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Y's motoring expert Alvin Thomas finds a pure-bred Dakar Rally-ready SUV, with superior road manners.
There are cars you like, and cars you hate. And Mitsubishi, with its "new" lineup of vehicles has nested itself right into the middle of the spectrum; garnering immense love from former Mitsubishi fans, and little attention from those who don't particularly appreciate the brand.
I fall into the former category; I grew up with posters of light Mitsubishi Evolution cars in rally and hefty Pajero SUVs in the Dakar Series on my bedroom walls.
The brand cultivated my love for driving and engineering. Thus, it was extremely hard for me to accept the withdrawal of the Pajero from the Dakar Series, in 2009; and the demise of the "Evolution" nametag from the automotive scene, in 2016. But, hey, that's the car world; you must vie hard for your existence, or (as a youngster would put it) it's time to go home.
Following that, the brand was reduced to selling small family sedans, including the mellowed-down version of the Evolution – the Lancer, and myriad road-going SUVs. I thought of it as the end of an era.
But, boy, I could not have been more wrong.
The Mitsubishi Montero Sport has been on the market for two years now, but it is only the first time that I was given the keys to the SUV.
And you know what? It does what no other SUV in the market does: it feels like a pure-bred Dakar Rally-ready SUV, with superior road manners. In short, it does everything the Mitsubishi Pajero does, and more.
Let's start with the looks: the Mitsubishi Montero Sport looks fabulous from upfront. The lights are menacing – with its sharp and angular headlamps, and edgy LED daytime running lights. Further complementing the aggressive "Dynamic Shield Design" fascia of the SUV is the abundant chrome that shells the bumper and fuses with the headlamps – it's gorgeous.
Much of this character carries over to the sides, too. There's a bold line that follows through, originating from the headlamps, and continuing all the way to the doors and the rear lights. The Montero Sport also rides high (with a ground clearance of 21.8cm and a wading depth of 70cm!), but the chunky high-profile 265/60 tyres give it the right proportions.
Ironically, things take a tumble when you move over to the rear end. The Montero Sport must have one of the most controversial tail lamps in the history of automotive design (after the Pontiac Aztek, though). The wedge-shaped lights begin from the sides – which look rather nice – but proceeds downwards, like a tear drop.
The high hind also makes it hard to load and unload heavy goods, although, that's archetypal of SUVs in this class.
Hopping into the Montero Sport (quite literally!), I was surprised to find that the interior stacked up very close to – and in some areas, better – its competitors from Japan. Much of the cabin is covered in hard plastics, starting from the (partially soft-touch) dashboard, all the way to the bottom panels of the cabin. It's still superior to the vehicle it replaces, though.
My top-of-the-line trim also came with decent-looking faux-wood inserts near the centre armrests and also the console, wrapping the graphically-frail touchscreen navigation infotainment unit.
In true Japanese fashion, the boffins have engineered thick and responsive hardware buttons into the dashboard, as opposed to the nonsensical light-sensitive touch buttons incorporated in American SUVs and sedans. It's something I approve of.
The centre stack also comprises a thick-rimmed dial with faux-aluminium trim knurled on the outside. The dial controls the Mitsubishi's drive modes: 2H (two-wheel drive) and 4H (four-wheel drive), and two low gearing options – 4HLc and 4LLc. You can also lock the differential if need be.
Space is in plentiful in the first and second row seats but third row passengers will find themselves wanting more knee room. Head room is admirable despite the high floor. The seats are wrapped in superb leatherette-material, and are moderately supportive.
But the driver and front passenger do get decent side bolstering and lumbar support.
Thankfully, the Montero Sport also comes with safety features such as blind-spot monitoring, frontal-accident collision warning and all-around parking sensors, meaning it's easy to navigate this hefty two-ton SUV on the roads.
Speaking of which, power comes from a 3.0-litre 'MIVEC' V6 mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, with manual override possible through the steering-mounted paddle shifters or the gear knob itself.
The engine pumps a respectable 219hp and 281Nm of torque. The power is decent enough to propel the Montero Sport from 0-100kph in about 12-seconds although I did not ever find the need to put the engine under stress while driving under normal conditions.
Where the Montero truly shines is in city driving where the mid-range torque of the naturally-aspirated engine kicks in to thrust the SUV to pace. The only downside is that the gearbox constantly shifts up even when you have slammed the pedal to the metal, thereby hampering your acceleration but improving your fuel economy.
Of course, you can change that and rev the nuts off the engine by simply making use of the paddle shifters. Yes, it holds gears up to the redline. The SUV also settles into its speed, and cruises comfortably once it has picked pace.
Meanwhile, the ride inside the Montero Sport is refined, and engine noise is muffled at slow speeds. The only time you really feel you're in an SUV is when you take it off-road. Otherwise, the springs do a darn good job in eradicating the general floatiness that is characteristic of vehicles in this segment. This is partly due to the precise geometry of the suspension. All of this means that the Montero acts like a civilised SUV on the road. Although, I did observe that there was longer travel in the suspension, though.
There's a substantial amount of body roll while cornering past the 45kph mark. But things are kept within the threshold, as the electronic stability control kicks in (a tad early) to prevent you from turning turtle.
Thanks to the vehicle's excellent ride-height, you can also navigate through even the steepest of grounds with ease (as you can see from the dramatic photos). The approach and departure angles and the 'hill descent control' of the Montero Sport do well to inspire confidence in the driver while off the Tarmac.
The breaks are linear and strong, and brought the car to a quick halt when I most needed it. But, the rear discs look a bit small when compared to the overall size of the car.
The brilliantly-weighted steering system is hydraulic, which makes life easy while off-roading. Each and every crevice on the road is transposed beautifully to the steering, further alleviating the lacklustre and dead-feeling electric systems found in cars of today.
It's very clear that the Mitsubishi engineers have gone back to the drawing board for the benefit of the Montero Sport.
But with a tight market and contenders coming in hard from all sides, the SUV has quite a lot to prove. Life in the marketplace has only become harder as the Americans, the Japanese and even the Germans have at least two direct competitors to the Montero Sport, currently.
Still, there's one very good reason why this SUV stands out from the rest of the contenders: its price tag. And that alone is good reason to justify the Montero Sport's existence in the Mitsubishi lineup; of course, that, and a lot of gruff and will power to succeed.


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One of the benefits of treatment at Bozzo Chiropractic Office is that we offer a choice of chiropractic techniques.
The Diversified technique is the most widely used of all chiropractic techniques. Developed by D.D. Palmer, it serves as the cornerstone of the manipulation/adjustment procedures taught in chiropractic colleges. Diversified is traditional chiropractic, which employs a manual adjustment to treat subluxations or misalignments of the spine.
In addition to traditional chiropractic treatment, we offer a state-of- the-art computerized chiropractic treatment called The Sigma Instrument® . The Sigma Instrument® is the most advanced chiropractic analysis and treatment instrument in existence today. With it, you will receive a pain-free chiropractic adjustment. It uses technology to gently vibrate the spinal joint back into normal motion, so there is no twisting, turning or sudden movement. The Sigma Instrument® allows us to safely and gently treat patients of all ages. Dr. Vince and Dr. Kathy Bozzo are the only chiropractors in the Salinas area that are certified to use this technique.

subset: commoncrawl


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I am often awed. Sometimes I weep. I laugh a lot - so much that I try to get through a least one caffeinated beverage before firing up the computer and logging in. More than one blogger has caused me to snort coffee from my nose before my eyes are fully open, and how I love them for it.
Here then, are the blog pieces that have stuck with me as I've moved through the week:
Alice Pyne is 15. She is also dying.
To that end, she created a blog so that she can share her final months with her loved ones and let them witness her quest to fulfill her "Bucket List". Alice listed "trending on Twitter" as one of her life's wishes.
Her voice - so young, so brave - has haunted my sleep for two nights now and I cannot stay away from her site. THOUSANDS of people have commented on her posts and therein lies the true magic of the internet. I spent an entire HOUR this morning, reading the comments, feeling the outpouring of enormous love for Alice and cheering whenever I came across someone offering to make one of her wishes come true.
Need your faith in human goodness rekindled? Visit Alice.
Mary Kathryn is a fellow blogger I've "met" on Twitter. According to her blog tag, she is "abiding in grace, one day at a time."
I think she's the person I'd want to be, if I weren't me.
Mary Kathryn brings light to my days and forces me to re-examine my own faith, daily. She is quirky and funny and so very, very wise. She is also a redhead and a true beauty and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why she is still single.
In any case, popping by Beauty for Ashes every few days fills me up with all that I need to keep going. Often, I feel as though she has somehow found her way inside my heart and is healing it from the inside out.
Need a spiritual lift or to see what true joy looks like, written? Visit Mary Kathryn.
C stands for commencement. It also stands for Chase McFadden, whose Commencement Speech titled "Go Find Your Rock" should be read aloud at every graduation ceremony, everywhere.
I was so impressed by the speech I posted it to my Facebook wall and watched as FB friends re-posted it all over the place. All is as it should be and my hope is that Chase's wise words will echo in the hearts of children forever.
Big words, eh? Well, Chase's words inspired big feelings in me - there, on his blog, were there things I long to teach my children. Heck, things I long to learn myself. It's just a bonus that the dude's funny to boot.
Seeking direction and purpose and an encouraging, friendly voice? Visit Chase.


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Climber fell to his death from RAF helicopter after 'safety rope was cut during rescue attempt'
- Victim named locally as Mark Phillips who was being rescued after falling
- Tragedy struck on Ben Nevis as RAF crew tried to pull Mr Phillips to safety
- It's believed safety rope was cut before he was brought on to helicopter
- Climber who helped with rescue of Phillips, 51, blamed 'basic human error'
Mark Philllips (pictured) died after his safety wire was apparently cut when he was being rescued by an RAF Sea King
A crew member on an RAF Sea King is believed to have cut a safety rope carrying an injured climber they were trying to rescue.
Mark Phillips, 51, a council worker from Spean Bridge, Lochaber, was killed when he fell during the rescue operation after being involved in an accident on Ben Nevis.
He was climbing with a friend when he fell 160ft from Raeburn's Buttress on the north face of the 4,406ft peak on Monday, suffering serious head injuries.
He survived the initial accident but when a team from Lossiemouth tried to winch him to safety the safety rope was allegedly cut before he had been secured and he fell to his death, according to the Scottish Herald.
As he was being winched to safety by the Sea King helicopter he suddenly dropped to the ground. It is not clear how Mark fell to his death but police have confirmed he died during the rescue attempt.
It is not known how far he fell but it is understood to have been hundreds of feet. It was reported that in the attempt to get Mr Phillips on board the aircraft, the safety rope was cut before he had been secured and brought on to the helicopter.
Northern Constabulary and officials from the Ministry of Defence have now launched an inquiry into what happened.
Officers were alerted to the accident at 12.30pm on Monday and a team from Lochaber Mountain Rescue went to the scene along with the RAF helicopter.
The RAF helicopter was immediately stood down from the mission and a Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Gannet at Prestwick was called to complete the rescue.
Mr Phillips, an experienced climber, was an environmental health officer with Highland Council, based at Fort William, where he worked for 12 years.
His wife Caroline said in a statement: 'On 25th February my beloved husband, Mark, was enjoying the superb conditions the Scottish Highlands were affording.
Climber Mark Phillips died on Ben Nevis (pictured) after it is alleged his rescue rope was cut
'He had spent the previous few days climbing and walking in the hills with friends. Tragically that day he sustained fatal injuries following an incident on Ben Nevis.
'Mark and I together with our son, Ruaridh, had moved to the Highlands about 12 years ago so as to live amongst the hills and community we had got to love.
'Mark was a loving father and husband and will be sorely missed by us and his many friends and work colleagues. Ruaridh and I thank them all for their support.
'I have noted certain speculation in the press surrounding Mark's death. I have entire confidence in the police and the process and I do not want to indulge such speculation.'
Police are taking statements from all those involved in the incident, including members of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team.
A climber who helped in the rescue effort blamed the accident on 'basic human error' and said there was a lot of sympathy for the winchman, who is understood to be a long-serving airman who has successfully rescued hundreds of people from the mountains.
The helicopter was scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth and the MoD is now carrying out an inquiry
Local reports suggested there had been 'tense radio exchanges' moments before the accident before an order was issued for radio silence.
'Mark and I together with our son, Ruaridh, had moved to the Highlands about 12 years ago so as to live amongst the hills and community we had got to love. Mark was a loving father and husband and will be sorely missed by us and his many friends and work colleagues'
Mark Phillip's wife Caroline
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: 'We can confirm that two military search and rescue helicopters were sent to assist in an operation to rescue a fallen climber on Ben Nevis, who sadly died.
'An investigation by Northern Constabulary is under way. It would be inappropriate for the MoD to comment further at this stage.'
Spokesmen from both the police force and the MoD declined to comment further on whether the rescue line was cut by a crewman.
Officers from Northern Constabulary have taken statements from mountain rescue team members and the Ministry of Defence has also started an internal inquiry.
The climber was roped to a friend when he first fell more than 160ft from Raeburn's Buttress on the north face of the peak on Monday afternoon but was saved by his safety rope.
It is understood his companion did not suffer any serious injuries.
An RAF Sea King similar to the one used in the rescue operation in which Mr Phillips died
A spokesman for the Northern Constabulary said: 'This is a live inquiry which is being investigated by the police. We would never reveal the details of the circumstances surrounding the death.
'There are no further details at this time. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.'
Mark Phillips was the 11th person to die on Scotland's mountains in less than two months. Graham Paterson, 60, of Skye, was found after falling in the Cuillins on December 29.
Tom Chesters, 28, Chris Bell, 24, Dr Una Finnegan, 25, and Dr Rachel Majumdar, 29, died on January 19 when they were avalanched in Glencoe and Ben St Joseph died after falling 400ft from Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis on January 26.
An avalanche in the Cairngorms a fortnight ago killed Squadron Leader Rimon Than, 33, Fit Lt Fran Capps, 32, and William Currie, 18. Graham Connell, 31, from Yorkshire, was found dead in the Cairngorms on February 18.
The leader of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team has described the initial fall on the mountain.
John Stevenson said: 'It was a bad fall. We think he was the lead climber because his mate was on the rope. He saw him fall - as did two other climbers in the area - and he abseiled down and raised the alarm by mobile phone.
'The lad who fell had massive head injuries. We sent a team of 18 and used every asset available. Accidents do happen. All it needs is one mistake and in a split second you are gone.'
Neil Gillies, director of transport environmental and community services at the council where Mr Phillips worked, said: 'Mark covered the full range of Environmental Health Activities including Food Safety.
'He was a popular, helpful and highly valued member of our team in Lochaber and always went about his business in an efficient and professional manner. He will be sorely missed.'
Provost of Lochaber, councillor Allan Henderson said: 'I am extremely saddened to hear about the passing of our valued colleague.
'As Councillors, we have always found Mark to be very courteous and helpful and a very valued member of the Highland Council staff. His death will be sadly mourned by his colleagues as well as his family.'
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text:
Top quality composite AV cable for connecting original NES to modern TVs
Yellow/Red end splits mono into
3 meters (~9 feet) in length
Gold plated connectors for top quality signal & HDTV compatible
Color coded ends match original NES's audio & video connectors
Imported from USA
SPECIFICATIONS: This is cable is the best method for connecting your original Nintendo to a modern television. It
contains gold plated connectors for optimal signal conduction between your NES and TV. To allow easy wiring, our RCA
composite cords are 3 meters (~9 feet) in length. This cable produces high quality video on a modern HD LCD, LED, or
plasma TV.
TOP AUDIO & VIDEO QUALITY: As the original 8-bit front loading NES has video & mono audio outputs on the side, best use
of these outputs requires the use of this unique AV cable. This cable has been designed to split the Nintendo's mono
audio output to two channels for a simulated stereo effect. Thus, sound will come out of both speakers on your home
theater or TV rather than just one. Both in video and audio quality, this NES AV cord is superior to using a traditional
RF adapter.
CONNECTION: Connecting this cable between your NES and TV is quite simple. It's been custom color coded for your
Nintendo and TV. Yellow/Red end splits mono sound from NES into "simulated stereo" sound at Yellow/White/Red at your TV.
NOTE: This cable will not work with top loading Nintendo Entertainment Systems as that model didn't have RCA outputs.
Just the cable is included in auction. The Nintendo system and other items in photos are not included and are simply for
demonstration purposes.
Manufacturer: Custom manufactured by Video Game Museum
Shop the largest choice of Audio Cables online in the UAE. Browse thousands of great deals on mizar products with fast, free delivery.


text:
Providentially after reviewing the Frame critique of Rev. Jason Stelleman, Stelleman appears to have gone apostate and gone back to Rome.
First, no matter what one's position on Two Kingdoms, we ought to be able to mourn together, pray for the man and his family to repent, and pray for the church that just had their pastor go back to Rome.
Second, some interesting thoughts are coming out on this. The best of which so far is (not surprisingly) Carl Trueman. Trueman makes some excellent points. His main idea is one about high-churchism and putting church before the gospel. He does not directly state it is a probably with the Two Kingdom view, but they are pretty big on church. In fact, it is one of their critiques of the Transformationalists that the church is minimized. Trueman is right if church is elevated above gospel then Rome seems like the best place because they have long ago elevated their church above the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course Doug Wilson argues that the problem is the 'TR' view of Sola Fide and then goes into the Federal Vision rants. And Wilson has a point if you don't really believe in Sola Fide and want works as part of your salvation then the Federal Vision can give you that. Just like Rome.
Which ultimately is my point here, neither Two Kingdoms nor Transformationalism necessarily lead to Rome. However, both sides can lead to Rome. If Two Kingdoms men lift church so high as to lose sight of the gospel, as Trueman suggests, then Rome is the next logical step. If Transformationalists lift cultural change up so high they lose sight of the gospel, they will begin to include works as part of the basis of salvation, and Rome is their next logical step.
Stelleman's admission here will surely launch a bunch of attacks on the 2K theology as leading to Rome. After all the 2K guys have said it about the Transforamtionalists as they lost men to Rome. Instead, both sides need to realize the enemy is not each other, but Rome. Rome and her false gospel and seductive words have just stolen a man. Or rather he has left us to show he was not of us.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Two Kingdoms Excursus - Romanism!!!
Providentially after reviewing the Frame critique of Rev. Jason Stelleman, Stelleman appears to have gone apostate and gone back to Rome.


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Most interesting landmarks of Bajo Nuevo Bank
Bajo Nuevo Bank (Petrel Islands) and Serranilla Bank are administered by Colombia but are claimed by Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and the United States as well.
Both locations are mostly submerged corall atolls, each with some small islets. There is built a lighthouse on Low Cay (Bajo Nuevo Bank) and Beacon Cay (Serranilla Bank). Some trees grow on the islets of Serranilla Bank, many shipwrecks are nearby.
Most likely there are endemic species of sea organisms in these remote atolls, but this area has been little researched.


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Adonis Hotel Bayonne is a smoke-free property. Dining facilities at the hotel include a restaurant. A buffet breakfast is available - a surcharge will apply. Public areas at Adonis Hotel Bayonne are comfortably air-conditioned. All rooms are air-conditioned and feature a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, soundproofing and heating.
Hotel guests will appreciate a free WiFi access and free private parking on site as well as the welcoming services of our multilingual staff. Other hotel amenities include gift shop/newsstand and tennis court.
Hotel Services and Facilities
Hotel facilities
- Gift Shop
- Non-Smoking Facility
- Parking - Self
- Internet Access - Free in room
How to bookMaking your reservation in Adonis Hôtel Bayonne is easy and secure. Simply select your dates of stay and click on the "Check Rates" button to submit the form.
After room types and rates are returned to your screen, you will be able to choose the rate you desire by reading the room information in the center of the screen, then clicking on the "Book Now" button on the right side of the screen. After you have selected your desired room type, you will be taken to a "Complete your booking" form. Then you will need to review the "Details of your stay" and fill in the blanks on the "Guest Details" section. Be sure your name and email address are spelled correctly.
After you fill out all of the needed information, press the "Complete reservation" button. To ensure your security, we use a secure commerce server, which encrypts the credit card number and encodes it into a non-usable form.
Area information
- Biarritz, France (BIQ-Biarritz - Anglet - Bayonne) - 7.18 mi
- San Sebastian, Spain (EAS) - 21.98 mi
- Pau, France (PUF-Pau - Pyrenees) - 49.71 mi
- Pamplona, Spain (PNA) - 51.25 mi
- Musee Bonnat - 3.37 mi
- Basque Museum (Musee Basque) - 3.99 mi
- Choco-Musee Puyodebat - 4.21 mi
- Planete Musee du Chocolat Biarritz - 8.01 mi
- Musee d'Art Oriental Asiatica - 8.13 mi
- Musee Historique de Biarritz - 8.43 mi
- Musee de la Mer de Biarritz - 8.74 mi


text: iRiver has a new PMP (Portable Media Player) available called the iRiver Spinn. The Spinn utilizes an AM OLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen and features an FM tuner, video playback, music playback and more. It uses both a spindle and touch-screen for navigation. The touch-screen vibrates to provide feedback while navigating. The battery lasts 24 hours when playing music, and 5 hours for video playback. It retails for $128 for the 4GB model, and $224 for the 8GB model.


text:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is the publishing phenomenon of the century so far, having now spent nearly three years on the hardcover best-seller list in an age when nearly no book takes more than a year to get to paperback. Last weekend I took the book on tape on my ski trip, heard most of it by the time I got back (northern Vermont is five hours away from my home), and got the book out of my small local library (which owns five copies) to finish it. The appeal of the book raises interesting questions precisely because it will never rank a historical or literary masterpiece. Indeed, in addition to its historical mistakes (on which more below), it contains a couple of howlers that testify, once again, to the collapse of the editorial process in major publishing houses. One would think, for instance, that some one would have known that a British knight named Leigh Teabing would never be referred to as "Sir Teabing" by anyone ("Sir Leigh" is correct), or that Kent is an English county, not a "suburb." As a thriller it is mediocre, written in clear and simple English but with a plot that rivals the most extreme tales of Robert Ludlum or the early John Grisham. (To judge from our popular literature, we live today in a world of eternally heightened adrenalin and extreme paranoia, since no mystery, apparently, can hold the public interest without a new dead body every fifty pages or so, and nearly every hero has to prevail against the combined forces of the world's police departments and intelligence services.) The plot turns on a number of clever mathematical and linguistic puzzles, which are not too difficult for an attentive reader to solve, at times, before the characters do. The book's appeal must have something to do with its subject matter, and indeed, it does, I think, touch on fundamental cultural issues which are likely to take a back seat as the world shakes itself into a new shape during the next couple of decades.
As most of you probably know, the book centers around a quest for the Holy Grail, which it recasts as a cache of documents presenting an alternative version of Christianity, one much closer to pagan religions. According to its hero, a Harvard professor, they center on the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the fate of their descendants. True Christianity, like many ancient religions, emphasized the "sacred feminine," the female as the source of all life, and featured sexual and fertility rituals which were purged from the Church after Constantine's conversion in 325 C.E. Both the Old and New Testament (to say nothing of the Koran) demonize women, of course, by making Eve the source of original sin and enshrining a patriarchal god of wrath, vengeance, and (on his good days at least), mercy. This, the author argues at one point, has unleashed the chronic violence and cruelty of western culture, as well as our enduring shame about sex—certainly a critical issue in the United States, in particular, over the last forty years.
The bad news about the book has emerged in a number of commentaries both in the United States and in France. First of all, much of its theory, reportedly, was borrowed from an earlier book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, which sold briskly twenty years ago. Secondly, its other premise—the existence of a secret society, the Priory of Sion, which has supposedly watched over the Grail for 1500 years or so and whose Grand Masters included Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo—is apparently entirely bogus, the 60-year old invention of a French Fascist. (For details see an article in Salon by Laura Miller, at http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/12/29/da_vinci_code/ . ) The hero, Robert Langdon, argues at one point that every religious creed is a metaphor, and so is his book. That, however, is the key to its genuine interest.
The battle between the three great monotheistic religions on the one hand, and more nature-based, erotic and artistic creeds on the other, is one of the great themes of western civilization, and a number of different authors have attacked this issue from many different perspectives. The most recent and thorough treatment of the subject is Sexual Personae by my contemporary Camille Paglia, which argues that Judeo-Christianity never triumphed over paganism, that male achievements (which would certainly include the political and military realms, as well as the artistic and scientific) grow out of a flight from femininity, and that a struggle between gender identities lies at the heart of most of the greatest western literature and art. As both she and Brown point out, the conflict is very strong within Christianity itself, which had to adopt numerous pagan holidays (led, of course, by Christmas), which (except in militant Protestant forms) disregarded the Old Testament prohibition against the worship of graven images, and which in its Catholic form gave woman a prominent, if somewhat equivocal, place. (Henry Adams in Mont St.-Michel et Chartres suggested that Protestantism might best be understood as an attack on the figure and significance of the Virgin Mary, who in Medieval Catholicism had provided the mercy which God so seldom showed.) Paglia still embraces the sexual revolt of the 1960s and 1970s as another periodic return to Paganism, but more recently she has lamented the rise of yet another wave of Puritanism, led, ironically, by feminists who resent their eternal power over men. How much of that revolution will survive the next twenty years is now a serious question here in the United States, where militant Protestantism is again on the rise, HBO now shows lovers in bed wearing their underwear, and abstinence education is the preferred sex education policy of the Republican majority.
The broader question of the impact of sexual Puritanism on politics is harder to tackle, but at least one great western thinker has done so. I personally feel it is more than a coincidence that the three great western monotheistic religions have managed to spread their influence over most of the globe, frequently by conquest. (Judaism, to be sure, has been a very minor player in this process over the last two thousand years in comparison to Christianity and Islam, but the Old Testament shows that conquest certainly was part of its original tradition as well.) Certainly in the United States and Britain, at least, sex seems to be driven underground during periods of great national struggle, only to emerge with a vengeance 20 or 30 years after a great war has ended, most notably in the 1960s. But one of the more remarkable treatments of this issue lies at the heart of Orwell's classic 1984, even though this aspect of the book was generally ignored when it came out and has never received the attention that it deserved.
Winston Smith in 1984 lives in a totalitarian world where thoughts are rigorously controlled and sex is rigidly curtailed. As O'Brien explains to him during his interrogation, the Party's scientists are even at work on the abolition of the orgasm. Winston's own awakening is a gift from Julia, who seduces him not primarily, as she explains, because she loves him, but because she loves sex. That, Winston realizes during their very first encounter (surely one of the more striking cases of first-date sex in western literature), is the force which may some day tear the party to pieces—not rational deduction or the addition of two and two to make four, but raw, animal lust. "When you're making love," Julia herself comments, "you're using up energy, and afterwards, you don't give a damn for anything." And the party, she adds, can't stand for you to feel that way. Orwell had learned about this before he had reached the age of 10, at his boarding school, where miserable living conditions and terrifying lectures about sex had helped prepare the British male elite for the rigors of the Empire. The contrary impulse must have been powerful within him, since he himself had actually never lived through a period of frank sexual freedom. In my opinion, Julia is every bit as much the hero of 1984 as Winston, even though she, too, apparently, was terrorized into submission during interrogation by the exploitation of her childhood fears.
Interestingly enough, the fanciful Priory of Sion keeps its creed alive with the help of its own rituals, including actual sex performed before a gathering of believers. (These rituals, Brown also notes, were reproduced in the Stanley Kubrick movie Eyes Wide Shut as well, although I have not checked to see if they figure in the Artur Schnitzler story on which the movie was based.) Sex on film has been perhaps the closest western culture has come to anything like that, but it is rarely celebratory, and now it seems to be diminishing again. The idea that sex, even if more freely available, must be private, may indeed by the ultimate trump with which repressive religion keeps us focused on career, conquest, intellectual pursuits, sports, cleanliness, and everything else which distracts us from our hormonal impulses. Columbus and his men actually discovered Caribbean societies whose inhabitants seemed to have few interests other than eating and love-making, but those societies, we know now, were doomed.
In a terrible irony, the resurgent power of religion may actually strip the film version of The Da Vinci Code of one of its major themes. The idea of Jesus's marriage to Mary Magdalene and the children that they begat may, reportedly, be drastically toned down or even dropped from the film altogether. The battle goes on and may remain, ultimately, unequal. Whatever else it is or is not, the book The Da Vinci Code is a blow for eroticism in an increasingly puritanical world, and thus, many might say, a small step for man- and womankind.


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this cute little caffe bar is in downtown drvar, bosnia. (did i mention that "downtown" drvar is one street, a little under a mile long?)
it's for sale. (not downtown drvar. the bar.)
the caffe bar is teeny inside, wood-paneled, heated by an old wood stove, and has a teeny ktichen that doesn't see much action since the drvar locals (most of whom are unemployed) don't see the value in paying for prepared food.
imagine that patio in the spring all covered with climbing vines. i did. it would be lovely.
i also imagined converting half the kitchen to a little place where i could host couchsurfers who dreamed of couchsurfing their summer through the balkans only to find pitifully few hosts - none of whom are in or near drvar. here, z and i could perfect the couchsurfing hosting recipe that we began in budva, montenegro. z would cook them giant breakfasts and we would ply them with free beer in the evenings. just a little respite for weary travelers.
everyone has a dream or two, including the owner of this little caffe bar. her dream is to get 25k in us dollars for it. she's been waiting 3 years for that dream to come true.
ah well. dreams do come and go.


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Yes, I am aware that I already blogged about Mardi Gras in 2011. But this year's Mardi Gras was pretty frickin' amazing so I thought I ought to do a follow up blog.
Also, I would have done a follow up blog for Mardi Gras 2012 except that it wasn't as great because it rained on our parade. Literally.
As a recap for those who do not know what Mardi Gras is, I am first and foremost NOT referring to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Though I'm sure that one is fun too. What I am referring to is the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras – our local take on a gay pride parade. And by local, I mean Sydney… and all of the people it brings in from around the world… and that's a lot of people… drawing in more tourists than any other event in Australia… and they're all gay… super gay… GAYYYYYYYYYY…
For the Jews reading this – and that's probably a good chunk of you - "Mardi Gras" is actually a Christian tradition which marks the last day before Lent – the last day you can indulge for the forty days before Easter (or whatever it is). Now, the Louisianans have taken that indulgence to the extreme, but I reckon Sydney could give them a good run for the money. Originally, Sydney's gay pride parade was held in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York – widely regarded as the start of the gay rights movement – but was moved to February to coincide with Australian summer back in the 80's. With that move in date came the change in name which was fitting because it was conveniently scheduled right around the actual Mardi Gras. The parade is generally now on the first Saturday in March and marks the culmination of a roughly three week-long festival. I hadn't really delved into the full festival before, but this year I jumped right it to get more than just my toes wet.
Fair Day kicks off the Mardi Gras season – a full day at the park featuring hundreds of stalls ranging from gay sports teams and community groups to charities and local businesses. There's also food, rides, performances, and more. One of my besties, Jessica, tagged along this year with me and my posse of gay Jews.
Elcid and David took their turn on this big loopy ride which flung them into the air upside down and every other way and it made me sick just watching them.
Then there are performances, which I had wholly ignored in 2010, 2011, and 2012. But this year, one of my mates invited me to two of them, which then spurred me to see what else was on offer. There was the insanely funny yet only forty minutes long Confessions of a Grindr Addict – a one man show with the dude talking about his fear of going on an actual date after a whole year of nothing but Grindr dates. (Grindr = a smartphone application which locates other gays… it's "GPS for cock.")
On the flip side, there was the four hour long Torch Song Trilogy – a heart-wrenching three part play about a Jewish New York drag queen's (mostly tragic) quest for love.
There was a Golden Girls puppet show. I'm not even shitting you.
And the play version of one of my all-time favourite gay movies: Beautiful Thing – the story of two young neighbours who fall in love in a housing project in London.
But the kicker was An Evening with Megan Mullally! Famous for her role as Karen on Will & Grace, Megan told the audience a bit about herself, sang a few songs (who knew she could sing so well?!?!), and just made us laugh the entire time. I wish people would pay me that sort of money just to go on stage and talk about me!
There's also a whole Mardi Gras film festival, but my schedule was already filled up so I didn't check any of them out, but it's already on my agenda for next year. And parties. Don't forget the parties! All day and all night parties, but they are quite expensive and I'd rather just go to bed (I've hit thirty and I'm feeling sleepy), so I didn't go, but they are an integral part of Mardi Gras.
Once again, I marched in the parade with Dayenu, Sydney's Jewish GLBTI group. We kicked off the celebrations the night before at Emanuel Synagogue with a special Mardi Gras Shabbat service followed by dinner. I am pleased to report that, unlike last year, nobody got food poisoning this time. Oh - did you not hear about that? That's a whole other story…
Then there was the parade. I was a bit nervous as Mother Nature got all pissy and decided to rain heavily on last year's parade, and this year's weather was looking equally as sketchy. Also, my cape broke last year (yes, I had a cape on my costume) and I had to hold it on with one hand while marching, so that was a letdown. But, the weather held out for the most part and we were able to stay comfortably dry during the march and I didn't have any sort of elaborate cape this year. Yay! As this was Dayenu's 13th year marching in Mardi Gras, it was only fitting that our theme was Bar Mitzvah. We had pink kippot and rainbow tallit! This pic of Brandon and Michael modelling our gear was so good that it was featured in a story about our float in Haaretz, Israel's most influential newspaper.
In addition to our fabulous kippot and tallit, our float had a giant Star of David inscribed with "Mazel Tov"! Because it wouldn't be a Bar Mitzvah without a good dose of mazel tov!
A few of us made "Kiss Me, I'm Kosher" t-shirts to wear, and we had some fun posing for a picture or two.
The best part of the parade is the staging area beforehand. For 2+ hours, all of the floats are lined up behind fences and you can walk around and check out all of the fabulousness. And by fabulous, I mean drag queen nuns out to spread the truth about Jesus.
And tuxedo tops with lacy stocking bottoms! (and no, no pun intended there…)
Did I mention that Jessica accepted an invitation to march with the gay Jews this year, even though she's straight and Episcopalian? We don't judge.
She even snapped a photo of us walking over to the parade as we crossed the rainbow crosswalk at Taylor Square!
She had such a blast hanging with the gay Jews that she's already confirmed that she wants to march again next year. Hmmm… maybe I'll get her to convert… to Judaism… not to lesbianism…
And then we marched!
And then it was over and we celebrated with Thai food and gelato because all of the gays (aside from me) had been starving themselves to get skinny for Mardi Gras and they were ravenously hungry. Silly boys.
As the night faded, we began the important process of starting to make plans for next year's parade. How exciting!


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We all get married in our lifetime and marriage is considered as one of the most important part of our lives. No matter what happens we always try to make our marriages work. Most of the time women have to compromise and they let things go for the sake of their family's happiness and for their children. Women have to leave their parental home at some point and they get settled with a new family and try to make their relationship work. The most important thing for them is their husband, and they want their husband to be on their side. But there are problems which make the relationship between a husband and wife to fall apart. Our point here is to guide all those ladies who have lost their husband due to any such reason. All such women can find specialists on the internet that can provide them dua for bringing their husband back.
Dua to make husband come back:-
There are a lot of supernatural arts about which we don't know a thing but they are considered helpful for eradicating our problems. Dua is also a mystical way to convince your husband or to control his mind in order to make them to come back. Dua is also a kind of prayer which is done in order to get the blessings of almighty God and make things right in your life. This mystical energy is going to make all things right in your life or in your marriage.
Dua for other problems:-
Dua is a strong prayer which is known for ameliorating your life and making it wonderful by removing all kinds of problems from it. There are various issues which can drive your husband away from you. Like the interference of family members in your love or marriage life, can also cause different kind of issues for you. Many a times the steps taken by your in- laws are harmful for you and that is why you have fights with your husband.
Dua to control your husband:-
Many a times, marriages fall apart due to the attraction or involvement of the husband with someone else. This often happens in a long distance relationship after marriage and wives suffer due to such behavior of the husband. This can affect your marriage at a large extent and also affect the lives of your children, if any. Dua can bring your husband under your control and free your husband from the influence of any other woman.
How can you find a dua specialist?
You will find a lot of specialists who are expert in dua for you cannot just pick anyone. It is important for you to make sure that you choose the right specialist who can provide you with expedient dua. So if you want dua to make husband come back, then you need to find a specialist who has helped people before and who can make things work.


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USB External Video Card with HD-15 Monitor Output Port for XP/2000 and Vista 32/64 bit and Now Supports Windows 7 (32/64bit) Computers. Tiger+ 16MB Chip
USB Graphics Adapter provides a unique solution to add extra displays to a computer without using additional graphics cards. This product has successfully challenged the limitations of current display connectivity to deliver a highly interactive user experience across a USB 2.0 connection. Users can instantly clone or extend a desktop onto another display via VGA D-Sub interface, such as LCD, CRT, projector and plasma displays. With USB2.0 interface plug-n-play and bus power feature, this product brings multi-monitor applications into the mainstream.
- Automatic recognition of monitor type, resolution, and features.
- Hot-swapping / Plug-n-Play of monitors without reconfiguration.
- Supports desktop display primary, clone and extend mode.
- Low power consumption via USB Bus power supply (without Heat Sink).
- Support system suspend and wakeup modes.
- Specialized for office using, home entertainment, and video playing (not for Video Games).
- Certified by CE, FCC, RoHS approval.
- Compliant with USB 2.0 specifications
- Mirror, Primary, Extended desktop play
- Resolution up to 1600 x 1200 x 32 bits
- Bus Powered
- Supports suspend and wakeup modes
- Compact design
- Window 2000/ XP/ VISTA / Windows 7 compatible
System Requirements
- Windows 2000/XP/VISTA/7 (32/64)
- Available USB 2.0 port
- Design for display devices connecting to PC/ laptop Compliant with USB 2.0 specifications Supports Display Modes: Primary, Extended , Mirror, Rotation ( 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°)
- Resolution up to 1600 X 1200 or 1680 X 1050 bits
- USB Plug & Play compatibility
- Supports Suspend and Hibernation modes
- Supports VGA output
- compliant Window 2000/ XP/ VISTA compatible
- Single Attachment: Available USB 2.0 Hi-speed port Windows 2000 / XP / Vista CPU: Intel/ AMD Single Core 1.5 GHz processor or higher processor - RAM: 512 MB memory or higher
- 2-3 Attachment: Available USB 2.0 Hi-speed port Windows 2000 / XP / Vista CPU: Intel/ AMD Single Core 2.4 GHz processor or higher processor - RAM: 1GB memory or higher
- 4-6 Attachment: Available USB 2.0 Hi-speed port Windows 2000 / XP / Vista/ 7 (32/64 bit) CPU: Intel/ AMD Dual Core 2.0GHz processor or higher processor RAM: 2GB memory or higher
We are pleased to tell you that the newest driver (model: USBG-SVGA1, USBG-SVGA1 & USBG-SVGA2) of USB 2.0 VGA adapter has got the Microsoft Digital Signed (WHQL) on Windows XP and could be supported multi-adapters on one PC!
Please Download new drivers from our Download section of USBGear.com site.
Please Note Windows Aero Effects are not supported
Resolutions Supported
- 1600x1200 - 1680 x1050 1440x900
- 1400x1050 - 1360x768 1280x1024
- 1280x960 - 1280x800 1280x768
- 1280x720 - 1152x864 1024x768
- 800x600
Certified FCC, CE, C-TICK, VCCI,RoHS
Additional Information
|OS Support
|Win 7, Win Vista, Win XP


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We carry out all types of roofing works, generally as part of alterations or extension works to properties in the Cheshire & South Manchester. If, however, you need a new roof, we are equally happy to carry out this work. Having paid for scaffolding for your re-roofing works, it can be cost effective to carry out other maintenance works, such as:
- Repair or replacement of second storey windows
- Painting sills & woodwork
- Repair or replacement of Fascias soffits, guttering
- Lead work repairs
- Chimney repairs or rebuild
- Re-pointing brickwork
All roofs are installed using the most up to date roofing materials & methods. Warm roofs are increasingly popular option for roof replacements.


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Tectia Server is started automatically after installation and at boot time. Tectia Server uses a distributed architecture where the master server process launches several servant processes that handle the actual connections. The number of servants per master server process is configurable within certain limits. See General.
What to read next:
Reduce Secure Shell risk. Get to know the NIST 7966.
The NISTIR 7966 guideline from the Computer Security Division of NIST is a direct call to action for organizations regardless of industry and is a mandate for the US Federal government.
Download now
ISACA Practitioner Guide for SSH
With contributions from practitioners, specialists and SSH.COM experts, the ISACA "SSH: Practitioner Considerations" guide is vital best practice from the compliance and audit community.
Download now


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When we started roasting coffee we didn't know first crack from second crack from second fiddle. And trying to find help on the Internet was hopeless. So we created our Coffee Roasting Tip Number 1 video explaining just what first crack was.
However we continued to get questions about second crack, and how to tell when first cracks ends and second crack starts. From experience we can say figuring out second crack was not an easy thing. Coffee roasting is as much art as it is science.
Hopefully our new Coffee Roasting Tip Number 2 video will help with this mystery.
What exactly is First Crack?
And What's the difference between First Crack and Second Crack?
And, just because we're The Caffeinated Parrot, Parrots!
Yes, you read that right. Coffee Parrot Dot Coffee. Handforged 100% Parrot Friendly Coffee. Any questions about coffee, coffee roasting, or parrots? Please contact us there.


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Watters Delilah Dress
A soft sweetheart neckline and flattering seams down the skirt of this crepe dress combine for a truly timeless look. The off-the-shoulder sleeves are removable for a sleek, strapless ensemble.
- By Watters
- From the Willowby by Watters line
- Style #49346570
Fit Information
- See Size Guide measurements for detailed sizing information
- Fits large; take one size smaller than normal.
- Built-in bust support; no bra required
Product Details
- Back zip
- Removable sleeves
- Bust cups; boning
- Polyester; polyester lining
- Professionally clean
- Imported
Complete The Look
Size Guide
The measurements shown on the Size Guide below are body measurements. Learn how to take your body measurements in the video located under the Size Guide. Once you have these measurements, refer to the Fit Information at the top of the page to determine which size to purchase.


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As an expert for temperature controlled transport, STI can provide the perfect environment for the widest variety of foods. From fresh meat, fish, dairy and vegetables, frozen goods or dry products such as bakery items, we ensure that your products retain the highest level of quality throughout the transport process.
We use state-of-the art technology for all food consignments. Multi-temperature trucks with sensor controlled cooling systems and continuous temperature monitoring can bring freshly harvested fruits and vegetables straight to their destinations across Europe, for example. And when it comes to complex supply chains involving a variety of transport modes and multiple delivery locations, our European network and team of experts allows us to serve various regional markets quickly and efficiently.
Regardless of whether its Scottish salmon that needs to get from net to market in 24 hours or baked goods that must be delivered to several different distributions centres, STI has the resources, expertise and fresh ideas to be your strategic transport partner.


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Skaters that are just too good for the camera often run into an interesting and surprising predicament: they are often thought of as not being interesting or stylish enough by some skateboarding fans, who can be as harsh as professional film critics. The like or dislike is as preferential and free as any opinion, it's nothing personal.
In fact, different perspectives allow for different approaches, even for the most revered of pushers. Sometimes it's just a good change to offer the audience an alternative to what they are accustomed to. Brazilian pro, Luan Oliveira's new "Week Long Cruise" takes his top-notch abilities and mellows them down to a casual-paced edit that still makes the eyes pop.
Laced to the indie electronic sounds of Persona La Ave's "Going Deaf", a fresh 808-laden track, "Week Long Cruise" is a refreshingly short, but stacked edit that really highlights Luan's street style. Filmed and edited by João Dutra and sponsored by Oliveira's hometown skate shop Matriz, the clip arrives just in time to promote their new collaborative board.
Expect some incredible slides, grinds, flips and flicks way too good to just be labeled a "cruise."


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A couple of weeks ago, an episode of Ed Miliband's podcast, Reasons to be Cheerful, was devoted to penal policy and prison reform. It features a fascinating interview with Nils Öberg, director general of the Swedish prison and probation service who makes a string of important observations about the Nordic approach to imprisonment. In a nutshell, in Sweden prison is only ever used as a last resort, is focused upon rehabilitation, particularly addressing social, educational, psychological and addiction problems of prisoners. The Swedish reoffending rate is around 30% after three years post-release. In the UK it is 46% after just one year, and that is despite Swedish prisons being disproportionately filled with the most damaged, violent and recidivist offenders in their system.
Immediately after that oddly inspirational interview, Miliband also talked to Blairite former Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer and Lib Dem perjurer & (briefly) prisoner Vicky Pryce, who has recently published a book about the economics of prison. This conversation was, in contrast, deeply depressing on too many grounds to cover. For our purposes, however, I'd like to talk you through what happened at the 29 minute mark.
After a brief discussion about how and why crime is falling and whether or not prison works as a deterrent, Miliband asks Pryce:
"From your analysis, are there lots of people in prison who shouldn't be, and who are they?" Pryce does not miss a beat.
"Ah well of course one element I have seen is women. Women who have done something relatively trivial, very often in order to respond to pressure from others, particularly their pimps or the men in their lives…." She continues for several minutes beyond that, talking exclusively about women prisoners. At no point does she go back and add so much as a single word to acknowledge that much of what she has said about women prisoners also applies to very many men in prison.
What Pryce says about women prisoners is, of course, entirely true and remains utterly shocking. My issue is not that she included or even prioritised women in her answer. My issue is that she only included women in her answer. Again and again supposedly progressive, liberal prison reform campaigners find themselves utterly incapable of admitting that the male prison population is also absolutely ravaged with the direst consequences of mental illness, lifelong social exclusion and multiple failures of the educational, social services and mental health policy. They cannot bring themselves to tell us that the other 95% of prisoners – men – are also vastly more likely than the general population to have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused as children or adults, to have been homeless before incarceration, to have grown up in care, to have been coerced, manipulated and exploited by other criminals.
Yes, 84% of women in prison have committed non-violent offences. But so have 70% of male prisoners. Yes, 1 in 4 women in prison had been treated for a mental health condition in the year before sentencing, but so had 1 in 6 men in prison. And so on and so forth through all the statistics. It is striking that during the interview Miliband mentions two or three times that 71% of prisoners (total) are serving sentences for non-violent offenders, Pryce simply ignores him.
If even professional prison reformers such as Pryce (and the likes of the Howard League and the Prison Reform Trust have terrible records for doing this kind of thing too) cannot bring themselves to express sympathy and understanding for male prisoners, what hope is there of inspiring the type of compassion among media, politicians and (ultimately) the general public that we so desperately need to build if we're ever to make progress?
There is also an ideological point here. The notion that all male prisoners are responsible for their own crimes and architects of their own misfortune while women prisoners are invariably helpless and hapless victims of circumstances is, quite frankly, a pretty stinky slice of patriarchal benevolent sexism. The reality – on both sides of the equation – is far more messy and ugly.
Now I do not doubt that if and when challenged Pryce would be horrified and insulted at the suggestion that she doesn't know or care about the issues affecting male prisoners. Of course she knows. Of course she cares. I'm guessing she just assumes she will get much more sympathy, much more agreement from the audience if she talks about women than men – and she is probably right about that. But what she needs to understand is that every time someone like her passes up an opportunity to explain the horrific realities for our male prison population she is actively contributing to that public and political indifference, even hostility, to the conditions of male prisoners.
Here is a little HetPat exclusive. In the first quarter of 2016, a total of 8,430 men were released from British prisons. Of those, 917 men were released straight into homelessness. In the quarter April-June 2017 slightly fewer men came out of prison – 7,893, but the number going into homelessness rose dramatically to 1,296, more than one in six of the total.
You might reasonably ask why this statistic is exclusive to this crappy little blog read by a few thousand people? The answer is because nobody else wanted to know. In December, Jared O'Mara MP (of whom the less said the better) submitted a question to parliament to find out how many women were released from prison into homelessness. Once the answers were provided, the left-of-centre media were suitably outraged. The proportion of women released from prison into homelessness had more than doubled over those 15 months, from 9.1% to 20.9% per quarter. No one, no politician, no journalist, no broadcaster even thought to ask how the numbers compared for men, what the trend is for men, what the size of the problem is for men? I can tell you now only because I submitted my own freedom of information request.
This, I think, is a neat encapsulation of how we judge these issues. By one way of thinking, what has happened to women is worse than what has happened to men. One in five women prisoners now leaves prison to become homeless, as compared to one in six men. At the same time, 20.9% of female prison leavers is 227 people, while 16.4% of male prison leavers is 1,294 people.
Yes, it is quite right that we are shocked and appalled that 227 women are released into homelessness from prison.
It is frankly disgraceful that we are so indifferent to the same thing happening to five times as many men that literally nobody even bothers to ask the question.


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In Survival mode, you are presented to mission screen with 3 missions.
Mission data is
[1)Spirit which you will use] VS [2)Opposing character's name]
[3)The mission objective] [4)The reward for completing objective]
Rewards can be of two types: time bonus - adds the time to timer; life bonus - replenishes part of your lifebar.
You can also replenish your lifebar during fights via healing items such as sushi.
After 1st mission select screen where you selected your mission, you are presented with 99 seconds on timer, and with full lifebar. After a fight you will be transported to next mission select screen. If you completed mission objective, you will be presented with your reward bonus to lifebar or timer. Rewards are crucial because you will lose when you either run of time or of lifebar, so you wont be able to complete survival mode (its possible to complete it, you fight nearly all characters, then bosses and Demon Gaoh is the last opponent. Dont remember do you fight Kuroko there or no though..)
Because everything is in japanese, I translated mission objectives / rewards to english:


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Alternate Media Storage
Magento Commerce gives you the option to store media files in a database on a database server, or on a Content Delivery NetworkA large distributed network of servers that specializes in the high performance delivery of multi-media content. (CDN), as opposed to storing them on the file system of the web server. The advantage of using alternate storage is that it minimizes the effort required to synchronize media when multiple instances of the system that are deployed on different servers that need access to the same images, CSSCascading Style Sheets: A style sheet language that controls the appearance of HTML documents; a way to control the appearance of text, graphics, lists, links, and all other elements on a web page. files, and other media files.


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Daily Toy Review #7 is the G.I. Joe Renegades Law & Order K-9 Unit Action Figures! Click through for the full review!
ANNOUNCEMENT: As of January 1st, the toy reviews portion of this blog is spinning off into its own blog: ToyReviewDaily! If you're only interested in the toy reviews portion of my blog, change your bookmarks to http://www.toyreviewdaily.com! I'll be cross-posting links to the toy reviews here for the first week of 2012, but after that you'll have to find your way on your own, dear readers!


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Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis have joined the cast of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's dark comedy "Birdman" at Fox Searchlight and New Regency.
Keaton stars as a former actor who once played an iconic superhero. He is now mounting a Broadway play based on a Raymond Carver short story in a bid to reclaim past glory. However, the play's egotistical leading man threatens to throw everything down the tubes.
Stone will play Keaton's fresh from rehab daughter and assistant. Watts will be an actress in the play, and Galifianakis will play the production's conniving producer.
Gonzalez Inarritu co-wrote the script with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo. Inarritu, Robert Graf and John Lesher will produce, and shooting kicks off early April.
Source: THR


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S: Joe's Las Vegas Vacation
1: Las Vegas 2011
2: Eiffel Tower Restaurant
3: My first trip to Vegas! Boy, did we do a lot of stuff!
4: Casino is just 5 minutes from Ave & Deb's house.
5: Playing the penny slots
6: Mt. Charleston Lodge for breakfast and hiking up the cliffs at Spring Mountains National Park 8000' above sea level
7: What a beautiful view! Just a short hike to the cliffs...
8: Grand Canyon Skywalk
9: 1.20.2011 | Me with Ave & Deb
10: What a view!
11: The Hoover Dam in Boulder City, NV Supplying energy to over 20 million people!
12: What an amazing site!!
13: Dinner at the Bistro Cafe in Boulder City
14: Stopped to get some wine!
15: So much to see; so much to do; only six weeks to do it all!
16: Hash House A Go Go where everything is HUGE! Chicken & waffles and Pot pie
18: Paris, Las Vegas where we had an awesome lunch! With a view of the Bellagio water show!
19: Ate at Big Al's Oyster Bar


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When the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources was looking for someone to strengthen both its outreach and research, Ben Campbell was an ideal candidate.
Campbell, an assistant professor and extension economist, makes no secret that he is pleased to have come to UConn from his position as a horticultural economist at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in the Niagara Region of southern Ontario, Canada.
"I earned my BS and MS degrees at Auburn, and then went on to Texas A&M, where I earned my Ph.D. in agricultural economics. When the opportunity to go to Vineland came along, I jumped at it," he says. "The Centre is internationally recognized for its research and technological efforts in expanding Canada's horticulture industry.
"And then," he continues, "when the UConn position opened up it offered a chance to join a department that already has a great reputation and is committed to getting even stronger. With the opportunity to combine my research with outreach efforts in collaboration with other departments, such as the Department of Extension, and being able to move back to the States, I knew this was the right move for me both personally and professionally."
Department head Rigoberto Lopez is in agreement. "We are pleased to have Ben join us at a time when UConn is boosting its national prominence," Lopez says. "He's an outstanding and pragmatic economist, who integrates his scholarship into real world needs and policy priorities. He already has an impressive record of publications and grants that speak volumes about his abilities and potential contribution to the University and his profession."
Campbell's hire is part of UConn's Faculty 500 initiative: the University is expected to add 500 professors over four years in order to strengthen its academic core and boost its standing as a top public research institution.
Consumer choices
Campbell's work is focused on understanding consumer behavior and helping producers maximize the success of their operations, whether they are large wholesale growers or smaller retail outlets.
He says this is an exciting time to be involved in the horticulture industry. There are the traditional concerns about how the weather affects growing seasons, how to grow food crops and decorative plants economically, and the challenges of anticipating buying trends. But there are also more contemporary issues that are influencing consumers.
"One of the things that we're dealing with now," Campbell says, "is deciding what we really mean when we say produce is locally grown, defining what it means to be organic, considering the use of organic versus synthetic pesticides, deciding what it means to be environmentally friendly, deciding just how fast something has to degrade before it can truly be called bio-degradable. All sorts of things that people are considering now that used not to be an issue.
"In fact," he says, "in a survey we did while I was at Vineland, we found that the respondents who described themselves as being the most knowledgeable about some of those issues I just mentioned, turned out to be the most confused about their actual meaning. And in a way, I don't blame them, because parameters used to define a lot of these terms haven't really been determined. It's up to those of us working in the horticultural industry to educate consumers so that they have accurate information to help them make informed decisions."
The eye is quicker …
To some, agricultural economics might sound like it involves a lot of number crunching. It does. But there's a high-tech side to the process, as well.
Whether it's buying a basket of apples from a local farm stand, purchasing poinsettias or decorative wreaths during the holiday season, or choosing plantings for a newly landscaped yard, people are making point-of-purchase decisions that affect those in the horticulture industry on a daily basis, year-round. In order to understand what truly motivates those consumers, Campbell is taking a page from the supermarket industry and introducing newly-developed eye tracking technology to his research efforts.
"When someone looks at a display, we don't really know what they are seeing," Campbell says. "If you're running a garden center, and a potential customer comes in, it's important to know what is capturing their attention. Is it color? Price? If there's one plant out of 50 that doesn't look healthy, will they decide not to buy anything at all?
"This is where eye tracking can be so beneficial. By measuring minute eye movements, including duration of gaze and intensity, we can get a much better understanding of consumer behavior. And by doing that, producers can design signage and displays that appeal to people with various motives … whether the focus needs to be on price or environmental issues or the number of items in a particular display."
Combining research and outreach
Campbell's 'real world' research is something that the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics specializes in. According to Lopez, "Ben's work crosses disciplines and he can provide the economic development component to green industries in the state that will lead to the creation of jobs in production agriculture."
Gregory Weidemann, dean of CANR, echoes that sentiment. "There is great recognition in the greenhouse and nursery industry that there is untapped potential for growth in Connecticut that would greatly benefit from research-based information in resource economics. Ben understands both the production end and the business end of the industry. He's a great hire who exemplifies what we are looking for in a faculty member who loves both research and direct engagement with stakeholders."
Since he arrived on campus this past summer, Campbell has lost no time in setting up his lab and in reaching out to the state's growers. "My job is a little bit like putting together a puzzle," he says. "On the one hand I'm doing research, identifying markets, looking at production costs, deciding whether growing a particular crop is not only possible, but economically feasible. On the other hand I'm working with colleagues in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Extension, and Plant Science, while getting out in the field and meeting people in the green industry throughout the state, helping them make important decisions that will affect their livelihood in both the short and long term.
"It's a win/win situation," he says, "because I get to talk about what I love to do, have fun doing it, and I know that there's a real, practical application. It doesn't get better than that."


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AIM CIO Advisory Council
Our CIO Advisory Council serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas and insights among the members and with AIM13's team. We are truly privileged to have these individuals serve on our council.
Michael Condon
Senior Vice President of Institutional Investments at Fund Evaluation Group, LLC
Former Chief Investment Officer, Southern Methodist University
Mike Condon, CFA is Senior Vice President of Institutional Investments at Fund Evaluation Group, LLC (FEG). Condon primarily works with Endowment and Foundation (E&F) clients within FEG's outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) service. He has served over 20 years as CIO of three large endowments. Most recently as CIO at Southern Methodist University, he led a 15-person office and was responsible for all aspects of investing the university's $1.5 billion endowment. As CIO for the University of Arkansas Foundation, Condon oversaw a $1.1 billion endowment. During his 10-year tenure at Georgia Tech, the foundation endowment grew from $440 million to $1.5 billion. Additionally, Condon is on the Editorial Committee for The Investment Institute, and on advisory Boards for Institutional Investor and Alternative Investment Management, LLC.
Jason Klein
Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Jason Klein is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which he joined in 2008 to create the Investments Office. As CIO, Jason oversees $5+ billion in long term global investment assets and leads asset allocation, manager selection and risk management efforts. The MSK investments team has achieved peer-based recognitions for innovation, portfolio construction and investment achievement.
An active member of the endowment and foundation investment community, Jason is a member of the investment committees of Oxford University and The College Board and a member of the Investment Advisory Group of The Council on Foreign Relations; he is a current member of the Global Capital Markets Advisory Council for The Milken Institute and a former member of the Institutional Investor Advisory Council for the Managed Funds Association and of the investment committee of Wesleyan University. Jason is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of New York.
Previously, Jason was the Chief Investment Officer for The Museum of Modern Art and a Vice President and Principal in the private equity division of Lehman Brothers; he has also been an Equity Capital Markets Associate at Prudential Securities and a Commercial Credit Analyst at Chemical Bank. Jason earned an MBA from Wharton, a JD from The University of Pennsylvania Law School and a BA from Wesleyan University.
Lawrence Kochard
Chief Investment Officer, Makena Capital Management
Larry Kochard is the Chief Investment Officer and a Managing Director at Makena Capital Management.
Larry was previously the chief executive officer and chief investment officer of UVIMCO for eight years. As CEO, Larry provided leadership for all aspects of UVIMCO's operations and served as UVIMCO's primary representative to the University, related foundations and the public. As CIO, Larry was responsible for the investment management of UVIMCO's Long Term Pool, overseeing the asset allocation, portfolio management, risk management and manager selection activities of the investment staff. Prior to joining UVIMCO, Larry served as CIO at Georgetown University. From 2001 to 2004, he was managing director of equity and hedge fund investments for the Virginia Retirement System. From 1997 to 2004, he taught in the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, first as an adjunct and later as a full-time assistant professor.
He spent the early part of his career in debt capital markets at Goldman Sachs and corporate finance at Fannie Mae and DuPont. Larry received his B.A. in economics from the College of William & Mary, an M.B.A. degree in finance and accounting from the University of Rochester, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia. He is a CFA charterholder.
He is on the Board of Directors of Janus Henderson Group, Inc. and Virginia Environmental Endowment and Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Virginia Retirement System.
Larry was the 2015 winner of the Rodney H. Adams award for endowment management from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), which recognizes outstanding contributions to university endowment and investment management. Larry is a longtime moderator of the premier endowment and foundation industry conference, NMS, and is the author of several industry publications, including Foundation and Endowment Investing: Philosophies and Strategies of Top Investors and Institutions and more recently wrote the foreword of and was profiled in Inside The World's Top Institutional Offices: Conversations With 80 Institutional Investors.
Erik Lundberg
Chief Investment Officer, University of Michigan
Erik Lundberg is the Chief Investment Officer at University of Michigan, responsible for directing the University's more than $13 billion of investment programs, which includes the 9th largest endowment of an institution of higher learning.
Since joining the University as its first Chief Investment Officer in the fall of 1999, Mr. Lundberg has established the University's Investment Office as a highly regarded institutional investor and has seen the endowment grow from being the 17th largest endowment when he joined to being 9th in size today with a value of $11 billion. Mr. Lundberg received Institutional Investor Magazine's Award for Excellence in Investment Management for Endowments in 2007 to recognize his outstanding achievement, was recognized as the endowment CIO of the decade, and has been listed among the top 25 CIOs globally by CIO magazine three years running.
Mr. Lundberg chairs the Investment Committee of the Skillman Foundation in Detroit, serves on the Detroit Renaissance Venture Capital Fund Board of Directors, Okabena Investment Services Investment Advisory Committee, the Agility Board, the investment committee of Boys Town, and is a member of the CIO Advisory Council of Alternative Investment Management, Inc. He has been a trusted advisor to TIFF (The Investment Fund for Foundations), State of Michigan's Pension Funds, and Capital International's Emerging Markets Growth Fund.
Mr. Lundberg is a CFA charterholder.
Paula Volent
Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President, Bowdoin College
Paula Volent, CFA is Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President at Bowdoin College, a private, residential college in Brunswick, Maine. At Bowdoin, Ms. Volent is responsible for the oversight and management of the College's endowment. Prior to joining Bowdoin in July 2000, Ms. Volent was a Senior Associate at the Yale Investments Office.
Ms. Volent has a BA from the University of New Hampshire; a Master's Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center at NYU, with a specialization in the conservation of works of art on paper; and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Prior to focusing on endowment management, Paula worked as a paper conservator at the New-York Historical Society, the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the LA County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She also ran a private paper conservation studio in Los Angeles, California. She serves on the Board of Advisors of the Yale School of Management, a member of the Investment Committee of the Pritzker Family Foundation, a Trustee and member of the Investment Committee of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a member of the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Art and Painting, and an Investment Committee Member of the Rockefeller Foundation.


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This is a Dog Friendly Hike!
The CO-ED METal Hike is OPEN TO ALL. Feel free to bring yourself, your family, your spouse, your hiking enthusiast friends (METal and Non-METal), prospective members and sometimes your dogs. ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
Wear light, comfortable clothing, closed toed shoes, bring a towel if you sweat and most importantly BRING A BOTTLE OF WATER (MANDATORY)!!!
Bee Rock
Crystal Springs Drive & Fire Road, Griffith Park
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Meeting Time: 9:30am
(Do Not Use Apple Maps - Use Google Maps)
GPS Coordinates: 34.131, -118.284
About the Location:
Bee Rock is a unique hive-shaped outcropping towering over the east side of Griffith Park. From the top of the rock, you have a commanding view over the park and the city beyond. The observation area atop Bee Rock is surrounded by a tall chain-link fence, protecting visitors from the steep drop-offs on all sides, while meshing up the panoramic views.
The shortest route to the top climbs 525 feet in less than a mile. Bill Eckert Trail provides a more gradual ascent and can be used in combination to form a 2.6-mile loop with 600 feet of elevation change. This hike may also be extended with two miles of trails around the Old Griffith Park Zoo, an interesting addition for a 4-mile hike to Bee Rock.
This is a Dog Friendly Hike.
Take the 5 Freeway to the Los Feliz Boulevard exit. Drive west on Los Feliz Blvd. to the first light and turn north on Crystal Springs Road. Drive north for 1.3 miles and turn left at the intersection following signs for the merry-go-round. Drive up the hill for a quarter mile and turn right at the barricade in the road into the parking lot. Begin hiking up the barricaded road, which curves to the right toward Fern Canyon.
Trailhead address: Crystal Springs Drive & Fire Road, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Trailhead coordinates: 34.131, -118.284 (34° 07′ 51.6″N 118° 17′ 02.4″W)
From November 11, 2018 3:51 am to 05:51 am Save to calendar
Categories: METal Sunday Hikes


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The most important subject for mankind to understand is that of our salvation. It is the most important subject, but it is also the most misunderstood and the most falsely taught as well. In this series, we look at one the greatest letters ever to be written that of The Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome and take a detailed look at the doctrine of mankind's salvation. Why it is important, who it is for and how it comes about.
How To Find A Sermon
Below you will see all the sermons in this series, with the latest one being the large one to the left. Simply click on the image to be take to that sermon. alternatively if you want to listen to a sermon on a particular section of verses within a chapter, simply select the chapter you want by clicking on it on the right and all the sermons in that chapter will appear for you to choose the one you want.


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Buffalo Grove Medical Cannabis Dispensary to Open Soon – Daily Herald
The Daily Herald reported on the state of the Illinois medical cannabis industry yesterday with an update on dispensaries opening in Chicago and the suburbs in Lake and McHenry counties. PDI Medical's COO Joe Friedman was featured, telling the reporter that the Buffalo Grove medical cannabis dispensary will open soon.
He also discussed the importance of making sure that customers feel comfortable when they purchase medical cannabis as a treatment option.
From the Daily Herald article:
Friedman said part of having a successful dispensary will mean helping new customers be comfortable walking into a store to buy a drug that's been illegal for decades. He said he doesn't plan to emulate Colorado dispensaries geared toward recreational users that can feel intimidating.
"It doesn't really deliver a health care feeling," he said.
Cold and clinical isn't the feeling either. PDI Medical's pharmacist staff members and product specialists listen to each patient to develop a holistic, integrative medical treatment plan based on their unique history and profile. They know that cannabis is a drug, and discuss patients' health history and current prescriptions to advise on products and dosages that will be safe and improve their quality of life.
Read the Daily Herald story for more about Illinois medical cannabis dispensary news, and see PDI's FAQ to answer other questions you have about treatment options with medical marijuana.


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How to play in Petri dish
Choose the game mode (FFA, HardCore, MegaSplit and etc.), select a map (more people – more difficult, less people – easier), press play.
You need to get a lot more mass than the others. Then you get to the top. This is the essence of agar.io game.
If you're tired of simple modes of agar.io then choose one of our exclusive game modes. Each mode has its own more complex rules. You can read the description on the right when you select a mode. When you'll select a map you get to know what the difference is. For example, higher limits or more food.
Game controls
W – eject mass, feed
Space – split
Esc – Menu
F11 – full screen
←↑→↓ /mouse click – navigate the map (spectator mode)
E – turn the compass on/off
F – pause/unpause your cell
P – open settings
A,S,D,Z – special splits (only at CrazySplit mode)
Petri Dish is a browser-based online game. The main idea of this game is simplicity. No download and registration required. You just click and play. Instant immersion into the gameplay.
In the game you are born as the small living cell on the map and your objective is try to get to the top of the list by gaining mass and competing with hundreds of players.Eat the mass, eat other players, be the strongest and the biggest. This is not just a top-1, this is real domination!
Why Petri Dish is better than agar.io?
Is it worth to move from agar.io to Petri Dish? Let's talk about the game and its features.
Chat, communication. You are no longer playing the with silent dots on your screen like in agar.io, these are the real players. You can make parties, clans, gatherings.
Clans – the best way to prove that you and your friends are best.Conquer the whole server and leave the name of your clan forever in the server's statistics! The eternal glory is waiting for you!
You never get bored. Come on in, play. At any time. You can go and discover a gathering of a clan, a popular streamer (are you not one of them?) or an admin's tournament.
Real customization. Say NO to the boring agar.io skins. Put any picture you want. Also available: animated skins, transparent skins, dynamic skins, emoticons! And don't forget about passwords for your nickname. No fakes under your name.
No cheats, hacks, unfair skins, bots. The administration is keenly watching the gameplay. All dishonest players will be banned! Agar.io without cheating, only in Petri Dish!
Petri Dish servers are located across Russia and Europe, much closer than the agar io ones. You can choose where you prefer to play. Minimal ping and lag, including the graphics, because the game is constantly improved and optimized!
Can a Petri Dish be called new agar.io? Play for yourself and find out!


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Was Obama Biblically, Politically Correct to Apologize for the Quran Burning?
A new debate is stirring on whether President Obama's formal apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of Qurans by U.S. troops stationed in the country was "biblically" correct, "politically" correct or neither.
The incident in question began on Feb. 21 when Afghan workers noticed four Quran texts, along with other Islamic books, in a trash pile that coalition workers collected. The books were retrieved from a library at the Parwan Detention Facility because they contained messages used by prisoners to communicate. Obama apologized for the "inadvertent" burning of the Islamic holy book.
In light of the protests that followed, more than 30 people, including four U.S. soldiers, were killed. But politics aside, what does the Bible say about Christians apologizing for burning another religion's text? The issue is challenging, even for expert theologians.
Dr. Kevin Lewis is an associate professor of Theology and Law at Biola University and holds advanced degrees in both law and divinity and answered the question in an email to The Christian Post.
"In Acts 19:17-20 first century converts to Christianity in Ephesus publicly burned scrolls related to the practice of sorcery and other types of occultism," Lewis wrote. "Here, they publicly burned their own scrolls in a community that was steeped in the practice of sorcery to publicly declare they had repented and turned to Christ. So in this case, the scroll burning was a public way of renouncing their old, false religion."
Lewis says there is a parallel that can be drawn to Christians burning texts such as the Quran, even when conversion is not the issue.
"One could picture a former Muslim convert to Christianity imitating the actions of the Ephesians to demonstrate to a Christian congregation that he is a true convert to Christianity," said Smith. "If so, prudence would dictate that this would be done privately with other Christians, not publicly, as a public burning would certainly create unnecessary hostility with Muslims.
"Public burnings of the Koran by anyone only serve to create ill will with Muslims. It does not promote the Truth of Christianity by speaking the Truth in love as we are commanded to do in Ephesians 4:15."
Some are suggesting even if an apology was appropriate, it should have come from someone other than the president of the United States.
Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, agrees the president overextended his authority in this instance.
"President Obama's apology was an overreaction," Land told CP. "I would have had the commanding general or an under secretary of the Army make the apology, but not the president of the United States himself. That only inflamed the issue."
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer echoed similar sentiments. "We should have had a single apology coming from the commander on the ground and that's it. Not from the Secretary of Defense, not from the President of all the people"
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rushed to the president's defense by saying that the Republican reaction to the apology would make the situation worse.
"I find it somewhat troubling that our politics would inflame such a dangerous situation in Afghanistan," Clinton said on CNN on Monday.
Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) has a reputation of being one of the more conservative members of Congress and has announced this will be his last term. Like Clinton, he feels Republicans are trying to take advantage of the situation for their own political gain.
"The burning of the Quran was clearly a mistake, and I stand by the President's actions to try and save American lives by reaching for peace, especially when we know from the experience of Florida Pastor Terry Jones's actions that the burning of the Quran would result in American and allied forces' deaths," Shuler wrote in an email to CP.
"This is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but an American issue, and I am disappointed that Republicans have opted to use this situation for their own political gain rather than stand united behind our Commander in Chief and our troops."
Eric Sapp, a political strategist with a Master of Divinity who has handled a number of campaigns of Democratic officeholders, sees the issue from their perspective.
"Christians should understand the healing power of an apology and how it's harder than refusing to admit a mistake," Sapps wrote in an email response to The Christian Post.
"The mistaken burning of the Koran upset the local population in a country where our troops are facing daily dangers. Candidates and talk show hosts may never apologize, but our President should be big enough to admit when a mistake was made, especially if doing so reduces the threat to our troops."
Dr. Bryan McGraw is a professor of political science at Wheaton College who teaches law and religion and both American and Christian political thought. In addition, he served three years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer.
"In general, how and when an apology is given is important, especially when some are trying to use the circumstances as an excuse to undermine the mission," said McGraw in an interview with The Christian Post.
"In and of itself, I didn't find the apology all that problematic, especially so long as we recognize that the apology does not mean that the reaction is itself reasonable. As I see it, the apology is a part of Afghanistan military mission and to the degree that it reflects the necessities of that mission, it seems defensible."
In an exclusive interview with ABC's Bob Woodruff on Wednesday, President Obama defended his apology, telling Woodruff he felt his comments "calmed things down," but hedging his words by saying, "We're not out of the woods yet."
The president gave the interview as he was planning to host a dinner for 78 service members from all branches and family members of wounded warriors.


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PROSSER, Wash. In the past four years, Mercer Wine Estates has tripled its production to more than 60,000 cases of wine, all while raising quality to new levels.
That would seem to be quite a trick, but not when you combine 130 years of family agricultural history with a Ste. Michelle-trained winemaker.
Just a decade ago, the Mercer and Hogue families launched Mercer Wine Estates in this Yakima Valley town, but the story began much earlier. The Mercers arrived in Washington's Horse Heaven Hills in 1886 and started sheep and cattle ranching operations. In 1972, Don Mercer planted the first wine grapes in the Horse Heaven Hills known then as Mercer Ranch and now the acclaimed Champoux Vineyards.
Since then, the Mercers have become one of the top wine grape growers in the state, amassing more than 2,000 acres of vineyards, with the majority of their fruit sold to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.
In 2005, the family used a tiny amount of Cabernet Sauvignon to begin Mercer Wine Estates. The facility was built in 2007, and the winery opened for business in 2008. In 2011, longtime Yakima Valley winemaker David Forsyth announced his departure. A year later, Mike Hogue retired and sold his share of the winery to the Mercers, whose dynamic leader is Rob Mercer.
Jessica Munnell arrived in April 2012 to take over as head winemaker. She grew up down the road in Richland, then went to Washington State University to earn her bachelor's and masters degrees. After graduation, she landed at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, first as a viticulturist, then as an enologist at Snoqualmie Vineyards and later as assistant winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle's red winemaking facility.
When Munnell arrived, Mercer was producing 22,000 cases and sales were tepid, even though the wines were superb. A few months later, Rob Mercer's brother Will joined the operation. He had spent the prior 15 years in retail sales with carrot giant Bolthouse Farms.
As Munnell increased production, Will Mercer began to build a distribution system, which now includes 48 states.
Thats a big jump from where we were just five years ago, Rob Mercer said. We were in 23 states then.
Mercer is pleased with its production levels but also isn't afraid to expand. It has the ability to produce nearly 100,000 cases in its current facility.
I dont have a number in mind, Rob Mercer said. We have the capacity to grow if theres demand and interest out there. Having strong family-owned wineries is great. Its what the wine industry is all about.
Mercer bottles wines at three tiers: Mercer Canyons is the most affordable label, while Mercer Estates is in the midrange and the reserves are made in small, high-end lots.
In each of the past three years, a Mercer wine has landed in The Seattle Times top 50, with Munnells 2012 Dead Canyon Vineyard Syrah reaching No. 17 last fall. Two wines made it in Great Northwest Wines top 100 list for 2015. Her 2012 Sharp Sisters red blend and 2014 Spice Cabinet Vineyard Rosé each merited a Platinum in the 2015 Wine Press Northwest Platinum Judging. The Meritage-style 2012 Reserve Cavalie was chosen best red blend at Houstons Rodeo Uncorked international wine competition.
Munnell is quick to credit the outstanding grapes she receives.
Im a little bit like a kid in a candy store, she said. There are a lot of tools to pick from because we have a lot of great fruit.
She is particularly excited about Malbec and believes Mercer can make its mark with the delicious red Bordeaux grape.
I think its a variety that consumers are excited about, she said. Theres just not that much widely planted in Washington. A lot of growers are looking at planting it right now.
Rob Mercer anticipated that and has put in a lot of effort to position the winery to receive more Malbec.
We have three separate locations on our property that we're growing Malbec, he said. Thats the direction we're headed. It has a distinctive quality, a character thats recognizable from the Horse Heaven Hills. Were working on more clones and trying to refine the Malbec program.
Munnell looks forward to making more Malbec in the years to come.
Everybody thinks theyre about to have a massive glass of red wine, and then unlike Cabernet, it tends to be balanced, she said. It is more elegant.
Andy Perdue is editor and publisher of Great Northwest Wine and wine columnist for The Seattle Times.