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Bob wrote:I destinctly get the impression that I am a heretic - at least I'm not off topic
Bob, if you keep working at it, you can be a heathen like me! But I'll understand if you'd rather not...
Moderator: Dan~
Bob wrote:I destinctly get the impression that I am a heretic - at least I'm not off topic
tentative wrote:Bob wrote:I destinctly get the impression that I am a heretic - at least I'm not off topic
Bob, if you keep working at it, you can be a heathen like me! But I'll understand if you'd rather not...
felix dakat wrote:I think it's interesting to look at the Biblical answers to the problem of evil. The Biblical authors give a number of explanations for evil, but the free will defense that is so often argued today is not one of them.. In the early Hebrew religion there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the world. It is said of heaven and earth that "he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away." [Psalm 148:6 ] No need for apocalyptic judgment was envisioned.
When Israel was conquered, the vision of the cosmos changed. The protection and blessings of God could no longer be counted on for the faithful. The people accused God of being unjust. [Ezekiel 18:25] Into this mix entered the cosmic dualism of the Persians. God gained an enemy—the Devil. The two were locked in a battle for survival involving the whole creation. There were righteous angels on God's side and wicked demons on Satan's. The dead would be judged. Heaven and hell, the resurrection, eternal life, and the future apocalypse all became part of the cosmic drama.
Evil came to be understood in terms of the righteous suffering for the cause of God. The good suffer when they are tested by the devil like Job was. In new order a spiritual realm was felt to exist behind the material. Into this battle entered Jesus. He was king, but not of this world. He was a warrior against the devil and the world forces of darkness. If you were one of his, you were called to suffer like he did to defeat the devil for greater glory in the other world.
So this worldview explains evil, but it is incompatible with the idea of an omnipotent God. If God is all powerful, then spiritual warfare is just an illusion. It is as if God is shadow boxing, because God 1) didn't have to create the world this way and 2) he could fix the world in a heartbeat.
We must however question whether this ancient portrayal still has relevance.
As I wrote in the other thread, speaking about the religious experience as the centre of religion, rather than scripture and literature, "In a way it is the holy of holies at the centre of the temple, surrounded by the court of the faithful and the outer court of the nations. We tend to talk in that outer court and speculate on what is in the middle. Those who enter the inner court have a better idea, but it is only when they enter the holy of holies that they have a glimpse of what it is all about. I think that this idea of a temple was a metaphor made out of bricks and mortar for the spiritual reality, just as we find elsewhere in other traditions." The rise of scripture was the attempt to gain inspiration by other means – of which there are plenty of examples in the world – but to a great degree it transferred religion to the head and away from the soul.
It seems to have been chiefly Jesus, but also various Prophets, who envisioned a return to a soulful religion, in which scripture is "written on the heart" and God is in the midst of the faithful. This Realm of God or Realm of Heaven needed to be discovered, not invoked, as the Pharisees seemed to claim. Trying to force God to play his hand would seem sacrilege for someone who saw God in every tree, flower, bird, animal – and in the processes of nature and even politics.
The idea of an adversary seems to be more subtle, since the devil is an adversary and accuser of humankind. He serves to show the alternatives and present humankind with a choice, which, on selecting, proves the case for the prosecutor. Humankind is on trial in this narrative. It is a trial to decide whether humankind actually is the "image of God", or rather the image of the beast. Is it flesh or spirit which rules humankind? Can humankind transcend his natural existence? It is a question which has had astounding actuality throughout the centuries and will finally decide the future of our species.
Take Care
Bob wrote:Interesting that you say this, since many Christians tend to differ and consider me a heretic.
Bob wrote:I see the confrontation with God as God confronting me, rather than the other way around, and the chamber experience (Mt. 6:6) as the opportunity for that.
Bob wrote:I pray in as much as my ritual prepares me to listen rather than speak, although I do speak or chant at the beginning. After that I am more in meditation mode, watching and listening, concentrating on the breath, centred and relaxed. I would like to think that wisdom grows in that experience, but it is probably only to be found in a growing knowledge of myself.
Bob wrote:I wasn't clear then, because I do not rule anything out, and like I say, I have listened to what other people have said about resurrection, but I can't decide how it is to be understood as yet. I have come across so many things that make full sense when I do not demand that they be literally true, but with the resurrection, I am inconclusive. I just haven't any reason to believe that the dead rise here and now, and bereavement always remains bereavement – whatever I believe.
Bob wrote:Words are human, and I believe that they block our ability to receive. Communication is more effective heart-to-heart and lovers and friends need few words in their communion, and they are often abstract, poetic, soul-language. I believe that it is this soul-language that we have lost in attempts to be overly rational – which is the trap for believers and non-believers alike, it seems. If the soul communicates or is communicated to, we feel the message more than we rationally understand it. This is also an experience that inspired scientists have in common with gurus and inspired spiritual people. Inspiration hits us and we make words or formulae out of it – and thereby immediately falsify the immediacy of that inspiration. But it is all we can do.
I think that we just need to keep a beginners mind alive but with reverence and awe. Everything else will sort itself out.
Now I'm not an expert in the Hebrew, but in the case of Abraham (at least) I believe it is remarkable that the roles are reversed, that it is Abraham who confronts God, or who stands before God. I can't give this any detail at the moment but only that this is what I've been taught.
As for the confrontation, let me be clear about what I mean. It's not necessarily that God is wrong, and that we stand before God to strip God down, so to speak. Rather it's a standing against God where we're both struggling for the same goal (viz., wisdom). Not that we're both fighting for our own view and the winner of the fight is the one who wins, but that we're in this together and we need to figure this out together, you know?
We must throw our full weight against each other, which means our full arsenal of knowledge and belief. But as you say we must be just as ready to listen as speak. Indeed, fear of the Lord (of the weight of God's words and the value they hold) is paramount. It is the beginning and our foundation.
But we must also recognize the weight of our own words as well. Not that they are necessarily right but that God wants us to throw them against God. That it is in such a confrontation where wisdom is born/received. (I have to keep referring to Job, that God says that Job spoke truly against God (42:7), and that this 'against' is the same term used of the river Jordan rushing against Behemoth. That's the scene we have to envision: A great beast pushing against a mighty river, pushing forward, yes, but where the river throws all that it has against it in the confrontation.)
To be honest though, it sounds more Buddhist than Christian! Jews, for instance, don't strike me as the meditative type. Rather the virile, warrior type! I think this posture is critical though. It is essential that we listen. That we clear our mind. That we wipe it of our presuppositions so that we're in a space where we're open to new ideas that may outstrip our own. (Indeed, while Job threw all that he had against God he also listened. He discerned what God was saying and took it to heart rather than focusing on his own arguments in the effort to win a point against God.)
I think it's easy to diminish the power of resurrection if we strip it of its literal truth. It has to be maintained in its fullest sense. Of restoration of bodily life some time in the future. So I think you are right to avoid such non-literal views. But yes, I don't think it will ever be understood. Science and technology may be involved in providing the answer. Who knows. But right now and up until now it has been an item of faith, and I don't think I need to tell you that faith requires no conclusiveness in the believer. (As such it would no longer be faith.)
Instead, we have to believe and commit our full selves to that belief. Not that "God gives and God takes away" but that God gives. That the gift (of life) is what God promises us, and that this promise was never meant to be (and never has been) annuled. While sin may have brought death into the world, not even sin is strong enough to annul this promise. And while a "gift economy" may require we not hold on to what we're given, that we be ready to have it taken back (or regiven as a gift), a gift economy also means that what we do give back will return. It will return and be even greater than before. (In truth it is "God gives and God takes away, but then God gives even more.")
... while I would agree with your critique, that we've lost touch with a certain pre-rational mode of communication, I would also add that the rational is an important mode, and it is just as necessary to speak to people's minds as it is to people's hearts. Where before the heart was cut off and the mind received full attention, the solution is not to turn all of our attention to the heart and to forget the mind. We must deal with the human person in its fullness: heart, body, and mind. I don't think you would disagree. I say this just to make sure we're on the same page.
quetzalcoatl wrote:My religion isn't threatened by evil [even where I may be], because I think evil is created purely by us collectively. Its our inability to adjust and be detached, whereby we think this temporary illusion of form is such that if the brain thinks something then that is who and what we are. Its being caught in the material rather than being in command of it ~ though in our defence the latter can seam impossible to achieve.
Bob wrote:Inclusion involves joint decisions and Abraham tests what he has trusted about JHVH in his intercession but is slowly whittled down to accept the reality of the situations. Yes, he interceded, but he had to come to realise the truth.
Moses does wield the sword against those he had freed, and some say that it was a whole new generation that finally occupied Canaan. The whole story of JHVH is full of this kind of stunning cruelty against those who misbehave, and it is finally a reason for many to turn away from Theism. The only answer, and it is in my view the answer, is to understand that these stories are archetypal myths for us to learn by. If we would take it literally, we would become schizo. But if we understand that life does confront us with situations which we would like to avoid, the ability to stand in the face of disaster and seek a path onwards is practical wisdom and the wailing of widows can only serve the ritual separation from the past.
Bob wrote:In fact, it isn't really with God that we wrestle, but with truths which we often will not accept. Intercession also has this aspect about it, although we often understand it as petitionary, but rarely does God solve situations for us, but people are put in the position to sort it out themselves. People who pray are often people who give generously and in that prayerful community, their joint generosity often solves the problem. Ideally prayerful people are also mindful people who are aware of what is going on in their parish, so petition is fulfilled by people who are out listening.
Bob wrote:Their constructive and considerate approach to problems is congruent with their prayer life, so that the wonders they wish would happen can come true by their own doing.
Bob wrote:I believe that the whole issue of Christianity is about "theosis"
Bob wrote:We associate all good things with God, and express our thanks, but we seem to be unthankful when those gifts are taken back. Really, nobody guaranteed how long we would have what has made our life a joy but, however short the joy lasts, we are better off for having experienced it. We also know that we learn more when life isn't so light and easy, and that the "good life" makes us fat, lethargic and clinging to the sweet things, but reason seems to leave us in times when we feel hard done by.
Resurrection seems to me to be the hope of an endless "good life" for many, and I just feel that life is more than ambrosia. The Greeks and the Buddhists make jokes about the gods in their "heaven", because they are jealous of human beings for their possibilities. Whatever resurrection is, I just hope it isn't as boring as some theologians make it seem to be.
I must admit it makes me a little uncomfortable, phrases like "Abraham tests" and "he had to come to realize the truth." This is gnit-picking mind. To be honest, I think God is right pissed in this scene. Emotionally unstable and perhaps not acting for the right reason. Abraham intercedes to make sure God doesn't do something God won't soon regret. "Are you sure you want to do this God? What if there are a hundred good people there? Would you hold off?" There is no test and instead of Abraham being the one who has to realize the truth it is God.
I agree. It's on us. It is as much up to Aaron and Moses as it is Moses and God. I would also agree with you that it is God who we sometimes wrestle with. Job for instance is one of the rare ones who wrestles with God. But what is also clear is that the friends had their chance to do the job first, to console Job, but they failed. Thus Godhad to step up. (It would be great if God wasn't needed to step up like that, thus I agree with you. If we fulfilled that role.)
It's hard to believe that the good things we have taken away will ever return. Once we have them we want to keep them. We don't want to give them up. And when they're gone it's hard to stay positive.
But it's one thing to take joy in the time we had. It's another to learn a lesson from our hardship. But what is perhaps greatest of all is believing that the good things willreturn. That's an irrepressible hope and faith in the power and love of God. It doesn't preclude taking joy and learning from hardship, or even the possibility of hardship. Resurrection doesn't reduce life to ambrosia. In fact, it implies suffering and death. There can be no resurrection without these. No resurrection unless the good things we have are taken away, and no irrepressible hope and faith unless we're in a situation where these seem impossible.
(Which is not to say that we need the suffering and death mind, but only that these are realities in the world. Even without them I wouldn't say that life is ambrosia. Indeed, Adam and Eve were set a difficult task of subduing creation before these entered into the world.)
Bob wrote:This really does show JHVH up to be a bit despotic, doesn't it?
Bob wrote:The very thought that God could be "pissed" goes against the grain of the OT.
Bob wrote:Abraham is being prepared for his role as a "blessing for the nations", which apparently is the role of a priest, but this story is being written to give Israel just that role in the world. That is why you find a similar development in the story of Moses, and finally in Joseph – who is an archetype of the Christ.
Bob wrote:However, the fundamentalist will complain at my rejecting historicity and deny me my right to consider myself Christian, but it is the only way I can appreciate these stories.
Bob wrote:I think we have to learn to create communities where these stories are common guidelines amongst us in order that we understand the requirements of humanity in the face of a God/Reality that takes as it gives, that rains or shines on the good and bad in like manner, and presents us with the opportunity to live in abundance or equally to rot in poverty. The question is always what we make of what we are given, which way we choose to go and whether we choose cooperation or conflict. The Law is presented in that way: As a promise or as a curse.
Bob wrote:The way I understand resurrection is that, even if there may be hope of another life, if I learn from those people I highly rate, I will do what they told me to do, hold their words in esteem and tell stories about them. That way they live again in our midst regardless of whether we will see each other in an afterlife or not.
It shows that God respects Moses as an advisor. God listens to God's subjects. Typically you don't associate that kind of behaviour with a despot.
I can't deny this. Abraham is set to do what humankind more broadly had so far failed to do. But I think it would be wrong to construe God's punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all of the scenes related to it, as a preparation of Abraham. This action on God's part has its own context, a broader context than the preparation of Abraham. So while Abraham may be involved by God because God likes Abraham, or because God wants to prepare him for his priestly duties, this is not the purpose of God's action nor is it the context we should read this scene, or associated scenes, in.
So to be clear, yes, I think Abraham is being prepared here for his priestly duties, in virtue of the fact that he is exercising his wisdom and participating in God's rule. But the true context is that God is angry with the Sodomites and delivering a vengeance upon them. (A vengeance that Abraham is making sure God has thoroughly thought through in the practicing of his priestly vocation.)
Bob wrote:Whereas I would have agreed with you in Abraham's dealings with JHVH, Moses is another kettle of fish, just as other parts of the Bible, which you have noted, show him to be a God that has to learn in his dealings with his subjects. Along the way, multitudes of people lose their lives, which is the despotic nature I am referring to. That is, if you take the Bible literally and not seriously.
Bob wrote:I read Genesis as a composition, describing how God grew to become the God of the Jews after the second homecoming, this time from the Babylonian captivity. It was a brave thing to do, and the scribes of Ezra did a fine job of collecting scriptures which supported this legend. The covenant with Abraham was to be one-sided, with God completing the ritual and Abraham looking on. It was always one-sided, if we could but see it. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was growing with every generation in the awareness of the faithful. Abraham tried to free himself of idols, Isaac realised, after making many mistakes that his father had made before him, that his faith gave him room to move, even when he was cornered by human beings. Jacob realised that he could struggle with God, and that despite wrongdoing, there was a way back to faith.
This ridding of idols, the gaining of spiritual infinitude and freedom from aspirations of perfection, are steps up a spiritual ladder for all human kind to go. We are unfortunately all still at the first step, because we haven't learnt the first lesson of Abraham. What is an idol really? Is it not an image? Is it not our imagination the very attribute which seeks out all of those things we cling to? And how narrow-minded we are! The grandness of the spirit is still a very foreign thing to us; the broadness, the height, the depth of the glory of God still evades us as we stick to our nitty-gritty duality of rights and wrongs, whereas reality is all of this. And how many people aspire to perfection and so hate themselves and others, whereas Jesus shows us that the love of God is linked with the love of ourselves and our neighbours? There is no room for perfection, except in the sense of finding completeness in God, who provides all of what I am lacking by grace.
It is by awareness of this that we bow down in humility, accepting the fact that we are what we are – there is no changing that, but if we can learn to stop climbing and clinging and let ourselves float in grace, in the spirit, we may achieve in non-doing, all we thought we have to do. Because it isn't in what we do, but in what we learn not to do, and surrender to the mercy of God, that we find redemption – a mystery for philosophers and priests alike through the centuries.
Bob wrote:This is a rough lesson to learn: "All have sinned and fallen short!"
quetzalcoatl wrote:My religion isn't threatened by evil [even where I may be], because I think evil is created purely by us collectively. Its our inability to adjust and be detached, whereby we think this temporary illusion of form is such that if the brain thinks something then that is who and what we are. Its being caught in the material rather than being in command of it ~ though in our defence the latter can seam impossible to achieve.
I guess I don't mind the idea of a God who makes mistakes, or who gets angry, and who doesn't always think things through and may act out of emotion rather than wisdom, etc. However I don't like the idea so much of a morally maturing God.
Or let me try to be more precise. I don't mind the idea of a morally maturing God (indeed, God is always confronting something new, and wisdom is an organic, growing thing, like a tree) but I think it would be wrong to ever see God as without wisdom, or as not beholden to wisdom (like a despot, who is beholden only to his own interests). No matter the violence we see committed, no matter the hastiness of some of God's decisions, we have to see wisdom operative in them nonetheless, or we have to recognize that God is always open to an intervention in the name of wisdom, and that God will always side with wisdom. (The first of God's ways...)
(There may very well be instances where that intervention failed to materialize and God did act out of something other than wisdom. There are many possibilities here. It would take a super close reading of the texts to say for certain however--I would refer again to Moses' decimation of Israel which is often pinned on God but which is clearly at Moses' command after God forgave Israel.)
You're speaking in a way that affirms what I would call the 'fear of God' reading of the book of Job. That perhaps Job's "perfection" or "completeness" is what he needs to learn a lesson on, that without God's grace Job is of small account, and that in the end Job "repents in the dust and ashes" or, as you put it here, he "bows down in humility, accepting the fact that he is what he is," namely a small, ignorant thing before God. (What Job has restored in the end is his fear of God.)
It denies to Job (and humanity more broadly) the power and dignity that I believe we hold as tselem elohim. It turns more to humility and fear of God than to pride and fear of our own potential which I believe is the true lesson of the book (if not the Bible, which instantiates this theme in Genesis 1 and brings it to a close with the coming of the Son of Man in glory and honour).
To look more at Job in critique of your position, it is clear that Job's life was not just a "floating in grace" and his riches were not just "achieved in non-doing." Indeed, Job shunned evil, but he also recounts a number of things, Godlike things, that he did in his life. Job 31, for instance, offers a mixture of doings and non-doings that Job cites in defense of his innocence. ("Have I ever withheld from the poor their desire?", "Have I ever not shared my meal with the hungry?" In these instances it is the grace of Job, not God, that makes others complete..)
Job? Jesus? Can you say where either of these have fallen short? Abraham, perhaps. Jacob, yes. Moses, undoubtedly. David, absolutely. But there are some cases of human perfection. And here's the thing: it is most evident when all the gifts (or graces) of God have been stripped away (not when God's grace at last completes!). (Indeed, Job and Jesus are more complete when the grace of God is removed, because they prove themselves true, to God and themselves, even when they have no reason to be true. They reveal themselves as true "for nothing" as the satan puts it.)
But yes, the Job's and Jesus' are few and far between, and we can declare with you that "All have sinned and fallen short." We live in a fallen world and amongst a fallen humanity. The grace of God (or Jesus or Job) is required to make us complete. To forgive us our sins. To make us worthy of resurrection. To help restore us to our original and intended dignity.
So I can agree with what you say. But at the same time I have to say that you are wrong. Your perspective takes for granted the fallenness of the world (and humankind). (In this context is where I can affirm what you say.) I think you need to step out of this context. You need to backup out of Genesis 3 (and beyond) and recall our original blessing and calling before things started to fall apart.
Bob wrote:Whatever the reality behind our metaphor "God" (which really only describes our relationship to that "Great Unknown") it isn't the way we have perceived it to be, it isn't our conception, it isn't the images we use and, it isn't the "infant God" who grows up as time goes by. I feel that what is growing up is our perception or our conceptions – although that may be disproved at any time. It helps us to focus by using the image of an eternal almighty God, just as the Hindus have their deities as do the Greeks and many other traditions, but it does reality no more credit than our diary jottings do for what happened on a certain day.
Bob wrote:Wisdom is associated with God but wisdom is more than all-knowing, it is the time-proven result of experience and the in depth knowing of reality. This idea is projected on to the deities in different ways, it just so happens that the Judeo-Christian God is one and so he has all of the attributes of wisdom, whereas in polytheism they may be spread about. This projection is a kind of forgoing a full perception of what God is since, as we know, no-one can see God and live. I think that this is all acceptable – as long as we are sure about what we are doing and don't dupe ourselves into believing that our image of God is God.
Bob wrote:"The lord gives and the Lord takes away" is an equivalent of the cause of suffering in Buddhism: Clinging to people and things is the cause of suffering, not the loss in itself.
Bob wrote:However, although Job begins there, his wife and his friends tell him to give and die – his friends are sure that he must have sinned and Job argues that this is not the case. This appears to comply with the beginning of the story. But it isn't the point, and when Job finally does try to bring on his righteousness, he shows that he hasn't yet understood how much he relies on others, especially upon God in all things. In the storm, he is brought to realise this and remains silent.
Bob wrote:I have only quoted scripture, so it isn't my statement – but in the context of OT and NT theology, I think that it is right.
I do have issue with God as the "Great Unknown" though. I would recall our priestly vocation which requires some kind of unmediated access to God so that we can mediate between God and others.
As such I would hope that our maturing perception of God can, in fact, ring true. While it may not exhaust what God is it may give us what we need to get by, or to do what we need to do in God's name.
I agree with you that wisdom is more than all-knowing. It is discerning good and evil. It is making the wise judgment (that begets life) like Solomon issues in order to identify the true (not necessarily biological) mother of the child.
But one thing: when I say "image of God" I do not mean a conception of God. I mean that this is what we are made and called to be. (Conceiving God isn't so much of a concern for me, but rather discerning wisdom, which is something that God is just as involved in as we are.)
Another thing: I think we can see God and live. In two distinct ways even (which, surprise, surprise, the book of Job shows). One is when we fulfill our priestly vocation. When we ascend to God and have the wisdom to face God and live. Job has this vision in the end ("Now I see you when before I only heard of you.") The other is when we are at last resurrected. When, as Job says in 19:25-26, our saviour comes and restores our flesh, so that with our own eyes we see God and live because God is the one who gave us back our life.
The first of these "visions" is our vocation. It is the more important one. The one you don't want to test unless you have the power and authority to survive, i.e., the wisdom. The other is our hope and our end.
Now maybe I take your (Buddhist) philosophy of non-attachment wrong, but I don't think I'd want to live in a world where we don't suffer our losses, or where losing something important to us, a loved one for instance, does not result in suffering.
I think it is terrible that such loss exists. But I think it would be even more terrible if we didn't cling and truly suffer the loss. Isn't this defined as one of the crucial markers of humankind, anthropologically at least? That we mourn and bury our dead? That we do cling and don't just walk away like an animal that lives in the moment?
I have to be careful though, because I've agreed with you before that we are not to cling, that we are to recognize our lives, and everything in our lives, as a gift, and to not withhold the gift from others. I think that's true. But it's true because of a deeper faith in God, that God will return what we give and that it will be even greater than before. (This is indeed what happens with Job, with both his wealth and his children.)
Because of this deeper faith/hope I think we are quite right to cling. Our faith/hope in God is the justification for our attachment to all things. (Even as we give them up freely in the name of grace.)
So it is not just non-attachment that is required, but a recognition of a deep dependence. It is in fact the latter that Job needs to learn (according to you).
But what does this mean I wonder? Does it mean that Job, although he has lived a perfect life of non-attachment, he has failed to recognize that it is still up to God to determine his reward? Does it mean that the non-attachment itself is insufficient to determine prosperity? (As if God has the final say on retribution?)
I get that something like this is the traditional reading of the book. That strict divine retribution does not hold. That goodness does not guarantee reward. But if so, why would God want to make clear to Job this vetoing or sanctioning power? What's the point of teaching Job this lesson?
Or more broadly, why would God construct this situation where humankind's part is to simply "go with the flow" and not hinder anything through attachment? Completely dependent on God in the end? There is no meaning to human life with this view. At least not that I can see. It's all on God. All we have to do is nothing at all.
I would love to hear otherwise but right now my perception of your view pales to my own, where we are called to throw our full weight against God like the waters of the Jordan rush against Behemoth. It is more interdependence than dependence, and that small shift alone imbues life with so much more meaning (methinks).
But maybe there is an interdependence present in your thought. Maybe you see God somehow depending on humankind. That is what I would like to hear...
Bob wrote:The problem is that we do not really know what it is we are mediating, if it is anything above natural existence. God remains the shadow which we, like Moses, are permitted to witness, but a fleeting one. Our confrontation in Prayer is one-sided, as is anything we may wish to partake in – it is all down to the grace of God. If it isn't given, we can't have it. So what are we mediating? It is a fleeting experience, an insight, a perceptive breakthrough – or it is scripture.
Bob wrote:I think that wisdom is more than discerning good and evil, it is understanding that both are two sides of a coin, which are mutually conditions for each other. You wouldn't know good without evil, or evil without good and wisdom finds equanimity and copes with both in a completely different manner to what is seen to be "normal". There is an old story, I believe it is Chinese, that describes that well. I heard it first when listening to Robert Schuller:
A father had a son and a horse. They used the strength of the horse to till the land and pull heavy loads. One day his son fell off the horse and broke his leg. All of the villagers came around and said, "You poor man, what bad luck! Now you'll have to control the horse and do all of the work alone!"
The old man said, "Bad luck? I don't know about that. It is as it is!"
The day after the horse ran away. All of the villagers came around and said, "You poor man, what bad luck! How will you till the land without your son or your horse?"
The old man said, "Bad luck? I don't know about that. It is as it is!"
Then the Emperor sent troops out, looking for young men and horses for his army. And they came to the village. They saw the son and didn't take him because he had a broken leg. All of the villagers came around and said, "You lucky man, what good luck! They have taken our sons and we are alone here now and don't know what to do!"
The old man said, "Good luck? I don't know about that. It is as it is!"
Soon after, as the leg of the son was beginning to heal, the horse came back over the hill and had three other horses with it, which the boy was able to catch in the enclosure. All of the villagers came around and said, "You lucky man, what good luck! Now you can sell three of the horses and buy a carriage!"
The old man said, "Good luck? I don't know about that. It is as it is!"
The old man and his son were able to prosper and soon were wealthy grocers in the village.
Bob wrote:The ascendency you are talking about is after death. Job "saw" God to be no-thing which he had envisioned, but far more awe-inspiring. We have to be careful of our use of language, which we can manipulate to say things which have nothing to do with reality.
Bob wrote:That isn't the question at hand. Love and compassion are just as important to Buddhists, but the question is whether I will stop living after losing something or someone I have valued highly? If it is, you are committing suicide, which isn't looked well upon in Christianity or Buddhism. But clinging to something or someone means that I am unable to live on, unable to let go of the past and live in the present.
Bob wrote:Too many Christians cling on to their "Rock of Ages" etc. and are just in free fall. It is when we learn to trust that we have faith
Bob wrote:No, it means that Job has, like Satan says, been doing good things because he thought he would profit from them. This isn't a problem in itself, but it does constitute clinging – in the storm he learnt to let go and float. In the end the story is about a man who thought he wasn't clinging, but unconsciously was, and who had to recognize that he had been calculating his deeds, and let them go.
Bob wrote:Secondly, why should be attach ourselves to things or people in such a way, after all, we die, they die or are broken, so what is the point? Life is impermanent, that is why Jesus says that we should collect treasures which cannot rust and which will not be stolen.
Bob wrote:I can see the God of the Bible including people in his deliberations, which is calling us to take a metaphysical approach to our existence and all experiences. It is necessary to reflect on what has happened and take a different perspective in order to learn from life.
Suffice it to say that Moses did not have the wisdom or purity necessary to see God face to face and to live! He was no Job.
I'll come closer to your position though and say that mediating between God and others does not require an unmediated access to God, as I suggested before. Job's friends, for instance, would have been mediators if they had succeeded in consoling Job. If they had spoken the consoling words of truth that God would have spoken, and does speak. This does not require an unmediated access to God. More a recognition of what troubles Job and a deep understanding of God's ways (perhaps without even realizing that they are God's ways).
But the mediator position also goes the other way. It also involves speaking on behalf of humankind to God (as Abraham and Moses do in the instances we've discussed). Similarly this requres a recognition of what troubles God (if not unmediated access in this case).
omar wrote:quetzalcoatl wrote:My religion isn't threatened by evil [even where I may be], because I think evil is created purely by us collectively. Its our inability to adjust and be detached, whereby we think this temporary illusion of form is such that if the brain thinks something then that is who and what we are. Its being caught in the material rather than being in command of it ~ though in our defence the latter can seam impossible to achieve.
I guess that that fantasy is more real than the metaphysical construct you propose. We can't be detached. It is what makes us human. The POE is a distinctly human problem. This temporary illusion of form, as you call it, is who I am, be. There is no other existence beyond it other than that which I can arbitrarily postulate. I am as far as that brain takes me. It's hope to "command" the material? Well that is just another one of it's illusions. It suffers from illusion and calms itself through illusions.
The POE, as Ehrman has postulated it, seems to me an honest, logical, response to the perceptions of the world and the assumptions made beyond the world. The problem is not the world but our ideas of it, not the problem of God but the problem about our ideas about God. If we cannot admit ignorance, if we cannot let go of our preconceptions, then the world does present a problem.
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Have you loved R2-D2 and C-3PO since you were a kid? Do you have a soft spot in your in your heart for WALL-E? Did you used to play with Furbies and care for a Tamagotchi digital pet? Can the sight of a Roomba roaming your living room bring a tender smile to your face?
Attention all you robot lovers: Scientists are here to tell you that your affection for these machines is normal. In fact, when we see people interacting with robots, our brains react in much the same way as when we see people interacting with each other.
German researchers from the University of Duisburg Essen and colleagues recruited 14 volunteers and put them in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. While they were in the fMRI scanner, they watched videos of a robot, a human and an inanimate object. In some cases, the subjects in the videos were being treated kindly; in others, they were abused.
Watching a robot being treated with affection prompted a similar pattern of brain activity in the volunteers as did watching a person being treated the same way. The researchers found that neurons were activated in parts of the brain that are part of the limbic system, which controls emotions (among other functions).

subset: commoncrawl


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The average pay for a Logistics Manager is {{pay}} per hour.
The average pay for a Logistics Manager is HK$404,318 per year.
|Total Pay (
XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).)
Job Description for Logistics Manager
Companies which ship goods, parts, and commodities from location to location as part of their regular operations define this transportation aspect of the business as logistics. A logistics manager is typically a middle manager in charge of discrete teams or regions within a larger logistics operation of a business, and they typically have supervisory duties, make employment decisions, and create and work within approved budgets. The logistics manager will typically oversee a large group of employees and receive reports from various team leaders involved in warehouse, loading, and shipping operations. In many companies, the logistics manager in turn reports to a director-level executive in logistics or operations.Read More...
Perhaps the most important part of a logistics manager's job is to ensure the efficiency of the movement of goods or components through a company's shipping system. They typically generate reports showing how quickly and accurately warehouses fill orders for company factories or consumer goods shipping, and will also analyze shipment delivery times based on quantities of items or the total weight shipped.
Throughout these processes, the manager looks for ways to remove bottlenecks and obstacles and create as clear a path as possible for all logistics operations. Because logistics can also involve safety issues, logistics managers typically work with team leaders to ensure that warehouses, equipment, and freight vehicles are regularly inspected, reports are retained, and necessary repairs are handled expediently.
Logistics managers, like managers of many departments within large companies, must oversee and implement systems for hiring, performance reviews, scheduling, and overall best practice procedures within every component of the logistics sector of the company. The manager is likely to have a support and administrative staff, but will still need organization and excellent communication skills to do the job well. They may also be required to generate reports and data showing logistics performance and present them frequently to operations and logistics directors within the company.
Most logistics managers have an education background that includes undergraduate work in operations or logistics management from a university. Many employers search for candidates with excellent practical experience in shipping, receiving, and warehouse management as part of a logistics department. Most logistics managers work regular business hours in an office environment, but will also spend time in the field at warehouses, docks, and similar facilities. Travel may be a major part of the position depending on the employer. (Copyright 2019 PayScale.com)
- Plan, direct, and coordinate the storage and distribution of raw materials and supplies within an organization.
- Ensure that customer supply needs are met.
- Oversee financial transactions related to logistics.
- Manage logistics staff.
Logistics Manager Job Listings
Pay Difference by Location
Key Stats for Logistics Manager
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60 %


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Message Board
Peter Hoeg Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Hoeg has written!
Author Hoeg's Book Reviews
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Smilla Jaspersen - half Dane, half Greenlander - knows, from marks left on a snow covered rooftop that the small boy, Isaiah, a friend of hers, did not fall to his death accidentally. But the police, not having Smilla's expertise with snow, regard Isaiah's death as an accident. The hunt for the truth leads Smilla to the icy wastes of Greenland, and the Cryolyte Corporation's sixty-five-million year old secret. ...


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Skyjacker 6" 4-Link Lift Kits
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Although we come across a number of amplifiers each year, we still get excited everytime "the guy in the big brown truck" drops off a new product at our test lab. Recently, the good folks at Cadence sent us an example of one of their latest creations, an addition to the popular ZRS series of amplifiers, specifically the new ZRS C9. The popularity of these amplifiers has a lot to do with the amount of performance and features available for the price. We were very eager to see if the new Cadence C9, priced at only $299.00 USD (slightly higher in Canada) would continue the tradition.
The Cadence ZRS C9 is a full range Class AB four channel amplifier. Rated at 100 watts x 4 into 4 ohms, and 150 watts x 4 into 2 ohms, the amp I unpacked was relatively large and looked like it meant business. The C9 features a black anodized brushed aluminum heatsink that measures a bit over 15 inches long, 9.6 inches wide, and about 2.3 inches tall. The amp looks good, with beefy heat sink fins, with a laser etched Cadence logo and silk screened model number on the top in red and white. The connections and controls are situated on each end of the amplifier, and the mounting feet are slotted tabs that are part of each sheetmetal end panel. Wiring connections are the ubiquitous hex screw type, albeit these are cast from solid brass and then nickel plated for maximum current transfer. The power connections will accept 4 gauge cables, and the speaker connections will easily handle 10 gauge cable. Also on this end of the amp are a pair of 30A, ATC style fuses.
On the opposing end of the amplifier, there are a lot of adjustments! These included gain, filter type, filter slope, crossover frequency, 2ch/4ch input switch, frequency multiplier switches, bass boost and a clever "Bass Focus" control, a subsonic filter that can be used as the highpass section of a bandpass filter, as well as an interesting switch that was labeled "Clone Function". Thankfully, the amp comes with a good installation guide that explains the proper use and setting of each control. After a bit of reading I understood the purpose of this switch is to allow the settings for channels 3 and 4 to be automatically applied to channels 1 and 2, thereby eliminating the need to set everything manually, and theoretically providing more precise adjustments when all 4 channels are used at the same settings. Also on this end of the amplifier are the input RCA jacks, as well as a pair of full range output jacks that can be used to drive the inputs of another amp, like a dedicated subwoofer amplifier for example. The ZRS C9 also includes a wired remote control that changes the level on channels 3 and 4.
Setup and Listening:
As usual, the first place the amp got connected was in the quiet and carefully controlled environment of my listening room. To test this amp I decided to use channels 1 and 2 to drive my component speakers, and channels 3 and 4 would be connected to a pair of 12-inch woofers in a small sealed enclosure. I specifically chose the sealed box so I could experiment with the subsonic filter and the Bass Focus control.
During my adjustments, I found I had a tough time reading the red silk screening used for the controls, and while it looks artsy and cool in bright light, it's going to be hard to read in a dimly lit trunk. I suggest a re-think here. After setting the "front" channels to 45Hz high pass, and the rear channels to about 80Hz low pass, I got the gains adjusted, and began my listening. Keeping in mind that this amplifier costs less than what a lot of folks spend on a cell phone, I was really pleased with the overall performance of the amplifier and I thought it sounded clean and natural, with plenty of power for all but the most extreme volume levels. The top end was very noise free, and hada sense of airiness and space that I don't hear in many of the new full range class D designs. My only minor gripe was a slight lack of focus in the stereo image. The bass was tight and articulate, and I was very impressed with the functionality of the Bass Focus control. You see instead of just a simple "Bass Boost" feature, (which is also provided) the Bass Focus control allows you to dial in boost at lower frequencies that can help compensate for a lack of enclosure volume or cone area. The effect is excellent, but like any good thing, too much can be bad. Thankfully the Cadence engineers understand this too, and limited the amount of available boost to about 7dB. This feature is also useful when combined with the subsonic filter to give your mids a bit of additional punch as well, but again, always use care and caution when applying boost to any speaker system.
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In this lesson, students identify and describe unfamiliar scientist heroes who contributed to the field of science until the year 1929. Students create a T-square graphic organizer about a specific group of women scientists of the Harvard College... (View More) Observatory (a T-square is provided that has Facts Learned on one side and Big Ideas or Contributions on the other). The students will also research and complete a product (e.g., written report, multimedia product, podcast, blog, skit, etc.) and give a presentation on one of the unfamiliar scientist heroes they researched. This activity is from the Cosmic Times teacher's guide and is intended to be used in conjunction with the 1929 Cosmic Times poster. (View Less)
Materials Cost: 1 cent - $1 per group of students
In this lesson, students create a fictional narrative on the beginning of time. They use their scientific knowledge of the Big Bang Theory and go back into time to when it occurred so they can make observations about it. Students can select from... (View More) four options for creating a final product that demonstrates their learning using the RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic) method. This lesson is from the Cosmic Times teachers guide and is intended to be used in conjunction with the 1955 Cosmic Times poster. (View Less)
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Prince Philly (Feat. Big Ashley & Ahmad) - Close To You [Unsigned Hype]
Prince Philly's Official Single "Close To You" Feat. Big Ashley & Ahmad Official Music Video HD Shot By Ulysses "4UrEntertainment" Follow On Twitter --> @PrincePhilly @BigAshley @aathesinger & @quick718
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"Thankfully I was never told I needed a Prince Charming or anything more than what I already had in me," she offered. "You have to find your own way in life. I'm not into that rescue stuff."
"I'm sort of bored now," she confessed [talking about 'what's next'] "I wanna work on something and maybe it doesn't have to be an acting job. I've been hanging out with my dogs and my family and, to be honest with you, I'm still catching up on sleep. I've worked for 2 years solid, literally since Eclipse. But I'm itchy now. I wanna do something."
Her first shot at redefining her career came in September [release date in Australia], with her star turn in the big-screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."
Reminded that she need never work again for the rest of her life, she smiled and said: "Yeah, I know. I'm in an insane position that I would do my job for free and that's something that a lot of people say, but I actually mean it. But you need to need it or else it's not worth doing."
That work ethic can largely be attributed to her upbringing. Raised by industry parents, she did her homework on the sets of her parents' TV shows, where dad John Stewart worked as a stage manager and her mother, Jules Mann-Stewart – originally from Maroochydore, Qld – as a script supervisor.
"My parents are really working class. They make movies. I really looked up to them because of that, and always wanted to make movies and be a part of that. I don't know what I'd be doing if I wasn't an actor.
"Growing up, my parents weren't really strict. They let me be who I wanted to be. It's not like my mum ever sat me down and said, 'You need to be yourself, Kristen' or 'Don't take any crap, Kristen', although she did say that to me quite a few times," she recalled, laughing.
"I thought I was an adult when I was, like 12. I don't know why. I've never been complacent. I wasn't brought up that way. I'm the youngest in my family and always felt like I had to take care of my brothers. I've always been a worrier. I've never been that kid who just doesn't give a crap about anything, even when I was in kindergarten."
Stewart admitted she has struggled with the attention fame has brought.
"I'm particularly weird because I don't even like being looked at," she revealed. "A lot of actors love it and they love going out and literally doing it as an activity. I hate it."
She spends little time in front of the mirror, leaving it to a six-member prep team to make her red-carpet ready. "I don't especially enjoy the process, to be honest. I have a lot of actor friends who love getting ready for something just because they feel kind of important. I don't identify with that. But being in the public eye, I'm expected to look good and I understand that."
This year, Stewart signed on as the face of Balenciaga's new women's fragrance, Florabotanica. In some respects it's a no brainer, her dark, rebellious streak pairing nicely with the label's high fashion style.
"It was one of those things that just felt right. I'm a huge fan of the fashion world now that I've been allowed to be a part of it, even if sometimes I don't even know what I'm wearing." she said indicating her current choice of denim and a faded t-shirt. "But whenever I put on anything Balenciaga I'm like 'Oh, that looks like Balenciaga!' You can see it, you can pick up out of a rack."
(interview was conducted around the same time as Comic Con)
Ty @Mel452<3


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International coordination to avoid excessive austerity will be essential for global economic success, argues Larry Summers.
This year has begun on a note of cautious optimism for the global economy. Europe is back from the brink. The United States did not fall over the fiscal cliff. Japan is moving to change its economic strategy, and China appears to be getting back on track.
Financial-market indices in the US, moreover, are near pre-crisis levels, and expected volatility is at multi-year lows. Major financial institutions are, for the most part, better capitalized than they have been in a long time. Balance sheets have been repaired, and many actors are awash with cash. While 2013 will not be a banner year, it may nonetheless come to be viewed as the first year of the post-crisis period.
To be sure, the political environment remains challenging almost everywhere. The US will face a trifecta of new fiscal hurdles – lack of legal authority to pay debt, no operating budget for the federal government, and the dreaded prospect of sequestration – before the end of March. Crucial elections lie ahead in Italy and Germany. China's new government comes to power amid unprecedented levels of public concern about corruption and inappropriate enrichment of public officials. And it is not clear that Japan's fractured politics will permit stable governance in the years ahead.
But there is the prospect of a virtuous circle in which economic improvement leads to less surly politics, in turn reducing uncertainty and boosting recovery further. So far, at least, the worst fears about the adverse political consequences of poor economic performance have not materialized – even in Greece. So my guess is that if nothing else goes terribly wrong, politics will not undo the global economy.
Unfortunately, much else could go wrong. In particular, while each of the global economy's major regions has a plausible growth strategy, these strategies may not add up. Virtually the only proposition on which international economists agree is that the sum of all trade balances must equal zero. And, as a corollary, every bit of export-led growth that countries enjoy must be offset somewhere in the system by output growth that falls short of demand growth. So, a major challenge now is that around the world there seems to be far more planning for export-led growth than acceptance of reduced competitiveness and increased imports.
At the beginning of 2010, US President Barack Obama set the lofty goal of doubling America's exports by the end of 2014. More than halfway through that five-year period, the US is pretty much on track to meet that target, implying that export growth is ahead of import growth or growth in the global economy.
In Europe, the only way that the financially distressed countries of the periphery can reduce their debt is to run trade surpluses. With limits on Germany's willingness to accept a reduction in its competitiveness and repeated signals from the European Central Bank that monetary policy will remain highly accommodating, export-led growth seems to be the goal here, too.
And, in Asia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new Japanese government has already depressed the value of the yen and buoyed export prospects by placing reflation through monetary easing at the center of its agenda, while the most recent statistics out of China suggest significantly faster export growth than was anticipated.
So, where will the extra imports needed to support all of this additional exporting come from? Perhaps weaker commodity prices will create space for other imports, and commodity producers' trade positions will swing toward lower surpluses. But lower commodity prices in a highly buoyant global economy would not be in line with past patterns.
Perhaps emerging economies with improved prospects will attract higher capital flows, financing larger trade deficits as capital goods are purchased directly or indirectly. But will this be enough to offset all that is happening in the larger economies? It is quite likely that some would-be export champions will be disappointed as planned competitiveness increases do not materialize.
This is why serene views of the effects of austerity based on historical experience are misguided. A single country or region consolidating or deleveraging in a thriving global economy can expect that its lower interest rates will translate into a weaker currency and an improved trade position. But most major economies cannot expect this in a struggling global economy. Each country's austerity imposes external costs by reducing demand for other countries' products. In this sense, it has a beggar-thy-neighbor aspect, which may be enhanced if the austerity is offset by monetary expansion.
The implication for policymakers is clear. More than at almost any time in recent years, international coordination to avoid excessive austerity will be essential for global economic success. Ensuring that national strategies are not just locally prudent, but also globally consistent should be the central task for the G-20 and the International Monetary Fund in 2013. Otherwise, the global growth equation may not add up.
Lawrence H. Summers was US Secretary of the Treasury (1999-2001) and Director of the US National Economic Council (2009-2010), and is a former president of Harvard University, where he is currently University Professor. Watch his session, An Insight, An Idea, for the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2013 in Davos.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013. www.project-syndicate.org
Image: Sun glistens off the end of a part demolished row of terraced houses in Stoke-on-Trent, central England. REUTERS/Phil Noble


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For various reasons I HATE the whole concept of religion. (yes I know, my therapist and I have alot to talk about)
One of the main reasons is the complete and total replacement of logical, scientific thought with that of self-proclaimed .......fuck- brain fart. (from too much vodka)
I want to set Glenn Beck on fire but my wife wont let me.
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Whitman's Baltimore Spring Expo Remains Extremely Valuable to Coin Collectors
by Amy Lignor
The leading coin and collectibles expos found in North America are brought to one and all by a company named Whitman Publishing. With the three huge industry events held in Baltimore, Maryland, Whitman has actually become the leading producer of coin and currency shows over the years. The first to be seen in 2018, the Baltimore Spring Expo, will be held March 22nd through the 25th, and collectors are already 'buzzing' about some incredible items that will be up for bid.
The story goes back to the 1930s, a time when a man by the name of Richard Yeoman was hired to work as a commercial artist at a company named Western Publishing. Yeoman was an avid coin collector and became extremely interested in the new coin boards that his company produced in 1938. His interest grew to the point where Yeoman helped create an extensive sales network for the coin boards, with outlets ranging from hardware stores to dime stores; shoe parlors to gas stations. And in 1940, Yeoman even redesigned the boards to accommodate a wider variety of coin denominations, thus increasing the number of coin collecting hobbyists.
Yeoman continued on this trek, gathering must-have data in order to put together a book for collectors that provided current values of coins, encouraging those collectors seeking rare coins across the globe. Yeoman's hard work paid off when "The Handbook of United States Coins: The Official Blue Book of U.S. Coins" was first published in 1942. A few years later, a second book appeared, "A Guide Book of United States Coins: The Official Red Book of U.S. Coins," providing collectors with pricing information for buying and selling coins to dealers. These definitive pricing guides set, and continue to be the industry standard.
Creating over 300 coin collecting books and products for the hobby over time turned into a company known as Whitman Publishing, which now features three distinct product lines: Whitman, H.E. Harris, and the U.S. Mint. Within each brand, there are coin supplies and accessories to meet any collector's needs. Whitman continued on this incredibly profitable path by holding their first national coin show in June of 2004 in Atlanta. The popularity grew exponentially which increased the number of Whitman's Expos to three times annually in Baltimore, and once annually in both Nashville and Philadelphia.
This time out, however, Whitman is starting with something truly big for 2018. The headlines are everywhere, letting one and all know that a "magnificent 1879 Quintuple Stella" will be presented by Stack's Bowers Galleries in their Official Auction held at the Whitman Coins & Collectibles Baltimore Expo this March.
The 1879 Quintuple Stella is among the most legendary issues of U.S. numismatics, for both its incredible beauty and absolute rarity. It is the larger 'sibling' to the more prolific Four-Dollar Stellas struck in 1879 and 1880. The issues were products of a global push to establish an international currency and stabilize the price of silver, which had been falling since the California Gold Rush. Though the U.S. Mint issued several significant patterns in the 1870s and 1880s, none were approved for circulation, causing the U.S. to abandon the idea of establishing an international currency.
When it comes to this Quintuple Stella rarity is important. It is a fact that just five examples survive of this large $20 pattern, one of which is forever off the market seeing as that the Smithsonian Institution is its' home. The most recent example to sell was the Brand-Carter-Simpson piece bringing in nearly $1.9 million at a 2016 auction.
This coin can be traced directly back to its origins at the U.S. Mint, as well as the numismatics who have held it in their own collections, including J.W. Haseltine, Dr. Edward Maris, and more. Being a featured highlight at the March 2018 Baltimore Expo Auction, this treasure will be offered alongside numerous other rarities, including items from the very famous Vanderbilt Collection.
Coin collectors will be out in droves for the Baltimore Spring Expo, once again celebrating Whitman's many decades of continuous service to the numismatic community. It most certainly will be a memorable sight to see!
For more information on events, lectures, auctions, as well as updates on the other expos that Whitman will be having in 2018, follow it all at: http://expo.whitman.com/.
Source: BaretNewsWire.com


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Smoke the turkey wings according to the directions below. This can be done up to two days in advance of making the sauce. Wrap the turkey wings in plastic wrap and store them in the refrigerator until needed.
Drain the tomatoes in a colander over a bowl. Locate the core on the tomatoes and gently pull out, taking as many seeds along with the cores as you can. Don't worry about any seeds you leave behind. Chop the tomatoes coarsely by hand or by squeezing them with your fingers right at the colander. Return the tomatoes to the liquid in the bowl.
Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart heavy pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, garlic and cherry peppers. Season lightly with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are crisp-tender, about 8 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring once or twice, until the paste bubbles and takes on an orange tint, about 3 minutes. Pour in the wine, bring to a boil and cook for a minute or two.
Carefully pour the tomatoes, their liquid and the chicken broth into the pot, tuck the wings into the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the sauce is simmering and cook, covered, until the turkey meat begins to fall from the bones, about 1 hour. Pluck the wings from the sauce and set them aside to cool. Remove the sauce from the heat.
When the wings are cool enough to handle, pull off the skin and remove the meat from the bones, shredding it coarsely as you go. Stir the meat into the sauce. Taste and season with salt if necessary. The sauce can be prepared in advance and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
About half an hour before you're ready to serve the pasta, heat a large pot of salted water to a boil. Bring 4 cups of the sauce to a simmer. (Refrigerate or freeze any remaining sauce.) Stir the rigatoni into the water and continue stirring gently until the water returns to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is al dente, about 10 minutes. Ladle off and reserve about a cup of the pasta cooking liquid and drain the pasta well. Return the pasta to the pot and place it under low heat. Stir in the reserved 4 cups of sauce and the basil. If the sauce doesn't flow smoothly over the pasta, stir in the reserved pasta cooking water as necessary.
Remove the pot from the heat, stir in a handful of grated cheese, and spoon the pasta onto a serving platter. Pass additional grated cheese at the table if you like.
Prepare stovetop smoker with soaked wood chips according to manufacturers instructions.
Trim any excess fat from the wings and cut the wings into individual segments if necessary: first cut off and discard the wing tips; we won't be smoking those since they have no meat. Next, cut the remaining part of the wing into two pieces at the joint. To make this easier, make a small cut near the joint and, with your hands, bend the wing until it is nearly straight. If you take a careful look at the joint, you will notice a space between the joint, that's where you want to cut. Once you do a few of these, you'll get the hang of where to cut.
Season each wing section with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a scant 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Rub the seasoning vigorously into the turkey.
Smoke until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the wing near the bone registers 170 degrees F. (To be sure, probe a few different pieces before deciding they're done.); about 45 minutes after closing the smoker lid. (Begin checking the wings for doneness with an instant-read thermometer after 35 minutes.)
If the turkey wings haven't reached the proper temperature after 45 minutes, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the wings until done as described above.
Use smoked turkey wings to season your favorite bean soups, vegetable soups or baked bean dishes.
Recipe courtesy of Christopher Styler, Smokin', HarperCollins, 2004


text:
"And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering...." (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)
Monday, September 27, 2010
At some panel event many years ago (I think it may have been a Museum of Radio and Television function), Victoria Wyndham (Rachel; AW) related how people coming up to her always said, "Oh, you're on my stories."
I gather it's a rather common way in which to refer to soap operas, but having grown up in a non-English speaking household, I'd never heard it until that night, and so it stuck with me.
It also resonated. Because to me, soaps are first and foremost stories.
Yes, I've had my requisite crushes on actors through the years, my couples that I "shipped" rather desperately.
When I came to work in daytime, first at E's Pure Soap talk-show, then ABC, then PGP, I even got to know many actors and to respect them not just for their work on-screen but also as human beings (it was awfully nice when I could enjoy both aspects equally; alas, it rarely works that way.)
But, first and foremost, to me it was about the story. Does this story hold my attention? Does it make me want to tune in tomorrow? Does it make me want to discuss it with other people and hear what they thought and how it would turn out?
Since starting to watch soaps in 1980 (Luke and Laura, what else?), I eventually went on to sample them all. And the reason was always story, story, story.
I have never turned the dial for a particular actor or couple. It had to be a particular actor or couple engaged in a great story. (It's also, I presume, why I initially dreamed up the concepts for Another World Today and Mindy's Twitter. Actors are wonderful, actors are great, I know whenever I've written a script, actors have inevitably brought more to it than I ever could have imagined, but, in the end, the story was still the driving force.)
But, maybe that's just me.
How about the rest of you?
What do you think is the most important and compelling aspect of a soap opera?
And while you're pondering the question, if you're interested in a glimpse into my deep, dark, just starting out in soaps past... check out the below Pure Soap clip. I'm the first... uh... victim.
6 comments:
- Lois said...
Oh boy. . . well, in short, I don't think you can have one without the other. You can have a great story, but if an actor is just not resonating with viewers, the story won't matter; and then if you have great actors, a lousy story won't do much to keep viewers.
But (or maybe not, I'll see as I go along LOL). . . when I first saw the question and thought about it, I was going to say that maybe for me it's actors/characters. I only watched GL and during the last some years of it, I kept seeing people complain about the stories. Me, I just really couldn't agree much because I just long time ago saw it as I'm not the writer, I'll just take it as it happens. Doesn't mean I like every single thing that happened, but I just took it as it happened. And I think it's because I wanted to see my favorite characters (and actors) and just about didn't mind what they were doing, as long as they were doing it for me to watch.
However, most people are probably not like that. Hence need to go back to my first paragraph. LOL
- Shamos said...
For me it comes down to both actors & plot. As a long time GL fan, the show took a nose dive plot wise after 1992, yet the brilliant actors really earned their paychecks by performing the hell out of scripts that were so light & ludicrous that they would take a week to hit the ground if dropped from a highrise building. Sadly, the genre is dying and I do not forsee any way of changing this. The heydey of the soap opera was in the 80's, but technology is basically to blame for the demise. Thank you for creating continuations of the dearly departed shows, I especially love Mindy's Twitter since Krista Tesreau's Mindy was my favorite character. It is bittersweet, but it keeps the light shining. Ratings, advertising & lack of diversity (both in front of and behind the scenes - this is of CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE people!)are the major hurdles that need to be overcome. The simple fact that there is only now one soap filmed in NYC scares me. No offense but it is no secret that East Coast soaps always churned out better actors. So many promienent & popular actors started on soaps & as Lois said in the previous comment concerning actors & plot: I don't think you can have one without the other.
- Eman el_sherkawy said...
شركة نقل عفش بمكة
شركة نقل عفش بالطائف
شركة نقل عفش بينبع
شركة نقل عفش بالدمام
شركة نقل عفش بنجران
- Eman el_sherkawy said...
شركة نقل عفش بالرياض وجدة والدمام والخبر والجبيل اولقطيف والاحساء والرياض وجدة ومكة المدينة المنورة والخرج والطائف وخميس مشيط وبجدة افضل شركة نقل عفش بجدة نعرضها مجموعة الفا لنقل العفش بمكة والخرج والقصيم والطائف وتبوك وخميس مشيط ونجران وجيزان وبريدة والمدينة المنورة وينبع افضل شركات نقل الاثاث بالجبيل والطائف وخميس مشيط وبريدة وعنيزو وابها ونجران المدينة وينبع تبوك والقصيم الخرج حفر الباطن والظهران
شركة نقل عفش بجدة
شركة نقل عفش بالمدينة المنورة
شركة نقل اثاث بالرياض
شركة نقل عفش بالدمام
شركة نقل عفش بالطائف
- Eman el_sherkawy said...
شركة نقل عفش بالرياض
شركة نقل عفش بينبع
نقل العفش والتخزين
شركة نقل عفش بالمدينة المنورة
شركة نقل عفش بالمدينة المنورة
- sarah saad said...
http://mycanadafitness.com/price-moving-jeddah.html اسعار نقل العفش بجدة
http://mycanadafitness.com/company-moving-mecca.html شركات نقل العفش بمكة
شركة كيان لنقل العفش بالرياض والمدينة المنورة وجدة ومكة والطائف والدمام تقديم لكم دليل كامل لشركات نقل العفش بالمملكة العربية السعودية
نقل عفش شركة كيان
دليل شركات نقل العفش


text:
Departments Forfattere "Hoffmann, Pia Lyngby"
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Nistrup Madsen, Bodil; Erdman Thomsen, Hanne; Lassen, Tine; Pram Nielsen, Louise; Odgaard, Anna Elisabeth; Hoffmann, Pia Lyngby (Frederiksberg, 2012)[Flere oplysninger][Færre oplysninger]
Resume: In this paper we will describe some problems related to the defini-tion of a set of data categories as well as to the import and merging of data from various resources. First, we illustrate how organizing a taxonomy of data cate-gories is facilitated by using the principles for creating a terminological ontolo-gy (or concept system). Next, we discuss how multiple terminological entries referring to the same concept can be identified with the purpose of merging them. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8491
Filer i denne post: 1Nistrup_Erdman.pdf (833.3Kb)
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text:
Cashin & Young De (Feat. Mitchy Slick) - Cant Move Me
SkeeTV Presents a world premier of Cashis & Young De Ft. Mitchy Slick new music video "Can't Move Me"
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The latest model runs are in and it appears clear now that we have an extraordinary weekend ahead--with the only exception being the northwest WA coast. The trend in model solutions suggest less concern for clouds reducing the highs on Sunday across the western interior.
The latest radar imagery (Friday 9:30 PM) indicates a few shower over SE Washington and that they are dissipating and moving out rapidly.
Tomorrow, as the ridge builds, temperatures will warm up considerably from the temperatures we experienced today: mid to upper 50s in the west and the upper 60s over the basin of eastern Washington.
Lets take a look what we expect. First, lets start with the 4-km run of the UW WRF for 5 PM Saturday...near the time of max temperatures:
PROBCAST, which is based on statistically postprocessing an ensemble of forecasts. PROBCAST is very good with warm temperature situations. Below is Probcast's max temps for Saturday and Sunday. Very similar idea to the WRF runs.
Now the only reason to get nervous about this forecast is that there will be some clouds along the coast that will stretch into southern B.C. Here is the cloud forecast from WRF for 5 PM Sunday:


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The supplied programs are Copyright of their respective owners, All Rights Reserved. It is provided as shareware with the following limitations:
This guide will take you step-by-step through configuring Windows 98 Second Edition to connect to the Internet for the first time. The last section is a Tips and FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on the Internet and Windows 98. There is no software to install from NCKCN, you already have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, the latest software available, in Windows 98 Second Edition. Simply follow the instructions and run the simple Internet Connection Wizard to connect to NCKCN and the Internet.
There a two versions of Windows 98. The first installed an older version of the software, the second version (Windows 98 Second Edition) installs the latest version of Internet software. There are slight differences to configuring the different version of Windows 98. If you have the first version of Windows 98, you need to contact us to send you the correct guide if you wish.
To determine what version you have of Windows 98, right-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop, and select the Properties menu. The System section should read Microsoft Windows 98 ...Second Edition as shown below.
Using the Internet Connection Wizard
To start the Internet Connection wizard manually
You can also start the Internet Connection Wizard (ICW) by double-clicking the desktop Icon if you have one. The ICW will step you through to connect to NCKCN. Please read the dialog boxes to follow the wizards. They are very easy to understand.
You can customize your setting so that Microsoft Internet Explorer starts up with the NCKCN Home Page, dials in the way you want, and will disconnect you when you are finished with your NCKCN session. Please read the dialog boxes to follow the wizards. They are very easy to understand. Be sure to access the Help menu, it has all the answers to all your questions! You can set these settings two ways, in the View and Internet Options while in Microsoft Internet Explorer, or accessing the Internet icon in Control Panel. Either way, you get exactly the same dialog box to change settings. Many of these settings are already set from the above configuration.
You can connect (dial) to NCKCN several different ways. Essentially, whenever you start a program that wants to connect to the Internet (TCP/IP), Windows 98 starts the Dial-up connection you created in the previous section. Perhaps the easiest way then to start an Internet connection is to simply double-click the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop. You can also go to My Computer, then Dial-up networking, and double-click on the NCKCN connection. For more information on this and how to view/edit your Dial-up Networking (DUN) connections view the Windows 95/98 Dial-up Networking link on the NCKCN Support web page at http://www.nckcn.com/Support.
Microsoft Outlook Express is used to send a receive email and view newsgroups follow these simple hints. With MS Outlook Express you can have multiple email and news accounts at one computer.
To change configuration, or add account to Microsoft Outlook Express to send a receive email and view newsgroups follow these simple hints.
Please read the dialog boxes to follow the wizards. They are very easy to understand. Be sure to access the Help menu, it has all the answers to all your questions!
That's it! Have fun folks. You can always look at the NCKCN System on-line technical support page at http://www.nckcn.com/Support/ or another great way to ask questions and seek answers is to use the NCKCN Commons link on the NCKCN web page at http://www.nckcn.com. The Commons have on-line discussion webs on technical, as well as social topics. See you on-line!
If you are having problems connecting:
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
The Internet
Why does the Internet Connection wizard open?
The Internet Connection wizard collects information required for you to use the Internet. The wizard may open the first time you open a Web page or HTML file. To read more about the wizard, see "Setting Up an Internet Connection," earlier in this chapter.
Why am I getting a "Navigation Canceled" message?
If you arent connected to the Internet, you might receive this message when you try to jump to a Web page or use the Search Explorer Bar. See "Why do I receive an error message when Im connecting to a Web page?" for more solutions.
Why do I receive an error message when Im connecting to a Web page?
Occasionally, the Web page you want to view wont open. When this happens, you receive an error message in a dialog box or on a Web page. For example, you may receive the error "HTTP/1.0 404 Object Not Found," which means that the Web page youre trying to view may not exist.Often, the only alternative is to try connecting to the site at a later time, but there are other solutions you can try:
Back to NCKCN Home


text:
Among its aims, the recent UN-sponsored Cancun Climate Change Conference wanted to better coordinate carbon mitigation efforts around the globe. While the meeting fell short of broad deals, during a Dec. 9 press call U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack played up several new efforts undertaken by the USDA.
"We thought it was necessary for those in attendance to review the work (U.S.) farmers, ranchers and foresters are doing today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in terms of conservation activities and techniques," said Vilsack in describing a speech he'd given at the conference. Among things he told attendees: "how we're leveraging private sector demands for mitigation services; the work that USDA is engaging in and the effectiveness of markets for carbon and building the capacity within USDA to understand those markets and improve accounting …for (those) wanting to get into this area."
The new USDA efforts will be "focused primarily on the capacity to demonstrate the specific impact of certain mitigation practices. And to figure out how best to assess and verify those benefits and to encourage folks to participate in programs that will allow us to do this. That would (give us) a better handle on how markets could be set up for climate change purposes."
For more, see Climate change will affect crop production
Towards that end, USDA will provide conservation/innovation grants through the NRCS of up to $15 million.
"Those will fund demonstration tests around the country for mitigation practices that will allow the USDA – working with independent aggregators retained by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – to figure out the best ways to assess benefits from these demonstrations tests in terms of carbon sequestration and storage and how to verify those benefits have been obtained."
The USDA will also push the "'Voluntary Carbon Data Project' to encourage those in CRP to look at planting trees on sensitive croplands and non-productive croplands. That, in turn, would let us use those areas as demonstration projects, as well."
Vilsack also spoke on 'Carbon Net', a program in the process of being set up.
"We found that with hay there was difficulty for those who are raising it matching up with those who" want to buy or price the commodity. "We established 'Hay Net' to make that connection. We're doing the same with Carbon Net."
Carbon Net will not be used to establish credits. Instead, "we're creating demonstration projects that will allow us to better measure – more accurately measure – the benefits accrued by certain practices.
"The reason that's important is … if you're able to measure and verify a certain practice results in a benefit that's quantifiable, farmers will be encouraged to use that practice and then potentially qualify for, or connect with, the economic opportunities … market present."
A new climate change science plan is also under USDA's umbrella. The plan "lays out specifically how we're going to better understand the effects of climate change on natural and managed ecosystems, how we'll focus efforts as part of our overall responsibilities on adaptation strategies, what we can learn from adaptation tools and what we can learn from mitigation strategies, as well. This is a commitment to science-based decision-making and we hope to be able to use the information gained … to do a better job of creating assessment tools to allow us to develop data to be able to analyze and model more effectively and be able to communicate the results of that analysis more effectively for farmers.
"All of this is designed, in part, to put us in a position to assist farmers and ranchers to take maximum economic benefit from these voluntary markets or state-run markets as they evolve."
Asked about researchers who continue to say global warming claims are highly questionable, Vilsack stiffened his neck.
"All I can say is the vast majority of scientists and researchers believe there has been significant climate change that has occurred. There have been some indications that this decade has been one of the warmest – if not the warmest – in many, many, many, many centuries."
He named the pine bark beetle as a beneficiary of climate change.
"The pine bark beetle infestation is killing millions and millions of trees in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming. In part, that's a result of winters not being as severe as they have been in the past. The beetles survive the winter in greater numbers and the result is we're faced with a serious issue.
"I think there is a substantial amount of science that suggests we need to take climate change seriously. We're doing that at USDA. We're also taking the opportunity to determine how we might be able to not only do what's right for environment but also to determine if there are economic benefits to be gained for farmers, ranchers and landowners. If there are, we want to utilize that economic opportunity."


text:
Big Leto (Feat. Mr . Cheeks) - Young & Wild [Unsigned Hype]
Divine Ruler [Producer]
Zodiac Fishgrease & Saint [Director(s)]
Fishgrease Communications [Video Production]
@BIGLETO @MRCHEEKSLBFAM @RULERDIVINE @ZFishgrease @DirectorSaint
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Last month, Mayor Bing, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and other law enforcement and community leaders announced a collaborative initiative among law enforcement agencies, residents and community leaders to reduce violent crimes in the city. The program is called Detroit One.
The overall goal is to reduce gun-related violent crimes by 25 percent this year.
Among those who attended the announcement were members of the Detroit Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association.
"Anything that is going to deal with crime in neighborhoods, we are very happy to hear about," said Mary McKissic, past president of the association. "But the main thing we need is good communication."
In presenting the Detroit One program to the community, Bing said they were bringing together a lot of information and a lot of resources together to attack the "worst of worst."
During the presentation to the community, McQuade said 387 murders in the city is intolerable.
"This program is called Detroit One because it is clear when discussing public safety, that we're all in this together," she said, adding that they need everyone to work on this problem together.
McQuade also said she thinks every day of the children of Detroit who never get a chance to achieve their dreams because they're gunned down.
She also spoke about people being afraid to fill up at gas stations.
"As a citizen, as U.S. Attorney and as a mother, it's absolutely unacceptable," she said.
The issue of danger at gas stations was also a concern to Anthony Bowens, treasurer of the Detroit Citizen Police Academy Alumni Association.
"I hope one day that they talk to the owners of the gas stations, so they can hire some kind of security so people can feel safe," Bowens said. "We've all got to work together."
Bowens subsequently asked McQuade about the gas stations, and she told him that there have been conversations with small business owners, including gas station owners.
Bowens told her the gas stations need both lighting and security.
As to the overall presentation, Bowens said he was impressed by what he heard.
Resident Braxton Jones, who is with a consultant group called Sociological Solutions, hopes to be able to contract with some of the organizations involved in Detroit One to bring "human capital" to them. He said a lot of organizations receive grants, but the human capital component is kind of weak.
"We're a 24-hour privatized social service provider," Jones said. "It entails building relationships and creating solutions for everyday problems, whether it's drug addiction or illiteracy or kids not going to school."
They identify problems that keep young people from being good students and developing good job skills.
Jones also said he doesn't believe in a police state, but thinks it will take real commitment from all leaders for change to happen.
McQuade said Washington D.C. caught the Detroit One partners' collective eye. She said D.C. went from 479 homicides in the 1990s to 88 last year.
She also said prosecutors from her office will be assigned to police districts, so that they are meeting regularly with officers and agents who know who the worst of the worst offenders are.
"They are on call 24/7 to get search warrants and arrest warrants and provide legal advice," McQuade said, adding that she's pleased so many members of the community have stepped up to be part of this.
"We need members of the community to stand up and speak up and save lives," she said. "We cannot have a 'no snitch' community and expect to be successful. If you are a victim of crime, if you are a witness to crime, you need to part of the solution by sharing that information with all of us, so we can do something about it."
Among the community leaders who addressed the audience regarding Detroit One was Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP. He cited the oft-quoted "It takes a village" proverb, saying that in the "village" of Detroit, law enforcement, the faith-based community, political leadership, nonprofits, citizen patrols, public schools, and everybody else all need to be involved.
"It's going to take all of us to engage and to deal with this," Anthony said. "I'm tired of having to go out at night and wonder as I take my trash to the curb, whether I will have peace or 'should I have a piece?' I'm tired of children not being able to play."
Anthony said he used to play touch football in the street, adding that children don't do that anymore. He also said people used to be able to sit out on their front porches until the wee hours of the morning.
Anthony pointed out that this year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, first delivered in Detroit.
"That dream should not now be turned into a nightmare," he said.
Anthony added that if we don't engage with one another, then all of the construction and all of the development means nothing. He also said he's glad the press conference was being held in the neighborhood.
"Not in the 'hood,'" he emphasized. "In the neighborhood."
Anthony said we have to put "neighbor" back into "neighborhood" and that if they can do it in Washington, D.C., we can do it in Detroit.
He also said there isn't any cavalry coming to rescue us.
"I'm looking at the cavalry," he told the residents in the audience.
Read more http://www.michronicleonline.com/index.php/news-briefs-original/10379-residents-applaud-detroit-one-program-to-tackle-crime-in-neighborhoods


text:
As promised in this post, I am posting an update on the video acquisition for Arduino. Well so based on the constructive comments on the different spots this blog was highlighted, I coded a simple Processing Sketch.
Here you can see a couple of images taken from the Processing Sketch
|Me in Processing (3 bits, 128x96 SCALE 5)
|My Fluke MultiMeter in the same format
Including Arduino, Processing and LabVIEW drivers, images and the hardware schematics
WARNING: It is the first code I write in Processing. So it is super inefficient.
Keep in mind the following limitations
a) It takes about 8 seconds to acquire a single image.
b) The target of the image needs to be still, othewise each little level change will come from a different image and the result will be messed up.
This code needs optimization in the following items
a) Make the arduino pack the data in bytes (it currently wastes room by sending a bit per byte, but there is a story about why I do that, I'll post the solution when I get to it in the future).
b) Modify the processing sketch to read that format.
c) Currently the code acquires an image, idles for 1 second and loops. It might be wise to have some trigger event, but that is up to your application.
Video (shot with my Ipod Touch so hence the funny aspect ratio).
Down the road, my plans are
- Making the optimizations mentioned above
- Trying the flash/SD temporary storage approach
- Others
Leave comments if you guys do something related to this!!