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Zwolle (Overijssel, Netherlands)
Zwolle, capital of the Dutch province of Overijssel (1953 pop. 52,500, with 368 Mennonites; 2005 pop. 111,962), seat of a Mennonite congregation. Anabaptism was found here as early as 1533, then bearing a strongly marked revolutionary character. Jan van Geelen was in Zwolle in January 1535. Among the many Anabaptists active here was Harman Hoen. Cornelis de Vlaminck, a deacon of the early Anabaptist congregation of Amsterdam, was executed at Zwolle in 1535. In 1544 there was still some revolutionary activity here. A Mennonite congregation of Zwolle is first mentioned in 1574, but Mennonite meetings had been held here at least by 1562. About 1600 there probably were three Mennonite congregations here—Flemish, Waterlander, and High German—but these groups merged before 1649. The united church, sometimes called Flemish and sometimes Waterlander, was represented at the Haarlem Flemish conference in 1649 by Hendrick Theunis, Wynant Jansz, and Thomas Schirnmelpenninck. In 1674 the Zwolle congregation joined the Zonist Conference. Though there never was an Old Flemish congregation at Zwolle, the Groningen Old Flemish preachers Ubbo Meertens and Lubbert Jansz Kremer preached here in 1754 to large audiences. A meetinghouse was probably built in 1638 or shortly after on Wolweversstraat on the site of the present Mennonite church. It was remodeled in 1708, and enlarged in 1846; its organ was secured in 1907. The Zwolle congregation possesses two silver communion cups from 1661, one from 1670, and one from 1851. An old people's home on Koestraat was used until 1781 and then sold. A special hymnal, the Zwolsche Bundel, has been used here since 1808.
Concerning membership little is known; the baptized membership numbered 34 in 1706, 40 in 1796, 170 in 1861, 340 in 1926, 280 in 1958. Members of the old Stroink family are still found here; formerly there was also the Schirnmelpenninck family, many of whose members were deacons. The small congregation of Zwolle in 1672 contributed 414 Dutch guilders for the Swiss Mennonites and again a considerable gift in 1710, and later also in behalf of the Prussian Mennonites.
Until c1695 the congregation was served by untrained and unsalaried ministers chosen from the membership; the first salaried minister was Abraham Blijdenstein, serving from 1700. The conservative leader Jacobus Rijsdijk served at Zwolle 1723-1728. The first minister educated at the Amsterdam seminary to serve here was Thomas Menalda, 1771-d. 1794. Assuerus Doyer, a beloved pastor, served 1795-d. 1838. He was followed by L. ten Cate Coster 1833-1858, T. Kuiper 1859-1862, A. Vis 1862-1866, J. Kerbert 1867-1884, Samuel Cramer 1885-1890, A. G. van Gilse 1890-1922, W. H. toe Water 1923-1938, A. P. van de Water 1939-1942, Miss C. Soutendijk 1942-1946, and J. Meerburg Snarenberg from 1947. Church activities include two women's circles and a Sunday school for children.
Algemeen Doopsgez. Weekblad XI (1956): No. 13.
Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Groningen, Overijssel en Oost-Friesland, 2 vols. Leeuwarden: W. Eekhoff en J. B. Wolters, 1842. I, 18, 96 f., 143 note 1, 150, 215 f., 239; II, 127, 185 f.
Doopsgezind Jaarboekje. (1840): 44; (1850): 411.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen. (1861): 174; (1875): 54 f.; (1882): 108 f.; (1900): 115; (1903): 149.
Elte, S. "Godsdienstige conflicten in Zwolle . . . 1580-80." in Verslagen en Mededeelingen Overijsselsch Regt en Geschiedenis. 1936.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: v. I, Nos. 84, 134, 267, 886, 1117; v. II, Nos. 2456-71.
Mellink, Albert F. De Wederdopers in de noordelijke Nederlanden 1531-1544. Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1954: 282-90.
van der Zijpp, Nanne. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Nederland. Arnhem, 1952: 109, 242 note 17.
Additional Information
Congregation: Doopsgezinde Gemeente Zwolle
Address: Wolweverstraat 9, 8011 NW Zwolle, Netherlands
Telephone: 038-4211586
Church website: Doopsgezinde Gemeente Zwolle
Denominational affiliation:
Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit
Map:Doopsgezinde Gemeente Zwolle
|Nanne van der Zijpp
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Zwolle (Overijssel, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 9 Aug 2020. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zwolle_(Overijssel,_Netherlands)&oldid=126014.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Zwolle (Overijssel, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 9 August 2020, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Zwolle_(Overijssel,_Netherlands)&oldid=126014.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1054. All rights reserved.
©1996-2020 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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The problem with hiking around Whistler, is the views are so numerous and of such grandeur that it's often hard to keep your eye on the trail. Fortunately, the generosity of nature's palette in Sea to Sky country means that no matter how often you look down to watch your step you're bound to catch something new on glancing back up: the icy blue teeth of a hanging glacier; the black cone of an extinct volcano; the emerald spire of an ancient cedar, the turquoise mirror of an alpine lake; a white snowfield painted on grey peaks; or a meadow splattered Jackson Pollack-style in wildflowers.
Some walks are historical in nature, such as the shorter jaunts to Train Wreck or the remarkably well-preserved ghost town of Parkhurst, abandoned in the 1950s. There are easier hikes, such as the paths around Lost Lake, the loop to view ancient cedars on Cougar Mountain or the trot down a loamy path to the lapping shores of Cheaka-mus Lake. Other trails represent longer forays that range from challenging to, ahem- epic, lifting you (via various grades of steepness) from dense forest to wild and open alpine. The latter category includes the celebrated trails to Rainbow Lake, Wedgemount Lake or the area's perennially top rated hike, Black Tusk.
Even the ski hills play the hiking game. Eighteen spectacular trails with a full range of difficulties are located atop Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. You can access these directly from the base of each mountain or as part of the Peak 2 Peak Alpine Experience spanning both peaks. If you're out for a quick stroll on one of the beginner interpretive trails, you can grab a sit-down lunch at one of Whistler Blackcomb's on-mountain eateries. If you're more ambitious they'll even pack you lunch so you can enjoy an alpine classic like Whistler's Highnote Trail or the Overlord Trail on Blackcomb.
Trail maps for the mountains can be viewed at www.whistler.com, but the handsdown best information about hiking opportunities in the Whistler area is found at whistlerhiatus.com. Here you'll find detailed trail reports and convenient Top 5 lists for things like easy hikes, hard hikes, dog-friendly hikes (both short and long) and trail runs.
Regardless of which hike you choose, one thing's for certain: you'll be doing plenty of looking up, and down-and likely seeing a lot of sights.


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tear someone off a strip(redirected from tore you off a strip)
tear someone off a strip
To scold, upbraid, or rebuke someone very severely, as for an error or wrongdoing. The teacher really tore me off a strip for causing a disruption in class again.
tear someone off a strip (or tear a strip off someone)rebuke someone angrily. informal
This expression was originally RAF slang, first recorded in the 1940s.


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The book's not finished yet
How is the digital revolution affecting the book trade?
If you travel on trains packed with commuters staring at tiny mobile phone screens rather than books, or wander along high streets now devoid of bookshops, you might think it was in a sorry state.
But the Publishers' Association annual statistical digest, published today, seems to paint a different picture.
The industry had a record year for sales, up 4% to £3.3bn. 2012 was the year when the digital revolution really took hold, with sales up 66% to £411m and fiction e-reading growing even faster, up 149%.
As for the physical book, long thought to be under threat from all those Kindles, Kobos and Nooks, reports of its demise may be premature. Sales fell just 1% to £2.9bn, and in some genres, notably children's books, sales actually rose.
The figures also show that the pace at we're switching from physical to digital books varies according to the type of title. Apparently, 26% of fiction sales are digital, whereas for non-fiction books the figure is just 5%, and for children's titles, 3%.
Why? Well perhaps for fiction it is only the words that matter, and they can be rendered as well or better in digital form, whereas for something like a glossy cookery book or an illustrated children's book, the physical object still delivers a much better experience.
What does this mean then for the pace of publishing's digital revolution and its impact on readers and authors?
A few weeks ago Michael Serbinis of the e-reader maker Kobo told me he reckoned that 90% of reading would eventually be on digital devices.
You won't be surprised to hear that Richard Mollet of the Publishers' Association is betting on a lower figure - somewhere between 30% and 50%. But however rapid the shift to e-readers, publishing seems to be weathering digital climate change better than some other media industries.
But what about authors? I was surprised to hear from JoJo Moyes - a bestselling writer of women's fiction - that nearly half of the sales of her latest book were in a digital format. And each digital sale earns her a few pennies more than the royalty she gets from a physical book sale purchase.
Mind you, not all authors are happy - they point to the much lower costs of producing digital books and wonder how publishers still justify taking such a large cut.
The publishers' response is that they have to spend large sums defending authors from the threat of piracy.
JoJo Moyes has some sympathy with that argument: "I've got a Google alert set up and every day it tells me about a new torrenting site offering free copies of my book. I pass them on to my publisher to deal with. "
Still, neither publishers nor authors seem to have seen their incomes damaged significantly by either piracy or the wider digital revolution. Readers, meanwhile, have a wider choice, and perhaps the prospect of lower prices - although many will grumble that e-books should be a whole lot cheaper.
For bookshops the news is not so good. Independent book stores continue to close, as readers turn to online giants like Amazon for both physical and digital books.
That is making our high streets just a little less interesting, so it's a vicious circle where going out and browsing for books or anything else becomes less attractive than sitting at home and shopping online..
But overall, 2012 seemed to show that the British public still loves books in all their variety, and is prepared to pay to enjoy them.
We hear plenty of doom and gloom from the old media industries about the ravages of the digital revolution - but publishing seems determined to look on the bright side.


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text: Rory and Scott design some software - TechEd - Revenge of the Sith March 16, '05 Comments [10] Posted in TechEd | ASP.NET | Javascript | Speaking | Web Services Sponsored By Rory and I are REALLY talented software designers. We know all the acronyms and technical terms. DOS. WS-This and WS-That. ASP.NET. Packet. SOAP. PostBack. See? Here's video number two in the ongoing saga. This is WAY better than the Star Wars Trilogy. WAY. BETTER. Please spread it around and Trackback/Pingback it. If you can't view it below, you can download it here. Remember, if you're blogging TechEd this year, make sure to register your blog at TechEd Bloggers.NET and get your content aggregated! About Scott Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author. About Newsletter Sponsored By Hosting By Comments [10] Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or use the Permalink


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Thinking Out Loud: CIO Bob Travatello
During Bob Travatello's tenure at Blue Rhinohe has been Blue Rhino's CIO since early 2001 and senior director of MIS for five years before thatthe company has experienced tremendous growth in sales and earnings, much of it attributable to management's strong belief that technology is a critical productivity tool. That's why Travatello and his team have been busy with re-engineering efforts for nearly eight years, transforming manual processes into state-of-the-art automated systems. Beginning in 1996, this involved creating a handheld system that allowed distributors to input daily delivery data for propane cylinders while on the road through modified PDAs.
With the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, Travatello's most important initiatives have revolved around meeting the disclosure and data-security standards demanded by the legislation. Travatello views this task as another opportunity to continue exploring the systems that Blue Rhino uses to process and share information and to overhaul these systems if they can be made more efficient and improve the company's bottom line.
CIO Insight: Was it hard to convince Blue Rhino employees to get serious about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance?
Travatello: Not really. We're a small company [fewer than 400 employees] and my boss, CFO Mark Castaneda, made it clear to everyone that complete compliance with the law was essential. We were doing it for the future of our company. Then I met with people and tried to soften the tone. I said, "You guys all know what you do from day to day. You've been following the same processes for years. You've got it in the back of your heads. All right, now write it down so we can make sure it meets with Sarbanes-Oxley, or tighten the procedure where we have to."
What is your relationship with Castaneda and the business side of Blue Rhino, and how has it changed during the Sarbanes-Oxley initiative?
We're fortunate in that we've always been close to the business side. IT is always involved in every important business decision, always able to offer our opinions to the CEO and the CFO. And we're never taken lightly. With Sarbanes, IT is essential to compliance. First of all, a lot of data flows through networks that reside with us, and we have to make sure they have proper controls. Also, we handle the programming of how the data flows throughout the organization. We have to be certain there are appropriate levels of approval so that none of the applications is tampered with. This is a big responsibility for IT, and it has certainly helped make the business side realize how central we are to company operations.
Gartner has said that because of Sarbanes-Oxley, CIOs and IT executives should have board-level representation on the audit committee. You understand how information moves within the company, which is essential to an honest audit. Are you on the audit committee?
No. CFO Castaneda is on the audit committee, so I have a link to it through him, I guess.
What will be the key results of your Sarbanes-Oxley initiative?
First, we'll meet the compliance date. Second, we'll be able to close our books in half the time, and that will be a productivity boost. Third, the data throughout our company will be more accurate. Finally, we'll be able to grow our business without adding a lot of head count. The new controls should enable us to keep SG&A flat, because our processes will be more efficient. Meanwhile, our sales growth will not be affected.
You've complained, though, that the company itself will slow down.
Business won't slow down, but the process of getting things accomplished will change and be slower. Companies that work with us will just have to realize that it's no longer pick up the phone, get it done.
What's your biggest fear about Sarbanes-Oxley compliance?
I'm not sure that every company is taking it as seriously as we are. Some are perhaps changing some processes, but not all. As the first few companies go through the compliance requirements for Section 404 this summer, if there are a few that aren't totally compliant, they could be made a public example ofand their stocks might plunge. And the companies, even if they're honest but just didn't put the right effort into it, could be affected very negatively. We're not taking any chances.
This article was originally published on 02-01-2004


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Rieder: A ringing rejection of NSA surveillance
Many commentators were critical when Time magazine picked Pope Francis rather than National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden as its Person of the Year.
But Snowden got quite a consolation prize Monday when U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled that the NSA's collection of the phone records of millions of Americans is probably unconstitutional.
Snowden says he didn't think the government's massive surveillance would stand up to a challenge in court, and that was in part why he leaked the classified government documents that exposed them.
"How could it not vindicate him?" asks Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who led the way on the Snowden story with his articles in the British newspaper The Guardian.
It's hard to remember now, but when the Snowden saga erupted in June, the Washington establishment heaped scorn on the contractor. So did many mainstream Washington journalists.There seemed to be more interest in calling Snowden names than in grappling with the enormous amount of government snooping he exposed.
But that changed over time as the significance of the revelations sunk in. Even such vociferous NSA defenders as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, decided it was time for a wholesale re-evaluation of government surveillance. A number of legislators have introduced bills to rein in the NSA. Snowden got the national debate he was seeking.
Now Judge Leon has castigated the government's collection of "telephony metadata" -- when a call was made, who it went to, how long it lasted -- in no uncertain terms.
"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary' invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval," Leon wrote. "Surely, such a program infringes on 'that degree of privacy' that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment." That amendment bars unreasonable search and seizure by the government.
The jurist, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, described the NSA data collection as "Orwellian."
What's more, he said that there's no indication it worked.
"Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation — most notably the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics — I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism,'' Leon wrote.
Leon's ruling is hardly the last word on the subject. While he issued a preliminary injunction to stop the snooping, he immediately suspended it so the government could appeal. And there are other suits over the surveillance working their way through the courts. It's likely the matter will ultimately be sorted out by the U.S. Supreme Court.
But make no mistake: This was a major moment in the Snowden saga. A federal judge appointed by a Republican president has rejected the telephone record collecting in the harshest of terms as a fundamental violation of the Constitution.
As the uproar over the Snowden revelations reached a crescendo, President Obama said he welcomed a national debate over NSA surveillance.
Well, he certainly got one.


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Take Action
I was Smoking Crystal Meth in Lead-up to Olympics
Brisbane Times, November 17, 2012
WHEN Matthew Mitcham missed out on a place in the Olympic diving finals in August, the whole country witnessed his disappointment.
Four years earlier he had triumphed at Beijing, winning gold with the greatest single platform dive in Olympic history. Now, not even in the top 12, he sat sobbing in defeat.
What the millions watching didn't realise was that behind his devastating loss in London lay a victory of a different kind.
For Mitcham had made it to the 2012 Olympics only after beating a secret methamphetamine addiction in 2011 that had almost derailed his career, and his life.
In a book to be released on Monday, Twists and Turns, Mitcham unveils his battle with low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, punctuated by panic attacks and repeated self-harm as a teenager, which helped precipitate his dependence on crystal meth.
Following on the heels of fellow Olympian Ian Thorpe's revelations about battles with the black dog, it's yet another sobering reminder of the price top athletes pay for their place in the sporting firmament.
"The psychological support of athletes is underdone," warns Jeff Bond, a former head of sports psychology at the Australian Institute of Sport, who believes sporting bureaucracies need to give the issue far greater prominence.
"I think it's the key issue [for top athletes] and the issue that has probably least funding and emphasis in professional and Olympic sport."
Mitcham's at times searingly frank memoir makes clear that some of his problems went back to childhood.
His single mother, Vivienne, was a loving but emotionally erratic parent, diagnosed years later with Asperger's syndrome. As a child, he was terrified of her moods and took solace in books and a rusty trampoline bequeathed to the family second hand. Hours of jumping bred an ability to show off spectacularly at the local pool, which is where he was spotted by the Australian Institute of Sport.
Forced to choose between competitive trampolining and the more clinical world of diving, Mitcham chose the latter.
It was, he writes, "my only ticket to being special".
But the rigours of training and problems with diving authorities drove him increasingly towards clubbing, binge drinking and recreational drugs at weekends. In 2006 he quit the sport altogether.
A new and more sympathetic coach, Chava Sobrino, coaxed him back into competition six months later and the Beijing gold miraculously followed. But even that triumph didn't satisfy Mitcham's inner perfectionist. The FINA ranking system still had him at only world No. 2.
"I had still failed to achieve my childhood dream of becoming the best in the world at something," he writes.
Self-doubt came crashing back, fuelled by injury. Secretly smoking crystal meth to boost his moods, he was soon in the grip of addiction.
He knew the drug's dangers. But "taking it was something I did … to take my mind off things that were upsetting me - to make me feel better about myself."
The openly gay Mitcham has climbed back from last year's depths with the aid of Narcotics Anonymous, a drug rehabilitation clinic, hypnotherapy and the support of his inner circle. He's chased the demons away and is training for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In therapy still, he believes he is happier and healthier. As for fully understanding himself, he writes: "The answers continue to elude me. I may work it out one day."


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The price is still right – it's the host who's got it all wrong.
Bob Barker, the retired 35-year host of "The Price is Right" and animal activist, revealed he's not much of a fan his replacement, funnyman Drew Carey.
"He does the show differently than I did," Barker, 86, told a TMZ cameraman. "I tried to make the show really exciting and uh, he doesn't do that. He plays the games."
U.S. & World
In June 2007, Barker capped a 50-year career in showbiz -- including 6,586 episodes on the CBS game show -- by relinquishing his long, slender mike to Carey.
At least, Carey may draw support from another comic in this burgeoning feud.
Barker told TMZ he's often asked if he could beat up comedian Adam Sandler in real life, as he did in the 1996 flick "Happy Gilmore."
"And my answer is," Barker said, "Adam Sandler couldn't even whoop Regis Philbin."


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Deathbringer Saurfang is the fourth boss in Icecrown Citadel.
The key element of getting this is that his attacks and his adds generate blood power, anything that makes saurfang not successfully damage the tank ensures no blood power gained, the blood beasts must be kited as they also generate blood power on a successful attack, players must spread out because of blood novas mechanic. When the tank is hit with rune of blood the offtank must taunt him for the duration so the main tanks health is not leeched and saurfangs health does not refill, the last thing to watch out for is his frenzy as it increases his attack speed meaning he hits faster thus making him generate alot of blood power.
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Material Aluminum stem in the finishes: Black
Polycarbonate silkscreened shade: Blue
Dimensions h 76/110 cm, base 18 x 18 cm, shade Ø 40, h 28 cm
Structure Finishes Alu, black, off-white, brass Diffuser Colors White, mistic white, comfort green, edgy pink, soft skin, shaded stone, primary red, liquorice black, petroleum blue, smart yellow, concrete grey.
Light Source LED E27 dimmable, 105/140W HSGSA E27
Insulation Class II
Designed By: Paolo Rizzatto - 1986
Blending tradition and technology, Costanza reinterprets a classic image in a contemporary way. The interchangeable polycarbonate lampshade emits warm, pleasant light. The sensorial dimmer rod turns the lamp on and off, alternating four light intensity levels.
telescopic sensor dimmer on board 220-240V~ 50Hz H 76/110 base 18x18
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text:
|Where there's smoke, there's ire: Condo conflict lights up in Hessian Hills
|'He's still here.' And other revelations in the Harrington case
|Groupenomics: Getting schooled on the daily deal craze
|Familial pain: Harringtons press police for controversial DNA test
|Reversal of fortune: Albemarle House goes on the block
|Survive and thrive: The do-it-yourself Charlottesville snow guide
|Bad men? New numbers show spiraling cost of Biscuit Run
|COVER- The year in review: The best and the worst of '10
|The Canadian
|Fire on Ice
|Person of the Year: Bad Boy turned Brazen Brainiac: Oliver Kuttner
|COVER- Down and out: Controversy erupts over panhandling downtown
|COVER- To buy or not to buy: The holiday shopping season kicks off
|COVER- Two years, two bags: How she makes almost no trash
|COVER- Coop de grass: Charlottesville eggsellent adventure
|Fight for justice: Justine Swartz Abshire's family wages war on widower
|COVER- <i>Wahoowah</i>! Cavalier football hikes and tackles onto the big screen
|COVER- Zombiesque: The lighter side of the living dead
|Top secret: Did taxpayers get burned by Biscuit Run?
|Conflicting tales: The unfolding tragedy at the VQR
|COVER- Patented medicine: Trail of money follows trail of tears
|COVER- Seeing Red: Safety measure or cash grab?
|Going South: But where's the Lawn?
|Kuttner conquers: Oliver's Edison2 car wins $5 million X Prize
|SHORT STORY- First Church
|SHORT STORY- The Last Itako
|John Kluge: The benevolent billionaire goes out in style
|Unfriendly skies: Forest Lakes, the Miracle on the Hudson, and Canada Geese
|Welcome Madame President: UVA's wish list for Teresa Sullivan
|Tale of Woe: The death of the VQR's Kevin Morrissey


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I recieved a beautiful handmade hankie from someone I have never met today!
Debi (debinmtns) from MaryJanes Farm sent this to me! Isn't it beautiful?! We did a one-on-one swap for a handmade hankie. I was so happy to find this in my mailbox today. Debi also included a few little goodies as well. There were two tea bags, some Dahlia seeds, a lace heart, and several different stickers. Farmgirl Friends are great! Thanks Debi!
Here are the links to Debi's sites.


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A fresh wind is blowing through the American evangelical movement: New leaders are coming to the fore. The religious right shows signs of declining influence. An evangelical "center" appears to be emerging, rejecting alignment with a single political party and embracing a broader range of concerns.
Weary of the public perception that all evangelicals back a strident Christian right, a number of faith leaders from across the spectrum are describing these changes in new books, along with their views of what constitutes a genuine, biblically based approach to politics.
In "A New Kind of Conservative," the Rev. Joel Hunter explores why the public agenda should go far beyond the hot-button issues of abortion and gay marriage as well as how to change the tone of political engagement.
In "Red Letter Christians," liberal pastor Tony Campolo examines the "radical vision" revealed in Jesus' words (traditionally printed in red in some Bibles) – and tackles a range of issues from war to the minimum wage.
Among the most interesting of the recent crop are two books that highlight significant trends in the expanding evangelical agenda. These include the rise of an "evangelical center" and the potential for Evangelicals to collaborate with other faith groups on pressing moral issues.
About 26 percent of Americans call themselves Evangelicals, and politically they're spread across the spectrum. In The Future of Faith in American Politics, David Gushee provides an enlightening look at the sweep of the movement, describing key players and organizations that represent the left, right, and center, and the changes under way within important evangelical institutions.
This is the first attempt to fully define an emerging center, and Gushee distinguishes clearly between the three groups.
While the center shares the right's opposition to abortion and concern about the decline of marriage, for instance, it differs in its commitment to political independence, greater sensitivity to American pluralism and the constraints of the First Amendment, and active embrace of a much broader agenda. That agenda now includes climate change, poverty, racial reconciliation, human trafficking, torture, HIV/AIDS, and peacemaking.
A professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta, Gushee is an insider who helped draft some of the movement's groundbreaking statements in recent years, statements which have taken it beyond issues of personal morality.
In 2004, the National Association of Evangelicals issued "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility," articulating the reasons for adding such issues as poverty and "creation care" to its agenda. In March 2007, the NAE endorsed "An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture."
Some of these commitments outraged leaders of the right, who tried to remove key people involved from their posts, but failed to do so, perhaps a sign of shifting influence. In the forward to this book, Richard Cizik of the NAE calls the current scene "a battle for the soul of the evangelical believer in America."
Gushee also outlines core issues he believes evangelicals must grapple with in rethinking their role in public life. While Gushee is speaking here primarily to the evangelical community, his analyses offer outsiders insights into the evolving thinking within the evangelical movement.
The second book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, is the latest from the Rev. Jim Wallis. Wallis is the founder of Sojourners, a faith-based social justice organization. He sees the "awakening" of Evangelicals to issues of poverty and justice as the early stirrings of a new social movement, particularly among young people.
Considered by many to be part of the evangelical left, Wallis penned a previous bestseller – "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It" – that helped spur Democrats to become more faith-friendly. Since then, he's traveled the country speaking to faith communities and on college campuses.
"Two of the great hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice," he says. "The connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for, especially the new generation."
In "The Great Awakening" Wallis hopes to encourage such a movement. He reviews historical "great awakenings" and the social movements they spawned: the antislavery, women's rights, child labor, and civil rights movements.
When politics is broken and can't solve problems, writes Wallis, the role of social movements becomes crucial. People of faith don't do it alone, he says, but they play a key role because faith is the source of hope and personal transformation that is essential to spur social transformation.
Wallis believes people today are yearning for a "moral center," and he discusses what it means to seek the common good. He also outlines the specific values which he believes should be embraced to accomplish desired change.
His message comes at a time when the evangelical movement has several new leaders directly focused on fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS. (These include the Rev. Rick Warren of "Purpose-Driven Life" fame.)
Wallis says that during his travels, youths of varying beliefs – from Evangelicals to Catholics to atheists – have come to his talks eager to get involved.
To help catalyze this movement, Wallis is working with pastors in a few US cities on what he calls "justice revivals." They aim to engage youths and congregations in long-term practical commitments.
Although he's active on the political scene, Wallis advises faith leaders to stay away from partisanship: "No matter who your favorite is in the election, they won't be able to change the really big things unless and until there's a social movement pressing from the outside," he notes.
• Jane Lampman is a Monitor staff writer.


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Who are we?
We are differing voices who come together under one banner – that of liberty.
We are political and apolitical – some belong to parties, some do not. Some are self-professed libertarians, some are small "c" conservatives, some classical liberals – the names are varied. However we all have one thing in common, a love of personal liberty; that casualty of the encroaching state as it seeks to micromanage our lives.
In his first post for this blog, luikkerland states that writing is the the first act of rebellion.
Here, then, is our defiance. Read, engage, enjoy.
Quick word about the name – we were brainstorming names and put this to the then readership, most liked it, but not all. One suggestion had been Herding Cats, and that's what it's been like.


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Blue Wall unplugged
30.10.2007 by vibeke posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks | Comments Off
New photos from the ui|o artworks
24.10.2007 by emil posted in Urban Interface Oslo, uio artworks | no comments
New photos from the ui|o artworks can now be found on the artworks pages:
Blue Wall of Silence | Friluftskino | Soundpockets | Orange Works | Telart | The Head
Questions for the solarium complex:
5.10.2007 by John Hawke posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks | no comments
want do we want for public space? Do people really want a shared space, or in the end would people prefer to have their own share? In the orange work we tried to test the idea of a public ownership of public space by enabling behaviors that are more commonly associated with a space owned individually—such as, reclining, putting your feet up, or sleeping — crossing the two behavior parameters in order to reveal a site and the vectors of spatial pressure.
But what were the interests or priorities of the using public—in this case the Elgsletta area residents? We see that the Solarium was used by residents with a generally weak ability to make a space claim for themselves (homeless persons, street people, etc.) who saw it as a fortunate passive space to be claimed, and when possible closed off. Though the structure was initially clean, open and safe, it did not generally attract the mixed use of the jogger or the mother pushing the pram. It is as though the space was seen as exceptional, not fitting into pre-established spatial patterns and so attracted an exceptional population that has little ability to control a private space of home or apartment—public space as a collective remainder for those without private space. What would happen if this understanding were to be formalized in law?
The project's result perhaps puts into question the default leftist protest against the privatization of public space—that it a resource to be shared, because perhaps in reality, we are not so interested in making the social negotiations that sharing entails. One could point to the particularities of the site, with its mark of the other (Somali hash dealers, junkies) to account for this reaction, but I think the site just put the question into stronger relief—the dynamic might be replicated, albeit more softly at other sites.
Is this a question of the cultural conditioning associated with capitalism or does it reach back to something more natural, as Adam Smith proposed with his "tragedy of the commons" theory?
As far as the structure needing to be taken down, I think it is a very good result for the project, breaking through the circumscribed envelope that often encompasses the artworld, and pushing a situation until it became problematic.
Deconstruction Day 1
3.10.2007 by hillevi posted in Urban Interface Oslo, uio artworks | 1 comment »
Anders and I started deconstructing at Elgsletta to a grand audience that after a short warm-up became a great help. The homeless was happy to have the orange webbing as it would be perfect to put branches to make a hut in the woods. Again I had to fight for Atle's right to the lounge, but the picknick-table will be taken away tomorrow if the Salvation Army is kind enough to drive it for the guys.
Dreams of huge trolleys or cranes to take the house it self away or small houses just like this one (but with a proper door and window) was a subject throughout the two hours plus it took us to take the walls down. Hinges and screws were taken care of by the helpers so they could construct something of their own.
Anders and the moose
Three happy campers
Getting good help
Orangework sure knows how to construct - those bolts were hard to crack..
"Keep clean - put your garbage in bags or similar"
To be continued…
Blue Wall of Silence - update
3.10.2007 by vibeke posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks | no comments
Blue Wall of Silence - update
3.10.2007 by vibeke posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks | no comments
Early morning. The walls are pretty much gone, the rain dissolves the flour and paper and the birds take care of the rest.
Orangework will be taken down
3.10.2007 by hillevi posted in Exhibition, uio artworks | no comments
Yesterday we received a phonecall from the municipalities of Oslo asking us to remove the Orangework structure by the moose. The structure has been inhabited by at least one homeless person living there now for about a week, and since he keeps the structure closed - thereby making it purely private - it has to be taken down.
This will happen today, wednesday, and anybody interested in the materials are welcome to show up around 1730 (the sofa has allready been booked).
Orangework becomes a home at Elgsletta
2.10.2007 by hillevi posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks, Uncategorized | no comments
Interview with Atle Barcley on electronic art in Oslo, Urban Interface Oslo and all the rest
1.10.2007 by sujaschko posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Team | no comments
On the occassion of UIO Regine made an interview with Atle Barcley. Read at 'We make money not art' here:
Blue Wall of Silence - update
29.09.2007 by vibeke posted in Urban Interface Oslo, Exhibition, uio artworks | no comments
Monday 09/24/07


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#10 Nassau, Bahamas. The Bahamas attracts millions of U.S. visitors to its busy capital ever year with picture-postcard promises of beautiful beaches and lazy seaside resorts. Shown here, Atlantis Paradise Resort.
A view of Bay Street in Nassau. The capital is often filled with cruise ship day-trippers, but the city still has its historic charms.
Fort Fincastle in Nassau was a defense fort that was used by the British Royal Navy during the Caribbean's pirate days.
#2 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The secret is out on Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Already a popular beach destination for Europeans, the beach town is now on the American holiday radar as an inexpensive paradise within flight-hopping distance (it's just a two-hour flight from Miami).
The historic capital of Santa Domingo is a must-do day trip for any first-time visitor to the Dominican Republic. The Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor (pictured) dates to 1514.
#8 Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona beats Madrid for the top city in Spain visited by U.S. travelers, especially 20-somethings on holiday in Europe. The Sagrada Familia (above) is one of the best known buildings by Antoni Gaudi, the godfather of modern Catalonian architecture.
Las Ramblas slopes through Barcelona from Plaça de Catalunya in the city center all the way to Port Veil on the shore. The tree-shaded sidewalks are lined with shops, cafés, and souvenir kiosks; in the center of the road, street performers entertain the daily parade of tourists.
Set on the outskirts of the city, Parc Güell is a storybook land of strange stone pavilions designed by Gaudi among the green hills and trees. The park trails meander through the 37 wooded acres with mythical mosaic sculptures and curved terraces that look out over the city. Here, a close up of the mosaic towers.
The seaside neighborhood of Barceloneta is a perfect spot for an afternoon of wandering the quaint channel streets with a view of the ocean through gaps between tenements. Here, a sculpture by Rebecca Horn towers above sunbathers.
#7 Montego Bay, Jamaica. The all-inclusive resorts on Montego Bay (and a chance to experience Rastafarian culture) make Jamaica one of the top Caribbean destinations for U.S. travelers.
Doctor's Cave Beach (pictured) is the most popular beach in Montego Bay and chances are your hotel will be within flip-flop distance.
Visitors enjoy a walk along Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica.
Rose Hall Great House is one of the oldest plantation estates on the island. The 18th-century Georgian mansion on the hill is a glimpse at Jamaica's colonial past. Beware: The house is said to be haunted by the ghost of Annie Palmer, a voodoo practitioner and wife of the plantation owner, who was murdered in her sleep during the slave uprising of 1830.
#6 Rome, Italy. From the stone amphitheater of the Colosseum to the Roman Forum, where Caesar once spoke, and the immaculate Vatican City (above), Rome is a living monument to the ancient history of Europe.
The 21st Century of the Arts museum, designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, is Rome's grand foray into the modern art world. There are two museums here: the MAXXI collection of contemporary art featuring the likes of Maurizio Cattelan, and the MAXXI museum of architecture, dedicated to the art of architectural design and the modern-day wonders of the world
The former chariot-racing grounds aren't much to look at these days when compared with the other ruins, but the verdant Avertine Hill above Circus Maximus is an amazing lookout perch and great retreat from the tourist hordes.
#5 Toronto, Canada. The modern city of Toronto straddles the shore of Lake Ontario with its blocky downtown of skyscrapers and needle-nose CN Tower. The fifth largest city in North America, the diverse population creates a vibrant cultural scene with many culinary delights.
Toronto's 19th-century warehouses and distilleries have new life as a meandering 13-acre complex of vaulted-ceiling restaurants, patio cafés, and art galleries set inside the historic brick buildings.
The Art Gallery of Ontario museum holds the largest collection of Canadian art in the world, with more than 80,000 works from the first century A.D. to today, including a sculpture center dedicated to the work of Henry Moore. Especially impressive is the new glass-façade by Frank Gehry on Dunda Street West.
#4 Paris, France. Millions of U.S. travelers flood the city of Paris every year to walk the romantic cobblestone streets of the Latin Quarter, kiss on the pedestrian bridges over the River Seine, marvel at the Gothic facade of old Notre Dame, or ride the elevator up the elegant iron legs of the Eiffel Tower.
Rue de la Huchette in the romantic Latin Quarter of Paris.
Musée du Louvre is by far the most famous museum in Paris (if not in all of Europe), so don't be surprised if you wait for hours to explore the Egyptian collection or for that glimpse of Mona Lisa behind glass. If you tire of the wait, don't distress: the grounds of the Louvre Palace and its adjoining Jardin de Tuileries is one of the most beautiful spots in Paris.
The Rodin Museum is elegant in its simplicity, especially when compared with the Louvre Palace across the River Seine (entrance, $8). The 18th-century mansion of Hotel Biron holds a collection of Rodin's greatest work inside and out in the estate's gardens where visitors can explore and ponder for a while with The Thinker and other sculptures.
#3 San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's no wonder San Juan is No. 3 on the most visited list, with millions of ex-pat Puerto Ricans returning home to visit family and friends. One of the most popular stops for visitors is El Morro fort, a beautiful citadel located on the northwest tip of the island.
Catedral de San Juan Bautista is the second oldest Cathedral in North America. Inside, you'll find the hallowed chambers of stained glass and statues worthy of worship (and the tomb of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon underneath).
In a paradise like Puerto Rico, where do the locals go to vacation? The answer is the castaway island of Vieques, a 45-minute ferry ride from the port of Farajado on the east coast. The main town of Isabella is quiet and pretty, but the real reason for the trip is the pristine beaches on the south coast (be sure to pack a picnic basket… there are few places to eat nearby the beaches).
#2 London, England. London certainly hasn't lost its regal charms in the long march to modernity. And because the city is a gateway for further excursions into Europe, millions of travelers spend at least a day or two visiting the historic sites on the red double-decker lorries, attending theatre performances by Britain's greats, and enjoying a cool English pint (or three).
Commoners can tour Buckingham Palace from July through September (or sneak a peek through the gates any other time of year).
London's West End neighborhood is the Broadway of England, known affectionately as "Theaterland."
It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire, and the British Museum is true to that globe-spanning scope, with a collection that ranges from the armor of William the Conqueror to the 19th- and 20th-century colonial history of British ambitions.
#1 Cancun, Mexico. Cancun remains the No. 1 top destination for U.S. travel abroad, thanks to cheap flights from the States, 14 miles of beaches, and carnival-style nightlife. Isla Mujeres (pictured) is a tiny island off the coast of Cancun. It offers a quiet escape from the madness of the mainland.
Take a day trip from Cancun to see ruins like those at Tulum and Chichen Itza.
The rain forest of the Yucatan peninsula creates a unique experience for travelers looking for adventure in the form of sunken cenotes—subterranean rivers and lakes that you can access via rappelling into caverns.
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text:
Hirst, the former England striker who spent most of his career at Sheffield Wednesday, was with Lundekvam at Southampton in the late 1990s when the Norwegian claims the players made money betting on events such as the first throw-in or corner. But Hirst said if such fixing was taking place, he was completely unaware.
He told Press Association Sport: "It was a massive surprise to me that he came out with something like that. I was never aware of anything taking place like that, not at Southampton or Sheffield Wednesday or Barnsley - or England for that matter. I have never been involved in anything like that and I have never heard of players doing it anywhere."
Lundekvam, who played for Southampton between 1996 and 2008 and went on to captain the team, told Norwegian radio station NRK that he, fellow players and opposition captains regularly made money by betting on and influencing in-game events such as first throw-in or first corner.
His claims raised the interest of world governing body FIFA, who began gathering information on the matter.
Several of Lundekvam's Saints colleagues have subsequently denied involvement in any such schemes.
Matthew Le Tissier, who did admit to one isolated incident of attempted spot-fixing in his autobiography, said on Twitter: "Aside from that one incident in my book I've never been involved in any betting scams and have no idea of Claus Lundekvam's claims."
Francis Benali, who preceded Lundekvam as Saints skipper, was even more forceful.
"I can say categorically I have no knowledge of the betting allegations made by Claus. Dressing rooms are very tight environments and if something was widespread, even if you weren't part of it, you would hear it being discussed and talked about," he told BBC Radio Solent.
Referring to Lundekvam's previous revelations about battling alcohol and drug problems, he added: "It is widely known Claus has had quite a few personal problems in recent times and I wonder if that is why he has come out with this story."


text:
Market Basket and hundreds of its protesting employees had another face-off on Monday, as many workers said they refused to give in to a company-imposed deadline of returning to work without penalty.
For those who haven't returned to work — who have largely been using vacation or sick time to avoid their job duties — the company said it will advertise for their positions, including store managers and some headquarters jobs.
Employees protested on Monday, first outside the Tewksbury headquarters and then outside the company's Andover warehouse, where a three-day job fair began in the afternoon. Very few vehicles were driving in and out of the property, but the company had said earlier in the day it would accept applications by email if anyone was worried about their safety at the fair.
"We have heard from many associates who are interested in applying for internal positons, but are concerned for their safety if they attend the scheduled Job Fair," co-CEOs Jim Gooch and Felicia Thornton said in the statement. "In response to their concerns, we are making available an email address to which associates can apply."
Supporters of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas said they were confident that few Market Basket workers would show up looking to take the jobs of those who've been standing up for Demoulas.
"No one is going to show up," said Thayer Eastman, a diesel mechanic for the company who said he was locked out of his job on July 17.
Eastman was among dozens who marched in circles around the entrance to Market Basket's perishables warehouse on Ballardvale Street. For the few cars that did pass through, they would heckle the driver. Some, including one woman who rubbed her fingers and thumbs together to make a money sign, pulled in only to turn around a moment later.
Monday and today's job fairs were for Market Basket employees only. Wednesday's job fair, which will run from 1 to 8 p.m., will be for the general public to apply.
Workers were still holding out for the return of Demoulas, two and a half weeks after boycotts began as a way to pressure the company's board of directors to reinstate him. Demoulas has also made an offer to buy out the 50.5 percent of the company his side of the family does not own. The board has said it is still considering multiple sale options.
"We're not going back until Arthur T. is back," Rosie Hagopian, an administrative assistant who has worked at Market Basket for 41 years, said at a rally of a few hundred people at the Tewksbury headquarters.
Another large-scale rally is planned for Tuesday starting at 11 a.m. at Stadium Plaza in Tewksbury.
Customers have also rallied for the return of Demoulas, including Melissa Smithurst, who traveled from Sandown, N.H. She said she was supporting friends who work for the company, and described the reason for her devotion as a shopper as simple.
"I believe in the business model," she said.
Market Basket has been losing what many current and former workers estimated to be around $10 million a day since the boycott began July 18. Ron Lambert, a manager at the Hudson, Mass., store, estimated his location has lost 95 percent of its business in recent days.
"It's like during a snowstorm," he said. "No one was there."
About two and a half weeks into the boycott, Market Basket may have a very difficult time breaking even for the year, said Jon Springer, an associate editor of Supermarket News.
"They're giving business every day to Hannaford, Stop & Shop, Shaw's," he said. "It's got to be really devastating to the stores."
The pro-Demoulas website We Are Market Basket listed reasons why people shouldn't apply for jobs at the chain, and criticized the job fair.
"This Job Fair/Farce is simply a tactic to scare current associates that are off the job," it said. "By the way, none of those associates went back inside today despite the threat of being fired."
Management previously said it would take employees back as late as Monday without penalty.
"We understand that some associates may choose not to return," it said, "consequently we will begin advertising for employment opportunities."
Follow Grant Welker on Twitter and Tout @SunGrantWelker.


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Adobe is continuing to invest heavily in our core ad serving capabilities with the general availability launch of Adobe Primetime. As part of our ongoing efforts to lead the industry in video monetization for content programmers and distributors, we're rolling out significant enhancements to Adobe Primetime Ad Serving (fka Adobe Auditude) to comply with the latest VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 standards. We're excited to be the only video ad server in the market today that's capable of both generating and reading VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 ad calls.
The IAB's Video Ad Serving Template, or VAST, was developed to provide publishers and advertisers with a common language for video player technology. In parallel, the Digital Video Multiple Ad Playlist, or VMAP, was created to detail ad insertion possibilities in instances where a programmer doesn't control the video player or end-point distribution channel for content it owns.
The purpose of these two standards is to make video advertising more scalable and straightforward for industry participants, and Adobe is happy to announce that our Adobe Primetime Ad Serving is fully VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 compliant. It is capable of both generating and reading VAST 3.0 ad calls, and allowing for inventory rights sharing among programmers and distributors with VMAP 1.0.
Before the introduction of VAST and VMAP, publishers using different players for different playback environments required advertisers to create unique ad responses for each site or device they wished to target. This created significant operational headaches, and limited the amount of money that media buyers were willing to spend on digital video. While earlier versions of VAST allowed advertisers to address these challenges, the standard also laid the groundwork to enable content programmers and distributors to communicate among themselves more efficiently. VAST 3.0 builds further on this foundation.
The latest versions, VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0, add a number of features and enhancements, including new details for the ad response format and how video players interpret and return signals to and from an ad server. According to the IAB:
With VAST 3.0, video players now have the ability to declare which ad formats they support. Five formats are provided as options: Linear Ads, NonLinear Ads, Skippable Linear Ads, Linear Ads with Companions, and Ad Pods (a sequenced group of ads). Skippable Linear Ads and Ad Pods are new formats offered with this release. Some video players choose to only support certain VAST ad formats in accordance with their publishing business model. With VAST 3.0, the guesswork of which VAST ad format a player supports is eliminated.
With VMAP, video content owners can exercise control over the ad inventory displayed in their content when they can't control the video player, to capitalize on advertising while maintaining the integrity of their program content. VMAP enables the content owner to define the ad breaks within their content, including the timing for each break, how many breaks are available, what type of ads and how many are allowed in each break.
The primary advantage of VAST 3.0 is that it enables monetization of breaks with multiple ads via a single ad call. This third-party ad server can control the entire ad experience for the break. In combination with VMAP 1.0, this is ideal for full-length TV episodes, which typically have several breaks with more than one ad, and for which inventory splits between the programmer and the distributor are common. With the prior versions of VAST, the ad server could only request and respond to one ad at a time – it wasn't possible to efficiently support breaks with more than one ad. VAST 2.0 was built for short clips, but VAST 3.0 has been designed for true broadcast-to-IP TV.
Without a VAST 3.0-compliant ad server, a broadcaster will typically have to manually traffic ads against individual ad positions in a single commercial break to prevent an ad from appearing more than once. Implementing competitive blocking and enabling robust analytics and forecasting are similarly labor-intensive. This presents a trafficking nightmare for ad operations – and doesn't scale.
VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 are especially important for driving broader adoption of TV Everywhere because these protocols enable shared inventory rights between programmers and distributors. Inventory rights sharing requires interoperability between partners' video players and ad servers, which VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 provide. A distributor who deploys and controls the video player typically has to call a programmer's ad server to insert ads that the content partner has sold. For example, a programmer may give two of every 20 minutes of ad space to a cable operator for local spots; this type of inventory sharing is made possible with VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 redirects between the content programmer and distributor's ad servers.
Global broadcasters and distributors like NBC and Comcast are increasingly turning to Adobe Primetime for its unified workflow across publishing, advertising and analytics. Adobe Primetime now features the industry's only video ad server that can both generate and read VAST 3.0 and VMAP 1.0 ad calls, making the process of fully monetizing broadcast video even simpler for both content programmers and distributors.


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A few shots from this past weekend. Wind was very light to non-existent at times.
I don't know the model names nor owners of the larger kites. But that's my Prism Stowaway Parafoil in the last shot looking much bigger than it is due to the juxtaposition. It could probably fit in one intake scoop of that large parafoil.
Crystal Lake 2014
Links to photos of anything kite related.
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Crystal Lake 2014
Photos of my kites: http://basicbill.com/search/Bills+kites
- goestoeleven
- Posts: 2335
- Joined: Sun, Sep 12 2010, 09:07 PM
- Location: Wheaton, IL
Re: Crystal Lake 2014
Cool pix!! Nice foils. Thanks for posting.
Re: Crystal Lake 2014
Kite flier version of compensating for something?
Bonum vinum laetificat cor hominis
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| 13.5°C Dublin
Hollywood star Johnny Depp described working with Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green as "a dream come true" at the premiere of his new movie.
The 48-year-old, who plays vampire Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, had only compliments for his leading ladies at the film's European premiere in London's Leicester Square.
"Every day was a real treat, getting into the ring with Michelle and Eva. Working with them was a dream come true," said Depp, who also produced the film.
Hundreds of fans - some arriving from Australia, Argentina and Italy - waited for hours to catch a glimpse of Depp. Some had been waiting for 13 hours.
Former Bond girl Green, Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Bella Heathcote, Chloe Grace Moretz and director Burton joined Depp on the purple carpet.
Green, who looked elegant in a navy velvet gown by Tom Ford, returned the praise, saying: "Johnny is a chameleon actor: he is very intense, very brave and he takes risks."
Australian actress Heathcote wowed in a black lace Pucci dress with towering Jimmy Choo heels while Bonham Carter kept her kooky style in a Vivienne Westwood number.
Burton revealed the idea for the big-screen adaptation of the 1960s cult TV series came from Depp.
"This was the project he wanted. This was one of the rare times where he, as a child, wanted to play the part," he said.
Dark Shadows, also starring Jonny Lee Miller and Jackie Earle Haley, opens in cinemas on Friday.
PA Media


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I decided to sell my desktop computer and use my laptop exclusively, I had no need to keep another computer and since I was only using it for doing backups I decided it would be better to save some space.
I choose to get a Western Digital because they have been so reliable to me in the past. Of the external hard drives available at Wal-Mart it initially appeared not the be the best value. A Seagate right next to it was also a terabtye in storage capacity but also had USB 3.0 capability for only $15 dollars more. The WD Essentials has only USB 2.0 and I know that 3.0 is supposed to be considerable faster than 2.0. However, for me, my laptop is only USB 1.0 so this didn't factor into it; also, because I am only using this for backups, time isn't much of a factor and I prefer to have the reliability of the Western Digital name.
The My Book Essential HD has a capacity meter on the front to display how full the disk is. I learned though, unfortunately, that this only works through the Windows driver and using the NTFS file system. Because I'm going to be using this for backups on Linux with ext4 this feature isn't available.
Since I have a Windows system installed I retrospectively learned that it is a good idea to install the driver/software for the drive there to setup the drive for only the reason so that I could disable the VCD. The Virtual CD Drive is a built-in memory chip that registers to the operating system as a regular CD drive. On it it contains the driver/software installer and manual. As far as the driver/software goes its nicer than I've seen of other hardware's software, it was lightweight, easy to use, and with no frills. For Linux though the driver/software is unecessary as it is automatically recognized and working out of the box. I disabled the VCD drive with the Windows software though to keep the VCD from popping up when I loaded my Linux desktop.
I ran a S.M.A.R.T. conveyance test and extended test on it then did a thorough badblocks write test that took about 24 hours… all tests passed.
Formatting to ext4, the drive works perfectly in Linux without any additional configuration (besides
noatime. I've been using the hard drive the last couple of months and I'm real happy with it: it's small, quiet, and has done it's job without a hitch.


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Alex McFarland is a Christian Apologist that is organizing Project 2026. Project 2026 is described as "A nationwide initiate to see Christianity's place in society restored to maximum strength by America's 250th birthday." Basically, they blame anything they deem as 'bad' about America is the fault of Christian faith being everywhere and involved in everything. Odd that he would complain that there isn't enough Christianity around when at least 78.4%of Americans are Christians. But I have a feeling he would claim that many aren't true believers or worshiping enough after taking a look at his propaganda site.
In an interview, the ill informed Mr. McFarland had this to say:
Alex, you've got Project 2026, I want you to talk a little bit about Project 2026 because in this project you're not just talking about what's going on in 2013, you're looking ahead, a forward view. 2026 is going to be the 250th anniversary of our founding, what is Project 2026 all about?
McFarland: It's a response, it's a fifteen year program and we are beginning to get a lot of momentum, it's a fifteen year program to re-remind our culture about some things that are core that I believe without the rediscovery and reaffirmation of these things we're going to lose democracy: God; life; morality; family; freedom of religion; American exclusivism, not that we're better or deserve better but we are unique on the stage of human history. The thing that prompted me Bryan is the four groups that are actively working to secularize and destroy America: humanists; atheists; militant homosexuals; and Muslims. All four of these groups got major momentum beginning in the '60s and '70s but they dug in their heels and they said: 'we're going to work forty years and we're going to mainstream atheism; we're going to mainstream militant homosexuality; dare we say it we're going to see gay marriage legitimized.' Why can't God's people dig in their heels and say: 'we're in it for the duration and America will not die on our watch.'
Pardon me Alex, but you've just revealed that you are clueless about the founding of our country. McFarland speaks ill of Secularism, yet America was the great experiment in secularism. America isn't under threat from secularism, but has always been a secular nation. Secularism is quite simply the principle of keeping heads of religious institutions and heads of government separate. We quite plainly see the secular framework in the first amendment of the US Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
As you see here, freedom of religion is guaranteed, but an establishment of religion is disallowed. Thomas Jefferson described this construct as a "Wall of separation between church and state." And that, my friend, is the very definition of Secularism. Despite what you would have your blind and horribly misinformed followers believe, Secularism is NOT inherently irreligious. Quite the contrary. Just look at the secular first amendment. It does work to keep and church separate, but also grants the freedom to worship the religion of ones choosing. What's anti-religious about that. All secularism is really concerned with is keeping religion from corrupting the government, and from the government corrupting religion. The is not a threat to democracy, but a proud moment and product of democracy.
Furthermore, your 'four groups' are, lets say... interesting. You claim that they are working to 'secularize and destroy America'. As I've already shown, America always has been a secular nation, so that claim is patently false. Second of all, as an atheist, I find the accusation that we are trying to destroy America as an insult and an outrage. If anything, the work to promote secularism is work to save and protect America, not destroy it.
You also claim that these groups are fighting to mainstream atheism... Well, lets look at your two claims and each group separately...
Humanists: I'm going to assume that you are referring specifically to Secular Humanists. In that case, the secularism is right there in the name. So check on the promotion of secularism. But promoting the mainstream adoption of atheism? Every Humanist I know simply wants equal treatment, not to have Humanism (or atheism) be the new de facto religion. Wanting to destroy America? You can't be serious!
Atheists: One thing is true, and that most atheists do support the constitutional separation of church and state. If that causes us to be labeled as 'secularists', so be it. I for one will wear it as a badge of honor. Wanting to 'mainstream atheism'? Don't get me wrong, the idea of more people looking at the world rationally is an appealing one. But I would rather they reach that beautiful insight on their own, rather than force it down their throat at 7:30am on a Saturday. My main concerns are getting atheists the equal treatment we deserve, right unjust perceptions, and protect the first amendment. As for destroying America... not on the agenda. But I'll tell you what is. Returning America to the ideals it was founded on. Justice and freedom for one and all.
Militant homosexuals: Was the militant really needed here? I mean, seriously... all it does is make you come across as a bigot. Oh how militant of them to fight for rights that have been unfairly kept from them. Lets class them together with those militant African-Americans who wanted equal rights, those militant woman who wanted to vote, and those militant colonists who wanted representation to go with their taxation. When you get right down to it, there's nothing inherently secular about homosexuality. However, secularists tend to be the ones in favor of granting 'gays' their unjustly denied rights, so the homosexual groups tend to stay in league with secular groups. Homosexuals wanting to may atheism mainstream? How does that work, when a great many homosexuals are themselves religious. You can be Christian and gay at the same time, despite what Alex would probably tell you. As for them wanting to destroy America... Again, a ridiculous conclusion that does more to highlight his narrow-minded picture of what he wants American to be, rather than reflecting reality.
Muslims: Lets face it. the only group the Christian extremists hate as much as atheists is Muslims. They usually like to paint a picture of Muslim extremism as the norm. Muslims that are either secret terrorists or want to institute Sharia Law as the law of the land. Since this narrow-minded view that ignores the peaceful non-confrontational Muslims is that one that they tend to carry, that's the one I'll examine here. Do these Muslims wish to mainstream atheism? Absolutely not! In fact, the penalty of apostasy in Islam in no less than death! But what about the claim that these Muslims are working toward a secular cause? Again, absolutely ridiculous! You can't claim that Muslims wish to enact Sharia Law and also claim them to be secular. The simple fact is that McFarland and those like him, hate Muslims for wanting to do in the name of Islam, what they want to do in the name of Christianity.
They scream that the Muslims want to set up a Muslim nation, with Muslim laws. Likewise, they wish to have a Christian nation, with Christian laws. Pot, meet kettle. Why is it so horrible for the Muslims to want to do, what he want's to do? How does he even begin to pant this blatant want for a theocracy as patriotic, when it' in defiance of our secular roots? I repeat the 'American' idea that he is trying to sell is a Theocracy. This is far from what America is and is closer to an attack on democracy that anything he mentioned.
McFarland and his sad 2026 event are simply grabbing at the ignorance of those that think like him, and is working to deceive and work toward his personal wants and benefits... History be damned. So I think it's time for us to meet him and his lies head on and give him the battle of wits where he will be severely outgunned.
Views: 413
Hell of a blog and a good read, anyone who has studied history will recognize McFarts tactics, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it(excuse the not so accurate quote), he has particularly singled out groups that many right wing extremist have a phobia for, that's not to say there are non centre and left, but we know where the bias is.
I start to get nervous when I see campaigns like this, history shows just how easily ignorance can be used to rally the crowd, so I'd say this, don't take this lightly, do not laugh him off, take it very seriously and be aware, if anyone can drag the USA down, it's people like him.
Well done James.
I'm afraid there will always be people who want to be told what to think and hence, there will always be religion but this guy McFarland has set the bar really low. I'm a little optimistic because of what I have seen lately. People are not afraid of saying "none" when asked what religion they belong to. (I love doing that and watching the expressions) Survey numbers for atheists are up. We will never approach places like the Czech Republic at 80 -90% but we may see a time when belonging to a religion is not a given and that will be a glorious day.
I think you are absolutely right to sound the alarm over this kind of power grab. There is money and influence in the ignorance industry. This demagogue looks like he is going for both at everyone's expense.
We have a preacher in this area that while no Joel Olstein, has a considerable following. He is a born entertainer. He wears sweaters and jeans on stage, has rock bands play music, rides a Harley up on stage and has people hoodwinked into thinking they should give him 10% of what they make. Is that money tax-free? I think so. What a racket! P.T Barnum would be proud.
"...four groups that are actively working to secularize and destroy America: humanists; atheists; militant homosexuals; and Muslims."
Secular Muslims?Really?
"militant homosexuals" - who are they? The ones he sees in his head every night?


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A NZ Olympic taekwondo hopeful has decided to relieve his parents of the burden of funding his international bids for sporting glory and has opened a brothel to raise cash for his trip to London 2012.
Logan Campbell, 23, stumped around NZ$150,000 (£58,000) to compete in Beijing,* with mum and dad footing most of the bill. According to the BBC, he "began looking for alternative ways of raising Olympic funding when he realised how difficult it was proving to raise adequate cash to support his training towards a place at the London Olympics".
Inventively, he's cut the ribbon on a 14-room "high-class" establishment - legal in new Zealand since prostitution was decriminalised six years back. To stress he's more respectable businessman than pimp, Campbell told the Sunday Star Times: "When people think of a pimp they think of a guy standing around on a street corner with gold chains. Pimps are more tough-type guys. I'm an owner of an escort agency."
Regarding quite what his dear old ma thought of the whole thing, Campbell explained: "Mum was hesitant but she met the girls, a couple came over to her house and she was sweet as. She realised they were just normal people supporting their kids and stuff."
Campbell hopes to return to Olympic training in 2011 with a war chest of NZ$300,000 after a couple of years full-time pimping,.
However, the Beeb notes it may not be that simple. Team NZ funding manager John Schofield explained to the Sunday Star Times: "Selection takes into account not just performance but also the athlete's ability to serve as an example to the youth of the country." ®
*He was beaten by Taiwan's Sung Yu-Chi, who eventually secured the bronze medal.


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1 large onion very finely chopped
Bunch of chopped parsley
A few leaves chopped mint
2 slices dry, white bread soaked in milk and well drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole egg
1 cup plain flour
1 ½ cup vegetable oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
Roll the mixture into small balls approx. the size of large walnuts.
Roll the balls in flour and then deep fry them for 15 minutes.


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Give to the YMCA
Through your donation to our scholarship funds for youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the YMCA helps make our East Tennessee community stronger.
By giving to the YMCA, you are supporting programs that help children and adults change their lives for the better.
Your support helps the YMCA support Knoxville's kids and families
- To nurture the potential of youth through building confidence at Summer Day Camp, academic enrichment in safe afterschool programs, or foundational skills and values in our child care programs
- To improve the nation's health and well-being through combating obesity and chronic disease by providing the support and resources people need to make positive change
- To give back and support our neighbors by empowering people with the resources to improve their lives and connect and contribute to the community, such as with job training, newcomer services and opportunities to advocate for social change
- To offer programs and services to children, adults and families who need financial assistance


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When SANS-ISC goes YELLOW, I try to pay attention.
They are reporting that the "WebViewFolderIcon" ActiveX setslice control exploit has been found in the "wild" and is spreading.
What does this mean? Well, if you hit certain websites (currently in the .biz) and haven't mitigated your machine, you could "at best" get infected with just a root-kit. At worst, that rootkit could do all kinds of bad mojo on your system--and any resources stored there.
Bad Mojo, kiddos.
No patch from Microsoft yet, but they have some initial info on it.
So what to do?
1) Some AV vendors are already picking up the exploit, but not all yet, at this time. Be sure to check your that your AV files are up to date.
2) SANS-ISC recommends running one of their killbit tools to unregister the control. Good advice from the security professionals at this early stage.
They have kindly prepared two versions, and exe and a command-line version.
I recommend the exe file. Run it and it unregister's the elements. Run it again and it puts them back into service. Do this before installing any future patches Microsoft may release.
3) Stop using Internet Explorer (which utilizes ActiveX) at least until a patch is released. Get Firefox.
4) Be careful not to browse to any .biz sites (but this may spread past that area...so not really helpful advice, I know).
Link to O'Reilly chapter on ActiveX controls and killbits. Interesting background info reading.


text:
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I hope you are all having a safe and restful summer!
As regular readers will remember, each year around this time I like to invite one or two of our newly ordained priests to share their experiences with you. I think it is an excellent opportunity for people to get to know them better. Also, I think it is very valuable for other men considering a vocation to hear these stories — to realize the great joy that can be found in answering the Lord's call.
This week, I have asked Father Eric Cadin to share his reflections with you. Father Cadin is originally from St. Francis Xavier Parish in South Weymouth and studied at Harvard before entering St. John's Seminary. He is just settling in to his new assignment at St. Michael Parish in North Andover.
– Cardinal Seán
It's become a cliché. Whenever anyone wins an award or receives an accolade—movie star, musician, politician, student body president—he or she inevitably thanks, at the beginning or at the end, God. The cardinal has asked me to share my experiences of vocation and priesthood. I must therefore begin by thanking and giving all praise to God.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you" (Jer 1:5). It's true. God does everything. He makes us the saints he calls us to be. I am still learning…and have a long way to go. But as I look back, in faith, at my life, I see God at every step and in every moment.
Today marks the twenty-day anniversary of my priesthood. The people of St. Michael's Parish in North Andover (my priestly assignment) have welcomed me with extraordinary kindness, generosity and enthusiasm.
Were I to write only on my priestly experiences I fear I might run short of adjectives extolling the wonderful people I have met here in North Andover. Instead, I want to look at two times in my life when I awoke to God, to his calling in my life, and to the grace necessary to seek after holiness.
A boy growing up in St. Francis Xavier Parish in South Weymouth, I didn't know anything other than the Catholic Church. At the risk of sounding overly nostalgic, I can remember the Church being an important and all-encompassing influence in my young life. Everyone I knew was Catholic. Nuns taught me in class (thank you Sr. Jean, Sr. Ann Regina, Sr. Teresa). Holy Days meant Mass. I was proud to be Catholic. Every Sunday my dad would corral us four kids (my older sister, me, my younger sister and younger brother) into the car and off to Mass we'd go (disclaimer: my mother worked the night shift as a nurse and so would go either early in the morning on her way home or the night before). Our pastor, Fr. John Mulvehill (now pastor of St. Anthony's in Cohasset), knew my name, would greet my family after Mass, and loved to regale us kids with wonderful stories, lessons, and homilies.
I have two distinct memories of being a second grade boy at St. Francis Xavier School. I wanted to be a priest (I remember thinking, what a cool job, I bet every boy here wants to do this). I absolutely loved the Blessed Mother. I can still hear the songs sung at her May crowning. Our Lady captivated me. Her statues were beautiful.
In the way that only a seven-year-old boy can…I loved Mary.
Years, and dare I say wisdom, give new eyes to life. I believe — in fact I am certain — that those years were the most important in terms of my vocation, my faith, and even my salvation. You see, it was very soon after, that the allure of world, that is, temptations to selfishness, entitlement, and pleasure, slowly and persistently captured me. Thoughts of the priesthood faded far away. While for my part I was drifting away from God, He and His Mother doggedly pursued me…and protected me. Those prayers, devotions, and pious actions of that seven-year-old boy were not just some ritual. At times I may have been aware, but in a way more real than I could know, I was brought into a relationship with my God, and His mother, that my unfaithfulness could never sever. "If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim 2:13).
Why did I back down, defer, or pass on certain sins when I put myself in situations where even those around me succumbed? Why, as I look back with the eyes of faith, do I see Our Lady's protection over me in spite of my apathy? The long answer involves divine providence; the short answer: love.
The love of my childhood slowly shone its way through the shadows during my time at Harvard College. While I didn't think or speak in such a way at the time (or even know what could be meant by "God's friends"); God sent His best friends to me. Strong Christians, and Catholics, taught me, even showed me, who I am: a beloved son of the Father.
Harvard can be a challenging place, in more than just academics. Surrounded by such extraordinary individuals, some, if not all, can strive and struggle to find and to claim an identity. For the longest time I looked to the world and to the culture for my cues and sense of value. I had become convinced that value, especially my value, flowed from what I offered, that is, what I could achieve. One way that this manifested itself was in athletics. While I succeeded in academics, I convinced myself that I was only as good as my athletic achievement. Unfortunately, though there were times when I was good, I was never great.
At Harvard, during my freshman year, I joined the rugby team. Though a team with more than a century of history, we were in a bit of a lull in terms of success. A great core of young guys joined the team with me, and over the course of the next four years through fall, winter, spring, and summer practices we got good, real good. By the middle of my sophomore year I was playing more regularly on the First XV—the starting squad. Suddenly, I was successful again, and a natural esteem followed. Yet all the while I felt precariously perched; an injury, a better player, my own limitations…any of these would relegate me, again, to a supportive rather than starting role.
Contemporaneous with my development on the rugby team, my faith and my relationship with God began to flourish. After all, God surrounded me with His best friends. They introduced me to our Lord, immersed me in the scriptures, and pushed me deeper into my Catholic faith. They witnessed to me the freedom and joy of living as a Christian—more importantly, as living as a beloved son of the Father. They didn't care what I offered or could do…they loved me for who I am.
My contingent identity crumbled and I saw and knew myself as my Father saw and knew me. That changed everything.
By my senior year my fears came true. In preseason I got injured. During my recovery I lost my position to a younger, faster, and more athletic teammate. As the season progressed and I returned, we would share the position. We did really well that year. For the first time in two decades we advanced to the Sweet Sixteen national tournament…then the Elite Eight…then the Final Four…then the National Championship. All our practices, conditioning and sacrifices had paid off. The game was played out at Stanford. It was nationally televised. Hundreds of Harvard alums came to cheer us on. I didn't play.
Years earlier I would have been crushed. My best friends at Harvard, guys I practiced, ran, worked out, and shared college with for four years were playing for the National Championship and all I could do was watch and cheer. Had my identity been built, even tangentially, upon this passing game…how could I have even cheered without resentment or bitterness? But it wasn't and isn't. I am a Catholic, I am God's adopted son. St. Paul writes: "if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (1 Cor 12:26). I was able to support and encourage my teammates, my friends, with joy—and mean it. (Postscript: as most losing teams would contend, "if we just had 5 more minutes"…we lost in the final to the United States Air Force Academy.)
A rugby game, an injury, a starting position: none of these are momentous or critical situations in life, I recognize. I reflect upon it today, not so much for the content, but to pause and to recognize, in gratitude, the powerfully personal, specific, and, as it seems in the moment, significant ways that God reaches into my life to show me Himself. I am not special. I certainly didn't do much to call upon God. Many times I seemed to be actively rejecting Him. He sought me out; He pursued me; He captured me: "We love because he first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19).
God called me to the priesthood. He prepared me, His mother protected me, and He loved me. I pray that I might be, by His help, in His grace, and with His virtue, the good and holy priest He made me to be. I pray too that all of us, His friends, might know how loved we are and who we are. That we be filled with courage to respond generously to the life and to the vocation that God calls each of us, personally, individually and intimately.


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As an Internet user and concerned citizen, I demand you stop funding climate denial and leave ALEC today!
You're supposed to be one of the good guys -- you use renewable energy and even told the SEC your motto is, "Don't be evil." If you still think being evil is bad, why did you join an organization that demands that science teachers deny climate science, attacks voting rights, supports destructive "ag-gag" bills, and tries to hide the most toxic chemicals used in fracking?
This isn't your corporate mission, and it's bad for our country and our planet. If ALEC's anti-climate bills succeed, it will undo all the good you have done by using renewable energy. Quit ALEC at once!
This petition closed almost 6 years ago
ALEC bills would require climate denial in public schools, ban disclosure of fracking chemicals, and eliminate key clean energy laws. Tell Google: Your motto was "Don't be evil"! Quit ALEC today!