text:
By Alden Bentley
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 (Reuters) - Software titan Larry
Ellison's decision to race the 34th America's Cup on high-speed
72-foot catamarans, which are harder to build and sail than
keelboats, has been criticized for pushing the competition too
far beyond traditional sailing and pricing out non-billionaires.
But this is the America's Cup, Silicon Valley's style -
it's all about technology, ideas and information - and advances
made in preparation for the races are already being felt in
television, aerospace and sporting gear.
"The America's Cup has a long history of innovation on all
kinds of levels," said Gary Jobson, the tactician on Ted
Turner's 12-meter yacht Courageous when it won the Cup in 1977.
"The boats have always had the leading edge of technology,
whatever the technology has been."
Sailing shares with aeronautics the physics of lift and drag
and high- and low-pressure airflow - picture a plane turned on
its side in the water with one wing a "dagger board" protruding
below the hull and the other a vertical mainsail.
This is even more true of Ellison's huge dream cats, known
as AC72s. Instead of a traditional mainsail, they are powered by
135-foot-tall fixed "wings." Forward, they usually carry just a
small sailcloth jib to help turn their twin bows through the
wind when coming about.
With horizontal fins at the tip of each rudder and dagger
board blade below the water's surface, the radical yachts
commissioned by Oracle Corp's Ellison, who could define
the parameters of this year's Cup boats because he won the 2010
America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, can "hydrofoil" atop the waves
at speeds of more than 50 miles per hour.
The AC72 may represent the America's Cup's greatest
innovation yet - a mostly carbon-fiber sailboat that borrows
heavily from aviation technology.
Industries increasingly share techniques for using Space Age
materials adopted early on by yacht builders. Carbon fiber and
titanium are the favorites to reduce weight and cost, and add
strength to hulls, airframes and components.
Boeing Co has been sharing information with America's
Cup boat designers and builders for years, according to
America's Cup sources. A Boeing spokesman said the company could
not confirm or deny an America's Cup connection.
Design innovations have trickled down in boating since Alan
Bond - an Australian real estate and mining entrepreneur who
declared bankruptcy in 1992 and was later imprisoned for fraud -
revealed a winged keel that gave his Australia II syndicate the
edge over Dennis Conner's Liberty in the 1983 Cup.
Today, many cruising sailboats have similar horizontal
surfaces on the bottom of their keels to help them steer
straighter and faster. Experts expect hydrofoiling designs to
likewise end up on recreational sailboats very soon.
The tall AC72 wings have incorporated twistable flaps along
their trailing edge that help maximize lift and keep the boat
flat. Aircraft may soon borrow this idea for wing-control
surfaces to replace multiple flaps, according to Tom Speers,
head of wing design at Oracle Team USA and a former Boeing
"You could envision an airplane wing where you had full-span
flaps that did a number of functions," Speers said. "They would
move together for both roll control and as landing flaps or for
maneuver load alleviation and so forth."
The giant AC72 weighs just 13,000 pounds (6.5 tons, or
roughly the weight of two average sedans), thanks to the high
strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fiber. The boats are lifted
out of the water each night, and the wings are removed for
tuning, storage and to remove cameras.
When not sailing, the fragile AC72s are under repair - or
are being rebuilt, as after Oracle's AC72 capsized last October.
Unfortunately, the AC72 can be fatally fragile: In May the
catamaran of Swedish challenger Aremis flipped and broke apart,
killing British Olympic sailing champion Andrew Simpson.
"We all said, 'Maybe we are too cavalier about this
regarding construction,'" said Oracle's lead designer, Dirk
To save time, yacht builders have advanced methods for
pre-impregnating resins in carbon-fiber fabric to shorten and
simplify the process of laying the fabric around a rigid
honeycomb core and hardening the layers together in a mold. This
cuts out the costly, time-consuming process of heating the
composites in ovens.
There are many firsts this year aimed at widening the appeal
of the Cup. The sailing is in sight of spectators on shore in
Ellison's home waters of San Francisco Bay. And you can download
real-time race data and apps to watch the crews in action,
thanks to remote-control cameras affixed to each AC72.
The event was custom-made for television, with the scenic
backdrop and close-quarters racing intended to make the Cup
exciting to viewers at home.
Thomas Edison had the same idea when he brought his
newfangled motion picture camera to film the America's Cup in
1899 off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The grainy 1899 clip "Columbia
Winning the Cup" is viewable at. The reel helped introduce Americans to motion pictures.
Edison set a standard that still exists for covering big
athletic events.
"The decision to capture the decisive moments of a race that
featured 90-foot yachts rather than attempting to capture the
event in its entirety necessarily involved strategic planning,
coordination and timing," wrote Raymond Gamache in his 2010 book
"A History of Sports Highlights: Replayed Plays from Edison to
That footage reinforced a business relationship between
Edison and banking titan J.P. Morgan. Morgan happened to be the
owner of Columbia and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, home
to the trophy since it had been won from Britain in 1851 by the
schooner America, the Cup's namesake.
Morgan's investment in Edison's early power grid evolved
into the General Electric Company, although the inventor who put
the light bulb in homes had moved into movies by that time.
In 1899, the same year Edison brought his movie camera to
the Cup, Italy's Guglielmo Marconi was invited by the New York
Herald to demonstrate radio for the first time in the United
States by broadcasting the America's Cup from a passenger ship.
Fast-forward to a modern sports television trailblazer named
Stan Honey, who is director of technology for AC34.
Honey is a champion Volvo Ocean Race navigator and helped
set a record for circumnavigation under sail. He also happens to
have led the development of the moving yellow first-down line,
which revolutionized televised American football in the 1990s.
Honey built on the innovations of Ian Taylor, Paul Sharp,
Alan Trimble and Tim Heidmann, who together pioneered the use of
computer graphics in the 1992 America's Cup, which let viewers
track boat positions and tactics.
The 1992 Cup also introduced cameras that made steady aerial
filming possible from a helicopter.
Jobson, winner of two Emmy Awards for his sailing broadcasts
for ESPN and public television, said the gyroscope-stabilized
Cineflex camera and a highly specialized lens called a Schwem
GyroZoom, ended an era of shaky distant shots from blimps and
was quickly adopted for other sports, from auto racing to golf.
In 1992, producers could show videogame-like tracks for
America III and Il Moro di Venezia as they sailed off San Diego,
California, to illustrate race tactics and relative positions,
or live aerial shots of the boats racing - but not
For AC34, Honey's team has integrated the two, using GPS to
aim cameras mounted on multiple helicopters to focus within two
centimeters of the center of their moving subjects.
Viewers experience the colorful lines, dots and shading of
wind and currents, boat tracks, course boundaries and mark
rounding zones like natural features of San Francisco Bay.
"People wanted to see the real boats and crew sail, handling
and puffs on the water, and at the same time wanted to have aids
to interpretation such as lay lines, mark circles and advantage
lines showing who's ahead and behind," Honey said.
When sailing upwind at 20-plus knots into a 20-plus-knot Bay
westerly, AC72 crews are exposed to tropical-storm-force winds
and a fire hose of salty spray. They are endurance athletes,
wired with heart monitors and other sensors, who need waterproof
breathable outerwear permitting freedom to rush back and forth
across a 45-foot taut mesh trampoline between the hulls.
Because of the high risk of capsize, safety gear has been
adapted from other extreme sports. The sailors don helmets and
carry a small oxygen tank to be used if they get trapped under
PUMA, the shoe and sportswear manufacturer, is a
corporate backer of America's Cup 34 and has sponsored the Volvo
Ocean Race. The company expects its investment in gear for
extreme sailing conditions to find its way into other outdoor
Sailing helped PUMA define its in-house CELL system used to
describe different functions of their performance products and
allocate materials to manufacturers. Any Puma product with
"drycell" on it means that it helps keep you dry, while
"visicell" is a product with high visibility.
"Because sailing gear is very technical, PUMA learned a vast
amount about working with new materials and sourcing new factory
options. Benefits for PUMA are long term because this knowledge
can transfer to other categories within the company," a
spokesman for PUMA told Reuters.
This America's Cup has even inspired innovation in
academics, where Jan-Michael Ross and Dmitry Sharapov,
professors at the Imperial College Business School in London,
are seeking to use publicly available race data from the
preliminary America's Cup World Series, sailed on the smaller
AC45 catamarans, to illustrate how tactical decisions on the
water can be used in business situations, especially in
Not that Larry Ellison needs any instruction.


text:
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.—The tagline on Cliff Alexander's Twitter account, which he aptly names "humblekid11", says as modestly as possible: "basketball is my life. and NBA is my goal."
When he checks to see who has mentioned him on Twitter, and what they've said, he discovers the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry can be fought on my fronts.
SN's RECRUITING CENTRAL: News and analysis on top 2014 players
"Any time I check my mentions," he said, "they're going to war with each other."
It is one of the oddities of modern college athletics recruiting. Social media can provide direct access for fans to the prospects colleges are recruiting, and some attempt to involve themselves in persuading the athletes to choose their favorites. They're technically not supposed to according to NCAA regulations, but this is pretty much impossible to police or enforce.
Ranked the No. 6 prospect in the class of 2013 by Scout.com, Alexander is a 6-9, 230-pound power forward at Curie Metropolitan High in Chicago. In the summers he plays with 6-11 center Jahlil Okafor, the nation's No. 1 prospect, with the Mac Irvin Fire. Because has kept himself open to so many elite college programs, because he is the sort of player who fits any style—athletic, devastatingly powerful, mobile, willing to use his physicality to pursue rebounds and protect the lane—he is an ideal example of how and how rapidly college basketball recruiting has changed.
MORE: Standouts from the U19 tournament in Prague
As Kentucky's John Calipari, Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Ohio State's Thad Matta and Illinois' John Groce watched—among many others—Alexander scored 23 points and dunked at least seven times in Thursday night's Fire victory over the Jackson Tigers in the second pool-play game at Nike's EYBL Finals at the Peach Jam. Afterward, he was asked about a number of schools on his longish list of potential college choices, primarily by media that cover those particular schools:
On Kentucky: "Coach Cal is a great guy. I love the campus. A great practice facility. I worked out there when I went down there. He's a great guy. I love the coaching staff."
On Louisville: "Louisville, same thing with those guys. Me and Coach (Rick) Pitino have a great relationship since they started recruiting me. We'll go there from there."
On Michigan State: "How they develop their players. Coach Izzo is a great guy. The campus is beautiful."
"Illinois: Yes, of course. Same thing with those guys. I've had a great relationship with Coach Groce since he came in."
It can be a bit tiresome for the athlete. Alexander was asked, not for the first time in the day, which schools he will visit officially. There are some he has already seen on an unofficial basis, so it's unlikely he will duplicate those trips. That leaves the list of schools to get officials as: Kansas, Memphis, Louisville, Arizona and one more to be determined.
Alexander has adopted a very businesslike approach to all of this. He presented a top 10 list in June that consisted of: Arizona, Baylor, DePaul, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis and Michigan State. He said Thursday he will not commit "anytime soon." Offered the chance to engage in a joke about whether he'd counted the dunks he had against Jackson, he passed on the opportunity and simply stated that he never counted dunks or points.
On the more technical aspects of his basketball pursuits, though, he was more engaging.
A couple of times during the game, Alexander showed off an interesting technique on a 12-foot baseline jumper. He shoots it very old-school, pretty close to a set shot, but he showed good form and control as he launched those shots. Alexander has relied for much of his career on superior size, strength and athleticism, playing mostly around the low post. But he's not a low-post master like former Ohio State All-American Jared Sullinger, and even Sullinger had to develop a perimeter touch because of his size.
Alexander told Sporting News his high school coach, Mike Oliver, "told me that's what I want to do if I want to play at the next level, so that's what I've been working on." Since the spring, "I've been in the gym 24/7 working on that."
There are some physical resemblances between Alexander and former UNLV freshman star Anthony Bennett, who in June became the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft. Bennett, however, was an adept long-distance jump shooter by the time he finished his one season with the Rebels.
"Maybe it can be me, if I work hard and do what he did," Alexander said.

subset: commoncrawl


text: |The Rusco sediment filter uses centrifugal separation technology to filter sediment from water. This Rusco filter is made with a Chemically Resistant Screen filter. High temperature operation up to 200 deg. F (93 deg. C). The Rusco Chemically Resistant Sediment Filter is made by thermoplastic construction and has high chemical resistance. The Rusco systems have stainless steel reinforced 3/4" pipe connection. The Rusco Chemically Resistant filter screen is durable, cleanable and reusable. TheChemically Resistant Filterscan be used for Hydronic Heating Systems, Industrial Heat Exchangers, Cooling Tower Make Up & Evaporator Water, Domestic or Commercial Hot Water Heaters, and Industrial (Machine Coolant and Cutting Fluids). The Rusco Sediment Filter is designed to remove virtually all types of sediment, including shale, shell, debris, pipe scale, and sand/grit (course, fine, and very fine). The amount of sediment removed by the Rusco filter screen will depend on the micron rating of the filter screen. Smaller micron rated filter screens will remove smaller particles of sediment from your water. By removing larger sediment particles from your water, you are preserving the life of appliances and filter cartridges that may be installed after the Rusco sediment filter system.


text:
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text:
Posted on October 25, 2013 in Miscellaneous Shoes and Apparel
ATP's number 6 player in the world, Tomas Berdych, will now be playing in HEAD tennis shoes starting next week at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
"The new HEAD Sprint Pro is among the best in the game and I am very happy with the outcome of the shoe. I am already playing with HEAD racquets and have always felt very much at home with the company, so wearing HEAD footwear is a natural choice for me as I know I can rely on the product." – Tomas Berdych
Our playtesters have just started playtesting these shoes and the initial feedback is great! These shoes come in a lightweight, yet durable package while combining speed with stability. Featuring the HEAD Trinergy technology, this sharp looking shoe is designed to absorb energy on impact and transfer it from the heel to the forefoot, and then release that energy to maximize the upward motion and energy into your next step.
These shoes are great for aggressive movers who don't want to sacrifice any style or performance! Keep an eye out for these at Tennis Warehouse in January 2014!
Play with heart,


text:
Report of Review of Facebook
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Ireland today 21 September 2012 published the outcome of its Review of Facebook Ireland's (FB-I) implementation of recommendations made in the Office's Audit of the social networking site last December. That Report was a comprehensive assessment of Facebook
The Review finds that the great majority of the recommendations have been fully implemented to the satisfaction of this Office, particularly in the following areas:
- The provision of better transparency for the user in how their data is handled,
- The provision of increased user control over settings,
- The implementation of clear retention periods for the deletion of personal data or an enhanced ability for the user to delete items,
- The enhancement of the user's right to have ready access to their personal data and the capacity of FB-I to ensure rigorous assessment of compliance with Irish and EU data protection requirements.
Those recommendations which are not implemented by FB-I as of yet are highlighted with a clear timescale for implementation listed.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes said, "I am satisfied that the Review has demonstrated a clear and ongoing commitment on the part of FB-I to comply with its data protection responsibilities by way of implementation or progress towards implementation of the recommendations in the Audit Report. I am particularly encouraged in relation to the approach it has decided to adopt on the tag suggest/facial recognition feature by in fact agreeing to go beyond our initial recommendations, in light of developments since then, in order to achieve best practice. This feature has already been turned off for new users in the EU and templates for existing users will be deleted by 15 October, pending agreement with my Office on the most appropriate means of collecting user consent. By doing so it is sending a clear signal of its wish to demonstrate its commitment to best practice in data protection compliance."
Deputy Commissioner, Gary Davis who led the both the Audit and the Review stated that "the outcome reflects months of detailed engagement between Facebook
It is also clear that ongoing engagement with the company will be necessary as it continues to bring forward new ways of serving advertising to users and retaining users on the site. The value of such engagement to identify and deal with any data protection concerns prior to launch of new products and services is fully accepted by FB-I."
For more information, please contact:
Ciara O'Sullivan, Office of the Data Protection Commissioner at +353 (0)57 868 4800
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
The Review consisted of a detailed examination of FB-I's implementation of each of this Office's recommendations made in the December Report. Where new issues had arisen since the publication of the December Report, those were also examined during the review. A detailed Technical Analysis Report is included as an Annex to the Report. Also attached as an Annex is a formal response from FB-I to the recommendations made in the December Audit which the company wishes to be published for reasons of full transparency.
As with the earlier Audit Report, this Review Report does not include any formal decisions by the Office in relation to the complaints it has received in relation to FB-I. The audit has taken account of the substantive issues raised in these complaints and it can be expected that at least some of these issues will have been dealt with to the satisfaction of the complainants. However, any complainant has the right to seek a decision on her/his complaint(s) where an "amicable resolution" of the complaint can not be achieved and to appeal that decision to the Courts should they wish. We are now moving to address any outstanding complaints, in accordance with our normal complaints handling procedures.
Please see link to report: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Facebook_Audit_Review_Report/1232.htm


text:
Deep Silver has just announced that developer Volition's Saints Row IV is a "smashing commercial success" with over a million units sold through during the game's first week at retail. The PC version in particular was cited for having tripled the early sales figures of last year's Saints Row: The Third, which was published by THQ.
Nice to see and great for the developers. Played all three previous games and this one is sounding like it will be the best.
This Game looks like garbage tbh, they use cheap adult references to sell their games.
Deserved. I un-expectedly enjoyed it so much 9/10, I thought it would be cheap innuendo filled GTA rip-off.
Nice to see that the PC version sold so well. And it's nice that it's selling so well in general.


text:
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Memo about this cabinet solution
Share your wishes with your kitchen planner. Here you will find a summary of all information about this cabinet on one page.


text:
These are some images made by the original owner of the fanlistings and some kind fans. You can make your own buttons if you want to; if you do so, it would be nice of you to donate them to the fanlisting through the form below (of course, you will be given credit).
If you use any of these buttons, you have to upload the image to your own server and link it back to:
NO DIRECT LINKING... Please...
From Estefanía
Select a size:
Or select a category:
Or view all.
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You can write whatever you want to that is somewhat related to the Harry/Hermione relationship and just link it back to this site.
If you have previously donated codes to any fanlistings that belong to the Diletante.Net collective, select your name from the dropdown list below. Otherwise, enter your name and URL in the new donor form. Select the number of codes you would like to donate and click continue.
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Started, created & graphics by Estefanía.
Coded and run by Calítoe.:.


text:
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text:
By Dr. Henderson Ward
The Bible is such a marvelous book that we who have been studying it for decades still find so much that is surprising and challenging. Because it is one book in 66 volumes from the one source, we know and can demonstrate with utmost conviction, that it contains no contradictions and ambiguities if properly understood. The Bible is the one book in all the world that stands or falls, confuses or enlightens, saves or damns on the mighty foundation of its context. Without a proper understanding and appreciation of this indispensable ingredient of Biblical context the search for truth is as elusive as a man trying to find gold at the end of the rainbow.
The question before us is straightforward and not couched in technical terminology that needs to be deciphered. Does God hear the prayers of sinners or doesn't he? Some believers say yes he does and others say no he does not, so who is right?
For those who say he does not it would appear many scriptures give them support:
"The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that GOD HEARETH NOT SINNERS: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." (John 9:30-33)
"And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us." (1 Samuel 8:18-19)
"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? WILL GOD HEAR HIS CRY when trouble cometh upon him?" (Job 27:8-9)
"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. THEN SHALL THEY CALL UPON ME, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." (Proverbs 1:24-28)
"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, WHEN YE MAKE MANY PRAYERS, I WILL NOT HEAR: your hands are full of blood." (Isaiah 1:15)
"But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that HE WILL NOT HEAR." (Isaiah 59:2)
These and other scriptures are enough to show that the idea of God not hearing sinners have a basis in both the Old and New Testament. It is also clear that the countervailing view that God hears sinners has scriptural foundation as well as we see by the following scriptures.
God heard the prayers of Cornelius a sinner, "He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, THY PRAYERS AND THINE ALMS ARE COME UP FOR A MEMORIAL BEFORE GOD. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter." (Acts 10:3-5)
God heard the plea of blind Bartimaeus a sinner, "And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. AND JESUS STOOD STILL, AND COMMANDED HIM TO BE CALLED. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee." (Mark 10:47-49)
God heard the plea of wicked demons, "So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, GO. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters." (Matthew 8:31-32)
God heard the prayers of the sinful Ninevites, "But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? AND GOD SAW THEIR WORKS, THAT THEY TURNED FROM THEIR EVIL WAY; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; AND HE DID IT NOT." (Jonah 3:8-10)
So here we have evidence that God hears the prayers of wicked people and responds to them in different ways to suit particular circumstances. So how do we square this circle and reconcile what appears conflicting scriptures.
First we should note that there is no conflict or contradiction. What we have here is a perception and not a reality for these apparent contradictions remain so until proper exegesis shows them to be non-existent and the application of genuine Biblical hermeneutics lay those ghosts to rest.
We need to understand that all of us are sinners, even genuine, born-again believers and if God did not answer the prayers of sinners then all human-kind beginning with Adam would be lost. Since we know that some will be saved, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25) "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:13-14) it therefore follows that God hears the prayers of sinners.
Next we need to realize that there is a difference between sinners. All sinners do not stand equal before God not because God is bias and unjust but because sinners take a posture of facing God with the attitude of appropriating his help or backing God in an attitude of derision and disdain. Christians who are redeemed and walking with God are not immune from sin and are the first to confess that they do sin from time to time (therefore they are sinners) but their sins are repugnant to them and they seek God's face in humility asking for forgiveness and mercy and is therefore reconciled to God. The Bible states, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John1:9)
Other sinners, those not walking with God and therefore not in fellowship with him, are not occasional sinners but have adopted a sinful way of life, they luxuriate in sin, they thoughts and every action are driven by sin and they take pleasure in others doing sin. These are the reprobates and blasphemers, the Satanist and degenerates who given the opportunity would gladly destroy the true and living God and to them the Bible states, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:1-2)
Thirdly we need to have a clear understanding of what we mean by God hearing prayers. It would be iniquitous to suggest that the Almighty God who sees and knows all things cannot hear something; even that which is most insulting and derogatory. When the Bible says that God does not hear the prayers of sinners, in nearly every context, it does not mean that he cannot hear their voice or understand what they are saying, it simply means that God will not comply with their request, he will not empower them in their wickedness for to God it is as if they had not spoken.
King David who was a man of God said this, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18) The basis of God hearing prayers has always to do with the compliance of God's will. This understanding holds good for sinner and saint alike and is never set aside. Elijah could pray for a drought and get it because God had said to the Israelites, "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain..." (Deuteronomy 11:16-17). The Ninevites could turn and ask God for salvation and get it because of God's promise, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7). Sinner or saint whenever prayers are made to God it is those that comply with God's will that really count.
Lastly we should pay special attention to the privileged position of believers. When we are saved we enter a new and blessed relationship with God on the basis of sonship. Every parent knows how to treat their children and no matter how kind and hospitable you are to strangers you never treat them on equal terms with your children. This is the same with God but even to a greater extent. Here is how Peter sees it, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1 Peter 3:12) God is actively listening, eagerly awaiting to hear the voice of his children and even before we can ask he already has answered. Believers should know by now that they are truly blessed.
Enough said.
Dr. Henderson Ward received his Doctor of Divinity in theology, with distinction, from Masters International School of Divinity, USA, where he is currently a post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Ward's career involved pastoring, evangelism, and teaching. Copyright 2012
Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITER-MAKE A WEBSITE


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Actress Katherine Heigl is selling her house in Los Feliz.
Priced at $2.659 million, the Southern Colonial-style two-story features French doors, high ceilings and verandas. There are two fireplaces, four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and nearly 3,700 square feet of living space. The grounds include mature landscaping, a swimming pool and a spa.
Heigl, 34, was a regular on "Grey's Anatomy" (2005-10). Her film work includes this year's "One for the Money," "Life as We Know It" (2010) and "The Ugly Truth" (2009). She will star next year in "The Big Wedding."
She paid $2.55 million for the property in 2007, according to public records, the same year she married country singer Josh Kelley.
Dorothy Carter and Michael Orland of Keller Williams Realty's Los Feliz office are the listing agents.
On Twitter @LATHotProperty


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Now compatible with Sierra!
Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen*, saving it as a QuickTime® movie or screenshot that can be e-mailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want. Snapz Pro X 2.x costs $69. New This version has been rewritten from the ground up with the most modern APIs to take maximum advantage of Mac OS X 10.8.0 or later. It is OS X Mavericks & Retina Display compatible!
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* Except DRM-protected content
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* Except DRM-protected content
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Ralph W. Kuncl, who has served as Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Rochester since August of 2007, has been named president of the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, that university announced today, June 2.
"Ralph Kuncl has been an outstanding provost for the past five years," said University of Rochester President Joel Seligman. "He has provided outstanding academic leadership by encouraging top-quality appointments and leadership in research, especially in our partnership with IBM and establishment of the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation.
"Ralph has long been ready to assume a significant university presidency," Seligman added. "The University of Redlands is an exciting university on an upward trajectory, and all of us at Rochester are delighted that Ralph has been selected to lead Redlands at this important time. We wish him every success.
"Ralph will remain provost until August 15. Within the next few weeks I will circulate a statement on succession."
Kuncl himself said, "The challenges our nation faces today require educated and engaged citizens who can make enlightened and responsible choices. This makes our universities more vital and more necessary than ever. So it is with great humility that I accept the stewardship of a university so committed to creating the next generation of leaders.
"I have been fortunate in my career to see first hand the value of a liberal arts and sciences education as well as what it takes to forge leadership. That makes it especially gratifying for both Nancy and me to be welcomed now into a community committed to academic excellence in all of liberal education and the translation of knowledge into the real world.
"Redlands is a special place that blends high ethical standards, complete engagement with its region, creativity in music and the arts, innovation in education and business, and a commitment to inclusiveness. These values, which also have inspired us at Rochester, have set the University of Redlands on a clear trajectory upward. I am honored to be asked to help lead its continuing growth, evolution, and success."
As Rochester's provost, Kuncl led or directed initiatives in high performance computing, corporate research collaborations, multidisciplinary initiatives, diversity, and online education. He also was responsible for review of university deans, the university library, faculty promotion and tenure decisions, sustainability and faculty-driven learning assessment initiatives. And he created and leads the annual Celebration of the Book, which brings faculty authors from across the University together to celebrate and build community around their creative authorship in the arts and sciences.
"Ralph Kuncl has been a terrific provost here at Rochester, and I'm confident that he will be an outstanding president at the University of Redlands," said Edmund Hajim, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Rochester. "We have benefitted from Ralph's deep knowledge of science and commitment to scholarship in a wide variety of fields, his keen intelligence, and his wonderful sense of humor. The Board has truly enjoyed working with him. We wish Ralph and Nancy well as they embark on this exciting new challenge."
The Kuncls have also played an active role in the university's social life. On their arrival in Rochester, they supervised the restoration of the historic Patrick Barry House and its gardens. After making it their official residence, they planned and presided over scores of social events for hundreds of faculty, students, alumni, and friends.
"Ralph Kuncl has been an outstanding provost of our University," said Hugo Sonnenschein, a member of Rochester's Board of Trustees and a former president of the University of Chicago. "He and President Seligman have had a partnership that has served the university exceptionally well. Ralph has played a pivotal role in matters as disparate as enhancing our research capacity and creating our new mission statement. The University of Redlands attracted an educational leader of the highest stature. We will miss Ralph and Nancy, but we will take great pride in their successes at Redlands."
Kuncl built on Rochester's long history of fostering interdisciplinary collaborations with several efforts, especially the Provost's Multidisciplinary Awards. Created in response to faculty requests, the awards have provided in their first four years more than $1 million in funding for research collaborations across campus. In addition to the publications and collaborative connections made, the grants have led to more than $20 million in external funding, for a return on investment of more than 20 to 1.
His office has also been instrumental in advancing the University's diversity efforts, including the establishment in 2010 of the Annual Diversity Conference, an all-day event dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion at the University.
Kuncl achieved international distinction as a scientist and an administrator during more than 20 years at Johns Hopkins University, and while there he and colleagues in his lab discovered the glutamate transporter defect in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. The discovery changed the field and helped lead to the first effective treatment for the disease. In 2001, he was named Hopkins' first Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.
In 2002, he left Hopkins to become provost at Bryn Mawr College, where he helped create a variety of new interdisciplinary programs, diversified and hired a third of its faculty, and nearly tripled the institution's federal research grant support.
Among his many honors, Kuncl has held American Council on Education Fellowships at both Johns Hopkins and at Bryn Mawr College, and he received a Distinguished Service Award from the University of Chicago in 2002. In national higher education leadership, he has been a member of the National Executive Board of The Reinvention Center, served in various leadership positions in the American Neurological Association and was associate editor of its top journal, the Annals of Neurology. He currently works on college affordability as a director on the national board of the Tuition Plan Consortium, sponsor of the Private College 529 Plan.
Kuncl received his A.B. degree at Occidental College and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. His research interests include motor neuron pathobiology, neuromuscular disorders, drug development, and federal funding for higher education.
Kuncl is also an accomplished musician. For 20 years, he performed in the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, one of the most respected professional arts groups in the mid-Atlantic region. In Rochester, he has been a member of the Eastman Rochester Chorus.


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On Friday, June 5, 2009 the law school will host the 28th annual Conference on Not-For-Profit Organizations. This one-day seminar is designed to keep attorneys, accountants, and not-for-profit executives and board members up-to-date on the most current developments in taxation, legislation and regulation of non-profits.
Law students (JD only) enrolled at Chicago-Kent are welcome to attend any or all of the program sessions free of charge. Course materials and luncheon are not included; however, copies of the materials will be available in the library after the program.
If you are interested in volunteering to work at the conference, in exchange for complementary course materials and an opportunity to network at the conference luncheon please let us know when you stop by the office (Suite 675) to register, or by e-mailing firstname.lastname@example.com. Pre-registration is required no later than Monday, June 1, 2009.
For information about this and other upcoming CLE programs, visit: www.kentlaw.edu/depts/cle
Main Chicago-Kent event
Academic calendar
CLE calendar
Alumnae/i event calendar
Admissions calendar


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posted by Eugenia Loli on Sun 28th Jul 2002 05:32 UTC
The Syllable team makes strides these days on their AtheOS fork, and most of the AtheOS developers have joined Vanders and Rick to their quest of a better operating system. OSNews reader Daryl Dudey joined the Syllable team recently, and he already wrote a nice networking preference panel for Syllable. The team is still looking for a kernel developer though, or C++ developers who like writting low level system software. On a related hobby-OS note, SkyOS made its first steps into the SMP world.


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Mandarin Oriental, Singapore offers an exclusive and efficient setting for all manner of meetings and business events.
We have all manner of technology to make your plans a reality, including extensive audio-visual and projection equipment and superb video-conferencing facilities. And to ensure that everything runs smoothly, we have Techno Butlers on hand to solve all last minute glitches.
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Please provide us the details of your meeting and our Sales & Catering experts will come back to you with a proposal that meets your requirements.


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full size
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Just when we thought they couldn't get better, our classic ballets step it up a notch in sleek patent leather. We didn't skimp on comfort, either: They're loaded with easy-on-the-feet details, including a cushioned insole and a removed shank, making them more flexible for all-day wearability.
Size & Fit Details


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This routine documentary by Chris Hegedus records the much ballyhooed Town Hall Meeting between Norman Mailer defending his views in The Prisoner of Sex, and four independent-minded women, Germaine Greer among them. The intended debate was set up for raucous and raunchy goings-on well before its 1971 date. Intellectuals, lesbians, liberals, and who knows who else loaded the audience with less-than-passive viewers. One eloquent speech from Mailer managed to fight its way into the proceedings but otherwise, audience catcalls and comments and Jill Johnston's antics, especially when she cavorted and made out onstage with a few girlfriends, combined to bring the tone of the evening down to gut or gutter level, depending on one's point of view. This documentary catches it all.~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Director: Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker
Writer: Germaine Greer and Jill Johnston
Sorry there are no upcoming showtimes for Town Bloody Hall


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School rankings provided by The Fraser Institute. Rankings are from 1 to 10.
The Point is a lot of things. ItÆs a place to live. A place to play. ItÆs a place to hang with old friends and make new ones. ItÆs a place to get in shape and itÆs a place to cool off on a hot summer day.
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Toronto Real Estate Board - IDX Last Updated: 11/15/2018 1:14:59 PM


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BRUNSWICK — U.S. Senator-elect Angus King has appointed longtime aide and campaign manager Kay Rand to be his chief of staff, King confirmed Tuesday.
As chief of staff, Rand will be King's top aide, overseeing his Senate office and the staffers who work there, from interns to legislative aides.
The move had been widely expected in political circles. Rand served as King's chief of staff throughout his two terms as governor and managed both his gubernatorial campaigns and this year's Senate campaign.
Rand, a managing director at Bernstein Shur Government Solutions, is a former lobbyist for the Maine Municipal Association and served as deputy commissioner in the Office of Comprehensive Land Use Planning under Gov. John McKernan. Rand grew up on a potato farm in Ashland and is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine. From 2008 to February 2010 she wrote a monthly column on state politics for the Kennebec Journal.
King also said he would be retaining Patrick Doak, office manager in Washington for outgoing Sen. Olympia Snowe. Doak, originally from Caribou, has served as office manager and systems administrator for Snowe for many years.
King said his staff is working to finalize other staff appointments over the next week.
For the time being, King will be working from 188 Russsell, a basement office in the Russell Senate Office Building, according to his spokeswoman, Crystal Canney. She said it was a temporary office, and that King expected to receive his long-term office assignment in May.
Staff Writer Colin Woodard can be contacted at 791-6317 or at:
Local & State
Pittsfield preparing to celebrate its bicentennial
Schools and Education
RSU 18 gets funding for two greener school buses
Local & State
Skowhegan accepts $93,000 more for Run of River park project
Trio of Florida high school teammates helping to lead way for Thomas men's basketball
Nation & World
Handwritten late-tax notes motivate scofflaws in New York city


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If you would like to help the rescue efforts for the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday, here are some resources:
Here is a blog post from Mashable listing trusted organizations that you can donate to.
The U.S. State Department has set up a system where you can text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
CNN iReport: Share this link to your Facebook friends and/or Twitter followers and encourage them to help spread it for anybody trying to get in touch with a loved one in Haiti.
If you know any registered nurses who may be interested in volunteering to provide assistance, please have them visit National Nurses United's website. Additionally, they can follow @nationalnurses or the #haitiRN hashtag for updated information.
Collection of Twitter accounts you can follow (from http://alltop.com/):
You can also search #HelpHaiti for updated information and some donation opportunities
The FBI sent out a press release warning against internet scams related to relief efforts. Donations to the Red Cross are always a safe way to go when donating for natural disaster relief efforts.


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Volume XII, Number 7
October 28, 1979
DAN RATHER: They call themselves the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. Their outraged neighbors and many law enforcement officials call them a fraud, a group of rich dopeheads who have been allowed to laugh at the law and get away with it. That's because the Coptics insist that marijuana, which they call by its Jamaican name, ganja, is their sacrament.
Holy Smoke
DAN RATHER: One of the things we Americans have always accepted is that people have a right to practice their religion, no matter how unorthodox, without being molested by the law or by the rest of the community. But there's a church in Florida now that lawmen say is stretching that proposition a lot further than most people can accept, at least a lot further than they can accept.
The issue will be decided by a case before the Florida Supreme Court that could eventually wind up before the United States Supreme Court, and that issue is whether or not the state can prosecute members of a church who believe marijuana was given to them by God, and that smoking pot is for them a holy ritual. Our story begins on Star Island in the coastal waterway between Miami and Miami Beach.
Over the years, the people who've lived in this part of Miami Beach often have been famous, sometimes have been notorious, always have been wealthy. The Duke of Windsor, the abdicated King Edward VIII, often stayed with friends in the island neighborhood. Gangster Al Capone once had a not-so-small castle over there. But even Al Capone could not have disturbed his neighbors as much as have the current residents of Number 43, Star Island.
(Coptics chanting)
They call themselves the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, a religion these white Americans claim has its roots in black Jamaica. Their outraged neighbors and many law enforcement officials call them a fraud, a group of rich dopeheads who have been allowed to laugh at the law and get away with it. That's because the Coptics insist that marijuana, which they call by its Jamaican name, ganja, is their sacrament; as valid and as necessary to them, they say, as wine is to Catholics during communion.
These services take place three times a day, but the Coptics appear to partake of their sacrament just about all the time. Their leader here on Star Island is a six foot seven inch former Catholic from Boston named Thomas Reilly. He prefers to be known as Brother Louv.
BROTHER LOUV: Well, let's start from the beginning, page one of the Bible, Genesis, book one, verse 29: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth..." Now, is there any dispute that marijuana is a green herb bearing seed that grows all over the earth?
RATHER: All right, let's -- let's address ourselves to the truth. Is the basic message you should smoke ganja?
BROTHER LOUV: The basic message is you should stop your sin. When you and I are neighbors and I have the security that you are a man who keeps the commandments of God, then I know you're not going to rob me, you're not going to murder me, you're not going to covet me. So that's the only security that people can have is to stop their sinful ways, stop becoming homosexuals when they know what the Scripture says about homosexuality; they know what wisdom shows you about destroying your own seed of life. They should stop their abortion. They should stop their birth control. They should stop their oral sex, their hand sex, and any way that they're destroying their own life and their own seed life. They should stop those things immediately. And they should have known to be smoking ganja from a long time. For how is it that I know to?
RATHER: The Coptic Church bought this house in 1975 for $270,000, paid for in cash. It's a kind of luxury commune with about 40 members, but a commune that adheres to the Bible, Old and New Testament teachings; a kind of combination of Billy Graham fundamentalism and Kosher law. Though there is no formal marriage ceremony, the Coptic women must be faithful and subject to their husbands. But the women, and even the Coptic children, are encouraged to smoke marijuana, and that's where the trouble first started.
It was in early 1978 that the local Miami media began focusing in on activities of the Coptic Church. While it was the constant chanting and the smell of marijuana that upset close neighbors on Star Island, it was those scenes of Coptic children smoking marijuana on local television that brought protests from the city as a whole. Then in November, 1978, news broke of the mass deaths of the Peoples Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana, and many Miami residents were shocked into wondering if they might not have a potential Jonestown on their doorstep.
BROTHER LOUV: I have no knowledge of Jim Jones except what I read in the paper. And I read in the Bible that the wages of sin is death, and I understand he ran a homosexual, perverted, wife-swapping, adulterous, lecherous, camp somewhere in the jungle, and that many of the people were murdered and some committed suicide, and I'm not the least bit surprised.
RATHER: Nevertheless, the furor caused by the Coptic Church's activities led the state attorney to take action against them. A civil action for public nuisance was brought against the Coptics, rather than a criminal charge for possession of marijuana. The state attorney's office had in fact offered to drop all charges if the Coptics would move out of Star Island to some place where they were less conspicuous. The Coptics flatly refused. Instead, they hired the best and most expensive lawyers in town. Milton Ferrell, Jr. is their chief defense attorney.
RATHER: All right, so it was a civil action; went before the judge. The judge decided that, yes, this was a church under the definition of a church for First Amendment purposes, right?
MILTON FERRELL, JR: He decided it was a religion. It was a --
RATHER: It was a religion. And now the question before the Supreme Court is whether it is or isn't.
FERRELL: No, the question before the Supreme Court -- the Supreme Court's not concerned as to the sincerity of the religious belief, or as to whether or not marijuana's essential to the conduct of the religion, nor whether the religion is a religion under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Those findings can't be challenged in the Supreme Court. Those have been found as a fact already. There's no controversy about that at all. The controversy in the supreme court of Florida is this: whether the State has a compelling state interest sufficient to override the fundamental interest of any citizen of the United States to practice their religion without governmental interference in it.
RATHER: The implications of such a confrontation, says Florida Assistant State Attorney Henry Adorno, extend far beyond the Coptic Church.
HENRY ADORNO: If a court were to rule that the Coptics do have a First Amendment right, then I think that would be the opening of the floodgates for possible legalization of marijuana in Florida. I, as a prosecutor, would then have to go around and decide who to arrest for possession of marijuana. They obviously would then come up with the defense, "Well, I'm a Coptic," or "I have, you know, I believe that marijuana is my sacrament," which would then muddle the criminal system to no end in trying to defend or trying to prosecute a case where the defense is First Amendment grounds.
RATHER: Meanwhile, quite aware of all the legal problems they have caused, the Coptics continue their activities at Star Island. While the constitutional issue is debated, a federal civil rights ruling allows them to go on smoking marijuana unmolested. One court battle, the right to be considered a church, has already been won. But just what sort of church is it?
The Coptics claim that their mother church is on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Brother Louv and his American brethren first came to Jamaica in the early seventies. They were all graduates of Haight-Ashbury and the campuses of the sixties, a remnant of a lost generation. They came looking for marijuana, and they found it and bought it in the slums of Kingston from this Jamaican, Keith Gordon. At the same time, Gordon introduced them to an obscure Christian sect. This was the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, which claimed for years that the blacks of Africa were the original Jews of the Bible, and that the slaves of the New World were their direct descendants. Marijuana, or ganja, was the "holy herb". Ripe for a new spiritual experience, these Americans could have found nothing better than a religion that extolled the poor, the black man and marijuana all in one tidy package.
Coptic Heights lies 30 miles outside Kingston. The Coptic Church owns as far as the eye can see. They have roads. They have trucks, lots of trucks. They have a dozen corporations trading under different names. To the average Jamaican, these Coptics are efficient, prosperous and highly suspect.
DAWN RITCH: What they're doing is, on an organized basis, exporting marijuana to Miami.
RATHER: Jamaican journalist Dawn Ritch.
RITCH: The group in Miami at Star Island, they are the backers. They're the people with the money. They control this thing that they would like to pretend is a church. It is no church. That is a factory for the export of ganja.
RATHER: Law enforcement agencies say that with his new-found American friends, Keith Gordon's marijuana business took off like a turpentined cat. From being a small-time pusher, he quickly grew to head an organization that controlled cultivation and large-scale distribution right into the United States. Today, the majority of marijuana grown illegally in fields such as this throughout Jamaica has already been presold to Brother Keith and the Coptics. It's prime marijuana that's much in demand.
RITCH: Columbia marijuana, Mexican marijuana, is between two and four percent THC. Our marijuana is between four and eight percent. So we are genuinely the source. Also closest. But Coptic has, I am told, 7,000 acres of farm in Colombia, as well. We are now a branch, you see. They claim, in -- in Florida, that we are the source, we are the home of this church. We are simply a branch of a multinational corporation operating on the wrong side of the law.
BROTHER LOUV: When -- when you talk about smuggling, what do you mean by smuggling?
RATHER: It is not a fact that you are in the business, the business, of smuggling marijuana into the United States?
BROTHER LOUV: I have no knowledge of even what you're thinking about, much less what you're talking about.
RATHER: The United States Coast Guard here in Florida long has been interested in activities of the Zion Coptic Church, as have the FBI, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Department of Criminal Law Enforcement, and even the Miami Beach police.
One of The Miami Beach police who, as an undercover agent, recently spent a lot of time investigating the Coptic Church is Sergeant Rick Baretto.
Tell me, if you can and if you will, what I am dealing with when I'm dealing with Brother Louv and Star Island. What is this about?
SERGEANT RICK BARETTO: I don't know. I really don't.
RATHER: You looked into it for two years and you don't know what it's about?
SERGEANT BARETTO: That's correct. They obviously have had -- been in a financial situation where they can afford a lot of very high-priced attorneys. So they've been able to successfully tie us up time and time again and -- through litigation.
RATHER: That's the way the system works, isn't it?
SERGEANT BARETTO: The wheels turn slowly, yes, sir.
FEMALE PATROL BOAT PILOT: This is Coast Guard 459, Coast Guard 459, over.
RATHER: On at least two occasions in this state alone, members of the church have been arrested in very large drug busts. November, 1977, Marion County, Florida: 13 tons of marijuana found hidden in a tunnel on a farm owned by the church. February, 1978, Citrus County, Florida: 20 tons of marijuana taken off the vessel Our Seas, owned by the church; 16 persons arrested, including Brother Louv's fellow church leader, Keith Gordon of Jamaica. However, none of the charges stuck. May 14th, 1979: Marion County charges dropped. May 22nd, 1979: Citrus County charges dropped. Lack of solid evidence cited as the reasons; that the state had found church members around marijuana, but was unable to establish a direct link between the members and the confiscated dope. So, the fact remains - and this is important - that not a single member of the Zion Coptic Church ever has been convicted of possessing so much as a single ounce of marijuana in any court in - the state of Florida.
Is this whole church, based so conveniently in Miami and Jamaica, just a cover for large-scale organized crime? Well, no, it's certainly not as simple as that. All the law enforcement agencies who have investigated the Coptics agree: they cannot be faulted on the sincerity of their religious views. Moreover, the Coptics have never, never been linked in any way with the smuggling of hard drugs, cocaine and heroin, that right now is so rampant throughout Florida. Nor with other activities associated with so-called mafioso crime, such as prostitution, gambling and gun-running. None of these would be consistent with the Coptics' professed beliefs. Marijuana, and only marijuana, is what the Coptics are about. To them it is a holy mission.
(Coptics singing in religious ceremony)
RATHER: Back in Miami, the Coptics are pursuing that mission with all the zeal of a political candidate running for office. They recently hired a production company to film their every move, and they study their screen performances with great care. They advertise themselves, together with a biblical plug for marijuana, in the Miami telephone book Yellow Pages. And they publish an expensive newspaper which details with relish their latest costly legal battles. Where does Brother Louv say he gets the money to do all this?
BROTHER LOUV: I want you to consider that you're talking to a spiritual person who has solved the physical problems, and we should be talking about the matters that could uplift everyone who's hearing us right now.
RATHER: Well, where will the money for this thing come from?
BROTHER LOUV: Do you read in the Scripture money is the tool of the Devil. The love of money is the root of all evil. We love the blessing. Within blessing we've found a higher way of thinking than dollars and cents. Money is a tool. A worldly tool.
RATHER: How do you feel about the Internal Revenue Service case, which is several (indistinct cross-talk) --
BROTHER LOUV: They're a bunch of robbers and thieves and whores!
RATHER: The Internal Revenue Service?
BROTHER LOUV: Robbers, thieves and whores.
RATHER: On what evidence do you (indistinct cross-talk)?
BROTHER LOUV: They have no integrity. They have no foundation. They all have little soft, pink, fleshly little hands. They sit in offices all day long trying to rob the people.
RATHER: Brother Louv's brotherly love clearly wears a little thin when reminded of the Internal Revenue Service. Recently, estimating the value of automobiles, property, boats and the amount of marijuana seized so far, the IRS and the U.S. Customs presented the Coptics with a bill for back taxes and penalties totaling $l8-million. Privately, law enforcement officers hope that the tax man may succeed where the police have so far failed, and bring down the Coptic Church. The Coptics have simply refused to pay, and to them it's just one court case among many.
Their minds, and a great deal of their money, are right now tied up in a legal battle of greater significance which they are determined to win, if necessary by going all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
If you were to become Brother Louv's defense attorney, an unlikely prospect, I think you'll agree --
ADORNO: I agree.
RATHER: -- and you were advising him, where is the greatest danger to him legally?
ADORNO: Legally it's in the decisions that are -- in the mood of the -- of the country. I don't think this country is ready for the legalization of marijuana, or at least the state of Florida is not ready for that. And I think that for him to win his battle, he's going to have to fight the greater battle, which is not -- not only allowing Coptics to smoke marijuana, but take the one step further and having marijuana legalized. I think that's the only way that he's ultimately going to win his battle.
BROTHER LOUV: Not -- from the time you say legalized, that to me sounds like whisky, and whisky's something you can buy from the government but if you make your own they'll put you in jail. So that does not apply to marijuana. Marijuana, ganja, is free. We're not fighting for the freedom or the legalization. We're declaring that it is and always has been free.


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Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience - Rutgers University - Newark
49 Bleeker Street
United States
About Us
The Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience is celebrating its second decade as an interdisciplinary academic center that, through public partnerships and programming, offers the Newark metropolitan area the finest thinkers and artists engaged with key issues of modern life. Through an array of lectures, fellowships, symposia, film screenings, performances, exhibitions, and other programs, we foster broad public discussion on the arts and culture; urban life and development; diversity and race relations; local, national, and transnational history; and education. The Institute promotes intercultural understanding, civic and historical empathy, and community engagement as crucial elements in the development of civic life in Newark and beyond.


text:
Names :
Habitat : Eastern and Central North America, growing in marshy places, producing distinctive blue flowers in spring. Commonly grown in Britain as an ornamental.
Collection : The rhizome os best collected in the autumn.
Part Used : Rhizome
Constituents :
Indications : This useful remedy has a wide application in the treatment of skin diseases, apparently aiding the skin by working through the liver, the main detoxifying organ of the body. It may be used in skin eruptions such as eczema and psoriasis, it is valuable as part of a wider treatment. It may be used with value where there is constipation associated with liver problems or biliousness.
Priest & Priest tell us that it is a "positive alterative for chronic, torpid conditions: influences glandular system, lymphatics, liver and gall ducts, and intestinal glands. Specific for hepatic congestion due to venous or lymphatic stasis." They give the following specific indications :chronic hepatitis and rheumatic conditions, toxicsciatica(?). Scrophulous skin conditions, herpes, eczema, psoriasis. Enlarged thyroid gland. Uterine fibroids.
Ellingwood considered it specific for "clay-colored stools, scantyurine and the skin inactive and jaundiced. In small doses it is indicated for irritable conditions of the mucous membranes of the digestive tract." In addition he recommends it for the following pathologies : Chronic hepatic and intestinal disorders, chronic jaundice, bilious remittent feversand chronic ague. Conditions of the stomach that induce sick headaches.Syphilis. Psoriasis, eczema, tinea.Goitre.
Kings Dispensatory says: "The specific indications for Iris may be stated as fullness of thyroid gland; enlarged spleen; chronichepatic complaints with sharp, cutting pain, aggravated by motion; nausea and vomiting of sour liquids, or regurgitation of food, especially after eating rich pastry or fats; watery, burning bowel discharges; enlargedIymphatics, soft and yielding; rough greasy conditions of the skin; disorders of sebaceous follicles; abnormal dermal pigmentation; menstrual wrongs, with thyroid fullness; unilateral fullness; unilateral facial neuralgia; muscular atrophy and other wastings of the tissues."
Combinations : Blue Flag combines well with Echinacea or Burdock and Yellow Dock.
Preparations & Dosage : Decoction: put l teaspoonful of the dried herb into a cup of water and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for l0-l5 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day. Tincture: take 1 ml of the tincture three times a day.


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2006 Manufacturing Survey
Once again, food safety is manufacturers No. 1 concern - but Osama, Katrina and Reddy Kilowatt are out there, too.
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Security continues to be an important factor in plant ops. Measures processors intend to implement include enhanced employee identification, increased surveillance, security application software and "big scary dogs and guys with guns."
Although there's no doubt a food manufacturer might have difficulty covering an increase in the price of plastic packaging or finding a trained line worker who'll stay on the job for more than a few months, we did feel the effects of the year's extraordinary global tribulations.
Business advisory firm Grant Thornton LLP (www.grantthornton.com), Chicago, found in a mid-year survey the industry was anticipating good growth. But later in the year, hurricanes Katrina and Rita and unpredictable energy costs disrupted many facets of U.S. business. According to the firm's research, two-thirds of large-company executives expected negative effects from the storms for three to 12 months.
"The food and beverage industry is highly reliant upon transportation to move goods to markets, and is especially sensitive to fuel and energy pricing from an operations component and due to the fallout that fuel pricing has on consumer spending," noted Jim Maurer, managing partner for Grant Thornton's Consumer & Industrial Products practice.
The human cost of the tragedies of Katrina and Rita here or Pakistan and Iraq "over there" can't be underestimated. Yet they do have a trickle-down effect that can't be ignored. For example, fuel shortages lead to more than higher shipping costs. They also put strain on the ingredient supply chain, moving perishables expediently and the costs of goods and packaging along the entire chain from processor to consumer.
These are just some of the concerns echoed by food processors in this, our fifth annual manufacturers' survey. The shift in concerns is evident in the No. 1 issue, food safety. Yes, it still came in on top, but this year just under 30 percent of respondents put it in that prime position, compared to nearly twice that percentage last year. (Editor's Note: To access the numerous graphics that accompany this article, click the Download Now button at the end of this article.)
A virtual three-way tie for second place was led by energy sourcing and costs (18 percent), automation (15 percent) and labor issues (14 percent). Other manufacturer priorities for 2006 included consolidation challenges (7 percent) and logistics (5 percent). One respondent mentioned packaging design as a top priority.
Surprisingly, physical plant security came in at a meager 2 percent, considerably lower than last year, although in a subsequent question bioterrorism and other terrorism issues have more than 85 percent of respondents worried. Between Osama bin Laden and sneaky competitors, security continues to be an important factor in plant ops. About two-thirds of processors polled implemented additional security measures last year, and more than half will this year.
Old fashioned lock-and-key mentality is the way most processors - 76 percent - intend to beef up security. And eyes-open techniques also come into play, with 65 percent bettering employee identification and 54 percent relying on increased surveillance. Big Brother will not only be watching you, but will be watching out for you.
Add in security application software and, a category favorite, "big scary dogs and guys with guns" and hopefully our food plants will be fairly well protected in '06.
Safety first
Of the 30 percent of respondents placing safety as their main manufacturing concern for 2006, nearly eight in 10 claimed to have implemented additional food safety measures in 2005. Almost as many - 69 percent -reported they will implement additional measures this year. Most of these measures (more than 88 percent) will take the form of employee training.
Also in the works are plans to improve hazards analysis and critical control points (HACCP) programs (59 percent), better pest control (44 percent), equipment sanitation (39 percent) and rapid microbial detection systems (23 percent). Track and trace systems, third-party audits and increased worker accountability also were mentioned.
"Our facility team leaders place safety and regulatory affairs at a high priority level," says John Loftis, regulatory affairs and food safety coordinator for commissary and related markets for Whole Foods Market stores in Georgia and the Carolinas. Loftis, whose division manufactures, produces, packages and ships prepared and ready-to-eat foods, came to Whole Foods following more than 32 years at the USDA in food safety. "I've probably seen or heard of anything anyone could have done or imagined in regard to food safety," he says.
Recognizing how integral people are to the safety and security equation, Loftis continues, "Food manufacturing owners and operators should include, and seek advice and recommendations from, production, sanitation and quality control personnel before making major changes. Sanitation, production and quality-control education need to be raised to a higher level. All food manufacturing owners and operators also need to establish more uniform guidelines on bonuses and pay raises, with salaries increased according to training and experience levels."
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