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From US$ 350 US$ 315 pp
Book NowWhat you'll get
Duration : 6 days
Departure : Noi Bai Airport
Suitable : Friends, Family with kids, Honey moon, All of people
Type : Land tour
Product Code : T88NPG09
A combination group tour takes you to visit some of the most beautiful destinations in the north of Vietnam including Hanoi, Hoa Lu – Tam Coc, Mai Chau, Halong bay. Enjoy your time with many exciting activities such as cave discovering, bamboo boat rowing and kayaking on the bay, cruising along the river, biking and hiking through the valley...
- Explore 1000 step cave and a local market in Mai Chau
- Taste and sample many side dishes of Hanoi from spring roll to noodles, from grilled meat balls to BBQ bread
- Take a free and easy tour to visit some highlights of Hanoi such as Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo prison, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
- Visit Heaven Palace cave, have a kayaking trip or bamboo boat trip to explore many different karst-formation islets around a floating village
- Enjoy the beauty of the karst formations as you pass along their base and row into one of the many caves carved through the limestone in Tam Coc
Flexible Price - Best Price Guaranteed
Superior package 3*Size : 20m2 Max Adults: 2 Bed size: Double/Twin |
Superior package: 4 nights at 3* hotel in Hanoi (Golden Rooster or similar) + 1 night at bungalow in Mai Chau |
Choose date to show price |
Total Option Price |
Deluxe package 4*Size : 25 m2 Max Adults: 2 Bed size: Double/Twin |
Deluxe package: 4 nights at 4* hotel in Hanoi (May De Ville, Peridot or similar) + 1 night at bungalow in Mai Chau |
Total Option Price |
- Meals
- 5 Breakfasts, 4Lunches, 2 Dinners
- Transportation
- A/C transfer, Cruise
- Accommodation
- Cruise Cabin
- Price Includes
- Land transfer with A/C
- Round trip airport transfer
- Entrance fees and visit fees
- English speaking tour guide
- Boat trip in Halong Bay and Ninh Binh
- Biking and hiking trip in Mai Chau
- Dancing show in Mai Chau with local wine
- Meals: 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 2 dinners
- Rowing boat trip or kayaking trip in Halong
- Standard: 2* hotel and homestay
- Superior: 3* hotel and bungalow
- Deluxe: 4* hotel and bungalow
- Price Excludes
- Tips and gratitude
- Personal expenses
- Drinks and other meals
- Entrance fees in Hanoi
- Cancellation by Customer
For almost of our tours, once tour is confirmed and fully paid but for one reason they cancel the tour, the following charges will apply in the event of cancellation prior to tour commencement:
- More than 45 days prior to trip departure: No charge (Full refund will be made but transaction fee will be paid by you).
- 30-45 days before arrival: 10% of total tour price.
- 15-29 days before arrival: 50% of total tour price.
- 7-14 days before arrival: 75% of total tour price.
- Within 7 days before arrival: 100% tour price.
- The above fees are subject to an added bank transaction fee.
- There will be no refund given for any unused or missed ground arrangements, sightseeing, meals or hotel accommodations.
- For no show cases, there will be no refund.
- All cancellations must be in person or in writing.
- Cancellation by Weather
In case of an unexpected situation/ bad weather causes an effect on your trip after commencement, we serve the right to change the itinerary of your booked tour for the safety of all clients in the group. If there are more than one solution, we will ask for your permission and agreement to do the next step. In such kind of cancellation, the refund of any payment on the un-used portion of transportation service, hotel service, car rental or tours will be given.
- Children Policy
- Under 4 years: Free of Charge.
- From 4 to 8 years old: 50% of adult's fare and sharing bed with parents.
- From 9 to 11 years old: 75% of adult's fare and using existing bed.
- Students with ID student card: 90% of adult's fare and using existing bed.
- Over 11 years old: 100% of adult's fare and using existing bed.
- Day 1: Hanoi – street food tour
Pick up at the airport and transfer to the hotel for check in. Around 17.00, our local tour guide will pick you up and take you on a walking tour to learn more about Hanoi culture, history and cuisine. Your trip to Vietnam is incomplete without an eating out experience on the streets and this trip is for you to eat just like a local. Chances for you to taste and sample many side dishes of Hanoi from spring roll to noodles, from grilled meat balls to BBQ bread… Overnight in Hanoi.
Meals: B, L, D
Accommodation: Hotel
- Day 2: Hanoi – Hoa Lu – Tam Coc
An excursion to Ninh Binh province, 90km from Hanoi to visit Hoa Lu ancient capital of Vietnam and Tam Coc grotto. After a buffet lunch at the restaurant, get on a sampan to enjoy the beauty of the karst formations as you pass along their base and row into one of the many caves carved through the limestone in Tam Coc - Bich Dong. Dive back to Hanoi and drop off at the hotel. Free time at your leisure and overnight.
Meals: B, L
Accommodation: Hotel
- Day 3: Hanoi – Mai Chau valley biking
Enjoy the second day with an exciting trip to the northwest of Vietnam to visit Mai Chau. Upon arrival, you will have chance to see the house on stilts of the ethnic minorities living here, enjoy the great view from the house on stilts with green fields, green valleys and blue sky as well as having a warm and cozy lunch prepared by the women in the homestay. After that, ride a bike to visit remote villages in the valley and learn more about their daily life and how they make their living. Dinner and join a dancing show with the locals and drinking Can wine then stay the night at the night at the homestay (or bungalow upon request).
Meals: B, L, D
Accommodation: Cruise
- Day 4: Mai Chau – drive back to Hanoi
After breakfast at the homestay, join in a group for a trekking trip to visit more remote rural villages Na Meo and Na Mo villages to understand more about their culture and customs. Have lunch before heading back to Hanoi. Free time and overnight at hotel.
Meals: B, L
Accommodation: Hotel
- Day 5: Hanoi – Halong bay day cruise
Morning: Have breakfast at hotel. Then, pick up from your hotel and transfer to Halong. Upon arrival, you will get on the boat where your trip begins will a delicious lunch. After that, you will have time to visit Heaven Palace cave – one of the most beautiful caves in Halong bay and then, a kayaking trip or bamboo boat trip to explore many different karst-formation islets around a floating village.
Around 16.30, get back to the bus and drive back to Hanoi for overnightMeals: B, L
Accommodation: Hotel
- Day 6: Hanoi free and easy tour – departure
After breakfast, take a free and easy tour to visit some highlights of Hanoi such as Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo prison, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (closes on Monday and Friday morning. And closes during October) and Ethology Museum (volunteer guide provided, no meals, no car, no entrance fee). Tour ends with an airport transfer to the airport for your next destination
Meals: B
Accommodation: N/A
Important Notes
- Transport: New and clean with A/C
- Standard: 2* hotel and homestay
- Superior: 3* hotel and bungalow
- Deluxe: 4* hotel and bungalow
- Arrival/departure info: required at the time of booking or at least 3 days before departure
- Flexibility: the order of this tour can be change to match the time plan/interest of customers
- Extra night: Extra night in Hanoi or Mai Chau or Halong can be arranged upon request
- Special request (diet, vegetarian, allergy ...): should be sent before departure date.
- Big luggage: are advised to leave at the hotel for customers' convenience and comfort
- Itinerary: can be slightly changed due to weather, availability and operating conditions and will be reconfirmed upon confirmation.
Questions & Answers
Customer Reviews
Based on 4 reviewsReview summary
Value for money9.5
26 Jan 2019
pautypus K
20 Jan 2019
22 Oct 2018
26 Apr 2016


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What does a small business marketing strategy mean to you? Some people automatically think in terms of their company's long-term goals. When they start their small business, they create a long-term business plan, including a marketing strategy, that will help them develop their company over time. Others think of a small business marketing strategy as a single campaign. They create a marketing campaign for one product or service they offer, and create a series of marketing tools that will help them sell that product or service.
While both may technically be correct, there is a distinct difference between the two. One creates a stream of income for a short period of time (typically a few weeks to a few months), while the other ensures you have a stream of income coming in on a regular basis.
In order to ensure an effective small business marketing strategy, you must have three things in place.
1. Multiple marketing tools in place. Every day a person is marketed to 60-100 times. You see banners on the sides of busses, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and coupons in your mailbox. It's easy to see why marketing tends to become almost non-existent in our minds.
But the thing that a good marketer realizes is that he has to use different marketing tools to reach different target audiences. Everyone has a different attention span. Everyone is searching for different products and services at different times. A good small business marketing strategy has multiple tools in place to capture a prospects attention when he or she is ready for our product or service.
The key is to knowing who your ideal clients are. The more you know about them, the more you'll be able to reach them in a manner that's best for them. Good marketing tools are:
* direct mail postcards
* direct mail letters
* advertisements in magazines
* advertisements in newspapers
* neighborhood postcard packs
* door hangers
* flyers
* brochures
* promotional products
* tradeshows
* billboards
* bus stops
* school buses
* regional transportation systems
* sponsorship of school athletics
* and much more
An ideal small business marketing strategy will encompass many of these types of tools, and have campaigns set up using select tools at different times throughout the year.
2. Use those marketing tools over long periods of time. Once you have your marketing tools in place, continue to use them again and again. Probably the biggest mistake a small business owner makes is to grow tired of his own marketing campaign, and abandoning it before it's realized its full potential.
The average campaign takes a person 8 – 12 times of viewing the same material to recognize the information and take action. If you quit running a campaign before you reach the 8 – 12 times average, you won't achieve your desired results.
An ideal small business marketing strategy will provide goals to seek out longevity in marketing campaigns. While nuances of a campaign can change (i.e. changing ad advertisement to showcase seasonal products) the structure of the campaign should always remain the same.
3. Use those marketing tools in many different places. Your prospects come from a variety of different sources, and have a variety of different interests. Mailing your brochure out to prospects is a great way of marketing; but you may also do well by placing your brochure in offices of complimentary businesses. Advertisements may work well in your local newspaper; but they may do just as well in an industry trade publication. Direct mail postcards may inspire a lot of people to pick up the phone and call you; but it may motivate more people to visit your website.
Creating a handful of tools to use in your campaigns provides you with the resources. Getting those tools into the hands of your prospects is what requires a plan.
An ideal small business marketing strategy will be a long-term plan that involves creating marketing tools, putting them into the appropriate places, and leaving them in place long enough to let them work.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cate Shortland's Lore will represent Australia in the Foreign Langauge Oscar race. The film, shot in the German language, will have its North American premiere on Monday here in Toronto.
The film previously played in Sydney and it won the audience award in Locarno.
Memento Films International handles sales. Music Box has US rights and Transmission has Australian.
The story follows the daughter of Nazi parents who has to lead her younger siblings across war-torn Germany, when she meets a mysterious refugee.
Lore is an official German-Australian co-production by Roh Film, Porchlight Films and Edge City Films. Producers are Karsten Stöter, Liz Watts, Paul Welsh and Benny Drechsel. Writers are Cate Shortland and Robin Mukherjee. Director is Cate Shortland.
The film was financed by Screen Australia, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, HessenInvest Film, Filmförderungsanstalt, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and Deutscher Filmförderfonds, in association with Screen NSW and Creative Scotland. The film was developed by Screen Australia and Creative Scotland.
Oscar nominees will be announced Jan 15.


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Materials: Besta cabinets
Description: We have a small bedroom but wanted a large bed, we bought 3 Besta double width low cabinets and 1 single.
The single taller cabinets used as bedside cabinets. We removed the shelves and replaced with large baskets, this was cheaper than buying the Besta drawers and drawer fronts.
We attached the shelves to the wall using no nails, to give a matching headboard.
~ Debra, Livingston, Scotland


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The Disconnect Between Household Wealth and GDP Growth
Twenty years of going nowhere! Where are we, Hokohama?
Dear Reader…and anyone who has been paying attention…you already knew there was something wrong. The world's leading economy, in the most dynamic, inventive period in human history, failed to make people a penny richer.
GDP went up. But real wages did not. In fact, people got nowhere financially — if they were lucky. And many families got caught in the credit/housing bubble. When it blew up they got knocked back…actually losing wealth.
We'll give you the conclusion before we give you the facts: the "growth" in the last 20 years was largely phony. The wheels on the economy spun around faster and faster. The shopping malls were full. Houses were built on nearly every vacant lot. Wall Street cashed big checks. But, overall, it was an illusion. Compared to a real boom, it was a counterfeit. Nobody got anywhere.
Here's the story from The New York Times:
Family Net Worth Drops to Level of Early '90s, Fed Says
WASHINGTON — The recent economic crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday.
A hypothetical family richer than half the nation's families and poorer than the other half had a net worth of $77,300 in 2010, compared with $126,400 in 2007, the Fed said. The crash of housing prices directly accounted for three-quarters of the loss.
Families' income also continued to decline, a trend that predated the crisis but accelerated over the same period. Median family income fell to $45,800 in 2010 from $49,600 in 2007. All figures were adjusted for inflation.
The new data comes from the Fed's much-anticipated release on Monday of its Survey of Consumer Finances, a report issued every three years that is one of the broadest and deepest sources of information about the financial health of American families.
While the numbers are already 18 months old, the survey illuminates problems that continue to slow the pace of the economic recovery. The Fed found that middle-class families had sustained the largest percentage losses in both wealth and income during the crisis, limiting their ability and willingness to spend.
The share of families saving anything over the previous year fell to 52 percent in 2010 from 56.4 percent in 2007. Other government statistics show that total savings have increased since 2007, suggesting that a smaller group of families is saving more money, while a growing number manage to save nothing.
You might be tempted think that this is just a temporary setback…that when things return to normal the typical household will recover two decades of financial progress too.
Don't count on it. Household wealth in the US rests on housing and wages. Housing prices might stop dropping; they are unlikely to enter a new bull market. Instead, they will probably track GDP growth, just like they always did. Nor can you expect to see wages rise substantially. Why? Because there are 15 million people who don't have jobs. It will be a long time — practically forever at the current rate — before they are absorbed into the labor force again. Until this huge inventory of willing and able labor is put to use, don't expect wages to go up.
In other words, when things return to normal they will be what they are now… The bubble was an illusion. The current, dismal situation is real.
The New York Times continues, pointing out that if the feds had let Mr. Market do his work in '08/'09 the rich wouldn't be so rich…
The data does provide the latest indication, however, that the recession reduced income inequality in the United States, at least temporarily. The average income of the wealthiest families fell much more sharply than the median, indicating that some of those at the very top of the ladder slipped down at least a few rungs.
Isn't that what we've been saying? First, the feds made the rich richer by creating a phony, credit-fueled economy, where the amount of credit grew 50 times over the last 50 years. Then, when the credit bubble blew up, the feds stepped in to prevent the rich from losing money. And now the feds moan about the 'inequality' in our society…and how they have to do something about it. Haven't they done enough already?


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A thicker cotton fabric from Olympus, excellent for sashiko, patchwork, bag making and other projects. It is made to look like old cloth, with subtle colours and a slight wrinkle in the texture, and feels like a soft, handwoven cotton. The weave is loose enough to easily stitch sashiko with fine, medium or thick sashiko threads. Ideal for wearables, boro style patchwork, or any project where an antique look is desired.
This is the same fabric that was used for many of the projects and pattern directory samples in 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', including the large sampler quilt opposite the title page.
108cm wide
Available in 7 beautiful dark colours at the moment, ideal for sashiko. The full 30 colour range is available as 45 x 55cm precuts.
100% cotton
Made in Japan
NB - sold in half metre (50cm) lengths, so please order '2' for one metre, '3' for 1 1/2m etc. Fabric will be sent as one continous length. Maximum length on bolt is 5 metres.
Azumino cotton teal blue 19 by the half metre
Zigzag or overlock the edges before stitching sashiko, as this fabric will fray more than regular patchwork cottons.


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17 February 2011 | ||
16:00 | to | 18:00 |
A wonderful opportunity to taste the numerous cheeses perfected by a leading Veneto authority in the field: Antonio Carpenedo, who has been promoting and experimenting with new refinement techniques for over fifty years.
He invented the "Ubriaco" ("Drunk") cheese and is currently promoting his new "Cupido" cheese, which is matured in pits on rocks from Conegliano.
Coordinator: Luciano Capuzzo
With the support of the Italian Wine Sommeliers' Association – Treviso


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• comport •
Pronunciation: kêm-port • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, reflexive, intransitive
Meaning: 1. [Reflexive] To behave, act, conduct (oneself). 2. [Intransitive] To agree, to jibe, be consistent (with).
Notes: To use this verb reflexively, you must include a reflexive pronoun, as in, "She comports herself with great dignity." In using it intransitively, the preposition with must be included, "What he said does not comport with the evidence." You have your choice of nouns: you may add the suffix -ment (comportment) or you may simply retract the accent back to the first syllable (comport).
In Play: Today's Good Word is a synonym of behave in a slightly more elite French body: "No, Wayne, putting a lampshade on your head and dancing on a coffee table is no way to comport yourself even at a party." This conversation might continue with the second meaning of today's word: "Such behavior does not comport well with your position as the president of an Ivy League university."
Word History: Today's Good Word, like so many other English words, was imported from Old French, this time from comporter "to conduct". French inherited it from Latin comportare "to carry together" made up of com "with, together" + portare "to carry, bear". The root port comes from PIE per-/por- "to lead across, pass over". It appears in many Latin borrowings referring to carrying, such as porter, portage, deport, and port itself. Sport is a reduction of Old French desport "entertainment, diversion", the noun of desporter "to divert, amuse". The [p] became [f] in Germanic languages giving us Norwegian fjord and English ford. (Words like today's from Chris Berry comport perfectly with our mission to bring you stories of fascinating words.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


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7 Entrepreneurs You Should Start Following Now
Want some inspiration? Start following inspiring people. And when I say "follow," I am not referring only to Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), although that is an excellent starting point. I mean follow as in study, investigate, hear, heed, sit at their feet and absorb the lessons.
Here are seven thought leaders (in no particular order) that are worth following.
1. Tony Hsieh. The CEO of Zappo's is so much more than a shoe salesman. Hsieh is the model for how corporate executives can stay firmly connected to the real world. His Tweets alone are worth his reputation.
Related: The 'Aha!' Moments of Famous Inventors (Infographic)
2. Travis Kalanick. OK, I admit my bias as a sold-out fan of Uber, but Kalanick's story is quite remarkable. I will continue to follow this young genius to see how he navigates an endless stream of obstacles. Kalanick's lessons for entrepreneurs are invaluable.
3. Marie Forleo. There are those who make things happen and those who wonder what happened. Count Forleo in the former category. The term "self-made woman" is more than appropriate for her. This energetic, brash and straight-talking success guru has fashioned an amazing company with a vast following.
4. Guy Kawasaki. I first read How to Drive Your Competition Crazyroughly 20 years ago and I have never looked at competitive positioning the same way again. The former chief evangelist for Apple is a serial entrepreneur and investor with an eye for success. His Tweets are solid gold.
Related: 10 Movies Every Entrepreneur Needs to Watch
5. Daniel Kahneman. This Nobel Prize-winning founder of behavioral economics won't blow you out of the water with flashy presentations, but he will make you think about life in entirely new ways. His masterpiece book Thinking Fast and Slow took me forever to read because every page provided content that demanded I pause, reflect on the application and change my thinking accordingly. Watch his videos on YouTube, Ted Talks and Big Think.
6. Gary Vaynerchuk. You can read his books or his blog, but you really need to experience Garyvee (Google it) to get the entire, unfiltered flavor of Vaynerchuk's brilliance. His enterprise provides a blueprint for entrepreneurial success in the digital age. Garyvee's unending approachability has endeared him to millions.
7. Malcolm Gladwell. If Malcolm Gladwell wrote nothing but knock-knock jokes, I would read every one of them. Of course, his version would go something like, "Knock-knock. Who's there? An observationalist with an uncanny knack for seeing things that everyone else overlooks." Gladwell is deeply cerebral and yet easily readable -- a great combination for the ADD entrepreneur. His study of human nature is spellbinding.
So, those are my suggestions. Who do you suggest?
Related: 5 TED Talks That May Change Your View on Life


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App type: Game
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release date: June 27, 2011
Price: $2.99
Download Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7
There are two ways to view the belated release of Angry Birds on Windows Phone 7 this week. There's the cynical view, in which critics will point out that this game debuted on the iPhone way back in December 2009, now costs just 99 cents on that platform, and has been followed up there by two sequels, one of which is getting updated for free on an ongoing basis. And then there's the eternal optimist who only sees this release as a cause for celebration and the final verification that the Windows Phone apps platform has fully matured.
Both viewpoints are valid. And while I tend to lean a bit more towards the negative side of the fence, in this case I am firmly in the positive camp: Angry Birds on Windows Phone isn't just a good thing, it's a great thing. And in the off chance that you're not already an Angry Birds fanatic, you're going to want to grab this game immediately. In fact, you'll probably want it even if you've already played it elsewhere. It really is that good.
Angry Birds, in case you've been living under a rock for the past 18 months, is the game that legitimatized mobile touch gaming, making it a full-fledged phenomenon, first on the iPhone, yes, but later on every mobile platform imaginable. (You can also get Angry Birds on Windows 7, remember, or for free through the Chrome web browser.) It's basically a physics-based puzzle game in which you must use an onscreen slingshot to hurl a variety of birds, each with different characteristics and capabilities, towards an increasingly complex series of strongholds that hide and protect the birds' arch enemies, the pigs. You solve a level by killing all the pigs, often via destroying and collapsing the structures on top of them.
Angry Birds is addictive, funny, and fun, and it's hard to put down. And it's been augmented over time with additional levels, new goals (such as the golden egg), and, on other platforms at least, even a formal method of "cheating" and bypassing too-hard levels via a "golden eagle" attack that brings the concept of "shock and awe" to the land of Angry Birds.
On Windows Phone 7, of course, we benefit from the ongoing improvements to Angry Birds over the months and by the addition of real Xbox LIVE Achievements. For many, this alone will be reason to check out Angry Birds. But the truth is, this game has always been clever, fun, and addictive. And it's the first no-brainer, must-have game for all Windows Phone 7 users. Hopefully, Angry Birds sequels, like Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio, will make their way to Microsoft's mobile gaming platform soon. But for now, at least, the original is enough. Enjoy!


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THERE IS NO life without consciousness - consciousness and life are one and the same. Life is synonymous with what we call spirit, consciousness, awareness and existence. For the last 300 years people have thought that consciousness was an epiphenomenon of physical matter. This 'reductionist' worldview says that if we can understand the behaviour of molecules then we will also understand that consciousness is an emergent property; that once molecules attain a certain degree of complexity in behaviour then from that, somehow, consciousness emerges.
This reductionist worldview can be explained in a very simple biological way: your pancreas makes pancreatic juice, your gallbladder makes bile, your stomach secretes hydrochloric acid, and your brain secretes consciousness. So your brain somehow manufactures consciousness in the same way that your stomach manufactures hydrochloric acid or your pancreas manufactures pancreatic juice. This reductionist model is used in science and medicine, but it is a very incomplete model. It is a flawed map of reality.
There are three methods by which we can understand reality. The first is through our senses: sound, touch, taste, sight and smell. We experience reality through the instruments of observation: the 'eyes of the flesh'. The second way that we understand reality is through the instrument that we call the mind: the 'eyes of the mind', metaphorically speaking. If I want to understand the theory of relativity I have to participate at least to some extent with the experiments that occurred in the mind of Einstein. If I want to understand quantum physics then also I have to have some idea of the mathematical concepts that occurred in the minds of scientists in the last century. If you look at the major revolution of the last century it is quantum physics and quantum mechanics and if you study the history of the emergence of that science you will see that this revolution actually occurred in people's minds. The observations came much later.
With that revolution came new technology. I have this amazing little gadget: it's a telephone with email and internet access. I could record a lecture on it, take photos or video on it, and send the information anywhere in the world. The information will go through walls, it will go through trees, it will bounce off a satellite in space, it will go through traffic jams, it will go through human bodies, and somebody anywhere in the world, in China or in India, can receive this information or watch the video.
This technology is based on a very fundamental premise in science: that the essential nature of the material world is that it is not material. Otherwise we wouldn't have this technology. We are able to surf the information highway on the internet because what we call the material world is really not material. This technology is a result of what we call the quantum revolution. It is the second way of examining reality.
There is a third way of examining reality that goes even deeper. Our sensory apparatus takes us to a very superficial level: this is a chair, that is a flower, that is a human being; and the quantum level takes us deeper into the mind of nature, making the world much more miraculous. So the eyes of the mind take us to a level which is a more wondrous than that seen through the eyes of the flesh. The third way of knowing reality is through the 'eyes of the soul', which take us much, much deeper into the nature of existence.
THERE IS A beautiful poem by the English visionary poet Blake:
When we see with, and not through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.
It's beautiful; but what is Blake saying? Why are we led to believe a lie when we see with the eye? What Blake is saying is what any student of perception will tell you today: we cannot rely on sensory observation alone to know the essential nature of reality. For the last 300 years, the whole basis of science has relied on our observational senses; but our senses are the least reliable test of what we call reality. My senses tell me that the ground I am sitting on is stationary and yet we know it is spinning at a dizzying speed, hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour. My senses tell me that, from where I am standing, the Earth is flat. Nobody believes that any more. Even when I look at an object like a flower and perceive its colour or texture, this is not its essential quality. The eye cells of a honeybee do not perceive the same wavelengths of light that you and I perceive and so a bee will have a completely different range of experience of the flower, and will 'see' it in ultraviolet wavelengths. A bat will experience the flower as the echo of ultrasound. A chameleon's eyeballs swivel on two different axes so we can't even remotely imagine what a flower looks like to a chameleon!
So what is the essential nature of this flower? The answer depends on who is looking; it also depends on the instruments of observation. Our nervous systems are our main instruments of observation, and at a simplistic level our brains respond to neuron activity that translates into a binary code of electrical charges across cell membranes. So if I could look inside your brain and see what's happening I would see this vibrating electrical charge shifting from the outside to the inside of the cell membrane. How that becomes a flower, nobody knows.
Sir Arthur Eddington, a great scientists of the last century, said, "Something unknown is doing we don't know what." The more we start to understand perception, the more we don't understand it. Actually, this flower exists only in consciousness, and it exists in a place that is beyond space and time, and it exists 'as potential' before you observe it. There is no external world as such.
Everything that we call the universe, trees and stars and galaxies - everything that we observe as the external world - is a translation of bodily processes into binary codes of photons across cell membranes in neurons. That's why in the Ayurvedic tradition we say we are not in the world; the world is in us. We don't exist in the world; the world exists in us. We don't exist in the body; the body exists in us. We don't exist in the mind; the mind exists in us. We curve back within ourselves and create the mind, the body and the physical world. We manifest it. We are manufacturing everything: the mind, the body and the total universe. I am not speaking philosophically or talking about Eastern metaphysics - this is science.
LET'S LOOK AT our senses. My senses tell me first of all that my body is physical, anatomical and static. But in reality, the body seems anatomical to us through our senses; the body is like a flowing river, constantly changing. The physical body that you are using to sit on a chair and read this magazine is not the same physical body that you came into the room with a little while ago. When you take one deep breath you inhale 1022 atoms from the universe. That's 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. It's an astronomical amount of raw material that comes into your body every time you breathe in. Every time you breathe out, you breathe out 1022 atoms that have their origin in every cell of your body. So, we are all intimately sharing our organs with each other all the time. I am breathing everything that's inside you and you are breathing everything that's inside me. We are actually exchanging atoms all the time.
It is possible today to compute the total number of atoms in the atmosphere on planet Earth. It's possible to compute what you are inhaling and exhaling in one breath. With a little more calculation, we can show beyond a shadow of doubt that right this moment you have in your physical body at least a million atoms that were once in the body of Christ, or the Buddha, or Michelangelo, or Leonardo da Vinci, or Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden, or George Bush. You have a million atoms right now that have been in the body of every single being that has existed since the dawn of creation. In just the last three weeks a quadrillion atoms (quadrillion means ten followed by fifteen zeros) have gone through your body and they have gone through the body of every other living species on this planet. So think of anything in the ecosystem right now - think of a tree in Africa, think of a squirrel in Siberia, think of a peasant in China, think of a taxi-driver in Calcutta, think of a small child in Afghanistan - and you have raw material in your body that was circulating there only three weeks ago. In less than one year you replace ninety-eight per cent of all the atoms in your body.
At the atomic level you make a new liver every six weeks; a new skin once every five days; you replace your skeleton every three months; and you replace the raw material of your DNA every six weeks - it comes and goes like migratory birds. Your DNA contains the memories of millions of years of evolutionary time. That's what DNA is: DNA is the metabolism of experience. We metabolise our experience and we record it as DNA. DNA has metabolised the experience of your human ancestors, your animal ancestors and your microbial ancestors.
The insulin molecule in your body is the same as the insulin molecule not only in cows and pigs but in salmon and also in micro-organisms. What is insulin? Insulin is the knowledge of how to process sugar. That's what it is in the form of a molecule but it is actually knowledge and that knowledge comes through eons of time. Everything that we call a molecule is actually a physical expression of experience. So we metabolise experience, we record it in our bodies and then we transfer it to the next generation. And so our DNA remembers the memories and experiences; what we in the East call karma.
Karma is the accumulated experience of the past - it takes all that karma: your karma, your ancestors' karma, all the karma of creation, and then it passes it on - but the actual raw material of the DNA comes and goes every six weeks like migratory birds. So the carbon, the hydrogen, the oxygen is replacing itself every six weeks. If you have replaced your entire body down to the last atom in less than a year, you are certainly not your body. My body which I brought to England with me last year is gone: it's dead, it doesn't exist in this form any more; but it is everywhere else. It's circulating in other life forms; my physical body is recycled in the earth, the water, the air, and the planet is recycling itself incorporating my physical body. So what I call myself couldn't possibly be my physical body.
In one of his plays, Shakespeare says, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." Shakespeare was a great seer. There is an Indian expression that says, "The body is just the place that our memories and our dreams call 'home' for the time being." We continually replace our bodies, and we know how we do it. So, if the physical expression is nothing other than memory and dreams, how do we reinterpret the memory and dream experience into the physical body? How do we exorcise the ghost of disease, because disease is actually a disordered dream state in consciousness that is manifesting in our body?
WHAT IF WE could see the body as it really is? What would we see? We would see first of all that it is made up of atoms, the atoms in turn are made up of subatomic particles, and these subatomic particles are not material things, but fluctuations of energy and information that are flickering in and out of an infinite void at the speed of light. If I could see my body as it really is, through quantum instruments, what I would see is that 99% of my body is empty space and that 1% that appears to be material is also empty space; that the whole thing is made out of nothing. As I go beyond the appearance of molecules, I enter a subatomic cloud, I go beyond the cloud, I end up with a handful of nothingness; and then the crucial question that scientists today are asking is, what is the nature of this emptiness from where we all come? Is it just a void or could it be the womb of creation? Is it possible that nature goes to exactly the same place to create a galaxy of stars, a cluster of nebulae, a rain forest, an ecosystem, a human body or a thought?
Do trees, galaxies, our bodies, the furniture and this thought all come from the same place? Because in the end, as we go beyond the flickering of electromagnetic phenomena, where photons are flickering in and out, what are they flickering in and out of? There is an emptiness from which they seem to appear, they hang on for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second and then they disappear whence they came. And it seems that everything that we call form and phenomena, that we call observer and observed, is all coming from the same place, including our own thoughts.
The world is a discontinuity, and every experience arises because of the discontinuity. So, what does discontinuity mean? Let me give you an example. If I go to see a movie I see on the screen a continuous picture, but when I go to the projection room I find out that there is a series of still frames with little spaces in between. If I move the reel fast enough, I cannot see the 'off': I can only see the 'on'; so I experience in consciousness a continuity. But the reality is that the movie is a discontinuity. When I see a television programme, I see an image moving from one part of the screen to another part of the screen, but nothing actually moves. Only electrons and photons flash in and out in a certain sequence, and because I cannot see the off, but I can only see the on, then I experience it as a continuity. Scientists believe that perception is possible because of this discontinuity. All the form and phenomena of the universe expresses this 'on-ing' and 'off-ing', and our senses are such that they can perceive the on and not the off. Yet without the off we would not experience the on.
As you are reading this, for a second, just turn your attention to who is reading. In that split second of shifting awareness, what you feel is a presence, don't you? As you are reading, you become aware of who is reading. Well, that presence is your soul. It's not your mind that might be saying, "Oh, I think I'll have a cup of coffee." There is a presence, and that presence is in the on/off of your thoughts: there is a thought flickering on and off and in that off there is a presence. In that presence thoughts come and they go. So a thought emerges, it hangs on for a fraction of a second, literally, and then it goes. Then of course through association it leads to another thought, and that comes and that goes. In that presence emotions come and go. In that presence the perceptions of the world come and go. In that presence the molecules of your body come and go. In that presence everything that happens comes and goes.
Only the presence remains, and in Eastern traditions we call that presence the ever-present witnessing awareness, or consciousness. And in Eastern traditions we also say that the window to that presence is in the space between your thoughts. And that presence is an ever-present witnessing awareness in which all comes and goes. So when you were a baby your body was different, your perceptions were different, your thoughts were different, your emotions were different, but they all happened in the presence that is there right now and was there at that time as well. When you were a teenager, everything was different, and when you are an old person, everything is different but the presence remains constant. This is your identity at the soul level in which everything else is transforming and changing its form and phenomena. If you hang on to this presence, it might be your ticket to freedom. This presence is the only thing that is real about you, and if you go a little deeper into this presence you will also recognise, not intellectually, maybe, but definitely at the level of experience, that this presence is beyond birth and death. That even birth and death are the on and off in the presence.
Deepak Chopra continues his examination of the concepts presented in this article in the second part - Beyond Perception


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TechRadar Verdict
Although it is well put together and has some nice features, we can't fully recommend this laptop due to its poor performance
- +
Good screen
- +
Nice keyboard and touchpad
- -
Not very powerful
- -
Limited storage
- -
Graphics power
- -
Why you can trust TechRadar
Packard Bell has experienced something of a renaissance since being acquired by Acer in 2008, and has produced a number of highly impressive machines at very competitive prices.
Unfortunately, the EasyNote LM86-GN- 005UK isn't one of its best - while it is a competent and comfortable machine, we expected more.
The main problem lies in the fact that, because both the Samsung R580 and Sony VAIO VPC-EB1Z0E/B are more expensive, they offer a lot more for the money.
Both feature powerful Core i5 processors, more memory and, consequently, much greater performance, giving you greater flexibility when carrying out tasks ranging from word processing to browsing the internet.
Integrated graphics
Similarly, this laptop has an integrated Intel graphics card which provides even less graphical power than the HP ProBook 6440b, meaning you won't be able to carry out anything but very basic multimedia tasks, and gaming is also largely out of the question.
The hard drive is one of the least capacious at only 320GB. While that would be fine for a business laptop where the majority of data held is made up of office documents, this laptop is likely to spend most of its life on your desk due to its size and weight, to be used by the whole family. In which case the 320GB is likely to fill up rapidly with MP3s, photos and movies.
Also, while there is an optical drive for burning photos to discs, or listening to music, it doesn't boast the Blu-ray functionality of the Sony, so you won't be enjoying films in high definition (HD).
Large screen
It's not all bad, however, as this is a very comfortable laptop to use. The 17.3-inch screen boasts a sharp 1600 x 900-pixel resolution which makes images very detailed, and it's a great laptop for watching films with or viewing your photos on.
The keyboard is great to use and features a unique social networking button for all the Facebook addicts out there. A dedicated numeric keypad makes doing your tax returns a pleasure and, while we did notice the mouse buttons aren't as responsive as we would like, the touchpad itself is a pleasure to use.
Ultimately, the Packard Bell EasyNote LM86-GN-005UK isn't a bad laptop. The great screen, decent usability and innovative social networking button means there's certainly a market for it.
It's just that the Sony – even taking into consideration the increased cost – offers so much more in terms of power, performance and features that it makes recommending this machine quite difficult.
Follow TechRadar Reviews on Twitter: http://twitter.com/techradarreview


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Socialization is extremely critical for human beings, without it life would be dull. In 1938 it was an unfortunate but true case study of this. A girl named Anna was born to a mentally impaired woman that lived with her father.
She was sent countless of places but was then returned home due to financial restraints. She was then forced into the attic and was given only enough milk to live on and lived there until she was five. She wasn't given no affection, no smiles, no hugs, or anything else, just coldness.Luckily, social workers saved the girl and sociologist Kingsley Davis went to see the girl immediately once he heard of the tragedy.
The girl was completely unresponsive, he reported and she did not laugh nor speak. However, with some help and guidance the girl did learn how to walk, speak a little, and even care for herself. However, she died at the young age of 10.
This is an example of how lack of socialization can harm someone both physically and mentally.The term socialization refers to the way humans adapt to their surroundings and learn their culture. Unlike animals that behavior is biologically programmed, humans learn and adopt over time.
Social experience and interacting with people is what helps forms an individual's personality or an individual's consistent pattern such as emotions, thoughts, and behavior. Animals generally tend to act similar such as a cat. A cat in America will usually act the same as a cat in Egypt, but the same can't be applied to humans.
We build a personality it just doesn't come automatically to us, and we build it by our surroundings but as the case I mentioned earlier, without socialization a personality doesn't form.In Anna' case it is defiantly clear that humans depend on other people to not only mature physically, but mentally. About a century ago it was believed that people was born with certain instincts that would form personality and behavior. An example is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that led people to think this. The US economic system led some people to believe that some behaviors just occurred "naturally," such as some people are born criminals, or women tend to think more emotionally while men think more rationally. People also used this thinking for centuries to justify their "ethnocentric" view on society.
They claimed that members of a technologically inadequate society were not as biologically evolved as they were so they were viewed as being less human. Why not exploit others if they seem to be less evolved and not as human as us? You can obviously see the flaw in this.In the twentieth century a psychologist who helped explained behavior clearer is known as John B Watson, and developed the theory of behaviorism. This refuted the theory mentioned above and stated that behavior was not something that people are born with, but more learned by their surroundings.
He also stated that people around the globe are equally human beings, just they share different cultures and that behavior can be correlated to not nature, but more with nurture. However, that does not mean that biology does not play any part of behavior. Most people usually share biological traits with their parents such as height and hair color, and their parents genetic makeup could influence their intelligence and artistic talents such as art or music. But, as again it deals with socialization, and individual can't develop a personality without interacting so children tend to pick up habits from their parents through years of socialization. Also, it's interesting to note that people brains can't fully develop if they didn't utilize it when they were a child. So yes, it's quite important to get mysterious games and puzzles for your children so you can help them develop a more elastic brain.
So avoiding people is not good for numerous of reasons.An interesting and classic study was conducted by psychologist Harry and Margaret Harlow using monkeys. It would be illegal to use human beings for a study like this. Since monkeys show the closest correlation to human beings than they were used for this experiment. The experiments included testing monkeys in various environments and comparing the results to one another. When a baby monkey was placed in complete isolation (except for food and nutrients) for six months they reported some deformities in their development.
They found that when they returned to their group that they were extremely fearful and subservient. They then placed a baby monkey in cage with an "artificial mother," and this mother was made of wire and had a wooden head, and a feeding tube for a nipple. These monkeys also showed some deformities because when they were placed back in their group they were unable to interact properly.
However, for the last experiment a baby monkey was placed in a cage with an artificial mother made of "soft cloth," than the monkey held on to the artificial mother very closely and show very little sociological deformities. So what was the difference between the artificial mothers? Well, with the hard wired one the monkey was unable to hold on to the mother because it was rough and didn't give back. However, with the soft artificial mother the baby monkey held on to it very deeply because it was soft more like the way a mother is and it developed a bond with it. So, this experiment confirms how important it is for infants to receive love and hugs so that they can develop properly.
It's also interested to note that the psychologists studied that the infants can recover from as much as three months of isolation, but around six months the behavior was noted to be "irreversible.".Like the story I mentioned earlier with Anna, after ten days the sociologist visited her she showed immediate improvement and even smiled. A year later she show some slow but steady progress showing some interest in objects and people and even teaching herself how to walk. About six months later she could take care of herself such as feeding and even played with toys. Even though she showed drastic improvement by the age eight she showed the mental development of that of a two year old, and at the age ten she died of a blood deformity.
This is evidence that some things are irreversible but this statement can easily be argued. As noted earlier she was born to a mentally disabled mother so that could have stunted her developing process even greater and the mystery remains unsolved even to this day.A more up to date case of child isolation took placed when a California girl was tied up in a dark garage in a basement. The girl name was Genie and when she was saved at the age of thirteen she weighed only about sixty pounds. She had the mental capacity to that of a one year old, and her language remains that of a young child. Today she lives in a home of mental disabled adults.
This is evidence that socialization is crucial for the development of humans and animals for that matter. Human beings can sometimes recover from damage but to what extent is the answer, and I will assume it will remain the same because every individual is different.
By: Jeff Casmer
Copyright 2024 Stenmar.com All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication in part or whole strictly prohibited by international copyright law.


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Genesis, Immortality and Failed Prophecies
Got on a Roll here about failed prophecy, 120 year mortality and failed curses.
Originally I posted in the closest related thread, where John Loftus enquires on the power of God to foresee and predict future outcomes -- I feel Genesis gives ample evidence, that Jehovah cannot predict his own behavior, much less, how then to predict anything about his future interactions with man (in the longterm)? Will man even be alive in future centuries, (as with the flood) for God to predict any future?
Gn:6:6: And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (KJV)
Gn:6:3: And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (KJV)
Make that 122 years...
Jeanne Calment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1965, with no living heirs, Jeanne Calment signed a deal, common in France, ...
Jeanne Calment: from Van Gogh's time to ours, 122 extraordinary years.
France's Jeanne Calment, world's oldest woman, dead at 121
No wonder Jeanne Calment, at 122 the world's oldest person until her death Monday, said she was "never bored."
Jeanne Calment
Jeanne Calment AKA Jeanne Louise Calment.
Born: 21-Feb-1875 Birthplace: Arles, France
Died: 4-Aug-1997
Cause of death: Natural Causes
120 years means 120 years --especially when God says so.
Right? No.
Ask yourself why does Sarah live to be 127?
Archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon said nobody back then lived beyond around age 50.
Exaggerated Ages of the Biblical Patriarchs
It is certain that one cannot build up a chronology on the spans of years attributed to the Patriarchs, nor regard it as factual that Abraham was seventy-five years old when he left Harran and a hundred when Isaac was born and that Jacob was a hundred and thirty when he went into Egypt, for the evidence from the skeletons in the Jericho tombs shows that the expectations of life at this period was short. Many individuals seem to have died before they were thirty-five, and few seem to have reached the age of fifty.
- Dr. Kathleen Kenyon (the eminent excavator of the city-mound of Jericho)
There's some blatant contradictions in Genesis. Maybe several stories from different sources, spliced together? For instance, Genesis retells the same story about Sarah and two important national leaders... one is Pharoah in Genesis 12, who wishes to have Sarah, and basically the same story is retold in Genesis 20 where Abimelech, King of Gerar wishes to have Sarah, and Abraham lies to both of them that Sarah is his sister -- but she's grossly aged by the time of the second account, obviously aged, since between the two accounts, Genesis 18:12, we read where Sarah laughs "After I am waxed old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women". It is too absurd to think a king would wish to take such an elderly woman to wife, as is implied, "Gn:21:1: And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. [...] 21:5: And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.[...] 21:7: And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. (KJV)
Gn:23:1: And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
Gn:6:3: And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (KJV)
Ed Babinski: Other aspects also hint of artifice: In Gen. 6:3 God "allows" man 120 year to live. Subsequently Moses, the supposed author of that passage, goes on to live exactly 120 years. (Yet in Ps. 90:10 we are told that man lives only 70 years, ah, there's that "seven" again.) Joseph went to Egypt, and lo, lived to be the ideal Egyptian age of 110 years, then Joshua retrieves Joseph's bones from Egypt and also lives 110 years. Lastly, compare how awkwardly the author of Gen. 11:10-26 and Gen. 25:8 juxtaposes the scene at Abraham's death with the age of his distant relative, Shem, as though he had no idea that people still lived so long as Shem. For the author states that Abraham died "at a good old age, an old man, after a full life," while Shem, Abraham's 7X great grandfather lived to SEE his 7X great grandson die "at a good old age, an old man, after a full life!" For Shem was, if we take Gen. 11:10-26 literally, alive and 565 years old when Abraham died at a mere 175 years of age.
IN OTHER WORDS, the Good Lord just didn't fulfil on his promise, now did he?
Sort of like that promise to make snake eat dust...
Gn:3:14: And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: (KJV)
and that doesn't happen, so Isaiah comes along centuries later, prophecying:
Is:65:25: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. (KJV)
in the "future kingdom"... because it failed fulfilment in Genesis. I also had elaborated further... while some of the hardest contractions were taking place during the birth of my child, I was *laughing*. Literally. The miracles of modern medicine and a little thing called an epideral. I was paralysed from the waist down and not feeling a thing. Genesis and its curses seemed like a joke at that hour, and I was laughing right up nearly to the point I saw my baby in the doctor's arms.
It was a personal event that places the curse of woman's multiplied sorrows in childbirth into the category of a failed prophecy. I've even heard some Christians imply that these advances in medical science are evidence of "God's mercy". As for "mercy" --if that god of Genesis had ever wanted to show woman "mercy", he'd simply removed his curse and saved medical science the trouble by reducing the intense pain (and life threatening conditions) that's involved with childbirth. After delivering three babies, I can vouch that the pain and dangers in childbirth are still as severe as they ever were... "bedecking their god in stolen plummage".
That's not all. When I was a Christian, seeking proof of an inerrant Bible, I was *amazed* to learn some snakes have vestigial limbs (Photos included there). There's nothing to be amazed at after all. It's possible Jehovah had a bad habit of putting legs on snakes, removing legs, putting them back on again, then gave the snake legs again, only to remove them again in Genesis for "sin"(?).
From the above link: "The West Bank fossils may be snakes whose limbs re-evolved, making them "real snakes, just extinct real snakes" with legs, Greene said. Greene postulates that if animals like the West Bank fossils could re-evolve limbs, then other animals that have certain genes they never lost but whose "triggers" are dormant could re-evolve those traits. Maybe humans will end up with tails again." In fact, that's happened already on occasion.
ED BABINSKI: It is not true that "snakes are the only vertebrates without legs." Besides snakes (which are reptiles without legs), there are species of long snake-like AMPHIBIANS that also lack legs. (Kind of like long snake-like newts without legs.)
There are also some species of reptiles and amphibians with long snake-like bodies and TINY LEGS. (Were they only "half cursed" according to the Bible?)
Of course those snake-like amphibians aren't even mentioned in the Bible.
"Curse on the Serpent" in Genesis Bites the Dust, On JP Holding's Is Genesis Wrong About Snakes Eating Dirt?
"Moreover, some snakes live in lakes or even oceans, and could hardly be described as "dust eaters." Others live high in the branches of tree-canopied rain forests, and seldom if ever rub their bellies on the ground and "eat dust." Besides, virtually all animals "eat" or swallow "dust" or dirt, either voluntarily or accidentally. So, Bob's "apologetical belief" that the Scriptures must jive with modern herpetological science is based on selectively emphasizing only some herpetological observations, ignoring others, viz., stretching the meaning of an obvious literary put down to mean something "scientific sounding," i.e., "tastes" the air."
Further question, is the "tree of life" in Genesis, which after reading in context, very much like a physical (not spiritual) immortality?
Gn:3:22: And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (KJV) An ongoing supplement in the monthly diet? ...
Rv:2:7: ...I give to eat of the tree of life...
Rv:22:2: ...the tree of life... yielded her fruit every month...
Rv:22:14: ...that they may have right to the tree of life...
No spiritual immortality was implied or given to Adam, and upon sinning he is told:
Gn:3:19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (KJV)
Mk:12:25: For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. (KJV)
Mk:12:27: He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. (KJV)
And indeed, some of the Jews held no such belief:
Acts:23:8: For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both. (KJV)
So, when Jehovah gives his word that he shall fulfil ... rather, he's often given to a change of mind (or at least, change of heart -Gn:6:6).


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The average modern family wakes up at 6:55am on a weekday, watches three and a half hours of television a day - and has a Ford on the driveway.
A study into 2,000 UK families found clans up and down the country tuck into two takeaways a month, most often on a Saturday night, and get just three hours of quality time together per day.
They allow themselves an hour long lie-in on a weekend - getting up at 7:55 am - and send the kids to bed at 8:30pm, with sleepy adults following just an hour later at 9:56pm.
It also emerged they eat meals together five times a week and take two walks every month.
The study was commissioned by McCain to discover how families have changed in the modern age.
Mark Hodge of McCain said: "As a family business, we understand families and we understand how family composition and behaviours have changed in recent years.
"Our research shows there is much more to be done by way of accurately representing the modern day family, and our latest campaign, 'We Are Family,' aims to do exactly that."
The study also found on the three televisions in the average British family's home, children's shows are overwhelmingly the most popular - taking up 60 per cent of the screen time.
This was followed by documentaries and news and current affairs shows.
Additionally, families have eight arguments a month over the telly remote, or what's going to be played on the TV.
And in total, the typical household in the UK will play host to more than 150 rows per year in total.
The average spend on the weekly food shop in the UK was revealed to be £81.65, and a third of parents have to make two dinners a night - one for the kids, and one for themselves.
The study also found that family dynamics are changing, with more than one in 10 reporting having aunts and uncles younger than themselves.
And many parents believe modern families are not properly represented in current popular culture, with 45 per cent wanting to see more accurate representations of modern families on TV and in films.
A third of respondents said real families are nowhere near as polished as telly shows and movies would have us believe.
The survey carried out by OnePoll also found one in 10 admit that real family life can be more chaotic and less happy than those seen on screen.
McCain is looking for families from across the UK to be photographed by professional photographer, Sian Davey, with all images considered by the National Portrait Gallery for inclusion within the We Are Family display at the Gallery. For more information, visit the McCain Facebook page.


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Related links:
An eel is a long, thin creature that looks like a snake in the ocean! Eels range from a few inches to 6 feet in length. Many are very colorful and occasionally scary! Most eels live near corals where there are plenty of fish for food. Eels are typically night feeders, so finding an eel to photograph is a real challenge.
The Mosaic Moray is probably the ugliest looking of all the eels. It has a very dark, creepy, patterned skin and sharp pointy teeth. But divers should not be worried--the Mosaic's appearance is merely for defense. This eel is very unique, because it prefers octopus and other cephalopods over fish.
Some eels, like the Leopard Moray, can be hand fed by some divers. However, this can be very dangerous, because the eels can't tell the difference between the diver's hand and the fish they are providing! Fish lovers should also be aware that most eels are poisonous, and should not be eaten for dinner!


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Mo forges bond with White Sox fans, staff
Team presents Yankees' closer with framed scorecard, collage and check
CHICAGO -- The Conference and Learning Center at U.S. Cellular Field is usually reserved for manager Robin Ventura's postgame commentary, or maybe even general manager Rick Hahn talking about a trade.
On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 2 1/2 hours before the first pitch of the White Sox 3-2 win over the Yankees, it became the location for an informal meet and greet that 13 baseball fans and their respective families will treasure for the rest of their lives.
Make that 14, since the latest stop on the Mariano Rivera farewell tour was clearly just as important to the game's all-time saves leader as everyone else in attendance.
In his last year in the Majors before retiring, the Yankees' closer, along with Yankees media relations director Jason Zillo, came up with an idea to make this season something different than the requisite and deserved honors at each ballpark. They searched for a far more personal connection to the fans and team personnel than Rivera simply standing at home plate as his name is announced amid standing ovations.
So Rivera meets with a representative group that the home team puts together at each ballpark and not only takes questions but asks them. He did so in a moving and entertaining discourse that lasted 40 minutes on Tuesday. It's a seemingly one-of-a-kind program for one of baseball's all-time greats, whom Ventura described as a better person than he is a player.
"It has been wonderful -- not the farewell, but the opportunity I have to share with the fans," Rivera said. "To share with those fans behind the scenes that nobody sees, those are the ones I've been enjoying. The rest is great, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing with the fans."
"Just being able to ask him questions and hear about his perspective and his approach to the game, it really just reinforces everything that I've read about him and heard about him," said Irv Kagan, who was one of Tuesday's invited guests, bringing along his wife and one of his three sons. "It's amazing."
Kagan works at Good-To-Go-Food, a catering business that has offered fresh sandwiches, salads and healthy food items to stores throughout Chicago for over 22 years. He also is a lifelong Yankees fan who grew up 10 minutes from Yankee Stadium.
Other guests on Tuesday included Roy Rivas, a longtime White Sox chef; Jose Diaz, a White Sox assistant groundskeeper; and Austin Richie, a member of the White Sox Amateur City Elite youth baseball program, who stood up and shook Rivera's hand before asking his question, flashing a broad smile all the while. There was also Sara Gonzalez, a member of the White Sox Volunteer Corps; Israel Del Toro, a member of the U.S. Air Force who served in Afghanistan; and Joe and Gail Bosch, who became well known for holding up a 30-foot banner in support of New York when the Yankees resumed baseball in Chicago after 9/11.
As they sat in a circle around Rivera, with the right-hander sitting in front of the table behind which most interview subjects sit, one by one they introduced themselves and told Rivera what brought them there. Rivera was asked about his most memorable games, some of his toughest times on the field and what he planned to do after retiring, and he was told by Kagan that one of the reasons he was there was because Kagan's sons had a baseball obsession.
"I've brainwashed them all as Yankees fans," laughed Kagan, whose family lives in Chicago.
"You did it right," the soft-spoken Rivera said with a smile.
Ultimately, this session was about fans getting to meet a baseball legend who took time to take pictures with each one and presented them with autographed baseballs.
They would get to recognize Rivera again about an hour later when the White Sox honored the closer on the field with a framed scorecard from his first appearance at Comiskey Park on July 4, 1995, when Rivera struck out 11 over eight innings in a rare start. Rivera was also given a photo collage from his save in Chicago on Sept. 19, 2001 -- the Yankees' second game back after the atrocities in New York -- and a donation in Rivera's name to the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
But it didn't seem like a player chatting with fans. This moment looked like a group of friends sitting around, talking about life and baseball.
"Who has ever heard of another athlete who is retiring or otherwise doing something like this?" Kagan said. "And taking the time to talk to people and learn about them and share some of what he's about as well -- he has just been tremendous."
"Most of us put our baseball idols on these pedestals, God-like," said Del Toro, who was joined by his wife and son and has endured more than 120 surgeries after more than 90 percent of his body was burned when his Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device eight years ago. "They are just normal, everyday people like us and act just like us. It's so awesome to see a ballplayer like that. Down to Earth. It gives little kids someone to look up to besides their dads. It's an awesome experience."


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What starts out as a lavish train ride through Europe quickly unfolds into one of the most stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mysteries ever told. From the novel by best selling author Agatha Christie, "Murder on the Orient Express" tells the tale of thirteen strangers stranded on a train, where everyone's a suspect. One man must race against time to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again. In Theaters November 10, 2017
2017 Jun 03


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Cyber Command's growth plan raises a lot of questions
For starters, where will the military find enough skilled computer experts?
Defense Department officials are planning a huge expansion of U.S. Cyber Command into three "teams" to protect privately owned and operated critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and banking system; help commanders execute cyberattacks during military operations; and protect Pentagon networks, the Washington Post reported late Sunday.
According to the Post, Cyber Command would expand at least fivefold. Not surprisingly, key details of the plan have yet to be worked out. For starters, there's the practical matter of hiring and training so many skilled workers when the private sector is competing for the same talent, often with higher pay and more flexible job requirements. With the threat of sequestration looming, the military services have announced hiring freezes and are taking other steps to limit spending.
In addition, the evolving role of Cyber Command has raised concerns among civil libertarians who worry the Pentagon could violate citizens' privacy rights. "The very idea of an Internet corps scares the people Cyber Command aims to protect: Americans who value free speech and free markets," Nextgov reported in September.
A senior Defense official told the Post that the "national mission" teams (the ones aiming to protect critical infrastructure) "would focus their efforts overseas and that any actions they took would be directed outside U.S. networks — unless the teams were asked to provide assistance to another agency with domestic authority, such as the FBI."
The idea is not to protect consumers but rather national security. The ultimate trick for government, of course, will be protecting both.


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Well, here it is: the trailer for the next Hobbit movie in the series of three Hobbit movies that will be made out of a single medium-length book.
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug doesn't come out until December, but you can already delve into the dragons and mountains and birds (oh my).
So what do you think? Are you excited? Could you have gotten this done in two movies? Or one?
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Google enters battle for cloud gaming market
Ever-expanding Google becomes a gaming company Tuesday with the launch of its Stadia cloud service that lets people play console-quality video games on a web browser or smartphone.
The internet giant hopes to break into the global video game industry expected to top $150 billion this year, with cloud technology that could broaden audiences attracted by rich new features as well as ease of access with no more need for consoles.
But analysts say Stadia's outlook is uncertain as its faces rivals such as PlayStation Now in an emerging and highly-competitive market.
Stadia plays into a trend in which content—ranging from blockbuster films to work projects—lives in the cloud and is accessible from any device.
"All of these new services are merely pointing out that we don't need sophisticated hardware in the home to access entertainment," said Wedbush Securities equity research managing director Michael Pachter.
Google last month sold out of "Founder's Edition" kits, which are priced at $129.
Each kit contains a Stadia controller and a pendant-shaped Chromecast Ultra wireless connection device that plugs into television sets.
Stadia games are playable using Google Chrome web browser software on computers.
It also works with Google-made Pixel smartphones from the second-generation onward, and on televisions.
Stadia Pro subscriptions, priced at $10 a month in the US, will be available in 14 countries in North America and Europe.
All in the game
But analysts say Stadia could wind up as another "bet" that Google walks away from if it fails to live up to expectations.
"Stadia will live or die by its content," said Ovum senior analyst George Jijiashvili.
"The announced 12 launch titles are underwhelming."
Subscribers will be able to buy games that will be hosted at Google data-centers, but some free games will be available to subscribers, starting with "Destiny 2: The Collection."
Stadia on smartphones will work with WiFi connections rather than rely on mobile telecom services.
Being able to play without lags or interruptions is paramount to gamers, and flawed internet connections could cause frustration. Internet speed will also determine how rich in-game graphics can be.
Some promised features such as integration with YouTube will not be in place at launch.
"Stadia appears to be rushed out the door before fully ready and, worryingly, Google is risking falling short on its promises," Jijiashvili said.
"These shortcomings however would be easily overlooked if Google can deliver a very reliable and high-quality game streaming service."
Google appears committed to doing just that, according to Ubisoft senior vice president of partnerships Chris Early.
The French video game giant has been working with Google and its games are among titles coming to the service.
"From what I have seen, their plans are too deep; they are too good, and they are too invested," Early said. "They are not calling it quits any time soon."
He expects a long launch period during which Google will beef up Stadia.
"If there is a one-day problem at launch, it isn't the end of the world; it isn't even close," he said, stressing the potential for Stadia to let people play without investing in consoles.
But Pachter questioned whether subscriptions were the right approach.
"The right model is pay as you go or pay for the game and play unlimited without a subscription," Pachter said.
"Amazon will try one of those and will win the streaming wars."
Amazon has game studios but no online game service.
Battle brewing
US technology veteran Microsoft has been testing a Project xCloud online game platform.
"Next year, we'll bring Project xCloud to Windows PCs, and are collaborating with a broad set of partners to make game streaming available on other devices as well," Microsoft corporate vice president Kareem Choudhry said in an online post.
Sony Interactive Entertainment last month slashed the price of its PlayStation Now cloud video game service by about half in the US to $10 monthly.
Japan-based Sony also boosted the library of games that PlayStation Now users can access through its consoles or on personal computers powered by Windows software.
Sony and Microsoft are also poised to release new-generation video game consoles next year.
"While we expect dedicated consoles to eventually lose relevance in the face of cloud gaming services, there's no guarantee that it will be Google's service –- rather than Sony and Microsoft's -– that catalyzes this trend," said Ovum senior analyst Matthew Bailey.


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Climate change evident across Europe, report says
Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future, potentially causing high damage costs, according to the latest assessment published by the European Environment Agency this week.
The report, 'Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012' finds that higher average temperatures have been observed across Europe as well as decreasing precipitation in southern regions and increasing precipitation in northern Europe. The Greenland ice sheet, Arctic sea ice and many glaciers across Europe are melting, snow cover has decreased and most permafrost soils have warmed.
Extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods and droughts have caused rising damage costs across Europe in recent years. While more evidence is needed to discern the part played by climate change in this trend, growing human activity in hazard-prone areas has been a key factor. Future climate change is expected to add to this vulnerability, as extreme weather events are expected to become more intense and frequent. If European societies do not adapt, damage costs are expected to continue to rise, according to the report.
Some regions will be less able to adapt to climate change than others, in part due to economic disparities across Europe, the report says. The effects of climate change could deepen these inequalities.
More information: European Environment Agency: Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012. ISBN 978-92-9213-346-7 doi:10.2800/66071 . www.eea.europa.eu/publications … d-vulnerability-2012
Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres


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Believe it or not, during Transformers: Age of Extinction, Michael Bay's fourth rattling of the toy box, I felt one moment of transcendence. Three-fourths of the way through the punishing 165-minute runtime my brain left my body, crying out as it fled, "How could a space robot riding a fire-breathing metal T.rex be so boring?"
It begins with thrilling stupidity, the revelation that the dinosaurs were murdered by evil cheeseburger-shaped spaceships who built their own car-shaped society from their bones, the literalization of fossil fuels. From there, Age of Extinction gets even more moronic.
The events of the third film, in which Shia LaBeouf saved Chicago (fragments of it, at least) from Megatron, have become in this sequel America's new 9/11. Thirteen-hundred civilians died that day, a rare instance of a movie giving a body count for the usual city-destroying smash-em-ups. Mark Wahlberg plays a single dad and small-town inventor named Cade, who lives in a Disneyland version of Texas with his 17-year-old daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), one of those long-limbed, snub-nosed Southern girls shellacked with terrible pink lipstick. Also around: Cade's new scrap junk purchase, a bullet-riddled 18-wheeler that just happens to be Optimus Prime in disguise.
There isn't enough visual beauty to forgive the screenplay's ugliness, but Bay does brave a daring new standard in product placement. He doesn't just show a Bud Light truck -- he wrecks it, scatters beer bottles across the road, and then has Mark pick one up and take a swig. It's so calculated, it gets a knowing laugh, as if the audience is relieved that at least there's one joke that doesn't insult their intelligence.


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We may pledge allegiance to "one nation under God," but from the start American society has been anything but "indivisible." The America Revolution split families and pitted neighbor against neighbor before it launched a nation; the Civil War that nearly broke it asunder was, well, a civil war. And let's not talk about slavery and the brutal subjugation of Native Americans. Between the open battles, we mostly just shouted at each other across political lines like now. Yet the great national commitment to victory in World War II stands out as a singular shining moment of cohesion and unity. The afterglow of that massive war effort and the Allies' great victory hides a darker reality of the political storm that swept the nation right up to the very day of the Pearl Harbor attack.
The fight between isolationists and interventionists over America's future role in the world, a fight that turned into a political and sometimes real brawl for the presidency in the 1940 election, proved lower and even more vicious than what passes for political discourse today. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1940 election to an unprecedented third term—breaking a 150-year national taboo—marked a true revolution in American determination to take on global responsibility in a world at war and, often to our regret, ever after.
Overshadowed by the Second World War and the prior Great Depression, relatively few books have been written about the prewar period, despite its supremely high stakes for the nation's and world's future. It's a period well worth study, with high drama among the remarkable people involved in the clashes, such as aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, plutocrat U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (and father of a future president) Joseph P. Kennedy, Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, movie mogul Jack Warner, publisher Henry Luce, and the ever-calculating, Sphinx-like FDR. Several recent books, including two new histories of the 1940 race for the presidency, fill some major gaps.
Just published, Susan Dunn's 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler—the Election Amid the Storm delivers a richly detailed Making of the President–style look back at the 1940 race. I also got an early look at Richard Moe's more engaging and nuanced Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War, due out this fall. Both books remind us how grave a decision the nation faced in choosing a president with global war raging just over the oceanic horizons and just how close America came to abandoning its traditional democratic allies to the seemingly unstoppable forces of totalitarianism and nationalistic hatred.
Placing that election into a wider overview of America at the time, Lynne Olson's brilliant Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939–1941, published in early spring, is hard to put down. She richly portrays the debate (when it wasn't a shouting match or a fistfight) that swept up America between the isolationists and interventionists. A large majority of Americans deeply opposed sending their boys to fight another war in the Old World, yet even more strongly supported the last free nations holding out against Nazi terror. Most understood that if the Brits (and later the Russians) fell, America would almost certainly confront a very powerful foe in Hitler. But would offering aid to the Allies court war with the Axis powers or prevent it? As Lindbergh, who would emerge as the chief spokesperson for America First, the most organized anti-interventionist movement, told a cheering crowd of Yale students a week before the 1940 Election Day, "If we desire peace, we need only stop asking for war. Nobody wishes to attack us, and nobody is in a position to do so."
Olson captures vividly how such seemingly intelligent and well-meaning people like the Yale-student founders of the America First Committee, including future U.S. president Gerald Ford and future Yale president and ambassador to Great Britain Kingman Brewster, and their counterparts at Harvard, such as Ambassador Kennedy's eldest son, Joseph, could agree with the Harvard Crimson editors when they wrote, "We are frankly determined to have peace at any price." On Capitol Hill, staunchly conservative Republicans—prominent among them Ohio Sen. Robert Taft and North Dakota Sen. Gerald Nye and several Northeasterners, including FDR's Hyde Park, New York, home district's congressman, Hamilton Fish—along with a smaller number of anti-foreign Democrats like powerful North Carolina Sen. Robert Reynolds, used their obstructive legislative power much like today's Republicans to kneecap the administration in its efforts to arm the British and Chinese nationalists (at war with the Japanese) and grow the paltry American military.
They at least were not Fascists. Olson also describes the machinations of more odious anti-British Hitler sympathizers and anti-Semites such as Ambassador Kennedy, a young architect named Philip Johnson, and Hitler's favorite U.S. industrialist, Henry Ford, who shared Anne Morrow Lindbergh's belief, articulated in her No. 1–bestselling testament The Wave of the Future: A Confession of Faith, that the various violent movements crushing human freedom, above all Hitler's Nazism, were just "scum on the surface of the wave" as civilization moved into a new "highly scientific, mechanized, and material era." I guess they considered the already well-known existence of the Nazi concentration camps just part of adjusting to the new age dawning upon the world.
However nauseating in retrospect, millions shared their views. Bankrolled by Gen. Robert E. Wood, chairman of retail giant Sears, Roebuck; editorially backed by the Hearst chain of newspapers, publisher Robert McCormick's Chicago Tribune, and New York Daily News publisher Joseph Patterson; and given voice by avowed anti-Semite radio priest Father Charles Coughlin and many other leading media figures, the anti-intervention-movement rallies attracted crowds in the tens of thousands, often to hear Lindbergh speak, sometimes to call for FDR's impeachment and Lindbergh to take power. Many in the movement were thoughtfully opposed to the war, but their numbers included Communist Party members toeing the Stalinist line, German Bund Hitlerites, and unabashed Jew haters.
For all his cynical willingness to manipulate everyone around him, FDR never wavered in his commitment to freedom, republican ideals, and his New Deal social programs. He would bend the truth, dissimulate his thinking behind a bright smile and personal charm, send subordinates to take actions and deny he did, and even risk impeachment to win reelection and provide "all aid short of war" to the Allies. For all his public denials that American boys would ever fight in foreign wars, he was certain that war with Hitler (and eventually Japan) was inevitable. He preferred that until then Britain and the Red Army have American aid to hold off the Axis and that when the time came to fight his country's military be ready.
Nobody in his administration played a more central role in bringing the interventionist agenda to fruition in this prewar period—not even FDR in certain respects— than the still too-little-known Harry Hopkins. The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler, by David L. Roll, is the best biography since FDR speechwriter Robert Sherwood's seminal postwar Pulitzer-winning Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History of the extraordinarily brave, deathly ill man who lived down the hall from the president from 1940. Roll had access to newly opened papers from the period when Hopkins spent more time with FDR than anyone, including his wife, Eleanor. Despite lacking any official government title or party post, Hopkins rammed FDR's 1940 third-term renomination down a restive Democratic convention's throat and then oversaw the common-law marriage that would take place between his boss and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and later Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. (After Lend-Lease opened the floodgates to arming the Allies in 1941, Hopkins also administered the greatest arms buildup and transfer of military hardware to foreign powers in world history out of his White House bedroom.)
Before then, however, FDR had good reason to fear that his inward-looking nation, still deeply traumatized by the Depression, would reject him and his start-and-stop efforts to rebuild the nation's paltry national defenses.
Two books follow out the story of how the seemingly indomitable FDR found himself on what appeared to be the verge of defeat on election night. Williams College history professor and author of prize-winning histories of Roosevelt's presidency Susan Dunn offers 1940, a deeply researched look into how the darkest of dark-horse candidates, Wendell Willkie, and the unwilling-to-declare-his-intentions FDR handled their historically unique nominating conventions—brilliantly in Willkie's case and utterly ineptly in FDR's. She follows the way their campaigns caught fire as the question of whether to fight Hitler became the true decision for voters.
Until just before a liberal Wall Street Democrat and an avowed internationalist, Willkie entered the Republican convention with seemingly little support. But using his engaging, devil-may-care persona and Wall Street and media ties, he swept up support and shockingly emerged from the convention as nominee and the frontrunner. From the Luce Time-Life-Fortune publishing empire to The New York Times, virtually every major media outlet came out in support of Willkie over FDR. Even the powerful United Mine Workers union leader John L. Lewis vowed he'd give up his post if Roosevelt won. Dunn shows well the forces at work across the political landscape that enabled the amateur pol Willkie to threaten the greatest politic mind in American history right up to election night.
For his part, FDR went into the Democratic Party convention refusing to declare his candidacy. He wanted to be "drafted" into service, much like the first-ever peacetime draft then being proposed for the nation's armed forces. He refused to attend the convention and nearly caused a party revolt when, for the first time in political history, he demanded his own choice for vice-presidential running mate, Henry Wallace, be nominated. It took an unprecedented convention speech by the immensely popular Eleanor Roosevelt to stop the bitter tide running against him.
The sides were drawn for an epic battle—with both candidates in a sense running against Hitler, or who would prove better able to deal with the world at war.
Richard Moe was Vice President Walter Mondale's chief of staff and a longtime head of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In Roosevelt's Second Act, he offers reliable interpretations of the inner workings of FDR's always fenced-off mind. Moe's book is as exciting as a character-driven thriller, insightful as only those who have watched presidents up close can be. Read it when it comes out in September.
As Election Day drew near in 1940, Willkie began to lose the party's conservative base. He tacked hard to the right into the isolationist camp. It worked, and his standing in the polls surged. Meanwhile, in the months before the election, despite the isolationist outcry, FDR engineered a controversial bases-for-destroyers exchange with the fast-sinking British and the creation of a draft army.
The day before the vote, the Republican Party ran an ominous radio commercial addressed to the mothers of America. A chilling voice warned, "When your boy is dying on some battlefield in Europe and he's crying out 'Mother! Mother!'—don't blame Franklin D. Roosevelt because he sent your boy to war—blame YOURSELF, because YOU sent Franklin D. Roosevelt back to the White House!"
FDR had to answer such attacks. He may have believed war with Germany was inevitable, but he felt forced to declare in a nationally broadcast campaign speech just days before the vote, "Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars ... We will not send our Army, Navy, or air forces to fight in foreign lands." We know the election result, but the final days of the campaign played out like a political Super Bowl where the outcome wasn't clear until the very last seconds of play. Even the preternaturally confident FDR thought he had lost the election as he read the first vote counts coming to him at his home in Hyde Park.
Such pronouncements that he would not intervene made it impossible for the third-term president to go to war—except through subterfuge, which he did—without an actual attack on America. One can speculate that had he been freer to pursue the election's foreign-policy mandate, the U.S. might have entered the war several months before Pearl Harbor. An earlier buildup of the nation's armed forces would surely have saved uncountable but likely many lives.
These books help us reflect on today's deep national divisions, as our messy republican democracy lurches from crisis to crisis and minority viewpoints, still largely Republican, game the system to block worthy legislation and needed government action, even when most citizens believe they are in the nation's interest.
On the afternoon of December 7, 1941, Senator Nye addressed several thousand rowdy people at a Pittsburgh America First rally. "Whose war is this?" he shouted out. "Roosevelt's!" roared back the crowd. A short while later they knew that war was America's.


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AT&T gains customers in 4Q, posts big loss
(AP)—The launch of the iPhone 5 helped AT&T attract more new customers in the holiday quarter than it has in three years, but it posted a big loss because of an annual adjustment to its pension obligations.
AT&T Inc. says it added a net 780,000 new customers on contract-based plans from October to December, its best result in three years.
The Dallas-based company's quarterly loss was $3.86 billion, or 68 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $6.68 billion, or $1.12 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, AT&T earned 44 cents per share, 2 cents short of the average analyst estimate as polled by FactSet.
Revenue was $32.6 billion, up a hair from $32.5 billion a year ago. It slightly exceeded analyst estimates of $32.2 billion.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
Spiced Crumb Topping
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, pumpkin, brown sugar, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until well combined; whisk in eggs until combined. Stir in dry ingredients until incorporated; stir in chocolate chips and walnuts until combined.
Scrape batter into prepared pan. To make the spiced crumb topping, in a small bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice until combined. Knead in butter using fingertips or a pastry blender, until mixture is well combined and clumps together. Sprinkle crumbs over the top of batter.
Bake 50 minutes or until well risen, golden brown, and a wooden skewer inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack for 45 minutes before removing bread from pan.
Makes 1 loaf