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Over the next couple of years, I would watch literally hundreds of individuals draw that final breath. There was always an odd feeling, knowing that just moments earlier the individual was alive, and that now their eyes never again would see a beautiful sunrise or sunset. In a final act of respect and dignity, we placed the dead bodies carefully into white plastic shrouds, and then we gently loaded them onto special gurneys and rolled them down into the cold, dark morgue. Each time we affixed toe tags and zipped the body bags closed, I was compelled to consider the value and importance of human life. Did it matter if the person was old, or young? Had the manner in which they died altered the importance of their death? What, exactly, was the value of a human life? And was it changing?
During my tenure in the SICU and the Emergency Department, I watched as life was cut short over such trivial things as a name-brand sports jacket or a bag of potato chips. I observed physicians hastily attempting to obtain a court order against a pregnant mother in an effort to deliver a baby via cesarean because it was in fetal distress (the mother's excuse for refusing the procedure was that she did not want to have scars on her body). Contrast that with those countless scenes of couples who were forced to realize that their pregnancy had been cut short by an unavoidable miscarriage. For many, that single embryo—no longer attached to its "lifeline"—represented years of trying to get pregnant. Arm-in-arm, with tears blinding their path, those couples would make their way toward the parking lot.
On more than one occasion I listened as individuals, both young and old, begged doctors and nurses to just let them die. Some even asked for help to end the pain and misery they were experiencing. I watched as the cost of keeping someone alive was weighed against the failed likelihood of a good prognosis. The Hippocratic Oath to which physicians subscribe contains the statements:
I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary [a medicated vaginal suppository—BH] to produce abortion.
However, those words apparently hold little meaning to many physicians who have graduated from medical schools in the last twenty years. In light of the changes that are taking place in our society, it hardly is surprising to discover that only eight percent of doctors pledge to forswear abortion, and only fourteen percent promise not to aid patients in acts of euthanasia (Smith, 2000, p. 20).
The pressure within the medical and scientific communities to excel (and to publish!) has caused these respective fields to move forward at full throttle, often with little regard for the cost in human lives. This "forward progress," however, has waged an all-out assault on the area of medical ethics—so much so that we now have medical ethics committees in all major colleges and universities, and the President of the United States felt compelled to form a National Bioethics Advisory Commission. For, you see, death is not occurring just as the result of drive-by shootings of drug dealers on street corners. Oftentimes, death comes at the hands of clinicians, in what easily could be viewed as cold-blooded murder. The value of human life has been so cheapened by our culture that the loss of those individuals—who no longer are autonomous—frequently is viewed as beneficial to society, and therefore life is ended across the entire spectrum of the human life span. Old people are choosing to end their lives prematurely so they will not become a burden to their families and friends. Young women are entering abortion clinics because they have been reared in a society that views an abortion as nothing more than a routine medical procedure. Families are making decisions on whether or not to "pull the plug" without either the facts or sufficient knowledge of what those facts might mean—often ranking finances above their loved one's prognosis. In the past, most physicians felt duty-bound to keep their patients alive for as long as possible, and this surrogate decision was not even a significant issue. But children are growing up today with little or no self-esteem, no respect for others, and no recognition of God as the Creator of human life—which they wrongly attribute to millions of years of organic evolution. Thus, young people today have a different attitude entirely regarding the value and sanctity of human life.
While we have not yet reached a point in which we are throwing live individuals into crematoriums like the Nazis did during the Holocaust, an indifferent and apathetic attitude toward human life nevertheless has quietly taken root—the seeds of which were first sown in the act of violence against human life as recorded in Genesis 4:8. This murderous act of Cain firmly established the roots of violence amidst humanity. The evil fruit of death that we see daily in newspapers and on the evening news is the result of generations of humans who have forgotten God. Thus, man's perspective of the inherent value of human life has plummeted.
It is worth noting that one of the warnings Moses issued to the children of Israel before they entered that land of milk and honey was not to forget God.
When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage (Deuteronomy 8:10-14, emp. added).
Have we, in our own land of milk and honey, "forgotten God"? It appears that our prosperity is causing us to strive for an "ideal" human population in which the old, sick, disabled, and unwanted often are discarded like yesterday's trash.
Is science to blame for this radical shift in our attitudes? Hubert Markl, writing as president of the Max Planck Society, stated:
The German president, Johannes Rau, was right to warn us scientists to uphold ethical values.... But we must categorically distinguish between the atrocities of scientists in a regime of terror, and the procedures used in research and medicine for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, therapeutic cloning and development of treatments for serious diseases using cell cultures from embryos. Equating the one with the other is totally wrong and belittles the suffering of the Nazis' victims. Everyone agrees that these victims were misused and humiliated human beings, whereas there is no biological reason to attribute complete personhood to a few-celled embryo simply because, in interaction with a mother organism, it has the ability to become one (2001, p. 480, emp. added).
Indeed, Johannes Rau was right to warn scientists! No one disagrees that the victims of the Holocaust suffered immensely. But not everyone agrees with Markl's comment that "there is no biological reason to attribute complete personhood to a few-celled embryo simply because, in interaction with a mother organism, it has the ability to become one." Scientists can use sterile terms like "mother organism" and "embryo," but that does not change the fact that a human mother and a human child are involved. Lives are at stake—just like those of the Jews who were herded into boxcars.
In a prophetic article in the July 14, 1949 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Leo Alexander, a man who had worked for the Chief Counsel for War Crimes after World War II, examined the initial causes of the Holocaust. The beginnings, he stated, were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitudes of physicians. It started with the belief—which is common today in the euthanasia movement—that there is such a thing as "life not worthy to be lived." The Nazis often described the patients that they were killing as "useless eaters." Among those doctors who helped start the Nazi killing mentality was Ernst Wetzler who, ironically, was the inventor of an incubator for children born prematurely. In commenting on his gruesome acts, Dr. Wetzler called his participation in the murder of disabled infants in Germany "a small contribution to human progress" (as quoted in Smith, 2000, p. 43). It hardly is surprising, in light of recent attitudes here in the United States, that just before his death in 1984, Leo Alexander warned that these same lethal attitudes were taking root in this country. Biomedical ethicist Amil Shamoo agrees. He stated:
We in the United States don't have systemic atrocities, we have compartmentalized atrocities. But the intellectual underpinnings are the same as they once were in Germany: for the good of science; for the advancement of knowledge; for the benefit of society; for the national interest (as quoted in Smith, p. 47).
In his book, Man's Search for Meaning, internationally renowned psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl wrote about his years of witnessing unspeakable horrors in Nazi death camps. In discussing the value of human life, he wrote:
Under the influence of a world which no longer recognized the value of human life and human dignity, which had robbed man of his will and had made him an object to be exterminated (having planned, however, to make full use of him first—to the last ounce of his physical resources)—under this influence the personal ego finally suffered a loss of values. If the man in the concentration camp did not struggle against this in a last effort to save his self-respect, he lost the feeling of being an individual, a being with a mind, with inner freedom and personal value. He thought of himself then as only a part of an enormous mass of people; his existence descended to the level of animal life (1984, p. 70, emp. added).
Animal life—isn't this what many scientists tell us gave rise to humans?
Are humans nothing more than "higher animals," as some would have us believe? Sadly, the questions revolving around the value of human life are found at both ends of the spectrum. On one end, there are individuals who consider embryos tucked safely away in the wombs of mothers who are eight or nine months pregnant to be nothing more than "tissue." Interestingly, this "tissue" is known to have well-developed internal organs, possesses active brain waves, responds to light and sound, and occasionally will suck its thumb. On the other end of the spectrum are aged individuals who argue that they already have lived a full life, and therefore their death should be facilitated and hastened by the medical community via euthanasia (literally, "good death"). Lying in between these two extremes are those heart-rending cases in which families must decide whether or not to remove life support from a comatose individual who is lying in a bed and connected to a respirator. And then there are the cases where terminal illnesses have invaded the lives of those far too young to battle these wretched afflictions. Although very rarely discussed aloud—and certainly never admitted publicly—there are also those cases in which the medical establishment often "trades off " a human life after comparing the high cost of medical treatment in a complex cost-benefit ratio. But what is the real cost?
What is the value of human life? As Christians, what is our obligation, and what should be our attitude, in such matters? In order to better investigate these moral dilemmas, we first need to define life and death. According to Stedman's Concise Medical Dictionary, life is: "vitality, the essential condition of being alive; a state of existence characterized by active metabolism. The existence of organisms" (see McDonough, 1994, p. 567). Death is defined as:
cessation of life. In multicellular organisms, a gradual process at the cellular level, with tissues varying in their ability to withstand deprivation of oxygen; in higher organisms, a cessation of integrated tissue and organ functions; in man, manifested by the loss of heart beat, by the absence of spontaneous breathing, and by cerebral death (p. 253).
On occasion, physicians will specify that someone has reached a state of brain death or cerebral death. This is defined as:
in the presence of cardiac activity, the permanent loss of cerebral function, manifested clinically by absence of purposive responsiveness to external stimuli, absence of cephalic reflexes, apnea, and an isoelectric electroencephalogram [EEG] for at least 30 minutes in the absence of hypothermia and poisoning by central nervous system depressants (p. 253).
But not everyone agrees with such definitions. When does life truly begin, and when is someone truly considered dead? Our society is finding ways to "bend" these definitions in order to accommodate specific situations as they arise. As our knowledge of science has increased, so have the ways in which we define human life. Consider the following views on when human life actually begins.
The metabolic view. As soon as metabolic processes start, then the organism is considered living.
The genetic view. A new individual is created at fertilization when genes from two parents combine to form an individual who possesses unique properties.
The embryological view. In humans, identical twinning can occur as late as the twelfth day after conception—a process that is able to produce two look-alike individuals, each with a different personality. Even conjoined (i.e., "Siamese") twins can have different personalities. Thus, individuality sometimes is not fixed earlier than day 12. (In religious terms, the two individuals have different souls.) Some medical texts consider the stages before this time as "pre-embryonic." This view has been championed by various scientists (such as Grobstein, 1988), and also has been endorsed by theologians (e.g., Shannon and Wolter, 1990, and McCormick, 1991, among others). (Such a view would allow contraception, "morning after pills," and contragestational agents after two weeks, but not abortion.)
The neurological view. Our society has defined death as the loss of the cerebral EEG (electroencephalogram) pattern. Conversely, some scientists have suggested that the acquisition of the human EEG (at approximately 40 days) should be defined as the point when human life begins.
The ecological/technological view. This view sees the human life as beginning when it can exist separately from its maternal, biological environment. The natural limit of viability occurs when the lungs mature, but recent impressive technological advances now permit a premature infant to survive after about 25 weeks of gestation. [Currently, this is the prevailing view in certain states in America. Once a fetus becomes potentially independent, it cannot be aborted except in those instances where it is deemed by a physician to pose a direct threat to the mother's (physical or mental) health.]
The immunological view. This view sees human life as beginning when the organism recognizes the distinction between self and non-self. In humans, this occurs around the time of birth.
The integrated physiological view. This sees human life as beginning when it has become independent of the mother and has its own functioning circulatory system, alimentary system, and respiratory system. This is the traditional "birthday" when the baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut.
In writing his lengthy opinion for the court in the infamous Roe vs. Wade case, Justice Harry Blackmun stated: "We need not resolve the question of when life begins." With those few words, the lives of millions of tiny babies were cut short, sending their souls heavenward. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, report that over 1,200,000 abortions were performed in the United States in 1995 (see CDC—Abortion Statistics, 2001; remember that these are only the ones that were reported). In fact, the United States has averaged well over a million abortions per year since 1977. The CDC estimates that 55 percent of legal abortions occur within the first eight weeks of gestation, and that 88 percent are carried out within the first twelve weeks. According to the views of some, this short span of time makes a big difference. Prior to the twelfth gestational week, many people view the embryo as "nonliving"; thus, life is not "terminated" in an early abortion. However, the facts indicate a totally different picture, as James Drummey has noted:
Though it may still surprise some, there are few things more certain...than that the unborn are human beings. It is a biological and scientific fact that human life begins at fertilization, when the sperm cell of the father penetrates the egg cell of the mother. That unique genetic package, something that each of us once was, contains everything that a person will become—the color of her eyes, the size of his feet, even whether he or she will contract diabetes at age fifty.
We know that its heart begins to beat eighteen days after fertilization, that brain waves can be recorded by the fortieth day, and that all body systems are present at eight weeks and working by the eleventh week. Technological advances are such that more and more babies are surviving births after only 20 to 24 weeks of the normal forty-week pregnancy. And yet, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled last month that an 8˝ month-old unborn child was not a human being under Minnesota law (1986, p. 22, emp. added).
As Christians, we cannot afford to remain indifferent when it comes to resolving the question of when life begins! Our actions (or lack therefore) will stand in judgment one day. The Word of God is crystal clear on such matters. James wrote: "To him therefore who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). Human life undoubtedly begins at conception. Beginning even as early as Genesis 4:1, we read: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord.' " Some forty times the Scriptures make reference to women conceiving. It certainly is no accident that the inspired writers mention this extraordinary moment in which the sperm and egg come together—for it is at that very instant that their chromosomes join to form the full complement of chromosomes that is capable of producing human life. James wrote: "The body apart from the spirit (pneuma) is dead" (2:26).
But the opposite of that statement also must be true; if the body is living, then the spirit must be present. Thus, upon conception—when that full complement of chromosomes is actively metabolizing and living—God already has placed a soul within the embryo. Consider also the fact that the prophet Jeremiah stated that the word of the Lord came unto him, saying: "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (1:5). The prophet Isaiah confirmed it this way:
Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye peoples, from afar; Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.... And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant (49:1,5).
Jehovah not only viewed Isaiah as a person prior to his birth, but also called him by name. It is obvious from the text that God does not consider life as beginning at birth, but rather at conception.
In commenting on the Supreme Court justices' January 1973 decision to allow abortion, professor Eugene Diamond lamented: "...either the justices were fed a backwoods biology or they were pretending ignorance about a scientific certainty." In Roe v. Wade [410 U.S. 113 (1973)], the United States Supreme Court held that the U.S. Constitution protects a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy. Only after the fetus is viable and capable of sustained survival outside the body of the mother (with or without artificial aid) may individual American states ban abortion altogether. Abortions necessary to preserve the woman's life or health still are being allowed, however, even after fetal viability. [Viability is defined as being able to survive (given the benefit of available medical therapy) to the point of independently maintaining both heartbeat and respiration.] If a fetus is viable after delivery, it then is called a premature infant. In the past, physicians have tried to define viability in relation to gestational age. According to evolutionist Elie A. Schneour:
During development, the fertilized egg progresses over 38 weeks through what is, in fact, a rapid passage through evolutionary history: From a single primordial cell, the conceptus progresses through being something of a protozoan, a fish, a reptile, a bird, a primate and ultimately a human being. There is a difference of opinion among scientists about the time during a pregnancy when a human being can be said to emerge. But there is a general agreement that this does not happen until after the end of the first trimester (1989, p. V-5).
Today, incredibly, biology students still are taught the idea, first set forth by German embryologist Ernst Haeckel, that the embryo moves through "evolutionary stages"—even though we have known for almost 150 years that it does not (see our two Web articles on this at http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/436 and http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2049). Insurance companies and physicians have struggled to determine exactly when an embryo actually is living (and thus viable). For many years, they drew the line at 28 weeks. However, in 2000, a baby at only 24 weeks gestation, and weighing only 14.3 ounces, was born in Laguna Hills, California. On June 10, the child—weighing 3.5 pounds—was released from the hospital. Just a few years ago, this baby—according to most viability data—would have been considered "non-viable" and thus "not alive." In Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth [428 U.S. 52 (1976)], the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that judgments of viability are inexact and may vary with each pregnancy. As a result, the court granted the attending physician the right to ascertain viability on an individual basis. In addition, the Court rejected as unconstitutional fixed gestational limits for determining viability. The court reaffirmed these rulings in a 1979 case, Colautti v. Franklin [439 U.S. 379 (1979)].
In April 1981, U.S. Senator John East presided over extensive hearings covering a period of eight days, in which 57 expert witnesses gave testimony, concerning Senate Bill #158, the "Human Life Bill." In the final report of the Senate Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, prepared for and presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee of the 97th Congress, the following conclusion can be found:
Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being—a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings (see East, 1981).
On pages 7-9 of the report prepared by the subcommittee headed by Senator East, thirteen medical textbooks were listed, each of which stated categorically that the life of an individual human begins at conception. On pages 9-10 of the report, the testimony of some of the preeminent witnesses who appeared before the subcommittee was listed. Professor Jerome Lejeune of Paris (often referred to as the "father of modern genetics," and the scientist who discovered the chromosome pattern of Down's Syndrome), is quoted as stating: "Each individual has a very neat beginning at conception." Accompanying Dr. Lejeune was professor Micheline Matthews-Roth of Harvard University's School of Medicine, who said: "It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception." Professor Hymie Gordon, the distinguished chairman of the department of medical genetics at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, testified: "It is an established fact that human life begins at conception." Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni of the University of Pennsylvania concluded: "I am no more prepared to say that these early stages represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty...is not a human being."
One of those giving testimony during that hearing was Landrum Shettles, often called the "father of in vitro fertilization." Dr. Shettles noted: "Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind." And regarding the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, he stated: "To deny a truth [about when life begins—BH] should not be made a basis for legalizing abortion." Interesting words from a man who helped fill in vitro fertilization clinics with embryos—embryos that already have been fertilized and thus, in all aspects are human.
In their 1998 National Summary, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 61,650 cycles of artificial reproductive fertilization occurred in the United States (see CDC—National Summary, 1998). On average, 5-12 eggs were fertilized in order to facilitate embryonic transfer, although it is not uncommon for some individuals to have at their disposal 20 or more embryos after artificial reproductive procedures. The CDC reports that on average, physicians implanted only 3.7 embryos into women hoping to become pregnant. This would result in a minimum of 2-8 embryos being unused and therefore frozen, which means that every year in the United States alone we are plunging somewhere between 123,300-493,200 embryos into the freezing depths of liquid-nitrogen canisters. At that rate, it will take only a few years to reach the one million mark.
Sadly, one of the chief reasons such embryos frequently are discarded is strictly financial. The high price of transporting these fertilized embryos to a long-term cryogenic center, combined with the yearly expense of maintaining the embryos in liquid nitrogen, eventually weighs heavily on those involved in this reproductive technology. Other factors play a part as well.
But it is not just the unborn whose lives have become fodder for medical experimentation. Consider what happens after a baby is born. Researchers at the University of Oklahoma carried out research on babies suffering from spina bifida (Smith, 2000, p. 49). They hoped their research one day would assist clinicians in determining which babies should receive treatment for their condition, and which should go untreated because of the perception that their lives would be of "insufficient quality" to be worth living. So the researchers established standards that children would have to meet in order to be treated. However, if the researchers deemed an infant's potential for life or quality of life to be "subpar," then his or her parents were strongly advised against medical treatment. Of the 69 children included in this study, 36 received aggressive treatment, while the other 33 received only "supportive" care. None of the aggressively treated babies died, but 24 of the babies who received only supportive care died. Interestingly, four of the six babies who were recommended for "supportive care only" lived, thanks to the care they received outside the boundaries of the study.
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick announced the elucidation of the DNA molecule, and with one giant step hurled scientists into the Genetic Age. Unfortunately, their discovery of the molecular structure of the gene now has come at the expense of human subjects. No longer are scientists content with atomic experiments of the past Nuclear Age. Now, living "subjects" are required. And our attitude toward those "subjects" has shifted in an effort to view them as less human and thus to allow more experimentation. After receiving his Nobel prize, James Watson stated: "No one should be thought of as alive until about three days after birth," adding that parents then could "be allowed the choice" of keeping their baby or "allowing" the child to die (1973, p. 13). The other Nobel Laureate of that famed partnership, Francis Crick, stated:
No newborn should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment, and if it fails these tests it forfeits the right to life (as quoted in Smith, p. 55).
So now we find ourselves arbitrating who should "forfeit their right to life."
What happens when the elderly members of society no longer feel loved and begin to think of themselves as a "burden"? Consider the eighty-year-old grandmother with multiple medical complications who does not want to be a bother to her children or grandchildren. Society sometimes places very little value on the disabled and elderly, and therefore many are taking their own lives prematurely either through euthanasia or suicide. Diane Coleman, founder of Not Dead Yet, commented:
There is a great revulsion against disabled people that is visceral. This disdain is masked as compassion but many people believe that in an ideal world, disabled people wouldn't be there (as quoted in Smith, 2000, p. 28).
An Oregon report on assisted suicide for the year 2000 showed that more patients than ever before took their lives because they felt they had become a burden to friends, family, and caregivers. In Oregon, where assisted suicide was legalized in 1994, doctors prescribed deadly drugs to 39 patients—and yet when local newspapers ran headlines bemoaning the state's soaring suicide rate among adolescents, nobody connected the dots. Of those 39 cases, at least 27 were reported as having died from a deliberate lethal overdose of controlled substances under Oregon's assisted-suicide law. Additionally, the median time between a patient's initial request for assisted suicide and his or her death went from 83 days in 1999 to a mere 30 days in 2000.
Interestingly, all of the patients who died in Oregon took barbiturates, which are regulated by the federal government. The 1970 Controlled Substance Act specifically states that drugs may be used only for "legitimate medical purposes." Does assisted suicide fit that definition? The American Medical Association (AMA) is on record as supporting abortion, yet this same professional organization has taken a firm stand in defense of life in the area of doctor-assisted suicide. In a medical brief, the AMA stated:
There is, in short, compelling evidence of the need to ensure that all patients have access to quality palliative [reducing the severity of or alleviating the symptoms without curing the disease—BH] care, but not of any need for physician-assisted suicide... (see AMA: Anti-Euthanasia, Pro-Pain Control).
States like Oregon already allow euthanasia, and it is only a matter of time before other states adopt their own versions of this murderous legislation.
So down the slippery slope we go. But we are not alone. Other countries are "leading the pack" so to speak, and have been ending human life prematurely for years. On November 28, 2000, the lower chamber of the Netherlands' parliament became the first such group to vote in favor of legalizing euthanasia (see Comiteau, 2000). In 1996, Australia's Northern Territory legalized medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Elsewhere (such as in Colombia and Switzerland), governments have ruled that it is not a crime to help a terminally ill person die as long as they have provided clear and precise consent. While the Swiss have outlawed active euthanasia, there is leeway for doctors to assist in suicides where they provide patients with lethal drugs but then leave them alone to administer those drugs on their own.
Other countries, such as Denmark, Singapore, Canada, Australia, and portions of the United States, give patients the right to refuse life-prolonging treatment. One study (from pro-euthanasia researchers) reported that euthanasia in the Netherlands continues to increase, and that now doctors not only are killing the terminally ill, but also those with chronic, non-life-threatening conditions (Smith, p. 110). As late as 1995, 1 in 42 deaths in Holland was determined to be an assisted suicide. Even more alarming is the fact that 1 in 4 doctors admits to killing patients without the patient's request or approval (Washington Post, 11/28/96, citing the New England Journal of Medicine).
The experience of the Dutch makes it clear that legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia is not the answer to the problems of people who are terminally ill. The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress, and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (Hendin, 1996).
Groups now even advertise on-line various types of "death products" (like the "Exit Bag"—see Deathmart). For just a few dollars, you can order an "infoPAK" that provides detailed information on the latest killing devices. Is it any wonder, then, that suicide took the lives of 30,575 Americans in 1998 (11.3 per 100,000 population) [see "statistics" at www.cdc.gov]. As incredible as it may seem, the fact is that in the United States more people die from suicide than from homicide. In fact, in 1998 the CDC reported that there were 1.7 times as many suicides as homicides. Overall, suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for all Americans, and is the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24. More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, chronic lung disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, and influenza combined! What is happening all around us? What has warped our mentalities so much that we find ourselves contemplating whether life really is "worthy to live"?
Furthermore, suicide does not stop with young people. It affects the elderly as well. On average, eighteen elderly Americans take their own lives each day, with the highest rate coming from white American males who are 65 years old or older (see the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Disabled seniors who do not take their own lives often inadvertently cause their families to have to wrestle with an entirely different moral dilemma. Consider the following paradox. We imprison individuals for not feeding or taking care of animals, and yet our society now deems receiving nutrients via a feeding tube and/or IV in the case of humans as a "medical procedure" that can be withheld, depending on what the patient's power-of-attorney says. Is it "humane" to withhold food from a horse? The courts say "no," and will send you to prison for doing so. Yet that same judicial system will allow you to withhold life-saving nutrients and water from the individual we lovingly call "grandma."
Have we forgotten that with each death a soul steps into eternity forever, never to walk this Earth again—a soul that one day be will be judged by our Creator. Leon Kass, who, in August 2001, was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush to chair a national advisory committee on bioethics, stated: "To regard life as sacred, means that it should not be violated, opposed, or destroyed, and that positively, it should be protected, defended and preserved" (1990, p. 35).
So what value does society place on human life? One way to calculate the worth of humans is to look at what employers pay out as a result of workplace accident or illness. An examination of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforcement records of inspections that were completed during the period January 1, 1988 through October 21, 1994 indicated there were 5,929 fatality investigations where one or more willful, repeat, or serious violations were discovered (see OSHA data). These companies were required to pay penalties of $25,244,430.88, The total number of victims was 6,162. This corresponds to an average penalty per victim of $4,096.79. It is an interesting statistic to observe that, assuming the average man weighs about 175 pounds, the value of human life according to OSHA is roughly equal to $23 per pound—or about the price of cheap Russian caviar. Of course, this value is much higher than the value placed on human life in other countries. It is little wonder, then, that we have people like Jack Kevorkian roaming the country, willing to extinguish life for just a few hundred dollars. Nicknamed "Dr. Death," Kevorkian estimated the number of people that he helped in their suicide to be around 130 since 1990 (see Kevorkian, 2001).
This total lack of disregard for human life likely plays a major role in why we have young people growing up today who have no future plans and who see no value to their existence. Children around the country watch as we kill our unborn and our elderly, and then listen to news reports that describe how gunfire was exchanged over a pair of tennis shoes. These individuals witness other teens and adults waste their lives on alcohol and drugs. Then add to that the fact that these same young people have been inundated with evolutionary theory—which teaches them that humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor—and one can understand why they place so little value on human life. The ice-cold words of the late philosopher Joseph Fletcher attest to this radical line of thinking. In discussing the human worth of the mentally ill and individuals born with birth defects, Fletcher remarked:
Idiots are not, never were, and never will be in any degree responsible [because they cannot understand consequences of action]. Idiots, that is to say, are not human. The problem they pose is not lack of sufficient mind, but of any mind at all. No matter how euphoric their behavior might be, they are outside the pale of human integrity. Indeed, sustained and "plateau" euphoria is itself prima facie clinical evidence of mindlessness (1975, p. 20, bracketed comment in orig.).
Christians need to reaffirm to society that God does exist! Ever since the last shells exploded from World War II, children have been receiving a steady diet of evolution and humanism in public schools. Many junior and senior high classrooms still have a poster spread across the top of the chalkboard with an ape-like creature at one end and a human at the other—and every "ancestor" in between. People like the late Stephen Jay Gould have taught thousands of people that
...human existence occupied but the last geological millimicrosecond of this history—the last inch of the cosmic mile, or the last second of the geological year.... If humanity arose just yesterday as a small twig on one branch of a flourishing tree, then life may not, in any genuine sense, exist for us or because of us. Perhaps we are only an afterthought, a kind of cosmic accident, just one bauble on the Christmas tree of evolution (1989, p. 44).
Why believe in a god if we are nothing more than just an "afterthought, a kind of cosmic accident"? Robert Reilly remarked:
The problem is that, by denying the possibility of a relationship between God and man, atheism also denies the possibility of a just relationship between men.... Human life is sacred only if there is a God to sanctify it. Otherwise man is just another collection of atoms and can be treated as such (1988, 24:15).
But human beings are more than just a collection of atoms! It is time for us to re-establish the foundation that there is a God and that the Bible is His inspired Word.
The next time you find yourself contemplating the value of human life, remember:
And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:26-27).
Every child today needs to have these words reinforced in his or her mind so that he or she will know that personal existence is not just happenstance.
Think of the changes in attitudes we would see in our young people if they grew up with those words scrolled across the top of classroom chalkboards for them to read every single school day. As humans, we must recognize that life is a gift from God—the Giver of life (Acts 17:28). We also must realize that by devaluing human life, we also are reducing the value of God sending His only begotten Son. The famous verse that so many children learn before they enter school says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). If human life has little to no value, then what does that say about the gift of Christ? Why did Christ suffer and die on the cruel cross of Calvary? What is the value of a human life? Considering Who the Giver of life is, the value of that gift is immeasurable!
Alexander, Leo (1949), "Medical Science Under Dictatorship," New England Journal of Medicine, 249:39-47, July 14.
AMA: Anti-Euthanasia, Pro-Pain Control, [On-line], URL: http://www.pregnantpause.org/euth/amagomez.htm.
CDC—Abortion Statistics (2001), [On-line], URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/drh/pdf/4702 _TB2.PDF.
CDC—National Summary (1998), "1998 Assisted Reproductive Technology Success Rates," [On-line], URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/drh/art98/PDF/art1998.pdf.
Comiteau, Lauren, (2000), "Dutch Parliament Oks Mercy Killing," CBS News, [On-line], URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,252670-412,00.shtml.
Deathmart (no date), [On-line], URL: http://www.rights.org/deathmart/.
Drummey, James J. (1986), "Abortion: The Other Holocaust," The New American, 2:21-26, January 20.
East, John (1981), Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee, S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session.
Fletcher, Joseph (1975), "Being Happy, Being Human," The Humanist, 35:2-58, January.
Frankl, Viktor E., (1984), Man's Search for Meaning (New York: Washington Square Press).
Gould, Stephen J. (1989), Wonderful Life (New York: W.W. Norton).
Grobstein, C. (1988), Science and the Unborn: Choosing Human Futures (New York: Basic Books).
Hendin, Herbert (1996), Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and the Dutch Cure (New York: W.W. Norton).
Kass, Leon (1990), "Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life," Commentary, March, as quoted in Culture of Death by Wesley J. Smith (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books), p. 19.
Kevorkian, Jack (2001), "Prosecutor: Kevorkian 'Killed to Further His Own Agenda,' " [On-line], URL: http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/22/kevorkian.01/.
Markl, Hubert (2001), "Research Doesn't Denigrate Humanity," Nature, 412:479-480, August 2.
McCormick, R. (1991), "Who or What is a Pre-Embryo?," Kennedy Institute of Bioethics Journal, 1:1-15.
McDonough, James T. Jr., ed. (1994), Stedman's Concise Medical Dictionary (Philadelphia, PA: Williams & Wilkins), second edition.
OSHA data [On-line], URL: http://www.oshadata.com/fswvhl.htm.
Reilly, Robert R., (1988), "Atheism and Arms Control," Intercollegiate Review, 24:15-21, Fall.
Schneour, Elie A., (1989), "Life Doesn't Begin, It Continues: Abortion Foes Err in Setting Conception as the Starting Point," Los Angeles Times, p. V-5, January 29.
Shannon, T.A. and Wolter, A.B. (1990), "Reflections on the Moral Status of the Pre-embryo," Theological Studies, 51:603-626.
Smith, Wesley J. (2000), Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America (San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books).
United States Department of Health and Human Services (1999), The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent Suicide.
Watson, James D. (1973), "Children from the Laboratory," Prism, May.
Copyright © 2002 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
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text:
One of them is bound to get a call-up at some point, no?
A collection of American players made their case for a future US national team call-up under Jurgen Klinsmann with performances that were good enough to make the MLS Team of the Week for Matchday 7.
If they keep it up, Chris Pontius, Will Bruin, Michael Farfan and Steve Beitashour are surely all young enough to play their way into a USMNT camp eventually. Even old man Eddie Gaven, at 25, could see himself in the mix with a rejuvenating move to attacking mid.
And let's not forget to mention Kyle Beckerman, one of Klinsmann's regulars who's continued to be a rock in central midfield for RSL.
GK: Jimmy Nielsen (Sporting Kansas City) — The hero of SKC's midweek win in Vancouver. Could do nothing about the own-goal vs. Portland.
DF: Carlos Valdés (Philadelphia Union) — In the absence of captain Danny Califf, Valdés proves he's the undisputed leader of the backline.
DF: Young-Pyo Lee (Vancouver Whitecaps) — In cancelling out Dallas' Brek Shea, showed why he's an All-Star quality right back.
DF: Steven Beitashour (San Jose Earthquakes) — Tore up and down the right flank against RSL and served up two assists. Will USMNT come calling soon?
DF: Eric Brunner (Portland Timbers) — Match vs. Sporting was one in which he excels: physical, bruising and played in the air.
MF: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake) — Plenty of hard work for an undermanned RSL side and more than a sprinkle of class, especially on his goal.
MF: Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew) — Attacking midfield suits him mighty fine and a Crew team struggling in attack desperately needed his two goals vs. Houston.
MF: Michael Farfan (Philadelphia Union) — With the spotlight shining brightly on Adu, "Marfan" proves the Union's guiding light in attack, creating the winning goal.
FW: Patrick Nyarko (Chicago Fire) — The most effective player for the Fire in their 3-2 road win in Toronto. Scored the game-winner and set up the first goal after 25 seconds.
FW: Chris Pontius (D.C. United) — If Pontius wanted to prove to Ben Olsen that he should never be out of the starting XI, he made his point loud and clear with a hat trick.
FW: Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo) — Never stops running. Two straight games with a goal and a pinpoint assist to Brian Ching. No second-year slump for this sophomore.
Manager: John Spencer (Portland Timbers) — Nailed his personnel moves, shifting Lovel Palmer to central midfield and Diego Chara to right midfield. They made the difference in the defeat of previously perfect Sporting KC.
Honorable Mentions: Miller Bolaños (Chivas USA), Camilo (Vancouver Whitecaps), Aurélien Collin (Sporting Kansas City), Omar Cummings (Colorado Rapids), Nick DeLeon (D.C. United), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Tally Hall (Houston Dynamo), Kamani Hill (Colorado Rapids), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United), Reggie Lambe (Toronto FC), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Justin Morrow (San Jose Earthquakes), Dominic Oduro (Chicago Fire), Lovel Palmer (Portland Timbers), Josh Saunders (LA Galaxy), Gonzalo Segares (Chicago Fire), Khari Stephenson (San Jose Earthquakes)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In stock
Price includes VAT, delivery charges will be added to basket
Heart with Wings
This pre-cut fibre paper shape makes it quick and easy for you to do kilncarving with more intricate designs than you could easily cut by hand.
The design has been cut from a piece of 3mm Eco Fibre paper which is approx 14cm x 15cm. You will receive both the positive and negative for the design, you will just need to carefully push the design out. There may be a few black pieces of foam from the cutting machine on the fibre paper but these will just brush off.
Then simply lay the fibre paper shape straight onto your kiln shelf and place 6mm of transparent glass on top, making sure your glass is least 10mm bigger than the shape, and do a full fuse. You can use 2 x 3mm sheets of glass or a prefused 6mm piece. Prefusing the 2 sheets of glass first will reduce the bubbles that form around the shape. Lighter transparent shades work better than darker ones.
The negative piece of fibre paper can also be used, some designs lend themselves to this more than others but why not cut some more features into it or add some extra pieces of fibre paper, the only limit is your imagination.
If you plan on slumping the piece afterwards then leave the fibre paper in place until after you have slumped it. Fibre paper does leave a slightly rough finish on the back of the glass but brushing the fibre paper design first with some powdered kiln wash will give a smoother finish.
For more ideas visit our Facebook page.
Pre Cut Hearts
£4.75 *
Pre Cut Circles
£4.75 *
Price includes VAT, delivery charges will be added to basket


text:
Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory disease of the
muscles that causes pain and stiffness in the hip, neck, or shoulder area. The
cause is unknown, but polymyalgia rheumatica is the result of the body's immune
system reacting against itself, known as an autoimmune response.
Polymyalgia rheumatica usually begins after age 50. Pain and
stiffness are usually worse in the morning. Depression and weight loss may also
Polymyalgia rheumatica sometimes occurs along with a condition
called giant cell arteritis (GCA), which causes symptoms such as headache, jaw
pain, and loss of vision.
Polymyalgia rheumatica is usually treated with corticosteroid
medicine. This disease usually responds to treatment, with symptoms decreasing
within weeks. Medicine may be needed for 1 to 2 years or more to prevent symptoms from
Last Revised:
April 13, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine & Stanford M. Shoor, MD - Rheumatology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
Lady Gaga's much-heralded music video "Judas" leaked on the internet several hours early.
According to the New York Daily News, the video slipped online hours before E! was slated to premier it on their network.
The video gives a more than generous nod (in typical distorted Gaga fashion) to the Bible's 12 disciples, here portrayed as a Hell's Angles-eque motorcycle gang.
U.S. & World
Though perhaps not as big of a secret as the Duchess of Cambridge's famous Alexander McQueen gown, the co-director for the music video had to keep mum about much of the video's content.
"I was able to sit in the director's seat and fulfill our vision and see it all the way through," director Laurieann Gibson told MTV News. "I think the concept stuck with this one because, ultimately, there was a place where we wanted to leave the interpretation up to each individual and not take away [Gaga's] power as a performer, as a dancer, as a star."
Gibson said the video, as well as the song, are open to interpretation, and with lyrics like "Jesus is my virtue/Judas is the demon I cling to," there's certainly a lot to interpret.
Watch the video below.
Selected Reading: NYDN, MTV, Hollywood Reporter


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Helping Create Global Citizens of a Diverse World
When students come to Penn State's College of Education, they have a number of opportunities to explore interests that might become careers. One of those opportunities is the Philadelphia Urban Seminar (CI 295D), where students have the chance to spend two weeks in an urban environment working with mentors who are teachers in the Philadelphia School District.
Each May, approximately forty students work with mentors throughout the school district in K-12 classrooms. In the evening, students attend professional development seminars and academic classes. During the intermediate weekend, students participate in sociocultural events and community service.
The two-week, intensive course is designed to acclimate students to the cultures of the city, said Jeanine Staples, professor-in-charge for the seminar.
"While students learn the application of educational theory," said Staples, "they have the opportunity to live as visiting members of thriving, vibrant urban contexts—neighborhoods, communities, and schools."
Staples, an associate professor of education who supports the months-long preparation for the course and its implementation with everything from course design to logistics, said that many students benefit from the variety of experiences offered through the Philadelphia Urban Seminar.
"Experiences, such as apprenticing master teachers in urban schools and leading community service, are intersected with Penn State class sessions each evening," said Staples. "These classes, along with the professional development workshops, provide a meaningful and unique depth to students' perspectives on what it means to be global citizens of a diverse world and life-long learning professionals."
According to Staples, professional development speakers, who have ranged from local community activists and school administrators, to the mayor of Philadelphia and nationally syndicated talk show hosts, help underscore the lessons that Staples teaches and models.
Staples said that she is proud of how the course has improved since she assumed leadership of the seminar in 2009. Under her direction, the seminar has doubled the number of enrolled students. It also has a more rigorous curriculum with a focus on understanding and adapting critical theories that students are asked to apply immediately to their practice. Staples also introduced a final project for the course.
"The curriculum includes near-graduate level research for students to engage with and utilize in their pre-practicum sites," Staples added. "In addition, my research interests in new literacy studies brought to the course particular attention to the ways technology and social networking might enhance pre-service teacher education."
All of the hard work is paying off, according to Staples. To explain her point, Staples referred to a 2013 blog entry from a seminar student who stated that she would never teach in an urban school and felt frightened by the rumors she heard about urban environments.
"Overall, this experience changed my views on urban teaching," said the student in her blog. "This course also changed me. It was something I thought I would never want to do, but after these two weeks, I think I would love teaching in an urban school after graduation. The past two weeks have made me so excited to become a teacher."
Staples said she intends to continue to strengthen the Philadelphia Urban Seminar.
"I would like to increase the forty-person cap to fifty in 2014," said Staples. "I hope also to increase the number of placement opportunities, community service experiences, and professional development speakers. The course will only get better and continue to diversify the College of Education's curriculum and community outreach."


text:
Tech Fair Thrills at Dartmouth
Valley News
April 6, 2013
Dartmouth students and other Upper Valley residents had a chance to witness the convergence of arts and sciences at the celebration and demonstration of a groundbreaking Serbian-American inventor's life, work and legacy this week.
The Tesla TechFair at Thayer School of Engineering on Thursday was a byproduct of the opera Tesla in New York being shown at the Hopkins Center this weekend. The fair has been in the making for about a year, ever since the Hopkins Center reached out to Thayer faculty with the idea of collaborating over the inventor Nikola Tesla...
..."We wanted to put on an event that would highlight Tesla's inventions and how they impact life today," Thayer Associate Professor Ulrike Wegst said. "I'm really excited that there was a good response and that we have fun exhibition pieces." Wegst helped organize the Telsa TechFair on behalf of Thayer.
The Hopkins Center also contributed greatly to the creation and execution of the events at Thayer. "The idea [for the Tesla TechFair] was borne out of conversations between the Hopkins Center and Thayer faculty," Hopkins employee Stephanie Pachero said.
Divided between a panel discussion led by prominent professors and an experiential exhibition of student-produced projects, the fair was conceptually accessible for all audiences and ages.
"Everyone loves a science fair and this is a fun way to bring together arts and sciences," Pachero said.


text:
Description:NOTE: The size is Chinese size, it is a lot smaller than the US size. So please read the size chart bellow carefully. The size of each dog are different even they are the same Breed. So please measure your dog correctly before you choose the size.
To measure the dog's neck and chest is most important.
The neck circumference of your dog should be at least 1 inch shorter than the T-shirt's neck length. The chest of you dog should be at least 2 inch shorter than the T-shirt's chest.
Supple dog jumpsuit, white fluff trimmed hoodie
Snowflake and reindeer patterns for a festival look
Suitable for wearing in Spring and Autumn
Feels ultimate soft, perfect for keeping your pet cozy and comfortable
Size: M
Material: PV fabric
Color: Brown and ivory (we will send the color at random)
Reference Varieties: Yorkie, Chihuahua, Maltese, Pomeranian
Neck Girth: Approx. 13 inch / 33cm
Chest: Approx. 15 inch / 38cm
Back Length: Approx. 11 inch / 28cm
Fit Dog Size: Neck (and head) circumference below 32cm, chest below 37cm, back length below 27cm
Package Includes:
1 Piece Dog Jumpsuit
Note: Please be reminded that due to lighting effects and monitor's brightness/contrast settings etc, the color tone of the website's photo and the actual item could be slightly different.


text:
Mission and Principles Statement
The Pelican Institute is a nonpartisan research and educational organization - a think tank - and the leading voice for free markets in Louisiana. The Institute's mission is to conduct scholarly research and analysis that advances sound policies based on free enterprise, individual liberty, and constitutionally limited government.
The Pelican Institute fulfills its mission by:
- - Providing Louisianians with the information they need to hold government accountable and preserve their liberties;
- - Promoting liberty-oriented policy solutions to Louisiana lawmakers and their staffs;
- - Facilitating public dialogue that includes the free-market perspective with seminars, lectures, and debates;
- - Engaging with media and presenting free-market principles through commentaries, reports, and interviews.
The Pelican Institute is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization governed by an independent Board of Directors. The Institute relies on voluntary support from individuals, private foundations and businesses. It does not accept government funding and does not conduct contract research.


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random animatronics servo driver. 1000-2000 & 450-2450 microsecond pulse width range, for the MG995 and 9g servos respectively. It has two simultaneously generated outputs for each one. So you could control 4 servos with one chip.
Comes in an 18-pin DIP chip with pin spacing of 0.1 inch between pins. I also will include a 6 MHz crystal, and 2 capacitors for it to use as a steady timebase. Click the "click to enlarge" picture to the right and use the arrow keys to scroll to the right and look at the second picture for the wiring pinout.
Click here to see a video demonstration of this device controlling 4 servos at once (be sure to have a pop-up blocker so mediafire doesn't load an ad with something nasty). All servos shown are in operation mode 4 (explained below). Eyeballs not included. Also circuit board and wiring not included. You get the microcontroller and the 6 MHz crystal and 2 15 pF capacitors and wiring diagram and that is all. But I really, really want to end this paragraph with the sentence "eyeballs not included" so I'll say it again. Eyeballs not included.
Generates 4 functionally independent outputs. 2 are designed for the MG995 servo with a pulse width range of 1 to 2 milliseconds, and 2 are designed for the 9g servo with a pulse width range of 450 to 2450 microseconds, all 4 are positive pulse type, and with 20 milliseconds between pulses (50 pulses per second - precisely 20 milliseconds from the start of one pulse to the start of the next - the end-times of the pulses are adjusted each cycle). All random numbers are generated internally using an 80-bit linear feedback shift register based on a degree-80 irreducible polynomial, and as it updates 50 times per second, it will take 766 trillion years to repeat (and even then the positions of the 4 servos will be different from their starting positions so it still won't repeat). But just to make it really random, it is also randomized any time you change the state of one of its input switches (the 8 inputs that control pause time and movement type). The output pulse widths are adjusted in increments of two-thirds of a microsecond. Thus for the MG995 servo, it having a range of 1000 microseconds, can generate 1501 possible discrete pulse widths on that range, and for the 9g servo, having a range of 2000 microseconds, can generate 3001 possible discrete pulse widths on that range. Each one of the 4 outputs can independently (or connect them all together) be set to 4 modes, and each one behaves as follows:
Mode 1, servo pause time toggle, movement type toggle grounded:
commands the servo to pause for a randomly chosen amount of time, by a symmetric triangular probability distribution between 0 and 5 seconds, with a peak probability density at 2.5 seconds. Then it generates two points at random within the valid range of position for the servo, selects the one that is farther away and steadily heads for it at the correct speed so that it gets there in another randomly chosen length of time, this one randomly chosen between 2 seconds and 4 seconds, again with a symmetric triangular probability distribution, and peak probability density at 3 seconds. And then it repeats the cycle, pausing again, moving again, each time, the pause time and motion time different. In summary, each of the servo outputs tell the servo to pause for an average of 2.5 seconds (but as low as 0 or as much as 5), then to move toward a valid preset destination for at such a speed that it takes an average of 3 seconds to get there (but as low as 2 or as much as 4), and the process repeats.
Mode 2, servo pause time toggle +5 volts, movement type toggle grounded:
The same as Mode 1, but the countdown timer for the pause time is slowed down by a factor of 3. Thus the average time it pauses is not 2.5 seconds (having been a symmetric probability distribution between 0 and 5 seconds) but 7.5 seconds.
Mode 3, servo pause time toggle grounded, movement type toggle +5 volts:
Every 0 to 5 seconds, determined by a symmetric triangular probability distribution, the servo movement is halted (its speed is brought to 0). Its speed then follows a random walk. It slowly accelerates and decelerates in a random direction. It is bound by the limits of the range of position of the servo and so it stops if it reaches the edge (the pulse width is prevented from going outside the allowed range). The standard deviation of the drift is 144.3 microseconds change in pulse width / second^2. This is regardless of which servo output you are using - the MG995 outputs which are bound between 1000 and 2000 microseconds have a range of 1000 microseconds for their whole range in position, while the 9g outputs which are bound between 450 and 2450 microseconds have a range of 2000 microseconds for their whole range in position, so 144.3 microseconds change in pulse width / second^2 is more substantial to the MG995 outputs than the 9g outputs. Note, this is an acceleration-type unit, which is why there are seconds^2 in the denominator. In other words, the speed itself is what is experiencing the random walk, not the position. The rate at which the pulse width will be changing at that moment, after 1 second, which will be proportional to the servo's speed, will be on average 144.3 microseconds per second. Of course, there are 50 pulses per second, so that is 2.886 microseconds per pulse. A random walk is the integral of continuously sampled independent random variables (or if you will, a sum of discrete but very closely spaced independent random variables); this is the integral of a random walk. It may start out in one direction, slow down, and change directions. It will not however do this in a jittery fashion, because the velocity is a continuous function and so the position is a nice, smooth function with no cusps, and in fact since it is not truly a random walk with self-similar properties on every scale but a discrete approximation to one, it is a smooth function with no cusps and a second derivative that is quite limited in magnitude (and because the walk itself has a time limit of 5 seconds, its first derivative i.e. speed is also limited in magnitude, although it can in fact end up going faster than the speed limit of modes 1 and 2, but only if it's very lucky).
Mode 4, servo pause time toggle, movement type toggle +5 volts:
The same as mode 3, but with a standard deviation of drift one third as high; 48.1 microseconds change in pulse width / second^2.


text:
Just Cry
Tonight.. just saw someone cried for being confused, feeling lost, feeling so careless, didn't know what to do, lost the peace.
I said I knew that kind of feeling but.... actually.. I didn't know how it feels..
When my other friend said that she cried a lot at one day because had to do a lot of thing but no one helped.. I told her,, "It is not wrong to cry.. you will feel so relieved after crying."... He understand the tears language..
I cried during my calculus class... I didn't understand anything... After that, I learned, learned, and learned, and always said this "I am taught by the Master of Master of calculus"... And the result was very very very very surprising.. for the mid test, got almost perfect score, and end up with A :)
That's why I always remember the power of tear drops.. when you are crying, you are shouting to Him.. Just make sure you put all of you in His arms..
Okay, this is the song, Mandisa "Just Cry".. Cry didn't mean you not believe HIM :)
Songwriters: Ronnie C Freeman, Mandisa Lynn Hundley, Tony Wood


text:
NEW YORK (AP) — After hours of television commentating, swinging needles on election meters and reams of statistics from obscure counties called up on computer screens, CNN's Jake Tapper had a revelation about Tuesday's midterm elections.
"Actually," he said, "this is pretty much what we thought was going to happen."
The House of Representatives appeared on the brink of switching from Republican to Democratic control. Republicans looked like they would expand their advantage in the Senate. Some close races broke blue, others broke red.
Polls had suggested those results for months. Networks quoted exit polls that showed two-thirds of voters had made up their minds more than a month ago.
Still, for news organizations covering the election Tuesday night, getting to that point was a roller-coaster journey of dips and dives.
Sensing extraordinary interest in the midterms, ABC, CBS and NBC devoted their entire prime-time schedules to monitoring the vote count across the country; most recent midterms had them covering the results for only one hour. Cable news networks gave it wall-to-wall coverage.
As the evening began, there were similarities to the 2016 election and President Donald Trump's surprise win. The cable networks gave attention to late-afternoon exit polls that seemed to indicate this year's vote would be a repudiation of Trump.
There were glum reactions on the set at Fox News Channel. Commentator Steve Hilton said that Trump has had a lot of achievements as president, but it seemed the midterms were becoming a battle of style vs. substance, and style was winning. Laura Ingraham said Democrats are better than Republicans in telling the story of America.
But by around 7 p.m., MSNBC's Rachel Maddow confided that she was feeling a post-traumatic stress disorder reaction to what happened two years ago.
"At some point, the Democratic confidence is going to run up against some real numbers," she said.
Many of President Trump's fans do not participate in polls, and especially won't talk to someone conducting an exit poll, said CBS' Major Garrett. Some of these voters get measured only once, on Election Day, when it really matters, and that has an impact on the predictions, he said.
Maddow's fears were soon realized and, like in 2016, Florida was a bellwether. Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum had jumped to early leads, but results started coming in and they fell behind. On MSNBC, guest James Carville's face looked grey.
"There was some hope the Democrats were going to have a wave election," Carville said. "It's not going to be a wave election. It could be a good election. But I see the chances of a wave dissipating every time I look up at the board."
Later, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, wearing a bright red dress and wide smile for an appearance on Fox, cited Carville's words.
It quickly became a common wave, nearly a cliche, across the dial: no blue wave, no tsunami. Election meter needles slipped close to the toss-up range for the House race.
"This is heartbreaking," said CNN's Van Jones, predicting that Democrats would wake up the next morning with the same sense of outrage they've felt for the past two years.
The change came like a thunderclap, and from an unexpected source. Fox News declared at 9:30 p.m. ET — a full 90 minutes ahead of rival CNN — that Democrats would win control of the House.
And as more results came in, there was another change in mood.
Carville's grin was back. He said the meter MSNBC was using to indicate the odds of House control had been driving him crazy but "I'm starting to like it as it goes toward the blue.
"I wanted to throw something at it a little bit earlier," he said.
On CNN, Jones said that "my heart has been restored." It might not be a blue wave, but given the number of women and minorities being added to the House, it's a rainbow wave, he said.
At MSNBC, before likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even gave a victory speech, there was a report that Democrats would seek release of Trump's tax returns. Anchor Brian Williams questioned the timing.
"Is that the right look by the Democratic Party before this night is even over to start making noise about the president's tax returns?" he asked.
In some respects, the roller-coaster ride was just beginning.
Associated Press Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.


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Medical Office Setup - Business Opportunity
Quick Business Summary
The healthcare market is one of the most dynamic, lucrative investment fields, but starting a healthcare business is a notoriously difficult, expensive process…until now. At MOS, we've eliminated the typical barriers to entry, and we take great pride in making it easy for anyone to own a thriving, fruitful medical practice. Inquire to learn more!
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New Buick Enclave for Sale in Ontario, CA
14 Matching Vehicles Found
MPG Disclaimer:
Based on model year EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
New vehicle pricing includes all offers and incentives. Tax, Title, and Tags not included in vehicle prices shown and must be paid by the purchaser. While great effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, errors do occur so please verify information with a customer service rep. This is easily done by calling us at (855) 822-6244 or by visiting us at the dealership.
**Auto shows bonus cash for most Southern California and Sacramento County residents only.
**No Cooling Off Period on Home Deliveries
**With approved credit. Terms may vary. Monthly payments are only estimates derived from the vehicle price with a 72 month term, 4.9% interest and 20% downpayment.
0% APR for 72 MONTHS PLUS $250 CASH ALLOWANCE – FOR WELL-QUALIFIED BUYERS WHEN FINANCED W/ GM FINANCIAL. Monthly payment is $13.89 for every $1,000 you finance. Average example down payment is 4.5%. Some customers may not qualify. Not available with leases and some other offers. Take retail delivery by 10/31/19. See dealer for details.


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Spring is here at long last, which means it's time to bring the season into your home. With the burst of life, light and wonderful aromas that springtime brings, it might feel like it's hard to know�just where to start, so here are a few tips.
Nothing says it's the beginning of a new season like some fragrant, fresh and colorful flowers. There are several ways to work flowers and floral patterns into your home. For starters, you can bring some flowers inside by either picking them, buying them or growing them yourself. While frequently going to a florist for healthy, vibrant flowers�may seem expensive, The Huffington Post recommends buying�less expensive bouquets from supermarkets and rearranging them yourself. If flowers aren't suitable for your home due to lighting, pets or allergies, you may want to consider using a sturdier, non-flowering plant�like a cacti or an olive tree.
Spring is also a great time to start using floral prints and patterns for your decor. The change in season can be just the push you need to hang new decorations or even new wallpaper featuring the fun and exciting color palette of vivid yellows, green and blues or springtime flowers such as daffodils. You can easily match many of the hues in your new floral decorations with existing ones in your home or you can go big with all-new accessories like vases, lamps and�discount window treatments.
One of the best parts about�entering spring is the increased�amount of light that your home will get, especially in the mornings. All this sunlight can boost your energy levels as well as that of your home�and family. One great way to draw more sun�into your home is to utilize roller shades or cellular shades that allow some�light in even when they're closed. �
Getting outdoors
One great way to enjoy the warmer weather and aromas of spring is to simply get outdoors. However, you don't need to leave the comforts and style of home behind to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air of spring. Better Homes and Gardens suggests going all-out and converting an existing patio space into an outdoor living room. You can even embrace smaller yards and�by using screens as makeshift walls. This will help to enclose your space and make your outdoor room feel comfortable and private for you and your guests.�


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To find out more about our lovely rooms or to make a booking click here.
To find out more about the food in our excellent restaurant or to reserve a table, click here.
We offer a free guide entitled "101 Ideas to Enjoy the Ronda Area". Click here to receive your copy.
To find out more about Molino del Santo and its stunning location in a very beautiful area, click here.
Molino del Santo
Molino del Santo is a beautiful rural boutique hotel tucked away by a mountain stream near Ronda. Family-owned, it has been owned and managed by Andy Chapell and Pauline Elkin since its beginnings in 1987.
Molino has won many awards over the years including "Best Countryside Hotel in Spain", "Most Romantic Hotel in Spain" and for the last five years has been the winner of Trip Advisor Awards.
Whether you are looking for a place for a romantic weekend away, a short relaxing in the gardens or by the pool, a week's walking or exploration of the stunning Grazalema Natural Park a place for a family holiday or to celebrate a special event, Molino del Santo is the ideal place to visit for your holiday in Southern Spain.


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|Now Featuring
new shows with
Michkael and Tarshene
|Welcome Michkael
|This dynamic duo are featured in shows highlighting music
from the 40's to the 00's and then join to sing awe-inspiring duets. Shows
include Tarshene's and Michkael's high-energy dance sets with Motown hits,
songs from the 70's to the 90's, as well as big band swing sets from these
multi-talented entertainers.
With this band...somehow it always seems like New Years Eve...
|Seattle native Michkael Baker has lived his entire life in the Pacific Northwest. He has performed with Tarshene in the popular Northwest band Body and Soul and as an actor in "Chorus Line," "Godspell," and other stage productions. His voice can be heard in numerous commercials for Nike, Hewlett-Packard, and other local companies. An accomplished dancer as well... Look for Michkael and Tarshene to tear up the stage with some great dance routines.
|Receptions and Shows
|Evenings often begin with backround and/or dinner music, jazz or standards, and progress through the years until they're dancin' their hearts out. Concerts of course are a different story. Here it's high energy from beginning to end. We feature different shows annually. This years opus features Tarshene and Michkael singing big band swing tunes, and it's impossible to sit still once Michkael and Tarshene hit the stage!
|A Few Of Our Favorite Repeat Clients
|We rehearse often in order to present new, fresh, and polished material. If you heard the band last year, chances are that over thirty new, uniquely arranged tunes (representing over two playing-time hours) have been added to our playlist. In addition to keeping the sounds interesting for you, exciting new tunes keep the music fun for us. This festive spirit is our trademark and it's what we give to you.
|Portland Trail Blazers, Bite Festival, Reed College, Guardian Management, FEI Corp., Tektronix, Farmers Insurance, Waverly C.C., Town Club, Willamette Medical, L.P.G.A., Komen Foundation, Race for the Cure, Radisys, M.A.C., Rose Festival, O.H.S.U., American Cancer Society, P.O.V.A., Oregon Public Broadcasting, Nordstrum, U of O, Galleria, ICI, Doernbecher, Portland Art Museum, State Farm Insurance, AND MANY, MANY MORE!
Notable Quotes
|Required to forgo Rock and
provide only Swing Music for the religious affiliated (George Fox College)
school, (The Cubs) soon had 150 grinning young people in formal dress Lindy
hopping around the Governor Hotel Ballroom
Lynn Darouch, Oregonian
|The venerable Portland band
has been around since 1983, playing festivals, nightclubs, weddings, corporate
parties and other casual gigs, delighting with it's superb musicianship,
versatility and fun-loving spirit
Marty Hughley, Oregonian
|For booking information contact Joe (503) 209-8414 or e mail firstname.lastname@example.com


text: The mobile PC, redefined. Mobile. Convenient. Expandable. When you look at ASUS Transformer 3, you're seeing evolution in action. Crafted from the finest materials and expertly engineered to be as thin and light as possible, ASUS Transformer 3 gives you ultimate mobility, total convenience, and amazing expandability — giving you endless possibilities! Be creative with the ASUS Pen. Enjoy music with the Audio Pod. Game with ROG XG Station 2. Be productive with the Universal Dock. Do more. Do it better. Do it with ASUS Transformer 3. Craftsmanship The best materials, exquisitely engineered ASUS Transformer 3 is a stunning example of the art of engineering. The gorgeous tablet is carved from solid aluminum in a process that takes over 100 stages of computer-controlled cutting. This advanced material is so strong and light that it's enabled us to produce an awe-inspiring 6.9mm-thin device that weighs only 695g. But it doesn't end there: we give it a beautiful spun-metal finish before adding the finishing touches — the brilliant diamond-cut edge highlights. It's your device, created with our passion. 6.9mm thin 695g light Metallic design Color Create your perfect style If you're struggling to find a device with looks that say "Me!", we've some great news for you. With ASUS Transformer 3, we're introducing a completely new approach to color, with eight unique color combinations to choose from. There are two gorgeous device colors — sophisticated Icicle Gold and high-tech Titanium Gray — plus four trendy color options for the ASUS Transformer Sleeve Keyboard, so you can mix and match to get the perfect theme for your lifestyle. Display Pixels, perfected The 12.6-inch display on ASUS Transformer 3 is truly remarkable. Not only does it offer superb detail with its 3K (2880 by 1920 pixels) resolution and 275ppi pixel density, but it has an extra-wide color gamut of 121% sRGB and 85% NTSC. If that's too many acronyms for you, it simply means that ASUS Transformer 3 can display more-accurate colors — and more-vivid colors — than most of its rivals, which in turn means that images look much more natural and realistic. Whatever you create, is what you see. 2880X1920 3K display 80% screen-to-body ratio 121% sRGB 450nits brightness Display A vivid visual experience ASUS Transformer 3 features several exclusive ASUS technologies designed to enhance your viewing experience. ASUS Tru2Life Video uses intelligent software algorithms to optimize the sharpness and contrast of every pixel in every video frame — that's over one million calculations per second — so that videos look clearer, more detailed and more realistic. Eye-Care mode reduces the amount of harmful blue light emitted from the screen by up to 30%, for added protection and comfort for your eyes. ASUS TruVivid is the name of our direct-bonding technology, which does away with some light-sapping glass layers to improve clarity and reduce reflections by up to 67%. Learn more about ASUS software & technology Tru2Life Video Eye Care TruVivid SonicMaster Premium Four speakers, extraordinary sound When it comes to audio, ASUS Transformer 3 is unlike any other laptop or tablet. It has no less than four powerful speakers — each with the largest voice coils in their class — combined with our smart amplifier technology to deliver awesome full-bodied immersive sound. And that's not all — clever algorithms allows ASUS Transformer 3 to automatically adjust the direction of the sound, so whatever the position of the tablet, you'll always hear the optimum sound quality. Learn more about Technology Quad - speaker surround-sound 4.5X louder Harman Kardon technology Audio Pod Awesome sound, unleashed If you want to make ASUS Transformer 3 sound even better — for that blockbuster movie you're streaming, perhaps — it's easy. Just connect the optional Bluetooth® Audio Pod to take things to the next level of awesome, with four powerful extra speakers to create an unforgettable audio experience. Quad speakers 360˚ surround-sound 5.1- channel virtual surround ASUS Pen Designed to let your creativity flow Intuitive, natural and effortless: that's how we want your interactions with ASUS Transformer 3 to be. And with the high-precision ASUS Pen, we think we've achieved it. Jot down your notes and ideas, annotate photos or simply indulge your artistic creativity. Whatever you want to do, ASUS Transformer 3 is always ready for you. Learn more about ASUS Pen 1024 levels Performance The power to create Create anything effortlessly with 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processors and 8GB of fast LPDDR3 RAM let you blast through the toughest tasks. Its Thunderbolt™ 3 interface offers unbelievably fast 40Gbps data transfers via the USB-C port — that's 80 times faster than USB 2.0 — and also supports external 4K UHD displays. And that's not all: the versatile, any-way-up USB-C connector also supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 devices at speeds up to 10Gbps, 20 times faster than USB 2.0! Amazing performance isn't quite so amazing if the battery gives up, so ASUS Transformer 3 gives you all-day battery life — enough to keep you going throughout a busy working day and enjoyable night-time entertainment. And even when it's finally time for a charge, you won't be kept waiting: its fast-charge technology means that you can top the battery up to 60% in just 50 minutes! * Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Learn more about Technology Windows 10 Pro 7th Gen Corei7 Intel CPU Up to 512GB SSD Thunderbolt™ 3 40Gbps port USB-C 10Gbps port Up to All - day battery life Fast charging 60% in 50 mins ROG XG Station 2 Connect to a different reality ASUS Transformer 3 has some truly revolutionary capabilities, such as the ability to connect to the ROG XG Station 2 external graphics dock via its Thunderbolt™ 3 interface. This means you can add desktop-grade gaming graphics — using up to an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX™ 1080 GPU — with all the power you need for the latest games and even virtual reality (VR) applications. Learn more about ROG XG Station 2 VR gaming 4K gaming Up to GTX1080 NVIDIA GPU Security One-touch access With a single touch on ASUS Transformer 3's built-in fingerprint sensor, you can unlock your ASUS Transformer 3 in just a second with no need to type in a password! It's a secure, quick and amazingly convenient way to access all your personal stuff. fingerprint sensor Keyboard and Touchpad A keyboard like no other ASUS Transformer 3 has an innovative ASUS Transformer Sleeve Keyboard that also supports ASUS Transformer 3 at two different angles, so you can easily adjust it to suit your posture. Whether you're standing, sitting, or sharing, you can always find the perfect position. This slim keyboard has other secrets, too. It has a laptop-quality backlit keyboard with 1.4mm key travel for ultra-comfortable typing. It also has a large glass-covered touchpad that gives you higher sensitivity and more precise control, as well as support for multi-touch Windows gestures. 2 angles 1.4mm travel distance backlit keyboard Universal Dock Little box, big connections Connecting to all your devices at home or in the office is easy with ASUS Transformer 3's Universal Dock. It has all the ports you need, including an SD card reader, LAN, VGA, HDMI, USB 3.0 and USB-C. Learn more about Universal Dock USB-C 3.1 USB 3.0 HDMI VGA RJ45 LAN 3-in-1 SD card reader Camera Capture. Write. Create. ASUS Transformer 3 is designed to let your creativity and productivity flow, however you interact with it. Using the high-precision ASUS Pen, you can jot down your notes and ideas, annotate photos that you've taken with one of Transformer 3's two cameras (yes, there are two: a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera!), or simply enjoy being creative! Whatever you want to do, ASUS Transformer 3 makes it easier. 13MP rear camera 5MP front camera * Product appearance and specification may vary by region.


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This past weekend in London artist Frank Bölter relied on a little help from his friends — and complete strangers — to make sure his latest artistic feat didn't plunge into the murkey waters of the Thames. With a few hands from his crew and a few passersby Bölter floated down the famous river in a boat made of nothing but paper! Before his launch, he asked for the help of spectators to fold his white sheet into a proper floating vessel and then took a ride through the middle of London while reading a newspaper. The piece is entitled To The World's End and was a part of the Drift10 bi-annual art exhibition.
Frank Bölter's less than sturdy vessel was made entirely of paper and folded to resemble an origami hat — origami boats, origami solar panels, what will they think of next? He asked passersby to lend a hand in the making of the vessel once they arrived on the shore of the Thames as the piece of paper isn't your average 8 1/2″ by 11″. The boat was inspected by a member of the water police in London before it set sail and was deemed to be — albeit not by a boating expert — safe for the voyage.
Other art pieces in the exhibition include one by Julius Popp that showcases falling water droplets that form temporary words before they descend to join the river on it,s journey to the sea and another by James Capper which features wind powered glowing buoys. Drift10 is put on by Illuminate Productions, a non-profit organization that looks to display works of modern artists for diverse audiences. Drift is a bi-annual exhibition that looks to elevate the River Thames to the level of the galleries and museums that line it — why can't a river exhibit art? Throughout the fall and winter artists will be showing pieces on and in the river to the public.
Via The Daily Mail
Photos © ILLUMINATE PRODUCTIONS


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This is a short promotional video for the free podcast novel Underwood and Flinch Written by Mike Bennett. The first time we meet Underwood and Flinch is in the Hall of Mirrors episode, 'Night Crossing' If you have not Heard any of Mike Bennett's work, I suggest you do. It is rather jolly good
This is the reason I have been so quiet on this blog recently, heres a trailer of H.P. Lovecraft's 'From Beyond'; the forthcoming video collaboration between myself and podcaster, Mike Bennett


text: Dear all, my first post on Dynamic Drive. I am using several css's. Recent cam across Haccordion. Would like to change text colour, size and font but then the accordion is blocked. Where can I put . Do I put it in the js script, in the body?