text:
Management Consulting Experts Serving Texas
Change State | Show all Texas experts
Find a Management Consulting Expert
Experts knowledgeable about disclosing commercial, industrial and professional dealings, including confidentiality and public relations. Management Consulting experts serve as expert witnesses and forensic consultants in Texas legal matters, and provide expert reports and testimony for judges, attorneys, lawyers, law firms, insurance companies and government agencies in Federal and state court trials and arbitrations in Texas.
The listings below are of Management Consulting experts serving Texas.
Expert ListingsVaughn C. Pearson
Vaughn Pearson
Dallas, TX
Financial services litigation support, consulting,
and seminars. Practicing commercial banking
expert with 25 years of executive-level bank
lending/credit experience and 15 years of
financial advisory services in large and small
consulting organizations. State-appointed
supervisor of troubled banks, including heavy
involvement with boards of directors and
executive management. Vetted by FDIC to
head bank liquidation teams. Significant report
writing, deposition, and trial experience.
Forensic Expert Witness Association
professional member. IMS-designated
Theodore Sturtz
Theodore Sturtz
Plainfield, NJ
Ted Sturtz is a financial professional with more than two decades of both U.S. and global investment banking and capital markets experience across industries. Earlier, he was an analyst at Standard and Poors and has also consulted with Bloomberg, explaining complex financial developments to groups of Bloomberg journalists. He currently serves as a FINRA arbitrator.
Fisher Consulting Group Inc.
Frederick Fisher
El Segundo, CA
Mr. Fisher has 40 years experience in Professional Liability claims Brokerage Underwriting and loss control. Fisher Consulting Group consults on Loss Control provides Expert Witness Work and Coverage Management and Review.
MCS Associates
Norman Katz
Tustin, CA
Natl banking, financial services, insurance & real estate consulting/expert witness group. Expertise in: Lending/credit, bank operations; Trusts, Investments/securities; Finance; Insurance claims, brokerage, underwriting; RE transactions; Damages.
Ronald Barone
Dix Hills, NY
Ron Barone is a financial executive having formerly worked at Standard Poors Ratings Services for 22 years. Specializing in Analytics: credit, financial, business, and enterprise risk, M&A, asset sales, share buybacks, LBOs, balance sheet restructurings, equity issuances, bond/debt transactions, hybrid securities, management and governance, project/infrastructure financings, bankruptcy emergences, corporate credit analysis.


text:
Where one films their feature (or short, or commercial) can have significant affect on the over all story. Budget considerations always come into play in choosing where the filmmaker will shoot. Despite the overwhelming fact that California has a great climate (one of the reasons the movie industry started here), great above the line talent (actors, writers, directors and producers) and superior below the line talent (as lighting and sound designers, grips, line producers, and others), much of California's hold on the industry has lessened. Many of us thought that when Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor things would change. After all, an actor, himself, he knew the value of stopping run away production. But he did not do anything to help our industry and the incentives offered for filmmakers to keep their production in California are often outweighed by the great tax rebates and credits given to us by other locations.
For that reason alone, the AFCI (Association of Film Commissioners) Location Show, held Thursday, Friday and Saturday - June 27-29, 2013, at the L A Convention Center, should have been packed -- but it wasn't. Besides being that, there were far less exhibitors this year than in past years. Despite that, I picked up quite a few tips from various booths about the perks and incentives offered by the many states and countries that were represented.
As far as good deals go for within the US, Alaska, with its (up to) 58% tax credit --one of the most aggressive in the country - beats them all. Of course, you have to like snow and long winter nights. Maybe that is one of the reason that horror has found a home there. Then, there is always the summer when the light lasts longer than you would expect. There is no sound stage there but they do have a small studio for post productions and plenty of good crew.
Michigan probably came in next with a possible 35% credit and of course, Louisiana has always been a favorite with filmmakers. Both those states have their own studio and crews available. Going into the rural and untapped areas, will give you a bigger discount. Florida, which is a right to work state, meaning that you can mix both union and non union crew and talent (though you might have trouble if you are a bigger budget picture than if you are an independent) has a sliding scale rebate depending on your budget. Centrally located, Ohio made a big pitch with 25-35%. "We want your business so bad that sometimes we can get you locations for free. People are just tickled to have you filming in our state." Illinois gives a hefty 30% while Mississippi gives 25-30% and if you hire a vet, they will give you an extra 5%. They, too, have a sound stage.
Georgia, which does a lot of filming offers 30% above and below line for all in state work. Their excellent studios are often used for Turner Broadcasting.
The US Virigin Islands, which they do not offer a set rebate, will work with production companies on a 1:1 basis, sometimes paying for hotel rooms for the crews. "Ours is soft money.
Each state has its own rules and some will only cover below the line costs, while others, as long as you are spending money in that state or country, will credit you for those expenditures. Some of the states have a minimum that you need to have in your budget and went as low as $50,000 to as high as 1 million and others didn't care about your budget but would cap the amount of tax credit you received.
Canada, too, was big at the show with Vancouver - a popular place for filming as it can look like many other cities - offers 45% on all labor below the line and has two levels of incentives. The first is if you are coming in alone and the second is if you have a local partner. Don't forget to consider Ontario, the Yukon, or Alberta, either.
I discovered places that I had never heard of as Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, which is controlled by Spain. They offer a 38% but you have to work with a local co-production and go through the Spanish film commission to get permission. I also learned about Tbilsi in the State of Georgia formerly part of the Soviet Union.
South Korea, which states they have studios, take care of all expenses up to 30%.
Trinidad and Tobago offer between 35-50% and Fiji, which also needs a local co production offers 47%.
Morocco offers two big studios - the Atlas and CLA.
While Portugal doesn't have a tax incentive program yet, their private company Ready to Shoot, offers all sorts of assistance from location scouting, crew, hotel, casting, etc. It's also a VAT free country.
If you are in doubt of where you want to go, you might check with the Location Guide, which lists everything in the one book. The price of the book is $130 and it comes out yearly. The Location Manager's Guild can tell you where in L A you can shoot if you want it to look like Saint Louis -- or any other similar need either in the States or overseas.
And companies like Entertainment Partners, and Cast and Crew or the Tax Incentives, Inc. will guide you on what place is most reasonable for your budget and the location look that you want.
Hotel chains as Motel Six, Marriot and Oakwood were present and told me that they give discounts depending on the size of the crew and the length of stay.
Don't forget that despite the draw backs of filming in California, most of the state parks are free to film in and you have to, when choosing a place outside of Los Angeles, consider the cost of transportation and housing for your crew and your talent.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
One of the more popular reasons for explaining why business spent the last few years sitting on $1.9 trillion of cash was 'uncertainty.' Now that Barack Obama has won re-election and the balance of power in the House and Senate remains the same as yesterday, is the 'uncertainty' over?
Before getting into that, it's worth pointing out that the biggest winners and losers in this election were those who made predictions on its outcome. In theory, accurate predictions exist to minimize uncertainty. For example, if someone is known to be good at predicting outcomes, then investors ought to be able to use those predictions to set odds and bet accordingly.
The winner in this prediction sweepstakes was clearly the Republican punching bag, Nate Silver of the FiverThirtyEight blog. Mr. Silver's pre-election prediction gave Mr. Obama a 92 percent probability of re-election and forecast he'd win 313 electoral votes to Mr. Romney's 225. The actual result is not in yet since Florida has yet to be called. But as of this writing, Mr. Silver was awfully close — Mr. Obama has 303 electoral votes to Mr. Romney's 206.
Meanwhile, the biggest loser is Karl Rove. Mr. Rove confidently predicted that Romney would win the popular vote by as much as 2.5 percent and get around 280 electoral votes. In fact, he was high by 4.5 percentage points — Mr. Obama won 50 percent of the popular vote to Romney's 48 percent — on the popular vote and about 74 electoral ones.
But Mr. Rove is the biggest loser because of his American Crossroads SuperPAC that spent $105 million on advertisements attacking Obama and Massachusetts' Senator-elect, Elizabeth Warren, among others. Based on his role in deciding on messages, media, and targeted voters, those who were hoping for a different result may question whether he is the right person to be allocating all that money.
The point of comparing predictions to outcomes is that it helps people decide which predictions do a better job of reducing uncertainty. Predictions also serve another purpose that makes people feel better in the short-run — it reinforces their pre-conceived biases about the outcome. Those who wanted Mr. Obama to win, latched on to polls that predicted he would, and vice versa.
This leads me to try to answer the question of whether the clear outcome of the election will reduce uncertainty. In order to address that, though, we need a definition of uncertainty. And those who cited uncertainty as the reason for not investing, claimed that they were holding back because they did not know what would happen to taxes, business regulation, the deficit, the budget and the economy.
However, I think this is not the entire definition. When people talked about uncertainty, what they really meant was that if business held back from investing, it would impede the recovery in the economy. And a slower growing economy boosted the odds of achieving Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell's goal of making Obama a one-term president.
To answer the question of whether uncertainty is over, we must relieve the uncertainty over its definition. If uncertainty means a Republican White House and Congress, the uncertainty is over — at least for the next four years. If uncertainty means resolving issues of taxes, business regulation, the deficit, the budget and the economy, nothing much has changed.
Between these definitions of uncertainty lies the question of why businesses actually invest. The answer — based on my interviews with CEOs of small businesses – is that cutting taxes has nothing to do with it. Rather, businesses invest and hire employees because not doing so would cause them to miss a chance to increase their profits.
And in the course of interviewing over 180 start-up CEOs for my new book, "Hungry Start-up Strategy," I have found many that have been growing at over 50 percent a year because they are making a product that creates much greater bang for the buck than competitors'.
In short, with the exception of companies that get most of their revenues from government spending, the decision of whether to invest should not be in the hands of politicians or SuperPACs, it should rest on whether CEOs can spur their companies to create profitable growth opportunities by building products that deliver better value to customers.
If they can do that, then the $1.9 trillion sitting on corporate balance sheets will be invested. If not, then boards should replace them with leaders who will.


text:
Top Items:
Joe Holley / Houston Chronicle:
Cornyn: Congress will not allow default — Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Republican whip, said in Houston Thursday that Congress will not allow an impasse over raising the debt ceiling to result in the federal government defaulting on its spending obligations. — "We will raise the debt ceiling.
Reid Pillifant / Capital New York: Republican leaders emerged from their caucus retreat in Williamsburg …
Katie Glueck / Politico: John Cornyn: 'We will raise the debt ceiling'
Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider: REPUBLICAN SENATOR: 'We Will Raise The Debt Ceiling'
Robert Schroeder / Political Watch: Most say not raising debt limit would mean crisis: poll
Michael O'Brien / First Read: GOP to seek three-month extension of debt limit
Jed Lewison / Daily Kos: Paul Ryan says House Republicans are considering a short-term debt limit hike
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: Cornyn: We're going to raise the debt ceiling; Update: House to push debt limit to ... April 15?
Z. Byron Wolf / ABCNEWS: Sen. John Cornyn: 'We Will Raise the Debt Ceiling'
Extreme Liberal / Angry Black Lady Chronicles: The Slow, Steady Demise of the Republican Party Continues
Rachel Weiner / Post Politics: Sen. John Cornyn: 'We will raise the debt ceiling'
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn: The real story on the debt ceiling fight
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
A new strategy for the GOP — It has become conventional wisdom that Republicans are suffering an internal split that President Obama is successfully exploiting to neuter the Republican House. It is not true, however, that the Republican split is philosophical and fundamental.
Discussion: Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, PostPartisan, The Week, neo-neocon, Taylor Marsh, Prairie Weather, Economist's View, Right Turn, Mediaite, Betsy's Page, Wall Street Journal, The Right Scoop, Business Insider, Vodkapundit, Post Politics, FreedomWorks blogs, Hot Air and New York Times
John McCormack / Weekly Standard: House GOP: We'll Raise Debt Limit for 3 Months if Senate Agrees to Produce a Budget
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line: GOP takes off the suicide bomb vest
Rachel Manteuffel / PostPartisan: PostScript: Krauthammer and picking GOP battles
Mark Thoma / Economist's View: 'It Appears That the Strategy has Worked'
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn: Political reality and GOP survival in Obama's second term
Meenal Vamburkar / Mediaite: Charles Krauthammer Advises GOP: 'Don't Force The Issue When You Don't Have The Power'
Betsy Newmark / Betsy's Page: Cruising the Web — Look for an important ruling from the D …
Keith Hennessey / Wall Street Journal: How to Wage the Debt-Ceiling Fight
Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider: Finally, Conservatives Are Telling The GOP The Hard Truth About The Debt Ceiling
Stephen Green / Vodkapundit: Fore More Years... Krauthammer on the GOP's civil war:
JBorowski / FreedomWorks blogs: End the Debt Ceiling Shenanigans
Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:
House G.O.P. Agrees to Lift Debt Ceiling for 3 Months — WASHINGTON — Backing down from their hard-line stance, House Republicans said Friday that they would agree to lift the federal government's statutory borrowing limit for three months, with a requirement that both chambers of Congress pass …
Discussion: Trail Blazers Blog and msnbc.com
Alexandria Baca / Trail Blazers Blog: Hensarling to Senate: Pass budget or forfeit pay
Zachary Roth / msnbc.com: GOP caves on debt ceiling fight — for now
Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:
House Republicans agree to vote on bill to raise debt limit for 3 months — Video: President Obama said today in a White House press conference that he won't negotiate with Republicans on the federal debt ceiling. Post economic policy reporter Zachary Goldfarb stops by to explain which bills …
Discussion: The Fix, The Impolitic, The Week, The Page, Booman Tribune, The National Memo, PostPartisan, Right Turn, New York Magazine, Post Politics and ABCNEWS
Chris Cillizza / The Fix: Why Republicans caved on the debt ceiling
Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: GOP's slow-mo cave on debt ceiling
Mark Halperin / The Page: The Leverage — Republicans are now talking about raising …
Henry Decker / The National Memo: House Republicans Announce Vote On Three-Month Debt Limit Extension
James Downie / PostPartisan: Conservatives try but can't quite let go of extremism
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn: House Republicans play it smart on debt ceiling
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: Republicans: Okay, Maybe We Can't Shoot the Hostage, But Maybe We Can Slap Him Around or Something
Natalie Jennings / Post Politics: White House 'encouraged' by GOP debt vote
John Parkinson / ABCNEWS: Paul Ryan: GOP Mulling Short-Term Debt Limit Hike
Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
The Republican Debt Ceiling Gambit Is Unconstitutional
The Republican Debt Ceiling Gambit Is Unconstitutional
Discussion: Post Politics
Rachel Weiner / Post Politics: Is "No Budget No Pay" constitutional?
Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
GOP De-Escalates Debt Limit Fight
GOP De-Escalates Debt Limit Fight
Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Bloomberg, Taegan Goddard's … and The Caucus
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice: Republicans Sending Signals Won't Force U.S. Into Default on Debt Limit
Ashley Parker / The Caucus: At Republican Retreat, Ryan Urges Unity on Fiscal Issues
Jake Sherman / Politico:
House Republicans plan debt ceiling vote
House Republicans plan debt ceiling vote
Discussion: Paul Krugman
David Lawder / Reuters:
Republicans seek three-month debt limit increase, Senate budget
Republicans seek three-month debt limit increase, Senate budget
Discussion: The New Republic, Guardian, Hot Air, Washington Examiner and The Hill
Michael Cohen / Guardian: Obama's 'Pat Geary strategy': calling Republicans' bluff on the debt ceiling
Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner: WH doesn't rule out short-term debt limit increase proposed by GOP
Russell Berman / The Hill: Ryan: House GOP discussing short-term hike to debt ceiling
Russell Berman / The Hill: House GOP to vote next week on three-month increase to debt limit
Aaron Blake / Post Politics:
Stephen Colbert's sister will run for Congress — Stephen Colbert may have "run for president," but his sister is actually going to run for Congress. — Elizabeth Colbert-Busch's soon-to-be-official campaign has informed South Carolina Democratic Party executive director Amanda Loveday …
Discussion: The Political Carnival, Roll Call, Taegan Goddard's …, Mediaite and ABCNEWS
GottaLaff / The Political Carnival: Stephen Colbert's sister to run as a Dem in South Carolina House race... against Mark Sanford
Joshua Miller / Roll Call: Colbert's Sister, Businessman Running in S.C. Special
Z. Byron Wolf / ABCNEWS: Stephen Colbert's Sister Plots House Run in South Carolina
Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:
Sister of Stephen Colbert to run for Rep. Tim Scott's seat
Sister of Stephen Colbert to run for Rep. Tim Scott's seat
Stephen Colbert / CNN: Colbert to run for Congress
Alex Isenstadt / Reuters: No joke: A Colbert running for House
Gordon Russell / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Ray Nagin indictment: First New Orleans mayor to face corruption charges — A federal grand jury on Friday indicted former Mayor Ray Nagin with 21 counts of corruption, alleging that while in office, Nagin took cash bribes and gifts from two city contractors and used his power as mayor …
Discussion: TalkLeft, Politico and The Raw Story
Jeralyn / TalkLeft: Former NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin Indicted
Kevin Cirilli / Politico: Ex-New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin indicted
Stephen C. Webster / The Raw Story: Prosecutors hit former NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin with 21 corruption charges
Michael Kunzelman / Associated Press:
Ray Nagin, Former New Orleans Mayor, Indicted On 21 Corruption Charges, Including Bribery, Fraud
Ray Nagin, Former New Orleans Mayor, Indicted On 21 Corruption Charges, Including Bribery, Fraud
Discussion: New Orleans Times-Picayune
Gordon Russell / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Ray Nagin, former New Orleans mayor, charged with taking bribes while in office
Ray Nagin, former New Orleans mayor, charged with taking bribes while in office
Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, New Orleans Metro Real … and Washington Free Beacon
Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:
New Study Highlights Threat From Far Right-Wing Groups In U.S. — A new study from a think tank connected to the West Point Military Academy highlights the threat of violent far-right movements in the United States, leading to the conclusion that, while diverse in in their causes …
Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Impolitic, The Agonist, Booman Tribune, Mediaite and Alan Colmes'
Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly: Can "Patriots" Be Terrorists?
Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: Domestic threats — An organization connected to the West …
Steve Hynd / The Agonist: Singing the song of angry men
Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times:
West Point center cites dangers of 'far right' in U.S.
West Point center cites dangers of 'far right' in U.S.
Discussion: National Review, protein wisdom, Infowars and Weasel Zippers
John Fund / National Review: A New Anti-Terror Front? Yes, the Government Thinks It's 'Right-Wing Extremists'
Kurt Nimmo / Infowars: DHS Says Gun Owners Are Terrorists
Up next for Obama: A looming Democratic divide — As President Barack Obama approaches his second inaugural on Monday, he presides over a party that has largely papered over its divisions for the past four years thanks to the president's commanding popularity.
Discussion: New York Times, Capital New York, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, The Week, msnbc.com, First Read and Lynn Sweet
Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times: Democrats Are Split Over How to Shape Approach to Gun Bills
Azi Paybarah / Capital New York: Audio: Cuomo, on a call with Democratic officials, talks Democratic
The Hardball / msnbc.com: Let Me Start: Democratic Divide
First Read:
First Thoughts: Different attitude greeting Obama's upcoming inaugural
First Thoughts: Different attitude greeting Obama's upcoming inaugural
Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway and Business Insider
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice: NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll: Obama Popular, GOP Plummetting, Congress Disdained
Doug Mataconis / Outside the Beltway: GOP, Tea Party Hit New Lows In New Poll
Jeff Plungis / Bloomberg:
Naked-Image Scanners to Be Removed From U.S. Airports — The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn't write software to make passenger images less revealing.
Discussion: TalkLeft, Techdirt, The Raw Story, Hot Air and The Daily Caller
Mike Masnick / Techdirt: TSA Dumps Rapiscan Naked Airport Scanners After Failure To Make Them 'Less Revealing'
David Ferguson / The Raw Story: Naked-image full-body scanners to be taken out of U.S. airports
Mary Katharine Ham / Hot Air: TSA to remove nudie scanners from airports because they couldn't make them less nekkid
Josh Peterson / The Daily Caller: TSA to remove naked-body scanners from airports
Hugo Martin / Los Angeles Times:
TSA ends contract with Rapiscan, maker of full-body scanner — A TSA agent demonstrates the full-body scanner at Los Angeles International Airport. (Los Angeles Times) — The Transportation Security Administration has ended a contract with the Hawthorne-based manufacturer …
Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Eschaton
Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online: The TSA Has Ended Its Contract With Airport Scanner Maker Rapiscan
Obama unveils 'Organizing for Action' — President Barack Obama on Friday announced the relaunch of his remaining campaign apparatus as a new tax-exempt group called Organizing for Action that will "play an active role" in "mobilizing around and speaking out in support of important legislation" during his second term.
Discussion: The Plum Line, CNN, The National Memo, msnbc.com and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Jamelle Bouie / The Plum Line: Can the new, relaunched OFA help Dems in 2014?
Paul Steinhauser / CNN: 'Obama for America' to morph into 'Organizing for Action'
Jason Sattler / The National Memo: Obama For America To Relaunch, Giving Democrats New Hope For 2014
Morgan Whitaker / msnbc.com: OFA 2.0: Obama for America converts into nonprofit group
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion: Cult of Personality — Keith Koffler at White House Dossier …
Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:
Seeking to harness Obama's campaign resources for a second term
Seeking to harness Obama's campaign resources for a second term
Discussion: Talking Points Memo, BuzzFeed, Mother Jones, TechPresident, The Hill, Politico, Daily Kos, Ballot Box, Prairie Weather and Mediaite
Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed: Democrats Explain "Organizing For Action"
Miranda Neubauer / TechPresident: First POST: OFA 4.0 … WEGOV — TIMELINE — ONLINE ORGANIZING
Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box: Bill Burton heads to Global Strategy Group
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite: Obama For America Activate! OFA Joins President To Fight For Gun Proposals
Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:
Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theories Edge Toward The Mainstream — "By far the hottest topic of the moment." Ignore it and it won't go away. — There are two kinds of conspiracy theories: The ones about the Illuminati and about mysterious "chemtrails," which lurk forever in the online twilight zone …
Discussion: snopes.com, The Week and Glenn Beck
Mark Hemingway / Weekly Standard:
Whoops: PolitiFact's 'Lie of the Year' Turns Out to Be True — Last month, PolitiFact selected its "Lie of the Year." Given PolitiFact's dubious record of singling out Republicans for lying far more often than Democrats, you probably could have guessed the winner of this particular sweepstakes was a Mitt Romney campaign ad:
Discussion: Reuters
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Is Lance Armstrong the world's biggest liar? — "[This was] one big lie that I repeated a lot of times." — It is fair to say that in more than three decades of reporting, The Fact Checker has never written a sports story. But The Fact Checker has written a lot about people who stretch the truth …
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: 28 Pinocchios for Lance Armstrong?
Brent Schrotenboer / Associated Press:
Lance Armstrong to Oprah: Story was 'one big lie'
Lance Armstrong to Oprah: Story was 'one big lie'
Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, The New Republic, Infowars, msnbc.com, American Power and Taylor Marsh
Bill Gifford / The New Republic: Lance Armstrong: No More Mr. Nice Guy
Robert Gifford / msnbc.com: NOW Today: Belief to betrayal
Donald Douglas / American Power: How Fallen Stars Earn Forgiveness ... or Not ...
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Next Four Years — President Obama's second inaugural comes at an interesting moment, what you might call the end of the era of the Grand Bargain. Throughout his first term, Democrats and Republicans didn't achieve a Grand Bargain on spending and taxes, but there was a sense that history was moving in that direction.
Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Monthly, Wonkblog, Mother Jones, No More Mister Nice Blog and msnbc.com
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine: David Brooks Now Totally Pathological
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog: Is the Republican Party Obama's fault?
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones: Let's Get One Thing Straight: It's Republicans Who Are Picking Fights, Not President Obama
Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog: OBAMA FOLLOWS THE ADVICE OF DAVID BROOKS, GETS CRITICIZED FOR IT BY ... DAVID BROOKS
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Americans Call for Term Limits, End to Electoral College — Virtually no partisan disagreement on these long-discussed constitutional reforms — PRINCETON, NJ — Even after the 2012 election in which Americans re-elected most of the sitting members of the U.S. House and Senate …
Discussion: Firedoglake, Hot Air, CNN, Politico, The Hill and The Daily Caller
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: Shocker: Americans want term limits and end to Electoral College after re-electing a bunch of incumbents
Ashley Killough / CNN: Poll: Three-quarters support term limits
Katie Glueck / Politico: Poll: 75 percent want Hill term limits
Caroline May / The Daily Caller: 3 out of 4 Americans favor congressional term limits
Daniel W. Drezner:
How the current GOP thinks like revolutionaries — and why that's a bad thing — In an exit interview with the Wall Street Journal, outgoing U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said some provocative things about the state of America's political system and how that affects our standing in the world.
Discussion: The Agonist, The Hill, Portland Press-Herald, Washington Wire, A plain blog about politics, Right Turn and Politico
Steve Hynd / The Agonist: House GOP Blinks Once On Debt Ceiling
Molly K. Hooper / The Hill: Rank and file tell GOP leaders to keep sequester, shutdown 'on the table'
Portland Press-Herald: Charles Krauthammer: Republicans could use debt ceiling to bargain for a budget
Jonathan Bernstein / A plain blog about politics: What Kind of Crazy Are the GOP?
Maggie Haberman / Politico: Another group to hit Chuck Hagel from right
FishbowlDC sued for libel — Washington, D.C.-based publicist Wendy Gordon is suing FishbowlDC, the local media gossip site, for waging "an unprovoked, online smear campaign" against her. — Gordon filed a libel lawsuit on Thursday, the Legal Times reported, and it names FishbowlDC editor Betsy Rothstein …
Discussion: The BLT, The Daily Caller and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Zoe Tillman / The BLT: D.C. Media News Website Sued for Libel
Taylor Bigler / The Daily Caller: The 10 best lines from the greatest lawsuit ever
Andrew Beaujon / Poynter: Publicist sues FishbowlDC for libel
Mickey Kaus / The Daily Caller:
The Education of Ezra Klein (and Barack Obama) continues: In 2007, Young Ezra Klein was full of enthusiasm about the cost-saving potential of electronic record keeping in the health industry. The failure to rapidly adopt this new technology was nothing less than an indictment of the American way of Medicine:
Discussion: FishbowlDC, Washington Examiner and The Atlantic Online
Piranhamous / FishbowlDC: The (Mis)Education of WaPo's Ezra Klein
Lindsay Abrams / The Atlantic Online: The Future of Medical Records


text:
Neither question is easy to answer because usually the person doing the asking wants a simple, quick, concise response. It is difficult for the inquirer to understand why people who are "obviously intelligent" refuse to believe in God. It has been my experience that rarely is there a single reason for unbelief, because rarely is there a single reason that can explain adequately why a person thinks, or acts, as he does.
Surely a part of the answer has to do with the fact that when God created humans, He endowed us with freedom of choice (often referred to as "personal volition" or "free moral agency"). This stands to reason, considering Who God is. The Bible describes Him as being, among other things, a God of love (1 John 4:8). Even a cursory survey of the Scriptures documents God's desire that man, as the zenith of His creation, possess, and employ, the freedom of choice with which he has been endowed. The truth of the matter is that God did not create mankind as some kind of robot to serve Him slavishly without any personal choice in the matter.
For example, when Joshua—who had led the Israelite nation so faithfully for so long—realized that his days were numbered and his hours were few, he assembled the entirety of that nation before him and, in one of the most moving, impassioned pleas recorded within the pages of Holy Writ, admonished his charges to employ their personal volition in a proper fashion.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah (Joshua 24:15).
Joshua's point could not have been any clearer. The Israelites, individually and collectively, had the ability, and yes, even the God-given right, to choose whether or not they wished to follow Jehovah. As the text continues, it indicates that on this particular occasion they chose correctly.
And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake Jehovah, to serve other gods.... And Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Jehovah that he had wrought for Israel (Joshua 24:16,31).
Years later, however, the people of Israel—employing that same heaven-sent personal volition—freely chose to abandon their belief in, and obedience to, God. Judges 2:10-11 records:
[T]here arose another generation after them, that knew not Jehovah, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel. And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim.
Within the pages of the New Testament, the principle is the same. When Jesus condemned the self-righteousness of the Pharisees in John 5:39-40, He made this observation: "Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life." The Pharisees of New Testament times possessed the same freedom of choice that the Israelites of Old Testament times possessed. But while the Israelites to whom Joshua spoke chose at first to heed his plea and obey Jehovah, the Pharisees to whom Christ spoke chose to ignore His plea and to disobey God.
Two chapters later, when Jesus addressed the Jews in their own temple, the text indicates that they marveled at His teaching (John 7:15). But Jesus demurred, and said: "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself " (John 7:16-17). Jesus' point to the devout temple Jews was no different than the one He had made earlier to the legalistic Pharisees. God has imbued mankind with the ability to choose. If a person wills, he can accept God and His teaching, but God never will force Himself on that person. As the apostle John brought the book of Revelation to a close, he wrote: "he that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). The operative phrase here, of course, is "he that will."
But what of he that will not? Freedom is accompanied by responsibility. With freedom of choice comes the responsibility to think carefully, choose wisely, and act forcefully. Freedom of choice always works best when tempered with wisdom and good judgment. Thus, in every human activity the process of recognizing, believing, and properly utilizing truth is vitally important. Especially is this true in the spiritual realm. Jesus tried to impress this upon His generation when He said: "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). What we as humans so often fail to realize is that we are not involved in a search for truth because it is lost; we are involved in a search for truth because without it we are!
Some, however, have elected to employ their freedom of choice to ignore the truth regarding God's existence and to disobey His Word. They are the spiritual descendants of the first-century Pharisees; they could come to a knowledge of the truth, but they will not. The simple fact of the matter is that we are responsible for what we choose to believe. Using the personal volition with which God has endowed us, we may choose freely to believe in Him, or we may choose just as freely to disbelieve. The choice is up to each individual. And once that individual has made up his mind to disbelieve, God will not deter him, as Paul made clear when he wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians. In that letter, he spoke first of those who "received not the love of the truth" (2:10), and then went on to say that "for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
What, exactly, was Paul suggesting? Was the apostle teaching that God purposely causes men to believe error? No, he was not. Paul's point in this passage was that we may choose to accept something as the truth when, in fact, it is false. Because God has granted man personal volition, and because He has provided within the Bible the rules, regulations, and guidelines to govern that personal volition, He therefore will refrain from overriding man's freedom of choice—even when that choice violates His law. God will not contravene man's decisions, or interfere with the actions based on those decisions. The prophet Isaiah recorded God's words on this subject many years before when he wrote:
Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not (Isaiah 66:3-4).
Concerning the people who refused to have God in their knowledge, and who exchanged truth for error, Paul repeatedly stated that "God gave them up" (Romans 1:24,26,28). In his commentary on the Thessalonian epistles, Raymond C. Kelcy addressed the fact that men often prefer the consequences of a certain belief system, and that as a result
God gives the man over to the belief of the lie which he prefers. In a sense it might be said that the means by which a person is deceived is God's permissive agency—not God's direct agency (1968, p. 157).
There is an exact parallel in the instance of the Pharaoh who sparred with Moses and Aaron over the release of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage. When Moses and Aaron arrived at Pharaoh's court as God's ambassadors to demand the release of the enslaved Israelites, they told the pagan potentate: "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, 'Let my people go.' " Pharaoh's response, preserved in Scripture for posterity, foreshadowed the attitude of millions of unbelievers who would imitate the militant monarch's demeanor of disbelief throughout the course of human history: "Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go" (Exodus 5:1-2, emp. added).
Several times the biblical text records that it was God Who "hardened Pharaoh's heart" (Exodus 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20,27; 11:10; 14:8). Are we to understand, therefore, that God caused Pharaoh's stubborn attitude of disbelief? Certainly not. The simple fact of the matter is that God did not cause Pharaoh to harden his heart and disobey, but instead permitted the ruler's actions. The Scriptures speak to this point when they acknowledge that Pharaoh himself "hardened his heart" (Exodus 8:15,32; 9:34-35). In their commentary on the Pentateuch, Keil and Delitzsch addressed Pharaoh's hardness of heart, even after he witnessed the miraculous plagues sent by God.
After every one of these miracles, it is stated that Pharaoh's heart was firm, or dull, i.e. insensible to the voice of God, and unaffected by the miracles performed before his eyes, and the judgments of God suspended over him and his kingdom.... Thus Pharaoh would not bend his self-will to the will of God, even after he had discerned the finger of God and the omnipotence of Jehovah in the plagues suspended over him and his nation; he would not withdraw his haughty refusal, notwithstanding the fact that he was obliged to acknowledge that it was sin against Jehovah. Looked at from this side, the hardening was a fruit of sin, a consequence of that self-will, high-mindedness, and pride which flow from sin, and a continuous and ever increasing abuse of that freedom of the will which is innate in man, and which involves the possibility of obstinate resistance to the word and chastisement of God even until death (1981, pp. 454,455, emp. added).
Pharaoh's hard heart was not God's doing, but his own. God's permissive agency was involved, but not His direct agency. That is to say, He allowed Pharaoh to use (or abuse, as Keil and Delitzsch correctly noted) his freedom of will in a vain attempt to thwart God's plans. Throughout history, God's actions have been consistent in this regard. The psalmist wrote:
But my people hearkened not to my voice; and Israel would not hear me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart, that they might walk in their own counsels (Psalm 81:11-12).
Concerning the rebellious Israelites, Paul wrote in Romans 11:8 (quoting from Isaiah 29:10): "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear." In every generation, God has granted mankind the freedom of self-determination to be blind to His existence, and in so doing to believe a lie. E.M. Zerr put it well when he said:
The Bible in no place teaches that God ever forces a man to sin, then punishes him for the wrong-doing. Neither does He compel man against his will to do right, but has always offered him proper inducements for righteous conduct, then left it to his own responsibility to decide what he will do about it (1952, 5:159).
The same principles operate even today, almost two thousand years later. If an acknowledgment of God's existence and obedience to His Word make us free (John 8:32), surely, then, disbelief and disobedience make us captives of one sort or another. Set adrift in a vast sea of confusing and contradictory world views, we find ourselves susceptible to every ill-conceived plan, deceptive scheme, and false concept that the winds of change may blow our way. We become captives to error because we have abandoned the one moral compass—the existence of God—that possesses the ability to show us the way, and thereby to set us free.
Throughout history, unbelief has worn many masks. But behind each is a Pharaoh-like spirit of rebellion that—in angry defiance—raises a clenched fist to God in a display of unrepentant determination not to believe in Him. An examination of the faces, and causes, of unbelief is both informative and instructive.
In his book, If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists?, R.C. Sproul noted in regard to theism that "literally, the word means 'Godism,' that is belief in God. It is derived from theos, the Greek word for God" (1978, p. 16). Chief among unbelievers, then, would be the atheist (a, without; theos, God)—the person who affirms that there is no God. As Sproul went on to observe: "Atheism involves the rejection of any form of theism. To be an atheist is to disavow belief in any kind of god or gods" (p. 18). In his book, Intellectuals Don't Need God, Alister McGrath noted:
The atheist is prepared to concede—no, that is too negative a word, to celebrate—the need for commitment and the existence of evidence to move one in the direction of that commitment. In other words, the atheist recognizes the need to come off the fence and the fact that there are factors in the world of human experience and thought that suggest which side of the fence that ought to be. At present, the atheist happens to sit on the godless side of that fence (1993, p. 81, emp. in orig.).
Bruce Lockerbie, in Dismissing God, referred to atheism as "the abdication of belief," and described the person who falls into this category.
For the ardent disbeliever, the hypothesis and its given propositions are one and the same: God does not exist.... All that has energized the human imagination and motivated the human spirit with prospects of nirvana, the Elysian Fields, the happy hunting grounds, paradise, or heaven—all that is meant when the Book of Ecclesiastes declares that God "has set eternity in the hearts of men"—must be invalidated by counterclaims of atheism (1998, pp. 225, 227, emp. in orig.).
This, no doubt, explains why a famous unbeliever like the late Carl Sagan, eminent atheist/astronomer of Cornell University, opened his television extravaganza Cosmos (and his book by the same name) with these words: "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be" (1980, p. 4). Commenting on the exclusivity of that statement, D. James Kennedy wrote: "That is as clear a statement of atheism as one could ever hear" (1997, p. 61).
Declaring oneself to be an atheist, however, is much easier than defending the concept of atheism. Think of it this way. In order to defend atheism, a person would have to know every single fact there is to know, because the one fact that avoided detection might just be the fact of the existence of God. Theodore Christlieb noted:
The denial of the existence of God involves a perfectly monstrous hypothesis; it is, when looked at more closely, an unconscionable assumption. Before one can say that the world is without a God, he must first have become thoroughly conversant with the whole world.... In short, to be able to affirm authoritatively that no God exists, a man must be omniscient and omnipresent, that is, he himself must be God, and then after all there would be one (1878, pp. 143,144).
Impossible task, that—since one would have to be God in order to believe with certainty that there is no God! Yet, as apologist Dan Story has pointed out,
...[T]his fact stops few atheists from arguing against the existence of God. Rather than admitting (or even recognizing) the irrationality of their own position, many atheists attempt to remove the rationality of the Christian position.... These atheists argue that because they don't believe in God, because their belief is negative, they don't have to martial any arguments in their favor (1997, p. 20).
Evidence of such a stance abounds. Atheistic writer George H. Smith, in his book, Atheism: The Case Against God, wrote:
Proof is applicable only in the case of a positive belief. To demand proof of the atheist, the religionist must represent atheism as a positive belief requiring substantiation. When the atheist is seen as a person who lacks belief in a god, it becomes clear that he is not obligated to "prove" anything. The atheist qua atheist does not believe anything requiring demonstration; the designation of "atheist" tells us, not what he believes to be true, but what he does not believe to be true. If others wish for him to accept the existence of a god, it is their responsibility to argue for the truth of theism—but the atheist is not similarly required to argue for the truth of atheism (1979, p. 16, emp. in orig.)
Such a view, however, is seriously flawed for at least two reasons. First, theists do not make the statement, "God exists," with wild abandon, expecting it to be accepted as if somehow it were spoken by divine fiat. Rather, when they defend God's existence, theists offer evidence to back up their case (e.g., the cosmological argument, teleological argument, moral argument, etc.)—which places the matter of the existence of God in an entirely different perspective. As Story properly noted:
Christians have given ample evidence for the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. In light of this, if atheists claim God does not exist, they must be prepared to explain why. When Christians state that God exists and offer evidences to support this claim, they have moved the debate into a new arena—an arena in which atheists must prove that the Christian evidences are erroneous (1997, p. 20, emp. in orig.).
If evidence for God's existence has been set forth, the atheist has a responsibility (if he expects his world view to be considered seriously and accepted intellectually) to show why such evidence is not legitimate. After all, the Law of Rationality (one of the foundational laws of human thought) states that one should draw only those conclusions for which there is adequate and justifiable evidence. Indifference to such evidence—in light of the claim made by the atheist that God does not exist—could prove to be suicidal philosophically. The evidence just might document the theist's claim. And in the process, the atheist just might be proven wrong!
Second, in his book, Dismissing God, under the chapter heading, "When Disbelief Has Gone," Bruce Lockerbie rightly remarked:
To disbelieve necessitates the possibility of a reasonable alternative, namely to believe. So "when disbelief has gone" means that the secular mind has passed even beyond this stage of contesting with Christian orthodoxy, no longer deigning to concern itself with the fantasies of faith (1998, p. 228, emp. in orig.).
While it may be the case that the modern-day unbeliever no longer deigns to concern himself with what he views as "fantasies of faith," such an attitude does nothing to address the evidence presented by the theist. Nor does indifference to the theist's evidence on the part of the atheist do anything to establish whatever type of unbelief the atheist wishes to recommend in its place. Lockerbie is correct: "To disbelieve necessitates the possibility of a reasonable alternative, namely to believe." Thus, the atheist shoulders two burdens: (1) to prove the theist's evidence is invalid; and (2) to establish—with attending evidence—a belief system that is a "reasonable alternative" worthy of acceptance by rational, thinking people.
Neither of these tasks is simple (or, theists would suggest, possible). One problem that, by necessity, would have to be broached from the outset is this. For whatever reason(s), many atheists appear unwilling to consider the evidence in the first place. Robert Gorham Davis is a retired professor of English at Harvard University who spends much of his time writing letters to the editor of the New York Times in order to take exception to any published reference to religion in that newspaper. In one such letter to the editor, he wrote:
On no clear evidence theologians and philosophers declare God to be omniscient and omnicompetent. Plainly if there were such a God who really wished to reveal Himself to mankind, He could do so in a way that left no doubt (1992, emp. added).
That God did reveal Himself "in a way that left no doubt" is made clear from such evidence as: (1) the marvelous order and complexity of the macrocosm we call the Universe; (2) the intricate, delicately balanced nature of life; (3) the deliberate design inherent in the microcosm we know as the incomparable genetic code; (4) the astounding historical testimony attesting to the miracle-working Son of God; and (5) an otherwise unexplained (and unexplainable) empty tomb on a Sunday morning almost two thousand years ago. Each of these pieces of evidence (and many more like them) helps form the warp and woof of the fabric whose purpose it is to document God's eternal existence.
That the atheist does not consider the evidence to be trustworthy or adequate to the task does not negate the evidence necessarily. A man's attitude toward the truth does not alter the truth. As Winfried Corduan stated in his book, Reasonable Faith:
An argument, in order to be considered sound, must have true premises and valid logic. Because we think within the context of world views, someone may not be convinced by a perfectly sound argument. This is an everyday occurrence in all human reasoning and attempts at persuasion. That is no fault of the argument... (1993, p. 106, emp. added).
The late atheist, Isaac Asimov, once bluntly admitted: "Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time" (1982, p. 9). Such a boast is easy enough to understand, and requires no further explanation. Yes, Dr. Asimov was a committed atheist, but not because he could offer adequate, legitimate reasons to justify his unbelief. Rather, his world view was an emotional response resulting from his personal freedom of choice.
The fact remains that after everything is said and done, the atheist's first option—disproving the theist's evidence—is a difficult challenge that many choose not to accept.
What, then, about option number two—providing, with attending evidence, a belief system that is a "reasonable alternative"? That, too, apparently is beyond the pale of atheism. In 1989, Richard Dawkins, renowned atheist and evolutionist of Oxford University, released the second edition of his book, The Selfish Gene, in which he discussed at great length the gene's role in the naturalistic process of "survival of the fittest." Dawkins admitted that, according to the evolutionary paradigm, genes are "selfish" because they will do whatever it takes to ensure that the individual in which they are stored produces additional copies of the genes. In commenting on the effects of such a concept on society as a whole, Dr. Dawkins lamented: "My own feeling is that a human society based simply on the gene's law of universal ruthlessness would be a very nasty society in which to live" (1989, p. 3, emp. added).
Michael Ruse, a Canadian philosopher, and Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard entomologist, had made the same point four years earlier when they wrote under the title of "Evolution and Ethics":
Morality, or more strictly our belief in morality, is merely an adaptation put in place to further our reproductive ends.... Ethics is seen to have a solid foundation, not in divine guidance, but in the shared qualities of human nature and the desperate need for reciprocity (1985, 208:51-52, emp. added).
The eminent humanist/philosopher, Will Durant, went even further when he admitted:
By offering evolution in place of God as a cause of history, Darwin removed the theological basis of the moral code of Christendom. And the moral code that has no fear of God is very shaky. That's the condition we are in.... I don't think man is capable yet of managing social order and individual decency without fear of some supernatural being overlooking him and able to punish him (1980).
Once again, the fact remains that after everything is said and done, the atheist's second option—providing, with attending evidence, a belief system that is a "reasonable alternative"—is an unattainable goal. Enter "agnosticism."
Perhaps the logical contradiction inherent in atheism (i.e., one would have to be God in order to know God does not exist) has caused many unbelievers to affirm agnosticism instead. The agnostic (a, without; gnosis, knowledge) is the person who says it is impossible to know if God exists, due to the fact that there simply is not enough credible evidence to warrant such a conclusion. Sproul believes that "the agnostic seeks to declare neutrality on the issue, desiring to make neither assertion nor denial of the theistic question.... The agnostic maintains that there is insufficient knowledge upon which to make an intellectual judgment about theism" (1978, pp. 19-20).
The term "agnostic" was coined by British scientist Thomas Henry Huxley, a close personal friend of Charles Darwin's and an indefatigable champion of evolution who frequently referred to himself as "Darwin's Bulldog." Huxley first introduced the word in a speech in 1869 before the Metaphysical Society. He later wrote of that occurrence:
When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis"—had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble....
This was my situation when I had the good fortune to find a place among the members of that remarkable confraternity of antagonists, long since deceased, but of green and pious memory, the Metaphysical Society. Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there, and expressed itself with entire openness; most of my colleagues were –ists of one sort or another.... So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic." It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant; and I took the earliest opportunity of parading it at our Society.... To my great satisfaction, the term took.... This is the history of the origin of the terms "agnostic" and "agnosticism" (1894, pp. 239-240, italics in orig.).
Huxley cannot be accused of inventing the term "agnostic" in a cavalier fashion. Nor can he be accused of harboring a "hidden agenda." He knew exactly what he was doing, and went about doing it in a most public fashion. He spoke often to "working class folks," frequently presenting lunchtime lectures at factories. In a letter to a friend written on March 22, 1861, he remarked: "My working men stick by me wonderfully. By Friday evening they will all be convinced that they are monkeys" (see Leonard Huxley, 1900, 1:205). He was passionate about referring to Charles Darwin as the "Newton of biology" (see Blinderman, 1957, p. 174), and did not hesitate to affirm that, so far as he was concerned,
I really believe that the alternative is either Darwinism or nothing, for I do not know of any rational conception or theory of the organic universe which has any scientific position at all besides Mr. Darwin's.... Whatever may be the objections to his views, certainly all other theories are out of court (1896, p. 467).
Huxley worked diligently to convince those around him that agnosticism was a respectable philosophical position, and that it was quite impossible to know whether or not God existed. Yet he simultaneously advocated the position that it was quite possible to deny some theistic claims with certainty. He "knew," for example, that the Bible was not God's Word, and openly ridiculed anyone who believed it to be so. He heaped scathing rebukes upon those who believed in what he termed "the myths of Genesis," and he stated categorically that "my sole point is to get people who persist in regarding them as statements of fact to understand that they are fools" (see Leonard Huxley, 1900, 2:429).
That Huxley had in mind antagonistic views toward Judeo-Christian theism when he claimed to be "agnostic" has been made clear by those who otherwise would have no reason to be biased against Huxley. For example, under the heading, "agnosticism," the authors of the British-produced Encyclopaedia Britannica wrote:
Agnosticism both as a term and as a philosophical position gained currency through its espousal by Thomas Huxley, who seems to have coined the word "agnostic" (as opposed to "gnostic") in 1869 to designate one who repudiated traditional Judeo-Christian theism and yet disclaimed doctrinaire atheism, transcending both in order to leave such questions as the existence of God in abeyance.... But Huxley's own elaboration on the term makes it clear that this very biblical interpretation of man's relation to God was the intended polemic target of agnosticism. The suspension of judgment on ultimate questions for which it called was thought to invalidate Christian beliefs about "things hoped for" and "things not seen...." Huxley himself certainly rejected as outright false—rather than as not known to be true or false—many widely popular views about God, his providence, and man's posthumous destiny... (1997a, 1:151; 26:569, emp. added).
Rather than courageously embrace and defend atheism, Huxley opted to feign ignorance with his "I don't know, you don't know, nobody knows, and nobody can know" position. This cowardly compromise did not endear him to those who were quite willing to champion the more radical stance of apodictically affirming that God does not exist. In their discussion of agnosticism under the section on "religious and spiritual belief systems," the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica noted that
Huxley and his associates were attacked both by enthusiastic Christian polemicists and by Friedrich Engels, the co-worker of Karl Marx, as "shame-faced atheists," a description that is perfectly applicable to many of those who nowadays adopt the more comfortable label (1997b, 26:569, emp. added).
The fact is, the agnostic is far from indifferent. He takes his agnosticism extremely seriously when he affirms that nothing outside of the material world can be known or proved. But agnosticism is built upon a self-defeating premise. English philosopher Herbert Spencer (also a close personal friend of Charles Darwin, the man from whom Darwin borrowed his now-popular phrase, "survival of the fittest," and popularly regarded as one of the foremost apostles of agnosticism in his day) advocated the position that just as no bird ever has been able to fly out of the heavens, so no man ever has been able to penetrate with his finite mind the veil that hides the mind of the Infinite. This inability on the part of the finite (mankind), he concluded, prevented any knowledge of the Infinite (God) reaching the finite.
Such a premise is flawed internally because it wrongly assumes that the Infinite is equally incapable of penetrating the veil—a position that reduces the term "Infinite" to absurdity. An Infinite Being that is unable to express Itself is less finite than mortals who forever are expressing themselves. And an Infinite Being that is both capable of self-expression and aware of the perplexity and needs of mortal man, yet fails to break through the veil, is less moral than mortal man. As one writer expressed it:
What man would stay in shrouded silence if he were the Infinite and knew that a word from him would resolve a thousand human complexes, integrate shattered personalities, mend broken lives, bring coveted light to baffled minds, and healing peace to disturbed hearts? (Samuel, 1950, p. 14, emp. added).
To be either correct or defensible, Spencer's proposition must work both ways. Finite man must be unable to penetrate the veil to the Infinite, but at the same time the Infinite likewise must be unable to penetrate the veil to the finite. By definition, however, the Infinite would possess the capability of breaking through any such veil.
Further, there is a question that begs to be asked: Will the agnostic admit that it is at least possible for someone else to know something he does not? If he is unwilling to admit this point, is he not then attributing to himself (even if inadvertently) one of the defining characteristics that theists attribute to God—omniscience? In commenting on this very point, Nelson M. Smith wrote:
Obviously, no agnostic can speak for anyone but himself and perhaps not then. What effort has he made to know God? Has he exhausted every effort to know God? Maybe he has not been as honest with himself and with the evidence as he ought to be? Maybe he is unconsciously hiding behind a screen of "can't know" to avoid responsibility as a being made in God's image of facing his Maker? (1975, 92[6]:6).
Smith's point is well taken. Is it not possible that the agnostic is avoiding—purposely—the evidence for the existence of God? Rather than being unable to know, perhaps the agnostic is unwilling to find out. Sir Hector Hetherington, Principal Emeritus of Glasgow University, addressed this concept when he said:
There are issues on which it is impossible to be neutral. These issues strike right down to the roots of man's existence. And while it is right that we should examine the evidence, and make sure that we have all the evidence, it is equally right that we ourselves should be accessible to the evidence (as quoted in Samuel, 1950, p. 29, emp. added).
The agnostic is perfectly capable of making himself "accessible to the evidence." The question is—will he? Or will he choose instead to hide "behind a screen of 'can't know'"?
[to be continued]
Asimov, Isaac (1982), "Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible," Paul Kurtz, interviewer, Free Inquiry, pp. 6-10, Spring. [See also: Hallman, Steve (1991), "Christianity and Humanism: A Study in Contrasts," AFA Journal, p. 11, March.]
Blinderman, Charles S. (1957), "Thomas Henry Huxley," Scientific Monthly, April.
Christlieb, Theodore (1878), Modern Doubt and Christian Belief (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
Corduan, Winfried (1993), Reasonable Faith (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman).
Dawkins, Richard (1989), The Selfish Gene (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press), second edition.
Davis, Robert Gorham (1997), "Letter to the Editor," New York Times, July 5.
Durant, Will (1980), "We Are in the Last Stage of a Pagan Period," Chicago Tribute Syndicate, April.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1997a), s.v. "Agnosticism," (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.), 1:151.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1997b), s.v. "Religious and Spiritual Belief, Systems of," (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.), 26:530-577.
Huxley, Leonard (1900), Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley (New York: Appleton).
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1894), Collected Essays (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968 reprint). [Quotation is from volume five of a nine-volume set published between 1894 and 1908.]
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1896), Darwiniana (New York: Appleton).
Keil, C.F. and F. Delitzsch (1981 reprint), Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Kelcy, Raymond C. (1968), The Living Word Commentary: The Letters of Paul to the Thessalonians (Austin, TX: Sweet).
Kennedy, D. James (1997), Skeptics Answered (Sisters, OR: Multnomah).
Lockerbie, D. Bruce (1998), Dismissing God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
McGrath, Alister E. (1993), Intellectuals Don't Need God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
Ruse, Michael and Edward O. Wilson (1985), "Evolution and Ethics," New Scientist, vol. 208, October 17.
Sagan, Carl (1980), Cosmos (New York: Random House).
Samuel, Leith (1950), The Impossibility of Agnosticism [a tract], (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press).
Smith, George H. (1979), Atheism: The Case Against God (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus).
Smith, Nelson M. (1975), "The Case Against Agnosticism," Firm Foundation, 92[6]:6,11, February.
Sproul, R.C. (1978), If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists? (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House).
Story, Dan (1997), Defending Your Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel).
Zerr, E.M. (1952), Bible Commentary (Bowling Green, KY: Guardian of Truth Foundation).
Copyright © 1999 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may be copied, on the condition that it will not be republished in print unless otherwise stated below, and will not be used for any commercial purpose, as long as the following stipulations are observed: (1) Apologetics Press must be designated as the original publisher; (2) the specific Apologetics Press Web site URL must be noted; (3) any references, footnotes, or endnotes that accompany the article must be included with any written reproduction of the article; (4) textual alterations of any kind are strictly forbidden; (5) Some illustrations (e.g., photographs, charts, graphics, etc.) are not the intellectual property of Apologetics Press and as such cannot be reproduced from our site without consent from the person or organization that maintains those intellectual rights; (6) serialization of written material (e.g., running an article in several parts) is permitted, as long as the whole of the material is made available, without editing, in a reasonable length of time; (7) articles, in whole or in part, may not be offered for sale or included in items offered for sale; and (8) articles may be reproduced in electronic form for posting on Web sites pending they are not edited or altered from their original written content and that credit is given to Apologetics Press, including the web location from which the articles were taken. Further, documents may not be copied without source statements (title, author, journal title), and the address of the publisher and owner of rights, as listed below.
For catalog, samples, or further information, contact:
Apologetics Press
230 Landmark Drive
Montgomery, Alabama 36117
Phone (334) 272-8558


text:
Rocketship™ 24-hour Promotional Technology
Sort By:
Are you looking for custom technology items fast to distribute to employees at a quickly approaching company party? Or do you need a custom USB flash drive to transport your presentation for an important business meeting later this week? From practical items like USB drives and mini mice to fun items such as digital photo frames and headphones, we offer many custom technology items fast that can be produced in as little as one day after artwork confirmation and then shipped right to your door with our reliable RocketShip 24-Hour Express Service™. Furthermore, rush technology promotional items do not incur any additional charges or hidden fees for their speedy delivery. Additionally, you can request a sample, build a quote to send to your boss or coworkers, save the design in your personalized MyWorkspace, or complete the order immediately, all through our site.


text:
Bringing Silicon Valley to the UK
Looking out at an another chill autumnal morning, the lure of Silicon Valley's sunshine is increasingly powerful. But there's a lot more to the success of tech companies in the US than simply climate. The question is what is it and can we in the UK learn how to replicate that success here?
That's one of the key missions of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK), a programme of events across the UK that brings across leaders from US companies such as Google, LinkedIn and Facebook to help, nurture and assist local entrepreneurs and their companies. Originally a Cambridge event it has now spread across the UK, covering London and Oxford as well. The theme of this year's programme is scale – addressing the fact that while the UK and US are pretty evenly matched when it comes to starting up businesses on a per capita basis, the UK's scale up rate is less than half that of the US.
Another strand of the programme is looking to uncover the next generation of startups through intense bootcamp events. The most interesting one of these is the Future Business weekend being held in Oxford and running in collaboration with SVC2UK.
It is looking to build on the research strength of the UK by providing access to existing patented technologies and essentially allowing teams to generate new ideas and innovative businesses around them. It's often said that not enough research makes it out of the lab, and the event aims to change this by taking scientific intellectual property and making it available, along with support and mentoring.
Held between 9-11 November the weekend will be run by the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (OxCEI) together with the Future Business Pre-Incubator (FBPI) and Silicon Valley Comes to UK (SVCUK). The aim is bring together entrepreneurs, scientists, technologists and mentors to generate ideas and new companies to take existing patented technology to market.
The event uses the proven Idea Transform methodology, which underpinned the extremely successful Idea Transform weekend in Cambridge back in April 2012, providing structure and support to teams through mentoring, team creation, inspiring speakers and networking. And the good news is that selected projects from the event will then be supported through the Future Business Pre-Incubator with access to facilities, resources and ongoing mentoring.
Silicon Valley Comes to the UK starts on 15th November with an event at the Houses of Parliament – to find out more visit the website at http://www.svc2uk.com/


text:
What is it?
The latest subcompact from Hyundai comes in sedan and five-door hatch forms and picks up the sculpted design language successfully promoted by its bigger Hyundai Elantra and Hyundai Sonata siblings. The fresh shapes are accompanied by new drivetrains consisting of all-aluminum "Gamma" 1.6-liter, direct-injection inline-fours with class-leading power and fuel-consumption claims, hooked to six-speed manual or automatic transmissions.
As usual with Hyundai, the model variants offer advantageous pricing strategies when compared with similarly equipped rivals and push the size and space envelope into the next EPA category, being classified as compacts rather than subcompacts from the standpoint of official definition. Also in keeping with this ambitious carmaker's aspirations are interior trappings significantly more upscale than those of the competition. If the domestic and Japanese manufacturers aren't already worried about Hyundai, this might be a good time to start.
What is it like to drive?
With roomy driver's accommodations and good seats, the new 2012 Hyundai Accent once again reminds us that good small cars are their own reward. Careful attention to sound insulation (including a special exterior-mirror gasket) provides a ride quieter than anyone has a right to expect from a subcompact. Similar engineering efforts in the body-structure-design arena lend a distinct sense of solidity without unwanted weight increase.
Boasting 138 hp and the broad torque spread brought about by variable valve timing on both cams, the new Accent is a pretty sprightly performer. The only thing blunting its road-going verve is the electronic throttle control, which dilutes the kind of throttle response you find in Hondas. But it does allow the implementation of an eco-program that smoothes driver input to optimize fuel economy.
The electric steering assist has the expected magnetic on-center feel but retains decent weighting when the car is driven hard, and its path control is keen and intuitive. Both manual and automatic transmissions operate well, the latter offering manual override as well as hill-start control as a bonus not usually found on subcompact cars. With generous storage areas, a sliding-armrest console cover, premium audio options and a high level of interior trim, the new Hyundai Accent brings serious ordnance to the subcompact war.
Do I want one?
The subcompact class has a peculiar demographic spread. There are first-time buyers on one end and mature drivers wanting reasonable transportation for minimal outlay at the other. As someone nearer the latter condition than the former, one can see the appeal. With reasonable performance, good looks, decent appointments, frugal fuel consumption and a great warranty, what's not to like about the 2012 Accent?
2012 Hyundai Accent
On Sale: Now
Base Price: $13,205, including destination
Powertrain: 138-hp, 123-lb-ft, normally aspirated, gasoline-direct-injection inline-four; FWD, six-speed manual and automatic transmissions
Curb Weight: 2,396-2,630 lb
0-60 MPH: 9.0 sec (est)
Fuel Economy: 30 mpg city, 40 mpg hwy, 34 mpg combined (mfr)


text:
What is the CPSC?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is an independent federal regulatory agency formed in 1972 and charged
with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under
the agency's jurisdiction.
The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical
hazard, or that can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products—such as toys,
cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals—contributed substantially to the decline in the rate
of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.
What is the "Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database" or "Database"?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database (Database)
is a publicly searchable database where submitters can report to the CPSC a harm or risk of harm related to the use of a
consumer product or other product or substance within the jurisdiction of the CPSC.
Members of the public can search the Database for safety information about products that are in their home already, or that
they may be thinking about purchasing. Beginning March 11, 2011, reports of harm or "Reports," that contain
minimum information required by law and that provide the submitter's consent, will be posted in the Database on our
website at: www.SaferProducts.gov. The public can search the Database and review Reports approximately 15 business days
after a Report is submitted to the CPSC.
Product manufacturers (including importers) and private labelers that are identified in a Report may submit comments to
be displayed in the Database along with the Report. Information about product recalls is also available for search and review
in the Database. The Database represents a new level of transparency for the CPSC, allowing the public to have immediate
access to safety information about consumer products.
How did the Database come about?
In August 2008, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Section 212 of the CPSIA requires the
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to create, by March 2011, a searchable public database of reports of harm
(Reports) related to the use of consumer products and other products or substances within the jurisdiction of the CPSC.
Congress required that the Database be publicly available, searchable, and accessible through the CPSC's website.
Where can I find more information on the Database?
On November 24, 2010, the Commission voted to approve a final rule on the Database. The final rule defines the Database
and the scope of its contents. This regulation creates a new section in the Code of Federal Regulations at 16 CFR 1102 (effective
January 10, 2011), which is currently available at 75 FR 76832
(Dec. 9, 2010). You may also review information on the Database on www.SaferProducts.gov.
Back to Top


text:
Here is a link to my other blog: http://russgamer.wordpress.com/
I am going to be using my blog there for stuff. I may repost the blogs here, but not likely.
Updated 05-16-2013 at 05:53 PM by russdm
I am player just looking for a group thats close for playing roleplaying games. I am trying to see if i can find something what will work with my schedule. I have no real preference for game systems. I am free on saturdays mainly.


text:
Engels, Friedrich
Friedrich Engels (frē´drĬkh ĕng´əls), 1820–95, German socialist; with Karl Marx, one of the founders of modern Communism (see communism). The son of a wealthy Rhenish textile manufacturer, Engels took (1842) a position in a factory near Manchester, England, in which his father had an interest, where he saw child labor and other examples of the exploitation of workers. In 1844, while passing through Paris, he met Marx, and their lifelong association began. His experiences in Manchester led to Engels's first major book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845, tr. 1887), which attracted wide attention. From 1845 to 1850 he was active in Germany, France, and Belgium, organizing revolutionary movements and collaborating with Marx on several works, notably the Communist Manifesto (1848). The failure of the revolutions of 1848 caused his return (1850) to England, where he lived the rest of his life. He was a successful businessman, and from his income he enabled Marx to devote his life to research and writing.
Engels played a leading role in the First International and the Second International. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital from Marx's drafts and notes. The intimate intellectual relationship between Marx and Engels leaves little doubt that there was complete harmony of thought between them, although critics have sometimes questioned their full agreement. Marx's personality has overshadowed that of Engels, but the influence of Engels on the theories of Marxism, and particularly on the elaboration of dialectical materialism, can scarcely be overestimated. Engels's Anti-Dühring (1878, tr. 1934) and The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884, tr. 1902) rank among the fundamental books in Communist literature and profoundly influenced Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Among his other works is The Peasant War in Germany (tr. 1926).
See selected correspondence with Marx, ed. by D. Torr (1942); the collected works of Marx and Engels (50 vol., 1975–); his Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (1883, tr. 1892) and Dialectics of Nature (1925, tr. 1940); R. C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader (1972); biographies by G. Mayer (1936, repr. 1969) and T. Hunt (2009); S. Marcus, Engels, Manchester and the Working Class (1974); J. Sayers et al., ed., Engels Revisited: New Feminist Perspectives (1987); W. O. Henderson, Marx and Engels and the English Workers and Other Essays (1989).


text:
The headline was startling: "Most SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] Pastors Not Prepared to Die." That headline should be a shock to any pastor or church member. While those pastors surveyed may have blessed assurance about their eternal salvation, this survey makes it evident that they have done little to prepare for those left behind. In fact, they may be leaving behind bewildered and confused family members whose lives can be victimized because of the pastor's neglect. The story was the result of a 2012 survey from LifeWay research that found that most Southern Baptist pastors have not done any end-of-life planning.
An old gospel song says, "I want to be ready, I want to be ready " Here is what it means to be ready:
Get a proper will prepared by an attorney
At the time of this survey, 58% of pastors with children under the age of 18 did not have a will. Remember, if you have not written your own will, your state has one already prepared for your family and will implement it without hesitation.
The trauma of the death of a father, mother or both parents is tragic enough without the children being at risk. Siblings being raised in different homes, custody being awarded without parental guidance, arguments over who is best qualified to raise orphaned children can all result from not having a proper will. If life insurance proceeds are supporting the children, there may be more individuals than you know ready and competing to become the new parents.
Get a proper will sooner rather than later. Act while you are still healthy. Do not risk a do-it-yourself or a hand-written will. This document is too important to your family's future.
Get a living will
A living will is simply a document that states what medical care you want and do not want when you are dying. A living will is limited to deathbed concerns only. Every hospital will ask at admission if you have a living will. It is a key document and may be as important as having health insurance.
Remember, there is a great difference between being kept alive and being alive. DNR (or "do not resuscitate") sounds like an ominous threat. However, most of us believe and ("a natural death"), which means the same thing, is preferred. Loved ones may disagree about what to dono one knows for sure what you're thinking unless you write it down. A hospital or your physician has a responsibility to protect life and maintain it, which may mean more medical treatment and procedures than you want.
Get a durable power of attorney for healthcare
There is a great possibility that at some point you may not be able to speak for yourself. Intensive care, certain types of treatment or certain injuries can render even the youngest pastor unable to respond verbally. At that point your durable power of attorney for healthcare names the person you have chosen to speak on your behalf. Your healthcare advocate can change doctors, change hospitals, review and reject treatments, medications and more. Be sure you choose at least one or two alternates for this important role, making certain they all know your desires. Whom do you trust when your very life is at stake? A power of attorney or your living will is little help when you are incapacitated. The durable power of attorney is your best protection.
Get a durable power of attorney for finances
A durable power of attorney for finance names the person you trust most to manage your finances if you are no longer capable of doing so. Remember, someone will need to take charge of your finances should one or both of you become incompetent due to accident, injury or a health crisis. Should you and your spouse both lose your life, the executor appointed has the financial authority to handle your estate and its financial affairs. Choose wisely and always choose alternates. Be certain not to select anyone who will benefit from your death.
Get the right kind of insurance
A pastor's family should be protected by life insurance. Nearly every family has automobile insurance and homeowner's insurance. What is most important, the car, home or those inside? Why would you not protect your family should something serious happen to you and take away your family's financial security? Term life insurance is very inexpensive for younger adults. Whole life or permanent life can be an advantage under certain circumstances.
Do you have a special needs child? Adopted children? Are you caring for elderly parents? Reviewing your life insurance needs and your current protection is important in end-of-life planning.
Plan your funeral or memorial service
Weddings and funerals are the two family ceremonies most often attended by the greatest number of family members and personal friends. A bride can take months, even years, to plan a wedding to be sure all the details are correct and the wedding represents the values, personality and the faith of the couple. And yet, when it comes to planning a funeral or memorial service, it is often left to a nonfamily membera funeral directorto plan one of the most intimate and personal ceremonies of your life.
A Christian funeral or memorial service should reflect what it means to die in Christ. It should make clear that a Christian goes to the grave as a victor, not a victim. Everyone who attends ought to hear a clear statement of what it means to have that blessed assurance which comes from God's amazing grace. Here is where the pastor can lead the congregation to a deeper understanding of what Psalm 116:15 means when it says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
The Psalmist also reminds us, "So teach us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom." Psalm 90:12. Every pastor ought to demonstrate the wisdom that comes from numbering our days. Your family and every family in your congregation needs to be wise when it comes to end-of-life planning. There are attorneys in your congregation or in your community who would be pleased to help make all of these documents a reality for you.
Being ready to die and to live eternally is a spiritual treasure that our faith offers freely on behalf of our Lord. Being ready to die and to bless those who are left behind is an important part of our spiritual responsibility to care for family and to set an example for all of the family of God.
Stan Craig is a pastor, financial professional, author, speaker and the executive director of a non- profit foundation. His new book, "ForeTalk: 7 Critical Conversations for Living in the Season of Now" and the ForeTalk Seminar are the direct result of his personal experience when his younger brother died of lung cancer and Craig was unprepared to handle his brother's end-of-life planning.


text:
Lawrence Tech's CIMR is a national resource in the development of innovative materials for defense, Homeland Security, and infrastructure applications. Made possible by an $11 million cooperative research agreement with the Army Research Lab (ARL) and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), CIMR represents an unprecedented federal partnership with a private Michigan university. CIMR is a state-of-the-art laboratory for the research, development, and testing of carbon fiber composite materials for defense applications. The initiative supports Lawrence Tech's effort to become a regional leader in applied research of materials and structures, energy, and automotive engineering.
The MTS Model 311 Four-Post Load Frame is a high-force test system used for a number of material property tests. It can be configured to determine the compressive strength, elastic modulus, and Poisson's ratio of a composite material. The MTS machine can be set up with an environmental chamber that subjects a specimen to temperatures ranging from -200 F to 200 F. Strain gages can be attached to measure the elastic properties of the material.
This leading-edge instrument is used for dynamic and static testing on a wide range of materials and components (Instron 2011). It is capable of performing combined axial and torsional loading. The dynamic axial load capacity of the instrument is 2,250 lbs. and the static axial load capacity of the instrument is 1,570 lbs. The torsional load capacity is 880 in.-lbs. The displacement capabilities include a 60 mm linear stroke and a ±135-degree rotation for torsional load analysis. This instrument's configuration is the only one of its kind in the state of Michigan. Lawrence Tech uses it to test the combined axial and torsional behavior of new composite materials. The ElectroPuls can be set up with an environmental chamber that subjects specimens to temperatures ranging from -200 F to 200 F.
This 3,600-cubic-ft., full-scale loading environmental test chamber allows researchers to subject structures to typical and extreme forces, such as rain, sun and humidity, several cycles a day. The floor is specifically designed to withstand 150 psi in a cyclic load, while undergoing temperature changes from -90 F to 185 F. The interior dimensions are 11 ft. 11 in. wide by 21 ft. 6 in. deep by 14 ft. high, offering a clear, usable work space.
This fire-testing furnace is equipped to test structural components, such as armor, columns, beams, and floor systems, under extreme fire conditions to which they could be subjected in the real world. Using natural gas flame jets from nine burners, the furnace can reach a maximum temperature of 2,300 F (1,260 C). The interior dimensions of the furnace are 22 ft. 3.5 in. by 10 ft. 6 in. by 8 ft. 6 in. (6.8 m by 3.2 m by 2.6 m). Five viewing ports, three on the front and two on one side, permit real-time screening. The fire test facility has enabled researchers to investigate the response of armor and structural components to fire loading.
The Structural Testing Center (STC) houses two large-scale structural testing frames capable of static and dynamic loading capacities up to 150,000 lbs. Two hydraulic pumps power the actuator. The STC contains five loading actuators for static and repeated loading. Measurements of loads, deflections, accelerations, and strains can be taken electronically. The STC has in-house construction capabilities for manufacturing various configurations of structural concrete elements and pre-tensioned and post-tensioned concrete components.
LTU's Series 216 Rotary Actuator is a heavy-duty, torque-generating device that operates under precision servovalve control. Matched with servovalves, transducers, and closed-loop control electronics, it is ideally suited for testing materials, structures, and components. The double-vane rotor design accommodates full-force application through 100 degrees of rotation. Matched reaction brackets, diaphragm flexures, and reaction bases allow the creation of versatile test configurations.


text:
UH Manoa School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies scholarship recipients recognizedUniversity of Hawaiʻi
School of Hawaiian
HONOLULU — The Asian Studies Program in the School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at UH Mānoa announces the latest recipients of its three scholarship programs: The James Shigeta Scholarship, the Japan Travel Bureau Scholarship and the Starr Foundation Graduate Fellowship. These scholarships are annually awarded to graduate and undergraduate students with on-campus study and study abroad in Asia. The James Shigeta Scholarship and the Japan Travel Bureau Scholarship are named for the Japanese-American actor and the international tour company, who respectively gave gifts to promote studies of Asia at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa back in the 1970s and the 1980s.
James Shigeta Scholarship
Jennifer Chau, BA student, Asian Studies — Support to study third-level Mandarin in a 10-week summer program in Hainan, China, organized by the UH Study Abroad Center.
Japan Travel Bureau Scholarship
Bryan Smith, BA student, Asian Studies — Support to complete the undergraduate program focusing both on Southeast Asia and Japan.
Lindsey Wong, BA student, Asian Studies — Support to complete the undergraduate program with an emphasis on Japan.
Starr Foundation Graduate Fellowship
Michael Gardner, MA student, Asian Studies — Travel support to take intensive Indonesian language courses in Indonesia this summer.
Seth Hays, MA student in Asian Studies - Support to study both Asian Studies and Economics courses to prepare for his thesis on U.S.-China relations.Peter Hsu, MA student in Asian Studies - Travel support for intensive Mandarin courses in the Hainan program in China and for his work with an NGO after the summer.Anthony Medrano, MA student in Asian Studies - Travel support to conduct research in Thailand in summer 2007 in preparation for his thesis on education in Muslim minority regions of Thailand and the Philippines.Jee-yeon Song, MA student, Asian Studies -Support to study positive and negative correlations between Confucianism and the position held by East Asian and Korean women.Akiko Tsukada, MA student, Asian Studies - Travel support to visit Japan and do research on early Japan's state formation in light of its relations with China and Korea


text:
I miss Vietnam. I have been thinking about this wonderful country for a while now. I want to return, but then again I want to return to a lot of places, but this weekend Vietnam had been playing on my mind.
It had been quite a while since our last visit to Song Que, and it was due a revisit. The reason for this is, as with most cities, too many choices to be had.
As I live at the other end of Kingsland Road in Stoke Newington, it's a brisk walk that builds up your appetite.
I am a creature of habit sometimes, and I think I've only ever had the Pho in Song Que. It's a dish that always brings back good memories when it's a good one.
I remember the Pho's on cold mornings in misty Hanoi, sitting on small plastic chairs in a concrete box, whilst the lady sat at the front dishing up bowl after bowl of fantastic beef soup.
The Pho's in Saigon remind me of more communal eating. There was always more chatter in the southern restaurants than the north. But the southerners are a livelier bunch. Maybe the weather plays a part in this.
I really must order some different things when I goto a Vietnamese restaurant. But a starter of fresh summer rolls and a good bowl of Pho is always good.
No one on the Pho Mile seems to do a bad summer roll, which has led me in the past to believe that they buy them already made from one supplier. I know the sauce is not made in house, but a ready supplied one, but it is so bloody good, works perfectly with the rolls.
I was in a spicy mood today, so I opted for the Bun Bo Hue instead of my normal Pho Bo, and my partner opted for the classic Hanoi lunchtime dish of Bum Cha.
My Bun Bo Hue was pretty hot, even before I added the extra fresh chillis, but I love the aroma that the fresh ones bring to a dish. The inclusion of the mint always transports me back to Vietnam. It's a shame we cannot get the other Vietnamese herbs here in London. I'm sure there is someone who is growing them in their garden.
The stock was good and as I said a good amount of chilli in it to give me that feeling I enjoy so much. The meat was thinly cut and very juicy still. Well done boys. The only thing I didn't like was the noodles. Fat tasteless buggers they were, and I don't like plastic chopsticks, so my job of eating the noodles was doubly annoying.
The Bum Cha what I had of it was pretty damn good. I've never had one here that reminded me of this super dish that we had on the streets of Hanoi, sitting on low low chairs in front of an even lower table. But it was pretty damn good.
Song Que is still doing good food, but maybe next time we will order something different from the menu. Maybe. But it's unlikely.
The meal just made me miss Vietnam a tad more. I've no idea when we will return, but I know when we do, we will eat well.


text:
Leading up to its release, some people deemed Bridesmaids "The Hangover with girls." While audiences soon realized that Paul Feig's film is quite different from Todd Phillips' debauchery-fueled comedy, Bridesmaids standout Melissa McCarthy is now eyeing a crossover into The Wolfpack of sorts. McCarthy is apparently in discussions for a small role in The Hangover Part III, combining the Bridesmaids and Hangover forces once and for all. Though her busy schedule could possibly prevent her from signing on, the actress is ridiculously talented and her involvement with The Hangover sequel—however small—would be very much welcomed. Hit the jump for more.
Per Variety, the nature of McCarthy's role is being kept under wraps, but I assume it'll be somewhere between a cameo like Nick Cassavetes in The Hangover Part II and a minor supporting role like Mike Tyson in the first film. An incredibly in-demand McCarthy is currently juggling duties on her CBS sitcom Mike & Molly with film commitments, so fitting The Hangover 3 into her schedule isn't yet a sure thing. She's currently filming Feig's buddy cop comedy The Heat with Sandra Bullock, and will be seen this December in Judd Apatow's This Is 40. She'll make her feature film co-starring debut this coming February opposite Jason Bateman in Identity Thief.
Production on The Hangover Part III is now underway, and the trilogy closer is said to be a road trip movie of sorts. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are all set to return alongside Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, and Heather Graham, with John Goodman playing the film's baddie. The Hangover Part III is slated for May 24th, 2013.