'll be ready." Luke Campbell is sitting on a nearby table, a wired-up ice pack strapped to his left shoulder. "My shoulder's just a bit tight," he says. "I need my body to recover so I can push it again tomorrow. If I'm not recovering, I can't push my body anymore, and get any fitter. It's like a lost day. "I live in one of the flats nearby, Monday to Thursday. Then we go home Thursday tea-time, train at home on Fridays, Saturday. Sundays, rest at home, see my family. Definitely need them around me, to switch off from all this." What they all share with Ron Cooper is pride in the vest. "The pinnacle of the amateur game was the Olympic Games," he said recently, "to wear that Olympic blazer, with Great Britain on there. You feel proud, with the old beret, walking out, little 20-year-old, still wipin' his nose, like. When I got that Olympic blazer on, I thought I'd bust the buttons on me shirt." And you can bet it wasn't from being overweight.

A university professor, at a well-known institution of higher learning,challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?" A student bravely replied, "Yes, he did!" "God created everything?" The professor asked. "He certainly did," the student replied. The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil. And, since evil exists and, according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil." The student became quiet and did not answer the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth. Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question Professor?" "Of course", replied the Professor. The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?" "What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The other students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat." The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?" The Professor responded, "Of course it does." The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."Finally the young man asked the Professor, "Sir, does evil exist?" Now uncertain, the Professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said.We see it every day. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil. To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light." With that, the Professor sat down. The young man's name was Albert Einstein.

Travis Tritt hasn’t released new music in six years. But that doesn’t mean the multiplatinum-selling, GRAMMY-winning country star has been simply taking things easy. In fact, he’s been keeping quite busy. Throughout much of his career, which kicked off in the late 1980s, Tritt has been signed to some of Nashville’s biggest labels, including Warner Brothers and Columbia. But this year he took a different approach to releasing his music–he launched his own record label, Post Oak Recordings. The label is now home to his new album The Calm After…, which dropped July 9. One of the biggest-selling country artists of the 1990s, Tritt these days still spends much of his time on the road. He recently stopped by Radio.com to talk about his new album, how the business of music has changed, writing songs, and the power of music. Eleven of the 13 tracks on The Calm After… initially appeared on Tritt’s 2007 release The Storm, which was released by the independent label Category 5 Records. Due to legal and financial difficulties at Category 5, however, The Storm never received the attention Tritt hoped for. “The album really never got an opportunity to see the light of day,” Tritt told Radio.com in a recent interview (below). “I knew if I could get those masters back and re-release it on my own label that I could do something with it and give it an opportunity to see the light of day that it never had the opportunity to see before.” A dream of his for the past five years, Tritt finally was able to start his own record label, something the “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” and “Ten Feet Tall And Bulletproof” singer never thought would come to fruition when he started his recording career more than 25 years ago. “Things have changed so much in the marketing world that you can actually take the music directly to your audience without having to go through middle men,” he reflected. “It’s really thrilling for me to see how much things have changed just in the last six years since we released the project prior to that.” Once Tritt got the masters from The Storm, he began remastering the songs and added two cuts to the album–a cover of the classic Faces song “Stay With Me” and his current single, “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough,” which features his daughter Tyler Reese Tritt. Tritt is a songwriter as well as a performing artist, and it’s a task he doesn’t take lightly. “Songs are a gift from God, and you just have to be smart enough to write them down when they come your way,” he advised. “Songwriting for me is one of the things that I enjoy probably as much or more than any other part of the business because of the creative side of it. I’ve had people come up to me all the time and say, ‘When you wrote this song or that song, you said all the things that I’ve been trying to say for a long time.’ That’s one of the greatest compliments as a songwriter you can ever possibly be paid.” Tritt has written many songs throughout his career but there’s one song in particular that means more to him than the rest: his 1991 hit “Anymore.” Written by Tritt and Jill Colucci in Nashville, “Anymore” was the second single from his triple-platinum album It’s All About To Change and his second No. 1 hit in the United States. Years later, he heard a story that forever changed the way he would view the song. A mother reached out to Tritt after her daughter was in an accident and was in a coma for nine months. The woman said her daughter was a big fan of Tritt’s prior to her accident, and that they would play his music for her in her hospital room. Every time they played his song “Anymore,” she would turn her head toward the music. “They were playing the song for her and all of a sudden she snapped out of a coma,” said Tritt. “How much my music had to do with that, I don’t know, but I know that all the doctors were saying that music is a very good thing. [It] is especially stimulating to someone who’s in that type of situation. Even in a comatose state they can respond to music like that.” Tritt eventually visited with the young woman in the hospital and said the whole story stunned him. “It really was a wake-up call to make me realize that music is so powerful, so much more powerful than those of us that create it really give credit for,” he said. “When you play a part in writing a song that has that kind of an effect on people it tends to make it become more near and dear to your heart.”

A blindfolded roller skater, an aviatrix, gangsters disguised as chefs, a hostess with memory loss, a dashing film star, a glamorous showgirl, a handsome bridegroom, a bumbling best man, dancing servants and, of course, a drunken chaperone who takes her responsibilities "very seriously." Put them all together, add music and "The Drowsy Chaperone" comes to life, with commentary by Man in Chair. This parody of the American musical comedy of the 1920s is to appear on the Heidelberg University stage at 8 p.m. today through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Gundlach Theatre. Based on the book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, "The Drowsy Chaperone" is a show within a show. PHOTO BY ROB LEDWEDGE Leigh Barthel, as Kitty, dances with Kyle Adam, as Man-in-Chair, in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” PHOTO BY ROB LEDWEDGE Darcianne Allen (right), as Janet Van de Graaff, looks on as the Drowsy Chaperone (Dakota Thorn) makes a point. The theater goes dark as Kyle Adam begins his Man-in-Chair narrative. He describes his favorite Jazz Age musical and bemoans the modern-day decline of the genre. The lights come up and the man decides to play the audience a recording from the show. Gradually, the live orchestra begins to play over the scratchy record as a chandelier is lowered and characters appear on the stage to recreate the original production. "The Drowsy Chaperone" features the many theatrical cliches typical of 1920s shows. The actors stop in tableau from time to time as the man shares his commentary on the music, story and actors. He even takes to the stage himself and joins the cast singing and dancing at various points. Heidelberg's production is being directed by Carol Dusdieker, assistant professor of voice, with musical direction by Paul Mayhew, assistant professor of chorus and music education. Greg Ramsdell, assistant professor of choral music education, is the piano accompanist. The story begins with Amy Berger as Mrs. Tottendale, bustling about singing "My Dress." She knows it is a special occasion but has forgotten what it is. Ryan Ladina as the Underling reminds her she is to host a wedding at her estate. The wedding party arrives with Tom Borham as the groom, Robert Martin, and AJ Lacefield as George, the best man. The flustered George has strings tied on every finger to remind him of his many responsibilities. The strings serve as foreshadowing of chaos to come. Two wedding guests are Ben Calvert as Feldzeig and Leigh Barthel as Kitty. They are show-business friends of the bride (Janet), who is leaving "The Follies" to marry Robert. The ditsy Kitty is anxious to take Janet's place in the show. Feldzeig is desperate to convince Janet to stay, especially after two gangsters, played by Jacob Woost and Tyler Maynard, show up disguised as "pastry chefs" and threaten him. It seems the show's financial backer is leaning on Feldzeig to stop the wedding and keep Janet as the star. Next, Jonathan Vestal as Aldolpho, sweeps into the hall. The reason for the presence of this Latin Casanova-type is never clearly explained - but who cares? Feldzeig persuades Aldolpho to prove his sexual prowess by seducing the bride. As they exit, the bride arrives. Darcianne Allen portrays the glamorous showgirl, Janet Van de Graaff, with the Drowsy Chaperone in tow. Dakota Thorn makes the most of her role as the tipsy chaperone more interested in the wedding "refreshments" than in the young woman she is supposed to keep away from the groom. Her main concern? "Where's the bar?" The sound of an engine overhead signals the arrival of Melissa Tippin as Trix the Aviatrix and Scott Cook as the superintendent. Trix has "dropped in" to check on the progress of the festivities, delivers a song, then dashes away with a promise to return. She has a small but pivotal role later in the show. Completing the cast in various roles are Sarah Bolen, Tess Gerber, Makenzie Dietrick, Kelly Devine and Adam Hoover. Memorable musical numbers punctuate the show. During "Cold Feet," the jittery Robert and George dance to relax a bit, when Underling interrupts the routine with a few fancy steps of his own. Then there is "I Don't Want to Show Off," in which Janet demonstrates some of her star-quality skills even as she purports to be giving them up forever. That leads her to question whether Robert loves her for real or for her glamour. When Janet seeks advice, the chaperone delivers "As We Stumble Along." The title describes the scene. Kitty's "mind reading" segment, the "spit-take" scene, the cooking metaphors and the skipping record are other points to note. One cannot omit Aldolpho's hilarious duets first with Feldzeig and then with the chaperone, which cannot be adequately described in words. They need to be seen and heard. "Toledo Surprise" involves the entire company, including Man in Chair. The joyous production number provides a contrast to the shocking line - "The wedding is off!" And all of this is only in Act I. The audience will appreciate the quick scene changes, glittery costumes, special effects and an energetic young cast. The show concludes with not one but three weddings, but this reporter is not saying who marries whom. As Man in Chair would say, "What more do you need for an evening's entertainment?" Suggested ticket price is $10 for adults and $5 for students with ID. For additional information, call the box office at (419) 448-2305.

S. pyramidalis is considered a major problem in Australia because it reduces the productivity of native and introduced pastures, and the profitability of industries dependent on grazing animals. It has low palatability and is difficult for stock to graze due to the fibrous nature of its leaf blades. Therefore companion plants are preferentially grazed and S. pyramidalis becomes tall and rank. Over time, if plants are not controlled, they increase in number until almost pure stands of this undesirable grass result. Current control methods are centred on herbicide application and replacement of existing pasture species with more competitive species because little objective ecological information is available. The studies outlined in this thesis were conducted to identify the key ecological characteristics of S. pyramidalis seed that contribute to its success, and those ecological characteristics which may be exploited by land managers to control and reduce the impacts of this grass. Laboratory, glasshouse and field experiments were conducted between 1996 and 1999 to identify these ecological characteristics. Information from this research will be used to improve existing management strategies so that S. pyramidalis will be effectively managed. Stands of S. pyramidalis are generally characterised by large (780 to 7650 seeds/m2), persistent (3 to 8 years), viable soil seed banks and high seed production (1885 to 85420 seed/m2, 210 to 570 seeds/inflorescence) depending on plant density and rainfall. New seed and seedlings can be produced at any time of the year given adequate soil moisture and suitable temperatures, with the viability of fresh seed generally above 90 %. Seed falls within a 3 m radius from mature plants indicating the usefulness of buffer strips as a containment measure. Application of glyphosate or desiccation of seeds of S. pyramidalis at four days after anther appearance when they are at early milk stage reduces the viability of seeds produced to less that 5 %. The seed does not have a burial mechanism, therefore in undisturbed areas more than 50 % and 70 % of the viable seed bank is located in the litter to a depth of 5 mm and in the top centimetre of soil respectively. No more than 8 % of the viable seed bank is located below a depth of 25 mm. The effective maximum emergence depth of 20 to 30 mm is not significantly affected by soil type. Seed germination of S. pyramidalis is increased by temperature fluctuations in light, green light and darkness, with the greatest response occurring in light. However, as the effects of innate dormancy become negligible (4-6 months) the requirement for both fluctuating temperatures and light is reduced with significant levels of germination occurring in darkness with constant temperatures ranging from 15 to 45 °C. Seed populations which have seed with a range of responses to light and temperature enjoy an ecological advantage, as seeds are able to germinate over a range of environmental conditions. This suggests that, once aged seed is present, a small percentage of the seed bank will be able to germinate in poor light conditions such as in pastures with high levels of vegetation cover, or at depths where temperature and light fluctuations are significantly reduced. S. pyramidalis seedlings are able to emerge when soil moisture levels are at wilting point, although soil moisture must be at or above wilting point for at least four days for emergence to occur during the warm season. These soil moisture levels are much lower than those required for emergence of seedlings of either Heteropogon contortus or Dichanthium sericeum. These are important native grasses in Queensland in regions where S. pyramidalis is well adapted. Seedling emergence is negligible in undisturbed, burnt and mown plots, while significant emergence occurs only where competition is reduced and light and temperature are increased by herbicide application and cultivation. The time to 50 % germination for H. contortus, D. sericeum, Chloris gayana cv. Callide, Digitaria milanjiana cv. Jarra and Dichanthium. aristatum cv Floren is at least as fast as that of S. pyramidalis which took four days. S. pyramidalis is relatively tolerant of saline conditions; with time to first germination not affected until electrical conductivity (EC) reaches 20800 µs/cm, while time to 50 % germination increases significantly once EC reaches 7000 µs/cm. No germination occurs when EC reaches 44700 µs/cm while total germination after 15 days only declines significantly when EC is greater than 25300 µs/cm. H. contortus has similar salt tolerance to S. pyramidalis during the germination and emergence growth phases. D. aristatum cv. Floren, D. sericium, and Bothriochloa. insculpta cv. Bissett are all more sensitive to salt during these growth phases than either S. pyramidalis or H. contortus. Seed viability, soil seed bank viability and seedling survival are significantly affected by the dry heat of fire. Seed viability is reduced to zero when seeds are subjected to dry heat at/or greater than 125 ˚C for as little as 15 s duration, and viable seed banks are reduced by up to 50 % when subject to the heat generated by a relatively hot fire. Seedlings of S. pyramidalis are relatively fire tolerant although significant mortality can occur when seedlings are burnt when severely wilted. Fires with large fuel loads (7140 kg/ha) can kill all but a few of the oldest (15 weeks) wilted plants, while wilted plants as young as five weeks (15 cm high, base diameter 0.5 cm) can survive when burnt with 1790 kg/ha of fuel. A similar pattern of plant survival occurs with plants that are not wilted 0resh) at the time of burning, only with more plants surviving at higher fuel loads and younger ages. Fresh plants as young as seven weeks (30 cm high, base diameter 1 cm) can survive burning with 7140 kg/ha of fuel while one week old plants (first leaf) can survive burning with 3570 kg/ha of fuel. All 15 week old fresh plants (105 cm high, base diameter 2 cm) can survive burning regardless of fuel load. S. pyramidalis seedlings (aged 4-26 days after sowing) are more tolerant of severe moisture stress than similarly aged seedlings of D. sericeum and H. contortus. No seedlings of D. sericeum survived in soil at wilting point for more than seven days while seedlings of H. contortus did not survive more than 14 days in soil at wilting point. Seedlings of S. pyramidalis can survive in soil at wilting point for 112 days. Seedlings appeared dead prior to re-watering except at seven days without water when surviving plants were extremely wilted, but continued to grow as normal apart from some necrosis of leaf margins. With surviving S. pyramidalis seedlings, the exposed part of the plant was necrotic. New growth occurred by the continuation of leaf extension so that leaves had a necrotic section at the end, with new leaves emerging from the crown of the plant. The research reported in the thesis identifies the production of large amounts of viable seed; long lived soil seed banks; seed germination in a wide range of temperature, light and moisture regimes; an high degree of tolerance of moisture stress during the seedling stage; tolerance of seedlings to fire; salt tolerance during seed germination; and seeds becoming viable within a few days after pollination as key attributes of S. pyramidalis contributing to its success in Australia. Several attributes which may be perceived as weaknesses include relatively slow germination and emergence, seed susceptible to death caused by dry heat such as that caused by fire, and natural seed fall close to the parent plant. The main effects of management are to change the amount of plant cover/competition (fire, slashing, grazing, chemicals, cultivation, species replacement), disturb soil at various intensities (cultivation, grazing), and directly kill plants or seed (fire, cultivation, chemicals). In ecological terms, each of these impacts alters the light, temperature or moisture conditions which enhance or inhibit seed germination and emergence, prevent or promote seed production and change the balance of plant competition. Management must use these options to reduce the viable seed bank to negligible levels and prevent its replenishment if effective control is to be achieved. Development of grazing management strategies for S. pyramidalis infested areas to maintain productivity is an area that needs considerable research. Herbicide use is constrained by a lack of cost effective selective herbicides. The integration of grazing management, strategic herbicide use and perhaps strategic burning currently offers the greatest potential for improving the management of S. pyramidalis. The continual improvement of current management strategies is critical to the success of any weed control activities. Perhaps the greatest challenge is the transfer of developed technologies to land managers, so that it becomes part of everyday management of S. pyramidalis.

Top Games to Watch: No. 6 Knicks vs. Wizards Knicks welcome Wizards to MSG for Christmas Spectacular We're counting down the top 10 most exciting Knicks matchups for the upcoming season! Cast your vote on Twitter and Facebook using #NYKSaveTheDate. 6) Knicks vs. Wizards (December 25, 2014) Fueled by a young and talented crew, the 2013-14 Wizards escaped their dismal past to achieve success not seen in the nation’s capital over the previous nine years. For the first time since the 2005 season, Washington won a playoff series as part of a 44-win campaign. The Wizards successfully retained big man Marcin Gortat by re-signing him this summer and the team quickly recovered from the loss of Trevor Ariza with the acquisition of veteran forward Paul Pierce in a surprising move. With John Wall fresh off his best season as a pro and the emergence of Bradley Beal at the shooting guard spot, Washington is primed to contend for a conference title. The Wizards hope Otto Porter and Glen Rice Jr. take the next step and they bolstered the bench by adding Kris Humphries and DeJuan Blair. Last year, Washington had New York’s number, defeating the Knicks in all three of the head-to-head matchups. The new-look squad in New York will attempt to slow down Wall after he averaged 23.3 points and eight assists per game against the Knicks a season ago. The Wizards were a strong defensive unit with a big frontline and speedy defenders on the perimeter. Both teams will have the opportunity to adjust following a November 4th contest at the Garden in the first meeting of the season. Despite Washington’s success last year against New York, capturing a win on Christmas Day at MSG is a tall task. Tipoff is scheduled for 12 PM. Next up: Knicks meet familiar foes in Dallas showdown.

At Gatsby's in Boca Raton, Prohibition Is Sooo 20th Century Every so often, a girl's gotta release her inner Zelda Fitzgerald. You know — be unapologetically flamboyant and tempestuous and have herself a classy adventure, replete with fancy drinks. So, last week, I grabbed a well-read wingman and we went up to Boca to pay a social visit to Gatsby's, or, as its proprietors like to call it, the "new home of the $5 martini." It didn't take us long to tell that Gatsby's isn't just great; it's fucking awesome. Unless, of course, you don't like an expansive catalog of cheap martinis, liquor-soaked literary talk, and cleavage deeper than the plot of The Beautiful and Damned. Best Quote Overheard From a Random Stranger at the Bar: "A friend told me he was in Davie. I said, 'Who's Davie, and does your girlfriend know?' " Ambiance: Gatsby's was surprisingly chic; dark wood, well-decorated, and quite expansive, all with a subtle Jazz Age theme. On this particular night (of college football season), the U-shaped bar and candlelit tables were spotted with sports fans, and the ruckus of the Florida State/University of Miami game blasted from seven huge-screen TVs. The first room was lushly furnished with booths and a large bar; adjacent to that was a swanky little area with a dance floor and stage, its walls adorned with irregular mirrors and huge black-and-white framed photos. Past that was a pool table and, beyond that, two private rooms set up like giant, old-fashioned libraries. These were furnished with richly upholstered reading chairs, velvet pool tables, bookshelves, leather couches, and huge, jazz-era paintings of faceless musicians and dancers. In short, it was the kind of party library where you might meet plenty of owl-eyed drunks, "beautiful little fools," and depressed millionaires. Or, like tonight, a pack of young people in the middle of a fantasy football draft. Since I'm less interested in tossing balls than tossing back, I moseyed back to the first room and pitched myself into a stylish booth, situated directly beside a red-lit glass shelf stocked full of bottles of booze. Jay Gatsby wouldn't have had to worry about that silly 18th Amendment here. Martinis: "Tell me about this place," I instructed our waitress. Nicole was petite with a cherubic face, well-tweezed eyebrows, and a pleasant laugh. More noticeable were her boobs: They, and all surrounding skin, were jammed into a tiny red corset top. "Nice corset," I said, but what I really meant was "nice rack." "Did you get to pick the color?" She laughed airily. "We get to pick from three colors: red, silver, and gold." "All classy," I said, nodding my approval. "But red is the hottest. Now, what can you tell me about Gatsby's?" "Recently, new owners took over, and they've changed things up a bit," she said. "They installed the new dance floor, and now we get DJs on Wednesdays and the weekend. Also, they changed up the specials." "What's the special tonight?" I asked. "Monday is $5 martinis," she said. "Which martinis?" interjected my friend and fellow Fitzgerald lover, Beard. "There are three menu pages of them." I contracted a minor buzz just from her telling us that all martinis, fruity to dirty, were going for five apiece. With names like Jolly Rancher, Starburst, 007, White Chocolate, Las Vegas, and Flamingo, I knew it was going to be a vodka-soaked, sugar-coated evening. I settled on the Fitzgerald Martini, a blend of O Finlandia grapefruit vodka, triple sec, watermelon pucker, sour mix, and pineapple. "Sour," I said, after a cautious sip. Which, I determined after many more sips, was quite fitting for a drink named after a bitter, bipolar writer who died of alcoholism. More Martinis: Minutes later, I'd completely downed the Fitzgerald and ordered the Great Gatsby, a blend of Grey Goose, l'orange, triple sec, cranberry, and Sprite. Beard, after swigging down a dirty martini, had somehow ended up with a frothy Key Lime martini. When Nicole slid it down in front of him, he glanced up at her tremulously. "This makes me a woman." It wasn't a question; he knew damned well he'd just been served the kind of beverage an 8-year-old girl would order if her fake I.D. were good enough. "It is a little fruity," Nicole said. "I'll just have to drink it really fast," he said. "I'll help," I offered, and reached for it. Patrons: The clientele of the bar let out a collective joyous scream, and the University of Miami took the game back over, 14-10. I approached a pair of tank-top-wearing hot blonds in a booth facing the biggest TV in the joint. Despite both being real stunners, they appeared slightly disgruntled. "We're Florida State fans," said Jenny, who was taller and perkier than her friend, with an easy smile. "We were looking for some camaraderie, but not here, apparently." "Indeed," I said. Turned out, the two ladies had been friends for 27 years and had grown up in Boca. "We wanted to get the hell out," Jenny noted. "After college, we went all over the place," her friend Jenn continued. "England, Las Vegas, you name it. One time, after she'd moved to Atlanta, I went to visit her for a day. It turned into a week, then a month, and I ended up living out there for three years." "After that, all we wanted was to get the hell back," said Jenny. "So here we are, trying to figure out what to do next in this damned economy." "Indeed, the Roaring '20s, this isn't," I said wryly. "You need to save money in times like this," Jenny advised. "We've got pictures of us in bars all over the place — drinking, having a good time, spending money on drinks every night of the week. No doubt it was fun; just wish I could remember it." She laughed. Just then, Nicole interrupted. "Sorry, did you want another martini?" Of course I did. I ordered the White Chocolate, having exhausted my Fitzgerald-related options. "They're only $5," I said sheepishly. More Martinis (can you ever have enough?): "Recommend another martini," Beard commanded Nicole. "The White Chocolate is good, the Caramel Apple is tasty — " she began. I nodded in assent, but Beard waved her off. "A manly drink," he insisted. I think it was just to impress Nicole's cleavage. She brought him a whiskey-infused Manhattan, and then he quickly ordered another Key Lime martini, this time sharing none of it. The people at the next table were an interesting assortment of folk: a guy in a fedora, a couple who couldn't stop cuddling, and a dude in a pressed shirt with a loud booming voice. I'd overheard one of them order an Alka-Seltzer from the waitress, the others discussing the Chemical Brothers, and someone say "When my body starts acting up, I punish it" just before he took a long swig from his beer. The guy who'd ordered the Alka-Seltzer introduced me to everyone at the table: his wife, dark-eyed and very quiet; his boyfriend, Fedora-hat (yes, there was some Gatsby-style romantic intrigue going on) ; and Phil — just a friend. ("We're better friends than lovers," Phil said.) "Has anyone read the Great Gatsby?" I asked. The evening was drawing to a close, and I wanted a good hearty literature discussion. The awkward pause was palpable. Wait, I thought to myself. Maybe I'm drunk. No one wants to talk literature with an inebriated nightlife columnist who's been channeling Zelda Fitzgerald for most of her life. I excused myself. Now, where was Nicole and her ample cleavage? I told Beard I was going to need another Fitzgerald martini — extra sour. " 'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,' " Beard quoted and reached for the menu. Get the Music Newsletter Keep your thumb on the local music scene each week with music news, trends, artist interviews and concert listings. We'll also send you special ticket offers and music deals.

Christians differ in their attitudes toward alcohol. Some Christians believe that we have freedom to consume alcohol in moderation. Others hold that the Bible forbids all consumption of alcohol or that, even in the absence of a clear command to abstain, it is so dangerous and so likely to lead to addiction, that it is downright foolish to drink. Regardless, all Christians hold that drunkenness is a sin and that this sin relates to the loss of control. A drunken man loses his sense and his self-control. As Solomon says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” On Monday I attempted to anticipate some of the cost to the church if young Christian men continue to spend their youth embroiled in the pursuit of pornography. Solomon warns that pornography is sapping them of their strength. In their strongest and most energetic years, in the years when so many promises and possibilities lie open before them, they are giving it all away to pornography. It saps them of strength and it saps them of life. In that same passage Solomon asks, “Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?” He describes this sexual captivity as a kind of intoxication, a form of drunkenness. Do not give up self-control and throw yourself into the arms of another woman, whether those arms are real or simply pixels on a computer screen. Do not invest your strength where it will be wasted. That is the very height of stupidity. But it is not only illicit sex that is intoxicating. The same Solomon who would forbid getting drunk on wine or strong drink, and the same Solomon who would describe the stupidity of getting drunk on illicit sex, would command a different kind of intoxication. “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love (Proverbs 5:19).” He does not criticize or downplay the presence of sexual desire and the longing to find sexual fulfillment. Rather, he admits it, celebrates it, and shows that to direct that energy toward adultery, fornication or pornography is to completely misuse it. His solution is simple: Put your sexual desire to the best use of all. “Rejoice in the wife of your youth…be intoxicated always in her love.” Donald Spence-Jones interprets this way: “The teacher, by a bold figure, describes the entire fascination which the husband is to allow the wife to exercise over him.” Go ahead and lose control. Go ahead and get intoxicated, but get drunk in the love and passionate pursuit of your wife. What wine does to your body, let your wife do to your affections and desires. Let her captivate you. Let her fascinate you. Let her have that kind of power over you, that kind of control, that kind of ownership. Be addicted to her. When you are with her, when you are in her arms, let yourself go and just enjoy God’s good gift of sexual pleasure. Jim Newheiser says it well: “The man who has to look away from all the other female breasts put on display in our culture can freely enjoy his wife’s breasts. The wife may delight in being desired and being overwhelmed by the love of her husband. Their sexual thirst can be quenched in a way that pleases God.” Pornography, adultery, fornication and all other sexual sin is good desire put to bad use and, by its very nature is intoxicating. That intoxication delights God, and is meant to delight us, when it is directed to the pursuit of marital intimacy. So go ahead and drink—drink of the love of your wife. Go ahead and drink to intoxication—get drunk in her love. But do not drink, and do not get drunk, in any other love.

Of course, the further the draft goes along the more impossible it is to guess the players that Seattle might be honing in on. So in this mock I'm going to compromise a little- I'll give picks I think John Schneider would make in the first three rounds while making my best guesses in rounds 4-7 with players that I personally like who fit Seattle's philosophy. For now, I am projecting Seattle to pick 22nd, simply because the odds of them being a wildcard are still much higher than winning the division, and the odds of them winning a road playoff game are fairly low, especially since that game would likely be against the Packers/49ers/Giants. If the season ended today Seattle would own the 22nd pick by seeding. So with all that explaining out of the way, buckle down, this will be a long one. With the 1st round pick, the Seattle Seahawks select: 1st round: Arthur Brown, LB, Kansas State. I should stress that this is not a pick I would endorse, but consider this quote posted from Rob's blog today: Carroll apparently told a representative of the Brown family [while recruiting Brown in 2007] that he was the best linebacker “he’d seen in seven years.” Carroll was a major driving force behind the Marshawn Lynch trade, a player he badly wanted that he had ties to in the Pac-12. He tried hard to recruit Bruce Irvin before heading to the NFL. He tried to recruit Richard Sherman (as a CB) only to get turned down in favor of a Stanford education. When Carroll has badly coveted a player and that player has been available to him in the draft, it seems like he almost always gets his man. That makes me think that there is an excellent chance that Arthur Brown could be very high on Seattle's draft board next April, whether I agree with it personally or not. Barring a huge rise in the leadup to the draft, Brown is expected to go in the late 1st to late 2nd range. That gives Seattle an interesting choice to make. Do they trade down and take Brown in the late 1st or early second while picking up extra picks, or do they select another impact player and then spend some of their 9 or 10 draft selections by moving up in the second to get Brown the way Tim Ruskell once did for Lofa? I'd strongly prefer the latter option, but given John Schneider's history I'd expect the former. Either way, I'd almost guarantee you that Brown will be a Seahawk, unless Pete's dramatically changed his mind in the last 5 years. Given that Brown is in most 1st/2nd round discussions, I don't see much reason for Carroll to change his tune. What do I think of Brown? He's a very gifted athlete and the brother of Philly RB Bryce Brown who is insanely athletic. Speed and athleticism are not in short supply for this young man. That said, I have a bias towards NFL ready players and that's the rub with Brown for me- he misses a lot of tackles and at times is slow to diagnose. He is very fast though and at his very playmaking best reminds me of Lavonte David, who I loved as a prospect last year and is having a great rookie season. Brown does not look as big as his listed size, like David he seems more like a Malcolm Smith type, but with more potential and durability. I can easily see why Pete loves a player like Brown, because Pete has always gravitated towards players with a ton of untapped potential. If Brown is a standout with poor recognition and poor tackling then you could imagine how good he'd be after getting coached up by Pete Carroll, a guy who has almost never failed to get more out of his players. The absolute maximum upside for Brown is Derrick Brooks, but I really doubt he'd ever be that good because Brooks had instincts that Brown lacks, but if everything breaks right Brown could be a terrific player. So far I'd tentatively give Brown a 3rd round grade. Last year I gave Bobby Wagner a 3rd round grade. However, I am not Pete Carroll, and Carroll drafted Wagner in the 2nd because he had confidence in his own coaching ability to maximize Wagner's potential. I could see a similar situation this year with Arthur Brown. John Schneider always does an outstanding job of gauging where a prospect is slotted to go. He took a big risk waiting to draft players like Sherman and Wilson, but the risk paid off. He took Irvin about as late as he realistically could have. If Schneider's pre-draft intel indicates that Brown could last well into the 2nd round, we might see Seattle move around to grab Brown somewhere in between their first two picks. 2nd round: Will Sutton, DT, Arizona State. This is another player with Carroll/Pac-12 connections who I think fits Seattle's MO very well. Unlike the Brown pick, I'd be positively thrilled with this selection even though I like our current DT group. Sutton brings nice blend of nastiness, pass rush technique and raw power while anchoring decently well by pass rusher standards. He has the power, quickness, and size to succeed as a 1 tech, just not the run stopping results. He's also consistent play for play at a position where consistency is very rare. Pac-12 coaches and observers know exactly how fierce and imposing Sutton is. I'm sure Carroll will be no different. 3rd round: Keenan Allen, WR, Cal. Yet again another player with Pac-12 connections, although in this case I think there is much more to it than that. John Schneider has so far stayed true to his Green Bay roots at WR- meaning that he's been picky with the players he drafts while at the same time avoiding that kind of investment in round 1. The Packers best receivers in recent years: Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, and Randall Cobb, were all 2nd round picks, ranging from 36th overall to 64th overall. Jordy Nelson is the "big" WR of the bunch, as a tall/fast 6'3" WR. John Schneider himself has drafted just one WR in three years- Golden Tate- who as it happens was selected 60th overall in 2010. What do these players have in common? It's how they combine quickness (YAC) with some other plus attribute. As such, I suspect that Schneider will be more likely to target a quick WR than a "Megatron" type. Of those four receivers, only Nelson is listed as being six feet tall or more. So size should not be considered a definite necessity, assuming that Schneider is the one making the call. Last year we had it on good information that RB was a high priority. Specifically a round 1-3 priority. That got bumped back a round when the team decided they could not afford to risk trying for Wilson in the 4th. I think the current dearth of options among our 4-6 WR group coupled with the injury histories of Rice and Baldwin make WR a high priority target in 2013. In fact, the ideal situation would be to draft a WR a little later on and start him on the bench until an injury gives him the chance to compete and earn a starting job. Keenan Allen was once considered a first round prospect, but as things currently stand it is conceivable that he could slide all the way to the late 3rd round. Not because anything is wrong with Allen. He's really just the victim of a very deep WR group while coming off a down year. Keenan Allen is basically a skinny 6'3" version of Golden Tate. Like Tate, Allen has good hands despite being a bit of a body catcher and has a similar fluidity and shake after the catch. I think Allen is probably smarter at maximizing yardage than Tate was as a rookie, and I think Allen is probably the faster, better athlete of the two. Allen's height and deep ball skills give Seattle some real depth on the "big" WR front too in case Rice gets hurt and misses time. If you are drafting a 4th WR, you could hardly do better than a guy who could sub in for any of the current starters roles. Allen can do that, and not many other options in this draft can say that. Markus Wheaton is another guy who fits the "quick" criteria and could be available in this range, and who also comes from a Pac-12 school. Seattle might have to move up in the 3rd round to get one of these guys, but I'd feel pretty good that one or both of them could last into the 3rd, and that's something Seattle can take advantage of. 4th round: Micah Hyde, CB, Iowa Hyde is a complete corner that stands at 6'1" with good speed and bulk. I think he's being overlooked and his recent off the field problems won't help raise his stock. Seattle is always looking for CB depth especially given Sherman's looming suspension and Thurmond's health problems. I think he's got a very real shot at reaching the late 4th round. Hyde could be the latest 4th round steal by the Seahawks. 5th round (Curry trade): Sanders Commings, CB, Georgia Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane have basically looked like special teams lifers to this point. Both have value and shouldn't be cut on a whim, but I think the team must continue to churn out quality big corners with speed because given Seattle's track record to this point, they would be crazy not to. Commings is a competent corner on a very good defense. He stands 6'2" with good size and good speed. 5th round: Jared Abbrederis, WR, Wisconsin Abbrederis has been a very reliable and productive possession WR for Wisconsin, and was a favorite target for Russell Wilson in 2011. While Abbrederis does not fit the John Schneider WR mold, he fits the Darrell Bevell / Russell Wilson mold to a tee. He's not only a very reliable possession WR, but he's a dangerous deep option as well. At 6'2", he would bring another tall WR that can compete immediately for Ben Obomanu's job. 6th round: Brandon Ford, TE, Clemson Given that both Miller and McCoy are well rounded TE types, it makes sense that Seattle will pursue an "H-back" TE option in this draft- meaning a receiver oriented TE. After all, he'd be replacing an H-back type and converted WR in Evan Moore, who replaced an H-back in Kellen Winslow, who replaced an H-back in John Carlson. Brandon Ford hasn't had much experience, in fact his resume reads a lot like Cameron Morrah's did. He barely played before his final season, and in that final season he had 8 TD's on just 31 receptions. Morrah posted similar high TD numbers in a low number of receptions during his final college season. Both possess NFL level athleticism. Ford gives Seattle more competition for the 3rd TE spot. 7th round (Ruud trade*): Matt Scott, QB, Arizona. With Matt Flynn being a possible trade chip and the Seahawks having only Josh Portis as a possible fallback plan, Seattle should and probably will take advantage of what looks to be another good mid-round QB class. I've made it no secret that I think Matt Scott is an intriguing QB. But it really doesn't matter what I think, because Matt Scott also fits John Schneider's intangibles based QB criteria like few QBs to escape the first round in recent years. Matt Scott is one of the toughest competitors you will ever see, taking brutal hits yet insisting to stay in the game despite obvious signs of poor health. He has the best "feel" for the position that I've seen from any QB not named Russell Wilson in years (although it didn't really show itself much in the USC sample with all the respect throws he had to make in under 2 seconds). Yes, he did have some tough games but on the whole he had a record setting season for his school, and he did it as a 1st year starter. There are some problems with Scott and those problems will make his draft stock very hard to predict. First, he's very under-weight (currently under two bills) and it's likely that his injuries this year are related to that. He'd need to add weight before playing in the NFL and there is a chance that could impact his mobility. The second is the fact that he plays in a spread offense with a lot of read option, although that is almost a good thing in today's NFL the way the league is changing. He's not a young QB but he only has one season of starting experience. He also needs to improve his footwork and his throwing motion isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but still NFL adequate with only a few small improvements. Still, I think Matt Scott could make an outstanding, low cost backup to Wilson for years to come that I truly believe could turn into a trade chip down the road. Scott's a natural QB with a very high IQ- like Wilson he's a quarterback that happens to be an athlete not an athlete playing QB. Scott has a great feel for the position, he's tough, he's a leader, he's a fast learner, he knows where to go with the ball, he's accurate, he's mobile and he can make all the throws. Any time you can get a QB with the holy trinity of feel/mobility/leadership I think it's a guy you almost have to take a chance on, especially given that he did all of this in his first year of starting. No other QB in this draft screams "John Schneider QB" the way Scott does. If Seattle is willing to draft a QB this year in the mid to late rounds, I think Scott is a very strong possibility. It wouldn't shock me if Scott goes much, much earlier than this, but I have Seattle taking him in the 7th until we learn more about where teams grade him. With good preparation, Scott could be ready to be effective in our offense by the time Flynn's contract expires. 7th round (T-Jack trade*): Knile Davis, RB, Arkansas Davis just declared for the draft despite having a year of eligibility left, making him a little bit like this year's Darron Thomas. Davis was a beast in 2010 alongside Ryan Mallett and was primed for a huge 2011 season. Unfortunately an ankle injury ended his season before it began. He came back in 2012, and like the rest of that Arkansas team, he was a complete disaster. He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry and had just two outings all season with a yards per carry over 4.0. Still, a healthy Knile Davis is a first round talent, and as a powerful interior runner with good vision, he'd be a potential home run pick in Tom Cable's power running scheme. This is a gamble with huge upside, and with so many picks on a roster that is so tough to crack, Seattle is in great position to take this chance. Here is a video from his much better 2010 season, for those who aren't familiar with him. 7th round: Michael Clay, LB/S, Oregon Michael Clay is a playmaker, but unfortunately for him he lacks the necessary size to play linebacker at the next level, and he might lack the speed to play anything other than an in the box type safety. Fortunately, Seattle has two such roles (Chancellor, Johnson) that could fit that skillset. Clay is a similar player to Jeron Johnson and could immediately compete for the big nickle 3rd safety spot on the defense. *5th rounder from Curry trade could be a 4th instead, 7th rounder from T-jack could be a 6th rounder instead, we may not get the Ruud pick at all depending on the terms of the deal.

Of Gold and Unbacked Notes of the Past September 08, 2009 Look at gold. It has broken through $1,000 a troy ounce for the third time. This will bear watching going forward, but having just finished a holiday weekend, my mind has been looking backward rather than forward. A family gathering took me to St. Paul, Minn. It was a great time to catch up. I took a look at Prosperity Heights grade school that I started kindergarten at 49 years ago this month. It looks remarkably unchanged except for what appears to be a gymnasium addition. I have many memories from the place that I left in the middle of second grade. I remember the whole school watching the liftoff of John Glenn, who then became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. A number of televisions had been placed at various spots in the halls. Hobby wise, I date my coin collecting days as starting after I left the Twin Cities, though I do have one numismatic item from that time. My father thought $2 bills were a curiosity that I should be aware of. He gave me one. I thought it was so neat that I have kept it all these years, though once or twice I used it in my young years as collateral for a loan from my father in anticipation of future allowance income. My father was an accountant who wanted me to be aware of how the world of finance worked. The note is a Series 1953 Red Seal, which is another name for a United States Note. This series was a legacy of the Civil War when the Union was forced to issue paper money that had no backing of gold or silver. The U.S. Note issuance came to be frozen at $346 million and was not finally abolished until the 1990s. By that time, it was irrelevant to the economy and its issuance was a fiction. $100 U.S. Notes were moved around from an unissued vault at Treasury to a vault that had the designation as "Issued." But in my childhood, you could find $2 and $5 U.S. Notes in change if you watched closely. I obtained a $5 years later when I was a paperboy. It is perhaps appropriate to discuss unbacked paper money from former times as a counterpoint to the present unbacked notes and gold's price reaching four digits. Something to add? Notice an error? Comment on this blog. About the Author

« previous entry | next entry » Jul. 26th, 2010 | 09:25 pm posted by: beth_shulman in sounis So: What is Children's lit, exactly? And what is YA lit? And where do these books belong? Surprisingly (or maybe not), the specifications of both are very contentious. Let's start with literature for children. According to Encyclopedia Britannica here: Children's literature is a "body of written works produced to entertain or instruct young people". That's very neutral. No age range, no specification as to what exactly "entertainment" and "instruction" are. Here are the criteria for the Newbery Medal, which is awarded by the American Library Association every year to "the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". They define "contribution to American literature for children" as: This appears to indicate that children have less understandings, abilities, and appreciations than adults. Is this true? Parent or guardians or teachers who choose to restrict children's reading choices to shield them from dangerous and frightening things are practicing an exercise in futility. Children know that dangerous and frightening situations and people exist. Children learn history. Children live through history. The occurrence of 9-11 (or any horrors that happen often) wasn't something that could be dismissed to protect the children. Children can appreciate books with darker themes. They may not recognize the full extent of the darkness, but they perceive the tone and feel of the book. They can read books like The Giver and A Wrinkle in Time, both Newbery winners, and know that there are bad situations and people, and learn to emphasize, and they will not be scarred for life. (Then again, The Giver and A Wrinkle in Time are books that adults can and do read as well.) Here is a quote from Lois Lowry's Newbery acceptance speech for The Giver: And all of you, as well. Let me say something to those of you here who do such dangerous work. The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. Here is part of children's librarian Elizabeth Bird's review of The King of Attolia: Children usually don't have the emotional maturity to understand love, either. I would say that there is no possibility of a child understanding Gen and Irene's relationship. That's not to say that children should be condescended to. It just means that adult authors can't write about adult experiences for children, because children are not ready to understand them. Here's a quote from Madeleine L'Engle, just to put things into perspective: "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." Here's an article from the Washington University in St. Louis website quoting Gerald Early: We understand the customs and practices of the genre so well that we can usually spot a children's book without having to be told... But a children's book, as with virtually all of our thinking about children, has reality only in relation to how we see something that is not for children. If something is for children, it does not have sex, it does not have graphic violence, it does not have obscene language. And, interestingly, he continues: That's an extremely vague explanation. How does a publisher or YALSA determine what books should be published for 12-18 year olds? Here's a post from Cheryl Klein, an editor at a division of Scholastic, who blogs at Brooklyn Arden: - A YA novel is centrally interested in the experience and growth of - its teenage protagonist(s), - whose dramatized choices, actions, and concerns drive the - and it is narrated with relative immediacy to that teenage perspective. This is often where I find adult books separating themselves out here, because while they may have a younger protagonist, the adult books aren't interested in that protagonist's life per se -- they're interested in showing the world the protagonist will encounter in all its ugliness or glory, and a younger character often provides a useful "innocent" or "naive" viewpoint, or at the very least a figure of instant sympathy to adults. "growth" -- the character is different at the beginning than he is at the end, and usually for the better. I always think of Richard Peck's wise dictum that a YA novel ends "ends not with happily ever after, but at a new beginning, with the sense of a lot of life yet to be lived"; and that the events of the book have left the character better prepared for that. 2) "teenage protagonist(s)": Yeah, I'm going to posit that YA novels require a protagonist at an adolescent stage of life, between childhood and the full rights and privileges of adulthood. I do not think this is true of children's books, particularly picture books (that is, that they must have a child main character); but I think it's true of teen books, because life between the ages of 14-18 is such a unique time, full of so much intensity and so many firsts, that only a very sheltered adult or a very advanced child could have those same sorts of experiences and changes. Now, I think there's debate about exactly how old Gen is, but I also think that most, if not all, readers consider him an adult. He has the responsibilities of an adult: he has a job he feels obligated to fulfill, he loves a woman, he gets married, he runs a country. He may do it in an extremely original way, but there's no question but that he's an adult. Even if he's a teenager, which I don't think he is, he's beyond typical teenage adolescence. These YA criteria do not apply. More on YA from Patty Campell's 2004 article in the Horn Book magazine, quoted in author Gail Gauthier's blog here: Defining a genre in terms of its presumed audience is a problem. Especially when that audience is something as nebulous as “teenagers”. So, yes, YA is a publishing category and books are published there if that’s where a publisher thinks a book will sell best and attract the most attention. But it’s also a distinctive genre with its own flavour. She does not explain what she means when she says that YA is a distinctive genre. More from author Gayle Forman here: A YA novel will feature characters/narrator with a certain voice that sounds young, feels young, authentically so. From the blog Alien Onions here (who are in publishing in Australia): So YA fiction is often about a world in flux. It's about exploring this new world, or surviving it, or simply trying to navigate it without a compass. And it's the YA books that capture the authenticity of this see-saw between strength and vulnerability that resonate most with readers. So YA characters are often consumed by these questions: 'Who am I? What am I going to become? Where am I going and how can I possibly get there from here?' Their emotions and desires are intense and can have a huge impact on how they make decisions and which pathways they choose. Books for adults often have young protagonists, but this doesn't mean they are YA books.... A young protagonist in an adult novel is usually knowing and has an adult sensibility in their telling of the story. Here's what Orson Scott Card wrote about The King of Attolia: But then, there is no place in our society where personal politics is carried on with more ruthlessness and intensity than junior high school. No matter how much childish behavior you find in Congress or university faculties, image-building, character-assassination, and jockeying for position reach their peak among seventh and eighth graders. So this novel may be exactly right for that age group. It's also an adult book, however - an unusually entertaining and intelligent one - and I recommend it highly. Give the gross-out thrillers a break and pick up something that will actually exercise your brain and leave you feeling rather good about being human.I think what I said above about Gen is still true. He's not emotionally an adolescent, and Eddis and Attolia are definitely not. Think about how Ornon respects Gen, and the magus, and Sounis, and Attolia. He's an individual fully cognizant of his abilities and capable of making his own decisions and living with the consequences. He's an adult. So, in conclusion: The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia (I'm actually not sure if I can include A Conspiracy of Kings; Sophos seems to be a traditional YA protagonist) a) don't belong on the Children's shelf b) don't belong on the Young Adult shelf Where do they go, exactly? I still agree with the blogger who called it "a riveting political drama", and for all my Googling, I haven't found which blogger it was. So I can't credit it, though I think it's exactly right. They're in a genre of their own.

The 'Gossip Girl' star will make her Broadway debut on the production based on John Steinbeck's 1937 novella of the same title. Leighton Meester is set to make her Broadway debut in the revival of John Steinbeck's 1937 classic drama, "Of Mice and Men". The former "Gossip Girl" actress will star on the stage production this spring opposite James Franco and Chris O'Dowd. The story centers on an unlikely friendship between two migrant field workers in California during the Great Depression. O'Dowd plays the mentally-challenged Lennie who befriends Franco's George. Meester has been attached to the role of Curley's wife, the flirtatious and beauty-obsessed young lady who caught the eyes of Lennie. This would be O'Dowd and Franco's first stint on Broadway as well. Actors filling the role of Curley and other lead characters such as Candy, The Boss and Slim have not been announced. The production will be seen on Broadway for the first time since 1974. Directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro, the revival will begin previews on March 19 at the Longacre Theater and open officially on April 16. Tickets will go on sale January 11 for limited engagement which ends July 27. Meester kicked off her career in regional theaters prior to television.

Sarah Davies, former World YWCA Staff (2007-2009) in Geneva, Switzerland, works as the Strategic Development Manager for the YWCA of Aotearoa New Zealand. Sarah is currently seeking selection for the Northland National Party seat in her country. By: Sarah Davies Anybody who believes in something without reservation believes that this thing is right and should be; has the stamina to meet the obstacles and overcome them – Golda Meir As a little girl, I remember dreaming of doing something different with my life. As much as I enjoyed dress ups and tea parties with my fellow six year old friends, I could feel a fire in the belly even back then to aim for a position where I could make a contribution to society. And now I find myself, aged 29, seeking selection for public office in New Zealand. The most common questions I am asked are, “Are you crazy”? which is actually cover up for “ I don’t think you can do it” and “ Do you think now is the right time”?… also cover up for “ I don’t think you can do it.” Yet it is those comment that push you along more determined, more focussed and more passionate about understanding and influencing the issues of the day. I have been asked to reflect on what I have learnt on the journey so far and share some advice with other young women that may be running for public office. Believe in yourself otherwise no one else will..(other than your Mum) Yes. It’s an oldie but a goodie and never a truer word spoken. If you don’t believe that you can represent other peoples interests with knowledge and integrity, don’t expect others to support or vote for you. Work hard. At the end of the very long working day, being voted into public office will boil down to whether you did the research and know the issues. This means every day is a working day and every second counts. Remain focused and plan your time. The truth is that the human body and mind can be pushed even further than it was the day before. Talk to anyone – and everyone – who can help you with your cause. This means reaching out to people who understand what is going on in your community. Most people are very willing to talk to you and share what they know. Remember that everybody has bits and bobs of information that you don’t – find out as much as you can and help it formulate your position on the issues. Understand there are going to be low days. There are people who will be very quick to write you off and say nasty and discouraging remarks about you. Don’t react to it. It says more about them than you. Make you have a good support team around you. Maybe someone you can call at the end of the day to chat with or drive with you to various places. You don’t have to do this alone even though there are days it feels that way. You will find support in the strangest places. One of the most exciting and refreshing aspects of the process so far is when I meet people who I thought would not support me, but do. You will be surprised. There are a lot of older people who are very receptive to younger people running for public office. There are a lot of men equally supportive of women running for leadership positions. If you don’t stereotype and alienate people they won’t stereotype and alienate you. (Except for the few narrow-minded people amongst us) Don’t lose yourself and your point of difference. It’s ok to be yourself. Really. Don’t stress if you don’t fit the traditional stereotypes of a certain political party or you don’t conform to what people think you should be. Use what you have. Our choices are unlimited on how we can make a difference in the world around us. As I head into 2011, I know I am seeking selection for a very competitive seat in a tough electorate. I am under no illusion as to what a challenge it is, but I am also under no illusion that this is what I want to do. As young women of the world, me must believe and demonstrate that we can lead change. Good Luck to you all.

This week on War News Radio, the third and last piece in our series on Central American migration. Reporter Liliana Frankel interviews El Wanaco, a young Salvadoran rapper, and examines the painful history of exchanges between El Salvador and the United States. Aquí lanzamos la segunda crónica en nuestra serie sobre la crisis migratoria en México. Esta semana, les presentamos el testimonio de Alex, un migrante hondureño que creció en Canadá. Hace ocho años fue deportado, y las consecuencias de su exilio han sido mucho mas graves que se esperara. This week on War News Radio, despite airstrikes by the Unites States and its allies, ISIS now controls much of the Syrian city of Kobani, hostilities have broken out between Indian and Pakistani forces in the border region of Kashmir, the Canadian parliament approved anti-ISIS airstrikes, and more. This week on War News Radio, US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Palestinian negotiators, Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a peace plan after speaking with Ukrainian President Peter Poroshenko, President Barack Obama commits to sending 350 more non-combat American troops to Iraq, and more. This week on War News Radio, violence in South Sudan prevents peace talks, Fatah and Hamas reconcile, Israeli-Palestinian talks suspended indefinitely, the United States pledges military support to Japan in light of China-Japan territorial disputes and more This week on War News Radio, clashes between Ukrainian security forces and pro-Russian activists, the sentencing of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, armed gunmen stormed a United Nations peacekeeping base in South Sudan, and more. This week on War News Radio, Pro-Russian demonstrators seize government buildings in Ukraine, Israeli/Palestinian peace talks face more barriers, car bombs in Syria and Iraq continue to threaten civilian populations, Kenyan authorities arrest over 3,000 Somalis in a security crackdown, and more. This week on War News Radio, Ukrainian military forces leave Crimea, an Egyptian court sentences to death 529 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pro-government militia kills 151 rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan, North Korea launches two medium-range ballistic missiles, and more. This week on War News Radio, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty annexing Crimea, Israeli air forces fired on Syrian military bases, international talks continued over Iran’s nuclear program, and more.

Look, we all know teens are getting it on. What we didn’t know was that pre-teens are also getting it on in shockingly-large numbers — and without condoms. You would think the terror of first-time sex would translate to fear of getting someone pregnant, but no. Thankfully, and perhaps disturbingly, a Swiss firm is pushing mini-condoms on Europe’s 12 and up set. Dubbed the Hotshot, the prophylactic was developed in response to a study that indicated young teens were regularly engaging in unprotected sex. "The result that shocked us concerned young boys who display apparently risky behaviour," said Nancy Bodmer, who oversaw the research for the study at the Center for Development and Personality Psychology at Basel University in Switzerland. "They have more of a tendency not to protect themselves," she said, adding that because of their young age, they also do not know much about sexuality. [Daily News] Of course, the super-small condoms could serve other purposes, as well, like an anonymous birthday present to all of your selfish ex-boyfriends.

San Ramon Youth Resource Program (925) 973-3350 A great program which promotes viable life skills among young people in our community through recreation activities, community service opportunities, counseling programs, and skill development at San Ramon high schools. Discovery Counseling Center (925) 837-0505 Community based mental health and substance abuse organization serving children, youth and adults, providing group, couple and family therapy, and prevention education programs. Did you want to find a way to get involved in helping our schools? This is a great web site that highlights community events in the area and ways you can help! There's no greater feeling than giving back to your community. Check out this site and find ways to help others. Great parent education opportunities and events for everyone to enjoy! Please check it out! Find out about classes and projects going on in San Ramon! Guides are updated and offered each season. Contra Costa Crisis Center (800) 273-TALK (8255) They offer five amazing county-wide programs that help families with major ordeals such as homelessness, youth violence, and grief. Great resources available to families in need. PFLAG - Danville/San Ramon Valley Chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (925) 838-8632 or e-mail at [email protected]

|Poor Helen (Ashley) begins receiving phone calls from her young nephew Michael. The problem? Michael's been dead for 15 years! Aunt Helen knows that for a fact. Because after his mother was committed to a sanitarium - and subsequently committed suicide - Michael ran away from home and was never found. It was presumed he died of exposure. Perhaps he didn't? Soon, strange murders begin to occur throughout the small town. Who could be responsible for the cruel prank calls and what connection links them to the recent murders? Aided by her brother Craig (Douglas), Helen and her and ex-husband (Gazzara) vow to find out. Solid performances from all involved (most notable Ashley and Douglas, not surprisingly) enhance this well constructed tele thriller. Also known by the terrible, Cinemax-y title Shattered Silence.

On Streets In Senegal, Thousands Of Boys Are Forced To Beg Human Rights Watch is urging Senegal to implement a law criminalizing forced begging. Many families are misled into entrusting their children to people acting as Islamic teachers, who then exploit thousands of young boys. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: If you pass through the streets of Senegal's bustling capital, Dakar, here's something you can't miss: Young, sometimes very young boys in rags, begging on the streets. A new report from New York-based Human Rights Watch is urging the government there to implement a law to criminalize forced begging. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports that many of the boys are being abused. (SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC) OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: This is Independence Square in the heart of Dakar, and this is where you see many of the young boys with their trademark tomato cans, clinking just the few coins in there. They're meant to be learning the Koran. And they have a set amount that they have to collect every single day, otherwise they are beaten and mistreated. And with me is the author of the Human Rights Watch report, Matt Wells. MATT WELLS: You're talking about a, you know, a country that is, in many ways, held up as a model in West Africa. And yet, yah, there's this incredible disconnect when you see tens of thousands of young boys - five, six years old, who every day are forced to beg on the streets, are exploited in the name of religion. But really simply in a lucrative criminal practice for these fake Koranic teachers. QUIST-ARCTON: Senegalese commentator Tidiane Sy says there's resistance to change, along with support for legitimate religious boarding schools. And he says the government forgot to organize awareness campaigns along with its planned reforms. TIDIAN SY: You have so many stakeholders involved, it can't be changed overnight. Because you have cultural, you have religious issues, and you have a survival issue. Because also those who are being taken out to beg, probably come from extremely poor families who can't afford raising their kids by themselves, and who give them to these Koranic teachers. QUIST-ARCTON: Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, downtown Dakar. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Sort: Category . Published . Updated . Title . Words . Chapters . Reviews . Status . A Brave New World by catchingafallingstar reviews In less than two years a baby came from nothing to be able to talk and interact with the world. Then something strange happens, and you have a 'normal person'. But what if the curiosity and thirsty for knowledge isn't killed so soon, but encouraged? What kind of person you will have, and how far could they go? Let's explore this possibility... Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 16 - Words: 63,948 - Reviews: 28 - Favs: 65 - Follows: 104 - Updated: 7/29 - Published: 2/8 - Harry P. Return of Emerald by Bleu Tsuki reviews Slytherin!Harry. When the BWL is discovered missing, no one thinks twice when Hasan Castell appears at Hogwarts. Abandoned in a muggle orphanage, Harry grows up with a love of magic-in books that is-and thinks sorcery is all in his dreams. He calls himself Hasan to separate his dreams from reality, and is adopted and raised by a man who should be dead.HP/LL mentor!Snape Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Friendship/Drama - Chapters: 44 - Words: 298,080 - Reviews: 990 - Favs: 1,053 - Follows: 1,493 - Updated: 7/29 - Published: 8/18/2013 - [Harry P., Luna L.] Severus S., Lucius M. Further Adventures of the Lone Traveler by dunuelos reviews Harry Potter, Lone Traveler, has accepted his role as the Multiverse's fix-it man. A figure of legend in many universes, he makes his way as directed by Creation to worlds where they could use a nudge here and there. Maybe he can prevent the multiverse from destroying itself in apocalyptic fire. Sequel to Stories of the Lone Traveler. Crossover - X-overs & Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Drama - Chapters: 9 - Words: 41,623 - Reviews: 315 - Favs: 724 - Follows: 815 - Updated: 7/29 - Published: 7/14 The Difference One Man Can Make by joen1801 reviews After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter decided to travel the world. Twelve years later when a new threat attempts to destroy the progress made in Britain he returns home to deal with the situation. During the fight that puts down the small group of upstarts Harry finds himself in a world of ice and fire Crossover - Harry Potter & Game of Thrones - Rated: M - English - Adventure - Chapters: 18 - Words: 240,080 - Reviews: 3324 - Favs: 6,083 - Follows: 7,000 - Updated: 7/28 - Published: 3/22/2015 Fixing Past Mistakes by DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan reviews Harry didn't appear at Hogwarts causing concern. Albus immediately head's out to Privet Drive to find out what was going on, along with Minerva and a reluctant Severus Snape. What they find out changes everything for everyone in the wizarding world. Is there a chance for anyone to go back and fix past mistakes? is there any hope at all for the magical world? cover pic - Harry's cub Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 49 - Words: 218,570 - Reviews: 5895 - Favs: 4,387 - Follows: 5,764 - Updated: 7/28 - Published: 2/11/2014 - Harry P., Severus S., Albus D., Minerva M. A Different Professor by AsphodelWolf15 reviews "Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever." Ginny has been taken to the Chamber of Secrets and Harry may know where that is. How would things have turned out if he had gone to a Different Professor? Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Drama - Chapters: 16 - Words: 129,321 - Reviews: 625 - Favs: 1,195 - Follows: 1,889 - Updated: 7/27 - Published: 5/16 - [Harry P., Hermione G.] Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path by Temporal Knight reviews 10 year old Harry finds a chest left by his mother with books on some of her favorite subjects. Discovering he has a talent for understanding and creating runes sets Harry onto a very different path than anyone had expected. Shortcuts, inventions, and a bit of support go a long way! Pairings: H/Hr/NT/FD/DG. Ron/Molly bashing and GreaterGood!Dumbledore. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Fantasy/Adventure - Chapters: 31 - Words: 316,097 - Reviews: 2447 - Favs: 5,214 - Follows: 6,834 - Updated: 7/27 - Published: 4/15 - [Harry P., Hermione G., Fleur D., N. Tonks] Harry Potter & the Game by Concept101 reviews With the powers of Gamer given to him Harry sets out to prove himself to the world of magic by becoming the best he can be despite the impossible odds against him! Watch our hero grow in this action filled adventure full of heart, humour & spectacle. And the occasional swear word. Politics!Action!Drama!Manipulation!OP Harry!Mind Bending Magic! Year 1 Complete! Updates every 4 days! Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 24 - Words: 164,024 - Reviews: 1477 - Favs: 2,125 - Follows: 2,887 - Updated: 7/27 - Published: 5/17 - Harry P., Hermione G., Ginny W. The Black Prince by cxjenious reviews He remembers being Harry Potter. He dreams of it. He dreams of the Great Other too, a beast borne of ice and death with eyes red as blood and an army of cold dead things. He is the second son of the king, a spare, but his fortunes change when secrets rather left in the dark come to light, and Westeros is torn asunder by treachery and ambition. Winter is coming, but magic is might. Crossover - Harry Potter & Game of Thrones - Rated: M - English - Fantasy/Drama - Chapters: 20 - Words: 125,705 - Reviews: 2460 - Favs: 6,318 - Follows: 7,320 - Updated: 7/23 - Published: 3/7/2015 A Man of Iron by Mr. Chaos reviews Antony 'Tony' Stark is the arrogant cousin of Ned Stark whose made his fortune crafting fine weapons for the lords of Westeros. Tony leads a joyful life, doing what he pleases and leaving the politics of the realm to others. But when violent attack nearly ends his life, Tony decides to take action and creates a hero for the people to rally around... a knight known as Iron Man. Crossover - Ironman & A song of Ice and Fire - Rated: T - English - Fantasy/Adventure - Chapters: 20 - Words: 79,373 - Reviews: 629 - Favs: 989 - Follows: 1,100 - Updated: 7/21 - Published: 3/2/2014 - A. E. Stark/Tony, J. R. Rhodes/Rhodey, V. Potts/Pepper, Jon S. by Firazh reviews What could be worse than a nightmare? Waking up to discover that it was reality, of course. But after finding out Bellatrix was his mother, discovering that the Death Eater who fathered him was Severus Snape almost came as a relief. Deciding to take up his real identity was easy enough ... actually living it, not so much. AU: After fifth year. Sevitus with a twist. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Angst/Family - Chapters: 34 - Words: 203,874 - Reviews: 910 - Favs: 1,078 - Follows: 1,410 - Updated: 7/18 - Published: 6/23/2014 - Harry P., Remus L., Severus S. by theaceoffire reviews A young boy in a dark cupboard is in great pain. An unusual power will allow him to heal himself, help others, and grow strong in a world of magic. Eventual God-like Harry, Unsure of eventual pairings. Alternate Universe, possible universe/dimension traveling in the future. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 66 - Words: 290,947 - Reviews: 4086 - Favs: 6,380 - Follows: 6,938 - Updated: 7/14 - Published: 2/22/2014 - Harry P. by Stargon1 reviews The day before Harry Potter was due to go to Hogwarts for the very first time, his aunt and uncle informed him that he wouldn't be going. Instead, he was sent to Stonewall High. Now, three years later, the Goblet of Fire has named him as a TriWizard Champion. What that means is anyone's guess, but to Harry, one thing is clear: he can finally get away from Privet Drive. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Chapters: 28 - Words: 106,020 - Reviews: 1327 - Favs: 2,398 - Follows: 3,537 - Updated: 7/13 - Published: 11/11/2015 - Harry P., Daphne G. A Very Different Harry Potter by BarbedCaress reviews AU Harry first meets Draco on the train. Draco realizes how little Harry knows about the Wizarding World and the two boys hatch a plan. Meeting in secret, Draco teaches Harry all he needs to know to survive as Head of House Potter and The Boy Who Lived. No slash. Hufflepuff!Harry Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 14 - Words: 56,351 - Reviews: 164 - Favs: 207 - Follows: 347 - Updated: 7/12 - Published: 2/25/2015 - Harry P., Draco M. Not even a first chance! by senawario reviews (alt title: Disproportionate response). Give the death-eaters a second chance? No way, not even a *first* chance! This is a "redo" fic with a twist. The pairing will eventually be Harmony but a good part of the story happens when they are too young so hard-core Harmonians need to be patient. Rated M for possible violence in later chapters. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Adventure - Chapters: 28 - Words: 94,094 - Reviews: 192 - Favs: 357 - Follows: 608 - Updated: 7/10 - Published: 2/11 - [Harry P., Hermione G.] Dobby The Adventures Of Harry Potter, the Video Game: Exploited by michaelsuave reviews Harry Potter catches Voldemort's AK to the noggin only to find out that his life is a video game and he forgot to save. So what does he do? Does he return on Hard mode and work for the challenge? Heck No! Harry uses every exploit, grind, or underhanded tactic he can get his hands on. His life may be a video game, but nobody plays Harry Potter; Harry's going to exploit the system. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Humor/Adventure - Chapters: 12 - Words: 91,033 - Reviews: 3472 - Favs: 7,803 - Follows: 9,288 - Updated: 7/3 - Published: 9/22/2013 - Harry P. Lone Traveler: The Greatest Minister in History by dunuelos reviews The Lone Traveler arrives on the even of Fudge's election. Instead of pelting Dumbledore for advice, the new Minister listens to a new viewpoint. Much is changed. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Drama - Chapters: 17 - Words: 79,617 - Reviews: 909 - Favs: 1,521 - Follows: 1,342 - Updated: 6/25 - Published: 5/14 - Harry P., Amelia B., Augusta L., C. Fudge - Complete A Marauder's Plan by CatsAreCool reviews Sirius decides to stay in England after escaping Hogwarts and makes protecting Harry his priority. AU GOF. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Family/Drama - Chapters: 87 - Words: 893,787 - Reviews: 9466 - Favs: 9,192 - Follows: 9,590 - Updated: 6/13 - Published: 4/21/2012 - Harry P., Sirius B. - Complete The Hardships of Family by IAreGandalf reviews AU: Harry has a family, parents, a little BWL-brother and an adorable sister. Neglected by his parents and having to survive on his own since he was 4. Luckily he got Sirius. He is a great wizard and sets out to change the Wizard world. How will his life turn out with all the different hardships. Definitely not your usual wrong BWL-story. Takes a turn at chapter 5! Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Family/Adventure - Chapters: 18 - Words: 76,973 - Reviews: 161 - Favs: 473 - Follows: 659 - Updated: 6/3 - Published: 3/21/2015 - Harry P. Harry Potter: Junior Inquisitor by sprinter1988 reviews Before the start of fifth year Dumbledore changes the plans. Unfortunately he didn't bother to inform Harry. At his trial, Harry realises that it is down to him to save his own skin. To do so his Slytherin side must come out to play, and once it's out it sticks around turning life at Hogwarts on its head. Warnings: EvilDumbles, SheepOrder/Staff, GoodGuysDontGetEverythingTheirWay Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Drama - Chapters: 36 - Words: 211,722 - Reviews: 7942 - Favs: 11,277 - Follows: 14,834 - Updated: 5/26 - Published: 1/16/2013 - Harry P., Susan B., Hannah A., Amelia B. The Better Man by Laume reviews Suppose the Marauders torture hadn't driven Snape to Voldemort and he had been the better man. What would the future have looked like? Warning: may now contain DH spoilers. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Drama - Chapters: 22 - Words: 81,568 - Reviews: 1990 - Favs: 3,254 - Follows: 4,108 - Updated: 5/15 - Published: 6/2/2007 - Severus S., Harry P. by pointlessjourney reviews What happens when the Nexus takes Jim Kirk and deposits him on the shores of Westeros? Watch as a powerful new note is added to the song of fire and ice. Completely AU, Featuring all your favorite characters and one character from the 24th century. Game of Thrones - Rated: K+ - English - Drama - Chapters: 12 - Words: 29,697 - Reviews: 122 - Favs: 177 - Follows: 217 - Updated: 4/23 - Published: 2/2 - Jon S., Tyrion L., Eddard S. Black as the Blood In Our Names by TimeAndLife21 reviews Regulus was drowning.Or At Least he thought he was until a woman of light came to him to offer a second chance. Thrown back into the world of the living, He basically plans from thin air to work around the new world he is in now. He will be helping Harry Potter go against the Dark Lord and saves Sirius from dying by Bella's Hand. Looks like Harry has perfect Ally on his side. AU Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Family/Drama - Chapters: 26 - Words: 169,187 - Reviews: 378 - Favs: 531 - Follows: 794 - Updated: 4/22 - Published: 10/29/2014 - Harry P., Sirius B., Severus S., Regulus B. by Quetzalcoatls reviews End of 4th year and Voldemort's back,but Harrys not waiting for him to make the first move SnowPoint Academy,hidden in the frozen reaches of the Antarctic ocean,is nothing like Hogwarts, but to win this war that may be exactly what Harry needs,but darker things are stirring in the shadows, and nothing is sure.fusion with Heralds of Valdemar(fut. AU) Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Fantasy - Chapters: 25 - Words: 103,255 - Reviews: 1715 - Favs: 2,266 - Follows: 3,024 - Updated: 3/22 - Published: 9/2/2012 - Harry P., Hermione G. Investigator Harry Steel by TheBlackHand724 reviews The war is over. the dark is defeated. but the government is still corrupt. Harry is exiled to the U.S. where he meets the family he didn't know he had, and takes up the family trade. Multi crossover after chapter 18. and Harry/Multi after chapter 38 T for Language and Violence. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 57 - Words: 403,710 - Reviews: 861 - Favs: 851 - Follows: 1,032 - Updated: 3/21 - Published: 3/2/2015 - [Harry P., OC] [Hermione G., Neville L.] Sorcery, UNITed, Independence, Space by Tangerine-Alert reviews Post-OotP, Harry decides to leave his relatives to ready himself for Voldemort, something Dumbledore seems unwilling to do. He meets a Brigadier and quickly finds Earth is not alone. Not Horcrux compliant. (Written Post-OotP) ARCHIVED-Errors/issues won't be fixed. Crossover - Doctor Who & Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Drama - Chapters: 57 - Words: 213,846 - Reviews: 942 - Favs: 1,174 - Follows: 551 - Updated: 2/8 - Published: 5/7/2006 - Brigadier, Harry P. - Complete Harry Potter in the Claw of the Raven by BakenandEggs reviews When a more studious Harry Potter entered Gringotts with Hagrid, the Goblins managed to talk to him privately - Dumbledore never saw that one coming. A Ravenclaw Harry story. Warning: child abuse, character bashing, and pureblood society. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Friendship - Chapters: 10 - Words: 56,257 - Reviews: 394 - Favs: 1,747 - Follows: 1,390 - Updated: 12/26/2015 - Published: 9/8/2015 - Harry P., Draco M. - Complete by BloodRedDemon reviews Neglected in favour of his younger brother, Harry Potter always was dissatisfied. His Parents and their friends fawned over Thomas, no matter what the older brother did. Harry upped and left; why would he have stayed? 6 years later, Harry Potter found a new home. The boy is in the middle of it all, though. What will his role be? Where will his allegiance lie? Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 30 - Words: 147,789 - Reviews: 1830 - Favs: 4,696 - Follows: 5,779 - Updated: 11/17/2015 - Published: 11/17/2014 - Harry P., Fleur D., Daphne G., Tracey D. Harry the Hufflepuff by Megark reviews There is a single point of divergence from this and canon. See if you can find it. "This is your Epic Fan Fiction. After you have been bathed in its Glory, you will be Changed and Perfected." -My Beta, after 4 hours of talking about this story. Harry Potter - Rated: K+ - English - Humor/Friendship - Chapters: 20 - Words: 64,800 - Reviews: 113 - Favs: 133 - Follows: 180 - Updated: 11/15/2015 - Published: 3/19/2015 - Harry P., Ron W., Hermione G. - Complete Doing it all over again by ultimate emperor reviews Ronald Weasley goes back in time to righten things that had gone wrong. AU universe good/OOC Ron slight Hermione bashing. NOT SLASH Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Friendship - Chapters: 13 - Words: 50,488 - Reviews: 49 - Favs: 85 - Follows: 115 - Updated: 11/3/2015 - Published: 6/17/2012 - Ron W., Harry P. by Shikatanai reviews AU: At 5, an abused Harry is taken in by a powerful family. Taking the name Gabriel, he grows up into someone very different. How will Hogwarts and Voldemort react? Soldier!Harry, Neutral!Harry, implied child abuse. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Drama/Family - Chapters: 44 - Words: 160,638 - Reviews: 4053 - Favs: 5,788 - Follows: 6,297 - Updated: 10/28/2015 - Published: 12/9/2005 - Harry P. The Trusted Hero by Blueowl reviews This is a what-if spin-off from the fanfic 'The Hidden Hero' by Evebb, answering the question: What would have happened if Dumbledore had believed and supported Mark (aka Harry) at the end of chapter 19? Mentor!Sensible!Dumbledore Enabled!Light!Harry. Giants, Dark Arts, Ministry takeover, Horcruxes, Undesirables, Harry masquerading as a muggleborn. No Deathly Hallows, MoD, or H/G Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Adventure - Chapters: 18 - Words: 75,159 - Reviews: 293 - Favs: 334 - Follows: 291 - Updated: 8/3/2015 - Published: 4/1/2015 - Harry P., Albus D. - Complete Time to Put Your Galleons Where Your Mouth Is by Tsume Yuki reviews Harry had never been able to comprehend a sibling relationship before, but he always thought he'd be great at it. Until, as Master of Death, he's reborn one Turais Rigel Black, older brother to Sirius and Regulus. (Rebirth/time travel and Master of Death Harry) Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Family/Adventure - Chapters: 21 - Words: 46,303 - Reviews: 2403 - Favs: 10,381 - Follows: 4,041 - Updated: 1/14/2015 - Published: 8/11/2014 - Harry P., Sirius B., Regulus B., Walburga B. - Complete Where No Wizard has Gone Before by Blueowl reviews Harry has been reborn time and time again after becoming the Master of Death, living through hundreds of lifetimes in dozens of universes, but this rebirth is strange even by his standards—no doubt thanks to how he had died the last time. StarTrek:TNG/HarryPotter Powerful!Harry MoD!Harry, Guinan, Q, Borg, Lwaxana. COMPLETE Crossover - StarTrek: The Next Generation & Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Sci-Fi - Chapters: 9 - Words: 35,120 - Reviews: 342 - Favs: 1,336 - Follows: 753 - Updated: 12/21/2014 - Published: 11/26/2014 - J. Picard, Q, D. Troi, Harry P. - Complete by ChipmonkOnSpeed reviews AU- Given up after that fateful night, a prodigious Harry Potter ends up in America, working as a Lab Tech/Federal Agent. Now his family wants him back, but can he trust their motives? Can he trust his own? Multi-crossover. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Humor - Chapters: 27 - Words: 136,637 - Reviews: 2074 - Favs: 4,358 - Follows: 2,599 - Updated: 8/24/2014 - Published: 2/27/2007 - Harry P., Albus D., OC - Complete Inspected By No 13 by Clell65619 reviews When he learns that flying anywhere near a Dragon is a recipe for suicide, Harry tries a last minute change of tactics, one designed to use the power of the Bureaucracy forcing him to compete against itself. Little does he know that his solution is its own kind of trap. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Humor/Parody - Chapters: 3 - Words: 18,472 - Reviews: 1116 - Favs: 4,660 - Follows: 1,983 - Updated: 8/20/2014 - Published: 6/26/2014 - Complete by DobbyElfLord reviews Dark curses don't play nice- not even with each other. When nine year-old Harry is bitten by a werewolf, the horcrux fights back. The result could only happen to Harry Potter. Canon-ish for the first three years of Hogwarts - AU from that point forward. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Humor/Adventure - Chapters: 23 - Words: 152,524 - Reviews: 3589 - Favs: 7,465 - Follows: 8,381 - Updated: 8/15/2014 - Published: 5/11/2012 - Harry P. Master of Wood, Water and Hill by Karmic Acumen reviews Bilbo Baggins wondered what Gandalf was thinking. Oh well, Bag End would sort him out. His house did NOT approve of vandalism, thank you very much. That rune carved into his door learned it personally. Besides, it served the wizard right for not heeding the rumors about Bilbo and the Old Forest. Hobbit - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 5 - Words: 60,226 - Reviews: 338 - Favs: 1,428 - Follows: 1,431 - Updated: 5/11/2014 - Published: 2/9/2014 - Bilbo B., Thorin, Kíli, Fíli Knives in the Dark by Norrrrrrrrrr reviews When Harry saves a goblin's life from Quirrell before beginning his first year, he sets off a chain of events that brings the war to a head early. With an unstable, intelligent and desperate enemy facing them, how will the Wizarding world react? And how will an amoral mentor and ally affect Harry and his caretakers? This story is dead. Original planned ending included for closure. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Drama - Chapters: 61 - Words: 97,025 - Reviews: 950 - Favs: 1,237 - Follows: 1,509 - Updated: 4/12/2014 - Published: 5/4/2013 - Harry P., OC - Complete To Shape and Change by Blueowl reviews AU. Time Travel. Snape goes back in time, holding the knowledge of what is to come if he fails. No longer holding a grudge, he seeks to shape Harry into the greatest wizard of all time, starting on the day Hagrid took Harry to Diagon Alley. No Horcruxes. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Chapters: 34 - Words: 232,332 - Reviews: 8535 - Favs: 15,475 - Follows: 10,716 - Updated: 3/16/2014 - Published: 10/20/2010 - Harry P., Severus S. - Complete by Lord Silvere reviews Harry is a prisoner, and Bellatrix has fallen from grace. The accidental activation of Bella's treasured heirloom results in another chance for Harry. It also gives him the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the young and enigmatic Bellatrix Black as they change the course of history. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 46 - Words: 392,449 - Reviews: 7090 - Favs: 10,097 - Follows: 7,176 - Updated: 9/21/2013 - Published: 11/14/2009 - Harry P., Bellatrix L. - Complete by Rorschach's Blot reviews It all starts with Hogwarts' Class Reunion. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Humor - Chapters: 20 - Words: 61,134 - Reviews: 1742 - Favs: 4,454 - Follows: 3,291 - Updated: 3/2/2013 - Published: 11/14/2008 - Complete Harry Potter and The Phoenix Burning by mini-mid reviews Harry dies at the same time as Voldemort when the killing curse backfires the second time and is sent back to Kings cross station. Now however Fawkes meets him there and sends him somewhere all together different than the Hogwarts he knows. Not Slash Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Chapters: 20 - Words: 69,010 - Reviews: 1321 - Favs: 4,023 - Follows: 2,484 - Updated: 2/21/2013 - Published: 3/13/2011 - Harry P., James P. - Complete by loralee1 reviews AU, Post HBP Snape travels back in time to warn pre SSPS Snape about what is to come. No DH Spoilers Harry Potter - Rated: K+ - English - Chapters: 11 - Words: 41,690 - Reviews: 1165 - Favs: 2,455 - Follows: 1,585 - Updated: 11/1/2012 - Published: 9/19/2006 - Severus S., Harry P. - Complete Trust Is A Relative Thing by Silverfawkes reviews What if Petunia put the blame where it belonged instead of on Harry? OOC Petunia Dursley Rating for mild language Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 51 - Words: 219,068 - Reviews: 5467 - Favs: 5,967 - Follows: 6,649 - Updated: 10/16/2012 - Published: 12/31/2010 - Harry P. For Whom the Bell Tolls by nefieslab reviews AU fifth year. After saving Dudley from the dementors, the ministry letter arrives to order his wand snapped. Dumbledore's letter doesn't arrive. Harry/Daphne/Susan. Rating may change. Powerful!Happy!Independant!Harry. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Romance/Adventure - Chapters: 17 - Words: 135,554 - Reviews: 1655 - Favs: 4,189 - Follows: 4,900 - Updated: 7/2/2012 - Published: 1/15/2011 - Harry P., Daphne G. A Different Halloween by robst reviews Could a chance meeting change history? What would a different Halloween in 1981 mean for wizarding Britain? Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 20 - Words: 124,549 - Reviews: 4011 - Favs: 6,979 - Follows: 4,169 - Updated: 5/26/2012 - Published: 10/31/2010 - [Harry P., Hermione G.] - Complete A New Dawn by AlexanderD reviews SG1, Atlantis, and SGU all work towards a brighter future. Past conflicts heat up more than imagined, and a long wondered question is answered. Ancients, Tauri, Asgard, Furling, and a few others thrown in. This ties up the loose ends the writers left us. Stargate: Universe - Rated: T - English - Sci-Fi/Adventure - Chapters: 74 - Words: 295,200 - Reviews: 1288 - Favs: 602 - Follows: 425 - Updated: 4/16/2012 - Published: 4/29/2011 - Complete Back I Go by DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan reviews Harry ends up back in time twist of the usual sev is harrys father its now harry is sevs father! will Harry give Severus the childhood and future Harry has always wanted watch as severus blooms into the person he could have been. FINISHED Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Chapters: 38 - Words: 67,877 - Reviews: 705 - Favs: 1,430 - Follows: 695 - Updated: 11/2/2010 - Published: 7/8/2007 - Harry P., Severus S. - Complete When The Future Died by SpikyStar reviews He controlled the elements, it wasn't enough. He was the powerful light wizard, but Voldemort was winning. Fate sent him back. No Slash please read, future Harry going back in time! Slight AU- Retains older body. fifth year Grammer fixed. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Angst/Adventure - Chapters: 43 - Words: 155,275 - Reviews: 1445 - Favs: 1,563 - Follows: 1,652 - Updated: 9/9/2010 - Published: 12/28/2007 - Harry P. by GenkaiFan reviews Harry has had enough of seeing his reputation shredded in the Daily Prophet and decides to do something about it. Only he decides to embrace his Slytherin side to rectify matters. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Drama/Humor - Chapters: 32 - Words: 74,506 - Reviews: 8452 - Favs: 17,618 - Follows: 7,235 - Updated: 6/21/2010 - Published: 12/3/2009 - Harry P. - Complete Wit of the Raven by japanese-jew reviews Highly AU. Mr. Harry Potter is age eleven, and the possibilities for his future are endless. The magic system of Harry Potter has essentially been turned on its head. Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Chapters: 14 - Words: 101,733 - Reviews: 888 - Favs: 1,417 - Follows: 1,565 - Updated: 5/22/2010 - Published: 1/6/2006 - Harry P. Doctor John Watson, Police Surgeon Scotland Yard 5 by Bartimus Crotchety reviews This is the story of how the bravest and most singular person I have ever met, took down the most dangerous man in London, Colonel Jack Moran. In spite of what you might have heard, that man was not Sherlock Holmes. This is the true Empty House. Sherlock Holmes - Rated: T - English - Mystery/Crime - Chapters: 9 - Words: 32,369 - Reviews: 105 - Favs: 62 - Follows: 23 - Updated: 1/16/2010 - Published: 11/27/2009 - Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade - Complete Doctor John Watson, Police Surgeon Scotland Yard 4 by Bartimus Crotchety reviews A year ago a new killer stalked the East End. Baffling the Yard at every turn he left five dead. Shaken by their inability to capture him, the Yard turned to Doctor Watson. A new body turns up with the same trademarks. Can a very ill Watson prevail? Sherlock Holmes - Rated: T - English - Crime/Mystery - Chapters: 10 - Words: 38,336 - Reviews: 90 - Favs: 42 - Follows: 10 - Updated: 10/20/2009 - Published: 9/1/2009 - Inspector Lestrade, Dr. Watson - Complete Harry Potter and the Determinations of Fate by Baronvonblack reviews Like ripples through water, a single event can change the entire course of history. For Harry, all it took was meeting a misty-eyed Ravenclaw a year earlier... Major AU later Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Romance/Fantasy - Chapters: 11 - Words: 41,199 - Reviews: 536 - Favs: 1,284 - Follows: 1,572 - Updated: 10/12/2009 - Published: 8/7/2008 - Harry P., Luna L. Doctor John Watson, Police Surgeon Scotland Yard 3 by Bartimus Crotchety reviews Doctor John Watson has very few things left that he values, his reputation is one. Suddenly, he is being tarnished by an all too familiar face from his past. Someone demanding his help before the fog rolls in and the killer stalking him strikes again. Sherlock Holmes - Rated: T - English - Crime/Mystery - Chapters: 5 - Words: 16,225 - Reviews: 52 - Favs: 42 - Follows: 7 - Updated: 8/4/2009 - Published: 7/17/2009 - Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade - Complete Mahou mo Ken by Enterprise1701-d reviews When Harry cries out for help during a nightmare, halfway around the world somebody listens. Somebody that will change the way Harry looks at magic... forever. On hiatus. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 10 - Words: 151,685 - Reviews: 719 - Favs: 1,710 - Follows: 1,915 - Updated: 7/6/2009 - Published: 3/15/2007 - Harry P., Luna L. Doctor John Watson, Police Surgeon Scotland Yard 2 by Bartimus Crotchety reviews To save his sanity, John Watson became a Yarder. He is now their top man in autopsy, and has become their chief investigative asset. However, there is a brilliant man posing as Sherlock Holmes in London, and he wants his Boswell at any cost! Sherlock Holmes - Rated: T - English - Mystery/Crime - Chapters: 5 - Words: 19,326 - Reviews: 52 - Favs: 48 - Follows: 8 - Updated: 7/3/2009 - Published: 6/19/2009 - Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade - Complete Doctor John Watson, Police Surgeon: Scotland Yard by Bartimus Crotchety reviews Scotland Yard is struggling. They have cases they cannot solve and people are dying as a result...they need help. John Watson is struggling. He lost his best friend, his wife, and his health...he needs a purpose. The criminals have a new force to fear. Sherlock Holmes - Rated: T - English - Crime/Mystery - Chapters: 5 - Words: 15,725 - Reviews: 69 - Favs: 96 - Follows: 26 - Updated: 6/11/2009 - Published: 6/6/2009 - Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade - Complete Searching for Disaster by Shadow Rebirth reviews ABANDONED. Owls, cauldrons, and pointed hats? Harry Potter was not amused. And he still wasn't entirely sure that his human trafficking theory had been wrong. Warning! Features a very cynical Harry. [AU, no pairings.] Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 10 - Words: 40,849 - Reviews: 1030 - Favs: 2,580 - Follows: 2,830 - Updated: 6/10/2009 - Published: 7/12/2008 - Harry P. The Roaring Snake by maidros78 reviews AU to PS. Starts with Harry's visit to Diagon Alley. Follows the general outline of PS, but diverges from canon. HarryMillicent. proactive Minerva intelligent, observant and socially active Harry manipulation attempts by Dumbledore, Lucius, Voldemort. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Mystery/Adventure - Chapters: 30 - Words: 139,938 - Reviews: 970 - Favs: 1,024 - Follows: 893 - Updated: 5/17/2009 - Published: 8/13/2007 - Harry P., Millicent B. - Complete The Prometheus Encounter by Tangerine-Alert reviews HP/UNIT/SG1 crossover. Testing an Ancient hyperdrive flings the Prometheus and SG1 into another universe where Harry Potter, Night Wolf and magic greet them. ARCHIVED-Errors/issues won't be fixed TV X-overs - Rated: T - English - Drama/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 21 - Words: 110,518 - Reviews: 147 - Favs: 136 - Follows: 157 - Updated: 3/9/2009 - Published: 1/14/2008 - Complete by fake a smile reviews It's the summer before Harry's 6th year, and Harry is wracked with grief. But what happens when Harry makes a vow to himself to take control of his life? Harry's life takes a sharp turn when he gets an unexpected visitor one night. HPGW Independent!Harry Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Chapters: 28 - Words: 523,307 - Reviews: 2903 - Favs: 5,932 - Follows: 3,053 - Updated: 11/15/2008 - Published: 5/23/2006 - Harry P., Ginny W. - Complete Harry Potter and the Secret of the Ancients by Towrag reviews What if Harry Potter and Daniel Jackson were the same people just at different times in their lives? Crossover - Stargate: SG-1 & Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 3 - Words: 35,077 - Reviews: 252 - Favs: 533 - Follows: 730 - Updated: 7/7/2008 - Published: 2/16/2008 - Harry P. The Hidden Hero by EveBB reviews AU What if Harry knew he was a wizard and about the prophecy before he went to Hogwarts? What if he was kicked out of the Dursleys and decided to attend Hogwarts disguised as a muggleborn? Harry Ginny Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 36 - Words: 181,065 - Reviews: 3074 - Favs: 3,733 - Follows: 1,253 - Updated: 1/28/2008 - Published: 1/6/2008 - Harry P. - Complete by Tangerine-Alert reviews Harry Potter, UNIT, NCIS xover. Harry has completed training with UNIT and been ordered 6 months off duty, he goes on a road trip in America…but is ordered back on duty to deal with an auction…and NCIS ARCHIVED-Errors/issues won't be fixed TV X-overs - Rated: T - English - Drama/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 12 - Words: 46,070 - Reviews: 122 - Favs: 173 - Follows: 88 - Updated: 9/24/2007 - Published: 7/8/2007 - Complete The TriSchool Tournament by DisobedienceWriter reviews One shot, AU of GOF. Here’s the story I wish I had found when I read GoF or GoF fanfiction. New, harder tasks. Observant!Smart!Harry. On the outs with Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and Hogwarts in general. No pairings. Harry Potter - Rated: K - English - Adventure/Angst - Chapters: 2 - Words: 31,882 - Reviews: 283 - Favs: 1,881 - Follows: 551 - Updated: 9/3/2007 - Published: 8/31/2007 - Harry P. - Complete A Year with Q by Morena Evensong reviews Q loses a bet with his son. Now he must pretend to be a sixth year student at Hogwarts without using any of his powers. How will Hogwarts react to the new student? Will Q survive the year? x-over with Star Trek: TNG and Voyager. Crossover - StarTrek: The Next Generation & Harry Potter - Rated: K+ - English - Humor/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 43 - Words: 154,373 - Reviews: 696 - Favs: 490 - Follows: 325 - Updated: 8/2/2007 - Published: 6/9/2004 - Q UNIT: Night Wolf – Beginnings by Tangerine-Alert reviews Doctor WhoUNIT crossover Harry Potter. UNIT: Night Wolf, a covert division within UNIT, Night Wolf would explore and research alien technology…and magic… and whatever other threats that come to pass... ARCHIVED-Errors/issues won't be fixed TV X-overs - Rated: T - English - Drama/Sci-Fi - Chapters: 46 - Words: 161,121 - Reviews: 194 - Favs: 90 - Follows: 77 - Updated: 7/5/2007 - Published: 6/27/2006 - Complete Flames of Betrayal by marietsy2 reviews Harry was sent to Azkaban and was later found to be innocent. With the help of Ron, he will find out who his true friends are. Will he forgive those who betrayed him? Will he be able to let the world know what kind of man Dumbledore really is? Who Harry Potter - Rated: M - English - Drama/Humor - Chapters: 36 - Words: 200,869 - Reviews: 1178 - Favs: 1,957 - Follows: 1,783 - Updated: 3/23/2007 - Published: 1/9/2006 - Harry P., Ron W. Time to Live by loralee1 reviews Post OotP No HBP Takes place summer after fifth year. After defeating Voldemort Harrry decides it's time for him to live his own life. No slash. Sequel to follow. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Adventure - Chapters: 31 - Words: 68,807 - Reviews: 1354 - Favs: 2,652 - Follows: 1,234 - Updated: 2/16/2007 - Published: 3/22/2006 - Harry P. - Complete A Better Man by Valandar reviews Vernon changed in the beginning to be a better man, thanks to a wish. How will this affect Harry, and the entire Wizarding World? Now complete! Please R&R. AU, HPGW, RWHG, RLNT Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Drama - Chapters: 54 - Words: 192,896 - Reviews: 1652 - Favs: 2,117 - Follows: 689 - Updated: 9/5/2006 - Published: 8/12/2005 - Ginny W., Harry P. - Complete Make A Wish by Rorschach's Blot reviews Harry has learned the prophesy and he does not believe that a schoolboy can defeat Voldemort, so he decides that if he is going to die then he is first going to live. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Humor/Adventure - Chapters: 50 - Words: 187,589 - Reviews: 10089 - Favs: 14,429 - Follows: 4,306 - Updated: 6/17/2006 - Published: 3/23/2005 - Harry P. - Complete A Parents Secret Gift by EvilDaystar reviews What if Harry's parents had put in place a few contingency plans for Harry's future. How different would his life have been in the magical world then? Harry Potter first year AU story with some Albus Dumbledore perspective every now and again. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Chapters: 30 - Words: 96,943 - Reviews: 602 - Favs: 1,604 - Follows: 493 - Published: 6/5/2006 - Harry P., Albus D. - Complete by old-crow reviews Complete. Harry makes a decision at the train platform at the end of year 5. Two little words change lives forever. Revised 606. Harry Potter - Rated: T - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 20 - Words: 95,688 - Reviews: 2936 - Favs: 5,424 - Follows: 1,361 - Updated: 5/26/2005 - Published: 2/21/2005 - Harry P., Hermione G. - Complete

Young • Male • Large Cade is a handsome young fellow ready for an adventure. He is about 10 months old and 65lbs. Cade is a tall strong boy and is working hard on his manners. He is friendly, playful and eager to please! Cade is a real lover and will be very loyal to his family. ~Adoption donation $250. All vetting is up to date. Microchipped and neutered. Also on flea/tick and heartworm preventative. Visit www.ruffloverescue.com/adopt to make this pup a member of your family

*(Los Angeles) On Saturday, June 24th, 2017, at 6:00 pm, Educating Young Minds will hold its 19th Annual Awards Celebration with guest speaker, Vice President of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, Dr. George J. McKenna III, along with community leaders, EYM graduating high school seniors and alumni. The Celebration taking place at a private estate in Los Angeles, California will be an empowering and inspirational evening of entertainment and inspiration hosted by radio personality, Kevin Nash and a performance by the talented singer Abraham McDonald and surprised guests. This year’s Awards Gala will be produced and directed by Mr. Bruce Cecil. Dr. George McKenna, has received over 400 citations and awards in recognition for his work. He has earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Xavier University, his master’s degree in mathematics from Loyola University and his doctoral degree in education from Xavier University. Dr. McKenna’s reforms at George Washington Preparatory High School have been copied nationwide and the story of Dr. McKenna’s turnaround of Washington Prep was made into a movie called The George McKenna Story, which starred Denzel Washington playing the role of George McKenna. Learn more about the upcoming Educating Young Minds event at EURThisNthat.

This was one of those for me. Gary Whitta’s writing goes deep into both the history of the story and the hearts of the characters, delivering a full, rich immersion into a very real and immediate-feeling Dark-Ages England. The first time I tried to read Abomination I think I was restless. I usually prefer books that read like a Luc Besson movie; Pow! pow! Blam! …sexy bit… gogoGO BIG FINISH and explode. Yeah, like that. Maybe that makes me seem shallow. I dunno. I just get very impatient sometimes. I needed a book that moved fast like a river. Gary Whitta’s writing is more like an ocean current – deep, wide, but don’t think it’s not moving! I promise you, this book takes the werewolf/monster genre to thrilling, brutal, emotionally vibrant new places. (Fun fact: it’s not a wolf.) The magic, the richness of the characters, the grotesquerie of the fiends in the fully-realized and very immediate historical setting stayed in my mind, and pulled me back when I was ready for a book to really sink into. The light is failing. Autumn’s closing in. Nights are growing longer. Time for a book about grappling with the darkness that lurks within all or us, eh? This is a fun, quick read kinda hanging out on the edge of YA fantasy. If you’ve seen the movie Knights of Badassdom, it’s a bit like that, but without Peter Dinklage trippin’ balls. (Maybe something to be worked into the sequel?) To further differentiate this book from that film, rather than fantasy elements invading a LARPing weekend, Dave Barrett’s LARPers are sucked into a fantasy realm – so this is a “portal fantasy,” though, thankfully, there’s no big flashy portal. I liked that. One moment they’re kids stompin’ through the woods, next moment “Oh, snap! Those arrows are real, yo!” I also liked that, unlike many portal fantasies, there’s no over-dramatized freakout session (which, let’s be honest, would be accurate for many of our high-strung spazz-nick nerd friends, who tend to hyperbolize everything.) No, these characters are obviously true nerds. They’ve been dreaming of living in a fantasy realm all their lives. They’ve probably read all the portal fantasy YA novels they could get their hands on. So, when it happens to them, when they’re off Earth and realize their character stats are now real traits that they possess, their reaction is along the lines of “This is dope. Imma go throw fireballs at something.” I dig that; it lets you hurl right into the fun stuff of the story without the usual drawn-out freak-out. (Side note; the kids in this story don’t talk like the lines I put in quotes above. That’s all me. But if the author wishes to drop some kids representative of more hip-hop/urban culture into the fantasy world in future books, that’d be dope. My only suggestion is that any Yo-Boys and anyone who says “Brah” should be eaten by fungus monsters.) If you’re looking for a light, fun read, a different angle on portal fantasy, or maybe a gift for that young geek in your life, you’ll find It’s All Fun and Games to be an exciting start to a new series. Not kidding. That’s what the book is called. If you’re looking at a title as jam-packed with ridiculousness as that, you know the content is either going to be awful, or awesome. Let me assure you: here there be awesomeness. You’ve got a story here about a mathematical genius struggling to control phenomenal cosmic powers in her head, a guilt-wracked innocent murderer, a monster, and a penniless archaeologist with a flying motorcycle and her finger on the pulse of a shattering secret. And of course, over it all, is an asteroid. The one made of dragons. What makes it all work is G. Derek Adams’ mastery of storytelling. His writing is engrossing, beautiful, exciting. There are moments of linguistic virtuosity in this story, of written jazz, that lit fireworks in my head. I’m not talking about big words. I’m talking about the right ones. I’m talking about knowing the rules, using them well, and having the relaxed courage to break them and the intuitive wisdom to know when to break them. There are no wasted words here. You’re dropped into a strange world, right in the middle of these peoples’ lives, and it all is made real with such natural storytelling that the pace never drops. No chunky exposition, just drips and drops and “figure the rest out yourself because we’re busy saving the bloody world! Can’t tell you my story, you can get to know me by the way I cope with all the things trying to kill me!” So there’s the rub; perfect character development, wordsmithing juicy enough to make you get up and dance, and and unabashedly bold story that will shake down your preconceptions of what a fantasy can be. I’ll be watching this guy. When the protagonist achieves Nirvana within the first few pages, you know you’re entering a story that’s goin’ places. When the first words a hero hears after rebirth into physical life are “Brace yourself” you know the ride is going to be exciting. J.F. Dubeau has created a post-human universe of gods, engineered life-forms tasked with repairing a damaged, uninhabitable galaxy while we hibernate in safety. Dagir is born into a lush universe, a vivid and thrilling trans-human society – and into instant calamity. She is quite literally made-to-order and unleashed barely in time to respond to a civil war that is staggering in its bredth and suddenness, though the causes for it are rooted in human programming written hundreds or thousands of years before. If you’re looking for a fast pace and a grand scale (and that’s my bag, baby), you won’t be disappointed with The Life Engineered. This book breaks narrative rules. I mean, the narrator staggers drunkenly from one side of the fourth wall to the other. Sometimes he plops down on the couch next to you and starts eating your cheetoes. And he/she/it/disembodied-narrator-voice isn’t even part of the story. Chats all over the place in a familiar storytelling manner as if he was someone involved, someone there, but he’s (I’ll settle on the masculine pronoun) not. He’s just a voice. It comes off like some dude, maybe your bartender, telling you this really long yarn about a couple of nut-jobs living out a trippy mashup of Gilligan’s Isle and Castaway… And it works beautifully! Monkey Business is pure, cut-loose fun. Any lessons about life, love and how to be are purely coincidental. (But present all the same.) The story is a buddy adventure about two guys trying to escape a tropical island. It’s also about angry monkeys, indigenous dudebros, the fragile, shifting borders of reality and exploding fish. It kicks off in the aftermath of a failed attempt at escape. The most recent of several. No appendages were lost in this failure, and the protagonists’ frustration has an accepting, fatalistic edge. The protagonists are longtime friends, caught on this island for some time, but the author deftly skips all the backstory and jumps us right into that special kind of humor born from watching other peoples’ pain and ineptitude. Exposition creeps in naturally… along with the monkeys. This is a big plus for me, as massive expository blobs make me want to fling massive excretory? blobs. What really stuck with me with this story was its frenetic edge-of-reality scenes. If you’ve ever seen the psychadelic trip-scenes from Simpsons and Futurama – yeah, Monkey Business has parts like that, just as vivid, scenes that burst like a vomiting kaleidoscope inside my brain. The characters blur across the ragged edge of sanity as the world gets weirder and weirder around them, as if some ancient disgruntled god (probably that asshole narrator) is absently messing with them. The slippage of reality works beautifully to pull you in and keep you reading as the story gains more of a fantastical flavor. By the end of it Monkey Business has the feel of an American tall tale, with mundane reality shoved off into the wings to make room for a good story – Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Big Fish, Monkey Business. Or, As Pratchett might have written: I know, I know! The Librarian was a great ape, not a monkey. Cut me some slack! I’ve never read a story like this before, and it really wowed me. Fantasy? Sure. But Fantasy so well researched it could be historical fiction. Through poetry and intrigue this story brought me on a grand adventure across a land heavily inspired by Tang Dynasty China, a culture that always seemed mysterious and thrilling to me in its complexity and sophistication, especially when compared to what was going on in Europe around the same time. So the scope is big, and well-planned, but the world is wrought effectively by keeping close to the protagonist, Shen Tai, who balances martial and poetic mindsets as he struggles with the trials that fall onto him. And there are trials. For the performance of a selfless act, a deed which he undertook for purely personal reasons, Tai is given a gift that is anything but, a present that turns him into a political firebomb. Think of it this way; if someone gave you a fusion-powered personal hovercar with unlimited range, a completely unique vehicle, you’d think it’s cool, right? But then think about what lengths every government and corporate manufacturer would go to to take it from you? Not such a good gift, eh? That happens to Tai. Kind of. But it’s horses. Really good horses, and a lot of them. That’s where the story begins. The rest of this gripping tale follows Tai’s flight and fight to stay alive as every political faction in the empire moves against each-other and against him in the upheaval his staggering gift causes. It’s a long tale, but the author’s mastery of beautiful language – simple on the face of it, layered with complexities between the lines, and always within a breath of poetry – pulls you fully into this world, makes it as real as your own. When you read this story, you’re not visiting a strange world. You’re living there, immersed in Tai’s existence, and you understand him and the people around him as well as yourself.

Published on September 27th, 2013 | by Katherine Clover1 Katherine DM Clover on POSTPONING MOTHERHOOD We are having one of those long, agonizing, torturous, conversations about it, when she says the thing that makes my heart leap into my throat. We keep circling back over the same points, how we met right after I swore off dating in order to focus on what I really wanted out of life – a baby – and how she never wanted kids until she met me. We both feel like we’ve come a long way, and we are both afraid. She’s afraid of going too fast, but I’m afraid of going so slow that I’m not moving at all anymore and everything stops and my uterus shrivels up and fall out because I totally read once that that can happen. Then she says it. I always knew I’d have at least one kid by the time I was twenty-five. I knew it the same way I knew I would eventually shave my head, the same way I knew that I would become more radical as I aged instead of less. How did I know? Well, there were a few reasons: 1. I dated male bodied people in my late teens and for awhile after that. While I was dating these people, I also had sex with them. Like, penis-in-vagina sex. I can’t take birth control pills, and sure we used condoms, but I mean, c’mon! 2. My mom had her first kid three days before her 21st birthday, and isn’t young motherhood generationally catching? 3. I was one of “those girls”, always talking about kids and what it would be like to have them, endlessly discussing pregnancy and childbirth way before it was even remotely on the table. When a friend from High School got knocked up in graduate school, she expressed surprise because we both “always expected that I would go first.” 4. Laura, the first radical, illegal-loft-living, lady plumber, single mom, totally punx, lady I ever idolized was thirty when I met her, and her kid was five. The kid’s dad wasn’t involved because he lived in a commune in Nebraska, and I just couldn’t wait until MY future kid’s dad would move several states away to find himself. When I was dating male bodied people, I always sat them down and explained my position on accidental conception, should it happen. That position was roughly “So I am pro-choice, but if I get pregnant I am keeping that baby and probably breaking up with you and if you even SUGGEST termination I will hit you in the teeth so hard.” But it never happened. The condoms held up, every single one. Menstruation came on as regular as ever, you could set your watch by my uterus (though I suppose there are several other options in the modern world that might be more convenient to you). I remember once I was three days late, and I went into full pregnancy-scare mode. When the blood came on the fourth day, I was a bit relieved (my boyfriend had some pretty serious anxiety issues and I was working a minimum wage job) but I was too embarrassed to admit that I was also disappointed. As I grew up and got to know myself, I realized more and more how queer I was, and I started chasing ladies pretty exclusively. At 25 I was unattached and broke. I had two cats, two roommates, two jobs I hated, and no baby. I met my first serious girlfriend at a dance party. I was trying to learn how to loosen up, which is a pretty way to say I was drunk. We danced together all night, and I liked her right away. She was exactly my type. She lived in my neighborhood. She also told me pretty early on that she didn’t want kids, but I pursued a relationship anyways because, well, all the normal reasons people pursue relationships, I guess. I liked her right away. She was exactly my type. She lived in my neighborhood. I was lonesome. When she broke up with me she said “I think we both know we’re not long-term compatible.” And I said “What the fuck does that even MEAN?” But I knew what it meant. She might want to move to Paris someday, or California, or Spain. She wanted to have a fun adventurous life. She thought a pet bunny was probably too much responsibility. And me? I had a used copy of “Your Baby’s First Year” on my bookshelf. I tried, feebly, to change her mind. When they didn’t work, I got my third cat. Six months later, I swore off dating. I was sick of pursuit, sick of crushes, sick of chasing ideas and skirts. I found myself trolling okcupid looking for wild and crazy girls, and solid steady dependable career women, not really sure why I wanted either. So I just stopped. I didn’t go to the New Years Eve Party that year (I found out after the fact that if I had gone I would have seen my future wife there). Instead I went to my best friend’s studio apartment and drunkenly cut my hair. Then I walked home feeling clean – I was done with liquor and women, I wanted to be a mom. Two weeks later I went on my first date with Chelsea. I told her right away, I am going to try to get pregnant this year, so maybe I can’t get too involved. She listened quietly and told me she might be leaving to go the mountains in a few months anyways. This is not the story of how we fell in love, although we did. She was everything I would have been looking for if I hadn’t stopped looking. The shy, impossible cat took to her right away. We held hands a lot. Things got serious. Then we entered into a series of painful discussions. Could she date someone who was trying to become a mother? How would pregnancy change our relationship? Could I put my energy into someone who might not be involved once The Baby arrived? Should we just cut our losses now? How would I feel if I put our plans on hold for her and then we broke up? I can not emphasize enough how difficult all of this was, for both of us. Eventually the only decision we could make, if we wanted to be together long term (and we absolutely both did) was to have The Baby together. I think we had been dating three months, and the circumstances really forced us to admit to each other, at a time when we might have preferred to pretend to be “cool” or “casual”, that we were both really crossing our fingers for a lifelong partnership. It was terrifying. A lot has changed since then, and as is often the way it’s sometimes hard to put my finger on exactly when things changed. Chelsea and I live together, and at the time of this writing our wedding (no, it’s not legal) is two weeks away. At some point, we stopped talking about “The Baby” and started talking about “Our Baby”, and there is no lack of discussion about this future-human. Last year she got me a stack of mama zines for my birthday. One thing that hasn’t changed though, is the discussions about timing. She’s still younger than I am, she’s still more recently warmed up to the idea of parenting, she’s still nervous about loss of sleep and autonomy. I, on the other hand, somehow escape my chronic pessimism whenever the idea of an infant enters into my mind. We will be poor, queer, artists together. And we will have a baby. What could be better? And while I know trying to get knocked up right now is absolutely nuts, I look at pictures of pregnant queers in wedding dresses and my ovaries ache. The thing about being the one who is ready first is, that if we are being totally honest (and we try to be) “waiting for both of us to be ready” really means “waiting for her to be ready.” I am secure in the fact that we will do this together – there are no ‘if’s, but there are quite a few ‘when’s. I’m terrified of infertility. Every time we talk about waiting I can’t help but think about my own mother, told by the doctors that she was done having kids at the tender age of twenty three. I know our situations are peas and carrots; my mother’s body had been damaged by several extremely hard pregnancies, but still I worry. I clutch my stomach and I worry. We keep talking about it, it does not end. I’d like to make this pretty, and pretend that the conclusion I’m working towards here is the end of this conversation, but it is not. Just last week I sobbed into a glass of port about my maternal fears and my guilt that I might be rushing my lovely partner just a little. But to circle back, to come back around to that conversation that I started all of this with, one night we were talking about all of this and it was not a happy chat. I was gripped by all of those pesky fears. Finally I said the thing that we both know I am always thinking but I don’t always voice. “What if we wait and it’s too long and I can’t carry our baby?” My voice cracked with the tears that I knew were coming. And she says, “If you can’t, then I will carry our baby.” And I know I will wait for her, even if it is hard. All photos are by Lydia Daniller and are not of the author. Learn more about Lydia’s work and contact her here.

My name is Erin Briggs, I work for Point Hope, which is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by syndicated radio host Delilah. I am contacting you to inform you about the “Teenista”, a one-day event for young women in foster care. On December 15, 2012, Point Hope, through the “Points of Hope” program, is hosting our 3rd Annual “Teenista”. The Annual Point Hope Teenista allows 25 foster girls between the ages of 13 to 18 to have a day filled with the fun of being pampered, while also being mentored and encouraged. These girls will have the opportunity to: shop for a new wardrobe, receive a haircut or a new hair style, get a makeover and learn makeup tips to accent their natural beauty, shop for Christmas gifts to give to friends and family which they will wrap and take home with them, be served an elegant dinner while seated at beautiful, uniquely decorated table, interact with people who have volunteered for the day to offer encouragement, empowerment, motivation, praise, and words of hope, and so much more. This day will not solve any long-term problems, but it will challenge the girls and the volunteers to be aware that none of us should be restricted by our circumstances, but we are responsible for our choices. Point Hope strives to be a voice for forgotten children everywhere; Point Hope was established to assist children and their families—beginning with families in a refugee camp in Ghana, West Africa, from whom Delilah received an email plea of assistance in December 2003. But Delilah’s interest in helping children began long before receiving that email; by 2003, Delilah had already been a long-time foster parent and had adopted four children out of the foster care system in the state of Washington. This passion was passed on to the programs of Point Hope; our “Points of Hope” are established to include support for foster children in America. I am writing you in the hope that you may be aware of girls who could benefit from a day filled with pampering and encouragement. If you do not have direct contact with any foster girls who could benefit, perhaps you would be willing to assist with getting the news out about this event on any calendars, blogs, etc., where social workers or care providers would be able to see it and apply on behalf of some young ladies in their areas. Another way to spread the news is for you to contact any other agencies that work with foster girls and share our invitation for girls 13-18 years of age to come be blessed on December 15th, beginning at 11:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. at the Port Orchard Pavilion in downtown Port Orchard. I would be grateful for the agencies’ information in anticipation of getting the message out and being able to pamper a few deserving young ladies—in fact, if you want to pass the contact person’s information along to me, I’d be glad to reach out to those persons myself. We have an online application for social workers or care providers to fill out on behalf of an eligible young lady. Please go to http://pointhope.org/what-we-do/programs-at-home/teenista/ for more information about the Teenista and to find the Teenista Participant Referral Application Form. Thank you for taking the time to act on this and to offer hope in partnership with the Teenista event. Office Manager & Domestic Program Coordinator PO Box 8623 Port Orchard, WA 98366

World of Darkness - Alpha Network Fight style: fancy footwork or single merit: add part of attack pool to defence while still able attack. Also a style using acrobatics to tumble evade etc like Swashbuckling, gun Fu for cinematic melee with firearms, lunge, riposte, flourish, - Edge being any extra Advantages added to an Action Roll. GM Advice. Social Style – Fast Talk - Style Merits tend to range from 1-5. The Skill that defines them is required and must at least equal the Style Merit DoTs. For example, having Fighting Style – Boxing at 4 DoTs you must first have Brawl at 4 DoTs. Having Occult Style – Alchemy at 3 DoTs means having Occult of 3 DoTs first. - Flaws must now be purchased like a normal Merit but is noted with an (F) for Flaw. When a Character is roleplayed as effected by the Flaw in a relevant in-game situation and there are effects of these actions – Experience Points (XP) should be awarded. Ineptitude – Specify is a great example of this and such Flaws truly allow a Player to deeply customise their PC and develop a deeper Character Concept. Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Merits. 5/4/3 for example. These should really be chosen at Character Creation unless the GM says otherwise or a lot of time and effort put in to work for that specific Merit such as a Profession Merit that grants access to Skills. Orphaned, Abused, Ancestral Heritage (like secret royalty, ancient Bloodline etc), Supernatural event, Memorable event, Horrific event, awkward event, …. |Accute Sense (1-5)||Specific one of the five senses is heightened.||None| |Ambidextrous (3)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||Dex (3). Char. Gen only at (3)| |Aptitude – Specify (3)||Choose a specific area which you have a natural aptitude or talent for, such as Computers, Acrobatics or any Skill or Speciality really.||GM accepts| |Awareness (2)||Natural talent to be more perceptive than most. Bonus to Perception Checks.||Char. Gen or intense training| |Blood Heritage (3-6)||Select a type of Being or Breed you are Blooded to such as Demon, Fae, Nobility, Wolf etc.||Specify Type; After Char. Gen shows you discover the truth later on.| |CIPA (5)||A genetic disorders that stops you feeling any pain at all, including torture and wounds but it is also very hard to tell.||Appear at birth or during infancy.| |Color Blind (1)||You have real trouble telling one primary colour from another.||Flaw| |Common Sense (3)||Grounded & pragmatic, can often be depended upon to make sound, wise decisions at a moments notice. GM can make a “Reflexive Perception Roll” if the Character is about to do somethimg disasterous.||—| |David’s Arm (3)||Like David against Goliath, you’re great with spatial distance, range etc. Double all benefits of aiming.||??| |Double Jointed (2)||Able to bend your joints in improbable ways.||None| |Dual Nature (3)||You have a personality that works with two compatible Natures each rewarding WillPower.||GM agreed on the Natures.| |Early Riser (1)||You seem able to manage with less rest than others, getting up hours before or staying up til dawn.||None| |Eidetic Memory (3)||A near photographic memory, able to recall vast amounts of observed detail with almost perfect accuracy. Rolls usually only needed under Stress..||Char.Gen Only| |Emotional Detatchment (2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test, …||None| |Encyclopedic Knowledge (2)||Knows much about anything.||None| |Fast Learner (3)||Does not suffer the ??….||Char.Gen Only| |Fire Within (2)||You have a natural resistant to the cold or damage caused by cold.| |Ineptitude – Specify (1-5)||Penalised for being just terrible in a specific Sub-Skill where you excel in the rest of the Skill.||Trying Skill for first few times. (F)| |Internal Thermostat (3)||Able to control & balance your internal temperature and thus, does not suffer such extremes of hot or cold environments.||Res (2) Com (4)| |Intuition – Specify (2-5)||Machinery, Computers, Electronics, Clockwork, etc||Char. Gen only usually.| |Longevity (4)||You are one of those rare few who age well, not taking penalties until your 70’s..||Something surely| |Maturity (1)||The Character is growing older and had reached into the more solid, firmer Summer years of 40’s and 50’s… Effects are ??||Age of 40+| |Natural Immunity (3)||Immune to disease..||Requirements| |Night Vision (2)||Able to see well at Night or in darkness with only the barest amounts of light..||None| |Obvious Appearance (2)||An obvious or memorable feature of appearance may gain you WillPower if part of the Story.||(2)| |Obvious Aspiration (2)||A strong interest or drive in achieving a particular goal.. Can regain WP during Play if Character actually makes headway in achieving this ambition in some way.||(2)| |Obvious Demeanor ••||A strong type of attitude… Can regain WP during Play…||(1)| |Obvious Nature ••||Natures and Demeanors Obvious Nature A strong type of personality… Can regain WP if used during Play.||???(2)| |Obvious Quirk (1)||Those rare idiosyncratic subtleties & strange, uncommon interests that set someone apart…||GM approval.| |Obvious Vice (1)||A strong need for specific type of sin.. Can regain WP during Play…||Brawl (2)| |Obvious Virtue (1)||A strong desire to show goodness.. Can regain WP during Play…||Brawl (2)| |Predatory Bearing (1-5)||You have that menacing aspect or aura of someone.. or something very dangerous, and others often recognise that.||Char. Gen| |Prized Possession (1-5)||Get something good…| |Prodigy (3)||Gifted child below 13 that has higher than usual traits etc.||Char. Gen only.| |Small Framed (2)||Shorter or much thinner than the average gives the Character a size of 4 and chance they’ll be overlooked, not taken seriously or ignored.||Flaw| |Toxin Resistance (3)||Immune to Poisons and other toxins..||Usually only at Char.Gen| |Vengeance (1-5)||Character has a particular Nemesis or enemy that they truly need to get revenge on. They use this advantage to get a bonus +2 to attack actions..||Requires Enemy Merit| |Veteran (1-5)||A strong type ay.||???(2)| |Alertness (2)||Aware of things at all times…||Wit (3) Com (2)| |Ambidextrous (4)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||Dex (3)| |Armored Fighting (2/4)||Able to fight in heavy and burdensome armor without penalties.||Str (3) Sta (3)| |Athletic Dodge (2)||= You use your Athletic prowess …||None.| |Automotive Genius (1)||Can see what’s wrong in seconds and a knack for fixing and rigging..||Crafts (3), Drive (2), Science (1)| |Brawling Dodge (2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test, …||Active| |Bruiser (1)||Appearance is so rough & tough and thug like to appear menacing. +1 to Intimidation.||Requirements| |Cat-like Balance (2)||Your talent for balance is exceptional.. +1 to all such Rolls..||—| |Cheap Shot (2)||Dirty tricks to distract. (Dex+Subt VS Wit+Com to act. -2 cumulative penalty each time)||Brawl (2)| |Choke Hold (2)||Once you have a’ hold, you have them..||Brawl (2)| |Choke Shot (2)||Excellent accuracy, no matter what weapon you’re holding. +1 Dice when not targeting specific area.||None| |Crack Driver (2/3)||Nothing distracts once she’s driving. (-Com Penalty to anyone seeking to disable vehicle)||Drive (3)| |Customised Item (2/4/5)||You have a specially made or gained of a special item, customised but not magical. Perhaps a hand crossbow, blowpipe disguised as a cigar or pipe, swordcane, hidden tools etc.||GM approval| |Defensive Combat (1)||Able to defend against multiple opponents with the base Defence for each opponent….||Dex (3) Wit (3) Com (3) Brawl or Weaponry (2)| |Driving Style – Heavy Vehicles (1-5)||Actively||Dex (3) Res (2) Drive (2)| |Driving Style – High Performance (1-5)||Able to make the most of Fast Cars and know all the tricks of the Race Tracks and cars made for speed.||Dex (3) Res (2) Drive (2)| |Driving Style – Pilot Aeroplane (1-5)||Able to fly planes and jets.||Dex (3) Int (3) Res (2) Drive (2)| |Driving Style – Ocean Sailing (1-5)||Able to sail and navigate ocean waters safely.||Dex (2) Res (2) Drive (2)| |Driving Style – Stunt Driver (1-5)||Able to perform the most death defying of tricks and impossible feats of vehicle agility.||Wit (2) Dex (2) Drive (2)| |Disarm (2)||If Damage exceeds Dexterity then Diarm Opponent..||Dex (3) Weaponry (2) Active Weapon (s)| |Enchanting Gaze (2)||Truly beautiful and captivating eyes that attract others to them..||??| |Enchanting Voice (2)||Beautiful voice that truly is captivating||??| |Fast Reflexes (1-2)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||Char. Creation| |Feint (2)||Using two weapons you attack from different angles, ignoring Defence on 2nd Attack.||Fighting Style – Two Weapon Fighting (3)| |Fighting Finesse (3)||You use swift, agile attacks with your light Weaponry.||Dex (3) Weaponry (2)| |Fleet of Foot (2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test, …||Active| |Fresh Start (1-2)||Do nothing this turn so that you may act first next turn..||Requires: Fast Reflexes| |Gunslinger (4)||Able to use two handguns at once though with penalties.||Dex (3) Firearms (3)| |Hardy (1-3)||Add Hardy DoTs to Rolls resisting environmental hurt from extreme temperatures, poison, disease, deprivation, exhaustion, suffocation etc.||Sta (3)| |Heavy Hands (2)||Especially hard or heavy hands for unarmed attacks +1 Dmg to Unarmed Strikes||Str (3) Brawl (3)| |Heavy Sleeper (2)||Often sleeps in late, fails to hear the alarm clock and is almost impossible to waken at times.||Flaw| |Huge Size (4)||Very large, either fat or tall so they are well above the human average. Add +1 Health due to the increased Size.||None| |Immunised (1)||Up to date on your regular and normal jabs for common diseases. You still should see a GP for more if visiting exotic countries.||None| |Indomitable (2)||You are better able to resist strange events and they have less effect on your mind. Any supernatural effect or creature trying to influence you gets you +2 Bonus to resisting.||Resolve (3)| |Iron Skin (3)||Tough, less penetrable skin.||)| |Iron Stamina (1-3)||Able to endure fatigue for longer.| |Iron Stomach (2)||The ability to eat pretty much anything without side effects such as being sick.||?| |Light Sleeper (2)||Wakes easily and without loss of orientation etc.| |Outdoorsman (2)||Experience or natural ability to make most of her environment and survive out in the wilds.||Survival (3)| |Movement Style – Parkour (1-5)||Combines acrobatic talent into Athletics so as to perform outstanding feats of free-running.||Dexterity (3) Athletics (2) Acrobatics (2)| |Movement Style – Spelunker (1-5)||Pot Holing and Cave Diving are your thing.||Dexterity (3) Athletics (3)| |Parry (3)||Usable with Weaponry or Brawl to allow you to replace your Defence with that Skill.||Brawl (3) or Weaponry (3)| |Punch Drunk (2)||Able to keep 1 BODY Health Level by spending WillPower & upgrading existing damage.||WillPower (6)| |Quick Draw (3)||So trained with the weapon or firearm that drawing the weapon is instinct and is considered a Reflex Action that can be done whenever Defence applies.||Wits (3) Speciality in Weapon or Fighting Style chosen here.| |Quick Healing (4)||Able to heal more rapidly than normal.||Sta (4)| |Seizing the Edge (2)||Always read for a chase, be it to escape from enemies or to hunt down that next ticket..||None| |Signature Item (3)||An object that is an intrinsic part of the characters identity now and without it they feel lost, suffering on social rolls.||None| |Shield Rip (2)||Using two weapons, you use tricks & distractions to allow your 2nd weapon to rip aside an opponent shield.||Fighting Style – Two Weapon Fighting (3), Weapon that can hook shields,| |Shiv (1 or 2)||Can carry a 0 or 1 Dmg small blade that when rolled for detection receives -Wea penalty.||Street fighting (2), Weaponry (1)| |Sleight of hand (2)||Long, delicate and light fingers make pickpocketing and picking locks or other intensely delicate operations of hand dexterity easier with a +2 bonus to such rolls..||None| |Strong Back (2)||The ability to carry more than normal and dead lift well.| |Strong Lungs (2)||Ability to hold your breath for longer.| |Weaponry Dodge (1-5)||A??.||Requirements| |Wheelman (3)||Some people are born Drivers and have a natural aptitude.||Dex (2) Drive (2)| |Adrenaline Junkie (1)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||None| |Cheap Shot (2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test, …||Active| |Coldly Logical (2)||??| |Combat Awareness (2)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||Military, Law Enforcement or Combat Background.| |Concentration (1)||Ability to focus on tasks or details even when there are distractions.||??| |Crafter’s Sense (3)||Doe||Crafts (3) and Craft Speciality.| |Cultural Awareness (1/2/4)||Silent, Speedy series of hand movements or signs used my military etc…||?(3)| |Danger Sense (2)||+2 Bonus to “Perception Rolls” for Character to detect an impending ambush.||—| |Daredevil (2)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||None| |Demolisher (2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test.||None.| |Direction Sense (1)||An innate knack for finding your way. Rarely suffers penalties to finding her way.||None| |Doubting Thomas (2)||Cynical and questioning nature, any Psychics nearby receive -2 to Psychic Rolls. Paradox increased.||Flaw| |Easy Ride (2)||Somehow you are easily possessed by Spirits, Demons etc.||Flaw| |EOD (4)||Experience in many types of Explosive Devices and EOD or Explosive Ordinance Disposal.||Some.| |Eye for the strange (2)||Though they may have no actual knowledge of the supernatural or Occurred, they know it when they see it and thus get bonus.||Res (3) Occult (1)| |Good Brain (2)||Removes the penalty from the unskilled for mental skills.||Int (4) Wit (3)| |Holistic Awareness (1)||You have knowledge surrounding the Skill?||?| |Indomitable (1-5)||Such an Iron Will that most Mind dominating powers don’t work.||Requires Iron Will. Can only be bought equal to their Resolve.| |Informative (2/4)||May be silent on most topics but when it comes to them and their job they won’t shut up and very open.||Wit:2, Skill:2| |Ingenious (2)||Always seems to have a cunning or backup plan to escape any predicament. +2 to outlandish or especially cunning ways around an obstacle or solution to a plan.||Drive(3)| |Interdisciplinary Speciality (2)||A speciality that can cross over??||Skill (3), Speciality| |Iron Will (3)||Amazing ability to resist takeovers of your mind and gain +3 Dice when resisting outside forces attempting to take it over.||WillPower (6+)| |Language (1-4)||Able to communicate in another language. The more DOTs you have the greater your skill with 3 being well educated and full mastery in the language..||Requirements| |Library (1-3)||Select a topic and you have a collection of books, references and websites for that subject.||?| |Linguist (2)||You have a natural talent for languages and are able to learn them more easily than other people.||Int (3) Academics (2) or Int (2) & Academics (3)| |Lucid Dreamer (2)||Ability to influence and control your own dreams.||Res:3, non-changeling.| |Good Time Management (1)||Due to good organisation and diligence you manage your time very well and know how to cut out those wasteful moments. Extended Actions can be reduced by 1/4.||None| |Make Do (1-3)||Used to working under sub-optimal conditions means you can often use poor tools etc to repair, perform scientific tests, survey archeology sites etc. This is Cross-Skill effective while||?| |Meditative Mind (1, 2 or 4)||You get better at Meditating (See Merit for full Bonuses).||None| |Multi-lingual (2)||Conversational language ability in two sister languages for each DOT. Roll Int+Aca to attempt to make out enough when read also.||None| |Occult Style – Alchemy (1-5)||A mix of Science and magic to transform base substances into “Divine” substances.||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Artificing (1-5)||A mix of Science and magic to imbue powerful Spells and abilities into special items.||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Body Endowments (1-5)||A mix of Science and magic to use tattooing and body art to endow with power.||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Curses (1-5)||A mix of Science and magic to use sympathetic magic and effigies to curse others.||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Fortune Telling (1-5)||Able to predict the future, tell Fortunes and read events and aspects of the past and present via a Focus such as Tarot, Crystal Ball, Bones, Runes etc..||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Necromancy (1-5)||A mix of Science and magic to experiment, modify & manipulate the dead.||Int, Science, Occult| |Occult Style – Runecraft (1-5)||Art of using powerful Runes to create certain effects.||Int, Science, Occult| |Patient (1)||You take the extra care and effort to get things right. On Extended Actions, Abi would provide.||None| |Police Investigation Style (1-5)||Able to use police procedure effectively to investigate crime.||None.| |Professional Training Style – Specify (1-5)||Extensive training in a specialist field grants advantages to contacts & Bonuses. Select your field and choose two asset skills for it.||One Asset Skill = DoT wanted| |Psychic Resistance (1-3)||Intensive training or natural ability has given you the knack of blocking your mind from invasive telepathic powers.||Res (3)| |Rational Explanation (3)||Whenever making Res+Com Rolls to resist Fear, Panic etc you gain a Bonus for finding a Rational Explanation to support the situation.||Some.| |Relic Analyst (1-5)||Active.||?| |Seen Combat (2)||= You have experience with combat in variety of forms, giving you that edge and instinct necessary to truly make use of combat skills…||Been in combat?| |Sign Language – Specify (2)||Silent, Speedy series of hand movements or signs used my military, Deaf etc. or Marks in Urban Environment for Homeless, Gangs etc.||?(3)| |Mental Style – Skill Ingenuity (1-5)||You are more than skilled in a particular Skill,||None.| |Spatial Awareness (1)||Talent to coordinate things and space between them.||None.| |Speed Reading (2)||Able to read and take in the information from text in half the time.||Int (3) Academics (2)| |Steady Driver (1)||Calm and safe when driving and not prone to Road Rage or Composure loss while driving.||None| |Technology Style – Hacking (1-5)||Able to hack most computer systems and similar interfaces.||??| |Time Sense (1)||Able to tell what time it is to the half hour and to estimate the length of time it’s taken or how long something lasts etc.||None| |Tolerance for Biology (1)||Very strong resistance to gruesome biology. no need to roll when confronted with blood & guts||Com (2) Res (2)| |Tolerance for Pain (3)||Very strong resistance to feeling pain such as wounds, torture etc.||Res (3) Sta (2)| |Technophile (1-2)||Nasty, mean temper when you lose control. Any time you fail your Composure Test, …||?| |Trained Observer (1 or 3)||Years out in the field has taught you to notice everything and to remember them.||Wits (3) or Com (3)| |Trivia Hound (2)||A geek who collects tidbits of worthless information.||None| |Tunneller (1)||You’ve spent some time down in tunnels and you tend to feel comfortable and able to find your way, sense direction etc.||??| |Vice Ridden (2)||Someone who is especially sinful may choose a second Vice which gains you WillPower if interacted with meaningfully..||Flaw| |Virtuous (2)||Someone who is especially good and moralistic, they may choose a second Virtue which gains them WillPower when meaningfully interacted with.||None| |Allies (1-5)||You are able to call on a selected group for help.||None.| |Alternate Identity (1-3)||At 1 DoT an unofficial, superficial I’d with +1 bonus, 2 dots has paperwork to support the I’d but it won’t hold up to close scrutiny. 3 DoTs is a deep cover id, fully supported in databases and paper and gives +2 bonus to Subterfuge. Available Multiple Times for separate Identities.||None| |Animal Affinity (2)||Specific types of animals tend to like you, not attack you etc.||Select Animal Species.| |Animal Companion (2 to 5)||You have somehow befriended or attached to you an animal. More than a pet, more intelligent etc.||None| |Animal Magnetism (1)||A strong, animal-like …||None| |Anonymity (1 to 5)||Lives completely off the Grid and only uses Cash, no Id etc. Anyone trying to track your Paper Trail or look you up online received penalty equal to the DoTs here.||Can’t also have Fame| |Approachable (1)||A friendly face or attitude or something else but people find you easy to talk to. -2 to Difficulty on Empathy Rolls.||None| |Armory (1-5)||A collection of Weaponry is available to choose from, either owned by you or able to collect from friends etc.||Resources 3| |Barfly (2)||Able to get an open invitation anywhere. Bars & Clubs are home to her. Told to ostracize her receive her Socialize Skill as penalty.||Socialize (2)| |Bureaucratic Negotiator (2)||Able to plough through red tape and get things done in a bureaucratic institution.||None.| |Calming Presence (1)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||Com (3)| |Certification (1-3)||Has the proper licenses and paperwork for a particular activity.||None| |Closed Book (1-5)||Particularly hard to read and/or crack. When someone uses Social Maneuvering against us, add your DoTs in this Merit as a bonus to resist.||Man (3) Res (3)| |Community Ties Style – Specify (1 to 5)||Pick a specific community such as Does not suffer the ..||None| |Contacts (1-5)||Gather information from single source. More DoTs mean deeper information and a greater chance to discover others Social Merits or any Conditions. (Man+Doc to gather the info.)||None| |Cult (1-5)||Leader of a new Cult.||??| |Decorated (2-5)||Recognition for actions have awarded you a medal at lower DoTs and a peerage or national award at higher level. War hero, Community Volunteer or Lord all suitable details here.||One Attribute at 4+ & suitable backstory.| |Defender (1-3)||You feel protective and responsible for those loved ones and family around you. You gain bonus WP on protecting them but losing them causes serious Breaking Points.||Loved Ones Merit/s.| |Dependent (2)||You have a loved one you must care for and look after. May be a young child, I’ll or disabled parent or sibling etc.||Flaw| |Destiny (1-5)||Fate has things in store for you, though you’ve no idea what.||None| |Destitute (2)||No Resources of any kind available now makes for an extremely uncomfortable and dangerous quality of life. Homeless and indebt.||Flaw| |Enemy (1-5)||A particular person hates your character enough to consider getting revenge. In time this might grow into them becoming a Nemesis.||Flaw| |Evil (1-5)||You have negative Karma and you like it, doing bad stuff excites you or leaves you unconcerned..||Negative Karma at least = to DoTs in this Merit. Flaw| |Extremist Group (4)||You have influence and contacts within an Extremist Group of some kind.||None| |Faithful Devotion (1-3)||You have faith in a Higher Power that grants you peace & solace.||??| |Fame (2 or 4)||Local or National fame can be a disadvantage as well as advantage.||??| |Fence (1/3)||Always able to find somewhere to buy or sell stolen goods to the crimminal community.||Streetwise (3)| |Firearms Licence (2)||You have the necessary written paperwork to own a gun legally. This is only applicable in a single country so if you want more licences this needs to be got each time for it to be legal.| |Fixer (3)||You know people.. not only can she get best people for the job but also best prices. Availability Cost reduced by 1 DoT.||Wits (3) Contacts (2)| |Hobbyist Clique (2)||As long as you stay in contact and up to date with this social circle, you receive a bonus to the hobby specified.||Any Skill (2)| |Infamous (2)||You are known and remembered for something negative.||None| |Inheritance (1-5)||Someone leaves you an amount of money or wealth in Savings. These are stocks, shares, Jewelry etc.||Who left you this?| |Insignificant (2)||Socially Small – They’ve either a natural talent or cultivated the ability to be easily overlooked or appear ordinary or unnoticeable.||-1 to Perception. Flaw.| |Inspiring (3)||Able to motivate, enthuse and inspire people around you.||Pre (3)| |Job (2)||You work for a living and are paid for that work regularly. This may include Freelance Jobs.||State Job| |Job Status (1-5)||You work for a living and are paid for that work regularly. This may include Freelance Jobs..||Rise high in job profile.| |Library (1 to 5)||Character has her own access to Library close at hand. The DoTs determines the size and breadth of the material. For each DoT a Speciality can also be chosen.| |Love (1-5)||You’ve fallen in love with someone and going out.||Requirements| |Love unrequited (1-5)||You have fallen in love with someone but they don’t have any feelings for you.||Flaw| |Luxury (1-5)||Details how well you live. 1 dot and you are just above the standard surroundings, 5 DoT and you’re in a huge mansion with almost everything. This can be permanently switched with Resources DoT by DoT.||None| |Mentor (1-5)||A teacher or guide that is able to give advice, aid and support that is often from the background and sometimes without the Characters knowledge.||None| |Negotiator (2)||Be it working with Hostages or big finance dealing, you know how to liaise your way to success.||Requirements| |Personal Attachment (2/4)||You are very close to family or friends and losing them would hurt dearly. Bonus to WillPower.||State who.| |Prejudice (2)||Has a distinct and often irrational hatred or distrust of a particular group such as gays, women, race, religion or creed, hippies, liberals etc. and Reaction penalised by -3.||Flaw| |Pusher (2)||Very experienced at Bribes and tempting others into their Vices, giving you Bonuses.||Persuasion 2| |Resources (1-5)||This determines how much funds are readily available and what equipment can be bought.||None| |Retainer (1-5)||An assistant, sycophant or servant that can be relied upon to carry out daily tasks, short and long term goals even. More DoTs mean more power the Retainer has.||None| |Safehouse (1-5)||Often well guarded, secure location perhaps with blast doors, vault and panic room, emergency exit etc.||None| |Safe Place (1-5)||Simply a place you feel comfortable and safe where you can hide or get lost in the anonymous crowds. No security etc. in place here.||None| |Savings (1-5)||Instead of regular disposable income this shows your Savings that start at (Resources+Resolve)…?||None| |Small Unit Tactics (2)||An effective leader of small groups.||Pre (3)| |Social Style – Fast Talk (1-5)||Allows the Character to Fast Talk their way through many social situations. Each DoT provides an extra method of Fast Talking.||Man (3) Subterfuge(2)| |Social Style – Reasoned Debate (1-5)||Uses Reason to debate in Social Situations.||Int (3) Academics (2)| |Social Style – Rhetoric (1-5)||Uses Rhetoric to influence Social Situations.||Pre (3) Expression (1)| |Social Style – Social Maneuvers (1-5)||???.||Pre (3) Man (3) A Social Skill (3)| |Social Style – Theology (1-5)||Using Religious argument to debate or influence Social Situations.||Pre (2) Expression (2) Religion (s)| |Special Forces (3)||You have experience within the Special Forces and perhaps status, contacts, allies etc are drawn from here as well as familiarity with various exotic weapons.||Lots?| |Spin Doctor (2)||Talented at Fast Talking and Bullshitting stories, Gossip and Personal PR.||Man (3), Subterfuge (2)| |Staff (1 to 5)||A group of working employees who fulfil whatever day to day tasks your character wishes..||None| |Status (1 to 5)||Determines your reputation and standing within the chosen organization or group.||None| |Street Rat (1)||Spent a lot of time on and upon the streets of an urban settlement you specify and know the many ways, hideouts, shortcuts, problem traffic routes etc.||Specify Town or City.| |Striking Looks (1 or 2)||Especially beautiful, intimidating, strange, ugly or funny looking. Whatever the specifics, they attract attention (both good & bad) and receive either the +1 or +2 bonus to relevant Social Rolls.||None| |Sympathetic (2)||Good at letting people get close and they feel comfortable opening up to you or revealing secrets.||None| |Table Turner (3)||Able to spot opportunities and see openings to get the upper hand and switch advantage when the chance comes.||Com (3) Man (3) Wit (3)| |Takes one to know one (1)||When uncovering clues that relate to your Vice you suffer penalty but now ???..||None| |Taste (1)||m..||Crafts (2) and a Speciality in Crafts or Expression| |Tripsitter (3)||Especially good at guiding people through intense psychoactive head trips.||Com (3)| |True Faith (4)||much more than the Faithful Devotion merit.||Devout as a Virtue or Vice| |True Friend (3-5)||You have a trusted and loyal friend.| |True Love (4)||m..||None| |Tunnel Rat (2)||Specify the Tunnels and you know your way around them better than your own home. Sewers, Underground, Old WW2 Tunnels, Mines etc.||Tunneller & Street Rat| |Uninspiring (2)||You are so boring, flat or uninteresting that people just seem to wilt or grow bored when you’re around and would rather leave.||Flaw| |Urban Dark ??||???.||None| |Well Travelled (2)||Natural experience of different Cultures and Languages.||None.| |Fighting Style – Aggressive Striking • – •••••||Str (•••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Aikido ••||Throwing.. Once you have a’ hold, you have them..||Str (••) Dex (••) Wit (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Archery • – •••••||Str (•••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Armed Defence (1-5)||You can use a weapon to stop people trying to kill you.||Dex (3) Weaponry (3) Defensive Combat| |Fighting Style – Armoured Combat (1-5)||Particularly skilled at combat wearing the very heaviest and bulky of armours.||Str (3) Sta (3) Athletics (2) Armored Fighting| |Fighting Style – Berserker ••||Throwing.. Once you have a’ hold, you have them..||Dex (••) Wit (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Blind Fighting (1-5)||You are particularly skilled in fighting without eyesight.||Wit (3) Com (2) Brawl (3) or Weaponry (3) Acute Sense (Hearing)| |Fighting Style – Boxing • – •••••||Str (•••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Brute Force ••||Throwing.. Once you have a’ hold, you have them..||Dex (••) Wit (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Chain Weapons (1-5)||Str (•••) Dex (•••) Weaponry (•••)| |Fighting Style – Close Quarters Combat (1-5)||Wit (•••) Athletics (•••) Brawl (•••)| |Fighting Style – Combat Falconry (1-5)||Go into battle with a trained, combat-ready bird of prey.||Pre (2) Wit (2) Com (3) Animal Ken (3) Birds, Trained Bird type| |Fighting Style – Combat K9 (1-5)||Go into battle with a trained dog at your side.||Pre (2) Wit (2) Com (2) Animal Ken (2) Dogs, Combat Trained Dog type| |Fighting Style – Combat Marksmanship (1-5)||d, you have them..||Str (2) Dex (2) Com (3) Firearms (2)| |Fighting Style – Combat Mount (1-5)||Your Mount is able & ready to fight with you in combat.||Pre (2) Wit (2) Dex (3) Com (3) Animal Ken (2) Mount specified & Training Speciality, Mount Combat Speciality| |Fighting Style – Covering fire (1-5)||Nothing distracts once she’s driving..||Drive(3)| |Fighting Style – Defensive Combat (1-5)||Str (2) Dex (3) Wit (3) Com (3) Brawl (3) or Weaponry (3)| |Fighting Style – Dirty Fighting (1-5)||Hmmmm..||Str (3) Brawl (3)| |Fighting Style – Dream Combat (1-5)||Nothing distrac.||Wyrd (3) Empathy (3)| |Fighting Style – Evasive Striking (1-5)||Unarmed combat that very much prioritises Defence & evasion during combat.||Str (2) Dex (2) Sta (2) Brawl (2)| |Fighting Style – Expressive Combat (1-5)||Theatrical & Dramatic stage combat.||?| |Fighting Style – Fencing (1-5)||N..||Dex (3) Weaponry (3) Rapier (1) or Epee (1)| |Fighting Style – Filipino Martial Arts (1-5)||Dex (3) Weaponry (3)| |Fighting Style – Firefight (1-5)||Once you have a’ hold, you have them..||Brawl (2)| |Fighting Style – Formation Tactics • – •••••||Not.||Str (••) Sta (•••) Weaponry (••)| |Fighting Style – Frenzied Assault • – •••••||Nothing distracg..||Wyrd (3) Empathy (3)| |Fighting Style – Grappling • – •••••||Str (••) Dex (•••) Sta (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Gladiatorial • – •••••||N..||Str (•••) Pre (••) Weaponry (•••) ?? (•)| |Fighting Style – Gun Fu (1-5)||Type of tricks to combat firearms from melee like Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen etc.||Dex (3) Wit (3) Acrobatics (3) Athletics (2) Brawl (3) Another Fighting Style (4)| |Fighting Style – Hapkido • – •••••||Korean Martial Arts..||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Wit (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Harmonic Dissonance • – •••••||High Monk Mentorship..||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Res (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Heavy Melee Weapons • – •••••||Capable of wielding claymores, chainsaws etc with skill..||Str (3) Sta (3) Athletics (2) Weaponry (2)| |Fighting Style – Iaido • – •••••||Armed Defensive Striking..||Str (•••) Dex (•••) Com (•••) Weaponry (•••) Quick Draw| |Fighting Style – Improvised Weaponry • – •••••||Wit (•••) Weaponry (•)| |Fighting Style – Judo (1-5)||Dex| |Fighting Style – Kendo ••||Big stick.||Dex (•••) Weaponry (•••) Stick (•)| |Fighting Style – Kick Boxing ••||???.||Str (•••) Dex (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Knife Fighting (1 to 5)||???.||Str (•••) Dex (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Krav Maga • – •••••||Str (•••) Dex (•••) Wit (•••) Brawl (•••) Brawling Dodge (m?)| |Fighting Style – Kung Fu ••||Nothing distracts once she’s driving..||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Langschwert • – •••••||Skilled in the German style of Large, Two handed Sword like the Claymore or similar.||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Light Weaponry (1-5)||Dex| |Fighting Style – Marksmanship (1-5)||Does not suffer the -3 off-hand Penalty….||???| |Fighting Style – Modern Army Combatives • – •••••||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Mounted Combat (1-5)||Skilled at fighting while on a mount such as a horse..||???| |Fighting Style – Police Tactics • – •••••||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Brawl (•••) Weaponry (••)| |Fighting Style – Qinna • – •••••||Overwhelming attack that forces opponent to come with..||Dex (•••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Savage Predator • – •••••||???..||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Brawl (••) Intimidation (••)| |Fighting Style – Shurikenjutsu • – •••••||Dart throwing..||Dex (•••) Athletics (•••) Throw (s)| |Fighting Style – Sniping • – •••••||Dex (•••) Res (•••) Firearms (•••) Stealth (•••) Automatic Rifle (s)| |Fighting Style – Staff Fighting • – •••••||Overwhelming||Str (•••) Dex (••) Weaponry (••)| |Fighting Style – Stick Fighting • – •••••||“Iron Fist”||Str (•••) Sta (•••) Res (••••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Street Fighting (1-5)||It’s just like the Street brawls all over again.||)| |Fighting Style – Swashbuckling (1-5)||“Daring Do”||Dex (3) Sta (3) Com (4) Weaponry (3)| |Fighting Style – Sword and Shield (1-5)||“Iron Fist”||Str (•••) Sta (•••) Res (••••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Suppression Fire (1-5)||Nothing distracts once she’s driving..||Drive(3)| |Fighting Style – Tekken • – •••••||“Iron Fist”||Str (•••) Sta (•••) Res (••••) Brawl (••)| |Fighting Style – Two Weapon Fighting • – •••••||Trained to fight with short weapons (Size 2 or less) in both hands to their advantage in defense and offense.||Wit (•••) Dex (•••) Weaponry (••••) Athletics (••)| |Fighting Style – Unarmed Defence • – •••••||“Unarmed Defence”||Dex (•••) Brawl (••) Defensive Combat-Brawl| |Fighting Style – Wall Fighting • – •••••||Able to use walls and other vertical obstacles during combat.||Str (••) Dex (••) Sta (••) Athletics (•••) Acrobatics (s)| |Fighting Style – Wrestling • – •••••||Able to use walls and other vertical obstacles during combat.||Requirements| |Fighting Style – Zui Quan • – •••••||“Drunken Boxing” is a general term for all styles of Chinese Martial Arts that imitate a Drunkard.||Str (••) Dex (•••) Sta (••) Wit (•••) Athletics (•••) Acrobatics (s) Expression (••) Drunkenness (s)| |A Little Knowledge (2)||Once you have a’ hold, you have them..| |Awakened (8)||Dreams plague you as your Soul begins it’s Ascension and you awaken to the Truth of the Lie.||As you discover and experience this.| |Clear Sighted (2)||Spend one Willpower, and you’re effectively immune to supernatural powers that fuck with your senses for the rest of the Scene. It’s niche, but you can laugh off stuff like Hallucinate.||None.| |Cult Initiation (1-5)||None| |Deadpan (3)||Need to be a Sleepwalker (which Hardened Exorcist technically does), but this merit makes you immune to supernaturally inflicted fear unless it plays off your Vice or a mental condition (in which case you just get a bonus). Helps you avoid being spooked by ghosts.||None.| |Dead Reckoning (2)||Something makes you feel more comfortable with the Dead than the living and Bonus to navigate the Realms of the Dead.||None| |Dragons Tongue (2/4)||..||None| |Empathic Bond (2)||Working like a Mother’s intuition for anyone, specify close persons to bond with||None| |Fog of Ages (1-5)||None| |Fortitude of the Soul (2)||You believe.. and having symbol of your faith with you improves your supernatural resistance.||True Faith, Symbol,| |Generation (1-5)||Denotes your Vampiric Generation, from 13th when no DoTs to 8th gen at 5 DoTs & 4th Gen at 9 DoTs. Kindred only.| |Ghoul (4)||You have yourself a Ghoul in your Retinue..||Kindred usually.| |Gifted (2-5)||These people are in tune with the Twilight in ways that grant them “Psychic Powers”.||Trauma, accident or intense treatment may cause this or born.| |Hardened Exorcist (2)||Skillful Exorcist with Experience..||Lots?| |Haunted (1-5)||A Being of some kind has latched onto you and is causing problems that will only escalate unless stopped.||??| |Lesser Shaman (6)||Part way towards being a Mage but nowhete near the power or danger involved.||Must be a Sleeper| |Lucid Dreamer (2)||Nothing distracts once she’s driving..||None| |Medium (3)||Interact with Ghosts etc and Linda dismiss or summon.||Lots| |Mythologist (2)||Lots of knowledge of Myths & legends..||Probs| |Necropolis • – •••••||None| |Nostalgia • – •••••||None| |Psychic • – •••••||Yes| |Sensitive (2)||Not quite in tune with the Twilight all around but somehow aware of it and vague feelings occur.||Various.| |Spirit Magnet • – •••••||None| |Spirit Mentor (3)||.||None| |Spirit Sight (4)||D||None| |Strong Aura ••||N||Drive(3)| |Supernatural Lore • – •••••||Actively owe money to some person, people or organization. Each DOT deducts a DOT from yourt.. Negatives mean …||Ath & Across| |Thin Blooded (1-5)||Beings with weaker than average Vitality in their blood. It means a lot less Power and potential. Vampires with such weak, watered down blood are often Outcast or lack Status and Power.||Flaw| |Unseen Senses ••||Select a specific type of Supernatural Creature which you have the ability to sense in some way.. More DOTs better the Sensing. This can be bought multiple times for multiple Creature types.||None| |Vision ••||Seeing things…||?| |Weak Aura • – •••••||None| |Whispers ••||Experiences strange voices in your head..||?| Merit Name Prerequisites Description Beast Whispers - You can talk down frenzying vampires. Clan Bane Immunity - You do not suffer your domitor’s clan bane. Powerful Vitae Blood Potency 6+ domitor You feed from a Kindred with exceptionally potent blood. Predatory Aura - You can pretend to be a vampire. Predatory Instinct - You can spot vampires on sight. Source Sympathy - You experience blood sympathy towards your domitor. Vitae Hound - You are a connoisseur of Vitae. Watch Dog - You can use your domitor’s Auspex during the day. Merit Name Prerequisites Description Allies - Friends and confederates. • Lawman’s Friend - The Sheriff and Hounds have taken a liking to you. • Old Pal - An Embraced friend from your mortal days. • Paramour - A Kindred lover and confidante. • Primogen Friendship - The city’s Primogen value your advice. Alternate Identity - A false identity, complete with documentation. • Broken Bond - Another Kindred thinks you are blood-bound to him. • Covenant Infiltrator - You have infiltrated a rival covenant or sect. • Personal Masquerade - You have passed yourself off as a member of another clan. Contacts - Mortal information sources the character possesses. • Cacophony Savvy - How in-touch the character is with the Cacophony. • Mole - An informer in a rival clan or covenant. Domain - Feeding grounds acknowledged by Kindred society. • Elysium Domain • Your domain includes an Elysium. Herd - Vessels to which the character has free and safe access. Mentor - An elder vampire who advises and supports the character. • Sugar Mommy/Daddy - A romantic relationship with an elder Kindred. Protégé - A childe or other younger Kindred mentored by your character. • Thrall - A Kindred your character has subjected to the blood bond. Safe Place - A secure location you control and own. • Outside Haven Tremere You have permission to make your haven outside the clan chantry. Status (Kindred) - The character’s standing and respect in undead society. • Kindred Friendship - The character’s closeness to a clan, covenant, or sect other than her own. • Setite Initiate Non-Setite You have been inducted into the Followers of Set. • Staff - A staff of ghoul and mortal servants who follow your orders. • Status (Camarilla) - The character’s standing and respect in the Camarilla. • Status (Clan) - The character’s standing and respect among her clan. • Status (Coterie) - The character’s standing and respect in a coterie. • Status (Covenant) - The character’s standing and respect in her covenant. • Status (Society) - The character’s standing and respect in some other Kindred-exclusive fraternity, cult, or secret society. • Title - An office of formal authority within the Camarilla. Touchstone - Additional mortals who help maintain Humanity. Merit Name Prerequisites Description Calm Heart - Your character frenzies less easily than most. Fury’s Focus Brujah Your character has greater control over her frenzies. Night Doctor Surgery Anarch, Medicine •• Your character has been trained as an Anarch Night Doctor. Merit Name Prerequisites Description Bloat - Your character can store more Vitae than most Kindred. Cannibal - Your character gains sustenance from human flesh. Blush of Health Non-Nosferatu Your character easily blends in among mortals. Eat Food - The ability to eat mortal food. Foul Blood - Your character’s blood tastes revolting. Light Sleeper Wits ••• Your character easily awakens during the day. Lizard Limbs - Your character can detach their limbs. Misplaced Heart - Your heart is not located where it should be, making you very difficult to stake. Monstrous Maw - Your character’s fangs do more damage. Prehensile Wings - You are capable of crude flight. Rugged Bad Looks Nosferatu You can pass for an extremely ugly human. Thick-Skinned - Your character is difficult to drain blood from. True Worm - You can remain awake during the day, so long as you remain underground. Unmarred Face Nosferatu Your character’s face is less deformed than other Nosferatu. Merit Name Prerequisites Description Antitoxin Blood - Immunity to poisons that affect Kindred. Benevolent Blood - Your blood does not drive ghouls mad. Malkavian only. Claws of the Unholy Protean • Your character’s Protean claws inflict horrific wounds. Close Sympathy - You are particularly close to Kindred wih whom you share blood ties. Closer Than Blood Paramour • You have a mental link to your Paramour. Consanguineous Resistance Sangiovanni Immunity to blood bonds from mortal relatives. Deceptive Aura - The ability to pass as mortal to other vampires. Discipline Prodigy - One of your clan Disciplines costs less Vitae to use. Embraced without the Cup Tremere Your character is not blood-bound to her elders. Favored Visage Obfuscate •••• You are especially adept at assuming certain appearances with Obfuscate. Generation - How many generations the character is removed from Caine. Ghost Eater - You can feed from ghosts. Gifts of the Beast - Hidden powers possessed by your character’s Beast. Hidden Diablerie - Your character is difficult to detect as a diablerist. Hive Minded Animalism • Animalism that works on insects. Indomitable Soul - Diablerizing you curses your murderer. Inoffensive to Animals - Animals do nut shun your presence. Intoxicating Vitae - Your vitae develops faster blood bonds. Lesser Mark of the Beast Gangrel Your character can mitigate their Beast Marks. Living Masquerade Alternate Identity ••• Your character blends in seemlessly among the kine. Lunatic Insight Malkavian A Malkavian’s inexplicable oracular insights. Malkavian Time Malkavian A Malkavian’s connection to the clan Madness Network. Of Rose and Thorn Animalism • You can use Animalism on plants. Sleep Unseen Obfuscate • Your character can use Obfuscate while sleeping. Swarm Form Protean ••• Your character can become a swarm of animals with Protean. Sympathetic Bond - Anyone who blood bonds your character becomes blood bonded too. Thousand Forms Protean ••• The power to assume an unlimited number of animal forms with Protean. Wits ••, Academics ••, Occult •, Geomantic Specialty Perceive mystical resonance in a specific city Area of Expertise Increase a Mental Specialty to +2 Dexterity ••• or Wits •••, Intelligence below ••• Use higher of Wits or Dexterity for Defense Allies (• to •••••)Social Effect: Allies help your character. They might be friends, employees, associates, or people your character has blackmailed. Each instance of this Merit represents one type of ally. This could be in an organization, a society, a clique, or an individual. Examples include the police, a secret society, crime, unions, local politics, and the academic community. Each purchase has its own rating. Your character might have Allies (Masons) ••, Allies (Carter Crime Family) •••, and Allies (Catholic Church) •. Each dot represents a layer of influence in the group. One dot would constitute small favors and passing influence. Three could offer considerable influence, such as the overlooking of a misdemeanor charge by the police. Five dots stretch the limits of the organization’s influence, as its leaders put their own influence on the line for the character. This could include things such as massive insider training or fouling up a felony investigation. No matter the request, it has to be something that organization could accomplish. The Storyteller assigns a rating between one and five to any favor asked. A character can ask for favors that add up to her Allies rating without penalty in one chapter. If she extends her influence beyond that, her player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies, with a penalty equal to the favor’s rating. If the roll is successful, the group does as requested. Failed or successful, the character loses a dot of Allies. This dot may return at the end of the chapter (see Sanctity of Merits, on p. 158.) On a dramatic failure, the organization resents her and seeks retribution. On an exceptional success, she doesn’t lose the dot. One additional favor a character can ask of her Allies is to block another character’s Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Retainer, or Status (if she knows the character possesses the relevant Merit). The rating is equal to the Merit dots blocked. As before, no roll is necessary unless the target’s Merit exceeds the character’s Allies. If the block succeeds, the character cannot use the Merit during the same chapter. Reference: ChoD 49 Alternate Identity (•,••, or •••)Social Effect: Your character has established an alternate identity. The level of this Merit determines the amount of scrutiny it can withstand. At one dot, the identity is superficial and unofficial. For example, your character uses an alias with a simple costume and adopts an accent. She hasn’t established the necessary paperwork to even approach a bureaucratic background check, let alone pass. At two dots, she’s supported her identity with paperwork and identification. It’s not liable to stand up to extensive research, but it’ll turn away private investigators and internet hobbyists. At three dots, the identity can pass thorough inspection. The identity has been deeply entrenched in relevant databases, with subtle flourishes and details to make it seem real even to trained professionals. The Merit also reflects time the character has spent honing the persona. At one or two dots, she gains a +1 to all Subterfuge rolls to defend the identity. At three dots, she gains +2. This Merit can be purchased multiple times. Each time representing an additional identity. Reference: ChoD 50 Effect: Your character does not suffer the -2 penalty for using his off-hand in combat or to perform other actions. Available only at character creation. Reference: ChoD 47 Animal Empathy (?)Social Anonymity (1-5) Social Prerequisites: Cannot have Fame. Effect: Your character lives off the grid. This means purchases must be made with cash or falsified credit cards. She eschews identification. She avoids any official authoritative influence in her affairs. Any attempts to find her by paper trail suffer a -1 penalty per dot purchased in this Merit. Drawback: Your character cannot purchase the Fame Merit. This also may limit Status purchases, if the character cannot provide sufficient identification for the roles she wishes to take. Reference: ChoD 50 Area of Expertise (•)Mental Prerequisite: Resolve •• and one Skill Specialty Effect: Your character is uncommonly specialized in one area. Choose a Specialty to assign to this Merit. Forgo the +1 bonus afforded by a Specialty in exchange for a +2. Reference: ChoD 44 Can safely gauge how far Old Laws can be pushed Cheap Shot (••)Fighting Prerequisites: Street Fighting •••, Subterfuge •• Effect: Your character is a master at the bait and switch. She can look off in an odd direction and prompt her opponent to do the same, or she might step on someone’s toes to distract them. Either way, she fights dirty. Make a Dexterity + Subterfuge roll as a reflexive action. The opponent’s player contests with Wits + Composure. If you score more successes, the opponent loses his Defense for the next turn. Each time a character uses this maneuver in a scene, it levies a cumulative -2 penalty to further uses since the opposition gets used to the tricks. Reference: ChoD 61 Choke Hold (••)Fighting Prerequisites: Brawl •• If you can get your hands on someone, it’s over. When grappling, you can use the Choke move. • Choke: If you rolled more successes than twice the victim’s Stamina, he’s unconscious for (six – Stamina) minutes. You must first have succeeded at a Hold move. If you don’t score enough successes at first, you can Choke your opponent on future turns and total your successes. Reference: ChoD 61 Close Quarters Combat (• to •••••)Fighting [Style] Prerequisites: Wits •••, Athletics ••, Brawl ••• You know that hitting someone in the face is an easy way to break the little bones in your hand. To that end, you’ve perfected the art of using the environment to hurt people. Firing Lines (•): In some situations, your best option is a tactical retreat — especially if you’ve inadvertently brought a knife to a gunfight. You can run for cover as a reaction to a ranged attack instead of dropping prone (see “Going Prone,” pp. 164-165 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). You give up your action for the turn but can get to any cover that’s within twice your Speed. Hard Surfaces (••): Bouncing someone’s head off a urinal, computer monitor, or a brick wall is a handy way to increase the amount of hurt inflicted while not breaking the aforementioned hand bones. When you’re grappling someone, you can bounce them off a hard surface with a Damage move. You deal lethal damage and immediately end the grapple. Armored Coffin (•••): The problem with protection is simple: the very things that protect you can be turned against you. That holds true for body armor just as much as anything else. Sure, it blocks bullets and knives, but get in a clinch and you might as well be wearing a straightjacket. When you grapple an opponent, add their general armor rating to your dice pool. When you use a Damage move, ignore your opponent’s armor. This technique can’t be used in conjunction with Hard Surfaces. Prep Work (••••): If you’ve got a second to look around, you could catch someone by surprise almost anywhere. When launching a surprise attack, your Dexterity + Stealth roll becomes a rote action. Drawback: You can’t use this Merit to set up sniper attacks — your ambush must use Brawl or Weaponry. Turnabout (•••••): If you’re caught short in a fight, your opponent’s weapon suits you just fine. When you attempt to Disarm your opponent, step the results up one level — on a failure, your opponent drops the weapon. On a success, you take possession of your opponent’s weapon. On an exceptional success, you’ve got the weapon and your opponent takes two points of bashing damage. Reference: ChoD 61 Closed Book (• to •••••)Social Prerequisite: Manipulation •••, Resolve ••• Effect: Your character is particularly tough to crack. When a character uses Social Maneuvering (see p. 81) against her, add her dots in this Merit as additional Doors. In other Social actions to uncover her true feelings, motives, and position, add her Merit dots to any contested rolls for her. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this can apply to supernatural effects used against her. For example, it might allow her to resist a power that forces her to speak the truth, since she can manipulate the wording. However, it wouldn’t affect someone looking at her aura, since she cannot manipulate her spiritual resonance. Reference: ChoD 50 Common Sense (3) Mental Effect: Your character has an exceptionally sound and rational mind. With a moment’s thought, she can weigh potential courses of action and outcomes. Once per chapter as an instant action, you may ask the Storyteller one of the following questions about a task at hand or course of action. Roll Wits + Composure. If you succeed, the Storyteller must answer to the best of her ability. If you fail, you get no answer. With an exceptional success, you can ask an additional question. • What is the worst choice? • What do I stand to lose here? • What’s the safest choice? • Am I chasing a worthless lead? Reference: ChoD 44 Combat Awareness (2) +2 to any situational awareness roll Crafter’s Sense (3) Common Sense related to a chosen Crafts Specialty +2 to detect ambush Gains 8-again when navigating in the Underworld; loses 10-again navigating above ground. Remember with ease, gain +2 to Intelligence + Composure to remember facts from large swaths of data Ignores stress penalties equal to Resolve Know obscure facts choose a topic and can make Intelligence + Wits rolls to gain facts related to it at any time Wits ••• or Dex •••, Crafts •••, Crafts Specialty of Demolitions Reduce penalty for disarming unfamiliar explosives +1 to Perception when using psychoactive drugs Good Time Management Academics, Medicine or Science •• Cut time for non-magical extended rolls by 1/4 Asy 50, Rel 84 +1 on Resolve rolls to resist coercion Help others heal faster Hypnotic Voice (4) : Persuasion (3), Science (3), Hypnotherapy (s) Induce trance state Hypnosis (3): Medicine (1), Occult (1) •• or •••• Wits ••, Mental Skill •• Use specified Skill in place of Expression Two Skills ••• Share Specialty between two Skills Speak another language WoD 109, errata Fight off intrusions into dreams Control dream environment and engage intruders in dream combat • to ••• Wits •••, Skill • Remove -1/dot penalty for shoddy tools No penalties to meditate • to ••••• 2 languages per dot, conversationally Intelligence ••, Stealth ••• Strike a Killing Blow (WoD 168) against a single unsuspecting target Occult ••, Underworld Specialty Gains some insight into some of the Underworld’s enigmas • to ••• Inhibit mental alteration by psychics Resolve ••, Science or Academics •••• Resist mental breakdown with Science or Academics Science •••, Specialty Common Sense related to Science • to ••••• Know the ways of a particular type of supernatural being. May be purchased separately for multiple types. • or •• Encyclopedic Knowledge in one topic •• or ••• Intelligence ••••, Medicine •• After killing something, roll Intelligence + Medicine. •• version allows to ‘taunt’ those who would make Wits + Investigation rolls. ••• version allows to change the ‘meaning’ of a murder. Tolerance for Biology Resistance Attribute •• +2 to keep composed when shown scenes of violence or carnage Composure ••, Investigation • Memorize information perfectly; roll to memorize for entire scene (i.e. everything a character could sense in a given moment) instead of specific information or sensory input • or ••• Wits ••• or Composure ••• Ignore penalties or gain Rote quality on Perception rolls • to ••• Navigate the Chicago Undercity tunnels, ignoring penalties equal to dots in this Merit • to ••••• Mental Attribute or Composure •••• Use successes on Vision+Skill roll to aid an Extended Action 9-Again on Mental and Social rolls relating to foreign cultures Can purchase Dream and use it as Instant Action, at the cost of sanity Remove off-hand penalty to attack •• or •••• Strength •••, Stamina ••• Reduce heavy armor penalties by 1 (••) or 2 (••••) Dexterity ••, Athletics • Add Athletics rather than doubling Defense on Dodge Strength ••, Brawl • Add Brawl rather than doubling Defense on Dodge • to •• Strength ••• or Intelligence ••• Can ignore 1 (•) or 2 (••) points of Durability when attempting to damage objects Dexterity •••, Weaponry • Can disarm if damage exceeds Dexterity Dexterity ••, Brawl ••• Successful, defenseless Brawl strike adds damage as bonus to subsequent grappling attack Dexterity •••, Brawl ••, Weaponry •• Add size of blunt weapon (3 or less) to overpowering maneuver dice pool • or •• +1/dot to Initiative Dexterity •••, Weaponry •• Substitute Dexterity for Strength Dexterity ••, Wits ••, Brawl ••, Firearms •• Subtract Brawl dots from attempts to disarm by overpowering Fleet of Foot • to ••• +1/dot to Speed Fast Reflexes •• Delay action into next round Ground and Pound Combination Blows, Boxing ••• or Aggressive Striking •••, Grappling •• Perform Takedown/Throw, gain +2 to following unarmed strike Dexterity •••, Firearms ••• Two gun attacks per round Strength •••, Brawl •• +1 damage to unarmed strikes • to ••• Stamina ••• or Resolve ••• Negate fatigue/injury penalties Eat even unpalatable cuisine +2 on Stamina rolls to resist illness Negate environmental penalties to Survival -2 to all rolls to visually detect character Draw weapon reflexively Heal twice as fast Only -1 to attack when using a shield instead of -2 Substitute Resolve for Dexterity on Drive rolls +1 to lift or carry +2 on Stamina rolls to hold breath Student of the Blade Fencing • or Iaido • May use Fighting Style with all Size 2 blades. Drive and carry out another action The Weapon at Hand Krav Maga •• Reflexive Wits + Weaponry roll for improvised weapon, instant action to wield, no penalty for being improvised +2 on Stamina rolls to resist toxins Strength ••, Weaponry • Add Weaponry rather than doubling Defense on Dodge Weapons to Empty Hands Dexterity •••, Brawl •••, Weaponry •••, Two Weapons or Filipino Martial Arts or Knife Fighting •••• Use Brawl instead of Weaponry for maneuver-related attacks. Dexterity ••, Drive •• Gain 9-Again on Drive rolls • to ••••• Call upon favors from an individual, group or organization with influence and resources proportional to dots in this Merit • to •••• Loyal animal partner with intelligence and capability proportional to dots in this Merit •• to •••• Resolve ••, Larceny or Subterfuge •• -1/dot to attempts to investigate character • to ••••• Own an array of weapons and armor. May be shared among multiple characters Find ways into bars and clubs +2 to navigate a bureaucratic system • to ••••• Access to information through a particular individual, group or organization. Depth of shared information is proportional to dots in this Merit • to ••••• Formal awards for meritorious conduct from the military or a comparable organization • to ••••• Strong beneficial or harmful relationship with another character • to ••• Mortal acclaim, +1/dot to Socialize • or ••• Always find a way to buy and sell stolen goods • to ••••• The aid of a friend, ally or peer. Distribute dots in this Merit between the Friend’s Power (comparable to yours at •••) and level of Trust with you Gain bonus to locate authority figures in local power structures Help others regain Willpower •• or •••• Live a wealthy, comfortable lifestyle at the sufferance of a patron • to ••••• Guidance and interference of an authority in a field, with capability and influence proportional to dots in this Merit •, •• or •••• Establish a forged identity • to ••••• Disposable monthly income ranging from $500 USD at • to $50,000 USD at •••••, with total assets ranging from several hundred GBP at • to millions of GBP at •••••. • to ••••• Loyal agent, employee or cohort with influence and capability proportional to dots in this Merit Shadow Cult Initiation • to ••••• Membership in a cult, with unique benefits to each level of initiation Small Unit Tactics Manipulation •••, Persuasion •••, Leadership Specialty When conducting a tactical maneuver with squad, leader can spend Willpower to benefit entire group • to ••••• Resources ≥ Staff Employees or workers at a set venue, with manpower and expertise proportional to dots in this Merit • to ••••• Authority and sway with a group or organization, to a depth proportional to dots in this Merit •• or •••• Appearance adds 2 to relevant Social rolls • to •••• Empowerment as a law enforcement official, with scope of jurisdiction proportional to dots in this Merit Help others resist side effects of drugs +2 to escape notice while casing a target under cover of some mundane activity. +1 to Resolve to resist The Forgetful Mind (Dominate •••) • to ••••• Possess a cursed item, which may be invoked for a benefit and a paired drawback Difficult to Ride Resolve •••, Composure ••• +2 to resist the control or influence of ghosts and spirits • to ••••• Grant a chosen vehicle bonuses for a scene per day You can welcome a possessing spirit in, remaining alert while ridden You can welcome even spirits without the Possession Numen +1 to Persuasion and Socialize rolls against spirits, often surrounded by spirit activity • to ••••• Possess a mystic relic +1 to determine how to use a relic, or whether it is cursed Occult ••, Crafts •• Create limited-use relics with an extended Resolve + Occult ritual, following the crafting itself +1 to Intimidation, abjury and exorcism against spirits, but -1 to Expression, Persuasion and Socialize against them ••• to ••••• You know how and where to ask questions of a mysterious entity, but it extracts a price for answers • to ••••• Take refuge in a place where spirits have difficulty following •• to •••• Wits or Composure ••• +1 to Empathy and Subterfuge rolls to understand spirits speaking human tongues, ignoring penalties, or with four dots, roll Wits + Empathy – 3 to understand the tongue of spirits

Anthony Weiner admits to more lewd messages Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman who polls suggest is a leading candidate for mayor of New York, admitted Tuesday that he engaged in a series of sexually explicit communications with a young woman on the Internet. The behavior allegedly occurred as recently as last year, long after Weiner was forced to resign from Congress after admitting to similar episodes. But in a news conference that seemed a little like a public therapy session, Weiner stood with his wife, Huma Abedin, and vowed to stay in the race for mayor. According to the gossip website thedirty.com, the Democratic ex-congressman, using the pseudonym "Carlos Danger," exchanged obscene messages and nude pictures and engaged in phone sex with an unidentified woman, then 22. The woman told the website that the relationship began more than a year after Weiner resigned his House seat so that he and his wife, a longtime aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, could "continue to heal from the damage I have caused" by similar previous behavior. If her version is true, it suggests that Weiner was engaging in reckless, lewd behavior at the very time he was launching a public rehabilitation campaign, with a warmly lit photo spread of the couple and their infant son in People magazine. It was accompanied by a story that quoted Abedin as saying her husband was "trying to be the best dad and husband he can be." Weiner's campaign released an ambiguous statement, which he later read at the news conference, that did not dispute the woman's version of events. "I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have. As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress," Weiner said. Abedin, managing a tight smile, also spoke at the news conference, saying: ""I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him and, as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward." Abedin's stance evoked comparison with that of her mentor, Hillary Clinton, whose steadfastness in her marriage to Bill Clinton and their joint political ambitions helped rescue her husband from the sex scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky that nearly ended his presidency. But unlike Weiner, Bill Clinton would never be on the ballot again. And the office that Weiner is seeking is the biggest prize in New York City politics. While it is true that pretty much anything can happen in an election - especially in New York - the latest revelations have, at a minimum, damaged the remorse-and-redemption theme that fueled Weiner's mayoral bid. That story line, along with his celebrity, propelled him in the polls into a dead heat with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was long presumed to be the front-runner to win the Sept. 10 Democratic primary. "In many ways, things are not that different than they were yesterday," Weiner said at the news conference. That, however, may be wishful thinking. In today's politics, "the time frame to recuperate, recover and come back is much shorter than it used to be," said Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House official who now specializes in crisis management communications. "Generally speaking, though, you only get one bite at the apology apple." Adding another challenge to Weiner's plan - and to the capacity of New Yorkers to forgive and move on - is the fact that another politician tarnished by a sex scandal, former governor Eliot Spitzer, is also attempting a comeback in the Democratic primary. Spitzer surprised the political world with an announcement on July 8 that he is running for city comptroller. When the earlier scandal involving Weiner broke in June 2011, Abedin was pregnant. She gave birth to the couple's son in December that year. Last April, The New York Times Magazine profiled the couple in an 8,000-word story. It portrayed Weiner as a homebody and primary caretaker for his son - "going to the park with Jordan; picking up his wife's dry cleaning and doing the grocery shopping; eating at his brother Jason's two restaurants in the neighborhood" - who was also taking a serious look at returning to politics. That article, according to the woman with whom he exchanged lewd messages, coincided with his last contact with her. "He reactivated his Facebook and asked me what I thought of it," she told thedirty.com. Six weeks later, Weiner announced he was running for mayor. He has campaigned vigorously, at times citing his own challenges alongside those of former South African president Nelson Mandela and Franklin D. Roosevelt. But Weiner, in a dozen years in Congress, has a much slimmer record of achievement. He was known mainly as a verbal combatant on the House floor and on cable news channels. At one point during the exchanges that were published by the website, the woman told Weiner that she had noticed him while he was in Congress and been attracted to him long before they met over the Internet: "Specifically your health care rants were a huge turn on." MOST VIEWED MEDIA MOST DISCUSSED STORIES

Orlando Bloom is my first celebrity love. I’ll use the present tense because, though it’s been over a decade since I fell for him, when his name pops up in celebrity news, an abashedly smitten lustfulness still pumps through me. I dressed up as Orlando as Legolas in Lord of the Rings for Halloween in fourth grade. Reproducing his long elven locks, stash of feather-tipped arrows, and mud-colored cape was a drawn-out escapade; my mom spent several weeks helping me fashion my most elaborately honed Halloween costume. I even found pointy elf ears! When I come across photos from that elating night of trick-or-treating in my Legolas masquerade, the likeness between the eight-year-old blonde girl and her smooth-faced celebrity crush is disarming. I blush, slightly unnerved as I try not to contemplate what Freud might say of a young girl whose admiration for Orlando Bloom drove her to become him. A few years after the enchantment of Legolas, I still loved Orlando Bloom, but by then, Orlando was a pirate, and I knew about masturbation. One scene in Pirates of the Caribbean left me woozy—Orlando’s molten, agonized brown-eyed gaze as he watched his lover kiss another man had me enamored, disordered, sweaty, and sticky. If only a sandy, thick-lashed sensitive scallywag needed me with the soul-shattering ire and gut-pumping passion of Will Turner’s adoration of Elizabeth Swan. A sweet lusty toxin slithers through me even now, as I recall the outlaw pleasures of becoming sexually sentient with an on-screen gentleman pirate. My yearning for Orlando Bloom was not a clean, sudsy puppy love affair; it was a humid secret of preteen longing, a warm visceral syrup carrying with it a rising dawn of clitoral arousal, and private exploration in the uncharted back alleys of my erotic imagination. There’s no distinct moment separating my aspiration to emulate Legolas and my desire to get washed ashore on top of the brawny Will Turner; the trajectory of my evolving sexuality seems much more loop-de-loop than a linear course from childhood to adolescence. Innocence (or inexperience) and apprehension perpetually resurface. Perhaps the notion of casting off a childhood cocoon of sexual innocence is an overly simple metaphor—in my experience, adolescent fantasies can comingle, come out of and intersect with earlier crushes. I’m relating (over-sharing?) my mixed-up emotional and physical experiences with a celebrity crush during the convoluted span of preteen sexual awakenings to push back against a notably disembodied, sexless narrative of girls’ crushes as presented in a much-hyped new book called Crush: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing, and the Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush. A collection of celebrities contemplating their own first famous loves, compiled by writers Cathy Alter and Dave Singleton, Crush beautifully explicates the ties between fantasy and self-exploration, with personal essays penned by big names ranging from Stephen King and Roxane Gay to James Franco and Andrew McCarthy. The mishmash of voices offers intimate vistas into the expansive scope of sexual development and the role of celebrity in articulating sexual excitation. Several poignant snippets like “What else is a crush but a repository for our own passions and unfulfilled real-life relationships?” and “Over time, the exposure either disillusions you or complicates/mellows/deepens to something like actual love, once the aura of crushhood is dispelled enough to see the real person,” pack a punch about the mechanisms of infatuation and fantastical daydreaming. Already lauded as the breezy must-read of summer 2016, Crush is definitively a worthy skim. However, I found the personal testaments of celebrity-induced giddiness less entrancing than the patterns that encased the authors’ narratives—despite the essays’ surrealist delinking from actuality, many of the essays fell into hackneyed, binary cultural molds that sheath conceptions of desire with gendered roadblocks. Unlike the female authors, many male authors detailed sexual arousal and described preteen sexualities that were firmly rooted in explorations of the physical. Several elaborated on the moment when they first noticed a woman’s tits brush against each other in a viscerally intoxicating motion that ignited an identity-altering obsession with cleavage and masturbation. Stephen King, in a pithy three-paragraph account, devotes a hefty chunk of his text to recounting the lifelong repercussions of his eight-year-old self’s terrifyingly sudden yearning to touch Kim Novak’s breasts. In a slightly more loquacious narrative, Andrew McCarthy describes how, as a fourteen-year-old boy, he “masturbated into a sock, with the discovery of the wonder of the female breast—Adrienne Barbeau’s breasts—dominating [his] vision.” Larry Doyle refers to Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show as the “original MILF” (though he does qualify that, as a six-year-old kid, the “F” didn’t stand for you-know-what). Editor Cathy Alter confirmed my skulking suspicion that the articulation of celebrity crushes might have taken a degree of influence from the gendered expectations confronting the authors. In an interview with StyleCaster, Jinnie Lee questioned Alter about how men and women differently narrated their experiences, to which Alter replied, “It’s difficult to make one sweeping statement, but for many guys… they were physical crushes. That’s what I noticed, which didn’t really surprise me.” In contrast, she describes that many of the female authors recounted letters they wrote to celebrities, posters they hung above their beds, magazine interviews they pored over with friends, and the sense of emotional union—devoid of sexuality—that lay under their celebrity infatuations. In reading Crush, I was struck by how the discrepant frames for men’s and women’s experiences, interpretations, and articulations of preteen sexuality emerged. The female authors’ descriptions seemed so incorporeal, rooted outside of visceral urges and fleshly stimulation, as compared to their boner-bearing male counterparts. For example, the title “And They Called it Puppy Love” frames Jodi Picoult’s essay on her “perfectly safe” crush on Donny Osmand. She writes, “In my dreams, Donny was clean-cut and asexual, attentive and gentle and understanding.” In an evocative homage to Harry Chapin, Michelle Brafman describes her fixation with Chapin as a conduit for filling unrequited relationships with others, rather than an embodied affinity for the musician. She meets him and he kisses her cheek, but she asserts, “Despite my sanctified cheek, it wasn’t Harry I wanted; it was his ability to make me feel a part of his choir of lonely voices.” Jill Kargman’s description of “getting turned on” by Kenickie from Grease seems all together transgressive amongst the harmonized deluge of sexless celeb fantasies. The sexlessness of the female authors’ narratives led me to speculate the influence of cultural scripts on individuals’ realization and conception of sexuality. Why did male authors’ experiences seem more self-assuredly physical than the female authors’ experiences? Do cultural norms—that urge women to keep their legs closed, but celebrate men who enjoy numerous sexual partners—affect the way we experience and/or remember our early efflorescence of sexuality? Do cultural scripts impact the ways we talk about our sexuality by encouraging women to be modest in public but giving men a platform to be frank? And might authors selectively prune and play up or play down their narrations of sexuality for the public reception of Crush? Gendered socialization colors the authors’ experiences of coming to their sexual senses as well as their modern-day recollections of preteen arousal and their public expressions of these intimate stories. As many feminist theorists have written, the union of femininity and emotions works to mutually suppress the value of the feminine and the emotional; Sara Ahmed captures the sentiment in her book, The Cultural Politics of Emotions, arguing that the “association between passion and passivity… shows us how the subordination of emotions also works to subordinate the feminine.” The isolation of body and emotion, and the traditional association of men with physicality and women with emotional aptitude, derives from a fallacious disassociation of affect and viscera. As feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar argued in her essay “Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology,” emotions are both biologically anchored and socially constructed; a somewhat universal human body has the capacity to respond to emotional triggers with physical and incorporeal reactions. Our individualized reactions de-universalize the human body; we learn how to respond from localized scripts and social conventions. While the near-universality of a biological capacity to experience emotional reactions supersedes gender structures, cultural instructions teach us how to respond to affective experiences in accordance with local gender norms. We have the capacity to blush, but we learn socially which situations should shame us, just as we might have the capacity to cry, but we absorb local social scripts that teach boys not to cry. If emotions are overdetermined to connote femininity, perhaps Crush’s male authors’ hyper-focus on ejaculatory impulses attempts to compensate for dabbling in emotional elocution. The male authors’ articulations of their emotions require physical (dare I say phallic) justification, whereas girls’ romance-based emotions are disconnected from bodily impulses (and the emotional patterns of genderqueer folk are, per the binary, unmentioned). To relink body and emotion would muddy the expected frames for male and female preteens’ experience of desire, and reconnecting the emotional, romantic aspect of crushes with visceral stimulation would also oblige us to rethink the assumed innocence and chastity of young women. The many narratives in Crush provide a lush ground to explore the pathology of young women’s sexuality. Stephen King’s account of realizing the sexual majesty of cleavage at age eight does not set off alarm bells, but if an eight-year-old girl saw a penis on TV and realized a sexual awakening of her own, we would freak out (and call a psychiatrist). The homogenous imposition of sexual demureness on girls’ identities is a Puritanical remnant that is still headily imbedded in our conceptions of young sexuality. A social expectation of chastity—in fantasy and in actuality—effectually smooths the real-life messy variations in girls’ sexual desires, scrubbing clean the mucky, cum-y, porous, and fleshly desires girls may experience. Expressing these visceral and affective aches risks social expulsion and the scrutiny of medical professionals. And while much messaging exists today that disrupts the Puritanical traditions in this country, the pressure to conform to these gender scripts—be sexually desirable but not actively desiring—still exists, particularly for girls. Crush shows us that the stereotypes of women as “sexualized object” rather than “sexual being” impact the male and female authors’ notions of sexuality. From my own girlhood, I certainly recall daunting pressure to achieve the prescribed sexualized chastity necessary for performing femininity. I wore low-cut shirts and danced with boys, but on terror of social expulsion, I never told anyone about masturbating until I went to college. I saw many girls socially outcast for “slutty behavior,” and girls sent home from school for sexually provocative outfits. When I started having sex, I was shamed for trying to get a birth control prescription, learning that the notion of “knowledge as power” fails if you can’t exercise it. Pernicious parameters of girls’ sexuality are still alive and well. As Foucault says, paradoxically, we are a society that talks about sex all the time—particularly, about how to control the sexuality of preteen girls, but we retain a façade of shock when confronting blatant displays or references to sexuality, particularly when directed by girls. Girls’ sexuality has a long tradition of pathology—young girls who masturbated were (and are still) treated as deviants and perverts, rather than self-guided explorers of new, rousing territories, the way that we perceive boys who masturbate to be. As Jenny Block wrote in Jezebel, society worries about our sons’ sexual health if they don’t masturbate, but we often don’t even consider masturbation within the realm of possible behavior for daughters, let alone an indicator for sexual health. Imposing a homogeneously desexualized innocence on pubescent girls—which, often, aims to protect them—essentially negates their sexual agency and teaches them to reproach the fluids, emotions, and impulses of their own bodies. To be clear, I am not arguing that all girls with a celebrity crush are sexually precocious, or that all girls suffer from the rigid restrictions of an everlasting Puritanical moral code. Rather, I am arguing that boys are afforded the possibility of physical sexual exploration without the label of pathology or perversion that masturbating girls assume. As illustrated in the gendered narrative channels in Crush, the social expectation for girls to wait chastely for romance infiltrates the privacy of our fantastical musings as well as our public accounts of sexuality. We have a cultural squeamishness with female masturbation, particularly as an exploration activity for preteens. As a collection of reflections on the ways we construct narratives surrounding nascent fantasies of sex and desire, Crush is important to feminist theorizing through its exposition of the influence of cultural gender norms on our articulations of our sexualities. The editors claim that “these crushes, like prehistoric insects trapped in amber, remind us of who we were, in all our brace-faced, unencumbered glory, when anything and every was both possible and futile,” but the collective voices evidence gaps in girls’ access to corporeality of fantasy, rather than simply the emotional pleasures of romance. Was everything ever possible for the girls, even in their private daydreams? In her book, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, Judith Butler writes “we’re undone by each other,” and fantasies allow us to undo ourselves, by ourselves, through daydreaming of another. But she also warns us that, “the foreclosure of fantasy—through censorship, degradation, or other means—is one strategy for providing for the social death of person.” Why does society give room for boys’ sexual fantasies but forsake girls? We know girls are fantasizing, learning about sex, and masturbating—so why can’t girls claim their fleshy fantasies? To lift the censorship, degradation, and foreclosure of girls’ fantasies, we may have to investigate the gendered limitations on how we think about early loves, impulses, celebrity crushes, and maybe, sexually stirring gentleman pirates.

Bruce Jenner is 10 years old and home alone. He walks into his mother’s bedroom closet, brushing a hand over the cotton dresses. He selects one, careful to mark its exact position with a piece of paper, so no one discovers. He accessorizes with one of Mom’s scarves and with shoes belonging to his sister, Pam, and dabs on some lipstick. After surveying the ensemble in a mirror, the child ventures out of the red brick apartment building in tiny Tarrytown, N.Y., making it around the block. The adventure is both thrilling and painfully alienating: It’s 1959, and Bruce has no idea what’s going on. “Even at the age of ten, my life had become a sealed box, and over time, the sides would become even higher and ultimately impossible to scale,” Jenner writes in the new memoir The Secrets of My Life, in which she refers to herself as Caitlyn after her transition, in the spring of 2015, and Bruce beforehand. Before transitioning publicly, Jenner’s is a lonely life of concealment. Trying to “exorcise what was living inside,” Jenner marries and divorces three women, trying on their clothing, too. The wives are left deeply confused, as are the children. After their makeup starts going missing, young Kylie and Kendall enable a security camera on their computer, only to discover Dad in drag – they are “too young to understand.” In the eighties, the Olympic decathlete crisscrosses America, delivering corporate motivational speeches to stay afloat financially. On these occasions, Jenner dons a suit with a bra and pantyhose underneath. There are strolls in little black dresses through anonymous hotel lobbies, excursions that leave Jenner self-conscious, “a thinner version of Big Bird standing out for the world to see and snicker at after I pass.” Excruciating electrolysis sessions and hormone therapy treatments are conducted in secret throughout the mid-80s. Later, Jenner gets more daring, changing into dresses and wigs in a car near the family home – and lurking paparazzi – in Los Angeles. With a low, masculine voice, Jenner makes sure never to speak out loud, except for one Starbucks run to order a vanilla latte. Applying and removing makeup and false eyelashes, squeezing into undergarments – the daily rituals most women find oppressive, Jenner finds liberating and life-affirming. But Caitlyn’s glamazon femininity has earned her few friends in either the transgender or feminist camps. When she gushed about nail polish in her first revelatory interview with Diane Sawyer, her critics were aghast, noting that the struggles of womankind extend beyond chipped nails. Others took issue with Jenner’s wealth and her politics: She’s a Republican who voted for Donald Trump. Jenner’s memoir presents a person who is deeply conscious of her critics, desperate to avoid confrontation and constantly apologizing – now to her transgender critics, but before that to her three wives and six children for being “consumed and self-absorbed” by a lifelong gender dysphoria. “I am trying to learn as quickly as I can,” writes Jenner, who visits with the families of bullied transgender children lost to suicide. “I am very new to the community and I understand some still perceive me as an outsider. My own story, I believe, is worth telling because the pain and fear I experienced was real.” The Globe and Mail spoke with Caitlyn Jenner from Los Angeles. What does hiding the way you did for five decades do to a person? Everybody has stuff they have to deal with in life. My identity was my stuff for my entire life. In the fifties and sixties, there wasn’t even a word for it. I didn’t know why I felt this way. There was no information. This continued all the way through the eighties, when I was really struggling. I couldn’t even find a therapist. It was a life of hiding and sneaking around and being embarrassed that my identity was such an issue in my life. It’s not like you take two Aspirin and get plenty of sleep and wake up the next morning and you’re fine. It was extremely lonely. After a lifetime of hiding, you are abruptly thrust into the spotlight as a mainstream transgender spokesperson. How was that for you? The public and the press put me in a position where, all of a sudden, I represented this entire community, which is not the case. I’m a representative for my story. Disenfranchised transgender women take issue with you as a spokesperson because of your privilege. You seem acutely aware of your critics, writing out the words “I am white. I am entitled. I have wealth” in a bold font in the book. You face a trans protest at one of your appearances and you distinctly remember the protest signs. “You are an insult to trans people,” one reads. How does it feel to be an outsider all over again? It hurts. If a trans woman writes something [critical of me], I have this terrible problem where I just call ‘em up. I’ve done this on numerous occasions. I tell them, “You don’t know me. You don’t know my intentions.” They don’t know where my heart is. Yes, I’m white – can’t do anything about that. Privileged? My experience being trans is much different than theirs, I will admit to that. But I’ll never apologize for working hard all my life and making a good living. That’s what this country’s all about. We’re all trying to do the same thing: to make it better for our marginalized community and for the next generation. There’s no sense in criticizing anybody. I call my critics and say, “I’d like to get to know you. Tell me your story.” It changes people’s minds. At the same time, you write about taking some of the “sanctimony out of the sails of the trans community.” You make a point of noting that you’re not hung up on pronouns. Pronouns are extremely important, and I get that. I try to do my best to get all the pronouns right but even I’ve messed up. I was six months into my transition, and somebody working in production called and I said, “Hi, it’s Bruce.” My daughters Kendall and Kylie have asked me, “What do we call you?” I said, “‘Dad’ is going to work for me. I’m your dad. I’ll always be your father till the day you or I die.” Sometimes “Dad” and “she,” they kind of get messed up a little bit. But my daughters do a very good job. I spoke to Kendall on the phone today and she goes, “Yes, ma’am.” She’s getting it. But I don’t get hung up on it. I know people are going to make mistakes. You explain that you consider yourself a trans woman, not a woman. What is the distinction to you? My road to womanhood has certainly been different. I will never have a period. I will never bear a child. So I’m very comfortable with the words “trans woman.” It’s the way my life has been. There is clearly division among trans women, but there is also division between feminists about trans women. Some feminists argue that trans women can’t just take on the label of “woman” after enjoying the perks of masculinity all their lives. What’s your feeling about that? People criticize trans women because you go from what society treats as the powerful, masculine role to what society thinks is a weaker, feminine role. From this standpoint I think women underestimate themselves and the amount of power they have. I’ve always been with very strong women. Your first wife, Chrystie Scott, and your second wife, Linda Thompson, did not take the news of your cross-dressing well. Kris Jenner was less stunned by it but still not into it. What was it like for these wives – who clearly wanted their husband Bruce Jenner back? I did open up conversations with them, but it was the last thing they wanted to hear. I can’t blame them for that. I understand that it’s difficult when you transition. I respected if they were not into it. I get it. We’re better friends now with both Chrystie and Linda. In a lot of ways, we’re fine. With Kris, it was a little closer and tougher for her. Plus, we spent 23 years together. You say that your stepdaughter Kim Kardashian was the most sympathetic. As you’re chucking Bruce’s clothes, Kim carts her favourite pieces away. In a clip from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kris Jenner smells the suits and cries, mourning that Bruce is gone. Do you empathize with that? [Chuckles] She can be pretty dramatic at times – on the show. I understand that. It’s tough. But we didn’t go our separate directions because I was going to go and transition. It had been 23 years and things had changed. We both mutually decided that it was best for both of us to go in separate directions for many reasons. The book was leaked and tabloids have been obsessing over its final revelation – your gender reassignment surgery. I had “it” done and that already snuck out and it’s been all over the Internet. The tabloids love that, and so does the general public. The book is about honesty, about getting all this weight off my shoulders and getting rid of it. That had to be part of it, but I didn’t want to make it the main part. My reasons for doing something like that are in the book, and then I’m not talking about it any more. I want to protect myself and I want to protect the community. Why is the fixation on surgeries upsetting to transgender people? Gender confirmation surgery is an extraordinarily personal thing. It’s not for public consumption and it’s not something trans people really want to talk about. The general public thinks it’s all about what’s between your legs. It has nothing to do with that. It’s about what’s between your ears. The day after she has that surgery, a trans woman is no more a woman than she was the day before surgery. She is just more comfortable with herself. People are pruriently obsessed with your surgeries but also with your sexuality. They want to know if you’re gay or straight – post-transition. Where do you stand on those questions? I have no idea. I’m not looking to date – men, women, anything. I have no problem being by myself in my home. I’m set in my ways. If I can find a really good friend down the way, I would have a friend. How are the challenges for trans teens different today than what you were facing, completely alone, in the 1960s? My journey is a lot longer than many journeys of people today. Today it’s a different world. The big change for our community was the Internet. It opened the entire community up. Transgender people can now get a lot more information at a very young age, and that’s good. It also hurts. Online bullying is worse than getting bullied in person in high school or grade school. The real critical kids are the ones that suffer from depression combined with trans issues. It is devastating for these children, and a lot of them take their own lives. We have to do a better job of accepting the community. You expressed disappointment after Donald Trump revoked Barack Obama’s federal guidelines for public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice. You asked Trump to call you about it. Did he? Okay, this is where I’m at. I had talked to Trump during the campaign. We spoke on the phone about a lot of these issues. He seemed to be on our side. I was relatively optimistic at first. When he rescinded the federal guidelines with Jeff Sessions and Betsy Devos, I couldn’t figure out why he would do that. It was the absolute wrong thing to do. Why even go there? We’ve got so many more important issues to deal with in this country. Go deal with those and just leave us alone. When I was at the inauguration, he said he wanted me to come down and play golf with him – I just don’t know if he wants to get beaten by a 67-year-old trans woman. I would love to get four hours out on the golf course with him to be able to talk business. That’s how a lot of things get done. But if I went down now and played golf with him, the transgender community would just destroy me. If I do anything now, it’s got to be behind closed doors. A trans friend of yours talks about the first day she wakes up and goes to bed without thinking once about gender. Have you had that day? I am very pleased at where I’m at in my life. This woman has lived inside of me since I can remember. Maybe it’s time to let her live and give her an opportunity. Bruce pretty much did everything – there was nothing left for him to do. Let’s take little Bruce and put him inside and let her live. It was very liberating to let her go. I always want to wake up in the morning excited about the day. In the old days, when I was training, I would wake up in the morning excited for the day to start. I had weights to lift, I had workouts to do, I had competitions coming up. I lost that in my life for many years. I couldn’t care about the next day. In going through this transition, that excitement for life has returned. I got the old mojo back. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Welcome to Dragon Cave! Dragon Cave is an online adoptables game. Collect eggs, raise them to adulthood, and then breed them to create interesting lineages. New types of dragons are added regularly! Kyanite Pygmies are a feisty breed, always full of energy. Playfully ebullient, these tiny and elusive dragons like to chase after one another, darting in and out of small alcoves and other such hiding places. They often dig small burrows underneath large trees and nibble on the roots for sustenance. They rely on the towering oaks’ formidable trunks and vast immensity to hide them from predators, something their small size aids in. Kyanites also secrete a weak toxin when threatened, which further protects them from intruders. However, this poison is not strong enough to affect larger creatures, humans included. Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years. Dragons don’t communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

No surprise which side John and Ken are on. The KFI shock jocks have done their best to drum up anger over the lane reductions in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey, coming down squarely on the side of keeping our streets dangerous. Now they’re using the KFI website to support the misguided effort to recall Mike Bonin, one of the city’s best councilmembers. And one of the few with the guts to stand up to bullies like them. Although I have to wonder if the national iHeartRadio chain, which owns KFI, knows what their employees are up to? And what they’d think about using the company website for partisan political purposes? Then again, I also wonder if the people leading the recall effort are aware that anonymous political contributions totaling over $100 in a single calendar year are against the law. And that Los Angeles has a $700 limit on contributions to city council campaigns, which would undoubtedly apply to recall campaigns, as well. Making the nearly $25,000 pledged to the recall so far tainted, and questionable as to whether it can be used for political purposes in the City of Los Angeles. But then, that’s something for the city Ethics Commission to sort out. What is clear is that this recall attempt — and especially John and Ken’s involvement in it — have little to do with Bonin. It’s really about putting a stop to Vision Zero, and maintaining the deadly automotive hegemony on our streets at the expense of everyone else. And sending a message to the rest of the council that they could be next. Which should send a chill up the spine of anyone who cares about traffic safety. Or good government. Note: Just to be clear, the term “bullies” was in regard to John and Ken. I did not refer to anyone opposed to the road projects in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey bullies, nor did I intend to. Photo of Mike Bonin taken from CD11 website. A woman was shot in the upper thigh with a BB gun from a passing car while riding in La Verne on Wednesday. As the Claremont Cyclist commented, attacks like this should be classified as hate crimes. If not terrorist attacks. Update: A comment from Robs Muir indicates that this attack occurred near Benson and 7th Street in Upland, rather than La Verne. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up. It’s been a bad week in the war on bikes. And yesterday was the worst yet. A Sacramento bicyclist was shot with a stun gun by a teenager in a passing car. A Houston mountain biker was left bloodied and scarred when someone strung a line thorny vines like a clothesline across a popular bike trail. A Vermont man faces charges for running a bike rider off the road, then crashing his truck as he tried to flee, and running away from that crash. A British bicyclist suffered head injuries when he was kicked off his bike by a passing motorcyclist. Another British rider was apparently shot at from a passing car; fortunately, the bullet missed. Of course, it sometimes it goes the other way. Concord CA police are looking for a bike-raging bicyclist who shot a driver with a flare gun following an argument. Yes, a flare gun. David Drexler forwards security video, along with a wanted poster, of “crusty old men” stealing bicycles from a locked garage. Which serves as yet another reminder that locked garages and storage rooms aren’t as secure as they may seem; the isolation gave these thieves over 15 minutes to cut the locks and make off with the bicycles without anyone noticing. Store your bikes inside your home or apartment if you have the room; if not, lock them as securely as possible to an immovable object in a locked garage or storage room. LA Curbed offers a great interview with former LACBC Executive Director Tamika Butler about her efforts to expand the conversation about bicycling beyond just bikes during her time at the coalition. CiclaValley discovers just how hard it is to ride up the third steepest hill in the US. Seventy cyclists raised nearly $15,000 for the Agoura Hills chapter of the ALS Association at the inaugural Ride to Defeat ALS last month. Under proposed regulations to combat racial profiling, police in California would be required to collect data on every traffic stop they make, including bicyclists and pedestrians. As Laguna Beach debates the need for more parking, one councilmember suggests removing parking from PCH to widen sidewalks or install bike lanes. As the story notes, they can’t build enough parking spots to meet the demand from tourists and residents. So the obvious solution is to provide transportation alternatives to reduce the demand for parking. A 60-year old San Diego man was seriously injured when he lost control of his bicycle riding downhill and slid into a retaining wall. Lake Elsinore will begin work on adding sidewalks and bike lanes on some of the city’s older streets. The annual Tour de Big Bear rolls this Saturday with rides ranging from 25 to 100 miles. Now there’s a good cause. Three Texas women stop in Santa Barbara on a 1,700-mile ride down the Left Coast to raise funds to care for young sex trafficking survivors. A writer in San Luis Obispo complains that the bike lobby is forcing crazy ideas for a bicycle boulevard on unwilling residents — never mind that bike boulevards actually benefit the people who live on the street. And says Los Angeles had to “roll back many similar improvements” at great expense to the public. Um, no. LA is undoing a single road diet on Vista del Mar, which simply involves removing a little paint and restriping the roadway. And it’s not like we actually have bike boulevards to roll back. A hairy Santa Rosa mountain biker goes riding in Annadel State Park. Bicyclists are excited about plans to ban private cars from San Francisco’s iconic Market Street, but merchants are worried about the effect it will have on their businesses. It’s not unusual for a blind bicyclist to ride a tandem. But a blind cyclist is riding coast-to-coast on his own bike to raise awareness for people with vision impairments, guided by a riding companion via two-way radio. Oregon dedicates a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge connecting parks in the state capital. Streetsblog Denver reminds the local constabulary that ticketing a man in a wheelchair after he gets hit by a car is not Vision Zero. Colorado officials find a leg bone from a 70 million-year old duck-billed dinosaur while conducting a survey for a new bike trail. Austin TX is installing 12 bicycle traffic lights around the city to give bike riders a few seconds head start at intersections. New York plans to add more bike lanes to meet surging demand. NY Streetsblog says the NYPD continues to slander victims by incorrectly blaming them for causing crashes, inflicting needless pain on their families. An anti-bike Philadelphia columnist says put a referendum on the November ballot about bike lanes, and let the entire city vote on whether it wants them. Which won’t pass if people like this woman have anything to say about it. This is why you always carry ID when you ride. Canadian authorities are still trying to identify a woman who was killed in a crash on Tuesday. The Guardian asks if cyclists and autonomous cars can co-exist by 2035. Or ever. A British bike rider wants to thank the hit-and-run driver who left him lying on the side of the road, because doctors found a brain tumor as they were treating him for head wounds. A motorcyclist in the UK is being called a hero after he ditched his bike to avoid a head-on crash with a group of cyclists, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. A crowdfunding campaign to buy him a new specialized wheelchair has raised nearly twice the original goal of £15,000, the equivalent of almost $20,000. Bicycling is booming in Israel, as the country encourages riding as an alternative to driving, though not everyone is happy about it. A Malaysian city moves to ban teenage bike riders from certain streets at night, in response to a crash earlier this year that killed eight young riders. No, don’t knock a bike rider off his bicycle and drag him by his dreadlocks, even if you think he’s a snitch. If you’re going to wrestle a bike from its owner, make sure it doesn’t have two flat tires first. And you could buy a new car for the price of some bikes. But then you’d have to drive it.

The Chiropodist will be in attendance in Borris in Ossory on Tuesday September 10. For appointment please contact Lily Sheeran at 0505-41308. Free Home Security Checks are being offered by Borris-in-Ossory Community Alert to anyone who has signed up to the Community Text Alert System. For details, or to make an appointment contact any member of the committee. BORRIS IN OSSORY ICA Borris-in-Ossory ICA Guild will resume after the Summer recess on this Wednesday night September 4. The meeting will commence at 8pm and new members are welcome. It is hoped to start a course of armchair Pilates for the members on Wednesday September 18. The annual Harvest Thanksgiving Service will take place in St Mark’s Church, Borris in Ossory on Sunday evening September 8 at 7pm. The guest preacher at the Service will be Rev. Tim Irvine, Vicar of Kilkenny. All are welcome to attend. After a great year in the garden now is the time to reflect on what has been done and what we would do different next year,[ or maybe do the same better]. This is the most important time to get information for next year and prepare the ground. The next meeting of the Gardening Group is on Thursday September 12 at 8pm in St. Canice’s Hall. This year has been very educational with garden visits and also guest speakers at some of our meetings so come along and enjoy your garden. Any tips to make the garden easier and more enjoyable are always welcome. Presentation Secondary School Thurles Reunion Committee organising a school reunion in conjunction with the Gathering for past pupils who left the school between 1942 and 2002 on Saturday, September 21. Tickets, which are €30 and are on sale now, must be purchased in advance of the day and will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis. Registration will begin in the secondary school at 2 p.m. on the day. For further details email [email protected] or they can phone (087) 7037861. There are forms available in Phelans Ballaghmore for anyone interested in joining the Text Alert System in the area. Please feel free to avail of this great service; it is in everyone’s interest to protect their family and their property as best they can. Successful Roscrea Beó As the fall of night silhouetted Roscrea Castle and surrounds on Sunday it became clear that RosCré Beo 2013 was a roaring success. The smiles on the faces of spectators over 4 days of a jam packed line-up said it all. It was fantastic to see the people of the town supporting each other, enjoying themselves and enhancing the sense of community. Starting on Thursday 22nd August with the ‘Echoes of Roscrea’ cd launch in The White House, guests were treated to select performances of songs from the cd. Our cd is available from local retailers. As the night moved on Brendan’s bar was packed to capacity for Tom Stapleton’s ’40 years of gigs & jigs’. Friday 23rd saw musical legend Sean Keane play an intimate gig in the Abbey Hall. On Saturday in the Coláiste Phobal Sports field the Cu Chulainn Hurling skills competiton got underway. Hurling enthusiasts were smiling. The young and old were tested on skills such as 65, poc fada, penalty taking and side line cuts. Sunday began with an early rise as committee members, participants, stewards and OPW staff busily prepared Roscrea Castle and Castle Street for a historic occasion. Visitors were treated to free guided tours of our truly unique castle and Damer House. I t is encouraging to see the level of support amongst the townspeople again. The committee wish to thank everyone person who attended. A huge thanks to our sponsors and An Garda Síochanca whose support was vital to RosCré continuing in a safe and friendly environment. We are meeting this week to discuss next year already.

Leah Suárez is a vocalist in touch with all the facets of American music, especially jazz. She sings in three languages—English, Spanish, and Portuguese—and conveys truth and honesty in her music. A capella, in a small ensemble, or in front of a big band, she gets her message out by way of a rich, warm voice. Color her sound blue and green. Influences: Anita O’Day, Susannah McCorkle, Shirley Horn, Blossom Dearie, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Rene Marie CD: Found Freedom EP (2007) Live: November 24 for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra’s “Holiday Swing” at Charleston Music Hall & Monday nights at Mercato A local jazz icon for the past decade, percussionist Quentin Baxter has a style rooted in Gullah and flowing with nuanced punctuation and blues-based grooves. Whether playing at a local boîte with the Quentin Baxter Ensemble or The Gradual Lean or touring internationally with the likes of Rene Marie, his rhythms tap into the timeless tempos of the universe. Influences: Roy Haynes, Max Roach CD: Experiment in Truth (2007) with Rene Marie Live: November 24 for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra’s “Holiday Swing” at Charleston Music Hall & regularly at Charleston Grill When not working as director of Jazz Studies at the College of Charleston, saxophonist and composer Robert Lewis schools local audiences in his progressive form of jazz that is modern in interpretation and presentation. He’s also the lead alto saxophonist for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. Influences: John Coltrane, Chris Potter, Joshua Redman CD: First Takes (2010) with Gerald Gregory & Ron Wiltrout Live: November 24 for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra’s “Holiday Swing” at Charleston Music Hall & most Saturdays at Mercato Ann Caldwell is the dean of Charleston jazz singers, having grown into that stature from her roots in spirituals, folk, and gospel. She lends her dynamic range and a sleek style of phrasing to regular jazz performances at Mercato and the monthly Jazz Factory at Gullah Cuisine. Influences: Nina Simone, Cassandra Wilson, Anita Baker, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan CD: Compositions (2008) Live: the first Wednesday of each month at Gullah Cuisine’s Jazz Factory, as well as Thursday & Friday nights at Mercato Pianist Gerald Gregory is flowering these days as he’s finding his individual sound, not a difficult task given his technical proficiency and deeply intuitive feel. The more he plays, the better he gets. Influences: Brad Meldhau, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson CD: First Takes (2010) with Robert Lewis & Ron Wiltrout Live: regularly at Charleston Grill & Mercato Once described by the late pioneering guitarist Joe Beck as one of the best young players in the country, Lee Barbour is totally versatile in the jazz idiom. Using serious blues, country, and rock influences, his playing is adventurous, employing the full capabilities of his instrument, especially when he sears your soul with his touching effects. Influences: Bill Frisell, Nels Cline CD: Songs for Singing (2008) with Joe Beck Live: regularly at Pane e Vino & Charleston Grill Fluent in all the reed instruments, saxophonist Mark Sterbank is most accomplished on the tenor, playing with a breathy, dynamic feel that resonates on a lot of levels. There’s a sweetness to his sound that makes listening to him a joyful ride. Influences: John Coltrane, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Paul Gonsalves, Stan Getz CD: Hymns & Spirituals (2010) with Tommy Gill Live: November 24 for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra’s “Holiday Swing” at Charleston Music Hall; December 10-19 with “The Charleston Christmas Special” at Charleston Music Hall; & January 16 with the Mark Sterbank Jazz Group in “Hymns & Spirituals” at Lightsey Chapel Auditorium A founder of the New Music Collective (see page 72), drummer Ron Wiltrout is one of the most versatile jazz musicians in town. His approach is full-bodied with a minimum of notes. His accents are full of surprises, even quirky at times. Influences: Joey Baron, Bill Stewart, David King, Jim Black CD: First Takes (2010) with Gerald Gregory & Robert Lewis Live: regularly at Mercato Pianist Tommy Gill’s approach to his art is proof that blues is the mother of jazz. While he is completely comfortable in all styles of music, he has mastered the jazz piano genres, including stride, swing, and bop. He shines whether accompanying a singer, playing solo, melodically anchoring an ensemble, or being part of a rhythm section that drives a big band. Influences: Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, Tommy Flanagan CD: Hymns & Spirituals (2010) with Mark Sterbank Live: November 24 for Charleston Jazz Orchestra’s “Holiday Swing” at Charleston Music Hall & regularly at Charleston Grill

The cars on display at the Bruce McLaren Trust “Technical Evening” spanned decades, and generations, of Kiwi Motorsport design. This is a CAD blog and while it’s unlikely CAD/CAM was used for the 1968 Can-Am car, the Formula SAE car is the result of extensive CAD design & simulation. Besides, I thought this might be of interest to my CAD readers and there is the faint hope it will unearth some information or material to help the cause. The McLaren Trust honours the memory and remarkable achievements of Bruce McLaren. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1937 and died tragically whilst testing one of his cars at Goodwood circuit, England on June 1970. His story from the young school boy, with Perthes Disease strapped to a metal frame in a children’s home, to a world class international motor racing driver, engineer and designer is epic. McLaren cars competed & won in Formula 1, Le Mans, Indy and dominated Can-Am. His name is still used, by McLaren International, in Formula 1 motor racing today. Amazing to think that when Fernando Alonso & Lewis Hamilton step into their Formula 1 cars it’s the latest chapter of a history that can be traced back to a Kiwi schoolboy modifying his dads Austin Ulster to go racing. The McLaren M8A Can-Am car currently being restored by the Trust was on display. It was built for Denny Hulme but also driven by Bruce McLaren and Dan Gurney. It was rescued from being scrapped, literally buried, and is the only one of it’s type remaining. Ken Taylor-Reid and Peter Cave (Nuplex) talked about it’s body fabrication & fibreglass/composite technology. The body-work seen in the photos was recently completed and unveiled on the night. It has been fabricated from scratch using recovered components, drawings and photos as a guide. The front panels are currently in production. Duncan Fox then detailed the painstaking research and component fabrication which is bringing this car back to life. The most recent piece of the puzzle located is an original engine block, one of only six, found in Japan. The trust hope to acquire it, at a cost of us$6,000, and re-unite the block and chassis. It’s remarkable that the Trust has achieved, with much volunteer and supplier assistance, restoration to the tune of us$350,000 to this stage. It’s not finished yet and they will eagerly accept any financial or practical assistance to complete the car. It is owned by the Trust and will be used for demonstration and education, keeping the McLaren heritage alive. If any readers have McLaren parts (from any cars) tucked away in the garage or can help in any other way let me know! University of Auckland Formula SAE: Malcolm Graham, representing the team, gave a great presentation about the remarkable University of Auckland Formula SAE Team Car. Built & funded by UoA Engineering Students it has the appearance of a Formula One car that’s been severely shortened, to about 2m long. It has a 600cc Supercharged bike engine & carbon fibre monocoque chassis developed using Pro Engineer. I thought a nice touch was the use of their sponsors “V” alloy energy drink can as a heat-shield! It competes, using Bruce’s No 47, and recently set a record time in the Auckland Domain Hillclimb. It took prizes for first in efficiency (based on engine size), first in race class, and the outright win. Impressive considering the opposition included Ray William's 800hp 911 GT2 Porsche, the Bridgestone Porsche Champion, and a vast array of scratch built race cars, historic open wheelers and modified road cars. I recently read about the US FSAE competition on the “In the Machine” blog. Perhaps we should get the Kiwi car over there to compete, maybe repeat the McLaren Can-Am domination… - I forgot add a link for the Bruce McLaren Movie Website - www.thebrucemclarenmovie.com/. It was announced at the A1GP event in Taupo earlier this year and is currently in development. Filming is expected to start in 2008. - For more information on Perthes disease see: Perthes NZ - http://perthesnz.bravehost.com/ UPDATE 27–08–2007: Links updated for the brilliant revamped McLaren Trust website

At nearly three years old, Tucker the Miniature Pinscher/Chihuahua/Miniature Poodle mix doesn’t move the way a dog that young should — in fact, this albino runt of the litter can’t walk at all. A progressive disease keeps Tucker stationary, but it doesn’t keep him down. This happy pup is too busy loving life in Los Angeles with his human, Brittany Johnson. The first-time dog owner didn’t realize how sick Tucker was she adopted him, but she has no regrets about opening her heart to this funny-looking little dog. “He’s just totally filled my life with so much happiness and love. I never really understood that you can love an animal so much,” says Johnson, who adopted Tucker when he was 6 months old after seeing his photo on an adoption website. Looking back now, she suspects her dog may have been neglected in his early puppyhood. “The adoption agency brought him over, and they were like, ‘He can’t really walk, you have to teach him how to walk,’” Johnson remembers. Not having had a dog of her own before, she didn’t realize that a 6-month-old pup should already know how to walk, so Johnson began working to get Tucker up and about. After only a couple of days under her care, the pup was slowly walking on his own, but he was never able to jump, run, or even walk quickly. Tucker’s peculiar appearance and physical delays raised red flags for those close to Johnson. “A lot of friends and family members were kind of like, ‘Brittany, you adopted a sick dog,’ but I just didn’t really realize it,” she says. “Then I started taking him to a lot of vets, and a few of them suggested I put him down.” Euthanizing Tucker just wasn’t a choice for Johnson, who decided early on that she was going to do everything in her power to give Tucker the best life possible — no matter what was wrong with him. “That was the only option. I never saw anything else. I could never imagine not giving him that.” As Tucker’s health continued to decline, Johnson kept taking him to veterinarians, but it took awhile to find out what caused him to look and act the way he did. “In January of last year, I took him to a vet — a cardiologist — to check his heart out, and she was like, ‘I suspect he has MPS VI. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this dog named Walter, but he resembles that dog a lot.’” When Johnson looked up Walter at the cardiologist’s suggestion, she realized she had in fact heard of this dog before. Six months after she’d adopted Tucker, Johnson’s aunt had sent her a Facebook video of Walter, an inbred Min Pin who has a disorder known as Mucopolysaccharidosis VI (MPS VI). The tiny social media star instantly reminded Johnson of her own pup. “It was just his mannerisms, and the way he walked just exactly the same way as Tucker did.” Through Facebook, Johnson got in touch with Walter’s human and was soon networking with other people whose dogs suffer from MPS VI. “It’s a genetic developmental disease, and it’s unfortunately progressive,” explains Johnson, who has watched Tucker’s health deteriorate further since his diagnosis. “It affects everything in his body. Nothing has developed quite correctly. Unfortunately, it keeps progressing, and it’s not curable.” About three months after the cardiologist suspected MPS VI, Tucker went from being unsteady on his feet to not walking at all anymore. “His bones have since fused so they won’t straighten out,” says Johnson. “He can’t put any weight on his front legs. He does kind of like an army crawl — he crawls with his front legs and his back legs pushing.” Facing big vet bills, Johnson set up a GoFundMe page for Tucker, but the donations weren’t significant at first. Then, at the urging of some of her friends in the online MPS VI community, Johnson set up social media accounts for Tucker, and the GoFundMe page began attracting traffic. “Once I started him on Instagram and Facebook, it flourished,” says Johnson, who estimates she’s received between $8,000 and $10,000 in donations through the GoFundMe page and other forms of online fundraising. She says she’s very thankful for all the help and doesn’t know how she would have supported Tucker’s expensive medical care if not for the generosity of strangers. “I definitely can’t do it on my own, so it’s really amazing that he’s gotten so much support, with so many people donating to this dog they don’t even know.” Thanks to Johnson’s loving care and the outpouring of support from his social media friends, Tucker is doing as well as possible these days. With the exception of some issues with his heart, his condition has not significantly progressed over the last 12 months. “He’s so happy, his tail is always wagging,” says Johnson. The feisty pup certainly has a lot to be happy about these days. Tucker recently received a cart thanks to his Facebook friend Mango, who helps paralyzed pets access expensive carts that their pet parents can’t afford. While Tucker learns to use his wheels, Johnson plans to continue raising awareness about MPS VI by spreading one important message. “If people do breed Min Pins, I would highly encourage them to test for this gene, MPS VI. It’s not a very expensive test, but a lot of Min Pins are being bred with this gene and it causes dogs to live life with this progressive, awful disease.” The disease may be awful, but according to Johnson, living with Tucker is anything but. The first-time dog owner recommends anyone looking to adopt consider animals with special needs or physical challenges. “I think sometimes people are looking for that perfect dog, but honestly, Tucker is the perfect dog.” Read about more Monday Miracles: About the Author: Heather Marcoux is a freelance writer in Alberta, Canada. Her beloved Ghost Cat was once her only animal, but the addition of a second cat, Specter, and the dog duo of GhostBuster and Marshmallow make her fur family complete. Sixteen paws is definitely enough. Heather is also a wife, a bad cook, and a former TV journalist. Some of her friends have hidden her feed because of an excess of cat pictures. If you don’t mind cat pictures, you can follow her on Twitter; she also posts pet GIFs on Google+.

Have you noticed that an increasing number of formerly “religious” people identify themselves by saying, “I’m not religious but I am spiritual,”? I suspect that for many it’s because they’d rather say that, than identify themselves as an atheist or agnostic. Perhaps it’s because they have become disenchanted with organized religions for any number of reasons, but still believe in God and have a need to acknowledge a higher power, without having to profess a particular faith tradition. I read in a recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, that approximately one-third of those who say they were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic; which means that roughly 10% of all Americans are former Catholics. I’m not sure how many of those “ex-catholics” call themselves spiritual, but I suspect it is a high percentage. My own experiences in speaking to many folks who do not identify themselves with any religion but identify themselves as spiritual, is that there is often confusion between religious and spirituality. A person I spoke to recently told me, “I suppose if I were being admitted to a hospital and they asked my religion, I’d tell them I’m catholic, even though I haven’t gone to church in years. If I were to say I’m a spiritual person, it might take too much explaining.” I’ve heard others say, “I’d tell them I’m a ‘recovering catholic’.” It’s this kind of ambivalence or confusion that prompted me to pursue this topic both here and on my blog. Below, I have a number of links to the topic that I believe will be helpful in our dialoguing on religion and spirituality. I have them here as references that you may use when I bring up the topic on my blog. Or if you just want to explore the topic on your own, hopefully these articles and essays will be useful. - Religion versus Spirituality a Spiritual Problem: Reconnecting Experience with Tradition by David Tacey – I suggest that this article by Dr. David Tacey be read first. I found it very helpful in distinguishing between religion and spirituality and realizing how they can work better together than separately. He argues that Spirituality and Religion are becoming disconnected and they need to be re-connected., since they both rely on the other. In his opinion, Religion focuses more on community and worship and, spirituality is usually, but not always, based more on an individual’s experience. I personally have a need for both a sense of community and my own sense of awe, when I meditate, read inspirational book, or just discuss a specific topic with someone else. All of these spiritual experiences can lead to feeling of awe. - This is an article by Emmy Silvius, a lay theologian, that appeared in the Australian website Catholica – Her commentary is based mainly on Dr. Tacey’s premise of how religion and spirituality might be reconnected. Her belief is that Spirituality is not just a selfish, individualistic pursuit, but that it has a community aspect. - The author of this web page asks the question: “I think that Spirituality is believing the universe is alive, and Religion is believing it expects something of you. What do you think?” Good question! Basically, it’s a position the Creation Spirituality believers embrace. (see Mathew Fox’s website) So, what do you think? - The Journal of Religion and Spirituality – This journal has a number of resources that can be very helpful. - Enlightened-Spirituality. There are a number of interesting web pages on this web site. For example if you scroll down the main page, you’ll find information about how a variety of religions describe and practice spirituality: Buddhism, traditions of the Jewish Kabbalah, Hinduism, Islam etc. - Interesting interview with Dr. Micael Ledwith – Since he retired as a catholic priest he has gone on to appear in the groundbreaking film, What the Bleep Do We Know? He has also produced three volumes so far in his own series of DVDs that deal with fundamental matters in relation to spiritual evolution, and three more of which were scheduled for release in 2010/2011. In 2008 Ledwith published The Orb Project, a book detailing his intensive five-year study of orbs, which was co-authored with German physicist Klaus Heinemann. He is currently working on a new series of books titled Forbidden Truth, a three-volume work that focuses on human destiny and the mechanics of spiritual evolution. The interview with Dr. Ledwith and SuperConsciousness Magazine speaks at length about his life, his choices, and his passion to know God as himself. - The following reading illustrates some parallels between Native American spirituality and the Buddhist way of life. The authors of this web site chose themes and readings for their proximity to Buddhist teachings. They are not meant to suggest that Native American spirituality and Buddhism are the same or share similar historical source, both are different from one another but share some similar viewpoints and religious experiences. - This web site is authored by Orrin Lewis, a Cherokee. He says in his introduction that, “This is my personal homepage – I am old-fashioned and I don’t like to put my picture on the Internet.” He might be old fashioned, but his web site contains a wealth of information besides this article entitled Seeking Native American Spirituality: Start Here. - This article by Jody A. Long, J.D., Near Death Experience, Religion and Spirituality, is described by the author as one of the last frontiers of study surrounds spirituality and Near Death Experience (NDE). She also suggests that this is a highly sensitive issue due to the nature of religion. What this study attempts to do is to objectively look at the data submitted by NDErs to the website and to categorize the answers. Questions that are analyzed include pre and post NDE religious preference, and changed beliefs. There are some surprising results that focus on universal purpose and order gained from NDE understandings. - There are a number of rich spiritualities within the catholic tradition. These spiritualities have their origin in great spiritual leaders after whom they are named; for example, Franciscan spirituality is attributed to teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, and so on. A particular spirituality is a system, or schema of beliefs, virtues, ideals and principles which form a particular way to approach God and therefore all life in general.Even though these spiritualities are different, does not mean they are contradictory. They all have their roots in the same Christian heritage and they all aim at the same goal – to love as Jesus loved. The difference is a matter of emphasis. The differences give each approach its unique character traits.To mention just a few of the more familiar: Ingnatian Spirituality, Franciscan Spirituality, Benedictine Spirituality and Dominican Spirituality. - In addition to those from the catholic tradition, here is a website that provides spirituality from other faith traditions including: Protestant, Jewish, Orthodox Christianity, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslin. I believe that since faith and beliefs are so often confused, it’s important for us to have a clear understanding of the differences. If I were to design a bumper sticker for this topic, it would be, Keep the Faith but Question the Beliefs. Theologian and Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, Harvey Cox, in his book, The Future of Faith, describes a conversation he had with a friend, who described himself as “a practicing Christian but not always a believing one.” Initially Cox was surprised with his friend’s statement, but the more he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that to call oneself a practicing Christian but not a believing one acknowledges the certainties and uncertainties that mark the life of any religious person. When I read his book, I realized I had come to the same conclusion about the differences between faith and beliefs a number of years ago, but I just wasn’t able to articulate it as well as he did. In my case, the more I studied the magisterium tradition of the Catholic Church, and the fathers of the church, the more I came to the conclusion that many of the beliefs of my pre-Vatican II background did not pass the litmus test of my conscience. My faith was in the Jesus of what Cox calls the Age of Faith, the first three centuries after Jesus died, when the early church was more interested in following Jesus’ teachings than making obligatory what to belief about Jesus. The Jesus that I believe in and in whom my faith is grounded in is: the Jesus who gave us the Beatitudes and his example of how to live; the Jesus who focused on compassion for the disenfranchised. As Dr. Cox observed, when he realized how faith and beliefs were not the same, “To focus the Christian life on beliefs rather than on faith is simply a mistake. We have been misled for many centuries by theologians who taught ‘faith’ consists of dutifully believing the articles listed in one of the countless creeds, this came as a welcomed liberation.” Amen! This webpage provides a number of references to faith and beliefs. It primarily focuses on the Christian tradition. It does not pretend to be all inclusive. The references are meant to be background for future discussions on my blog or as possible sources for your spiritual reading. From Blind Belief to Enlightened Faith – Reprint from the Theosophical Movement. The following is a quote from the article that is characteristic of the author’s position. “Blind belief passing through the fire of reason emerges as enlightened faith, casting off the ashes of exclusiveness, fanaticism and bigotry. If a man of religious belief passed from blind belief to real knowledge and practised the ethics of his own creed, he would soon be forced to discard the exclusiveness of that creed and to embody its universal aspects. Thus enlightened faith comes to birth.” - Faith Versus Belief. Posted in The Thinker by Jeffrey Ellis. In addition to this article there are a number of interesting topics that the website covers. - The Omega Connection – Faith and Belief. A brief but interesting article. - Bill Moyer’s website Faith and Reason, contains a wealth of information about faith and beliefs. It contains dozens of interview of religious leaders from every denomination, scientists who have positive and negative views about religion and in depth articles and programs both in text format or tapes of actual intervies. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/index.html - Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith (New York: Harper, 2009). 16. The author of classic, The Secular City, writes his last book before retiring from Harvard University, on the difference between faith and beliefs and how important this distinction is for the future of faith. - Donald F. Fausel, From Blind Obedience to a Responsible Faith: The Memoir of a Cradle Catholic. (Bloomington, IN. 2010 iUniverse) Fausel’s Memoir is a combination of stories of his life pre and post-Vatican II, including his time as a catholic priest, his struggles with many beliefs of the church, his dispensation from the priesthood and his reflections on his life’s journey, back to a responsible faith in his catholic tradition. - Judy J. Johnson. What’s So Wrong about Being Absolutely Right: The Dangerous Nature of Dogmatic Beliefs – This webpage is a commentary that Johnson contributed to her book in the Australian website Catholica. After considering some of the major features of dogmatism: the power of dogmatism and its psychological aspects, its intolerance of ambiguity and its authoritarian positions, the author concludes that “It seems reasonable to conclude that, given that features of dogmatism become manifest in social institutions, the challenge for scientists, religious leaders, and politicians – indeed, for all of us – is to open our minds about dogmatic thought; first and foremost our own.” - Faith and Foolishness: When Religious Beliefs Become Dangerous – This is an article in Scientific America, by Lawerence M. Krauss, that offers statistics about the high percentage of respondent who discard scientific facts in favor of their religious beliefs. - What is Belief, What is Faith? This is a video on YouTube by Randall Niles. He suggests that beliefs are something we arrive at after a period of time when we intellectually accept a premise, either because of a preponderance of the evidence or evidence beyond a reasonable time, while Faith is when we put our beliefs into action. He provides an interesting but simple example (parable) of a tight rope walker who successfully walks across Niagara to the amazement of large crowd of on-lookers. When he finishes, he ask the crowd if they believe he can walk across Niagara Falls. They all shout yes! He then pushes a barrel across the falls and ask the same question and get the same answer. Next he puts a friend in the barrel and pushes the barrel across the falls. When he finishes he asks if they believe he can push someone across the falls in a barrel. They all respond excitedly, “we believe,” his response to the crowd is, “whose next?” That, says Randall, is the difference between Belief and Faith. Faith requires putting beliefs into action. - Here’s a summary by Meghan Smith, News Editor, of The Gavel Online on March 25, 2011, of an address at Boston College by Vicki Kennedy, the wife of the late senator, Ted Kennedy. It is on faith and political beliefs. She said at one point, as a young girl, growing up in a Democratic family, she actually thought that Jesus must have been a Democrat, because He advocated for all the things that she learned growing up: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and reach out to the poor and disadvantage, all things that were a vital part of her family’s beliefs. - Mark Powel, on Faith vs. Beliefs This is a video on YouTube by Mark Powell giving his views of the French Theologian Jacques Ellul on faith and beliefs. On the same You Tube page there are a number of other spiritual topics that Jacques Ellul presents, that are worth listening to.

This past Sunday, I met with a group of parents and their children for the Student Baptism class at Sojourn Midtown. One thing we talked about is a question that is often raised by conscientious parents: "How do I encourage my child to trust Jesus without giving false assurances?" In Matthew 28:18-20, the call is “Go! Make disciples. Baptize them.” In order to fill this command, we must call our kids to respond to Christ. Parents should speak freely to their kids about responding to Jesus—repenting, trusting, obeying, and making a decision to follow him. At the same time, it is important to help our children see that it's not their responsiveness thats make them a Christian. Christians come to Jesus in faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Just like us adults, kids can deceive themselves into thinking that good works or religious practices can save them. So, we shouldn't assure kids that what they do (even when it is praying a sinner’s prayer for mercy or asking Jesus into your heart) guarantees they will go to heaven. Praying a prayer or doing good works does not secure a child's salvation. As much as we want to assure our hearts with things we can manipulate (our knowledge, emotional experiences, prayers, or our works), these things offer no lasting hope. So how do we encourage kids to respond to God’s call while avoiding false assurances? (1) Boldly teach children about their sin. Charles Spurgeon once said, “We must not flatter or deceive children by teaching them that their nature is good. Rather, we tenderly teach children about their failures—pointing out the specific sins to which children are prone (greed, pride in performance, lying, disobedience, etc.). Our goal is to be tender but true. We pray that the Holy Spirit will use the truth to bring conviction to the child’s heart and conscience, and ultimately to give the gift of faith.” (2) Focus on what Jesus has done to save rather than what a child should do. In children’s ministry, we often emphasize the ABCs: (A) Admit you are a sinner; (B) Believe in Jesus; and (C) Confess faith in Him. There is nothing wrong with this (see Romans 10:9-10) so long as we make clear that salvation is not about what we do but about what Christ has done. If we only talk to kids about what they should do, we run the risk of confusing or discouraging them. When a child becomes aware of their sin, they may become introspective and worry, “Did I do enough? How can Jesus live in my heart when I still get so angry?” What Jesus has done for us is the most important thing—so much more important than what we do. He saves us. We do not save ourselves. We must teach kids to look outside of themselves to the love and forgiveness that comes because of what Christ has already done for them (Galatians 2:20). For this reason, I prefer a gospel tract like Billy Graham’s Steps to Peace With God or my Are You Close to God? that emphasizes what Christ has done outside of us over the ABC method. Another helpful resource is Marty Machowski's booklet, Leading Your Child To Christ, pictured above. As Octavius Winslow wrote, “One simple believing [look at] Christ will produce more light and peace and joy than a lifetime of looking within ourselves for evidences and signs of grace.” (3) Call kids to respond. Call them to decide. We must be clear that the call to respond is not the gospel. But we also must be clear that a response is necessary. The Scripture calls all people to believe. So, you don’t have to wait until you know that a child is saved in order to call them to respond, or call them to make a decision. Rote--a child's ability to repeat back stories, verses, and biblical truth without thought of meaning. Recognition--a child's ability to recognize biblical concepts that have been taught before Restatement--a child's ability to express new concepts in his own words and to relate them to a biblical worldview/system of thought. Relation--a child's ability to relate biblical truths to life and see an appropriate gospel response/application. Realization--a child's ability and desire for putting gospel applications into action in his daily life. (4) Recognize differing levels of responsiveness in young children, and encourage them to take the next step. Christian educators, Larry Richards and Gary Bredfeldt, outline five levels of biblical learning (on the right). This outline reminds us that children typically learn the language of faith before their faith is fully realized. That's normal. Worship pastor Bob Kauflin has written, "Younger children, who may not know God yet, may still participate enthusiastically in various external forms of worshipping God. As the Holy Spirit enables them, they will become increasingly aware of their sinfulness before God, accept His gracious gift of forgiveness through the gospel, and be included among those who will forever be growing in their love for and worship of God." (5) Give children gospel assurances. Avoiding false assurances doesn't mean not giving assurances altogether. Children should be taught that Jesus alone saves, and they should be assured that they can bank on him. We should feel free to assure children that Jesus will save them if they trust him. We should freely invite children to come to Jesus and keep coming to him for their whole life. Should children be led to memorize, recite, or sing Bible passages that give personal assurance--passages like Job 19:25-26, Psalm 23:1, Psalm 42:11, Galatians 2:20, or Romans 8:16? Absolutely yes! Leading a child to memorize these assurances is not the same thing as giving false assurances, because these words are the very words of Christ. What do we do if we hear our kids assuring themselves with one of these passages? Rejoice! And encourage them, "Keep on believing! Keep on believing!" (6) Finally, there is no reason to pressure children for commitments, because the pressure is off. We can trust that God is already at work kids’ hearts. Our responsibility is to faithfully teach the gospel to them and leave the results to the Lord. Sometimes we’re tempted to pressure children, because we feel that getting them saved is our responsibility. It is not. Salvation is God’s work (2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Ephesians 2:8-9). Give children an opportunity to respond, but trust God to work in the hearts of his children to bring them to himself through faith, in his time and in his ways.

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The 17-year-old who was indicted on terrorist charges in Oslo came from the North Caucasus. Young people from this area are very vulnerable to radicalisation, said a mosque leader. Several of those who have traveled from Norway to fight in Syria, have a background from the same region, wrote VG newspaper. ‘I find that there is a huge danger of radicalisation of our youth’, said Aslan Shamsaev to the newspaper. He is the leader and patron of the Chechen Islamic Cultural Center, which has two mosques in Oslo and Sandvika. Most of the approximately 1,100 members are Chechens. ‘Young people from this area have seen war and injustice from the Russian side, and it makes it easier to draw them in. It is easy to use religion, and relate it to the North Caucasus situation, and say that the same circumstances are now unfolding in Syria. Young people are easily deceived’, said Shamsaev. He tells of people who come and ask about things they have seen on the net that may be intended to radicalise them. ‘They wonder if there is something in religion that requires them to follow the message they are receiving from the internet. Then we answer that it is illegal, and that the message does not correspond to Islam’, he said. Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

Happy Thanksgiving! to all our friends at Acupet Veterinary Care. As we all struggle to dig our way out of the massive economic hole our masters in Washington, DC have dug for us, it’s always good to remember that although our condition here in the U.S. is deteriorating almost daily, we’re still better off as a citizenry than the vast majority of peoples around the world. I’m reminded of this almost daily, as I talk to my daughter serving in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world. And so, Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday, as no matter what religion or creed one celebrates, and even if you honor no given deity, it is still a time we can all join and give thanks for all the many blessings we have, starting with our families and our wonderful pets. So enjoy the day and remember to give thanks, and if you can, do your share to help the less fortunate. In the meantime, in the spirit of the day, here are some fun facts about turkeys from VeganPeace.com: - Turkeys are large birds related to pheasants, and date back nearly 10 million years. Wild turkeys are native to wooded areas of North America, and are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere. They were first domesticated in Mexico and brought to Europe in the 16th century. - Turkeys are able to adapt to a wide variety of habitats. However, most wild turkeys are found in hardwood forests with grassy areas. - Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. On the ground they can reach speeds of 25 miles per hour. Domesticated turkeys usually weigh too much to be able to fly. Their weight is about twice the weight of a wild turkey. - The carancle is a brightly colored growth on the head and upper neck. The snood is the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey’s beak. The wattle is the flap of skin under the turkey’s chin. - The bare skin on the throat and head can change color from flat gray to shades of red, white and blue when the turkey becomes distressed or excited. - The gizzard is a part of the stomach that contains tiny stones, which helps them grind up food for digestion. - Wild turkeys have dark feathers which help them blend in with their habitats. Domesticated turkeys have been bred to have white feathers. - Male turkeys have black, hairlike feathers on their breast called beards. Some female turkeys have them too. - Turkeys have great hearing , but no external ears. They have a field of vision of about 270 degrees and are able to see in color, but they don’t see well at night. They can see movement almost a hundred yards away. They have a poor sense of smell, but a good sense of taste. - Wild turkeys often spend their nights in trees on low branches, preferably over water to help protect them from tree-climbing predators. They will fly to the ground at first light. - Male turkeys will start making their gobbling sound before sunrise and continue through most of the morning. Hens make a clicking sound. - Wild turkeys spend most of the day searching for food like seeds, wild berries, small insects and acorns. - The worst predator of the wild turkey is the raccoon. Raccoons will catch and kill young turkeys and also attack a hen’s nest and destroy the eggs. - Turkeys are social animals. They enjoy the company of other creatures, including humans. They love having their feathers stroked. - In the spring, male turkeys puff up their bodies, spread their tail feathers, and grunt and make their gobbling sound to attract as many females as possible. - After mating, the female turkey prepares a nest under a bush in the woods and lays her eggs. She will lay one egg each day until she has a complete clutch of about 8 to 16 eggs. The eggs are tan and speckled brown, take about 28 days for the chicks to hatch. After hatching, the babies will flock with their mother all year. The first two weeks they won’t be able to fly and the mother will roost with them on the ground. And here are some fun Thanksgiving facts, courtesy of History.com: - Three towns in the U.S. take their name from the traditional Thanksgiving bird, including Turkey, Texas (pop. 465); Turkey Creek, Louisiana (pop. 363); and Turkey, North Carolina (pop. 270). - Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States. - Originally known as Macy’s Christmas Parade – to signify the launch of the Christmas shopping season – the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in New York City in 1924. It was launched by Macy’s employees and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo. Today, some 3 million people attend the annual parade and another 44 million watch it on television. - Tony Sarg, a children’s book illustrator and puppeteer, designed the first giant hot air balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927. He later created the elaborate mechanically animated window displays that grace the facade of the New York store from Thanksgiving to Christmas. - Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade more times than any other character in history. As the Flying Ace, Snoopy made his sixth appearance in the 2006 parade. - The first time the Detroit Lions played football on Thanksgiving Day was in 1934, when they hosted the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium, in front of 26,000 fans. The NBC radio network broadcast the game on 94 stations across the country – the first national Thanksgiving football broadcast. Since that time, the Lions have played a game every Thanksgiving (except between 1939 and 1944); in 1956, fans watched the game on television for the first time. - According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America, with a planned production total of 46.5 million in 2011. Six states – Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Indinia – account for nearly two-thirds of the 248 million turkeys that will be raised in the U.S. this year. - The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys – one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States – were eaten at Thanksgiving. - In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007. - Cranberry production in the U.S. is expected to reach 750 million pounds in 2011. Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington are the top cranberry growing states. - Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and New York are the major pumpkin growing states; together they produced 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkin in 2010. Total U.S. production was over 1.5 billion pounds. - The sweet potato is most plentifully produced in North Carolina, which grew 972 million pounds of the popular Thanksgiving side dish vegetable in 2010. Other sweet potato powerhouses included California and Mississippi, and the top producing states together generated over 2.4 billion pounds of the tubers. - According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It was baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.

Funding Cut For Essex Co. Day Care Parents Scramble To Keep It Open Working parents know that an after-school program can be a life-saver. It means young children have a safe, even enriching place to go while their parents finish work. But more than 60 North Country families might lose that vital service. New York state is cutting funding to Adirondack Community Action Programs, which would cut two after-school programs that parents count on right now. Eight-six elementary school students, some as young as four years old, spend their afternoons with the Adirondack Community Action Program's after-school services in Willsboro and Moriah. It's some of the only child care service in the area. "There's not enough child care in Essex County; we lack child care slots," said ACAP child care manager Marjorie Zmijewski. "We can't meet the need right now." But even the ACAP programs might be lost. Sixty-two sets of parents and families rely on those programs to watch their young children while they work. Without that service, parents said they wouldn't know where to send their children for the rest of the work day. "'Go home alone,' 'I may have to quit my job.' That's what parents are sending us back on the surveys that we sent," said Zmijewski. The program has enough money to run until April. "We were kind of thinking they would give us the balance of the school year, but that didn't happen," said Zmijewski. Directors said parents are trying to help save the program by reaching out to the community. If they can raise $31,000 by April, the program will stay open until the end of the year. The money the group hopes to raise is in addition to money the parents already pay in fees. But without community members stepping up to help, "at this point, no promises can be made," said Zmijewski. To contact Adirondack Community Action Programs, call 877-873-2979 or go to their website at http://acapinc.org/.

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She was entering Akra. The heap of grain, yet burning, showed a dull black-red mound over which towered a column of strong incense. Here, for the night was cool, lay in circles many of the unhoused Passover guests. Here, also, was wakefulness and the hatchment of evil. The running girl was upon them before she knew it. One of the figures that sat with its back to the dull glow saw her approaching. Instantly he rose upon one knee and snatched her dress as she ran. Jerked from her balance, she screamed and threw out her hands to keep from falling upon the shoulders of her assailant. One or two others with unintelligible sounds struggled up, and as she fell, the Maccabee leaped from the darkness, wrenched her from the grasp of her captor, and warding off attack with his knife, fled with her into the darkness. The transfer of control over her had been made so swiftly that in her stupor of terror she hardly realized it. She was struggling silently and strongly in his hold, when he clasped her to him with a firmer impulsive embrace and whispered to her: "Comfort thee, dear heart! It is I, Hesper!" She ceased to resist so suddenly and was so tensely still that he knew the shock of immense reaction was having its way with her. He knew without asking that she had been forced to leave the shelter of the Greek's roof, and though his rage threatened to rise up and blind him he was not entirely unaware of the benefit the inhospitality of others had given him. At last she was with him; entirely in his care. It was a safe shelter into which she was brought, but no luxurious one. There was light enough from the single torch stuck in a crevice in the ancient rock to show that it was habitable. The immense floor was packed hard by the trampling of many feet; overhead, lost in gloom, there must have been a rocky roof, but it was invisible. On the ledges of rocks were belongings by heaps and collections, showing that this was an abiding-place for great numbers. In the far shadows she distinguished long, silent, mummied windrows of men wrapped in blankets, sleeping. Huge gloomy piles of provisions filled up shadowy corners; about under the light was the litter left in the wake of human counsel; over all was the air of repose and occupancy that made a home out of the burrow. Though the place held a great number of refugees, the footstep of the Maccabee wakened resounding emptiness. At the threshold he slackened his step and looked with pathetic anxiety at whatever light on Laodice's face would show her opinion of her refuge. But the uncertain torch revealed nothing and he led her in and across to a solitary place where rugs from some looted house had been folded up for a pallet and spread about for carpets. She sat down and awaited his speech. He motioned to the spacious barrenness about him. "Canst thou content thyself in this place?" he asked, hesitating. She nodded, but feeling that her reply had not shown all that words might, she lifted her face that he might see therein that which she could not trust her lips to say. It was her undoing. Her weakness overwhelmed her and burying her face in the folds of her mantle, she wept. After a dismayed silence, he bent over her and said with a quiver of distress in his voice: "I—I have work, here, to do, but I shall take thee out of the city for better refuge—" That she should seem to be grieving over the nature of the shelter given her, stirred her deeply. She half rose and with the light shining on her face, filled with gratitude in spite of her tears, took his hand in both of hers and pressed it with pathetic insistence. He understood her. He laid a hand unsteady with its tremor of delight and young eagerness upon the vitta and it slipped off her hair. As it dropped, the subtle warm fragrance of the heavy locks, now braided in maidenly style, reached him; the liveliness of her relaxed young figure communicated itself to him without his touch; all the invitation of her helplessness swept him to the very edge of abandoning his restraint. On his dark face a transformation occurred. All the hardness, even his years and his experience vanished from him and a soft recovering flush faintly colored his cheeks. In that sudden bloom of beauty in his face was stamped a realization of the far progress of his triumph. She was in his house and dependent on him, within the very reach of his arms. When she looked up at him again, she read all this in his face, and instantly there returned to her, with warning intensity, the fear of her love of him. The last obstacle but her own conscience that stood between her and his perfect supremacy over her life had suddenly been swept away. She started away from him, and put up her hands to ward off his touch. "If you do that," she said in a tone sharp with distress, "it is sin and I shall be cursed! I shall have to go back to him!" Then she had voluntarily left Julian, perhaps to seek him! "You shall not go back to him!" he exclaimed. "After I have given up everything but my life to have you for myself!" "You must not think of me in that way!" she commanded him vehemently. "I am a married woman! You shall remember that! If you forget it, I will go out into the streets and ask the Idumeans to kill me!" "Nay, peace, peace! I shall do you no harm! You are frightened! I will do nothing that you would not have me do! Be comforted. Not any one in all the world has your happiness at heart so much as I. Believe me!" "Believe me!" she insisted. "I am weary of doubt and denial. I am only safe if you recognize me as that which I claim to be. Answer me! You do believe I am the wife of Philadelphus?" "I believed it, at once," he said frankly. "Then—then—" but she flung her hands over her face and slipped down on the rugs. For a moment he hesitated, restraining the impulse to break over the limits she had laid down for him. Then he rose and, summoning one of the women who had taken refuge in the crypt, sent her to remain with the girl, and departed, shaken and uncertain, to his own place. IN THE SUNLESS CRYPT The twilight of the cavern rarely revealed enough of the features of her fellows to Laodice for her to identify them or for them to identify her. She lived among them a dusky shadow among shadows. And because of her fear that Philadelphus might be searching for her, she stayed in the sunless crypt day by day until the Maccabee, noting with affectionate distress that she was growing white and weak, bade her take one of the women and venture up to the light. There were, besides the women, two men who took no part in the preparation for war which went on about them in the cavern day and night. While weapons and armor were made and tramping ranks formed and broke before the commands of the lithe dark commander of that fortress and subdued but fierce councils took place around torches—while all this went on, they kept back, even apart from the women, and said nothing. Laodice saw that they were physically unfit; that one was very old and the other very feeble and her heart warmed again to that stern master who saw them fed as abundantly as his most valued men. These, then, were those Christians whom he had taken into his protection because of the Name which had inspired a shepherd boy to save his life. When he commanded Laodice to go up into the sunlight, he approached the corner in which the two useless men hid and bade them, too, to go up into the air. "Let us have no sickness in this place," he said bluntly and turned on his heel and left them to obey. Laodice took one of the older women and timidly climbing the steps from which the rubbish had been pushed away by the climbing hundreds, went through the dusk of the passage that terminated in a brilliancy that dazzled her. And as she walked she heard the footsteps of the two men behind her. Up in the chaos of fallen columns, she stood a moment with her hands pressed over her eyes. Only little by little was she able to permit the full blaze of the Judean sun to reach them. The uproar on Jerusalem after the muffled silence of the underground cavern filled her with terror, and she pressed close to the shelter of the entrance until the woman at her side reassured her. "It is nothing," the woman said, with a dreary patience. "It is as it was yesterday. I come here every day. I know." After a while Laodice looked about her. The entrance to their refuge was about the middle of the ruin and therefore a great many paces back from the streets, so that she did not see Jerusalem's agonies face to face. But she saw enough to make her cold and to turn her shivering and panic-stricken into the darkness of the crypt below. She saw the ascending streets of Zion and the tall fortifications mounting the heights within the city's limits. There she saw the flash of swords, swung afar off, spears brandished and the running hither and thither of defenders on the wall. Below she saw the remote constricted passages between rows of desolate houses, moving with people, sounding with clamor. There she saw combats, terrible scenes of frenzy, deaths and unnamable horrors; starvelings gnawing their nails; shadows of infants pressed to hollow bosoms; old men too weak to walk that went on hands and knees; young men and young women in rags that failed to cover them, and wandering skeletons screaming, "Woe!" Meanwhile huge stones mounted over the walls and fell within the city; three great towers planted beyond the walls, out of range of the Jewish engines and equipped with superior machines, were steadily devastating the entire quarter near which they were erected. Here two-thirds of the forces of Jerusalem were concentrated in a vain effort to resist the dire inroads of these effective engines. Here, the Maccabee and his Gibborim stood shoulder to shoulder with the Idumeans and fanatics of Simon and John, and here the half-mad defenders awakened at last to the fact that only divine interference could save the city against Rome. In the south and the east conflagrations roared and crackled, where burning oil had been scattered over some remaining structures near the walls. When a great ram began its thunder somewhere near the Sheep Gate, there came a hollow booming noise of deafening volume from the charnel pits outside the walls and a black cloud of incredible depth soared up into the skies. Laodice, dumb with horror, looked at the prodigy without understanding, but the woman at her side shuddered. "God help us!" she exclaimed. "They are vultures!" Laodice turned to rush back into the cavern and so faced the two men who stood behind her. One, at sight of her, shrank with a gasp, and, averting his shaggy head till the long white locks covered his face, fled back into the crypt. The other was gazing with unseeing eyes across groaning Jerusalem. "I am the man," he was saying aloud, but to himself, "that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath." The sight of him had a paralyzing effect upon Laodice. She saw, before her, Nathan, the Christian, who had buried her father, who had blessed her, who would know and could testify to a surety that she was the wife of Philadelphus! She slipped by him without a sound and hurried down into the darkest corner of the cavern. Circumstance had found her in her refuge and would drive her away from this sweet home back to that hateful house, to the man she did not love! For many days, with increasing distress, Laodice avoided Nathan, the Christian. With that fascinated terror which at times forces human creatures to examine a peril, she felt irresistibly impelled to try his memory of events, that she might know if indeed he would recognize her. Though she turned cold and flashed white when he came upon her one day in the darkness of their shelter, she felt nevertheless the relief of approaching a solution to her perplexity. "They tell me," he said with the deliberate speech of the old, "that Titus is once more permitting citizens to depart from Jerusalem unharmed." "Then," she said, grasping at this hope, "why do you stay here in this peril?" "Why should I leave it? Even with the singers who wept by the waters of Babylon, I prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy. Except for the time when we of the Way were warned to depart, I have been in Jerusalem all my life. Then, though I had gone as far as Caesarea on my way to Antioch to join the brethren there, homesickness overtook me and I turned in my tracks, saying no man farewell, and came back." "A weary journey for one so old," she said gently. Would he remember also that it had been dangerous? "Nay, but a journey full of works and reward. And I discovered at the end of it that I had lived in error forty years; that Christ never ceases to prove Himself." Already the forbidden tenets of the Nazarene faith had entered into his words. But feeling somehow that her deflection from uprightness covered her whole life, there was no reason why she should not hear what these people believed and have done with it. "Art thou a Christian?" she asked timidly. "I am a believer in Christ, but whether I may call myself one of the blessed I do not know, for they have had faith. But I demanded a sign. Behold it! The ruin of the City of David!" Her eyes widened with alarm. "Is there no hope?" she exclaimed. He looked at her, even in his old age impressed with the immense importance life and love must have to so beautiful and beloved a woman. Presently he said, as if to himself: "Yea, be thou blessed, O thou Redeemer, that givest life to them to whom life is dear and death approacheth." Her concern for concealment vanished entirely in her rising terror for the future of the Holy City. "I pray thee, Rabbi," she said in a low voice, drawing close to him, "tell me what thy people believe about the city. I have heard—but it can not be true!" "Do not be troubled about the city," he answered. "Ask me rather how to become safeguarded against any disaster, greater even than the fall of cities." "It is not for myself," she protested earnestly, "but for the world. Is there not a King to come to Israel?" "There is, but not yet, my daughter. Of that day and hour no man knoweth. Now is Daniel's abomination of desolation; the generation passeth and the prophecy is fulfilled. Jerusalem is perishing." Seeing the wave of panic sweep over her, he put out a soothing hand. "Yet, do not fear. For such as you the Redeemer died; for your kind the Kingdom of Heaven is built, and the King whom the earth did not receive is for ever Lord of it." The veiled reference to the tragedy which Philadelphus had recounted stood out with more prominence than the promise in his words. "Whom the earth did not receive?" she repeated. "O prophet, as thou boasteth truthful lips and a hoary head, tell me what hath befallen us." "Hear it not as a calamity," he said reassuringly. "Thou canst make it of all things the most profitable, if thou wilt. Forget the city. I, who would forget it but can not, bid thee do this. Behold, there is another Jerusalem which shall not fall. Look to that and be not afraid." Her lips, parted to protest against the vague answer, closed at the final sentence and the Christian pressed his advantage. "Of that Jerusalem there is no like on earth. Against its walls no enemy ever comes; neither warfare nor hunger nor thirst nor suffering nor death. This which David builded is a poor city, a humble city compared to that New Jerusalem. There the King is already come; there the citizens are at peace and in love with one another. There thou shalt have all that thy heart yearneth after, and all that thy heart yearneth after shall be right." In that city would it be right that she love Hesper instead of Philadelphus, and that she should have her lover instead of her lawful husband? While she turned these things over in her mind, he wisely went on with his story. Shrewdly sensing the young woman's anxiety, the old Christian guessed the interest to her of the Messiah's history before His teaching and began with prophecy to support the authenticity of the wonderful Galilean's claim to divinity. It was no fisherman or weaver of tent-cloth who brought forth the declarations of the comforter of Hezekiah, the captive prophet and the priest in the land of the Chaldeans. His was no barbarous manner or slipshod tongue of the market-place and the wheat-fields, but the polish and the clean-cut flawless language of the synagogues and the colleges. Laodice saw in the gesture and phrase the refinement of her father, Costobarus, of the gentlest Judean blood. "I saw Him," he went on in a low voice. Laodice with her intent gaze on the beatified face put her hand to her heart. "Forty years ago," the old voice continued, "I saw Him first in Galilee. There He was disbelieved and cast out. He came then unto Jerusalem and I saw Him there heal lepers, cast out evil spirits, cure the blind and the sick and the palsied. And in the house of Jairus and at Nain, I saw Him raise the dead. "I saw Him come to Jerusalem. Multitudes followed Him and accompanied Him, casting their mantles and palm-branches in the way that His mule might tread upon them." The old man pointed south toward the single summit from which Christ approaching could overlook Jerusalem. "On that hill," he said, "while the multitudes hailed Him and the sound of Alleluia shook the air, He reined in His meek beast and looked upon this city, and wept over it. When He spoke, He said, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. "And three days later, I saw the Rock of David and all that multitude follow Him unto the Hill of the Skull and there His enemies crucified Him!" After a paralyzed silence, Laodice whispered with frozen lips, "In God's name, why?" But he wisely did not pause with the calamity. He had the whole of the beginnings of Christianity to tell, a long narrative that contained as yet no dogma. Paul had seen the great light on the road to Damascus, and accepting apostleship to all the world had fought a good fight and had come unto his crown of righteousness; Peter had established the Church and had fed the sheep and had been offered up by the Beast who was Nero; John the Divine was seeing visions of the Apocalypse in the Island of Patmos; Herod Antipas, "that fox," had passed to his own place, prisoner and exile, sacrifice to a mad Caesar's imaginings; Judas had hanged himself; Pilate had drowned himself; thousands of the saints had died for the faith by fire and sword and wild beasts; kings had been converted and of the believers in Rome it was said, Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Laodice sat with clasped hands, intent on each word as it fell from the lips of the aged teacher, seeing at one and the same time the Kingdom of Heaven constructed and her dream of an earthly empire falling. "He said," the Christian continued, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Repentance was a rite for Laodice, a payment of offering, a process to the righteously inclined, a thing that could in no wise purify the sinner as to make him worthy of association with the upright. The old Christian's use of the word was different; he had said that the Messiah came to the sinner, and not to the righteous. Had the young Jewess been less in need of comfort in her own consciousness of spiritual delinquency she would have set down the old teacher as one of the idlest dealers in contradiction. But now she listened with keener zest; perchance in this doctrine there was balm for her hurt. She made some answer which showed the awakening of this new interest and then with infinite poetry and earnestness he began to unfold the teachings of Christ. A woman came to them with wine and food, for the midday had come, but neither noticed it. In his fervor to enlighten this tender soul, the old man forgot his weariness; in her wonder at the strangely gentle doctrine which had contradicted all the world's previous usage, the girl forgot her prejudice. She listened; and with such signs as change of expression, flushes of emotion, movements of surprise and brightenings of interest to encourage him, the old Christian talked. When he had progressed sufficiently to round out the theory of Christianity, she had grasped a new standard. The contrast between the old and the new made itself instantly felt. On one hand was the simple and logical; on the other the complex and dogmatic. The Christian was able to measure proportionately how much should be laid upon her mind for study at once and while she still waited, he rose from his place. "There is more; yet there are other days," he said. But she caught his hand as he rose and with a sudden yearning in her eyes whispered: "O Rabbi, what said He of love?" "Love?" he repeated, with a softening about his lips. "The Master blessed love between man and woman." "But, but—" she faltered, "if one love another than one's wedded spouse, then what?" His face grew grave. "That is not lawful even among you, who are still of the old faith." He laid a kindly hand on the one that held his. "Suffer but sin not. He that endureth unto the end shall be saved." She was silent while she gazed at him with change showing on her gradually paling face. "Then—then what is in thy faith for the forlorn in love?" she exclaimed. "Peace, and the consciousness of the joy of Christ in your steadfastness," he said. She rose. How much longer had she to live? "And thou sayest we die?" "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul," he said gently. Fear Hesper, then, but not the Roman. While she stood in the immense debate of heart and conscience he laid a tender hand on her head. "Perchance in His mercy thou shalt be welcomed there first by thy father, whom I buried, and by thy mother." The sudden recurrence to that past tragedy and the unfolding of his recognition fairly swept Laodice off her feet with shock and alarm. If he noted her feeling, he was sorry he had not succeeded in comforting her with a promise of reunion with her beloved in that other land. He took away his tremulous hand from her hair. Leaving her transfixed with all he had said, he moved painfully away, stiffened by long sitting while he discoursed. THE FALSE PROPHET It was a different Amaryllis that the pretended Philadelphus faced now, from the one who had welcomed him on his arrival in Jerusalem months ago. Then she had been so cold and self-contained that it would have been effrontery to discuss her hopes with her. Now, with the avarice of love in her eyes, with wishfulness and defeat making their sorry signs on her face, she was a creature that even the humblest would have longed to help. Philadelphus sat opposite her in the ivory chair which was hers by right. She sat in the exedra and listened eagerly to the things he said with her finger-tips on her lips and her eyes gazing from under her brow as her head drooped. She had ceased long ago to debate idly on the actual identity of the man who had called himself Hesper of Ephesus. There was another question that absorbed her. Of late, it had been brought home to her that the charm of Laodice for the stranger from Ephesus, to whom the Greek knew the girl had fled, had been her purity. Why should it matter so much about virtue? she had asked herself. Why should it weigh so immeasurably more than the noble gifts of wit and beauty and strength and charm? Behold, she was wise enough to educate a barbarous nation, beautiful enough to bewitch potentates—for a time—strong enough to take a city; yet Hesper, who best of all could appreciate the value of these things, had turned from her to Laodice, who was merely chaste. The greater part of the jealous and bitter passion that had shaken her then was dumb regret that the measure of charm was so irrational—and that she had not believed in it, in time, in time! Now, however, since she had become convinced that Laodice had gone to Hesper for refuge, hope had awakened in her, but so filled with uncertainty and lack of confidence in another's weakness that it was little more than a torture to her. If Laodice had gone to this winsome stranger, either claiming to be the wife of Philadelphus or acknowledging the imposture, there was now no difference between Laodice and herself! But, she asked herself, was it not possible that this lovely girl who had shown signs of illimitable fortitude, could live in the shelter of the captivating Hesper as uprightly as she had lived under the roof of the man she called her husband? In one exigency, the hopes of Amaryllis budded; in the other, her intuitive belief in the strength of Laodice discouraged her. And while she alternately hoped and doubted, Philadelphus, in the chair opposite her, talked. "It follows that you and I must work together to gain diverse ends. If our fortunes are to be tragic, we are undoing each other in this conjunction. Since I in all frankness prefer it to turn out comedy, let us make no error. Are you weary of John? Do you seek a new diversion?" She looked at him, at first puzzled, then with a frown. It leaped to her lips, grown impatient with suffering, to tell him all that she had evolved of the histories of himself, his lady and of Hesper; but there seemed to be an element of recklessness in that which threatened to do away with a means for her success. He did not wait for her answer. "And I," he said with mock intensity, "am done to death with weariness—with my moneyer, this lady of mine. Let us be diverted while we live, for by the signs we shall all die soon." "Where," he began when her mind wandered entirely from him, "dost thou think the mysterious man hath taken my other wife? "I would I knew," he continued, conducting his inquiry alone. "It will be right simple to have her beauty spoiled in this hungry town, unless he takes tenderest care of her." There was still no comment, but the lively sparkle in the Greek's eye showed that he had touched upon a jealous spot. "And by the by," he pursued, "what does this stranger, whom I can not remember having known, look like? A villain?" She answered now in a voice filled with rancor. "Win away the girl from him and thou wilt know thyself to be the better man; but study how much he hath outstripped thee and thou shalt decide for thyself, then, that he is handsomer, more winsome, stronger and more profitable. Describe him for thyself." "Out upon you! How irritable misfortune makes most of us! Now, here is my lady. She would fail to see the humor in my fetching back this pretty impostor. Alas! Were I Deucalion or Pyrrha or whoever else it was that repeopled the world, I should have left jealousy out of the make-up of wives. It is a needless element. It gives them no pleasure, and Jove! how inconvenient it is for husbands! Now, I am not jealous of my wife. In fact, had any man the hardihood to supplant me, I should not discourage him; I should not, by my soul!" "Why," she burst out again, irritated beyond control at his manner, "do you not leave this place?" He swung his foot idly and smiled. "I shall when I can take with me this dear pretty impostor who is so determined to have me," he answered lightly. "Will you?" she asked eagerly. "Is that why you remain?" "And for my lady's dowry. She keeps the key. But had I the girl cloaked and hooded for flight, I might go, even without the treasure. The times are precarious, you observe." She rose almost precipitately and hurried over to the swaying curtain of some heavy white material like samite, covering that which appeared to be a blind arch in the wall. She drew the hanging aside. It had hidden the black mouth of a tunnel, closed by a brass wicket which was locked. "Here," she said rapidly, "is what strengthens John in his folly. This is a passage that leads under the Temple through Moriah into Tophet. The whole city is underlaid with these galleries, but this is the only one which leads to safety." She dropped the curtain and approached him. "But thou canst not go out of that passage alone!" He smiled, and then with that boyish impulsiveness that he had cultivated to cover the evil in his nature, he thrust out his hand to her. "Here is my hand on it!" he exclaimed. "Go, then, and cease not till you have found her. Then, by any or all the gods, I shall see that you do not go out of that passage empty-handed." He smiled at her radiantly and went at once to his chambers. When he reached the apartments, he found them silent and deserted. He seized upon the opportunity as most propitious for a search for the possible hiding-place of the dowry of two hundred talents. When he opened first the great press in which his lady kept her raiment he was confronted by emptiness. Dismayed, he turned to look into the room and found the chests for the most part open and rifled. On the brazier, now cold, lay a wax tablet. He snatched it up and read: Received of Julian of Ephesus the appended salvage in good repair. Items: One wife, Two hundred talents. JOHN, KING OF JERUSALEM. He went back to the andronitis of Amaryllis. "I have lost interest in the treasure," he said whimsically. "But I'll go out and look for the girl. I—I should like to discover of a truth if the passage leads out of Jerusalem." Amaryllis closed her lips firmly. Philadelphus read in the look that he could not escape without Laodice. Without further speech, he went to the vestibule, took his cloak and kerchief from the porter and went out into the city. It was nearly midnight when he passed into the streets. The tumult of assault on the walls had ceased. The long lines of beacon-fires on the walls showed only a few men in arms posted there. Without there came no sound of activity in the camp of the Roman. The streets below, lighted up by the ever-burning beacons, showed its usual restless tramping of houseless, hungry ones. But there was no talk; each one who walked the passages went wrapped in his own dismal thoughts; the thousands took no notice of one another. Jerusalem was as silent as a city stricken with plague. From the summit of Zion, which Philadelphus mounted, he could see three Roman war-towers, planted along the outer works, dimly lighted, and manned by a vigilant garrison of legionaries. These had been a dread and a destruction which the Jews had been unable to overthrow; coigns of vantage from which the enemy had been able to deal the sturdiest blows of the campaign. They had permitted no rest to the defenders on the wall; they had spread ruin by fire and carnage, by arrow and sling for days. Sorties against them had resulted in the death of their assailants, only. Jewish engines accomplished nothing against them. The three, alone, were taking Jerusalem. Philadelphus looked at their tall shapes, black against the remote illumination of the Roman camp, and inwardly hoped that they would hold off complete destruction of the city, until he had found the desirable woman. No one noticed him; men passed him like shadows with their eyes ever on the ground; no one spoke; nothing disturbed the deadly quiet of the falling city. But the next minute, Philadelphus, who walked alertly, saw people step out into gutters or press against walls, as if to allow some one to pass. Awakening interest ran abroad over the street ahead of him. A lane between the wandering multitude opened almost by magic. Through it, walking swiftly, his head up, his mystic eyes ignited, came Seraiah, soldier of Jehovah. There was no sound of his footfall. His garments flashed in the light of the beacons, but there was not even a whisper of their motion. But he had changed. There was fierce, superhuman intent in the despatch of his gait and in the uplift of his superb head. After him, as he passed, ran whispers. Each one stopped and looked. He went down the uneven slope of Zion as some great shade borne on a swift air. Two or three bold ones began to move after him. Others followed. The little nucleus grew. Philadelphus was caught in it. Numbers were added as courage grew with numbers. From intersecting streets people came. Some, although oppressed by the silence, asked what it was and were silenced quickly. Others began to mutter unintelligible predictions, and their neighbors shook their heads without understanding that which was said. The news of Seraiah's mysterious progress communicated itself to rank and rank and spread abroad. Faces appeared against a background of lights at barred windows, along the balustrades of house-tops, from areas and ruins. Philadelphus, fascinated and astonished at this curious demonstration, was contented to pass with it. Silence, except for the rustling of garments and the multitudinous footfall, fell about the vicinity. Ahead of them, Seraiah moved. His steps, finely balanced, passed over obstructions where most of his followers stumbled, and when he turned across Akra and faced the Old Wall, the excitement became painful. His pace was flying; many of his followers were running. It seemed that he was going against the Wall. Dozens anticipated that course and skirting through short ways clambered up on the fortifications and clung there though menaced by the sentries until Seraiah appeared. At a narrow point in the street that ended against the wall, Seraiah met that Jew who had become a maniac on the day Jerusalem attacked Titus. Without warning the maniac leaped up into an intensely rigid posture; his legs spread, his lean arms upstretched at painful tension, his mouth wide, his eyes dilated immensely in their hollow depths. Seraiah passed him as if no man stood in his way. Instantly the maniac wheeled, as a huge spread-eagle wind-vane on its staff, and stood at gaze, the broad uninterrupted light of the beacon shining down on him and the mysterious man. The street ended short of the wall. About the base of the fortification was an open space, in which was planted a scaling-ladder. Seraiah climbed this, an infinitesimal detail on the great blank of blackened stone. Hundreds, rushing upon the wall, though a goodly distance from the point at which the strange man had mounted, climbed it and beat off the sentries. And the foremost who reached the top saw the Roman Tower directly opposite Seraiah shudder suddenly and sink in a roaring cloud of dust upon itself to the earth. Instantly the maniac below broke the tense silence with a scream that was heard in the paralyzed Roman camp: "It is He, the Deliverer! Come!" Of the thousands of Jews that heard the madman's cry, every heart credited it. Hundreds melted away suddenly, as if stricken with terror at what they might see; other hundreds scrambled down from their places to run purposelessly, crying aimless things to the night over the city; yet others covered their faces with their arms and fell in their places, expecting the end of the world; and of the rest, the less imaginative, the more composed and the more curious, remained on the walls to see enacted a further miracle. Uproar had broken out instantly among the four stolid legions of Titus on the Assyrian bivouac. Lights flashed out everywhere; great running to and fro could be distinguished; rapid trumpet-calls and the prolonged roll of drums from company quarters to quarters were echoed back from Antonia and from Hippicus. The startled shouts of commanders; the nervous dropping of arms; the sharp excited response to roll-call; the sound of sentries challenging, the curt response by countersign, showed everywhere irregularities and the symptoms of panic in the immovable ranks of Titus. Seraiah meanwhile had disappeared from his place as mysteriously as he had come. Many of the Jews who remained on the wall believed that he had passed into the Roman camp and was troubling it. The fall of the tower, and the confusion it had wrought in the Roman camp, never occurred to them to have been fortuitous incidents with which Seraiah had nothing to do. Of the thousands that witnessed that miracle, most of them were convinced that the hour had come. Meanwhile Jerusalem was roaring with excitement. The city was ready for a Messiah. Seraiah had arisen at the psychological moment. Earlier the Jews would have been too critical to accept him readily; later they would have reviled him for coming too late. Whatever his advent lacked in thunders, in darkness, voices, and shaking of the earth, had been passed by his miraculous work against the Romans. Philadelphus, who had seen the fall of the tower, and had dropped down from the wall as soon as he had explained it all to himself, came upon new disorders. Great concourses of awakened Jews were hurrying to the walls to see what had happened, or to behold the Roman army wiped out by the Angel of Death as the army of Sennacherib had perished. Others collected at the end of the Tyropean Bridge and watched the pinnacle of the Temple for the miracle which should restore the city. But the burned ruin where the Herodian palace had stood was the center of the most characteristic frenzy. There thousands were congregated. A great bonfire had been kindled and above the multitude, on a colossal architrave fallen at one end from the giant columns that had supported it, stood a figure, redly illuminated by the fire, tiny as compared to the immense ruin of its high place, but Titan in its control over the wild mob below it. It was a woman, a Jewess, dressed in faithful imitation of the archaic garb of the prophetesses, mantled with a storm of flying black hair, stripped of veil or cloak, and splendidly defiant of the restrictions laid upon woman long after the days of Deborah. Over the heads of the panting multitude she shook a pair of arms that glistened for whiteness, and bewitched by the spell of their motion. From under her half-fallen lids shot gleams of fire that transfixed any upon whom they fell; from her supple body shaken at times with the power of its own dynamic force her hearers caught the grosser infection of physical excitement; they swayed with her as blown by the wind; they ceased to breathe in her periods; they groaned as the intensity of her fervor pressed upon them for response that they could not shape in words; they wept, they shouted, they prophesied, and over them swept ever the witchery of her wonderful voice, preaching impiety—the worship of Seraiah! Philadelphus looked at this frantic work with a creeping chill. He knew the sorceress. Salome of Ephesus, who could send the sated theaters wild with her appeal to their senses, had found enchantment of a half-mad city not hard. Aside from the impiety, in fear of which his own irreligious spirit stood, he saw suddenly opened to him the immense scope of her influence. Not Simon, not John, not Titus, had discovered the logical appeal to the city's unbalanced impulses. But the reckless woman, robing herself in the ancient garb of the days to which the citizens would revert, assuming the pose of a woman they had sanctified, preaching the dogma they would hear, showing them the sign that helped them most, held Jerusalem, at least for that hour, in her hands. He realized at once that to attempt to denounce her would expose him to destruction at the wolfish hands of the frenzied mob. There were not soldiers enough in the city to destroy her influence, for she had achieved in her followers that infatuation that goes down to death before it relinquishes its conviction. Her control was complete. Seraiah was the anointed one, but the prophetess, the instigator, the founder of the worship, as follows in all apostasies, was the final recipient of the benefits of that devotion. Philadelphus walked away from the sight of Salome's triumph. He had surrendered instantly his hope of regaining the treasure. The whole of mad Jerusalem had ranged itself with her to protect it. And Laodice was not yet found. AS THE FOAM UPON WATER The madness on Jerusalem poured like an overwhelming flood into the cavern under the ruin of the Herodian palaces. There was Hesper, with most of his Gibborim gathered, preparing to proceed to the defense of the First Wall in Akra against which the Roman would hurl himself in the morning. For days he had controlled his men only by the force of his fierce will. Restlessness, little short of turbulence, had changed his six hundred from earnest recruits to bright-eyed, contentious, irresponsible enthusiasts whom only intimidation could manage. They seemed to be balanced, prepared, ready at the least whisper in the wind to scatter madly, each in his own direction, after a vagary, albeit the end were destruction. Throughout these latter days the Maccabee had become strained and unnatural in his manner. There was a vehemence in all he did which seemed to be a final resolution against despair. His decisions were arbitrary; his methods extreme. Laodice, sensing something climacteric in his atmosphere, kept aloof from him, and regarded him from the dusk of her corner with wonder and a pity that she could not explain. The Christian on the other hand seemed always in an unobtrusive way to be at the Maccabee's elbow. The apparition with the long white hair, however, ran away and was found on the streets by the Christian and brought back to the cavern, where he hid in a dark shadow in the remote end of the crypt and was not seen. Of late the cavern was always full of suppressed excitement; unpremeditated conferences among the Gibborim, which Hesper harshly forbade; and general sharp resentment against imposed regulations and military drill. On several occasions the six hundred were sent in defense of the walls only by sheer force of their leader's will-power. And there they fell in at once with the irregular methods of the Idumeans and fanatics that fought each after his own liking, and the careful instruction of the Maccabee was disregarded. Only so long as he cowed them, they obeyed him; and he seemed to feel, as they seemed to indicate, that when that thing happened which all Jerusalem indefinitely expected and could not name, his control over them would be lost beyond restoration. On the night of the fall of the Roman tower, the Maccabee's forces had been withdrawn for rest to their retreat and at midnight were formed again for return to the fortifications. By the strange inscrutable spread of rumor, sweeping with the air, the tidings of the miracle and the rise of Seraiah poured in upon the restive hundreds that the Maccabee was attempting to form in his fortress. It came like the gradual velocity of a burning star across the sky. From the ranks nearest the exit from the burrow the murmur issued, growing into intelligible sound, mounting to the wildness of hysteria and prevailing wholly over the Gibborim in the space between heart-beats. Everywhere they cast down their spears and their weapons, everywhere they gazed at him with brilliant threatening eyes and cried in loud voices so that the things each mad mind put into expression were lost in a great unintelligible raving. Laodice, the Christian and that white-haired trembler in his refuge, saw the Maccabee raise himself to his full height and lifting his sword confront in one grand effort at command a mob of six hundred madmen! Perhaps that manifestation of iron courage and strength, which the crazy lot somehow realized, saved him from death. Instead of falling upon him they turned away from the scene of the last vain effort for their own salvation and rushed, trampling one another, into the mad city of Jerusalem. From without, the hoarse uproar of their desertion was heard to merge with the great tumult over the Holy City. Tense silence fell in the crypt. The light of the torch wavered up and down the tall figure of the Maccabee as he stood transfixed in the attitude of command that had achieved nothing. It seemed the final inclination beyond the perpendicular that precedes the fall. The Christian started from his place and hurried toward the tense figure in the torch-light. Laodice, unconscious of what she did, approached him with an agony of distress for him written in her face. The white-haired apparition crept out a little way on his knees and putting aside his tangled locks gazed with burning eyes at the defeated man. Laodice, in her anxiety, moved into the range of the Maccabee's vision. The next instant he had thrown away his sword and had caught her in a crushing embrace to him. His voice, blunted and repressed as if something had him by the throat, was stunning her ear. "And thou!" he was saying. "What from thee, now? Hate! Curses! Ingratitude! Hast thou poison for me, or a knife? Or worse, yet, scorn? Speak! It is a day of enlightenment! I'll brook anything but deceit!" She stopped him in the midst of his vehement despair, by laying her hands on his hair. There surged to her lips all the eloquence of her love and sympathy, but beside her old Nathan stood—an embodiment of her conscience, watching. Twice she essayed to put into words the comfort of her submission to his love. Twice her lips failed her; but the third time she turned to the Christian. "Rabbi, what shall I do?" she implored. "Tell me out of thy wisdom!" "What is it?" he asked, feeling that there was more than sympathy for the defeated man in her heart. "What would thy Christ have me to do?" she insisted. "This stranger, here, is the joy of my heart; I am like to die if I can not give him the love that I feel for him this hour!" The startled Christian looked at her with suspicion growing in his eyes. "Art thou a wife? Wedded to another than this man?" he asked gravely. "Wedded," she whispered, "to one who hath denied me, affronted me and cast me out of his house! In this man I have found favor from the beginning. He has been tender of me, he has sheltered me, and he has strengthened me against himself to this hour. There has been nothing sinful between us!" The old Christian's face grew immeasurably sad. "There is but one thing for you to do," he said. She wrenched herself away from the Maccabee, who had been angrily protesting against her carrying his case to another for decision, and confronted Nathan. "But he rejected me!" she cried with earnestness. "That alone is enough among our people for divorcement!" The Christian shook his head sadly. He was not happy to lay down this prohibition before them who suffered. "There is no help in thy faith for such as I am. In that thy religion fails!" she cried. "Love, now, is all in all to thee, daughter. It is but the speech of thy young blood running through thy veins, the claim of thy youth to thy use upon earth. Resist it; for when thy years are as many as mine thou wilt lose thy rebellious spirit and the fervor will have died out of thy heart. Then, if thou hast fallen in this hour, how vain and worthless it will seem to thee! Divine fires in the heart of men never become changed in value. Love purely and thou wilt never repent; but I say unto thee thou fashionest for thyself humbled and shamed old age if thou transgressest the Law!" "What mercy, then, since thou preachest mercy, in filling me with this weakness if my life must be darkened resisting it, and my future show no relief for it?" she insisted passionately. It was the cry old as the world. He looked at her sadly, hopelessly. "As for God, His way is perfect," he said. "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Thou shalt struggle with the truth, my daughter, but without fail and most readily thou shalt know when thou hast sinned!" She was past the influence of argument. Impulse controlled her now entirely. She would see if there were not an intelligence, even a religion which would see her sorrow from her own heart's position. She listened now to the words of her lover. "He is an exclaimer, a prophet of doom!" he was crying. "Love me and let us die!" Without in the entrance of the crypt some great-lunged fanatic was calling the multitude to harken to the prophetess. The Maccabee's lips were against her cheek as he continued to speak. "It is the end! There is no help for us. Love me, and let me be happy an hour before we perish! The Nazarene is right! The city is cursed! God's wrath is upon us. The hour is still ours. Love me and let us die!" Without the great voice, like an unwearying bell, was calling: "A sign! A sign! Behold the Deliverer! Come all ye who would share his triumph and hear! Hear! Come ye and be fed, ye hungry; be drunken, ye thirsty; love and be loved, ye forlorn!" Laodice stiffened in the Maccabee's clasp. "Dost thou hear?" she whispered. "It may be true!" He shook his head that he had bowed upon her shoulder. "Let us go," she urged. "Perchance he has comfort for us. Come, Hesper; let us see what he has for the forlorn." "Who?" he asked dully. "They say the Deliverer has come." He shook his head again, but with her two hands she lifted his face from its refuge, and urging with her eyes and her hands and her lips she led him toward the stairs. The Christian looked after them. "For there shall arise false Christs; and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect," he said sorrowfully. The horror of the city augmented hour by hour. The Jerusalem Laodice locked upon now was infinitely more afflicted than the one she had seen in the daylight days before. The walls were now outlined by fire which illuminated all the city that lay directly beneath the beacons. To the north gnomish outlines by hundreds against the flames showed where the soldiers of the factionists were placing the topmost stones upon an inner wall or curtain erected just within the Old Wall, which was by this time shaking and cracking under the assaults of a great siege-engine without. Titus, awakened by the fall of his tower, had immediately renewed the attack, although the morning was still some hours distant. But the citizens were no longer disinterested, no longer wrapped in hopelessness and dull misery. Hungry, sleepless, houseless, diseased and mad though they were, their hollow eyes gleamed now with hope that was almost defiant. Around the Maccabee and Laodice roared the comment of the multitude. "They say he climbed to the summit of the outer wall overlooking Tophet and remains there a target for the Roman arrows, which rebound from him!" cried one. "One of John's men says that the heads of the arrows are blunted and the most of them snapped in two when they are picked up." "The Romans have ceased to shoot at him!" "They say that his footprints in the dust on the Tyropean Bridge are Hebrew letters writing 'Elia' in gold!" "It is said that the inner Temple is rocking with trumpet blasts and that John is struck dead!" "They say that those who believe in him shall ask for whatever they would have and have it!" "The breaches in the First Wall have been healed; the old rock is back in its place!" "They say that the dead beyond the wall in Tophet are prophesying!" "There is a bolt of lightning fixed in the sky over Titus' camp. We are called to go forth and see it fall!" A voice swept by distantly crying that a woman had eaten her child. Crazed Posthumus, self-elected guardian of the Law, with the sacred roll under his arm, declaimed, without any of his audience attending, that prophecy which this horror fulfilled. All Jerusalem was in the streets; all Jerusalem poured into the immense open space where some palatial ruin stood, and melted in the giant concourse that gathered to hear the prophetess. Laodice and the Maccabee were unable to see the woman; only her voice, mystic, musical, pitched at a singing monotone, intoning rather than speaking, reached them from the distance. The long harangue, delivered as a chant, had long ago had a mesmerizing effect on her audience. Absolutely she controlled them; along the dead level of her preaching they maintained a low continuous murmur, accompanied by a slight slow swaying of the body; in the climaxes of the appeal they responded with cries and wild gestures, flinging themselves about in attitudes characteristic of their frenzy. In their faces was the reflection of a peculiar light that proved that derangement had settled over Jerusalem. It was the end of the reign of reason. "It is the abomination of desolation. Even so, it is finished! It is the time, it is full time, and Michael hath come. There are seventy weeks; behold them. The transgression is finished and the end hereto of all sins. Approacheth the hour for the reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy! Prepare ye!" Somewhere in the city a voice that was heard even by the fighting-men on the wall in Akra cried: "The Sacrifice has failed! The Oblation is ceased! There is no Offering for the Altar; none is left to offer it!" The vast gathering heard it, and immediately from the high place of the prophetess came back the words, prompt and effective: "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease!" Posthumus, buried in the midst of the crowd, was shouting, but over him the splendid mesmerism of the prophetess' voice soared. "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people ... The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; ... and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate!" Among the crowd now growing frantic, people began to cry: "A sign! A sign!" "Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the Heaven of the Lord!" "Lead us!" they still shouted. They were hungry; they had been abstinent; they had surrendered their riches and their comforts. It was not independence but necessities that they wanted now. The primal wants were at the surface. "Come up and be filled!" she cried. "Ask and it shall be given unto you! Eat of the grapes and the honey; drink of wine and warm milk; sleep as kings; be housed in mansions; be rulers; command potentates! Let kings bow at your footstools! Be replenished; be great! Suffering hath been your portion since the earth was; but the end is come. Draw nigh and have your recompense. Laugh, you whose eyes have trickled down with the waters of affliction! You in the low dungeon come forth and range all the free boundaries of the world. Whosoever hath gravel between his teeth, let them be grapes! He who sitteth alone, gather company and revel unto him! Feast, ye hungry; be drunken, ye thirsty; love and be loved, ye forlorn!" Laodice leaned forward suddenly and hung on the woman's words. "The time for sacrifice and humiliation is paid out! It was a long time! Now, behold in the generosity of his repentance, ye shall ask and nothing shall be denied. Speak! Ask! The whole world, Heaven and earth and the delights of all the years are yours, now and for all time!" At Laodice's side was Amaryllis. The Greek's face was pale but lighted with a certain enlightenment that was almost threatening. Startled and frightened Laodice moved back from the Greek, who moved with her, without a glance at the Maccabee. The voice of the prophetess swept on: "Ye have bowed to tyrants and bent your necks to murderers; ye have waged wars for pillagers and shared not in the spoils. Why are ye hungry now? Who is full-fed in these days of want, yourselves or your masters? A sword, a sword is drawn; uphold the arm that wields it!" "Sedition!" Amaryllis whispered, as the mob began to murmur and stir at this new doctrine. "For behold, he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many!" Amaryllis bent so she could whisper in Laodice's ear. "John hath taken him a new woman to keep him cheerful this hour. I was not daring enough. Philadelphus' wife hath supplanted me. Your place with him is vacant. Go back and possess it!" "Why was appetite and desire and thirst of power and the love of riches lighted in you, but to be satisfied?" The prophetess' words swept in after Laodice's sudden fear of returning to Philadelphus. "We have expiated the sin of Adam, the greed of Jacob and the fault of David. The judgment is run out; ye have come to your own! Verily, I say unto you, if ye follow me in the name of him who hath come unto you, the world shall be yours!" Amaryllis still continued to whisper, and Laodice, fearing that the Maccabee might hear, drew farther away. He stood where she had left him, with his head lowered, waiting—at last a creature dependent on another's will. "Listen!" Amaryllis said. "I have been seeking you since midnight! Philadelphus' doubt was awakened in this woman. He questioned her, so minutely that she betrayed ignorance of many things she should have known had she been the real daughter of Costobarus. And when finally he taxed her with imposture, she robbed him of the dowry and fled to John. Convinced that you are his wife, he set forth and hath since searched for you without ceasing! See, over there! He seeks you, now!" Laodice looked the way the Greek pointed and saw Philadelphus, standing with lifted head and stretched to his full height, as if searching over the crowd for her. Panic seized her. She wrenched herself from the Greek's hold and, forgetting even the protection of Hesper who was within touch of her, she threw herself into the crowd behind her and struggled out of the press. Nathan, the Christian, saw her turn and followed instantly in the path she made. Once out, she turned in a bewildered manner this way and that. What refuge, now, for her, indeed, but the cavern under the ruin and the care of Hesper, until the end which should swallow them all! A trembling hand was laid on her arm. She whirled, expecting to find Philadelphus. Beside her, his old face radiant with emotion, stood Momus! THE FAITHFUL SERVANT Within the Roman lines was a bent and deformed figure of an old waif that the soldiers had picked up attempting to run the lines into Jerusalem the second day after the siege had been laid about the Holy City. The old man, though wrinkled and twisted and bowed, had fought with such terrible savagery and had incontinently laid in the dust in succession three of the camp's best fighting-men, that the Roman soldiers, for ever partizan to the strong man, had finally with great difficulty succeeded in trussing the old belligerent and had brought him before Titus. There they laid the twisted old burden before the young general and shamelessly told how he, thrice the age of the vanquished men, had finished them with despatch. It was evident that the old man was a Jew; it became also apparent that he was dumb and partly deaf, and further to their amazement and admiration, they discovered that his right leg and arm were too stiff for ordinary use and that he had done his wonderful execution with terrific left limbs. This saved his life and gave him a partial liberty. Titus, however, admitted to Carus that the old man's distress at being kept out of Jerusalem was pitiable enough to urge the young general to deport him and get him out of sight. For it was manifest that the old minotaur was in deep trouble. But his paralyzed tongue would not serve him, and his menial ignorance had not provided him with the means of telling his desire by writing. Titus was unable to understand from his signs anything further than that he wished to get into the city. The young general in one of his outbursts of generosity would have permitted this, but that Nicanor happened in at an evil moment and drew such pictures of calamitous effect in passing the old servant into Jerusalem that Titus was forced reluctantly and irritably to be convinced of the folly of his kindness. So here, through the terrible days of the siege, old Momus at times desperate and savage, at others piteously suppliant, wore on the sentries' peace of mind and stood like a shadow, for ever watching the white walls of the besieged city. The Romans were now within the city. Only Zion and the Temple held against them. A wall built with the thoroughness of David, the ancient, and solidified by the mortising of Time, ran directly from Hippicus to the Tyropean Valley, joining the tremendous fortifications of Moriah and so cut off Zion from the advance of the army. Securely intrenched within that quarter and the Temple, Simon and John began the last resistance which should tax Roman endurance and Roman patience as it had not been taxed before. Titus no longer lagged. Famine had long since become a powerful ally and the honor of the Flavian house rested upon his immediate subjugation of the rebellious city. He no longer expected capitulation; yet he did not neglect to be prepared for it and to encourage it. Though the heart of the historian Josephus broke, he did not fail to serve his patron as mediator, though without hope. Titus himself, as from time to time the horror of his work impressed itself upon him, made overtures to the factionists, neglecting no art or inducement which should convince the seditious that their resistance was foolhardy, even mad. At such times, Nicanor's face became contemptuous and Carus himself frowned at the young general's attitude. But the spirit of a Roman and the traditions of a soldier even could not prevent the young man from weakening at times before the charnel pit in Tophet where countless thousands of vultures fattened with roaring of wings and hissing of combat. But under an ever-thickening veil of horrid airs, the struggle went on. The Roman Ides of July arrived. Titus had erected banks upon which his engines were raised to batter the walls of the Temple. From Titus' camp, the Romans on sick leave, the commissaries, those attached to the army who were not fighting-men, and old Momus, saw first, before the attack on the Temple began, a soft increasing dun-colored vapor rise between the Temple and Antonia. It issued from the cloister at the northwest which joined the Roman tower. As they watched, they saw that vapor grow into a pale but intensely luminous smoke, as if fine woods and burning metals were consumed together. In a moment the whole north-west section was embraced in a sublime pall of fire. John was burning away the connection between the Temple and the tower and was making the sacred edifice four-square. As soon as it became confirmed, in the minds of the watchers in the Roman camp, that the Temple had been fired, the old mute among them seemed to become wholly unbalanced. Without warning, he leaped upon the nearest sentry who, not expecting the attack, went down with a clatter of armor and a shout of astonishment. The next instant the old man was making across the intervening space between the camp and Jerusalem as fast as his stiff legs could carry him. The purple sentry sprang to his feet and strung an arrow, but before he could send it singing, the old minotaur was mixed with a second soldier in such confusion that the first sentry hesitated to shoot lest he should kill his fellow. Another moment and a second soldier was struggling in the impediment of his armor in the dust and the old mute was again hobbling straight away toward the walls of Jerusalem. He was now a fair mark for the first sentry, but that Roman's rancor died after he had seen his own disgrace covered by the overthrow of his fellow. Two of Titus' scouts next stood in the path of the running old man. One went to the ground so suddenly and so violently that the watchers, now breaking into howls of delight, knew that he had been tripped. The other stood but a moment longer, than he, too, rolled into the dust. The old man might have gone no farther at this juncture, for at every latest triumph he left a crimson soldier murderous with shame. But before the arrow next strung to overtake him could fly, Titus, Carus and Nicanor, accompanied by their escort, rode between the fugitive and the men he had defeated. "There goes our minotaur," Carus said quietly. Titus drew up his horse and looked. Nicanor with a sidelong glance awaited the young Roman's command to his escort to ride down the fugitive. But he waited, and continued to wait, while Titus with lifted head and with indecision in his eyes watched the deformed old shape hobble on toward the Wall of Circumvallation. "Shall we let him go?" Nicanor inquired coldly. "If some of my legionaries or those erratic Jews fail to get him between here and Jerusalem, he shall get into Jerusalem. But by Hector, he will earn his entry!" They saw the old man mount by the causeway of earth which the Romans had built over the siege wall for the passage of the troops, saw him an instant outlined against the sky on the summit, and the next instant he disappeared. Titus touched his horse and rode at a trot toward the causeway himself. He would see the end of this mad venture. In the hour of sunrise the sentinel above the North Gate in the Old Wall saw among the ruins of the houses of Coenopolis a figure dodging painfully hither and thither. It was not habited in the brasses of the Roman armor. Also, it hobbled as if lame and ran toward the gate fast closed below the sentry. The Jew, too intensely interested in the great climax enacting in the city below, ceased to remark on this figure. Presently, however, he looked again into ruined Coenopolis. He saw there this un-uniformed figure wrapped in fierce embrace with a young legionary. Almost before the sentry's astonishment shaped itself into exclamation, the legionary was tumbled aside as if crushed and the old figure hobbled on. Suddenly there appeared in the path of the wayfarer a galloping horseman, who drew his mount back on his haunches, then spurred him to ride down the old man. The sentry on the Old Wall made a choked sound, unslung his bow and sent an arrow singing. There was a shout and the figure of the horseman plunged from his saddle face down on the earth. The wayfarer flung himself away and rushed toward the wall, only a little distance away. But all Coenopolis seemed to swarm now with legionaries, afoot or horseback. The Jewish sentry rushed to the edge of the tower overhanging the gate. "Open!" he shouted below. "One cometh!" With a rattle and clang of falling bars and chains the gate of the Old Wall swung. Disregarding the known wishes of Titus, two of the legionaries simultaneously let fly their javelins. But the mute, hobbling uncertainly, was not a steady mark and under the whistle of arrows received and sent, he blundered up the causeway leading to the Gate of the Old Wall, and the portal slowly and ponderously closed behind him. Wild howls of derision and exultation went up from the Jews. Many of the soldiers clambered down to satisfy their curiosity about the latest addition to the starving garrison. But he proved to be a deformed old man, mute and weary, who was distressed for fear he would be detained by them and who hobbled out into the besieged city and posted as fast as his legs could carry him toward the house of Amaryllis, the Seleucid. But at the edge of a great open space where the Herodian palaces had stood he came upon a concourse which seemed to be all Jerusalem. It was a gaunt horde, shouting, raging, prophesying and drowning the roar of battle at the Temple fortifications with the sound of religious frenzy. Momus, fresh from the orderly camp of Titus, was struck with terror. He would have retreated and followed some side street toward his destination, when he caught sight of a girl on the very outskirts of this mob. Momus laid a trembling hand on her arm. She threw up her head with a start. The tremulous old man, weakened from his long and superhuman struggle to enter the doomed city, held Laodice to his breast while she stroked his rough cheeks and murmured things that he did not hear and which she did not realize in the rush of her helplessness and dismay. At the corner of Moriah and the Old Wall, the tumult was infernal. Out of the suffocating sallow smoke from the tuns of burning tar heaved over the fortification upon the engines and their managers, the stones from the catapults soared into view and fell upon the sun-colored marbles that paved the Court of the Gentiles. Clouded by the vapor, targets for the immense missiles, the Jews heaving and writhing in personal encounters appeared black and inhuman. Every combatant shouted; the great stones screamed; the boiling pitch hissed and roared, and the thunder of the conflict shook the Temple to its very foundations. Without, the Romans planted scaling ladders, mounted them and were pitched backward into the moat regularly. Regularly, the ladders were set up again after struggle, mounted without hesitation and thrown down again, with an inevitability which furnished a grim travesty to the struggle. The two remaining towers were set in position against the base of Moriah and resumed execution. One after another the engines of the Romans were hauled into position, and worked unceasingly until covered with burning oil from the battlements above and consumed. Others were hauled into place; fresh detachments of Romans seized upon the scaling-ladders or mounted to the towers, and the roar of the conflict never abated. Meanwhile on the slopes of Zion the whole of Jerusalem, gaunt, dying and demoniacal, was packed in the ruins of the palace of Herod. Old Momus with triumph and tearful exultation was holding out to Laodice a heavy roll of writings, dangling important seals, ancient papers showing yellow beside the fresh parchment, and an old record dark with long handling. Here were the proofs of her identity! Laodice shrank from him with a gasp that was almost a cry. Behold, the faithful old servant had suffered she knew not what to bring such evidence as would force her to do that which she believed she could not do and survive! Momus sought to put the papers in her hands, but she thrust them away and he stood looking at her in amazement and sorrow. Nathan, the Christian, stood close to her. From the opposite side, Philadelphus rounded the outskirts of the mob, searching. He did not see her. She flung herself between Momus and Nathan and cowered down until Philadelphus had passed from sight. When she lifted her head, Momus was gazing at her with the light of shocked comprehension growing in his eyes. Nathan, the Christian, touched her. "Who was that man?" he asked gravely. She rose and laid her hands on the Christian's shoulders. "My husband," she said. Something had happened at the Temple. She saw the Jews at the wall recoil from the dust of battle, rally, plunge in and disappear. From out that presently shone now and again, then with increasing frequency and finally in great numbers, the brass mail of Roman legionaries. Titus' forces had scaled the wall. From her position, she saw running toward them John of Gischala, with his long garments whipping about him, wrapping his tall figure in live cerements. He was disarmed and bleeding. She saw next Amaryllis, with compassionate uplifted hands stop in his way; saw next the Gischalan thrust her aside with a blow and the next instant disappear as if the earth had swallowed him. Nathan was speaking to her. "How often, O my daughter, we recognize truth and deny it because it does not give us our way! God put a sense of the right in us. We transgress it oftener than we mistake it!" The roar of the turning battle and the mob about her drowned his next words, except, "You can not be happy in iniquity; neither blessed; but you are sure to be afraid. Right has its own terror, but there is at least courage in being right, against your desires." He was talking continuously, but only at times did the wind from the uproar sweep his fervent words to her. "Christ had His own conflict with Himself. What had become of us had He listened to the tempter in the wilderness, or failed to accept the cup in the Garden of Gethsemane! How much we have the happiness of Christ in our hands! Alas! that His should be a sorrowful countenance in Heaven! "The love of a man for a woman was near to the Master's heart! How can you feel that you must love and be loved in spite of Him! Pity yourself all you may you can not then be pitied so much as He pities you! "Love as long and as wilfully as you will, and then it is only a little space. The time of the supremacy of Christ cometh surely, and that is all eternity! Which will you do—please yourself for an hour, or be pleased by the will of God through all time? Love is in the hands of the Lord; you can not consign it longer than the little span of your life to the hands of the devil." Momus, in whose mind had passed an immense surmise, was again at her side. "O daughter of a noble father," his dumb gaze said, "wilt thou put away that virtue which was born in thee and let my labor come to naught?" But the preaching of Nathan and the reproach of Momus were feeble, compared to the great tumult that went on in her soul. She had seen John of Gischala cast Amaryllis aside. Even the Greek's sympathy was hateful to him. Yet when Laodice had first entered the house of Amaryllis, the woman had been obliged to dismiss John from her presence for his own welfare and the welfare of the city. Why this change? Amaryllis was no less beautiful, no less brilliant, no less attractive than she had once been; but the Gischalan had wearied of her. Laodice recalled that she had not been surprised to see the man throw Amaryllis aside. It seemed to be the logical outcome of love such as theirs. How, then, was she to escape that which no other woman escaped who loved without law? In the soul of that stranger who had called himself Hesper, were lofty ideals, which had not been the least charm which had attracted her to him. Was she, then, to dislodge these holy convictions, to take her place in his heart as one falling short of them, or were they still to exist as standards which he loved and which she could not reach? In either event, how long would he love—what was the length of her probation before she, too, would encounter the inevitable weariness? It occurred to her, then, how nearly the natural law of such love paralleled the religious prohibition that the Christian had shown to her. However harsh and unjust the sentence seemed, it was rational. With her own eyes she had seen its predictions borne out. Already the relief of the sorrowing righteous possessed her. She turned to the Christian. "Take me to my husband," she said. "Now! While I have strength." Momus caught the old Christian by the arm and, signing eagerly that he would lead, hurried away in advance of the two down into the ravine and crossed to the house of Amaryllis. There were no soldiers to stop them about the house. When no response was made to her knock, Laodice opened the door and passed in. Her old conductors followed her. Amaryllis sat in her ivory chair; opposite her in the exedra was Philadelphus. At sight of him, the last of the soft color went out of Laodice's face. A curve of despair marked the corners of her mouth and she seemed to grow old before those that looked at her. Philadelphus and the Greek sprang to their feet, the instant the group entered. Laodice waited for no preliminary. Amaryllis' design was patent to her; it was part of her sorrow that now Hesper would be free to the devices of this deceitful woman. So she did not look at the Greek. She addressed Philadelphus in a voice from which all hope and vivacity had gone. "I have brought proofs. Behold them!" Nathan, the Christian, stood forth. "I, Nathan of Jerusalem, met and talked with this Laodice, daughter of Costobarus, in company with Aquila, the Ephesian, three men-servants in all the panoply and state of a coming princess three leagues out of Ascalon, her native city. I buried by the roadside her father, who died of pestilence on their journey hither. I bear witness that she is the daughter of Costobarus and thy wedded wife." A great light sprang into the face of the Greek. Philadelphus, nervous, albeit the news he heard filled him with pleasure, stood and waited. The Christian stepped back and Momus, bowing, approached and handed the leather roll into the none too steady hands of the Ephesian. He opened it and drew forth parchments. Aloud he read a minute description of Laodice from the rabbi of the synagogue in Ascalon; under the great seals of the Roman state, he found and read the oath of the prefect, that such a maiden as the rabbi had described had been married before him to Philadelphus Maccabaeus fourteen years before. Then followed the depositions of forty Jews and Gentiles who were nurses, tradesmen and other people like to have daily contact with the young woman in her house, setting entirely at naught any claim that Laodice was other than the wife who had been supplanted by an adventuress. Philadelphus did not read them all. Before he made an end he dropped the documents and flung wide his arms. But Laodice with a countenance frozen with suffering held him off for a moment. "Go," she said to the old Christian, "unto Hesper and lead him into the belief of the Lord Jesus Christ which is mine." The old Christian approached the fountain in the center of the andronitis and taking up water in his palm sprinkled a few drops on her hair while she knelt. "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, I baptize thee, Laodice. Amen!" While she knelt, he said: "I shall search for him also. Christ have mercy on thee now and for ever. Farewell." He was gone. When Nathan, the Christian, stepped into the streets once more there was an immense accession of tumult about him. He turned to look toward the corner of the Old Wall in time to behold Jews in armor and Romans in blazing brass rush together in a great cloud of dust as the Old Wall went in and Titus swept down upon Jerusalem. At the same instant from the ruined high place upon Zion came a roar of stupendous menace. The Christian, with sublime indifference to danger, kept his path toward the concourse from which he had taken Laodice. As he ascended the opposite slope of the ravine, he saw, descending toward the battle, the front of a rushing multitude, as irresistible and as destructive as a great sea in a storm. He saw that the mob was turning toward Akra, and to avoid it, the Christian climbed up to the Tyropean Bridge, and from that point viewed the whole of Jerusalem sweeping down upon the heathen. At the head of the inundation passed a melodious voice crying: "An end, an end is come upon the four corners of the land! Draw near every man with his destroying weapon in his hands for the glory of the Lord! For His house is filled with cloud and the Court is full of the brightness of the Lord's glory! A sword! A sword is sharpened! The way is appointed that the sword may come! For the time for favor to Zion is here; yea, the set time is come!" After this poured a gaunt horde numbering tens of thousands. They bore paving-stones, stakes, posts, railings, garden implements, weapons from kitchens, from hardware booths and from armories; anything that one man or a body of men could wield; torches and kettles of tar; chains and ropes; knotted whips, and bundles of fagots; iron spikes, instruments of torture, anything and everything which could be turned as a weapon or to inflict pain upon the Roman, who believed at this moment that Jerusalem was his! The Christian overlooked this ferocious inundation and shook his head. On a mound near him stood the spirit of the mob concentrated and personified. It was crazed Posthumus. He was screaming: "It is finished; the law is run out! All prophecy is fulfilled!" And over his head he was swinging a parchment fiercely burning. It was the Scroll of the Law! After uncounted minutes, vibrating with roar, the terrible flood rushed by. Feeble arms clasped the Christian about the knees and he looked down on the tangled white locks of the palsied man, who had searched for him until he had found him. The Christian laid his hand on the man's head but did not speak. At the breach in the Old Wall, the watchers on that almost deserted street saw the brazen wave of four legions gather and sweep forward to gain ground in the city before the mob swept down on them. Between the two warring bodies, one orderly, prepared but apprehensive, the other mad and perishing, was a considerable space. Fighting still went on at the breach in the walls, but the supreme conflict of a comparatively small body of soldiers and an uncounted horde was not yet precipitated. Ordinarily, the Roman army could have reduced any popular insurrection with half that number of men. But at present the legionaries confronted desperate citizens who were simply choosing their own way to die. Reason and human fear long since had ceased to inspire them. They were believing now and following a prophet because it was the final respite before despair. There was no alternative. It was death whatever they did, unless, in truth, this splendid sorceress was indeed the Voice of the Risen Prince. Force would be of no avail against them. Madness had flung them against Rome; only some other madness would turn them back. The Christian, from his commanding position, expected anything. It was the moment which would show if the false prophet would triumph. If the four legions went down before the multitude, it would mean the ascendancy of a strange woman over Israel, and the obliteration of the faith in Jesus Christ in the Holy Land. It can not be said that the Christian watched the crisis with a calm spirit. He did not wish to see the heathen overthrow the ancient people of God, nor could he behold the triumph of a false Christ. He put his hands together and prayed. A figure appeared between the two bodies of combatants, rushing on intensely, to grapple. It was a tall commanding form, clothed in garments that glittered for whiteness. By the step, by the poise of the head, the Christian recognized Seraiah. The front of the multitude fell on their faces at that moment as if he had struck them down. Out of the forefront, the prophetess appeared. The Christian heard her splendid voice out of the uproar, and while he gazed, he saw mad Seraiah turn away from her, with the front of the mob turning after him, as a needle turns to the pole. In that fatal moment of pause, out of which the warning cry of the prophetess rang wildly, the Roman tribune, in view for a moment under the blowing veils of smoke, flung up his sword, the Roman bugle sang, and the brassy legions of Titus hurled themselves upon the halted mob. The Christian dropped his head into the bend of his elbow and strove to shut out the sound. The nervous arms of the palsied man at his feet gripped him frantically. Up from the corner of the Old Wall, came the prolonged "A-a-a-a!" of dying thousands. Jerusalem had fallen. The foremost of the mob, turning with Seraiah, escaped the onslaught of the Romans, and as the mad Pretender strode toward the broad street from which the Tyropean Bridge crossed to the demesnes of the Temple, they followed him fatuously, blind to the death behind them and the oncoming slaughter in which they might fall. Seraiah passed above the spot where the sorrowful Christian stood, crossed the great causeway leading toward the Royal Portico and after him six thousand blind and insane enthusiasts followed, expecting imminent miracle. Above them towered the heights of Moriah, now veiled in smoke. Up the great white bank of stairs they rushed after him, facing an ordeal which must mean a baptism in fire, and on through a curtain of luminous smoke into a gate pillared in flame, up into the Royal Portico, resounding with the tread of the advancing Destroyer, out into the great Court of Gentiles wrapped in cloud through which the Temple showed, a stupendous cube of heat, through the Gate Beautiful where the Keeper no longer stood, thence into the Women's Court, raftered with red coals, up smoking stones tier upon tier till the roof of the Royal Portico was reached. At the brink of the pinnacle, they saw through tumbling clouds Seraiah towering. He was looking down through masses of smoke upon the City of Delight, perishing. They who had followed watched, uplifted with terror and frenzy, and while they waited for the miracle which should save, the roof crumbled under them and a grave of thrice heated rock received them and covered them up. Below, Nathan, the Christian, seized upon the shoulders of the Maccabee as he was dashing after the thousands. His face was black with terror for Laodice. He struggled to throw off Nathan, crying futilely against the uproar that Laodice was perishing. "Comfort thee!" the Christian shouted in his ear. "She is saved. She sent me to thee." The Maccabee stopped, as if he realized that he need not go on, but had not comprehended what was said to him. Nathan dragged him out of the way, still choked with people struggling to pass on to the Temple or to flee from it. Half-way down the Vale of Gihon, where speech was a little more possible, the Maccabee, who had been crying questions, made the old man hear. "Where is she? Where is she?" "She has returned to her husband. In love with thee, she has done that only which she could do and escape sin. She has gone to shelter with him whom she does not love!" The Maccabee seized his head in his hands. "It is like her—like her!" he groaned. In the Christian's heart he knew how narrowly Laodice had made her lover's mark for her. "It is her wish," Nathan continued, "that I teach thee Christ whom she hath received." "How can I receive Him, when He sent her from me?" the unhappy man groaned, unconscious of his contradictions. "How canst thou reject Him when His teaching led thy love to do that which thine own lips have confessed to be the better thing?" "Then what of myself, when I love where I should not love?" the Maccabee insisted. "You may suffer and sin not," the Christian said kindly. The unhappy man dropped to his knees. "O Christ, why should I resist Thee!" he groaned. "Thou hast stripped me and made me see that my loss is good!" The Christian laid his hands on the Maccabee's head. "Dost thou believe?" he asked. "Will Christ accept me, coming because I must?" "It is not laid down how we shall baptize in the thirst of a famine," Nathan said, "yet He who sees fit to deny water never yet hath denied grace." But the Christian's hand extended over the kneeling man was caught in a grip steadied with intense emotion. The unknown had seized him. But for his feeling that this interruption was necessary to the welfare of another soul, the Christian would not have paused in his ministry. The phantom straightened himself with a superb reinvestment of manhood. "Thou, son of the Maccabee, Philadelphus!" he exclaimed to the kneeling man. The Ephesian's arms sank. "Who art thou that knoweth me?" he asked in a dead voice. "I am all that plague and sin hath left of thy servant Aquila," the phantom declared. The Maccabee lifted his face for what should follow this revelation. It was only a manifestation of his subjection to another will than his own. He was not interested—he who was hoping to die. "Hear me, and curse me!" Aquila went on. "But save thy wife yet. I say unto thee, master, that she whom thou hast sheltered in the cavern is thy wife, Laodice!" The Maccabee struggled up to his feet and gazed with stunned and unbelieving eyes at this wreck of his pagan servant, who went on precipitately. "Her I plotted against at the instigation of Julian of Ephesus. Her, my mistress, Salome the Cyprian, robbed and hath impersonated thus long to her safety in the house of the Greek. This hour, through ignorance of thine own identity, through my fault, she hath gone reluctantly to his arms. Curse me and let me die!" The Maccabee seized the hair at his temples. For a moment the awful gaze he bent upon Aquila seemed to show that the gentler spirit had been dislodged from his heart. Then he cried: "God help us both, Aquila! My fault was greater than thine!" He turned and fled toward the house of the Greek. The four legions of Titus swept after him. Aquila lifted his eyes for the first time and gazed at Nathan. "I cursed thee for sparing me to such an existence as was mine! Behold, father, thou didst bless me, instead. I am ready to die." "Wait," the Christian said peacefully. A moment later, the Maccabee dashed into the andronitis of Amaryllis. After him sprang a terrified servant crying: "The Roman! The Roman is upon us!" A roar of such magnitude that it penetrated the stone walls of Amaryllis' house, swept in after the servant. Quaking menials began to pour into the hall. Among them came the blue-eyed girl, the athlete and Juventius the Swan. These three joined their mistress who stood under a hanging lamp. Into the passage from the court, left open by the frightened servants, swept the prolonged outcry of perishing Jerusalem. Over it all thundered the boom of the siege-engines shaking the earth. The slaves slipped down upon their knees and began to groan together. The silver coins on the lamp began to swing; the brass cyanthus which Amaryllis had recently drained of her last drink of wine moved gradually to the edge of the pedestal upon which she had placed it. The dual nature of the uproar was now distinct; organized warfare and popular disaster at the same time. The Roman was sweeping up the ancient ravine. Jerusalem had fallen. The gradual crescendo now attained deafening proportions; the hanging lamp increased its swing; the silver coins began to strike together with keen and exquisitely fine music. Juventius the Swan, with his dim eyes filled with horror, was looking at them. The peculiar desperate indifference of the wholly hopeless seized him. His long white hands began to move with the motion of the lamp; the music of the meeting coins became regular; he caught the note, and mounting, with a bound, the rostrum that had been his Olympus all his life, began to sing. The melody of his glorious voice struggled only a moment for supremacy with the uproar of imminent death and then his increasing exaltation gave him triumph. The great hall shook with the magnificent power of his only song! The Maccabee confronted Amaryllis, with fierce question in his eyes. She pointed calmly at the heavy white curtain pulled to one side and caught on a bracket. The brass wicket over the black mouth of the tunnel was wide. Without a word, the Maccabee plunged into it and was swallowed up. Amaryllis looked after him. "And no farewell?" she said. The thunder of assault began at her door. Juventius sang it down. The athlete and the girl crept toward the mouth of the black passage, wavered a moment and plunged in. After them tumbled a confusion of artists and servants who were swallowed up, and the hall was filled only with music.

The power of portraiture: This artist is exploring shame through her own image Just don't call Chun Hua Catherine Dong's work selfies In this digital age, it's easy to curate a seemingly idyllic life: your food always looks delicious, your friends are always happy, your partner is always supportive and you're somehow always in the best light. Montreal-based artist Chun Hua Catherine Dong is challenging people to explore an alternative narrative in her show Visual Poetics of Embodied Shame, which runs until December 9th at Winnipeg's Ace Art. "I hope this exhibition in some degree can provoke people to talk about shame more often because shame is often unspoken and unseen epidemic, and the more it is publicly presented and questioned, the more it can potentially be resisted," Dong tells CBC Arts. The exhibit, which according to the artist statement "examines the visual culture of shame in relation to the body, subjects and power in contemporary art," includes photography, video and installation. Dong also performed a four-hour performance piece opening night. Ace Art director hanna_g had been aware of Dong's work as an emerging artist and was delighted when, of the 130 submissions Ace receives each year, this exhibit was one of five chosen by the gallery's jury. "We look for an artist who's dealing with cultural concepts in a way that's interrogative and also aesthetically sensitive," she says. With Dong's use of herself as the subject, it could be easy to draw comparisons to selfie culture. Not so, says hannah_g. "She is projecting an alternative to selfie culture; she's showing the power of portraiture and the difference between portraiture and the selfie, and asserting it in a way that is challenging this new medium that is 'the selfie,'" she says. "She's dealing on several levels in this 21st century age of people's bodies being digitally projected but not always having control over that, of young woman exploring aspects of shame, of cultural shame and hiding their identities, or projecting a one-layered or curated image of themselves." She's showing the power of portraiture and the difference between portraiture and the selfie, and asserting it in a way that is challenging this new medium that is the selfie.- Ace Art director hanna_g Ace Art has commissioned local artist Hannah Doucet to write an accompaniment to the exhibit — a fitting choice, since there are many overlapping themes in the two artists' works. "We both are seemingly fixated on the female body, particularly our own, as a tool to discuss larger issues within representation and perception of bodies in our society," Doucete says. "Where Catherine creates images using her own body as subject to deconstruct a culture of shame, fluctuating between moments of revelation and concealment of the figure, I use my own body fragmented through a process of re-photography to grapple with issues of representation and materiality inherent in the medium of photography. There is a shared criticality of societal and individual pressures within both our work." For Doucete, it's not the comparisons to selfie culture that are noteworthy; rather, it's the idea of shame as an act of resistance. "I think the most interesting part of the exhibition is the way Catherine positions shame as, in her words, 'a feminist strategy of resistance.' This idea confuses and intrigues me. Shame is so often used as a tool to further subjugate those in positions of lesser power — how can we shift this to have positive implications as a form of feminist resistance?" She adds, "In her artist talk, Catherine talks about making shame visible, and with that, the shame becomes a power instead of vulnerability. I am not entirely convinced by this explanation,and still wrestling with this idea, but I think the idea of reclaiming shame as vulnerability is one of the more thought provoking moments within the exhibition." Visual Poetics of Embodied Shame. Chun Hua Catherine Dong. To December 9 at Ace Art, Winnipeg. www.aceart.org

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Meet Our Team Dr. Elizabeth Staves Dr. Staves’ passion is pediatric dentistry, she has practiced in St. Petersburg for 20 years. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College and her dental degree from the University of Maryland School of Dental Surgery. She completed her specialty training residency in Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and is board certified. Dr. Staves is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Staves is a member and attends meetings with the American Dental Association, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the Florida Dental Association and Florida Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Staves is an attending and a consultant for All Children’s Hospital Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team. She has been a speaker at the Suncoast Pediatric Conference and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Annual Session. We love our patients, their families and our team and offering the very best in Pediatric Dental care. Dr. Staves gives back to the community by participating with Habitat for Humanity, and the ASPCA. In her leisure time, she enjoys time with her family and 2 puppies: hiking, cycling, kayaking, and traveling. Niki – Front Office Manager I have been in pediatric dentistry since 2000. I have always enjoyed working with children and watching them grow from youngsters to young adults. I have worked chairside with the patients, as well as all aspects of the front desk. I love our office and team here because it is important to make every visit to the office as fun as possible, and we do our best together to achieve this. I am the mother of 4 children, 2 dogs and a pet pig. When not at work I can be found on the waterways, either by boat or kayak! Dorothy – Insurance Coordinator I have been working in medical and dental billing since 2010. I really enjoy working with Dr. Staves, not only because we are a great team but we have great patients, and parents. I am a mother to 3 children, we also have 2 dogs, turtles, snakes and fish. I enjoy spending time with my family fishing and being out by the water. Samantha – Patient Coordinator I have been in the dental field since 2008 and pediatrics is my passion. I love working with children and their familes, making them comfortable and having fun with them while they are here at our office. I have a loving husband, fun loving son and sweet daughter. When I am not at work we are spending time as a family at Busch Gardens or somewhere enjoying the outdoors. Ashley – Dental Assistant and Dental Health Educator I have worked in the dental field since 2008, and spent most of my time in Pediatrics. I love working with children. I find it rewarding to hear them say they LOVE OUR OFFICE and are excited to come back for their next visit. I enjoy being the dental health educator, going to schools to teach kids how to care for their teeth. I have an amazing boyfriend and we have two beautiful daughters and a handsome son, and two dogs. I am very active with volunteering at my daughter’s school and enjoy the warm weather in Florida at the beach. Tana – Dental Assistant I have worked as a dental assistant since 1995. Because of my love of kids, I have primarily worked in pediatrics and orthodontics. I enjoy being with my work family at Dr. Staves office. It is always a joy to watch the kids grow and change and see their smiling faces. I am a mother of two beautiful daughters and a yellow lab. As a family, we enjoy the beach and relaxing. Mariah – Dental Assistant and Dental Health Educator I have been a dental assistant since 2011, working in pediatrics and orthodontics. I enjoy working with kids in a fun friendly atmosphere. My co-workers and Dr. Staves are great and make work fun for us and for our patients with games and contests in our office. In my free time enjoy being with my husband, my family, my dog and my new bunny.

One of the big trends in cardiac computed tomography (CT) imaging has been the introduction of noninvasive fractional flow reserve CT (FFR-CT), which can be used instead of a catheter-based FFR in the cath lab. FFR-CT is being claimed by both cardiology and radiology. The critically important question, however, transcends turf issues. Will patients suspected of having coronary artery disease benefit from its use? Evidence presented July 22 during an Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) 2019 meeting session entitled “Functional Flow Reserve CT: A New Frontier for Cross Collaboration,” indicates that FFR-CT can substantially benefit patients suspected of heart disease. During the AHRA presentation, Ali Westervelt cited a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicating that questions about obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in six of 10 patients who might otherwise be sent for cardiac catheterization could be answered with FFRct. During the presentation, Westervelt described a slide indicating that FFR-CT can dramatically reduce the need for cardiac catheterization. Its use, she said, focuses attention on patients most likely to test positively for CAD, as three of four patients sent to cardiac cath are found to have coronary artery disease. The slide was based on research presented in the paper “1-Year Outcomes of FFRCT-Guided Care in Patients With Suspected Coronary Disease." Westervelt and her colleague in the presentation, Curt Bush , noted that at one-year follow-up, no cardiac events were seen in 117 patients who had cardiac cath cancelled based on FFR-CT results. Additionally, mean costs were 33 percent lower with FFRct versus the usual care strategy — $8,127 compared with $12,145, respectively. The authors of the paper concluded that “selective FFR-CT was associated with equivalent clinical outcomes, quality of life, and lower costs, compared with usual care over one-year follow-up.” Value of FFR-CT in Evaluating Coronary Artery Disease Co-speaker Bush, director of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging services at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, Texas, summarized the value of FFR-CT, telling Imaging Technology News that the noninvasive procedure can be “the right thing for the patient.” FFR-CT has been proven to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions, according to Bush and Westervelt. In their presentation, they cited research showing that FFRct provides the information that cardiologists need without the expense, time or patient inconvenience of tests done in the nuclear medicine or cardiac catheterization labs. Despite the advantages of FFR-CT, however, only about 200 facilities in the United States perform this procedure, according to Westervelt, who speculated that the young age of the procedure and its reimbursement status may have been barriers to wider adoption. “It is only about a three-year-old technology and until recently was not reimbursable,” she said. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began paying for FFR-CT January 2018. “I think there was just not a lot of interest because everybody is looking at their business plan,” said Westervelt, who is transitioning to a new job in which she expects to perform FFR-CT. After the presentation, members of the audience raised questions about the potential loss of revenue that might occur because FFR-CT could cut into the number of cath procedures. Bush and Westervelt responded that the top consideration should be the potential benefit to patients. Because the procedure involves radiology and cardiology, both service lines could become more integrated, the two speakers agreed. This is beginning to happen, Bush said: “There are more and more imaging directors that are including cardiology — both noninvasive and invasive (procedures) — in their scope of practice.” Increased cross collaboration by the often rivalrous specialties was the main point of the presentation, according to Bush, who said: “Imaging services are imaging services whether they come from the radiology or cardiology side.” FFR-CT is Not for All Patients Early in the presentation, Westervelt noted that FFR-CT is restricted to patients at moderate risk of heart disease. These are patients who exhibit stable angina, but have significant risk factors. Those at severe risk still need to be assessed using cardiac cath, the two speakers agreed. Also there are equipment requirements. Among them are the need for a state-of-the-art CT scanner with a 64-slice minimum per rotation and a one-beat imaging detector measuring 8 cm. FFR-CT candidates are only patients who do not have a bypass graft, fistulas larger than 1.5 mm, or metallic stents in certain coronary arteries. If they do, HeartFlow, the company that post-processes flow fractional reserve CT images, will not be able to process their images, according to the presentation. The speakers contended that for facilities with adequate equipment and patients who meet the requirements, FFR-CT can promote better utilization of imaging assets and more efficient use of cardiac catheterization. Use of the procedure can lead to an overall reduction of indirect and direct costs of care and improved fiscal return on assets, they said. To achieve these positive effects, however, FFR-CT must not impact the facility’s CT operation, they said. These considerations brought the discussion full circle to whether FFRct should be part of cardiology or radiology. The question is rendered moot, they said, if radiology and cardiology can unify the speakers said. In the case of FFR-CT, this might be achieved simply by looking at the procedure as a form of “imaging” — essentially an element of a unified service line composed of both radiology and cardiology. At the end of the session, Bush asked rhetorically: “Are we at a point now where we are all (about) imaging?” Additional FFR-CT Content: Greg Freiherr is a contributing editor to Imaging Technology News. Over the past three decades, Freiherr has served as business and technology editor for publications in medical imaging, as well as consulted for vendors, professional organizations, academia, and financial institutions. Editor’s note: This article is the fifth piece in a content series by Greg Freiherr covering the Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) annual meeting in Denver. The first article, How Standardizing Protocols Can Save Time and Money, can be found here. The second article, How Artificial Intelligence Might Impact Radiology, can be found here. The third article, How To Manage Risk in the MR Suite, can be found here. The fourth article, DR Advances Promote Imaging of Whole Spine, can be found here. Related AHRA and Radiology Management Content: Payment Models Seek Traction in Transition from Volume DR Advances Promote Imaging of Whole Spine How Standardizing Protocols Can Save Time and Money How Artificial Intelligence Might Impact Radiology How To Manage Risk in the MR Suite CMS Proposes New Alternative Payment Model for Radiation Oncology Johns Hopkins Named Qualified Provider-led Entity to Develop Criteria for Diagnostic Imaging Growth Of ACOs And Alternative Payment Models In 2017

Get social. Meet Educational Social Media. DRPF Consults is pleased to share the most current, exciting and cutting edge work in the area of social media in education. Educational Social Media (EdSoMe) explores social media in the classroom and provides workshops and resources about how to best develop a social media plan that fits the needs of your school and students. It’s an introduction not to forget and an interview to remember. Who is Karl Meinhardt? In a few words, Karl Meinhardt is a technology strategist, author and leadership consultant. With over 20 years as a technology professional, Karl has served as a strategy consultant to many companies regarding information technology products and services. Mr. Meinhardt is also the co founder of EdSoMe and was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to address critical issues and questions regarding social media in education. Read more about Mr. Meinhardt. After hearing reader concerns about social media in education, DRPF Consults presented Karl Meinhardt with the following questions to learn more about the Portland Project, creation of EdSoMe, media resources and workshops, social media lesson plans, digital citizenship, cyber bullying and more! Educational Social Media (EdSoMe) was created as a result of “The Portland Project,” a pilot social media program in a middle school in Portland. Please tell us more about the Portland Project and the development of EdSoMe? KM: The Portland Project started as a pilot project in a 92% “free and reduced” Title I middle school in the Portland Public School district designed to explore the benefits of social media use in the classroom. A pilot team was assembled from the staff. Strategy sessions with the GMS staff lead to three targeted results areas for a social media strategy: • Academic achievement • Social engagement (community building) Everyone on the team agreed that if we could create a solid learning community with social media tools, academic achievement and attendance level improvement would occur as a result. The cohesion and engagement of the students would reflect in improved grades, higher test scores and better attendance. After six months of piloting the social tools that were selected as cornerstones of the project, it was clear that the social aspect of the media and the tools was creating a positive effect on the students. School and assignment engagement levels were up, chronic attendance abuse was down, and the very fabric of the school social experience was shifting. Students were connecting to the school social network after hours to do assignments for no credit. Text messages were being sent to students via phone to ensure they made it to class. EdSoMe was created as a vehicle to document the project and deliver the results of the project to educators and administrators. We do this through our blog and through on-site social media workshops for educators. The site shares the saying “Budgets are tight, tools are free, the learning opportunities are endless.” What does this mean in relation to social media and the role of EdSoMe? KM: There is a vast amount of media resources available on the internet today. Giving students, teachers and schools the tools to deliver this media to students as part of the current curriculum makes these resources instantly social. EdSoMe’s role is to help teachers and administrators think differently about how to use these media resources to create collaborative and inspirational assignments which will help students utilize and enhance their core curriculum objectives. Learning has never been this media rich. EdSoMe wants to facilitate new ways to inspire students to learn! All of the social tools we used in the Portland Project were FREE. Free robust tools that can harness and utilize rich content for learning result in increased student engagement for no additional cost. The only roadblocks that remain then are knowing how to find the media, and how to deliver it to students in creative lesson plans to reinforce core curriculum objectives. There still seems to be resistance to social media in schools. Why do you think this is true? How is EdSoMe trying to address the issue? KM: There is definitely some resistance to utilizing social media in schools. I know that mobile phone texting has taken a huge amount of bad press (we consider texting as social). I believe this is mostly due to a general lack of understanding of social networking and media in general. Most people think social media is only Facebook and Twitter. The general view is that these are time wasters with no real educational (or other) value. I see this viewpoint a lot in the companies I consult with too. The only way to combat this resistance is through education of the staff! Once they understand the power of social tools and media in relation to their effort to teach, teachers become instantly pro-social. In Portland we encourage mobile phones, social tools, and social media. EdSoMe is trying to help parents and teachers understand that socially enabled classrooms can result in students that are educated in research skills, collaborative skills, media creation skills and networking skills. All of these skills are critical to participating in future schools, businesses, and life. The strength of EdSoMe Workshops lies in choosing the right tool for the needs of the specific district, school or classroom. How can EdSoMe assist schools in developing a Social Media program? KM: EdSoMe can help a school or district with analysis of current technology resources and teacher technology skills. From this data we can then determine a “best fit” of social tools to help schools leverage what technology they have to maximum benefit. All schools have different levels of technology implementation. Understanding what is possible is crucial in setting goals for a social strategy. Part of that strategy is identifying the proper social tools to fit a school or district’s technology abilities. Share some of the exciting social media tools currently used in schools. KM: We’ve found great success with Edmodo, Ning, Edublogs, WordPress, and GoogleDocs. All of these are free. Some have great features to facilitate assignment creation and delivery, and all of them enable linking and embedding of content. And of course, we leverage YouTube a lot as well. Many people don’t realize it is a social network. As a tool to foster creativity and deliver video content, it is unparalleled. If you have ever seen the Kahn Academy on YouTube, you would agree. What are your thoughts about cyber bullying in the schools? KM: Bullying is a social dysfunction, period. Whether it takes place on a playground, on the way home from school, or on a social network, it is a problem that everyone in the educational community, including teachers, parents, students, and administrators, all need to address. The fact that bullying over social tools is the newest form has caused it to gain some traction in the press. But it is like any other type of bullying. It requires education, awareness, and remediation. It is probably the main reason why any social tool we consider for school must have the ability to disable or not allow private messaging if at all possible. What is digital citizenship and how can schools prepare students to be responsible in today’s world of technology? KM: At EdSoMe we define digital citizenship as the behavior, image, and representation of a person in a digital space, i.e. a social network, a blog, a forum, or any other form of technological communication. Any post, picture, video, or text that is posted by a person in any of these technology spaces is an addition to their digital citizenship. It is a very important concept for students to understand. Every post, picture, comment or any other digital media posted by a student is added to his/her digital footprint. Helping students to understand the implications and possible repercussions of what they post, what they say, and how they portray themselves in the digital world is crucial to their futures. Many students are too young to understand the lasting power of their digital footprint. Schools stand the best chance of preparing students to be responsible digital citizens by enabling digital socialization at school so behaviors can be monitored and corrected. Parents need to participate here as well because as you know many students socialize from home as well. Educating, participating, monitoring and correcting digital interactions in a closed social system at school is the first step in helping students learn about digital citizenship. There are some great examples available that demonstrate the failings of bad digital citizenship. Just google “Cisco Fatty” or “Pixie Fail” to see some of the more notorious examples. Where can teachers find good examples of social media lesson plans? KM: Good social lesson plans are still being worked on across the net. We post some great plans that are a result of our social media workshops on our site at www.edsome.com and on our Facebook Fan page. Edutopia and Facebook on Education have some great stuff too. The best place to find great social lesson plans is by using Google Alerts to search for them while you work! That way they end up in your inbox and YOU don’t have to search. Anything else you would like to share with readers? KM: Social networking and social media represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the way people are communicating. It is imperative that parents, teachers, and school administrators support the social media experience in a place where students can learn the benefits and risks of social media space. To deny them this experience and information in an environment of care and instruction is a disservice to their education. As humans, we’ve been social for millennia. The only difference is the digital venue, the reach and the speed at which information can be socialized. The social revolution is the biggest conversation in the history of man. Let’s help students learn how to participate in that conversation responsibly and productively.

Extra chapter thanks to my Patreons as usual~ Chapter 45: The Hero obtains wings Ruti nodded expressionlessly after listening to the Contract Demon’s explanation. “Ye-yes! I am absolutely not hostile toward the humans of this continent. I belong to the faction that wishes to subjugate the heretic Demon Lord that oppose God. It is true that on the Avalon continent, demons are a race hostile toward humans but we are believers of the same God, the Supreme God Demise. In order to deal with the heretics who oppose God, we are capable of putting aside past grudges and fight alongside humans!” As the Contract Demon desperately spun its words, Ruti listened with a smile that only her brother could understand. (So this is the truth of the existence of demons. Interesting.) Her big brother would have been astonished if he was here, after all, they had exchanged countless hours of discussions on their observations. Ruti thought to herself regretfully. Even that slight fluctuation in her feelings caused the Contract Demon to tremble in fear and stifle a scream. At the moment, the Contract Demon was being questioned in Ruti’s tent with both its arms and fingers secured with chains. Nothing had been done to it other than having questions asked but the demon understood the absolute difference between it and the young female creature seated in front of it. It had no willpower to resist and merely wished to survive. The hero party waiting outside the tent were secretly sympathetic with it suffering a questioning in a tent with the Hero in it but the demon did not know that. Albert had been tied up and questioned by Ares but Ares had already judged that he did not have any significant information and had left him alone. “So, this drug is the ‘Devil’s Divine Protection’ huh?” “This is a drug made using the hearts of Axe Demons so it would produce a pseudo-Divine Protection of the Axe Demon. The strength of this drug is that it can interchange levels with a person’s innate Divine Protection.” “Yes! Taking one dose of this drug would transfer one level to the Devil’s Divine Protection. Also, not taking this drug for one week would cause the Devil’s Divine Protection to return one level to the person’s innate Divine Protection.” “The greatest advantage of this is not that effect but the lowering of a person’s Divine Protection’s maximum level. As you all know, a person’s Divine Protection level can only grow by defeating a being with Divine Protection of same or higher level. Although the Devil’s Divine Protection will not grow as one fights … by using this drug, it could give the effect of temporarily reducing a person’s innate Divine Protection level so that the person can experience efficient growth and his combat ability would not drop as well due to the Devil’s Divine Protection!” This was actually the true reason why the recipe of the God’s forbidden secret medicine was told to the demons, who are the most devout out of all the races. To the demons, the Devil’s Divine Protection drug was not a medicine meant to deny Divine Protections but a medicine meant to raise Divine Protection levels. Ruti crushed the powdered medicine wrapped in paper that she snatched from the demon in her hand. “This will be useful in the subjugation of the Demon Lord?” “Ye-yes! Although a person on the level of He-hero-sama shouldn’t expect much from its effects.” “I’ll give it a try.” Ruti swallowed the medicine without hesitation in front of the demon’s eyes. The demon’s eyes were wide in shock and it was at a loss for words. Of course, the demon’s goal was to pull in the Hero. It handed the medicine to the Hero as it thought that there was a possibility the medicine could strengthen the Hero to aid her defeat of the Demon Lord. However, it never imagined that she would swallow the medicine without any hesitation in such a situation. “It is because poison, disease and curses are ineffective against me. If this was not a medicine, my resistances should have activated.” Ruti carelessly explained perhaps because she noticed the demon’s gaze. But the demon was taken aback as cold sweat emerged from its entire body after hearing those words. (Curses? Curses!? She has complete resistance against curses!? This is bad, this is bad! That medicine was made by stitching together the grudges from the slain Axe Demons that had transformed into curses along with the Demon’s Divine Protections that should normally disappear upon death! If the curse would not activate, there is a possibility that the Axe Demon Divine Protection would be lost!!) But it was too late. She had consumed the medicine. It should make her vomit the medicine out before the medicine is absorbed into her body but the Demon did not have the freedom nor the power to do so. The demon prayed to God. Please, may the Devil’s Divine Protection manifest its effects. Morning the next day. Ares and Theodora were in shock. The two of them watched the flying ship sail away without being able to do anything. The tied-up Albert showed an anxious expression without knowing what was happening. “I don’t know, the flying ship was stolen … ?” “Don’t run away from reality. The Hero and Tise are not around. We have been left behind.” “No-no way! That is impossible! How will they fight without my magic?!” “She probably can.” Theodora coldly replied and ignored Ares as she investigated the empty shell of the Hero’s tent. “This is …” She found the fallen corpse of the Contract Demon with its head cut off. “There was no way she could have been fooled by a demon … that’s obvious.” There were a few camping tools and equipment left behind but the important items were all kept in the Hero’s item bag so the Hero’s journey should not be hindered. Theodora was violently shaken by the item she found on the floor. “The proof of the Hero, the legendary amulet made of Orichalcum that was sealed in an ancient Elf ruin!” Even though it was located within the forest near the Imperial Capital, in the deepest depths of an ancient Elf ruin that nobody has ever stepped foot into, Hero Ruti obtained that amulet which she used to make the world acknowledge her as a hero. Ruti would never let go of that item as long as she was a Hero … but, in reality, the proof of a Hero had been found there on the ground. “I guess I will head to places where there have been sightings of a flying ship.” Theodora left the camp on her own.

On my trip preparing for our research project’s first symposium in December and scouting for venues, caterers and hotels, I went to see La Isla de Perejil by “l’enfant terrible du cinéma marocain”, Ahmed Boulane. Florence Martin writes about it in her first blog entry, from 4 February 2016. The film and its director are part of the transnational injection into Moroccan cinema, as Ahmed Boulane himself comes from the former pirates’ republic of Salé, took on the Irish nationality, and made a film dealing with the absurd situation that caused an international incident between Spain and Morocco in 2002. Co-produced with Boulane-O’Bryne Production (Casablanca) and Maestranza Film (Sevilla), Boulane co-wrote it with Spaniard Carlos Dominguez. Boulane is best known for his second feature film, The Angels of Satan (2007), about a scandal that shook Moroccan sensibilities in 2003: the case of a group of young Moroccan heavy-metal rockers wrongly accused of being Satanists. The film became a real Moroccan box office hit in 2007. One of the best discoveries watching La Isla de Perejil was the main actor: Abdellah Ferkous, with his quietly, tongue-in-cheek, playful style of comedy. His rotund looks, typical moustache and big cheeks give shape to the comic identity of this TV actor and his character in La Isla, Ibrahim, a soldier of the Auxiliary Forces. At the start of the film one gets a sense of his modest background, his simple life and his contentment with his small (and poor) family, living with their chickens. He likes simple pleasures such as coffee and food, and his satisfaction with life comes through in little rituals, visible for example in the manner in which he wakes up his children and the repeated stretching and washing of his hands and face. Just before his retirement, Ibrahim is sent to the tiny Isla de Perejil on the northern coast of Morocco, whose sovereignty is disputed by Morocco and Spain. His mission is to monitor the passage of smugglers, illegal migrants and drug traffickers. His rituals continue on this island, although his radio contact with the mainland breaks up and he is alone apart from the company of a cockerel and a goat. One day, while bathing, Ibrahim discovers that the sea has washed ashore an illegal migrant from Senegal. Close to death, Mamadou is carried to Ibrahim’s makeshift home. At first he is treated with suspicion but Ibrahim slowly nurses him back to health, and the two characters bond over food, music and the radio Mamadou has brought along in a plastic bag. As they try to establish their means of survival, they become friends and Ibrahim protects Mamadou, his cockerel and his goat. When Mamadou suggests they eat the animals, Ibrahim is taken aback and assures the Senegalese man that he does not eat his friends. With the growing solidarity between the two men, the international incident that is brewing in the background, and of which they are completely ignorant, becomes ever more absurd: not only is the island tiny, the loneliness there brings two strangers and potential enemies together, while Spanish and Moroccan politicians direct a diplomatic conflict and a military attack on one another. Watch the film’s trailer here. Loosely based on an actual conflict between Spain and Morocco in 2002, this is a gentle farce that reverberates with political undertones. Not only does it look in some detail at the refugee crisis and the possibility of solidarity between Africans in their ‘fight’ against the European coloniser, it also makes fun of this coloniser in his inability to deal with Moroccan sovereignty. The film has a satirical bite to its treatment of the relationship between the Spanish and the Moroccans, but the postcolonial critique does not spare the ineptitude of Moroccan politicians either. The concept of nationhood, this film tells us, is hollow: the island is abandoned, but the moment someone sets foot on it and raises a faded, washed-out Moroccan flag (orange and yellow instead of bright red and green), the neo-colonialist tendencies of territorialism come flooding back. The absolute absurdity of this conflict is highlighted by the filmmaker, as he emphasizes the smallness of the island, and uses a comical actor as the single, middle aged soldier rather than the historical team of six Moroccan soldiers ‘invading’ the island with a dinghy. Stefanie Van de Peer

Perth is Australia’s capital city, and this vibrant metropolis covers an area of 5,386 km2. The city is situated on the banks of the Swan River and boasts an excellent infrastructure complete with several charming residential districts that come complete with plenty of shops, pretty parks and world class dining opportunities. Perth is located close to the south-western most point of Australia and is a fairly young city. However, people who are planning to move to Perth will find a large number of neo-classical houses to choose from as well as more modern houses and apartments. The city boasts ten large universities as well as a vibrant nightlife scene complete with bars, clubs and theatres. The districts of Northbridge and Fremantle in particular are packed with colourful nightlife options. The downtown area of Perth is easy to explore on foot and features interesting attractions such as St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth Town Hall, His Majesty’s Theatre and Government House. On the rest side of the city Perth rises to meet Kings Park, which offers stunning views across the entire city. Some of the most popular districts of Perth among home owners include Crawley, Peppermint Grove and Como. All of these areas feature plenty of beachfront houses to choose from as well as modest brownstone houses and modern apartments. In addition to soaking up the sun on the beach, people who choose to relocate to one of these vibrant districts will be able to spend time exploring the local parks and browsing for bargains in large shopping centres. Public transportation in Perth is provided by the Transperth company, who regularly run a large number of ferries, trains and buses. There are also excellent cycle paths running through Perth, and cycling is a great way to have fun and get fit while exploring the city.

It has become my goal to change the face of limited mobility. The only way I know how is to spotlight stories and pictures of others to help change the view. Here is just one….. The people we meet along the way are far more heroic and fascinating than ourselves. I received an everyday order for two MagnaReady shirts. The sizing varied, one medium and one large. As old fashioned as it sounds, I picked up the phone to call the customer (Francis’s daughter Karen Masterson) to see if I could help and look who I met! Below is a few segments from a tribute his son gave when receiving his distinguished honor. Francis Hulshof grew up and worked on a farm in Portageville Missouri. He was drafted into he army like a lot of other young men on Feb 14th, 1951 He was given the job for driving the jeep for Col. Ralph Melcher. Together they worked as Forward Observers, going to the front line to assess the situation, and return back to their camp with new information to process and use in offensive maneuvers. Some stories heard from veterans are very entertaining but then again serious. It was their way to remember certain stories and react to the magnitude of the situation. I remember one buddy said to the other, “Where were you when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor?” “I was up on the roof with my machine gun, shooting down every zero I could see.” While the other replied, “Oh no you weren’t, you were hiding down under the bunker with your head down, I saw ya. He was with the 8th field artillery of the 25th Infantry Division, commonly known as Tropic Lightning and he was stationed around Hill 1062 most of his deployment. Corporal Hulshof never said much about the battles. Today we thank you! What an honor and privilege that Francis will be wearing our MagnaReady shirt!

By Jak on July 13th, 2008 FIFA president Sepp Blatter casually uses the term “slavery” in referring to the £ multi-million contract of Cristiano Ronaldo, who in turn “dreams” of leaving the greatest football club in the world to play in Madrid. Jean Claude Mbvoumin could teach them both some revealing truths about dreams and slavery. This year, Mbvoumin was named one of seventeen “Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery” by the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Mbvoumin is a former footballer, recruited from the African country of Cameroon in 1995 to play in France. After retiring from football, Mbvoumin founded the French organization Culture Foot Solidiare to raise awareness of the issue of the criminal recruiting and trafficking of young footballers from Africa. “It’s a modern version of the slave trade, and it comes in many different forms,” says Mbvoumin. Thousands of young African boys dream of leaving their lives of poverty to play football in Europe. The majority of the boys trafficked into Europe come from Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. CFS estimates that in France alone there are more than 7,000 young Africans living on the streets after failed attempts to play for a professional club. Ninety-eight percent are illegal immigrants and 70 percent are younger than 18. Inspired by players like Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o, and buoyed by promises from unscrupulous, unlicensed agents and scouts, their impoverished parents deplete their savings or go into debt to finance their sons’ journeys. Thousands of unlicensed football “academies” operating in countries like the Ivory Coast promise parents that, for a fee, their sons will get a chance to try out for a European football club. Childrens’ charities in Africa are becoming increasingly concerned. “This football-related trafficking and the widespread creation of so-called schools of excellence is an area of huge growing concern for Save The Children,” says Heather Kerr, the charity’s Ivory Coast country manager. “The motivation for these children joining these footballing schools and being trafficked out of the country is purely about money and that is not surprising as these families are incredibly poor. Quite often we find it’s the parents who send their children to the West or take their children out of school and force them to concentrate on becoming footballers because they want the youngsters to earn more money for the family.” Coaches and agents have the pick of the best of thousands of young players, signing them to binding pre-contracts, with the hope of making a profit selling the boys on to clubs in Europe. A small percentage of the players do achieve proper professional contracts and employment permits, but those cases are rare. Some of the youths whom Mbvoumin helps had visas and contracts that were not renewed, and others were abandoned as soon as they arrived in France. The Independent reported last week that twenty-seven European football leagues are set to sign an agreement this autumn to better control the recruitment of African boys in football. Richard Caborn, Britain’s sports ambassador, and chair of the Football, Social and Economics Forum, is one of the men behind the campaign. He is drafting the guidelines to be voted on by the leagues. “We need to make sure this trade is stamped out,” said Caborn. “We do not want football to be tarnished by this kind of activity.” Playthegame.org, an organization dedicated to ethics and sport, tells the story on their website of one young African player who had a dream of playing in Europe. Stéphane, 18, scored 12 goals in a local tournament in Cameroon when he was approached by a man who asked, “Would you like to come to Europe and become a professional soccer player?” His mother borrowed money from everyone she knew in their village to finance his journey. Four weeks later Stéphane was homeless in Paris, with no work permit and no money to return home. “I trained for one week with an Italian team in Genoa,” he recalls. “Then the agent put me on a plane to Paris, paid two nights in a hotel and I was on my own. He just stopped answering his phone.” “I can’t go back before I have got the money to pay back my mother,” he said. The Observer, in a piece on the issue, quotes Bernard, 17, who says he travelled to France from Ghana on the promise of a trial with Metz. ‘My mother sold our house and my two younger brothers started work at 12 to help pay for my passage,’ says Bass. “I made it to France, but Metz had no idea who I was and threatened to report me to the police. Now I am here in Clichy-sous-Bois, (a notorious ghetto in the suburbs of Paris), staying on a friend’s floor.’ Speaking to the International Herald Tribune, Mbvoumin explained that many of the boys’ families have paid 3000-4000 Euros — a literal fortune for these people – for visas and plane tickets to unlicensed agents, in hopes that a professional football contract is waiting for them in Europe. Too often, these boys are left homeless and abandoned on the streets of European cities. Penniless, with only expired tourist visas, and without legal status, afraid to return home, they melt away into the urban fabric. Profit, of course, is driving the crisis. A Senegalese Football Association representative said: “The boys are cheap compared to European players. It is always worth sending one hundred. The agent can make money from the one or two who make it. The other ninety-eight are forgotten.” “A lot of African parents are completely naive. They trust anyone who is white and promises to bring their kids to Europe. Of course, none of the agents are officially accredited by FIFA, and normally the kids only know their agent’s first name or a nickname. That’s why I want to open offices in Africa to inform and support young footballers and their families,” Mbvoumin told the Financial Times. The illegal operators are serious about protecting their profits. Belgian senator Jean-Marie Dedecker was the subject of death threats when he investigated the criminal trade of Nigerian players in Belgium. “I was warned that if I went to Nigeria to investigate this I would be killed,” he said. Belgian soccer clubs have 30 officially licensed agents but they also have another 170 unofficial ones, some of whom have ties to organized crime, claims Dedecker. In January, BBC Radio 4 aired a documentary on the issue. Dirk de Vos of the Belgian football players’ union showed a pair of contracts between a club and an African player. One, properly printed, gave the player the correct minimum wage and benefits, and was filed with the football federation. The other, hand-written, showed the true salary – less than a quarter of the official figure. “They have no choice but to sign the second contract,” says de Vos. UEFA has been working for the last three years to try to curb the abuse through tougher rules for agents. “We would like to see regulation which is more firm, and that action can be taken through the regulation towards the agents,” Lars-Christer Olsson, former Chief Executive of UEFA, said in 2005. “This is a huge responsibility we have to look into.” He estimated that no more than 5% of players recruited from outside of Europe make it into the first team of European clubs. “If you take this into account that you bring in all these young players — what is happening when they are not good enough? The risk is obvious that they are kicked out, of course,” he said. “There is no safety net at all for the countries from outside of Europe.” Mbvoumin says that it is in nobody’s interest to clean up the system unless forced to do so. The clubs and agents want cheap African talent, and desperate to help their families rise above poverty, the young footballers are abandoning their educations to pursue their dream of football in Europe. Without football, without an education, without their communities and without their families, they are adrift. “Many children here in France don’t want to return,” says Mbvoumin. “They say: if I go back my parents will kill me because I don’t bring them money, or big cars. And that’s the main objective.” “It’s important to dream,” says Mbvoumin, “but the dreams about football now are not realistic.” Though FIFA president Sepp Blatter spoke out five years ago against the exploitation of foreign players in football, in what he described as the “rape” of Africa, it has been UEFA and organizations like Save the Children and CFS that have led the way in the campaign against the the modern day enslavement of football players. Blatter’s use of the word “slavery” in reference to Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract at Manchester United highlights two such divergent realities that it is an outrageous insult to those who are the truly victimized. And Cristiano’s “dream”? Perhaps a conversation with some of those same young men might help to put that dream into proper perspective.

Can this new drink save your life? Medical breakthrough unveiled in treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Sydney, Australia – 13 October 2016 – Type 2 diabetes is one of Australia’s fastest growing diseases. It’s known as “the silent killer” and it’s estimated that over nearly half a million Australians have the condition without even knowing it. When it strikes, for many people, it comes without warning. Medical experts believe it is THE biggest medical challenge facing Australia’s health system. The total annual cost to the health system to treat diabetes is nearly $15 billion. Type 2 diabetes usually develops in adults over the age of 45 years but is increasingly occurring in younger age groups including children, adolescents and young adults. The long term side effects of ill-managed type 2 diabetes can be horrific: stroke, blindness, heart disease, kidney problems, limb amputations and in the worst cases, early death. Diabetes Australia says that more than 4,400 diabetes-related amputations are performed at Australian hospitals every year. That’s around 12 amputations every day. Dramatic and immediate lifestyle changes can help stop the onset of pre-diabetes or curb the impact of type 2 diabetes. Daily exercise, a change in diet, cutting back on alcohol, giving up tobacco and regular health checks will all make a positive impact. But now, a world-first, non-pharmaceutical product has been released to the market that is proven to reduce the dangerous blood sugar spikes that over time, often lead to serious side effects. In a recent research study, a convenient pre-meal drink, has been found to reduce the spikes in blood sugar levels after a high GI meal and improve overall glycaemic control (HbA1c) in the long term. “Make no mistake about it – type 2 diabetes is a killer and one of the world’s greatest health issues,” said eminent Sydney preventative cardiologist Dr Ross Walker. “It’s a time bomb. Anything that can be done to reduce blood sugar spikes is a very good thing.” “We know that managing type 2 diabetes is a problem confronting hundreds of thousands of Australians. Having a product that can reduce or maintain blood sugar levels will be a game-changer in encouraging people to take better control of their diabetes.” “The likelihood that type 2 diabetes impacts you, or someone you love, is greater than ever. Diabetes cannot be cured but with proper management, we can reduce the severity and likelihood of its serious consequences.” Dr Chris Rayner, an Australian Gastroenterologist involved in the study said a dietary approach to controlling blood glucose, such as this novel pre-meal drink concept, would have enormous appeal to the broad community of people living with type 2 diabetes. “Better control of blood glucose, as reflected not only in HbA1c but also in the rise in blood glucose after meals, helps prevent or delay the serious complications that can develop in type 2 diabetes, which include vision impairment, vascular damage and even amputations.” Omni Innovation’s pre meal shake is a result of six years and more than $5 million in research and development. Clinical trials show it reduces the Glyceamic Index (GI) of food and drink and controls the spikes in blood glucose which, over time, cause damage associated with the disease. More information about Faulding© GlucoControl™ is available via the Faulding website: http://www.faulding.com.au/our-products/faulding-glucocontrol-pre-meal-diabetes-shake/ The findings were presented at The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Germany

Canadian ex-hostage make video court appearance on sex assault charges Freed Canadian hostage Joshua Boyle -- pictured here on October 14, 2017, shortly after he was freed from the Taliban after five years in captivity with his wife and three children -- is now facing multiple charges including sex assault A Canadian man who was held captive by a faction of the Afghan Taliban for five years appeared briefly in an Ottawa court via videolink on Wednesday to face a slew of charges that include sexual assault, illegal confinement and issuing death threats. Joshua Boyle, 34, appeared for less than five minutes at the hearing from an Ottawa detention center, wearing an orange jumpsuit and sporting a wispy beard. His lawyer, Eric Granger, described the hearing as a "purely administrative" procedure. The next hearing was set for January 8. Boyle, who was rescued by the Pakistani military with his American wife Caitlin Coleman and their three children last October, faces charges on 15 counts, including eight of assault, two of sexual assault and two of illegal confinement. The other charges include issuing death threats, causing a person to consume a "noxious" substance thought to be an anti-depressant, and of misleading the police. All were said to have taken place since he returned to Canada. A court order prevented publication of the identities of his alleged victims. His wife, who gave birth to all three of their children in captivity, told The Toronto Star she blamed "the strain and trauma he was forced to endure for so many years and the effects that that had on his mental state" for her husband's alleged actions. She said it was "with compassion and forgiveness that I... hope help and healing can be found for him." - Trudeau meeting - Boyle and Coleman, who have been married since 2011, were kidnapped by the Taliban during what they described as a backpacking trip through war-torn Afghanistan in 2012, and were later transferred to the custody of the Haqqani faction, known for its alleged ties to the Pakistani military. A newspaper box shows former Taliban hostage Joshua Boyle on the front page of a local paper in Ottawa, Canada, January 3, 2018 They were freed on October 12, but refused to board a US military plane. Boyle, a Muslim convert and long-time advocate of freed Guantanamo inmate Omar Khadr -- whose sister he was once married to -- cited fears because of his background. Upon his arrival in Toronto two days later, Boyle accused his captors of raping his wife and killing his baby daughter, a fourth child -- allegations swiftly refuted by the Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. Mujahid admitted a baby had died but said it was a result of a natural miscarriage. A month later, Coleman also spoke of a sexual "assault" by two of her captors in an interview with ABC News. While advocating for Khadr, a Canadian captured at the age of 15 in 2002 in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to Canada and later released, Boyle met his sister in 2008 while she was carrying out a hunger strike. He married her in 2009 but they divorced a year later. Boyle, the son of an Ottawa tax court judge, then traveled around Latin America with Coleman, who was raised a Catholic in Pennsylvania and whom he had befriended years earlier in an online game forum. She now wears a hijab. Boyle and his family met last month with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after which the ex-hostage said they had discussed the Haqqani network. He also posted a picture on Twitter of the premier holding one of their young children. Pakistan's military says the family was freed in a daring rescue operation. But some US and Canadian officials have questioned that account, suggesting to news outlets it may have involved a "negotiated handover" with the Haqqani network, which Islamabad is said to covertly back. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.

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Many poor people don't visit a clinic or hospital for a dog-bite.. taking the animals into their homes and hiding them when municipal staff come to. Combined Properties Snags VA Asset for $41M UBS Global Asset Management: Fed facilitating a controlled descent, or prompting a sugar crash? – UBS Global Asset Management: Fed facilitating a controlled descent, or prompting a sugar crash. investment teams with combined assets under management of more than USD 632 billion worldwide. While. Opinion: New Vietnamese American generation taking over – · Since the arrival of refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975, a contingent of Vietnamese-Americans never missed an opportunity to organize against communism. However, most. · In 2015, as we learn in the introduction to Affordable Housing in New York, a wonderful new book edited by Nicholas Dagen Bloom and Matthew Gordon Lasner, 8 percent of the city’s rental. But the developers say villagers are well compensated, provided with new, better housing, and have the chance to get work in new industries brought to the Southeast Asian nation with crumbling. Additionally, a relatively high 28 percent of poor households in Philadelphia own their homes – this percentage discourages more of the city’s impoverished from moving. To make matters worse, many Philadelphia suburbs tightly regulate land use, which makes it harder to build (and build affordable housing in particular). Glendale assisted-living development secures $59M in financing Promenade Terrace, a 330-unit multifamily community located in Corona, Calif. has recently changed hands for $78.5 million, or approximately $238,000 per unit. promenade terrace in Corona, Calif..

Women driving means prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce: Saudi Saudi Arabia - Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive, the only country in the world to do so. Two months ago, Saudi Arabian court sentenced a woman to 10 whips because she was caught driving around. The Saudi king however, immediately revoked the sentence few days later amid international embarrassment. It seems apparently that Saudi Arabia in reality has no appetite to forgive the woman. We will now continue the stories of that woman who was sentenced to 10 lashes fordriving that time. Six months ago, Shaima Jastaniya drove her car in one of Jeddah’s streets before getting arrested by the police. In September, Jastaniya was sentenced to 10 lashes for challenging the driving ban which sparked outrage across the world, and a few days later, news spread that she received a pardon from the Saudi monarch himself. When interrogated, Shaima said she drove her car because she had no means of public or private transportation and needed to get to the hospital.Shaima’s sentence became a cause celebre within the royal family when it emerged two months ago. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire entrepreneur who is Saudi Arabia’s richest man and his wife, Princess Ameerah, made a personal appeal to the king to spare the young mother. The two have been working and actively taking part in international events to improve Saudi image across the world.The king agreed, and the royal couple telephoned Shaima to reassure her that the charges would be dropped. But no one seems to have ‘informed’ the court in Jeddah, and it has now notified her that the sentence will stand.Shaima has appealed against the verdict, but there are fears that the ultra-conservative clerics within the government want to make an example of her to warn all women in the Kingdom not to drive. Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the newly appointed Crown Prince, is more conservative than his half-brother the king, and has been adamant in his opposition to granting women greater freedoms. Two female Saudi journalists are now being sued for reporting Shaima’s case, and at least three other women are facing trial for driving.“Shaima is frightened and very confused,” said a friend and fellow activist in Jeddah. “She thought that this was finished, but apparently not. It was bad enough that she was sentenced, but if she is pardoned and still gets punished it would be ridiculous.”Saudi Arabia is the only country to deny women the right to drive. But despite renewed protests against the ban this year, resistance to reform and change remains strong among conservative royals and clerics.The Saudi highest religious council, the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala and conservative professors in King Fahd University, a prestigious university in the kingdom, warned that the country would become a den of evil if the ban on women driving were lifted. In their report, it was stated that allowing women to drive would provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce. Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it warned, there would be “no more virgins” in the kingdom.http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/?p=30633

A community has raised more than £400 in 24 hours for a young farmer who was targeted by thieves. Egg farmer Sam Hall, who runs Sams Hens Free Range Eggs, was left furious after thieves stole an honesty box and a freezer full of ice-cream from his shed, in Croxden, near Uttoxeter. The 25-year-old was one of several East Staffordshire businesses targeted by honesty boxes thieves in a period of less than 24 hours. Another of the incidents happened on Grange Farm, in Abbots Bromley, at 5.14pm on Monday, May 11. And now Mr Hall's community has come to his aid and a JustGiving site has been created to compensate him for his loss. In less than 24 hours, more than £400 worth of online donations were made. Brian Benjamin, from Alton, who set the site up, said: "We were just outraged by what has happened to him. "It is an outrage that anyone could do this at this time. "He is a young man, working 15-hour days running his own businesses. "When the supermarkets ran out of eggs he was able to supply us at the time. "I'm delighted to have raised so much. "It shows that local people are very supportive." Anyone who would like to donate can do so by visiting the site here. Anyone with information can message Staffordshire Police on Facebook or Twitter, or call 101 quoting incident number 101 of May 11.

Ministerie van Education, Culture and Science The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science works to create a smart, skilled and creative environment in the Netherlands. Its mission is to ensure that everyone gets a good education and is prepared for responsibility and independence. The Ministry also wants people to enjoy the arts, and aims to create the right conditions for teachers, artists and researchers to do their work. United States Department of State On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. The U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. Founded in 1921, the Netherland-America Foundation (NAF) is the leading bilateral foundation initiating and supporting high-impact exchange between the Netherlands and the United States, including the NAF-Fulbright Fellowships and programs in the arts, business, public policy and historic preservation. NAF activities provide donors and recipients with access to a broad network of educational, cultural and business organizations that exemplify Dutch and American excellence in a number of disciplines. Holland America Friendship Foundation The Holland America Friendship Foundation was established in 2004 for the purpose of further strengthening the friendly ties between the Netherlands and the United States of America through exchanges in the educational and cultural field. The HAFF has accomplished its goals through fundraising, primarily through the bi-annual gala dinner Night of the Stars. Thanks to the generous friends of the Night of the Stars, which include some 100 prominent companies and individuals, many young Dutch and Americans have been able to enjoy educational and cultural exchange programs. The Ivy Circle, founded in 2008, strives to create and sustain an active community in the Netherlands of alumni of leading North American universities and business schools. Ivy Circle member alumni clubs are encouraged to share their events with alumni of other member clubs, so that the Ivy Circle can develop and maintain an active calendar of alumni events. The Ivy Circle network has grown to 20 member alumni clubs representing a few thousand alumni living in the Netherlands. Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities was established in 1752 by seven distinguished burghers of the city of Haarlem, in the then Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, in order to promote science (in the broadest sense, including the ‘arts’). It is the oldest learned society in the country today and is constituted as a dual body comprising approximately 380 science promoters (known as directors) and about 480 scholars (known as members), drawn from the natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences. Links with institutions outside the Netherlands are maintained – on a personal basis – by the appointment of foreign members, currently numbering about 40 persons. Thanks to its unusual structure, the Society can act as an effective meeting place for leading persons from within and outside academia. It is also in a unique position to provide independent judgement in many fields and does this by serving in the review process for a number of prestigious awards and fellowships. The awards and scholarships are financed by donations from companies, foundations, funds and societies. The John Adams Institute The John Adams Institute provides an independent podium for American culture in the Netherlands. It has brought the best and the brightest of American thinking from the fields of literature, politics, history, technology and the arts to the Netherlands for the past three decades. What happens in the US is of continuing relevance for the rest of the world, and it provides a window onto that. Tjallingh Roorda Foundation The Tjallingh Roorda Foundation was established in 2000 with the following objectives: - Promoting research and the dissemination of information on metabolic diseases, in particular Leigh’s disease, to young children, as well as supporting these children and their parents or guardians, to enable treatment of this disease and/or care. - Promoting exchanges between the Netherlands and the United States of America in the field of education, science, culture and sports, with regard to young people aged 27 and under. Elsevier is a global information analytic business that help institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier helps researchers make new discoveries, collaborate with their colleagues, and give them the knowledge they need to find funding. It helps governments and universities evaluate and improve their research strategies. It helps doctors save lives, providing insight for physicians to find the right clinical answers, and supports nurses and other healthcare professionals throughout their careers. Elsevier’s goal is to expand the boundaries of knowledge for the benefit of humanity. New Netherlands Research Center Opened to the public in November 2010, the New Netherland Research Center is located in the New York State Research Library. It provides a permanent location where students, educators, scholars, and researchers worldwide can access translations of early Dutch colonial manuscripts and a vast library of early documents, books, and reference works that tell the fascinating story of the Dutch global reach during the American colonial period and its lasting impact on today’s world. American Friends of the Mauritshuis The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis is internationally known as one of the most important collections of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings. Its conservation studio has demonstrated a commitment to technical research and advanced training opportunities. The University of Amsterdam is the only university in The Netherlands offering a study program in Conservation and Restoration (consisting of nine specializations). The research and restoration of objects are core aspects of the program. This grant is sponsored by the American Friends of the Mauritshuis.The purpose of the grant is to provide advanced training, research and education opportunities in paintings conservation. The grant will focus on the study, examination and treatment of works of art in the collection of the Mauritshuis, in combination with a tailor made study program at the University of Amsterdam. The grantee will gain practical experience and knowledge treating paintings in the conservation studio of the Mauritshuis, under the supervision of the conservators of the museum. The grantee will participate in workshops, (informal) lectures, symposia and other events at the university. During the grant period, research will not only include paintings in the Mauritshuis collection, but also pictures in other Dutch and/or European institutions. Terra Foundation for American Art The Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences. Recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art collection in Chicago. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. Implicit in such activities is the belief that art has the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them. The Fulbright Commission is also grateful to count a number of Dutch universities and educational institutions as among its partners and sponsors, including:

(This article first appeared in the July 2013 Trucks & Trailers Issue of The Equiery) The Equiery asked its readers a series of questions related to the types of towing vehicles and trailers they own. The responses were varied but one common theme seemed to shine through: buyers do a lot of research before purchasing and are loyal to the brands they currently have, for example, many use chevrolet car dealers to find pickup trucks as they’re such a reputable brand. There are a lot of dealerships out there that could help those who are interested in pickup trucks find that right one for them, for example, in Wichita Ford pickup trucks are available along with other brands and could be handy for this type of work. Questions concerning towing vehicles and trailers related to the make which companies similar to I-55 Towing & Recovery Service – Blytheville have some very powerful examples of, model and year of the vehicle as well as engine size, towing power and “must-have” features. We also asked where they purchased each and why they chose that make and model. Finally, we wanted to know how satisfied readers were with their current towing package and if they would recommend either to others. Below is a quick summary of what we learned and quotes and comments from various readers. Thank you to all who participated! What You Tow With According to the responses to our survey, Ford is the make that is the most popular among our readers with 61.76% saying they tow with Ford pickup trucks. The next most popular brand was Chevy with 23.52% followed by GMC with 8.82% and Dodge with 5.88%. Most readers who took the survey tow with a midsize truck in the 250/2500 model size. The 350/3500 model and 150/1500 model size were tied. Christine Jennings of Bentwood Farm in Owings bought her 2002 Ford F250 because of its power and previous positive Ford experiences. Brenda Senseney owns a 2009 Chevy 3?4 ton Diesel Extended Cab and bought it because she loved GM products and said, “They are dependable, comfortable for long distances and have an excellent turn ratio.” In terms of sport utility vehicles, it was a dead tie between Ford, Toyota, GMC and Land Rover, though an overwhelming 89.47% tow with a pickup truck versus an SUV. Bernadette Kilcer of Brandywine tows with a 2005 Toyota 4Runner that she bought “because it was small, yet powerful, and in my budget. I love this one and have an excellent mechanic that keeps it in tip-top shape.” Denise Parsons of Boyds has two towing vehicles, one of which is a 2010 Land Rover Range Rover Sport. “The Range Rover is a great little truck for a two-horse bumper pull that can be used as a daily driver as well. It has plenty of towing and stopping power,” she said. Gas engines outweighed diesel 63.6% to 36.4% but what was interesting were the reasons people bought one over the other. Krista Martinko of Frederick County, who owns a 2010 Ford F250 Super Duty Extended Cab, said she would have loved to buy a diesel but she just does not tow enough to make the added costs worth it. Jeanne Bond (Halcyon Farm, Warwick) agrees, stating, “I don’t use my truck enough to warrant the extra expense of a diesel engine or diesel fuel.” Jeanne currently tows with a 2002 Chevy 2500 HD Extended Cab. Only 11.11% stated that if they were to buy another vehicle, they would switch to diesel. There was a wide variety of engine sizes reported from a 5-liter to an 8-liter and everything in between. For the most part, the size of the engine correlated to the size of the trailer. Larger trailers are being towed by larger engines, as they should be. However, there were a few readers who reported towing large trailers with small engines. Those readers did comment that when purchasing a future vehicle, they want to upgrade to a larger engine with more towing capacity. Janine Borofka (Quiet Rock Farm, Frederick) currently owns a 1996 Ford F150 but says she is dreaming of getting “the same but with an extended cab and bigger engine. Some hills are a strain [for the F150] and the small cab is tough for hauling people.” Buying a new vehicle versus a used one was nearly evenly split with 52.6% buying new and 47.4% buying used. Most vehicles in the survey were made in 2001 through 2005 (40.5%) with 24.3% being made in the 1990 to 2000 range and the same amount made in the 2006 to 2010 range. Only 10.8% of our readers reported owning a towing vehicle that was 2011 or newer. Most readers (42.9%) went directly to dealerships to find their current towing vehicles while 31.4% found their vehicles through various online sites. The rest of our survey participants either found their vehicles through local newspapers, auto auctions, Horse World Expo or friends and family. The majority of readers (80.65%) purchased their vehicles right here in Maryland with Virginia and Pennsylvania being other states mentioned. The most popular feature that people said they just could not live without was four-wheel drive. The second most popular must-have feature was a large engine and maximum towing power. After that, readers liked having four doors and a full back seat for more interior carrying space. Jennifer Tanio of Avalon Farm in Sparks said she just cannot live without the full back seat and full four doors in her 2004 Ford F250. “I have two young kids who are often with me when I am trailering and so the full cab is essential,” she explained. Interior features like navigation systems and heated seats were also popular, with many people saying if they were to get a new vehicle, they would want both. Some readers even said cooling seats would be a great feature in a future vehicle. What You Tow Equiery readers own a wide variety of trailers but the top three most popular trailers according to our survey results were Adams (23.08%), Cotner (12.82%) and EquiSpirit (10.26%). Fifteen other trailer brands were mentioned, proving that trailer options for buyers are vast. Elizabeth Carey of Second Wind Farm (Gaithersburg) is a big fan of her 2011 Adams 2+1 that she bought through H.R. Collins’ ads in The Equiery. “It’s a great trailer that we bought for a great price at the time and it was priced lower than other goosenecks that I looked at. I love, love the way this trailer is made with the drop-down windows and side-loaded ramp. It is a very user-friendly trailer,” she said. Cheryl Swing of Hidden Tides Farm in Upper Marlboro had a 2010 Cox Signature (Warmblood) by Cimarron basically custom made for her. “It was the most trailer for the money, even with the modifications and additions,” sshe said, adding that plenty of room for her horses and good airflow were reasons for the purchase. More people reported owning gooseneck trailers than bumper pull trailers, though two-horse trailers were the most popular no matter which type. Just over 63% stated they bought their trailers new, with 36.1% saying they bought used trailers. An equal number of readers said that they found their trailer either through The Equiery, a friend or directly from a dealer (20% each). Seventeen percent said they found their trailer from online sites and another 17% said they got theirs through Horse World Expo. About 56% said they purchased their trailer in Maryland while some purchased nearby in Virginia, Pennsylvania or Delaware and others went as far as Florida to purchase their trailer. Most trailers in the survey were made between 2006 and 2010. When it comes to favorite trailer features, 43.3% said having a dressing room is a must-have. Other must-have features were the size of the stalls, type of flooring and the extra space at the nose of a gooseneck. For the most part, readers are happy with the features they have on their current trailers. Some stated that roof vents and drop-down windows would be nice additions as would a larger dressing room and stall cameras. How Often You Tow The majority of our readers had their vehicles for long periods of time and put lots of mileage on them with 31.58% having between 51,000 and 100,000 miles. The same percentage reports 101,000 to 150,000 miles. Only 7.89% reported owning a vehicle with more than 150,000 miles on it while 28.95% have vehicles with less than 50,000 miles. Readers reported that they tend to trailer less than five times a month and most of that distance is local. In terms of average towing mileage per year, 44.12% reported towing between 1,000 and 5,000 miles a year. Just over 26% said they tow less than 1,000 miles a year and just over 20% said they trailer between 6,000 and 15,000 miles a year. Very few reported trailering more than 15,000 miles a year. The majority of survey participants stated that they trailer for personal use only with just 6.25% saying they trailer for business and 15.6% saying they use their towing vehicle and trailer for both business and personal uses. Every single person who responded to our survey recommends his or her vehicles to others and 94.6% said there is no need for a new vehicle at this time but if they were to buy again, they would stick with the same brand they have now. Several stated, however, that they would upgrade in engine size. Paul Cohen (Association Underwriters & Ziplow Horse Insurance, Inc.) of Westminster replaced his previous Ford F350 with a new Ford F350 Twin Turbo Diesel after he credits the old truck for saving his life: “This was a replacement for the previous F350 that I owned and it saved my life in a very serious accident caused by a drunk driver.” Jeanne Bond, a current Chevy owner, said, “If I were to buy another truck, it would be from GM. This is my fourth GM truck, they have always been reliable, so I’m a loyal customer.” Julia Beamish of Mayadinya Farm in Brookeville however, recently switched from a Ford to a Chevy for her newest towing vehicle stating, “After hearing good things about the Chevy truck transmission and having had many bad experiences with our Ford trucks and the Ford company we went with Chevy.” Most readers are loyal about their trailers as well, staying loyal to what they have and feeling no need to buy another trailer at this time. Bernadette Kilcer said she got her 2012 Bockmann Portax trailer though Traveled Lane Trailers and would buy the same again, stating, “The folks at Traveled Lane are magnificent.” Seventy-five percent said they would buy the same trailer again if they were looking for a newer trailer with 25% saying they would either upgrade to a larger trailer or buy a different brand. Only 6% said they would not recommend the trailer they have, although that was mainly due to the age of the trailer. One reader would not buy a Sundowner again due to large amounts of repairs that had to be done within the first few years of buying it new. Amy Phillips of Red Horse Ranch in Gwyn Oak has a 1996 Collin Arndt trailer and feels it is a great “starter trailer.” She is not currently in the market for a trailer but said if she was, she’d want to upgrade to a three- or four-horse Hawk gooseneck because it is heavier and she feels that makes it a safer trailer.

2 edition of organization and administration of Christian education in the local church found in the catalog. organization and administration of Christian education in the local church International Council of Religious Education. by Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America in Chicago Written in English First published as book 6 of the International Council"s The international curriculum guide. |Statement||Developed cooperatively by Protestant evangelical forces of the United States and Canada through the International Council of Religious Education.| |Contributions||National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Division of Christian Education.| |LC Classifications||BV1471 .I52| |The Physical Object| |Number of Pages||72| |LC Control Number||52004214| Gangel, Kenneth O. Feeding and Leading: Practical Handbook on Administration in Churches and Christian Organizations. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, ISBN NOTE: The required text of this course has been changed from Building Leaders for Church Education to Feeding and Leading. When the lecturer refers to the textbook in the. Each local church shall establish a Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International (SDMI) Board, or an Education Committee as part of the church board, at the annual church meeting, to be responsible for the Christian education ministries of the churches of 75 members or fewer, the responsibilities may be performed by the church board. THE ORGANIZATION MANUAL OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION Published by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention Frank S. Page, President and Chief Executive Officer Commerce Street Nashville, Tennessee File Size: KB. administration and ministry to be able to function in the most fruitful manner possible. Waiting for good leaders to walk through the doors is not a strategy that should be relied upon. Training capable leaders inside the church provides a stability that camlOt be replaced. By developing a leadership training program for the local church it enables. An agency of The United Methodist Church, Discipleship Ministries helps local church, district, and conference leaders fulfill the shared dream of making world-changing disciples. The agency connects leaders with needed resourcing, training, consulting, and networking that support spiritual. The subjection of the Christian school to the control of the state or of any other secular agency is, in effect, the subjection of the Christian homes and churches to secular domination. It is a religious subjection, rightly regarded as vicious, for secular control (even when it may appear benign) is incompatible with the aims of a spiritual. Middle Cambrian fossils from Pend Oreille Lake, Idaho (with one plate) Evaluation of Minnesota mineral leasing. Draft national perspective plan for women A.D. 1988-2000 Probabilistic methods in linguistic analysis Mahé Quay information manual Northwest Territories legal interpreter manual. German-English Medical Dictionary Canticles of the church An Overpraised Season Hong Kong and Macau The organization and administration of Christian education in the local church by International Council of Religious Education.,Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America edition, in EnglishPages: Excellent resource. A comprehensive study about Christian Ministries administration. Useful for pastors, church ministries leaders, and people engaged in Christian education and Christian organization. It will change the way you see administration at church and supply you with great resources. Highly recommended!/5(31). The church school: the organization, administration, and supervision of Christian education in the local church. Purpose - The church council shall provide for planning and implementing a program of nurture, outreach, witness, and resources in the local church. It shall also provide for the administration of its organization and temporal life. It shall envision, plan, implement, and annually evaluate the mission and ministry of the church. Christian education should be active in many other areas as well: youth clubs, vacation Bible school, camping experiences, family life, the church library, training classes, missions, Bible studies, catechism, etc. By grasping the full scope of Christian education, we begin to understand the great task to which the local church is called. It is meant to be a reference book for local church leaders and those helping churches in missions. I hope you will: • Copy the diskette on your hard drive • Modify, print out and copy pages as needed for your congregation or organization Please don’t: • Make copies of the diskette for othersFile Size: KB. Christian education and formation ministries who need to join you in reading this book. There is a variety of groupings of people who can help shape the planning for Christian education in your congregation. Consider these potential partners: Leaders of Christian education and forma-tion in your church. In small-membership con-File Size: KB. Church Christian education is the administration and coordination of programs or strategies to facilitate spiritual growth or discipleship into Christ-likeness. The local church also plays a tremendous role in this development as pastors and teachers team with parents to encourage young hearts for God and provide biblical teaching for the home. Today’s public educational system, on the other hand, generally runs in direct opposition to the biblical values that parents are instructed to instill in. Christian Education Men’s Organization Women’s Organization Vacation School Task Force Church School Superintendent Church School A Sample Church Organization Chart (Incomplete) 3. Discuss how members in different groups and organizations are reminded of the church's mission and purpose and made to feel they participate in it. Idea C 1. This book is more than just a comprehensive collection of information on Christian education. It is a working tool written by a group of Christian educators to provide both a clear understanding of basic principles of Christian education and a practical guide for day-to-day administration of church education by: 5. The Word of Life Bible Institute is a two-year, non degree granting institution accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian colleges and schools (TRACS) and recognized by most Christian colleges and Universities. Get this from a library. The organization and administration of Christian education in the local church; for the development of a comprehensive program in Christian education. [International Council of Religious Education.; National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Division of Christian Education.]. An effective Christian Education ministry helps believers grow into Christ-likeness. You will find resources on this page to help you do that through various kinds of programs and strategies. Click on a tab below to view a list of resources related to Christian Education in general or. Church Leadership and Administration CEAM Page 1 Church Leadership and Administration CEAM New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Christian Education Division Disclaimer: This syllabus is intended to give the student a general idea of the content, format, and textbooks used for this class. The professor will submit a full. There are many essential aspects of ministry, but this book focuses on just one often-overlooked part: church administration. Tidwell identifies the basic skills church leaders need for effective administration; outlines the major principles of an 'equipping ministry'; and explains how to successfully administer your church's human, physical, and financial resources. pages, softcover 5/5(1). In Christian churches, Jesus Christ is the head of the church, though the senior pastor is the head of his individual church congregation. Under this leadership, the ideal organizational structure will depend on size, types of ministries, and denomination. The church school: the organization, administration, and supervision of Christian education in the local church by Paul H. Vieth starting at $ The church school: the organization, administration, and supervision of Christian education in the local church has 0 available edition to buy at Half Price Books Marketplace. “Christian Education” must mean, as a result, teaching that imparts knowledge of God through the Scriptures and leads the student to living as Christ did, in obedience to God. To put it another way, the goal of CE is to make mature Christians. This is the task given to the local church by Jesus Christ. Kenneth O. Gangel states, “the Author: Rick Allen Wolgamott. A church has many different areas of work to be done. To accomplish this work, it may choose to organize itself as follows: • Pastor and Staff • Deacons • Church Leadership Team (Church Council) • General Church Officers - Moderator - Clerk - Treasurer - Trustees • Church Program Organizations • Standing Committees • Special File Size: KB. The Revised Book of Church Order and Discipline of the United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic), historically referred to as “The Black Book,” is offered to the ministers, laypersons, and church members of the United Church, in hopes that it will assist them as they carry out the varied and essential responsibilities of Size: KB.A Definition of Church Administration. 1. Key Elements of an Effective Church Administration Strategy. By Major Stewart Major Stewart is the Senior Pastor of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church of Flint Michigan. A Definition of Church Administration. Church Administration equips the church to be the church and to do the work of the church in a coherent and is the guidance provided by church leaders as they lead the church .as Associate Conference Minister for Administration for the Connecticut Conference I often provide church management resources to local churches. It was decided that the project would help local churches obtain resources. Goal The goal of the project was to develop a selected list of key resources for local church leaders to review. Further.

A young couple dream of growing old together as they as they deal with the struggles of being in a long-term relationship. |Released:||August 29, 2018| |Companies:||ABS-CBN Film ProductionsStar Cinema| |Cast:||Daniel PadillaDarren EspantoJean GarciaKathryn Bernardo| |Crew:||Carmi RaymundoCathy Garcia-MolinaGilliann Ebreo|

Once upon a time (circa 1928), in a Hollywood of our mythic imagination rather than historic reality, a 21-year-old aspiring actor named Marion Michael Morrison (later to become more well known as John Wayne) met 80-year-old former marshal Wyatt Earp. The aged gunfighter had been hired to appear in one of those newly invented “oaters” that had become a part of popular culture following the cinematic success of The Great Train Robbery (1903). The two met on the set of a Western being directed by genius-in-embryo John Ford and the living legend of the Old West hit it off with the youngster who would come to embody the 20 century’s glorification of that time and place. Between takes, the tall tale goes, Earp recalled his hair-raising exploits as Duke (he’d been called that since childhood owing to his close attachment to a large dog of that name) sat spellbound, admiring and absorbing the old lawman’s personal code of conduct. As a lawman, Earp (unlike some of his trigger-happy contemporaries) believed a gun must only be employed as a last resort. Even at the O.K. Corral shootout, Earp and his brother Virgil attempted to talk the Clantons and McLaurys into handing over their pistols before all hell broke loose on October 26, 1881. Despite the lawman’s misgivings about employing his weapon, three men lay dead on Tombstone, Arizona’s Fremont Street when the incident was over, ensuring Earp’s “reputation” as a fast-gun. Though as Earp later explained: “I don’t think 30 seconds should sum up a man’s whole life.” The iconic Westerner would have preferred to be remembered for his 100-plus earlier gunfights in which only one man died, and this by accident. When Earp passed away on January 16, 1929, Hollywood myth places young Duke as one of his pallbearers. Shortly after, Wayne got his Western movie break. First came the 1930 sound epic The Big Trail, a box-office disaster and potential career-killer. However, Wayne survived by starring in low-budget items for Poverty Row studios, and by the decade’s end, Ford rescued his protégé from B-movie purgatory by casting Wayne in Stagecoach (1939), a critically acclaimed, financially successful big Western. From then on, Duke placed on the A-list. Throughout his career, whether he was working in cheaply produced program-pictures or in Cinemascope extravaganzas, Wayne never forgot what he learned from Earp and insisted on embodying the man’s code of honor on-screen. For example, while filming The Shootist in 1975, Wayne noticed that in the rough cut, his character, dying gunfighter John Book, appeared to shoot an opponent in the back. Wayne requested that the sequence be re-edited. Never before, he explained to director Don Siegel, had Wayne shot a man in the back, this in deference to Earp. Earp’s code influenced Wayne in other roles as well. Even during the deadly gunplay at the O.K. Corral, Earp refused to gun down Ike Clanton when the outlaw leader raised his hands, insisting he was unarmed. And Earp would not fire on that arch-enemy as Clanton ran away. Likewise, in Rio Bravo (1959), Wayne, playing sheriff John T. Chance, says: “Man gets shot and he’s got a gun, there’s room for reasonable doubt. Man gets shot that hasn’t got a gun, what would you call it?” By implication, he answers his own question: Murder. As historian Gary L. Roberts wrote of Earp: “He lived his life according to a code that seemed right to him.” That holds true for Wayne’s characters as well. Here’s where the tall tale ends. After all, the greatest Wayne/Ford Western produced—The Searchers (1956)—contains a sequence in which Duke’s character, Ethan Edwards, does in fact gun down a fleeing would-be robber. All of the above at once becomes an opened can of worms. The reality of Wayne’s relationship with Earp is less romantic—though no less interesting—than the legend. Truth be told, Wayne wasn’t a pallbearer at Earp’s funeral (though two silent stars, Tom Mix and William S. Hart, were). In fact, Earp never even appeared in a movie (though other living remnants of the West—lawman William Tilghman and outlaw Al Jennings—did). Rather, Earp took a side seat on movie sets, recounting old-time incidents for Ford during the shooting of Mother Machree (1928), a non-Western. Wayne, who here made his screen debut in a bit part, wasn’t even present when Earp explained to Ford that the O.K. Corral gunfight hadn’t been the slam-bang bullet-fest popularized by myth and media, but rather an orchestrated battle, executed with military-like strategy. (Nearly two decades later, Ford employed that approach to his staging of the incident in My Darling Clementine (1946). Intriguingly, Ford chose Henry Fonda, not Wayne, to play Earp in the film. Why? We’ll never know, as Ford took that secret with him to the grave, much to Wayne’s consternation.) Bottom line: Earp and Wayne never met. Anything Wayne knew about the real Earp came to him secondhand from Ford during their 25-year working relationship. Their encounter is only a charming Hollywood fable. Nonetheless, Earp and Wayne did share several qualities. Both were, in fact, natives of the North: Earp was born in Illinois, Wayne in Iowa. Each, in his own time, made his way west to California. As well, Wayne—on-screen as John Chance—and Wyatt Earp, Easterners so far as Arizona locals were concerned, found themselves drawn into a deadly conflict with the reigning cattlemen and the cowboys working as their hired hands. Chance, like the man he may have been based on, was dedicated to taming, not enabling, the wildness of the West. In our collective unconscious, fans tend to recall Wayne playing John Law in film after film—testament to how powerfully he resonates in that role. However, before Rio Bravo, Wayne never enacted a lawman in an A-Western (though he did pin on a star in several 1930s grade-Z junk movies). And, however serendipitous, the Earp connection at once emerged. The reasons: In Blue Steel (1934), Duke’s youthful marshal was mentored by an old-timer (George “Gabby” Hayes) while cleaning up a nasty town, just as a young Earp was by Sheriff Whitney in Ellsworth, Kan., circa 1872. The Big Stampede (1932) depicts Wayne’s lawman as recruiting and reforming a bad man who then joins the cause against other outlaws; Earp managed such a trope when he enlisted former enemy Ben Thompson as an uneasy ally. In The Star Packer (1934), Wayne’s lawman insists on hiring a Native American as his full-fledged deputy owing to the man’s tracking abilities; Earp is believed to have been the first marshal to over-ride Anglo prejudices in Wichita and Dodge by doing precisely that. Wayne playing a lawman, however, is the exception in his cinematic career. More often, Wayne was cast as an outlaw or outsider, such as in Somewhere in Sonora (1933), Sagebrush Trail (1933), Paradise Canyon (1935), and almost a dozen others. Even in the triumphant Stagecoach, he’s the righteous outlaw Ringo, on the run from the law. The same holds true for Wayne in Ford’s The Searchers and Hawks’ El Dorado, if in time Duke would return to lawman roles, most notably in True Grit (1969). Initially, Duke’s plethora of bandit roles seemingly severs the Wayne-Earp connection. In truth, it reinforces a parallel between Wayne’s evolving screen persona and the flesh-and-blood man who served as role model. For if their face-to-face meeting is mythic, the truth is that Wayne did have Earp in mind not only when he played roles where he donned the badge, but also in those where he was on the run. In most of the 25-plus movies that depict Earp, the story begins on that day when our hero accepted his first job as a trail town deputy. Only Wyatt Earp (1994), starring Kevin Costner and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, reveals the truth, the whole truth. Earp did not leave his family in Illinois to seek excitement on the fabled frontier. He ran away from home after the sudden passing of his first wife. The self-pitying widower then degenerated into a life of crime. His arrest record includes citations for petty theft and whoremongering. Earp, like so many others, went West in hopes of being born again—discovering the righteous life he had abandoned while temporarily embracing (as George Lucas might put it) The Dark Side. How perfect, then, that John Wayne, as the cinematic stand-in for Earp, likewise portrayed many wandering gunmen, Hondo (1953) prime among them. Almost always, his character would be a seemingly bad man harboring an inner decency just waiting to be rekindled (particularly by some good woman). One film, Angel and the Badman (1947), addresses that process in its narrative. In that film, Wayne as gunfighter Quirt Evans learns from a benign religious leader: “Each human being has an integrity that can be hurt only by the act of that same human being.” The message: Don’t blame others, or circumstances, for your lowly lot in life. Take individual responsibility for your previous actions and your subsequent self-recreation. That’s what Earp believed. Wayne, too. Wayne’s great films, from Stagecoach to Angel and the Badman to The Searchers to Rio Bravo, depict (however unawares filmmakers behind each project may have been) a transition for Wayne’s on-screen icon from wanted man to lawman. And, fittingly, the journey directly parallels Wyatt Earp’s. Respectability didn’t come easily to the saddle tramp. As Wayne’s Tom Dunson in Red River (1948) would say: He earned it. Just as Wayne’s anti-heroes do in their films. However much the old movies may have insisted there were the Good Guys and the Bad Guys, most Westerners, like Earp in history and Wayne in his Hollywood canon, were a bit of both. Johnny Ringo, who had a reputation for violence, briefly served as a lawman. Wild Bill Hickok, town marshal of Abilene, had been pursued by the law after shooting down two members of the Seventh Cavalry in a saloon. One of the strongest recommendations for the job of lawman was a previous reputation as a gun-slick. Would-be troublemakers, hearing such a fellow’s handle, stayed away from any place where that onetime bandit wore a badge. Nowhere is this situation so strikingly depicted than in The Shootist, partly explaining why the film (Wayne’s last) serves as a perfect bookend to his career. In the prologue, a youngster (Ron Howard) sums up the title character’s life. When the boy speaks of the old days, John Book’s early years as an outlaw are depicted via a choice clip from Hondo. As the narrator then recalls Book’s later term as town marshal, we see (not surprisingly) a key moment from Rio Bravo. A landmark film, and not just because it was Wayne’s final Western, The Shootist is the genre-piece that most perfectly captures a paradigm that holds true for both John Wayne’s movie career and Wyatt Earp’s reality: While there were no clear-cut Good Guys and Bad Guys, any one person (or character) may have played either part at certain moments in his journey. In a transitional film—a medium-budget Republic release called The Dark Command (1940)—Wayne portrayed a Kansas lawman who must arrest the young brother of the woman that he loves. In anguish, the young love interest asks how he could do this. Duke drawls: “I took an oath.” That’s that: the Code of the West, pure and simple. Perhaps it was historically true for Wyatt Earp. Clearly, it’s the moral principle on which John Wayne’s mythical lawman hero operates. Douglas Brode is the author of more than 40 books on film including John Wayne’s Way: Life Lessons from the Duke.

Cape Cod Aim Trip This missions trip will work alongside of The Bridge outreach ministries in Onset, Massachusetts which is considered the “Gateway to the Cape”. The mission of The Bridge exists to facilitate short-term missions trips by connecting churches, pastors, businesses, youth and young adults to great missions opportunities in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As a destination location Onset hosts thousands of people from around the world every summer. It is a unique opportunity to reach people, serve, and share the good news of the Gospel. Each year we bring in teams throughout the summer to serve in the community of Onset, as well as other communities on the Cape including Carver and Plymouth. Missions teams have the opportunity to work with the Teen Challenge Bloom Home for Girls, The Boys and Girls Club of Warham, as well as other civic organizations as needs rise. Teams will participate in projects for other churches in the area as well including Crossraods Carver Church, Grace Chapel in Wellfleet, and Faith Assembly in Hyannis. Depending on the needs teams will participate in VBS, work projects, homeless meal outreaches, and various other projects for the churches involved.

When it comes to homeschool planning, I love creating the bird’s-eye view and then breaking it down into monthly plans. (You can find all my free planner and organizer pages here.) But here’s the snag … my kids don’t like my plans and they absolutely hate my checklists! A few years ago my youngest child had a total meltdown when I showed her an overview of the work for her new school year. My high school kid freaked out when I showed her the year plan and the book lists at the beginning of her final year. Okay – so they are not global or detailed thinkers. They are more free, creative, and spontaneous folk, and my detailed plans frustrate, frighten and freeze them. I just need to show them the week, or even just the day ahead. I have learnt to compromise. I need to plan for me first and then adjust the plans that I share with them. I often have to customize the day’s schedule so that they have a good idea of my expectations, and allow for their own choices and approach. Even young children love to feel that they have some control by choosing what they prefer to do first, next or last. Teenagers should be given this freedom of choice and learn to accept the consequences of their choices. My children think and work at a different pace to me. When things are not essential, I have learnt to let them work at their own pace. Chores that I need to be done, should be done on time, but the rest they can do so long as it is done before I go to bed. I am still learning not to drive my children crazy. Right now, our daughter is getting married at the end of this month, and guess what? I started a 6-page checklist! It even overwhelmed me and I became so stressed that I stopped. But, foolish mom that I was, I pressed on, continued, finished it and, what’s even worse, I presented it to my precious daughter-bride-to-be. Her reaction was instant STRESS and anger. My detailed plans did not help. Frustration closed all communication channels and so I went into the shower to have a good cry. You would think that I had learnt how to approach things with my children by now. I was filled with such sorrow and shame. I came back and apologised. I immediately resigned as the wedding planner. We laughed at some of my ridiculous details on my checklist, and I put the file away. Her best friend is an amazing wedding planner and is already helping her and us. Her friend knows how to translate all the practical details into an approach that my creative, romantic, visionary daughter can visualize and process. Weddings are stressful events to plan, people! That’s why you have professionals who do this type of thing! We have celebrated her upcoming wedding hosting two kitchen teas. The first kitchen tea (pictured above) was in the small town where she lives. All her bridesmaids and close friends attended. They prepared a beautiful venue and laid out a delicious spread, and we had fun with some kitchen tea activities as she unwrapped her gifts. The other more recent kitchen tea was with family and friends in our nearest town. Because I need to see things on paper, I will continue to work with the wedding plans to keep tab of things and I will act as my hubby’s PA and his admin help, keeping track of the budget and emails. But I confess that I feel completely overwhelmed at times … especially sometimes when I lie awake at night … We are in a slight lull right now, with most things booked, arranged and made, but in just 2 weeks, things will be revved up like crazy! So, please excuse me from this little space while we are all busy, preparing, travelling and celebrating this incredible occasion! Dear precious mom, learn from me and don’t overwhelm yourself or your kids with too many detailed plans. Give yourself and your children the time and space to work in a way that allows them to use their best energy and focus. Balance this grace with suitable, sensible training. Teach them to prioritize, set alarm clocks, be on time, and meet daily goals. Allow for choices, alternatives, and options you may not have planned. It will all work out fine in the end! With every blessing, Nadene Subscribe Click to receive all my new posts packed with practical tips, projects, plans, pages & art ideas by email Facebook Follow Practical Pages on Facebook

By Georgia Hall Afterschool Matters Summer 2020 An Interview with Michelle Seligson, Founder of NIOST Michelle (Micki) Seligson has been nationally recognized as a leader in afterschool and in childcare policy and practice. In 1978, she founded the School-Age Childcare Project, which became the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at Wellesley College. To commemorate NIOST’s 40th anniversary, she sat down with Georgia Hall, director and senior research scientist at NIOST, to talk about how observation of exemplary practices became guidance for an emerging field. By Emily Ustach “Hello, and welcome to New Urban Arts! Let me tell you a little bit about this place. We are an afterschool art studio for high school students. We don’t have any attendance requirements, so you can come when you want, stay as long as you want, and return as often as you want. Would you like a tour?” By Marisela A. Montoya When the bell rings at the end of the school day, many afterschool participants head to the cafeteria, gym, or portable building where their programs take place. Some hop on buses to attend programs at a local community or recreation center a few blocks away. However, thousands of students across the country go home to their afterschool program. By Devan Blackwell Attention issues made it difficult for Matthew, a fifth grader, to sit down and focus for long periods of time. He was easily distracted and often got into trouble during the school day for being disruptive. Using Diverse Genres of Expression to Support Boys and Young Men of Color By Keith F. Miller, Jr. “Keith, he just shut down on me,” the teaching artist said, shaking his head, defeated. “I don’t know what to do. He said he won’t do anything.” By Marie Benson The importance attached to the development of strong character is evident in schools, out-of-school time (OST) programs, and the workplace. As providers of OST programs, we must infuse our programs with activities that build positive social and emotional skills in order to help mold future human capital. Educators, employers, and society as a whole agree on the need for honesty and for social and emotional skills. These skills are valuable across a person’s lifetime, regardless of where they are learned and practiced. Employers are looking for employees who possess competency in social and emotional skills; these skills may even be in more in demand than technical skills (Afterschool Alliance, 2018). OST programs can prepare participants for their futures by promoting social and emotional learning.

Ross Sinclair, Free Instruments for Teenagers, 2015 Ross Sinclair has been a leading figure in the collaboration between art and music in Scotland over the last two decades. Free Instruments for Teenagers was a vinyl sampler produced as part of 20 Years of Real Life, which marked 20 years since Ross began his Real Life series. The Free Instruments for Teenagers project gave away instruments to young people born in the last 20 years so they could form bands. The bands worked with Collective and Ross through a series of workshops with invited artists and musicians, to write, record and perform new music. The three bands who took part inFree Instruments for Teenagerswere: Appear Invisible; Bedroom Athlete; and Enemy Fire. Edition of 200 12" Vinyl sampler and risograph pamphlet Standard delivery items are usually dispatched within 3 business days after the order has been placed. We aim to deliver UK orders within 3-7 business days. Due to Covid-19, our opening hours have changed, meaning we can only send out orders on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. International delivery times vary depending on the location. All deliveries are dispatched using Royal Mail or a tracked courier. All tracking information will be sent via email. Courier over £150 Rest of World Please note overseas customers may find their orders are subject to import duties and taxes, which may be levied once a delivery reaches its destination country. These charges are the responsibility of the customer. If for any reason you are not entirely happy with your purchase we will be happy to issue an exchange or refund within 30 days of receipt. An exchange or refund will be issued provided that you notify us before sending the item and that the item returned is in its original and unused condition, with all tags still attached. All refunds will be reimbursed via your original payment method. Postage and packaging costs are non-refundable, except in the event that the goods are faulty. To return your product, please mail it to: Collective Matter, City Observatory, 38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA, UK Please include a note detailing why you are returning the item as well as your order number. You will be responsible for paying for your own shipping costs for returning your item.