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Video Production Showreel - Gryffe Studios
Cost: £100
Time: 100 Days
The Brief
The Drovers Inn - Hotel Marketing Promo Video
Cost: £1600
Time: 5 Days
The Brief
To create a promotional film to show off the unique atmosphere of the Drovers Inn. Since linking with Gryffe Studios The Drovers Inn has gone from strength to strength and has grown their social media presence as well as improving the traffic to the website. Read more >
Larbert Cluster - United In Purpose
Cost: £1600
Time: 2 Days
The Brief
Gryffe Studios were commissioned to produce "United in Purpose" by Falkirk Council for the Larbert Cluster of schools. The brief for the job was to create an inspirational video which represents the children's journey through the Larbert Cluster, from nursery, to primary school, right up to leaving high school. Read more >
Enable Ball 2017: Pledge Film
Cost: POA
The Brief
Gryffe Studios
Corporate Video Production in Greenock, RenfrewshireClick Here to Contact Video Producer Now!
Gryffe Studios is a small but perfectly formed video production and creative agency. Our skilled team of videographers, photographers, designers and web developers have the skills as well as experience necessary. Hence our studio's ability to help our clients achieve their goals no matter how big or small. Our goal is to improve your brand and make connections in addition to boosting your communication. We strive to give our clients exactly what they need to help build as well as improve their brands whether with a promotional video, brand overhaul or a new website. Most of all we like to establish a long term connection as well as making your brand stronger and more visible. Our small team makes it easier for us to keep in contact throughout the process, hence we can adapt to suit your specific needs. As a resultClick Here to Contact Video Producer Now!
Video Production Services
- Creative input in planning
- Scripting services
- Studio work
- Voice over services
- 4K Ultra HD
- Onsite work
- Aerial filming
- Photography services
- 3D capabilities
Corporate Video Expertise
- Social Media / Web Videos 10
- Sales / Branding / Promotional 10
- Product Demonstration 5
- Events / Live Streaming 10
- Motion Graphics / Animation 10
- Training / Educational 8
- Property / Real Estate 5


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Welcome to the LITIG8R TECH™ community created to provide helpful information, time-saving technology tips, budget-saving solutions, legal tech human interest stories and more. Our blog is geared for busy litigators, trial teams, future litigators and legal tech enthusiasts.
My name is Nancy Patterson, and I am the editor of LITIG8R TECH and co-founder of Litigator Technology, a company my husband and I started in 2011. I invite you to learn about our contributors and subscribe to LITIG8R TECH in order to receive timely notifications when we post new content.
Would you like to become a contributor to LITIG8R TECH? If so, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Litigator Technology and LITIG8R TECH are not associated with Apple, Inc. Litigator Technology belongs to link affiliate programs that provide our company a very small commission on sales from some of the product links on this site. We appreciate your support of LITIG8R TECH.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Are you a true Guild Wars 2 fan? Then you deserve the Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition — a feast of both physical and digital treasures worthy of a true fan to aid you in your journey through Tyria. Only a limited quantity of Collector's Editions will be made, so Pre-order your copy now. Guild


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Job Placement And Training Procedures
For Employment, Training And Supplemental Assistance
The St. Croix Education/Youth Program offers Job Placement/Training which can assist eligible Indian people to obtain job skills and to obtain and retain permanent employment towards self-sufficiency. This program is not intended to duplicate or supplant other job placement/training authorities, resources, or services, but may be used to complement and supplement training and any additional assistance.
The St. Croix Tribal Job Placement and Training Procedures
The St. Croix Job Placement and Training Program was created to financially assist eligible tribal members that meet the enrollment requirements (all JPT applicants must be a member of a federally recognized tribe according to 25 CFR Part 26.2). For the Job Placement and Training Assistance, an employee must meet the requirements based on the ISP application and need. The purposes of these policies are set forth rules to govern the awarding of the BIA funds administered by the Education/Youth Program.
New Employment, Training, And/Or Supplemental Assistance
Costs covered under the Job Placement & Training Program for new employment:
- Registration fees
- Employee badge fees
- Licenses/certification fees
- Exam fees
- Text books
- Union dues
- Childcare
- Transportation (bus fare, gas, mileage reimbursement)
- Rent (security & safety deposits)
- Special Needs
- Tools/equipment for employment
- Uniforms/shoes
Costs not covered by the JPT Program will include, but not be limited to:
- Retakes of exam fees
- Additional licenses/certification fees
- Extra-curricular Activities
- Basic school supplies (note books, pens, etc.
Enrollment Process
The JPT Program is awarded to newly hired employees that meet all the requirements and provide all the information requested. All applications will be screened by the St. Croix Education/Youth Program for completeness and eligibility.
Applications are required to be submitted to the St. Croix Education /Youth Program at the St. Croix Youth Center.
- Your servicing office will notify you in writing within 30 calendar days once it receives a completed job training application requires; or
- Your servicing office will notify you within 5 business days once it has received a completed Job Placement application and written job offer.
Applications for new employees:
- Fully completed JPT Application
- Complete work expenses Part III of the JPT Application
- Complete the Individual Self-Sufficiency Plan (ISP)
- If needed, provide an outline of future training, needs, or fees.
Individual Self-Sufficiency Plan (ISP)
Any individual applying for JPT new employee assistance must complete the ISP, which will include an outline of your action plan to reach the overall goal of self-sufficiency. It helps to be specific as possible (include future goals). If there are any barriers that may delay in completion of goals, don't hesitate to list. JPT could assist in additional education, new employee preparation, employee training, internship, and other life skill activities. The purpose of JPT is to provide assistance for a new jobs providing the individual is going through education or training-applicants must provide proof of dates and time of training.
Billing And Any Additional Requirements
- Fines, credit card bills, late fees/charges, or bills in collections will not be covered by JPT.
- Funding cannot exceed 24 months of full-time actual training hours (training for registered nurses can be up to 36 months in length).
- While receiving JPT funding, you can receive other financial assistance, as determined in your ISP, to help fulfill necessary financial requirements.
- Receipts for purchases, training schedules, appointment notifications, and mileage forms may be required as proof for job needs or special services required.
Remember Job Placement/Training Assistance
Some of these include: On/Off campus-housing (dorm/lodging) for the individual student only, childcare, transportation, rent, disability services, vehicle repair, tools, equipment, uniform/shoes, licenses/fees, tutoring, and exam or state testing fees.


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Contact Us
If you need to get in touch with us, you can contact the customer care team using the enquiry drop down below. Alternatively, if you would like to speak to us in person, you can call our customer care hotline on 0800 6662824, Monday to Friday at 8:30am-5:00pm.
To find a Masport Heating stockists near you, please visit our Store Locator page.
Customer Care Hotline: 0800 666 2824
Email: email@example.com
Masport wood fires must be installed by a New Zealand Home Heating Association registered installer.
For a full list of qualified installers visit https://www.nzhha.co.nz/find-a-member/
Select Enquiry Type
Select an enquiry type from the dropdown list below so we can direct your enquiry more accordingly.
Sales Support Form
Please complete the Sales Support form below.
Technical Support Form
Please complete the Technical Support form below.


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What will I get?
-Drang Legendary Sidearm
-Sturm Exotic Hand cannon
Completed Story Campaign.
200 Power Level, can be provided by our Power Leveling service.
You don't need the quest, we can do it for you.
We can offer piloted way(account sharing), if so we just need take access to your pass and login, so we provide stream personal stream for you. In case of safeness VPN will be used.
Complition time is around 3-5 hours


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Be Nice If You Want A Slice
(I've brought a large pepperoni pizza with me to work. After I get my customers out of the store, I grab a slice and sit to enjoy it. At this precise moment, a regular who is a total prick walks in. Note: I only share food with people I genuinely like.)
Me: "Good evening. How are you?"
Regular: "What're you doing?" *cranes his neck to see what I'm eating* "Oh! You have pizza! Give me a piece!"
(I close the box and move it out of his reach.)
Me: "No way! It's mine!"
Regular: "Well, why not? It's not like you're going to eat the whole thing, skinny b****!"
Me: "Yeah, like insulting me is going to convince me to give you a slice."
Regular: "Why can't you just give me a piece?! You're not going to eat the whole thing! Skinny b****es don't eat much!"
Me: "You're not getting my food. "
Regular: "Well, I'll tell [my manager]. She'll make you give me a piece!"
Me: "Yeah, go ahead. She's in the office."
(The regular opens the office door and pokes his head in.)
Regular: [My manager], [my name] won't share her pizza! Make her share!"
My Manager: "It's her pizza. She bought it with her own money. I can't make her give it to you."
Regular: "What!? But I want pizza!"
My Manager: "Well, go buy yourself one then."
Regular: *storms out without buying anything*
My Manager: "That was strange."
Me: "Yep." *holding out the box* "Want a slice?"


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Opening and Closing Statements for Writing has 2 posters with a list of variety of ways to open and/or close writing. These opening and closing statements can be used for any genre of writing. They are both kid friendly and easy to use. Students pick from a variety of ideas for their openings and closings statements.
Be amazed how much better your students' opening and closing statements improve!
Also included are black and white versions for those that do not want color.
Purchase here on Teacher's Take-Out for a discount price.
Thanks for stopping by!
See you soon,
See you soon,
Click here for more writing resources


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Dragon jugs have been headed and handled today. I was chatting to Amanda the other day about how fun it is to make mad stuff but really what do we do with them afterwards. There are not that huge a number of people who will actually want them and would honestly want to buy them. You have to do it though sometimes. Let the madness out?
The pots feel really light in themselves, I may well have done my typical January thing of coming back to throwing and getting so much out of the clay that it's then too thin to support itself through the slipping process. I seem to do that regularly at the start of the new years workings.
It's been another snowy weekend here though today it has been torrential rain all day which landed on top of the compressed snow that was covering the roads – mmmmm lovely traveling conditions. No cycling to work today for me.
The kind people at H is For Home asked me to write a blog post for them, they posted it last friday, you can read it here. Thank you to Justin and Adelle.
You might have read about it on Christine's site but there is an online gallery that has an entry from both of us in a competition that is is running. Vasefinder International 2011.
I was walking at Kirroughtree forest yesterday while Paul and his pals were cycling there. There may well have been an infiltration of tiny snowmen topping signposts around the place, some hat tiny leaf hats and some had what stones I could scavenge for eyes. I think there were a dozen but I did lose count after a while. Occasionally I think I was spotted, heaven knows what the other walkers thought.


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- Page 1 LG HX906PA Review
- Page 2 Features Review
- Page 3 Operation Review
- Page 4 Performance and Verdict Review
It's on the features front where the LG HX906PA really comes into its own. It's absolutely crammed with cutting-edge features, so even if sound quality is absolute rubbish you'll still feel like you're getting loads for your money. We've touched upon 3D support, which along with a compatible TV and active shutter glasses lets you enjoy immersive, full HD stereoscopic pictures.
It's also hugely pleasing to find built-in Wi-Fi, which makes it easy to access the system's plentiful connected content. This includes DLNA-certified media streaming, which allows the unit to talk to other devices on your home network (PCs, NAS drives, smartphones) and play any music, videos and photos you might have stored on them. Supported video formats include DivX HD, MKV, AVCHD, M4V and WMV, while music formats include MP3, AAC, WAV and WMA.
Alongside that, you'll also find a generous selection of internet content courtesy of LG's Smart TV feature. These are separated into 'Premium' and 'LG Apps' on the Home Menu – the former contains the big-name content portals like BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Acetrax and Picasa, plus other stuff like Major League Baseball, AccuWeather.com, accedo (games) and vTuner internet radio.
The latter contains a range of other apps, including games, puzzles and other entertaining little curiosities. You'll find stuff like Tarot cards, stories, colour blindness tests and other things relating to your fitness and general well-being. It's a nice approach, showing that there's more to home entertainment than just videos and music. You have to register with LG to install these though, which is a pain in the backside using the remote.
Elsewhere there's a supplied iPod dock that plugs into the dedicated port on the back, making it easy to liberate the tunes on your Apple device. The USB port on the front supports pen drives and external HDDs, and as per usual the LG welcomes a wide range of formats (see above).
The system is fully au fait with Dolby True HD, DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Plus, and there's no need to chuck out your DVD collection as the LG will not only play them but also upscale them to crisp 1080p resolution. Another fun feature is Music ID, which looks up the movie or song being played in the online Gracenote database and shows you more information about it – including the album art and other tracks on the same album.
You'll also find a range of sound presets on board, including Bass Blast, Clear Voice, Natural, Natural Plus, Virtual, Game, Night, Loudness and Up Scaler – all of which are designed to alter the EQ depending on your taste. If you like you can sidestep them all with the Bypass mode, or fiddle with the parameters yourself in the User EQ mode.
Unlike other sites, we thoroughly test every product we review. We use industry standard tests in order to compare features properly. We'll always tell you what we find. We never, ever accept money to review a product. Tell us what you think - send your emails to the Editor.


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An early start for us this morning departing Stone just after 8.00am. The forecast weather in the afternoon wasn't that promising so we decided to move before the sunshine turned liquid. Just below Stone is a sight that will bring a tear to an Aussie boaters eye.
Cry Ferndale, Parisien Star and Caxton
Shortly afterwards we noticed a hot air balloon in the morning mist above the horizon. Most hot air balloons go up in the early morning when the air is colder and dense. We actually noticed one in the same general area when we went this way last summer.
Can you see it in the photo above? Try the next photo.
Still can't see it? I'll zoom in…..
Youngest son wanted us to go up in one when we were travelling together in Turkey. There's no way I'm going up in something that relies on hot air. Too many of them crash for my liking.
On reaching Sandon Lock we found a queue of four boats waiting to go down. It seemed a most unusual situation for this time of year. Our spell of good luck must have ended because we were the last boat in the queue. The boat ahead of us was owned by a couple from Perth, Western Australia. They spend the summer in the UK and then return to Perth for a second summer.
An interesting boat with the fixed raised steel enclosed cabin at the stern. There's no rudder; the prop is enclosed in a rotating tube. We were told the boat can be steered from the tiller arm or a wheel inside the cabin. The comment to Jan was "It makes cruising in the rain more pleasurable!" Jan told them "We don't do rain!"
Between Sandon and Weston Locks we passed a boat with a familiar name going in the opposite direction.
Who would have thought there were two boats named QISMA. What will Jan & Alastair make of it?
Just before Hoon Mill Lock there was a large pigeon eating beside the canal.
It was suggested this is a bird of prey but it looks too darned small to me. An Australia Wedgetail Eagle has a six foot wingspan.
We stopped at Great Haywood Junction to top up the water tank before continuing on towards Rugeley. Three years ago I was corrected by a local when I pronounced it was Rug(carpet)eley rather than Roogeley. We had an ulterior motive for continuing on, wanting to reach the fuel boat at Taft Bridge.
The last time we filled the main diesel tank was at Wheaton Ashton when we commenced our summer cruising. Another 60 litres were added at Portland Basin Marina as a safety measure last month. When we filled the tank today it took 214 litres so adding the 60 litres earlier wasn't really necessary. We would have made it without having to add diesel.
The fuel boat is permanently moored adjacent to the pig and poultry farm (free range eggs also for sale).
The diesel tank on the boat didn't look all that large and I was concerned they may not have sufficient fuel to fill our tanks.
Note: Cash Only!
The male dispensing the fuel had dragged a long orange coloured air hose with him which went all the way back to the farm. I assumed the fuel bowser was powered by compressed air (supplied by the orange hose). In the above photo you can see the hose in the grass and will note it goes into the small hatch on top of the fuel tank. The hose goes back to a very large diesel storage tank on the farm.
We filled both the propulsion and Hurricane tanks before crossing the canal and mooring opposite.
Today the 175A alternator has performed without a fault. But we're keeping a close watch on it.


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Adelaide Comedy at The Rhino Room
Fri, 07/10/2016 - 20:00 - 22:30
Rhino Room, 13 Frome St Adelaide, SA 5000
Talking Poofy present The Poofcast from Talking Poofy or iTunes. Adam Richard, Toby Sullivan, Scott Brennan and Wes Snelling.
The Shelf Podcast with Justin Hamilton and guests, available at The Shelf and iTunes.


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The Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network is pleased to announce our partnership with Food for Thought, an inspiring northwest Michigan business taking the lead in turning ecological lemons into lemonade. Food for Thought is not only allowing ISN to attach an informative sticker to jars of Autumn Berry Preserves to direct customers to ISN's website, Food for Thought is also donating all Autumn Berry profits to ISN for wildlife habitat! In return, ISN is pledging to remove an autumn olive bush in natural areas for each jar of jam sold. This partnership won't stop autumn olive in its tracks, but it provides an excellent opportunity to increase awareness of invasive species while slowing the spread of seeds.
Whether you call it Autumn Berry, autumn olive, or Elaeagnus umbellata, autumn olive has an ironic history. Originally introduced in the 1830s to control erosion and shelter game species, land managers soon found it dominating the landscapes it had been planted to protect. We now know that when we brought autumn olive from its home in Asia, it left its insect predators behind, which allowed it to grow out of control in our natural areas. In addition to suppressing and out-competing many native plants, autumn olive fails to support wildlife throughout the growing seasons. For example, in spring and summer when birds require massive amounts of protein for rearing their young, autumn olive supports very few insects to feed these nestlings, resulting in a "hole" in the food web.
It's important to note that only removing invasive plants can stop the negative impacts they have on the environment. Luckily, Food For Thought has promised to donate all profits from Autumn Berry Preserves to ISN. These funds will be put toward promoting wildlife habitat in natural areas—including removing autumn olive! ISN Partners have pledged to remove an autumn olive shrub from natural areas for every jar sold. Check out ISN's website for more information about supporting habitat at home, in the community, and in natural areas, or read up on amazing natives to plant in place of autumn olive. You'll probably need fuel for all that work, so why not try a tasty autumn berry treat?
Subscribe to ISN's monthly enewsletter
October 2018


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In Memory In Memory
of Lieut. Mrs. Abigail
Jesse Wyman his wife
who died who died
April 16, 1801 Oct. 29, 1808
What through our in bred sins require
Our flesh to see the dust
Yet as the Lord our Saviour rose
So all his followers must.
|the inscription is still very legible on this slate stone
Jesse Wyman, son of Zebadiah Wyman and Abigail Pierce, was born on 18 March 1736/7 in Woburn, Massachusetts (in what is now the town of Billerica). He married Abigail Johnson, daughter of Samuel Johnson and Priscilla Emery, on 18 September 1764 in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Zebadiah Wyman was the son of Benjamin Wyman and Elizabeth Hancock. Benjamin's brother Nathaniel (1665 - 1717) was my 8th great grandfather. That makes Jesse Wyman my second cousin 9 generations removed.
The URL for this post is
Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo


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Mike Baur is an experienced finance professional and entrepreneur. He is the managing partner of Swiss Start-Up Factory. He co-founded the privately held firm in 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland. The company offers capital funding to technology start-ups. Besides capital, Swiss Start-Up Factory (SSUF) also provides business incubation services. The firm's co-working spaces create an enabling environment where young business can access essential business services and mentorship from experienced professionals.
Mike Baur has extensive experience in the esteemed banking and financial services sector in Switzerland. He is passionate about capital investments and is responsible for the fundraising activities and financing rounds at SSUF. He also directs financial management strategy. Mike Baur also serves as a director of Swiss Startup Invest, a leading venture capital firm based in Zurich. He also founded Think Reloaded, a venture capital firm in Switzerland.
Start-ups get access to ready to go working spaces, training, business support services and an extensive entrepreneur network. Some of the business support services include accounting, receivables and billing, payroll management and financial review. The growing businesses can focus their efforts on creating stellar products and services that will positively affect people's lives and their bottom line.
Through SSUF, Mike Baur negotiates strategic partnerships with industry stakeholders that empower him to guarantee the start-ups success in the global marketplace. Besides Swiss Startup Invest, SSUF is also collaborating with Fintech Fusion, a finance and technology accelerator in Switzerland, and ETH Entrepreneur Club, a student initiative that fosters entrepreneurship. Mike Baur invests more than just capital into the start-ups. He is deeply involved in training, mentoring and providing executive direction to the youth to enable the start-ups to achieve profitability quickly.
He has an in-depth understanding of the global technology space and can analyze the bright ideas start-ups present comprehensively. Some of the brands that Mike Baur has invested in through SSUF include Avaneo, WeaVR, Struckd, and Diplomero among many other companies.
Before SSUF, Mike Baur participated in the START Summit, a pitching forum hosted at the University of St. Gallen to enable startups to find suitable investors. He then worked for various Swiss banks such as UBS, Clariden Leu that merged with Credit Suisse, and Sallfort Privatbank.


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As I go off to Ottawa Canada for the next 6 weeks, this curious question from Stephen Poloz, the head of the Canadian Central Bank came up: what would a Star Trek (TNG) economy with no money look like? Yes, he actually asked that out loud.
That was before his comment that while Canadian housing is overvalued by 10-30%, there is no bubble (more on that in a minute). First though, it's important to remember (and I hope he does) that economics deals with the societal allocation of scarce resources. It's the only reason why a money economy (fiat or otherwise) exists. While Friedman (and others, but he's the most famous) insisted that money is neutral, it seems that money only goes to the "neutral zone" when it no longer becomes relevant because resources are no longer scarce (replicators, anyone?). This means that hungry people have food, and, as his bubble comments show, homeless people have homes.
I'm not sure what Poloz thinks a bubble is, or is not, but here's a hallmark of one: things are over-priced, or over-valued. However for Canada, it's not really a big deal, other than possibly a lower exchange rate on the Loonie. And there's two main reasons why: 1) most Canadian mortgages are insured with the full faith and credit of the Government of Canada, and 2) Canada's debt -to-GDP is relatively low at around 55%. Much lower than the U.S. debt-to-GDP:
The worst case scenario is that Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio starts to look like the U.S. However, there is no scarcity of natural resources in Canada (tar sands aside), unlike the U.S. It would be relatively easy for Canada to pay down its debt (they did it in the 1980s). And that's with equalization payment to the Provinces (or Government Transfers) plus universal health insurance.
I'm betting money in the Neutral Zone, that Poloz wishes there was a supply glut of houses right about now, or at least a housing replicator. That would certainly both remove the over-valuation problem, as well as the scarcity problem that causes over-valuation to begin with. In the meantime, calling an aggregate over-valuation by 30% NOT a bubble, is sort of like calling Canadian Bacon, ham.


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8th February 2010
Rock City, Nottingham
Website: http://www.twinatlantic.com/
First question, which I'm sure you get asked all the time but I like to ask bands, how's the tour going so far?
Ross: Good, I didn't think that was going to be the first question. The tours going really good, we've been away since the 2nd January but not on our tour, we've been with Enter Shikari and now we've come on to our own tour which has been really good. There have been lots of people from before when we played in cities that have come back. I wouldn't say masses of people but there's obviously a progression.
For anybody that hasn't heard the music before how would you describe it?
Barry: We're quite a schizophrenic and collective band; I think which is what reflects in our own personal music taste because we all listen to anything and everything. We go from really dirty rock to light airy-fairy pop and anywhere in between, it's really like music by numbers.
Would you say that's what makes you different as a band, or is there something else?
Barry: I think it's a combination of that, and I know that a lot of other bands type cast themselves to a specific genre, so like they only play with say other metal bands or support other metal bands, but we've made a point of playing with other stadium bands. We've played with the Smashing Pumpkins, and we've played with YouMeAtSix, and the Subways who are more of indie rock, so we've played with loads of different bands, which I think has helped us to stand out, and not type cast ourselves. Also, I think Sam's vocals really help because I know a lot of people from Britain like to sing with Americanisms because a lot of people have grown up listening to American bands, so Sam stays true to his roots and sings with his Glass Norwegian accent which not a lot of other bands, and probably not even from Scotland do I guess.
Was it a conscious decision to keep the accent or did it just happen?
Ross: When we very first got together and we didn't even have a band, I mean me and Sam had this idea that we would have a band, but then we met Barry and Craig and became an actual band. We had been thinking about what we were going to do and we had both been in bands before and it was just apparent that, like if you're reading a story or if we were doing this interview we'd do it in a Danish accent and it was bizarre, so this one day it just clicked. I know the band you were in before (points to Barry) it was the same for you.
Barry: Yeah we were all in bands before that put on fake, well I'd guess fake accents but for us our music is all about being honest and expressing yourself. The best way to express yourself is through your own voice and not be a character and saying what you truly feel.
Ross: When you're growing up through being in bands with friends in school you copy what you're listening to, and then all of a sudden you have this moment of realization.
You mentioned a few bands that you supported such as Smashing Pumpkins, Funeral for a Friend. How does it feel that you're now the main act rather than supporting?
Barry: It's good.
Ross: Yeah but it's hard to get use to though because we just did a month of not being the main act, but then now you have to start playing for double as long and it takes a bit of getting use to.
Barry: When you're supporting you're effectively playing to someone else's crowd.
Ross: Like when we played Sheffield it meant we were on later in the day, but had to be there earlier and there's a lot more hanging about, and then playing for double as long takes a bit of getting use to.
Barry: Playing as a support is a bit like being an underdog and I guess when you come from Scotland you're use to the underdog status, and you really do feel like you've got to try but when it's your own show more people are there because they've heard of your band and because they get your music. It's more different and relaxed
Ross: Yeah it's weird. We played the biggest gig we've ever played of our own gig the other day and usually the bigger gigs back home in Scotland we usually get nervous about playing. But the other night, I don't know where we were but it just wasn't like that at all.
Barry: No, it was really relaxed.
I follow you guys on Twitter and you posted up that…
Ross: Thing is right, I shouldn't have it on my phone because sometimes when you're out when you've had a few drinks and stuff you want to update with silly stuff.
Have you done that?
Ross: No, I've always managed to control it.
You posted up on the 4th February that you played the best gig ever in Manchester, and I was just wondering what it is that makes the best night for you guys?
Ross: Oh that was the best gig that we'd played in Manchester. We've played loads of gigs in Manchester.
Barry: I know for me it's just the vibe that you get. It doesn't matter how many people are there, but like we played to about 200 people in Manchester and the vibe there was amazing. It wasn't even sold out but the people that were there were there to have a good time. We were in a good mood and we played well which helps.
Ross: I think there are so many different factors and I think that if they all slot in to line then it helps.
Barry: It's really not about how many people are there it's about getting a connection with the crowd.
Ross: You talk to other bands and there are certain cities, I'm not going to name them but there are those that you say 'I can't wait to go there'.
How did you come up with the name of your album?
Barry: Well the name came from Sam and his crazy brain. I guess because we're a band that are fans of many different albums and instead of being a collective of individual songs and all this means something together as a band. The album flows well and then concept that Sam came up with Vivarium and all our songs and how they fit together. I don't think I actually explained what it means I just talked around it.
Ross: Sam also liked the word vivarium, so we just kind of made something up.
Barry: I guess our answer falls somewhere in the middle of those two!
So you guys charted at number 21 in the UK.
Barry: Did we?!
Yeah you did, you've done very well.
Ross: That's great.
Barry: 21?!
Ross: That's really exciting; I didn't know that at all.
You're tipped for big things.
Ross: Well fingers crossed it all keeps going in the right direction.
I was going to ask how you felt about that but I think your reaction said it all.
Barry: It's cool. We didn't actually expect the record to do that because up until we released it in September we built up strong followers in Scotland and a few Scottish radio stations started playing our songs.
Ross: I think that was largely down to the number of Scottish people that bought it though.
Barry: Yeah but we expected the album to be an introduction to people, it wasn't suppose to chart or have phenomenal success it was just to make people aware of us.
There's a quote on the Internet from Sam saying that he believes in himself and the band so much that he believes that you can be really big. Where is it that you can see yourselves as a band?
Barry: We do have a lot of ambition for what we're doing and if we didn't we wouldn't be doing it. Let's face it, anyone who plays in a band and are being honest with themselves, don't got 'I want to be in a band because I want to play to 50 people in my home town', people do it because they want to headline Glastonbury or play stadiums. Everyone has dreams and aspirations, that's what keeps you going. I think for us it's not so much an end product of 'we're going to headline or play…' as long as we keep seeing a progression in doing what we're doing then we'll keep doing it.
What is your favourite moment so far as a band?
Barry: I've got mine. 2 nights ago we played Glasgow and it was sold out, and being able to play that to people that we know like our band it was incredible for us. We feel we've reached a landmark that we felt would take long to reach, so for that it would have to be my favourite so far.
Ross: Yeah, I'm with Barry on that one.


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The anime studio ufotable confirmed on Monday that it has produced the new original animation sequence for the upcoming PS Vita port of Type-Moon's Fate/stay night [Realta Nua] software.
AnimeShinbun is a community of awesome people posting and discussing the latest anime news. It's part of NewsBoiler, a network of social news sites covering today's pop culture.


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Daily Reading Activities: Spring
Product Code: REM 1125C
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Reinforce reading comprehension skills with these higher-level activities!
Extend learning and keep students working towards Adequate Yearly Progress with these more challenging activities. 180-page activity book includes 720 specific reading skills questions focusing on Main Idea, Conclusion, Sequence, Inference, Comparison, Vocabulary, and more. Stories feature a more traditional font size in a single column format to help transition students into an "on-grade-level" reading style.
Book includes activities for March, April, and May.
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The four species of horseshoe crabs are an ancient (~450 million years old) and important species that support the ecological function of estuaries and the survival of migratory shorebirds. The current over-exploitation of horseshoe crabs is sadly not dissimilar to other mismanaged species that were driven to extinction.
The Horseshoe Crab
The Problem
The Harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs for the Pharmaceutical Industry
Horseshoe crabs have been integral to the safe production of injectable vaccines, drugs, and certain medical devices. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) are captured and bled alive every year for this purpose. Compounds in horseshoe crab blood effectively and efficiently detect bacterial contamination; the reaction between these compounds and contaminants is the basis of the biomedical test, Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL).
LAL became the industry standard for detecting bacterial contaminants, known as endotoxins, in the late 1970s. LAL replaced the pyrogen test, which used rabbits for detecting bacterial contamination. Every injectable medication approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration must be tested for the potential contamination by bacterial endotoxins. Because of population growth and innovations in the pharmaceutical field, global demand for this testing process is growing.
A synthetic alternative – recombinant factor C (rFC) – was developed approximately 15 years ago by two scientists at the Nation University of Singapore, Ling Ding Jeak and Bow Ho. But the test has not achieved sufficient market penetration to decrease the industry's reliance on the LAL by any significant amount. Revive & Restore seeks to find and remove barriers to the adoption of this synthetic alternative in order to stop the bleeding of horseshoe crabs – a procedure which kills between 15 and 30 percent of bled crabs and poses unknown long-term risks to the species.
The biomedical applications of horseshoe crab blood create a huge demand for the horseshoe crab; about half a million are bled annually in North America. But the pharmaceutical industry alone isn't responsible for the over harvest of this species. Not only are the crabs captured and bled for biomedical applications, about 500,000 are also harvested as bait for the eel and conch fisheries.Compounding the threat of over harvesting are the effects of climate change; more intense storms and rising sea levels are diminishing the availability of suitable spawning habitat for the horseshoe crab.
The situation is more dire in Asia; in addition to the huge take of crabs for biomedical testing, food, and other uses – massive shoreline alterations on the continent are destroying estuary habitats for horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds at an unprecedented scale. All three Asian horseshoe crab species have been modeled to go functionally extinct in seven years under current harvest rates.
All of these issues warrant concern and immediate conservation action solely to protect this ancient animal. But the bleeding and over-harvest of the horseshoe crab is causing significant ecosystem-level impacts as well. Most notably, along the Atlantic Flyway of North America, six species of long-distance migrant shorebirds synchronize their northward migration to gorge on the eggs of spawning horseshoe crabs on their way to Arctic nesting grounds. A recent study has confirmed the highly-correlated relationship between the availability of horseshoe crab eggs and the survival of long distance migratory shorebirds. Whether a similar relationship exists between migratory shorebirds in the Asian Far Eastern flyway and horseshoe crabs is not known.
Learn more about the synthetic substitute to Horseshoe Crab blood here.
The Red Knot (Calidris canutus) depends upon Horseshoe Crab eggs for the last leg of its extraordinary spring migration from the tip of South America to the Canadian Arctic. As the numbers of horseshoe crabs decline, so too does the red knot population. The bleeding and over-fishing for the crabs continues despite the fact that horseshoe crab numbers in Delaware Bay appear to be at only a third of historic numbers. The eggs and larvae of the horseshoe crab also form an important food chain link that should be supporting Delaware Bay's sport fishery. For any meaningful recovery of this bird, horseshoe crabs must return to spawn on the beaches of Delaware Bay in greater in numbers.
The Solution
Creating an Incentive for the Adoption of a Synthetic Substitute
Recombinant Factor C (rFC) – a synthetic substitute for LAL – was developed by Dr. Ling Ding and Dr. Bow Ho of the National University of Singapore in 1997.
Until recently the manufacturing and patents for rFC were licensed to Lonza – one of four LAL manufacturers in the United States and one of three rFC manufacturers in the world. With the expiration of patent protection in the U.S., there is now an economic incentive for additional suppliers to begin producing rFC. In turn, the addition of new rFC manufacturers will end an important barrier to adoption for the pharmaceutical industry, which has been hesitant to transition to the synthetic alternative without a robust number of suppliers.
Lingering doubt on the efficacy of rFC has also been an important barrier to adoption of rFC. Although there is now abundant evidence that the efficacy of the synthetic alternative is equivalent to or better than LAL, adoption of new technology is difficult and change has come slow to the industry. Since the development of the rFC test, numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate its efficacy and comparability to the LAL test for a wide variety of potential applications. Revive & Restore synthesized these studies to demonstrate that all available scientific evidence suggests that commercially-available rFC tests detect endotoxins with equivalent of better efficacy than the LAL test. In fact, rFC signals fewer false positives, which can be costly when they occur in the manufacturing process.
Revive & Restore's efficacy review was published on May 10, 2018. We are optimistic that this will lead the pharmaceutical industry to live up to industry sustainability tenets and make the switch away from the unnecessary use of animals in the production of injectable medications.


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Zoi - the Firefighter's ePCR
Zoi, the Revolutionary ePCR, improves clinical and operational performance by sharing critical information.
Zoi was designed for fire-based EMS to capture patient data efficiently, quickly, and easily to ensure the best possible outcome for the patient.
The Company
Starwest Associates designs, develops and produces state of the art:
•Active management systems,
• Information digital technologies,
• Internet and native tools,
• Comprehensive reporting networks,
• Real time data transfer and exchanges,
for fire departments, EMS, ambulance, healthcare interfaces and mobile healthcare service.
Starwest Tech
Starwest Tech's Zoi RDX Network Products and Software Systems are both "Native to the Device" and "Internet based".


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No wonder it seemed familiar! How Ed Miliband's Budget speech recycled the same soundbites he has used for four years
- Labour leader criticised for not addressing any of Osborne's policies
- Instead he used speech to roll-out well worn slogans attacking the Tories
- Even his opening line has been used several times before
- Ed Balls said 'difficult' speech was the result of false Twitter speculation
Pollsters say it is only when politicians and journalists become sick and tired of soundbites that voters start to even notice.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband may have taken the advice a little too literally, after grinding out the same attacks on the government in response to yesterday's Budget.
He faced criticism for failing to address any of the measures actually announced by George Osborne, but examination of his speech shows that his slogans on borrowing, bankers and the Bullingdon Club were all just a case of history repeating.
The tie and the haircut might change, but Labour leader Ed Miliband has used the same Budget soundbites in (left to right) 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011
Mr Miliband was repeatedly interrupted during his speech in the Commons yesterday, with deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle having to call for quiet.
But there was no mention of any of the policy changes announced by Mr Osborne, even those trailled in the media in the days before.
Privately many Labour MPs were dismayed at their leader's response. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said Mr Miliband had faced a 'difficult speech' because he had planned to attack policies which ended up not being included.
Mr Balls told journalists: 'Ed Miliband had written pages of his speech which weren't used in the end, which he thought might be in there that weren't, but he had to fill the space by going on and on about Michael Gove's comments.'
It is thought the Labour leadership had fallen for speculation on Twitter that Mr Osborne would move to cut income tax, but when it failed to appear Mr Miliband had to tear up large chunks of his speech.
Aides also complained that Labour had not been given early sight of the Budget to help them to prepare.
So instead Mr Miliband turned to his earlier Budget speeches for inspiration, starting with an observation about how long Mr Osborne spoke for, accusing him of giving with one hand and taking with the other and rounding off with a swipe at an 'out-of-touch Chancellor'.
Here we examine what Mr Miliband said in the Commons yesterday, and how his attacks have echoed down the years...
The Chancellor spoke for nearly an hour
2014: 'The Chancellor spoke for nearly an hour. But he did not mention one central fact. The working people of Britain are worse off under the Tories'.
2012: 'The Chancellor spoke for an hour. But there was one phrase that did not pass his lips. One claim he has abandoned. 'We're all in this together'
2011: 'The Chancellor spoke for nearly an hour. But one fact says it all. Growth down last year, this year and next year'
Down, down, down
2014: '2011 - living standards down. 2012 - living standards down. 2013 - living standards down'
2013: 'Growth last year, down. Growth this year, down. Growth next year, down'
2012: 'Growth down last year. Growth down this year. Growth down next year'
Giving with one hand and taking far more away with the other
2014: 'It's a classic Tory con. Give with one hand and take far more away with another.'
2013: 'The Chancellor is giving with one hand, and taking far more away with the other'
2012: 'All he is doing for ordinary families is giving with one hand and taking far more away with the other'
2011: 'Let me tell you what the Institute for Fiscal Studies told us this morning: 'there is an awful lot of giving with one hand. and taking away with lots and lots of other hands'. It's the classic Tory con.
Same Old Tories
2014: 'And these are the people that had the nerve to tell us we're all in this together. It's Tory values. It's Tory choices. It's the same old Tories.'
2012: 'Wrong choices. Wrong priorities. Wrong values. Out of touch. Same old Tories.'
2011: 'Every Tory tax cut ends up costing them more. Same old Tories. Same old deceit'
'Nod your head'
2014: 'Maybe today we can get the straight answer we haven't had so far? Will he rule out a further tax cut for millionaires to 40p? Just nod your head if you're ruling it out!'
2013: 'So come on. Nod your head if you are getting the 50p tax rate'
2012: 'Just nod if you're going to benefit from it, or shake your head if you're not. Come on, we've got plenty of time.'
Repetition: This word cloud shows how people and tax dominated Mr Miliband's speech in response to the 2014 Budget
Bullingdon boys
2014: 'What is the latest rebrand from the Bullingdon club?'
2013: 'The Bullingdon boys really are both in it together.'
Hurting not working
2014: 'This recovery's not working for working people.'
2012: 'The truth is that for ordinary families, it's hurting but it's not working.'
2011: 'It's hurting but it isn't working.'
Bankers, bankers, bankers
2014: 'So the Prime Minister chooses to afford a tax cut of £200,000 for a banker. But he can't afford a pay rise of £250 for a nurse.'
2013: 'John the banker, remember him? He's had a tough year, earning just £1m. What does he get? He gets a tax cut of £42,500 next year. £42,500, double the average wage.'
2012: 'That is this Chancellor's priority – giving 14,000 millionaires over £40,000 each. And what happens to families who earn in one year half what the Chancellor has so casually given away to the richest in the last hour? Families on £20,000 a year – the nurse, the lorry driver'
For the few not the many
2014: 'Under them it's a recovery for the few not the many'
2013: 'And they don't understand, you need a recovery made by the many not just a few at the top'
2012: 'Unfair. Out of touch. For the few, not the many.'
QUENTIN LETTS: Miliband was like a chef trying to make an omelette without eggs
Ken Clarke and his tum were just behind me – on Budget day lots of MPs use upstairs overspill benches which abut the press gallery.
Gaseous, pre-prandial rumblings emanated from his direction. They sounded like a boiler we replaced at home last week. George Osborne's changes to investment tax breaks found favour.
'Egggsellent,' exhaled Ken. Smoky snufflings and hoggy gruntlings sounded from the depths of the Clarke maw when Mr Osborne extended limits for ISAs and lending for exports.
Dreadful: Ed Miliband's response to George Osborne unveiling the big'un was almost void of financial content
Then the Chancellor reached his clincher, the unexpected announcement about pensions. Silence. No one, not even Ken, knew what to think.
Cue panic in the press corridor, reporters turning to one another and saying: 'Annuities? Remind me. What the heck are they?'
A slimmed Osborne spoke for 57 minutes. At the end, Government MPs did their customary ballyhoo and Mr Osborne gulped down water.
His voice had been fading badly. Had the Budget been any longer, he would have needed a squirt of WD40, or subtitles.
The Chancellor looked genuinely drained – relieved, too. His face at the end seemed to say 'crumbs, I did it'.
After past budgets he has often looked cocky but this expression was different.
It was as though he realised it was a big 'un. The silence from the Labour benches reinforced that impression. Ed Miliband's remarkably vacuous response did not much lift Labour's gloom.
The Labour leader's remarkably vacuous response did nothing to lift his party's gloomy silence
The main words in Mr Osborne's speech were 'saver' and 'resilient'. There was all this stuff about steady-as-she-goes and restoring the economy brick by brick.
Then, wham, he concluded with the beyond-Thatcherite freeing of pensions. A pitch for UKIP sympathisers? Maybe. It certainly looks a defining moment for Mr Osborne's Treasury years.
What heckling there was from Labour (deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle had little trouble keeping order) came chiefly from that party's women.
Islington's Emily Thornberry barked the occasional insult and frontbencher Maria Eagle, standing near Brother Emily, kept up a running commentary of abuse.
'Wot about the debt?' bawled Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton N). Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd S) muttered and twitched, a hobgoblin from Dylan Thomas's Llareggub.
Ed Balls kept doing a discreet thumb gesture, a furtive hitch-hiker. Big Jimmy Hood (Lab, Lanark) sat in a splodge of silence, nibbling on a petite little pinky: such a hefty yet his poise so balletic.
On the Tory side, slinky Liz Truss, education minister, sat on the floor, stretching her pale neck.Gentlemanly Kwasi Kwarteng (Con, Spelthorne) strode over to check her tender bottom was not in any distress. Bill Cash (Stone) cleaned his spectacles with a large mouchoir.
Ed Balls roared laughting as Osborne compared Miliband to King John, a weak leader who betrayed his brother
Claire Perry, a whip, was another Tory woman on the floor. She perched there, peering over baronet Sir George Young's right shoulder like Long John Silver's parrot.
Moments of levity: hearing a tax break for bingo, Suffolk Coastal's Therese Coffey, having campaigned for it, cried 'House!'; and Mr Osborne mentioned a grant to the Magna Carta Trust, simply so that he could refer to King John as 'a weak leader who had risen to the top after betraying his brother, compelled by a gang of unruly barons to sign on the dotted line'.
The House twigged the Ed Miliband/trade unions analogy. Mr Balls roared with laughter.
When Mr Osborne hailed improving prospects in the north of England, Maria Eagle's atonal soprano gave a 'have you ever been there?'
Mr Osborne's Tatton constituency is actually next to Manchester. Labour glumness was now so evident that smoothiechops Mark Garnier (Con, Wyre Forest) shouted: 'Smile!'
The Chancellor was watched from the VIP gallery by not only his mother but also his wife and their daughter. The little poppet (daughter, that is) was rapt for the first ten minutes. The following 47 she found more of a test. Join the club, honeybun.
Mr Miliband's Budget response, almost entirely free of financial content, was the speech of a chef trying to make an omelette without eggs. It was a chopped, half-fried, gabbled nothingness, little more than a smear of slogans. Dreadful.
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App wrapping and mobile application management
Profile: Margaret Rouse
|"There's a lot to like about the idea of app wrapping. First of all, ensuring that encryption and authentication is present at the app level means that device level security is not nearly as important. So BYOD, managed or unmanaged devices—that all doesn't matter. And with app wrapping, you can add security features to pre-existing apps." — Jack Madden
Today's WhatIs.com Word of the Day is app wrapping. App wrapping is a big deal in mobile application management (MAM) because it allows an administrator wrap a security policy around a third-party mobile app.


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Perry's Water Garden
Franklin, NC – 13 Acres of aquatic ponds are the home to many varieties of water lilies and lotuses that begin blooming in May and continue blooming into August. Perry's Water Gardens are said to be the largest commercial aquatic nursery in the US and are a must see for the photo opportunist. Water Lilies and Lotuses are also available for purchase.


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Labor unions are planning rallies at the Indiana Statehouse and around the state as part of continuing protests against Republican-backed legislation that Democratic lawmakers say prompted their five-week walkout.
The Indiana AFL-CIO says Monday's rallies are timed to mark the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, scheduled for 2 p.m., is to include United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts and be in protest of bills that labor leaders say would hurt workers' collective bargaining rights.
Other rallies are set for Monday in Fort Wayne, Jeffersonville, Kokomo and South Bend.
Thousands of union members attended Statehouse protests during the boycott by most House Democrats that ended March 28.


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31 January, Copenhagen, DK
We are happy to announce that Savision will be a sponsor at this event.
The Nordic VMUG Conference organized by VMUG Denmark is a free one day event.
Meet us at our booth between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM where we will showcase you our latest solutions that help you achieve total control of your IT environment.
Interested in attending the event? You can register for free here.


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Shooting Toward Our Bright Future!
It's official. Madison City Schools now offers a banking branch to serve students and help broaden financial literacy in the schools.Madison City Schools Supt. Robby Parker and Bob Jones Principal Sylvia Lambert joined Redstone Federal Credit Union President-CEO Joe Newberry for a ceremonial ribbon cutting today.
The RFCU-MCS partnership also establishes a pathway for RFCU transactions to help fund safety and security throughout the district.Student workers at RFCU branch at Bob Jones HSNewberry said planning started a couple of years ago and RFCU now has branches in four North Alabama high schools. Planning is already under way to add a branch in James Clemens High School perhaps next year.It is student run under the supervision of BJHS teachers Brandy Van Dam and Kristy Wheeler. Two RFCU employees from the U.S. 72 branch, Corinna Nicole and Tyler Dalton, serve as liaisons.Learn more about the new RFCU branch at Bob Jones in this Patriot Pages news article.RFCU President Joe Newberry, BJ Principal Sylvia Lambert, Supt. Robby ParkerThe credit union is offering a promotion to any student or employee of Madison City Schools that opens a RFCU account to receive a $200 credit on their new Affinity debit card.Each swipe with an Affinity card means money to the Madison City Schools safety and security fund.Current RFCU members are not eligible for the $200 but can obtain a free Affinity debit card from any RFCU branch to start steering money from each transaction to MCS.Redstone Federal Credit Union wil pay the school system 10-cents for each transaction on the Affinity card which should bring thousands of dollars for district safety and security improvements. Madison City Board of Education President Ranae Bartlett, Mayor Paul Finley and other officials from RFCU and MCS also took part in the ribbon cutting.


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I love those meetings, and I love these people! Amongst other things that evening, we each had to give a word that summed up our 2008. Cheesy and predictable I know, as well as notoriously hard if you want to be objective!
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Standing at the Dusk of 2008
I love those meetings, and I love these people! Amongst other things that evening, we each had to give a word that summed up our 2008. Cheesy and predictable I know, as well as notoriously hard if you want to be objective!
Sunday, 28 December 2008
They are Lining Up!!
Clive James, hot on the heals of Parris (perhaps), is effusive in his praise of Christ, but not necessarily how you would expect.
Read it here, listen here (11mins).
How would you respond?
Saturday, 27 December 2008
A Strange Ally
Matthew Parris' latest comment in The Times Newspaper makes pleasing/interesting reading. Go see.
What do you pray after reading something like that?
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Interesting Bits of News... Well I think so anyway.
The Pope on Gender Theory (6:52)
I wince when I hear the Pope being referred to as Holy Father. That said, I have to hand it to her, Joanna pulls no punches and is more blunt (in a good way) than I probably would have been had I been in the same position!
They also interviewed Richard Dawkins (a very famous atheist) on what he does for Christmas. But they don't seem to have posted that interview there! :-(
Saturday, 20 December 2008
How do you follow this?
If anyone is thinking of getting me a Christmas present... Don't get me this!! I'll have as many ties and socks as you want!
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Rebekah Barnard
She is a top little sister and has been an encouragement to me in many ways. Here are three of them:
1. She is a faithful member of our cell group.
2. She is displaying what it means to have Jesus be Lord of every part of her life, even when it hurts (a lot).
3. She made a comment on Facebook that she had "got church tonight." All she was doing was meeting with others in someone's house to worship God, study the bible and pray, not a meeting in an official building or anything. No smells or bells or robes or strobes (the last one I guess you'd find in some trendy relevent church, no doubt). She knows what church is really about! Not style, form or ritual, but real substance - lives united together to Jesus, transformed by his mercy and love and waiting in hope for his soon return!
It ain't any more complicated than that! :-)
Monday, 15 December 2008
A Heroine of whom the World is not Worthy
Last week I had the privilege of preaching at RUCU's main weekly meeting. As I did some of the preparation for it, I came across this. It is magnificent; the testimony of Lisa Beamer, who on 11th September 2001 lost her husband and the father of her 2 (+ 1 on the way) children in the plane that was kamakazied by Islamic extremists into the Pentagon. I found myself welling up! And yet curiously strengthened by her testimony, in a way that only God the Holy Spirit can do.
Here she is being interviewed by Larry King on national American TV. I haven't embeded it since it is in two parts and you can find the second half here (14mins in total). Other videos are in the side menu are of interest too.
Oh... and the text I was preparing to preach on at the time was this.
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Makes me realise sometimes how flatly I read my Bible and how great truths fly past me without me noticing them!
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Encouragement Between Brothers is Sweet!
Monday, 8 December 2008
You wanna be an environmentally friendly Christian? Then tell people the good news about Jesus!
This is probably my most politically incorrect post to date.
I think this would be a terror to an unconverted soul—to think he is a burden to the creation. 'Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' (Luke 13:7). If inanimate creatures could but speak, your food would say, 'Lord, must I nourish such a wretch as this, and yield forth my strength for him, to dishonor You? No, I will choke him rather, if You will give commission.' The very air would say, 'Lord, must I give this man breath, to set his tongue against heaven, and scorn Your people, and vent his pride and wrath, and filthy talk, and belch out oaths and blasphemy against You? No, if You will but say the word, he shall be breathless for me.' His poor beast would say, 'Lord, must I carry him upon his wicked designs? No, I will break his bones, I will end his days—if I may have but permission from You.' A wicked man—the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him—until death satisfies both. While the Lord of hosts is against you, be sure the host of the Lord is against you, and all the creatures as it were up in arms until, upon a man's conversion, the controversy being settled between God and him, He makes a covenant of peace with the creature for him (Job 5:22-24; Hos 2:18-20)
Saturday, 6 December 2008
For some reason...
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Right but Wrong
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Double Predestination
This seems to be the pivotal phrase in his writing on election and double predestination: Jesus Christ is the electing God and He is also the elected Man.
Friday, 28 November 2008
Lone Rangers Are Dead Rangers
Now if you know me, hearing me saying that I got excited about this quote may sound a little strange as I have no sons of my own. I'm not even married. You might expect me to have a good old rant (privately if not in public) at the fact that single people often feel like they are the relational lepers of life, cut off from the highs and lows that are the relational adventures of marriage and family life, and instead being doomed to live in a world of gazing at their own navels. But I won't, not because I am hiding that reaction from you, but because I genuinely did not feel that way when I read it.
You see when God created the world, he intended that earthly families be a picture of his new spiritual family. Membership of this family is not dependent on your life circumstances or relative successes, but on God's open invitation of mercy to the whole world. When it works as it should; the love, tenderness, sacrifice and intimacy expressed in earthly families mirrors that which should be best demonstrated in the new family of God - the church.
So whilst I am not a father in the legal sense, I can be a father figure in a small part to many a young lad, both in the church family and beyond; through prayer, biblical instruction and practical life wisdom.
I can, (and I have a duty to) help cradle, nurture and initiate boys and young men into being real men, and better still, into being zealous and enduring disciples of Jesus.
This is especially poignant for me given that I work in a boys' school and only this morning had a boy tell me that he didn't know who his real dad was. He had never met him. My heart went out this little lad. He is by no means exceptional in our generation.
John expresses this vision for enduring godly men cradling and initiating the next (spiritual) generation a lot better than Sam, Stephen and I do.
Thursday, 20 November 2008
The Rediscovery of True Wonder. Part 3 - Rejoicing in Reality
The Bible tells me that, it does it in too many ways to count, but I am blind to most of them. The following I have seen, but only because God in his mercy has opened my eyes to see it in the pages of the Bible, not because I was astute enough, or even inclined enough to figure it out for myself from scratch.
Dear blog-junkie. before I continue, you must tell me if I push the analogy too far. There's seeing the fullness of something and there's looking for something that is not there. No comments, assumes that you totally agree, and are impressed ;o) with everything I have said. Otherwise, please question or challenge.
Genesis 1:14 tells me that the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created the sun to be a sign. A signpost of what? The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If the second post in this series is right then when Psalm 19:1-6 talks about the heavens declaring the Glory of God, they aren't declaring some abstract philosophical notion of perfection, but the nature and work of the Son of God - Jesus Christ.
The sun gives everything in this world light to see by and heat to live by. The sun is the source of all biological life and physical processes on the earth. Jesus is the source of all life in the universe.
The sun holds the earth in orbit around itself, not bringing the earth so close that it should burn up, nor letting it spin off into space becoming a frozen wasteland. Jesus holds the universe together,
The earth turns away from the sun and is plunged into the darkness of night. Jesus never turns his face away from us, but we in our rebellion against him, turned to the darkness.
(N.B. I was going to say that technological advance with the invention of mass electrical lighting, whilst not wrong in itself, has obscured the vividness of some of these parallels. But actually it continues the metaphor well. Humans in the darkness of their own rebellion create their own little lights to live by, but these little physical lights are nothing, they have no real light in them - nothing of God's life-giving, life-sustaining light.)
From the vantage point of the human eye, the sun is "buried," in that goes into the ground at dusk - a metaphor of the crucifuxion, death and burial of Jesus. At dawn, the sun is "resurrected" from the ground. Jesus was raised to life and now offers life to the world. I do not believe that Jesus' resurrection happening at dawn was any coincidence at all.
In the daylight of the sun we are active, - alive. At night we are asleep - a metaphor of disorder and death. With the dawning of morning, the world rises with the sun from its death-like sleep to life. So too, all those who are united to Christ through the Spirit of God will rise with Jesus to eternal life.
What an awesome saviour!
A dare to me and you. Next time you are out walking with someone, pause, look up into the sky and tell them that God created the sun to be a symbol of his own dear Son, Jesus, through whom we all can have true light and life in this world and the next.
Finally, two videos to illustrate:
1. A picture of the consequence of human rebellion against Jesus, his subsequent crucifixion and and rebellious human beings finally being cast away from God's presence for ever.
2. A picture of Jesus' birth, resurrection from the dead and second coming:
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The Rediscovery of True Wonder. Part 2 - Revisiting the Fulness
:: One's possessions/prosperity
:: The excellence or inherent goodness of something/someone
:: The shining out (or demonstration) of that excellence
:: The acts of God in the universe and in the lives of people
:: The act of praise
But there is also another meaning...
If you run a Bible search on the phrase "the glory of the Lord" or "the glory of the God of Israel" you will notice something curious about the references they throw up. Namely that these two terms often refer (perhaps even exclusively), not to some weird super-duper deluxe light bulb that comes down from Heaven, but to a person. See especially Ezekiel 3:23 and 43:2. That person, is Jesus Christ. This is even clearer in the New Testament in places like Hebrews 1:3.
The giant Puritan thinker Jonathan Edwards assumes that the glory of the Lord refers to Jesus here (see second paragraph) when he gives his summary of how the Bible defines the word glory. (I pinched from him for my first paragraph.)
So when the Bible says in Romans 1 that the human race... exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, animals and reptiles, this is not the rejection of some abstract New Age divine light from Heaven but the flat rejection of and rebellion against Jesus Christ.
It is for this reason that the whole world stands condemned and knows it (even if they suppress that knowledge) and thus in need of the mercy of God. We have not rebelled against "some benevolent, wise, powerful, detached-from-the-universe being – the construct of Western philosophy…" Intelligent Design type God. Rather, we have specifically scorned and rejected Jesus Christ.
So the person who asks: How can God justly condemn those who have never heard the gospel? is asking the wrong question. Moreover, Christians like me get all emotionally twisted up in knots over this question because we ourselves, still don't see things as clearly as Paul did. God help me. God help us! I humbly (and admittedly tentatively because I'm no giant like Edwards was) put it to you that the question we should be asking is not How can God justly condemn those who have never heard the gospel? but rather How can human beings be so dumb and rebellious that we cannot see the clear message of creation as it declares/sings/shouts to us about the death, resurrection and lordship of Jesus Christ? The question is not: What is wrong with God? but rather What is wrong with us?
PS I don't like cheesy pictures like the one above that make the Son of Man out to be some Arian superman and yet it is helpful in trying to ground these thoughts in something more concrete. After all what did Daniel see, if it wasn't some thing like this in Daniel 7:13? Maybe it's like what Ezekiel saw too...
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Remembrance Day
Thursday, 6 November 2008
The Rediscovery of True Wonder. Part 1 – Recovering the Standard
If you took a poll and asked Christians (including me) what they thought creation said about God, I bet you most of them would say that creation points to a general wise and all powerful intelligent designer, but if you were to press them on whether it points specifically to the Son of God, and his rightful rule over the universe, they would probably say I can't see that. Most Christians, if they are honest, in saying what they see, would have to rewrite the line of the hymn and sing: "Some benevolent, wise, powerful, detached-from-the-universe being – the construct of Western philosophy…" is Lord, creation's voice proclaims it, which is quite a mouthful to sing in the original 12 musical beats!!
Moreover, if you asked a Hindu what they thought creation said about the Divine being, I bet they would say that it says there are many gods, the Muslims; one god and atheists would be emphatic that it proclaims there is NO god!
In short, human beings, the world over, have suppressed the truth about God, which has been displayed in creation, and instead projected onto creation their own beliefs about God. We see in the creation what we want to see about God. What's more is that we Christians also, myself included, still have trouble seeing the message that the Bible says Creation declares so clearly.
I know that the Bible is true, so when it tells me that God's …invisible qualities such as his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they [all human beings everywhere] are without excuse, then if I don't see those things, there is something wrong with me.
I need the help of the Holy Spirit to see what he meant when he inspired that bit of the Bible, rather than lower the Bible to my sin-polluted, truth-suppressing and depressing level of experience…
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Using the Bible to Praise God...
"If reading the Bible doesn't lead you to awe, reverence and praise, then something is wrong!"
"It's often easier to pray for each other than to praise God, because praying for each other falls well within the bounds of our everyday experience… God doesn't."
Why use the Bible to help you praise God in all of life?
1. Because through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you and I now have access to quality time with the whole Trinity, getting to know them (Ephesians 2:17-19). It doesn't get any better than this.
2. Because whilst access to God is now open, it doesn't mean that we can approach him in any old willy-nilly fashion (Psalm 2:11). The Bible shows us how to relate to him appropriately.
3. Because, as humans under the curse of the Fall:
i. Praising God doesn't come naturally, we needs the Spirit's help (1 Corinthians 12:3)
ii. We are not immune from being duped by wrong ideas about God formed in our own sin-polluted imaginations. (Isaiah 65:2)
iii. Even when we believe true things about God, we can quickly end up allowing the part to overtake the whole: e.g. only praising God for his love and never praising him for his justice in punishing sin. He should be praised for both, (see Luke 10:21).
Because in the Bible, God has given us everything we need to:
1. Nourish our minds with truth
2. Convict and strengthen our hearts with grace.
3. Inspire our imagination for good works and what it will be like when we meet him
How to use the Bible to help you praise God in all of life
:: By reading/hearing -> meditating on -> paraphrasing -> memorising -> internalising scripture. (Warning, this could lead to a Psalm 119:62 moment! ;o)
:: By declaring scripture back to God, reminding yourself, and him of what he has declared and promised.
Try saying these verses in your own words:
Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
Psalm 29:1-2
How many are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
The earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24
Some verses (not an exhaustive list) to inspire you to praise and thank the One God who is Father, the Son and Holy Spirit for:
(Categories (and many scripture refs) taken in large part from: Wayne Grudem's book Systematic Theology, and Piper's book The Pleasures of God)
A. Who they are.
1. How they are not like us
(Their incommunicable attributes – nothing in our experience is similar)
:: Have no constraints: Ex. 3:14, Rom. 11:35-36
:: Unchangeable: Ps. 102:25-27
:: Eternal: Ps. 90:2, Rev. 1:8
:: All-knowing: 1 John 3:20
:: All-seeing: Jer. 23:23-24
:: All-mighty: Isa. 46:9-10, Jer. 32:17
:: Unity in diversity: Ex. 34:6-7
:: Invisible: 1 Tim. 6:16
2. How they are like us
(Their communicable attributes – elements of our experience are similar)
:: Wisdom: Job 9:4
:: Truthful: Jer. 10:10-11
:: Faithful: Ps. 141:6
:: Goodness/Kindness: Rom. 8:32
:: Love: 1 John 4:8
:: Merciful/Gracious: Ps. 103:8
:: Patience: Rom. 2:4
:: Holy: Isa. 6:3
:: Peaceful (in the sense of not disordered): Rom. 15:33
:: Righteous and Just: Deut 32:4
:: Jealous: Isa. 48:11
:: Wrath: Rev. 19:1-4
:: Their will/desire: Eph. 1:11
:: Freedom: Ps. 115:3
:: Perfection (Completeness): Matt 5:48
:: Blessedness (happiness): 1 Tim. 1:11
:: Beauty: Ps. 27:4
:: Glory: Ps. 24:10, John 17:5
B. What they have done/do/will do.
1. …in "big-picture" history
:: Creation: Job 38:4-7
:: Keeping the universe in motion: Heb. 1:3
:: Hiding themselves from the so-called wise and revealing themselves to the simple: Luke 10:21
:: Standing up for the weak: Ps. 68:4-6
:: Redemption: Titus 2:11-14
:: Judgment: Acts 17:30-31
2. …specifically for you
:: For you to fill in if/when God has given/gives you scriptures for particular situations in your life.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Good news, just in...
Dear Friends
I wanted to write to you today to encourage you and thank you.
For the past eighteen months a fierce battle has been raging in Parliament over abortion. The pro-choice lobby has been vocal and very active and the attempts to liberalize abortion, resulting in abortion on request up to 24 weeks, nurses able to perform abortions, GP surgery abortion with completion at home the norm, and the extension of the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland looked like succeeding. There was even an amendment proposing prison sentences of up to two years for pro-life pregnancy crisis counselors found guilty of 'misleading advertising'.
However, Jesus is Lord and it is He and not the politicians or the political commentators who sets the agenda. Last week saw an amazing series of events which resulted in a restriction of time being allowed for debate and so there was no debate about abortion. The attempts to make abortion inconsequential have failed!
There is no doubt that the two million postcards sent to MPs played a huge part in this. So thank you all for your prayers and faithfulness. It is easy to be cynical about the political process and think that we cannot make a difference. This great victory against all the odds testifies to the opposite.
What a great God we serve He is the ruler of kings on earth (Rev 1:5) and will be called King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16).
Thank you again May you all know God's richest blessings as you faithfully serve Him caring for women and their families.
With warm wishes
Nola Leach
Priorities... or lack thereof
I know in life that my priorities should be:
1. God
2. People
3. Things
...in that order. Often, however, it feels like the perverse reverse is more reflective of what my life is about. Help me daddy!
Monday, 27 October 2008
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Holy Spirit meant Coca-Cola when he inspired Isaiah 52:7
Coca-Cola have an official mission statement, a very laudable one in many ways! However, at the end of the day, it boils down (is that a mixing of metaphors or just a few too many?) to getting a coke within the reach of every living person on the planet.
Saturday, 25 October 2008
- Is the first vowel sound made up from "oo" or "u" or even the more outlandish and Continental "oux"?
- Does it have a silent h after the r like rhyme and rhythm or not?
- Is there a difference in the American (roominate?) and English (rhumineight?) spelling, and which one did Richard go for?
Monday, 20 October 2008
My next assembly
And then say this:
Friday, 17 October 2008
Dare you pray like Elijah?
For those of you who weren't at cell tonight we considered (amongst many other things) the bit in James 5:17 about Elijah being held up as the example of persevering and believing prayer. He prayed that it would not rain and it didn't... for three years.
Have you ever wondered about the context of that prayer? Doesn't it seem odd to you? I mean think about it, when was the last time you attended a prayer meeting in which you all prayed for God to send famine and drought upon the whole of Britain? But this is the kind of prayer that Elijah was praying. James holds this up as an example of the expectant prayer of faith that pleases God! Should we follow, and if so, how?
The context was that the nation of Israel was deeply set in idolatry of Baal. Baal was a fertility god who was supposed to bring crops and abundant harvests. Huge swathes of the population were steeped in Baal worship and had forsaken the Living God. In this context, Elijah prays to God that God would withhold the rain from the nation so that the people would realise that Baal was no god at all and return to the LORD. Elijah didn't ask God to mollycoddle them or to tell them how much he loved them, he prayed for the nation to suffer so that they would be brought to their knees, snapped out of their rebellious idolatry and deluded thinking, realise they had been worshipping false gods and so return to the living God of Israel!
The whole thing ends with a big contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, (see 1 Kings 17-18), and of course the true God of Israel wins.
Three reasons immediately spring to mind for me as to why Elijah prayed this prayer and not one of abundant blessing:
1. Elijah knew that God created a moral universe where there are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. This covenant nation of Israel had walked away from God's laws, it did not deserve blessing or mollycoddling, it deserved judgement. In the same way that a parent would pray for a wayward son to turn from his evil ways by spending time in prison having received the due penalty for his crime; Elijah prayed that through the just affliction of a national drought, Israel would see sense and return to the LORD.
2. Elijah desired that the hearts of the people repent and return to God. See the parallel in Luke 1:17 between Elijah and John the Baptist. Out of that deep love of God and and concern for the eternal welfare of the people, he prayed whatever it took to get them to a safe place, i.e. Saved even if the route that got them there was painful!
3. Elijah knew just how full the people were of pride and delusion in their idolatry, and that it would take them not just 1, but 3 years of famine to get to the point where they knew they needed a Messiah, not Baal. What and how long would it take us, if at all I wonder?
My question is do you ever dare to pray like that? That God would bring our nation to its knees so that it might see its need for mercy from Him? What would that look like?
- Would you pray for our economy to collapse so that people would realise that material possessions are no god like the God of the Bible?
- Would you pray for the schools to self-destruct through pupil violence so that people would realise that a "good education" is no god like the God of the Bible?
- Would you pray for celebrities to suffer many and varied tragedies so that people would realise that fame is no god like the God of the Bible?
- Would you pray for people to start contracting all kinds of diseases so that they would realise that surgery and medicine are no God like the God of the Bible?
- Would you pray for or nation to be successfully invaded by a foreign power so that people would realise that our military might is no god like the God of the Bible?
- Would you pray for the nation to descend into anarchy through crime and political apathy so that people would realise that liberal democracy is no god like the God of the Bible?
How long would you be prepared to pray these kinds of prayers for? 2secs? 2mins? 2hrs? 2 weeks? 2yrs?
Of course some will rebuke me with Jeremiah's letter to the exiles: Jer 29 esp. v7, but the fact remains that James uses Elijah as his example, not Jeremiah or even Moses who had some pretty incredible moments of prayer! Whilst we need to get everything in balance, I submit this to you and ask you not just to ignore it, but to consider it as you pray for our nation.
Don't shy away from daring to pray that our nation is brought to it's knees, not because you despise her, but because you love her and want to see her turn honestly to the only God, Jesus Christ who can do her any good, both in this life and the next.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Move-me Music
The Beginning...
What follows are two feel good videos, that help me begin to get my head around how God the Son - the Head of Creation, the master craftsman and carpenter, diligently went about the first of his works at the dawn of time under the (architectural) authority of God the Father and in the power (and inspiration?) of God the Spirit.
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Watch your life and doctrine closely...
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Is this is the best we can do?
Controversially, it seems that we as a race have arrived in evolutionary Heaven, or at least, things won't be getting any better without some conscious intervention from an intelligent source!!
Sunday, 5 October 2008
My brother is provoking me!
Next time you see me, ask me how I am getting on at this and test me, I need all the help and provocation I can get!
Thursday, 2 October 2008
The heart of the matter...
I stumbled across a note I wrote in my filofax when listening to him back then:
"Heart is like a musical instrument, bump it and it goes all out of tune."
We have a piano in our house. Unlike the quote above, she* has not been moved, and has still gone badly out of tune! :-(
If my life is to be like beautiful music to my creator and redeemer, Jesus Christ, and if it is to be a benefit to others, then guarding my heart from the evil desires that live within me and seek to bash it about is of paramount importance.
I may not be able to have any control on things going on around me in the world, but with God's help, I will learn to master my internal world and be a wellspring of life to all those to whom God has given me.
*Should any feminists be reading, I make no apologies for the use of what you might call patronising patriarchal personification ;-)
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
On eating meat when the stakes are high...
Whilst I'm no eco-warrior-tree-hugging-protesting-by-handcuffing-myself-to-a-bulldozer kind of guy, Jesus' and Paul's words are making me think long and hard on the subject.
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Friday, 26 September 2008
The most expensive taxi fare!
The desire to save a couple of pounds cost him his life.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Some things change...
Last week a kid looked at me like I was from the middle ages when I told him I used to load up games on a computer using a tape recorder.
As the video shows, technology is changing the way that we think and function, we are able to transcend the limits of our bodies and influence life all across the world for good or evil depending on what we want to achieve. It's also jostling around the global pecking order. If I'm honest, I'm not entirely sure whether to be excited or wary about some of these stats, but I know that God is in control and whatever predictions futurologists make about the world of 2020, his intentions for human history will be the ones that stand at the end of everything when his Son, Jesus, returns. So I can entrust myself to a faithful creator and continue to do what is good.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Trying to make myself look good...
Saul, one of the main figures in the chapter, frightens me. Why? Because I see more of him in myself than I would like.
Saul leads the Israelites into disobeying a command of God. This is bad enough, but he then goes a hypocritical step further and dresses his disobedience up as obedience and worship!
When he is finally exposed as a liar, his true motive comes out: he wanted to please the people more than please God. God's verdict is that he is no longer fit to be God's king over God's people.
Passages like this bring me up short. How often have I disobeyed the simple commands of God, even going to the point of deceiving myself that I am doing Him a favour. And all I am really doing is pursuing my own ends, namely that I want to be approved by certain people more than approved by God. Man, how I need help! More often than I care to admit!
Thank you Jesus that you are a perfect king over all. Thank you for mercy to fools like me! Please help me to desire your approval more than anyone else's. Amen. PS God, I know the answer to that prayer is going to hurt, but I believe in faith it will be worth it!
Sunday, 21 September 2008
The old chestnut of Creation vs. Evolution is older than I thought!
In a week which has lamentably seen the resignation of Michael Reiss as Director of Education for the Royal Society, I have found myself thinking again about the whole creation vs. evolution thing and what the implications are. In my quest for material to help me ruminate, I found a presentation by a guy called Joe Boot, made at the European Leadership Forum. His talk, entitled The Battle for the Beginning – the creation foundation of Biblical apologetics, (audio file here, outline here), is a provocative one.
- That evolution was not Darwin's invention and is a system of thought that is as old as the Tower of Babel. Boot recommended this book on the subject.
- That (controversially) the first 11 chapters of Genesis must be read as literal and that Jesus himself would assert this (albeit implicitly rather than explicitly).
Friday, 19 September 2008
A sobering reflection...
Monday, 15 September 2008
My pupils are provoking me!
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Walker - Live for Jesus!
Therefore, (addressing the trusted friends who have known about this since just after it's inception), should you wish to mention it to anyone or to blog-roll me, then feel free!
Thursday, 11 September 2008
How much would you make others suffer for the sake of what you believe?
I won't bore you with any more stats, but when I investigated the figures further, I found that what put us significantly behind nearly every other subject was the fact that we had opted to do a final writing exam rather than coursework.
I took that decision on the basis of what I thought (and still think) were sound educational principles, the two main ones being that: 1) It kicks into touch any possibility of me being tempted to give my students a "more generous level of support" than I should (in case you weren't sure, that's another way of saying cheating) and 2) It makes the students better linguists because they have to have more of their whits about them and a more masterful grasp of the language learnt because on exam day it's "do or die." No chance for a second draft!
Of course there are counter arguments like: 1) When everyone else is doing coursework, I am making my students look unfairly poor against the rest. 2) The average employer neither knows nor cares about my educational ideology; so long as the grades look good, the details behind the grades aren't important. In the light of the arguments above, the first of these two arguments makes me feel guilty, the second, plain frustrated.
So will I eat my words and go back to coursework? Time (and senior management) will soon tell, but I hope not, and here's why: Life is ultimately about a big day of reckoning before the King of the Universe. Any little rehearsals we get along the way like exams and Performance Management Reviews that help us feel, in a small way, the weight of that great account giving of ourselves on Judgement Day, then so much the better. It is to that day that I want everything in my life to point, not just when I preach on a Sunday, but also when I teach on a Monday.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
A word to the dis-CERN-ing
It was never going to be the end of the world today.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Why worry...?
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Fighting for your Life...
Anyway, that's not the point of this rumination. The rumination is this. Science defines life as consciousness - being awake and having the capacity to respond to your surroundings. However, Jesus said that real life is not about consciousness but about having a friendship with him and God the Father.
If that is true then, I fight for life everyday, because everyday I have to choose to spend time cultivating friendship with the Living God. It doesn't happen naturally. Everything in me wants to serve sin - my own selfish desires. Those desires must be fought and fought not just today, but day after day after day after day after day... Victory in self-discipline today is no assurance of victory tomorrow (although it does help).
Even if I manage to set the time aside, I still have to make sure I listen and talk to him and not just let my mind wander off into oceans of worry or banality. That's hard, especially in a week when I am beginning the slow process of rewriting all the files from my stolen laptop.
So how is your fight for life going? Are you solid as a rock or as a bowl of jelly? As we fight for life, let us encourage our hearts together in this, that God is the rewarder of those who seek him.


text:
A variety of trips are held each semester to fun and exciting places!
Past trips have included snorkeling at the Georgia Aquarium, Local Hiking, Spring Break Service Project, Canoeing, Whitewater Rafting, Backpacking and Skydiving!!
Snorkeling is when the swimmer floats wearing a mask and fins on the water's surface and breathes through a snorkel.
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails.
Service Project takes place during Spring Break. Service is split between 2 days: 1 day swamp service on motorboats. 1 day trail maintenance and clean up. Work pants, boots required. Gloves provided. Canoeing will take place in free time
Rafting or whitewater rafting is a challenging recreational activity using an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers.
Backpacking combines hiking and camping in a single trip. A backpacker hikes into the backcountry to spend one or more nights there, and carries supplies and equipment to satisfy sleeping and eating needs.


text:
sharron griffiths harpist
about me
contact me
Clyde Duo
Flute & harp
The Clyde Duo consists of flautist Yvonne Robertson and harpist Sharron Griffiths. Formed in 2010 after they met on the Scottish orchestral circuit, they now perform regularly as a duo across the UK. Yvonne and Sharron are both highly in demand for recitals, recordings and orchestral work in Scotland and are often to be found performing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia.
Yvonne Robertson - Flute
Born in Paisley, YVONNE ROBERTSON graduated with a First Class Honours Degree from the Royal College of Music before returning to Scotland to continue her
studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Since completing a Masters with Distinction, Yvonne has worked regularly with the BBC Scottish
Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. She is currently on trial for positions with both the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Opera.
As a soloist, Yvonne has performed numerous concertos throughout the UK and as a keen chamber musician works regularly in a duo with Scott Mitchell (piano),
with Andrew Robinson (guitar) and of course in The Clyde Ensemble with Sharron! Yvonne has also played solo flute with pop group "McFly" on numerous television shows and their 2005 Wonderland Arena.
Competition and Scholarship successes include being a finalist in the 2009 Royal Over Seas League Wind, Brass and Percussion section, 2nd prize in the 2008
"Performing Australian Music Competition", the RSAMD Governors' Chamber Music Prize, the John McGregor Flute Prize for outstanding achievement, winner of the
2008 RSAMD Classical Concerto Competition, "Highly Commended" in the RSAMD Wind Governors' Recital Competition, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award, Dewar Arts Awards, the Earl of Dalhousie Award, the EMI Music Sound Foundation Award and the Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship to travel to New York for lessons with Robert Dick.
"The audience rightly loved it and thought that it was one of our best concerts ever.
Your playing is quite breathtaking, not only in virtuosity but also in beauty"
Music in Rannoch
about me
contact me


text:
We're in Lock Down
|The Heavy Equipment arrives on the scene.
|Step One - Grind Up Old Bumpy Asphalt
|Judah runs the fence line, keeping the evil men and machines out of his pasture.
|Tella has worn herself out barking.
|Vanni is mainly interested in breakfast.
|Ruthie is satisfied with a job well done.
Emma prepared, too, for her day at home - she invited a friend to spend the night last night, and they're busy cleaning her room. I see she's learned from my example that it's always more fun with a friend.