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Note: J. Preston Eby, in order to continue to devote his full energy to writing no longer works in the office and does not receive this email. He does, however, respond to any urgent correspondence via snailmail.
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Part 151
The apostle John
had been exiled to the isle of
description indicates a corporate expression rather
than an individual one. The beast walks,
speaks, acts, controls, persecutes, and accomplishes.
He blasphemes God and makes war against the saints. Worldwide power is given unto him, over all
kindreds, tongues, and nations. It is my
conviction that this beast signifies the outward expression of THE WORLD SYSTEM OF MAN. This is the beast lurking beneath the surface
of the deep, which rises up from our sea (fleshly nature) having many heads
(manifestations of authority), many horns (organized powers), and spewing blasphemies from
its mouth. This bestial system is always,
generation after generation, rising up out of the sea of humanity. It is a vast and ferocious system originating right
out of human nature! And this system, in one
way or another, relentlessly makes war against the spiritual life of Gods people!
The world system
of man began with Cain and his descendants at the very dawn of human history. After the great flood in Noahs day, the
bestial system immediately ascended again from the sea of humanity at
The primary
contrast has to do with the fact that
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast
(Rev. 13:3).
The seven heads
signify the completeness of the authority of the bestial system in opposition to the
spirit and people of God. The word wounded
is the same word in the Greek that is translated slain in reference to the
Lamb: And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of
the throne
stood a Lamb as it had been slain
(Rev. 5:6). The Greek word is sphazo meaning slaughtered. The head of the beast had not been merely wounded
or smitten, it had been as it were slaughtered unto death. And it was not merely his deadly wound,
but it was the stroke of his death that had been healed. It was as a death and resurrection from death
the contrast and travesty of that death and resurrection which had befallen the
Lamb of God slaughtered and raised again! Truly,
these are spiritual things we are dealing with! Of the bestial world system Jesus said, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
good cheer: I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD! (Jn.
16:33). And of the dragon who gives power unto
the bestial system Jesus declared, The prince
(evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And
he has no claim on me he has nothing in
common with me, there is nothing in me that belongs to him, he has no power over me (Jn.
14:30, Amplified).
Jesus did not
come to modify the world system; He came to destroy it.
Daniel makes this very clear. And in the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom, which shall
The wounding of one head signifies the diminishing of the beasts authority, a partial interruption of the totality of that authority. And the deadly wound healed indicates that the partial disruption of the total authority of the bestial system of the world is short-lived the beast always regains his authority! The wound is inflicted by a sword, even the sword of the Spirit which is the living word of God! Is it not true that the power of Gods word in and through His people has, throughout the church age, diminished the beastly nature, authority, and power of human government yet the beast has never been killed, its nature has never been changed, its authority has never been abolished. In fact, after having been influenced by the word of Christ through His people to reform in certain aspects, is it not true that the deadly wound always seems to heal and the beast returns to its former corrupt, godless, and ruthless state of being.
will be helpful to our understanding of the mystery to consider that this scene has been
enacted again and again in the earth throughout
the church age. Consider the early church. As
another has pointed out, Jesus came into the world in the time of the
what glorious days those were! How God blessed
His people! Mighty signs and wonders were
performed as God confirmed His word with signs following.
The word of God, anointed by the Holy Spirit, swept the world like a prairie
fire. It encircled the mountains and crossed
the oceans. It made kings to tremble and
tyrants to fear. It was said of those early
Christians that they had turned the world upside down! so powerful was their
message and spirit. In spite of persecution,
in spite of untold thousands of saints impaled upon crosses, burnt at the stake, and fed
to hungry lions to the thunderous applause of wild spectators, it grew and multiplied, for
God dwelt mightily in the midst of His people. The
knowledge of the glory of the Lord covered the earth as the waters cover the sea. Paganism fell.
The mighty
John saw the deadly wound healed, and all the world wondered after the beast! Revived, the beast became stronger than ever so
that they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to
make war with him? (Rev. 13:4). My
understanding of great spiritual matters is often woefully small.
the past two millenniums there have been mighty movings of God that have brought the power
of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ascendancy in various cities, areas, and nations of
the world, and in that area it appeared that
the bestial system of man was dealt a death blow. In
the days of the Reformation whole nations were brought under the sway of truth and
righteousness, and in subsequent years great and powerful revivals swept through
the 1500s a man by the name of John Knox went into a garden in
Penn-Lewis has recorded the history of the great revival that swept through the country of
is no scriptural truth stated in simpler or more convincing language than that God,
omnipotent and omniscient, has, from the beginning, both formed and marked out the path of
destiny for every nation of men upon the face of the whole earth. Unceasingly and untiringly God has been working out
His purpose, shaping all things through successive generations and ages. In the age after the Flood, beginning with Abraham,
men were divided into two special groups men in general, plus a
with Pentecost another group has appeared, a group called the church, the body of Christ. Its very name denotes that it is a called out
group, composed of both
apostle James made a statement to the council at
may come as a shock to some, but it is absolutely true that Gods plan for this
present age has
is here, in the true church, that Jesus Christ first
establishes His government to rule and reign on the throne of mens lives. Gods purpose in His church is not merely to
save men from sin and hell and carry them away to some far-off heaven somewhere. Gods plan is to first establish His dominion
in the hearts of His Elect, imbuing them with the glorious mind of Christ until they become His nature and will in the earth. Sadly, most Christians
yes, God is calling out a people to bear His name! But WHY? WHEN? WHERE? To
bear His name merely to a small handful of people through their short life-time in the
flesh during this age?
the church age salvation has been unto as many as are ordained unto eternal life
(Acts 13:48). But in the ages to come there
shall be a displaying of Gods matchless grace through His beloved sons so that
the residue of men shall seek after the
Lord, and all the nations over whom my name is called.
If this is not true then reigning with Christ is absolutely
meaningless, purposeless, and ridiculous. But,
blessed be God! the word is sure:
the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom,
which shall
we not seen this same principle fulfilled in our own experience? In its
God! that is not the end of the matter. There
always comes a time when God will deal with this beast.
It is HIS work! John later
beheld the final end of the bestial system and the bestial nature within us. And the
beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone
(Rev. 19:20). All the inclinations,
desires, and works of the flesh and the carnal mind continue to be renewed until the WHOLE
BEAST IS CAST ALIVE INTO THE PURIFYING FIRE OF GOD! It
is there that the whole nature is cleansed, purified, and purged completely and
forever! Using the sword isnt sufficient
claiming the word, standing on the promises, pleading the blood none of this
will avail beyond a partial victory. Who can
deny it! And the beast was taken
cast into
War must be made on the beast with a sword
sharper than any two-edged sword. God Himself
is the one who comes on the scene and takes the beast and casts him into fire,
divine fire, that will burn up every inherent altar of Baal, and lick up the very dust
around. Make no mistake! OUR GOD is a consuming fire! The fire of God will burn until it has consumed all
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (Rev. 13:4,8).
question of worship is one which runs very deeply through the book of Revelation. Heaven and earth stand opposed to each other. The four living creatures and the twenty-four
elders worship God and the Lamb. Those who
dwell on the earth worship the dragon and the beast. John
worships an angel, and is reproved. He does it
twice. The true worship is first set before
us, then the false worship in its various forms. Heaven
and earth are set in sharp contrast. Those who
dwell in the heavenlies worship God and the Lamb. Those
who dwell in the earthlies worship the dragon and the wild beast. Those in the heavenlies joy over the Lamb taking the book and opening the
seals. Those who dwell in the earthlies wonder and fear
and therefore pay homage to the beast,
giving honor unto the beast by saying, Who
is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? These words are similar to the Old Testament words
Prinzing wrote, The very subtleness of this bestial system is that it deceives men
into thinking they will have life only if they yield to its spirit and do things its way. If you want to get ahead in this world, you must
play the game, you must conform. And so they worship
the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him. Put in present day language, who can
fight city hall? Day by day allegiance
is paid to the system. Yet if we
are motivated by this SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, we will surely bring forth after its kind.
And there
was given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies
and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His
name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (Rev. 13:5-6).
The beast that
ascends out of the sea has seven heads, hence seven mouths, and yet it is said, a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given it. This indicates that the ability to mouth great
things and blasphemies would be allowed to it and that all seven heads would combine to
speak these things, doing so as with one mouth. Whether
the mouth of science, or the mouth of government, or the mouth of religion, or any other,
one and all speak the same kinds of great, boastful things and blasphemies. He actually opens his mouth to blaspheme the
name of God, and of his tabernacle, namely, those who dwell in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. To blaspheme the name of God is
to act contrary to His nature, to deny His sovereignty, His power, and all His virtues. Ah, yes, this world system of man does have a
mouth! And it does speak great things! A mouth speaking great things means
eloquence and authority. What is this voice of
the beast? A simple example would be the
media. Note also the great swelling words that
continually pour forth from the institutions of education, science, politics, government,
the courts, medicine, and religion. Each of
these has an agenda, a sphere of influence, and they demand to be heard, embraced, and obeyed! All
the way down to some of the smaller church systems, the voice proclaims that you must be
under their authority, under their covering,
and you must march to the beat of their drums. But it is the dragon that gives this wild animal his great voice and his authority!
The blasphemies are toward God, His name (nature, character), and His tabernacle (His body, His temple, the people in whom He dwells). It is evident that the agenda of this beast is in opposition to the nature of God, the will of God, the ways of God, the word of God, the government of God, and the people of God. It is the spirit of the world, the spirit of the times which speaks out of the mouth of the beast. His mouth becomes the organ through which the spirit of the times, the standards and agenda of the world reveals itself, makes itself be heard. And behold, he speaks great things and blasphemes the holy things of the Lord!
And there
was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two
months. What does this cryptic term mean? It means simply that his allotted time is limited and his time is short. This
is the language of symbols and has nothing to do with literal
The problem is
that so few of the Lords people truly know the scriptures. Consequently, the thing we base our eschatological
views on, our end-time thinking, is a seven year tribulation period which we suppose to be somewhere out in the future. So people ask us, Are you post-trib,
mid-trib, or pre-trib? What they mean
is, Is Jesus coming back before the tribulation, during the tribulation, or after
the tribulation? And all of this they
ask with great earnestness and with a straight face as if any of those issues are
even presented in the book of Revelation!
E. Weeks wrote
an editorial some years ago that astutely identifies one of the great errors made by many
Bible students. The article was entitled
EISEGESIS OR EXEGESIS and he said, in part, The above two Greek words, in the title
of this article, describe the profound effect they have had on others in both a proper and
improper understanding of scripture. One has a
bad connotation and the other a good one. Eisegesis is the process of reading into Gods word something that is not
there. It is inserting a thought that the
Exegesis, on the other hand, means drawing
from the passage of scripture what the words were intended to convey. It considers the context and seeks to understand
the true meaning without bias, personal agenda, or preconceived ideas. Thus, it allows Gods word to speak for itself
as the Holy Spirit supplies enlightenment as to a proper understanding of what is written. Eisegesis is
easy to fall into, especially when one has not approached Gods word with an open
mind. It is quite fearful for some to think
about reconsidering what they have believed to be truth for so long with the thought that
it might be wrong. Instead, they find comfort
in their long-held beliefs and defend them to the end.
To venture into the Bible without any bias and consider other possible views
of Gods word is something they are not willing to do.
They prefer to rest in their comfortable creedal bed, finding it easier to
accept another persons teachings without carefully checking out the Biblical context
and the intent of the author
end quote.
Let us
prayerfully consider all the references in the
book of Revelation where the period of forty-two
But the court which is without the
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent (Rev. 12:14).
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth (Rev. 11:3).
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand three hundred and threescore days (Rev. 12:6).
There you have
every reference in the whole book of revelation to the period of three and a half years! If these passages denote a literal time period of
three and a half years, how are we to understand them?
How could we ever conclude that they have anything at all to do with a
seven year tribulation? No matter
how you add them up you cant tell whether these five run consecutively, giving you
five different periods of three and a half years, whether everything mentioned in each
setting takes place concurrently, at the same time, giving you only one period of three
and a half years, or whether you must add two groupings together to make a period of seven
years; and if so, which events belong to the first half of the seven years and which
events pertain to the second half of the seven
years! You see, my beloved, all such teachings
are pure speculation with no foundation at all
in reality! How much more blessed is the
understanding that three and a half is simply one
half of seven signifying the broken
seven absolute imperfection and limitation. Nothing
of the broken seven can ever endure beyond its allotted time. It is destined to pass. It can
Many Bible
students have tried to determine the time of the various events in the book of
Revelation, especially when it relates to the two beasts in chapter thirteen. I doubt that the truth about this could be better
stated than it has been by C. E. Colton when he wrote: Let us try to forget the time
element. We creatures of this earth are
plagued with the tendency to try to fit everything into an exacting time schedule. Especially is this true when we approach the study
of the book of Revelation. We insist that everything in it must be timed. We live in a time-conscious age. We live by the second hand on the watch, and the
question which looms large in the discussion of any subject is When? This proclivity, however, is not exactly new to our
generation. Men have always been interested to
some degree in the time element. When Jesus
talked about His coming kingdom His disciples asked, When shall these things be?
(Mat. 24:3). And when the resurrected Christ
stood before His disciples to charge them with the responsibility of witnessing and to
assure them of the infilling of His Holy Spirit, they responded by asking, Lord,
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
we cannot completely ignore the time element, for we live in a time age; however, we do
stand in danger of missing the primary significance of principles and events by giving too
much attention to the time element. This is
the mistake that many have made in their interpretation of the
While we
cannot completely ignore the time element, it should at least be kept in the background. We know that the pictures of consummation and
eternal destiny are still future from the standpoint of time; yet we must remember that
the Lord is not giving to us in this
you want to understand the book of Revelation you must understand its symbols and
numerology by comparison. It is a revelation, an unveiling! You
find the old and the new things that pass away, and new things that appear; from
the old man to the new man, from the old mind to the new mind, from an old mark to a new
mark, from the old name to the new name, from the old nature to the new nature, from the
old song to the new song, from the old heavens to the new heavens, from the old earth to
the new earth, and from the old Jerusalem to the new Jerusalem. All the negative events of the book, tribulations,
judgments, etc., reveal the great judgmental processes and dealings by which the Lord
destroys and brings an end to all the old within
us and in our world; all the positive events, songs, celebrations, glory, etc., reveal the
ushering in the new! It
To be continued J. PRESTON EBY
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Windows Phone 8X Pre-orders Start October 21 at Best Buy
Best Buy will begin selling pre-orders for the Windows Phone 8X by HTC this weekend according to a WPCentral report.
According to the report an image from Best Buy's flier for the week of October 21-27 reveals the pre-order date. The image shows a picture of the Windows Phone 8X along with a statement that users can pre-order the phone in store or online.
The Best Buy flier doesn't give a price, release date, or carrier for the Windows Phone 8X. Both T-Mobile and AT&T already announced they will carry the phone next month, and HTC announced Verizon as a carrier partner when the phone launched. None of the companies have announce pricing for the smartphone yet.
Read: Windows Phone 8 Roundup: The Future of WP8
In its short description of the Windows Phone 8X by HTC Best Buy talks about live tiles, the "vivid display," and the integrated Beats audio of the phone. There;s no other description to help potential buyers know why they might want the phone.
The WIndows Phone 8X by HTC is the "signature" Windows Phone, which means Microsoft will use the device in its Windows Phone 8 marketing material. The phone has a 4.3-inch Super LCD2 720p display, a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage space.
HTC's Windows Phone 8X also has an 8MP camera with ImageChip like the company's One series of Android phones. The ImageChip will make the camera take better photos in almost all situations.
Microsoft will officially launch Windows Phone 8 on October 29 which is likely the day when we'll get the final release date and pricing for the Windows Phone 8X.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Using your W, A, S and D keys or your arrows to move and your mouse to aim and shoot, kill enemies, gain experience points, upgrade your ship and try to kill the BOSS. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to destroy enemies for experience points to spend on upgrades. Survive long enough and you will have a chance to take down the boss. Have a totally awesome time when you Try 2 Survive!
Surfnetkids » Games » Shooting Games » Try 2 Survive


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The Automotive Recyclers of Indiana is an organization created to be a voice and resource for auto recyclers in Indiana. Our members come from all over the state and represent a range of salvage yards big and small. Our goal is to develop Indiana as a productive place to recycle automobiles all while protecting its valuable natural resources.


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The 100th National Mod was
held in Oban during the week commencing Saturday 11th October 2003.
The Isle of Mull Gaelic choir were there to take part in the Sheriff
MacMaster Campbell Memorial Quaich, singing An Gille Guanach' and the
prescribed song 'Caol Muile'. They also competed in the Puirt-a-bual
singing 'Fear a dh'ith am bonnach mor' and 'Tha toll air a bhata mhor'.
The ladies competed for the Grampian Television Trophy sing dh'fhalbh
mo Leannan Fhain and there own choice members of the choir were also
competing as soloists and duets and in the Argyll ladies choir.
What follows is our scrap book of the weeks events. Click here to continue


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SOURCE: AVN Adult Entertainment Expo
LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwire – December 2, 2010) – The 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) will feature dozens of leading adult stars, who will be meeting and greeting their fans throughout the Expo.
Adam & Eve will be presenting Teagan Presley, Alexis Ford, and Tori Black. "I am so excited to be appearing at the 2011 Adult Entertainment Expo!" said Adam & Eve exclusive contract star Teagan Presley. "It's the biggest and best place to meet the fans and see the very best the adult industry has to offer!" Adam & Eve contract star Alexis Ford agrees. "This will be my second year at the AEE, and it truly is an event that can't be missed."
Clips4Sale.com is bringing Ashley Fires and Missy Gold to sign in their booth.
Digital Playground will host their exclusive contract stars Jesse Jane®, Stoya™, Riley Steele™, Kayden Kross™, and Selena Rose™. "Digital Playground is proud to present our star lineup at the 2011 AEE," remarked Samantha Lewis, Digital Playground CEO. "Our exclusive contract stars are what sets Digital Playground apart from the rest."
Evil Angel will showcase Bobbi Starr, Sophie Dee, Kelly Divine, and Jynx Maze at the Expo.
Among the numerous other stars scheduled to appear are: Angel Vain, Brooklyn Bailey, Diamond Kitty, Jenna Haze, Joanna Angel, Kagney Linn Karter, Kimberly Kane, Kirsten Price, Misty Stone, Raven Alexis, Sara Sloane, Savanna Samson, Sinnamon Love, Sunny Leone, and Taylor Vixen.
The 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which will host the AVN Novelty Expo for the first time, will be held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. AEE will run from Thursday, January 6 through Sunday, January 9, 2011, and the AVN Novelty Expo dates are January 6 – 8. Attendees can register online at www.AdultEntertainmentExpo.com.
The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is a one-of-a-kind tradeshow experience that combines business-to-business transactions, networking, knowledge-sharing, talent appearances, and special presentations for the public. The largest event of its kind, AEE showcases the most comprehensive collection of adult talent, exhibitors, and products, which attracts buyers and fans from around the world. The 2010 Expo hosted more than 20,000 attendees, scores of popular entertainers, and featured hundreds of exhibitors. New to 2011, the AVN Novelty Expo (ANE) will replace AEE's B2B Marketplace, bringing to Las Vegas the same cutting-edge pleasure products and specialized seminars that made ANE a summer favorite. For more information about the Expo, including a list of exhibitors and events, please refer to www.AdultEntertainmentExpo.com.
Thursday is restricted to trade attendees only, and special "trade only" hours on Friday and Saturday will provide exclusive access for industry professionals and the media in order to permit exhibitors to make and build business and media contacts before fans are allowed into the Expo.
Trade attendees who register before December 15, 2010 will get a $125 early bird special rate. Trade registration provides an all-access badge which admits the holder to all AEE and ANE seminars, the main exhibit hall during all show hours, and access to the AVN Novelty Expo. For more information and to register for the trade event, please visit www.AdultEntertainmentExpo.com.
Special Fan Tickets also available at early bird rates. The VIP Fan Package includes access to show floor an hour earlier than general admission, dedicated registration area, AEE Show Directory, and a complimentary T-shirt for $85. General Fan tickets are available now for $65 before December 15, 2010.
The 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo will run concurrently with the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on all four days. The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is not affiliated with CES.
The 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo sets the stage for the AVN Awards Show, which will be held at the Palms Resort and Casino, on Saturday, January 8, 2011. The annual AVN Awards Show is the premier gala of adult video and recognizes titles, individuals, and companies for contributions to and excellence in the industry. Please note that a separate ticket is required for admission to the AVN Awards Show. For more information on the AVN Awards, please visit AvnAwards.com
Digital Playground is the official Press Room Sponsor of the 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
To exhibit at the 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, please contact Janet Gibson at [email protected] or January Robbins at [email protected] or call (818) 718-5788. To exhibit at the 2011 AVN Novelty expo, please contact Sara Harter at [email protected] or call 818-718-5788 x 109.
Media contact:
Grace Lee
(818) 728-8674
Email Contact


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IBM Chases Vintage OS/400, HP-UX Servers with the i5
May 24, 2004 Timothy Prickett Morgan
This newsletter has spent the past few weeks delving into the guts of the eServer i5 "Squadron" servers, their Power5 processors, and i5/OS V5R3. This week, I want to talk about IBM's marketing and sales plan for the platform. According to the top brass in the iSeries division, IBM is going to be pushing on several fronts to try to grow the OS/400 server business and pump up the OS/400 ecosystem on which it depends.
I recently had a chance to talk to Al Zollar, general manager of the iSeries line, and Cecelia Marrese, vice president of marketing for the iSeries, about what they hope to accomplish with the new product line. Not that this is necessarily indicative of the health of the iSeries line, but from those meetings I can tell you that they both seem to be a lot more comfortable and optimistic about where the iSeries is and where it is going. This is reflected as much in body language as in what they said.
Zollar told me that he wanted to keep the iSeries line, now the eServer i5, in the press and in the minds of customers as they consider platforms. And one thing IBM will do to make this happen is to keep significant iSeries announcements coming out at a steady pace and with the latest IBM technologies. "We are moving away from big bang announcements and moving on a roadmap where we have something significant to say to our customers every quarter," he explained. "This will keep a level of interest and vitality in the platform." It will also help with publicity, as the IT trade press that is consumed by IT workers, from system admins to chief information officers, will see a steady stream of i5 announcements.
But the strategy goes far beyond that. While the attention is good, the best kind of sales pitch is a competitive price for OS/400 servers and their related software. To that end, as we explained a few weeks ago, IBM cut memory prices by 20 to 60 percent and cut storage prices by 20 percent, it dropped the price of activating Power4 and Power5 processors on the iSeries and i5 line, and said that it would keep the common components (such as server processors, memory, and disks) at parity with the pSeries (soon to be "eServer p5") Unix server line, which has historically had much lower list price tags and much higher discounts than for the iSeries. While IBM will almost certainly not close the gap at the retail level (even if customers bring in Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard with competitive Unix, Linux, or Windows systems), the gap is considerably smaller, and the unique advantages of the iSeries over the alternatives make it possible to sell against those alternatives. Before, the sticker price was so high on the iSeries that business partners couldn't even get their foot in the data center door to make a pitch. With these price cuts, which people like me have been clamoring for since the mid-1990s, the data center door has opened a crack, and the i5, with its sophisticated partitioning and multiple operating system support, has a decent chance of actually compelling CIOs and VPDPs not only to open the door but also to bring in partners to pitch the machine to solve their problems.
IBM has always understood that the box count for the iSeries had to remain high if the OS/400 ecosystem was to not only survive, but to thrive. And the price cuts are key to IBM's plan to boost the box count coming out of the iSeries factories in Rochester, Minnesota, and in Dublin, Ireland.
Of course, with such big price cuts for servers, memory, disk, and other core components, this begs the question of how IBM can maintain iSeries hardware revenue, much less increase it. I have argued for years that the OS/400 server market is more elastic than IBM's marketing model suggested. IBM had its reasons for charging high-prices–it needed the margins because its manufacturing costs were high, and to help pay for its very aggressive battle against Sun and HP in the Unix market, where it is arguable that IBM may not have broken even as it uses pricing as a way of gaining market share.
Now that IBM has huge credibility with the Power-AIX servers, and Sun and HP have backed off a bit on price cuts, IBM has a little more room. (I said a little.) IBM also has a little bit more room since the iSeries and i5 machines sold in Asia/Pacific are now being built in Ireland, where labor is cheaper and shipping costs to Asia are lower. (The pSeries manufacturing for Asia/Pacific customers also has been moved to Ireland, and IBM also has a bulk deal with United Parcel Service to ship from Ireland to Asia. This, combined with hundreds of tiny changes in the supply chain of parts that go into the iSeries, and in how the product is manufactured and delivered, has enabled IBM to get iSeries prices lower.
IBM cares a lot about revenue growth, but it has always cared more about profit growth. So with prices on the iSeries essentially cut by 40 percent with the i5 launch, can IBM grow revenues and maintain profits?
The answer seems to be yes. Zollar says that IBM's plan is to sell more boxes, which is obvious enough, but that he also expects IBM and its partners to be able to sell richer configurations of the boxes. My guess is that the average selling price of a box is not as low as you might think, because the mindset shift from spending as little as possible to do the bare minimum of work on an iSeries to spending about the same amount of money or slightly more to do a lot more things with an i5. This is the bet I would make, and it is clearly the bet IBM is now making. (Heaven help us all. And I wish IBM had done it five years ago.) "I think there is a huge pent up demand for memory and disk storage," says Zollar.
Marrese says that the Green Streak promotions in late 2000, which eventually led to the revamping of the iSeries line in January 2001, were the first step in the transformation of the OS/400 server into a competitive box. But a beta test in March of this year for the Model 520 and OS/400 Express packaging that debuted in early May seems to have been what pushed IBM over the edge to start cutting prices. Italy, Marrese explained, has a labyrinth of tax laws that make it painful to run a large business, and that is one of the reasons why the country is teeming with small businesses. Many of those small businesses, it turns out, have acquired AS/400 Model 150 and Model 170 servers. And they just keep using them and don't upgrade as much as IBM would like. In the beta program, IBM took an iSeries Model 800, packaged it like the Model 520 Express machine (low price, lots of software, ready to run out of the box), and found out that if it cut the price of this configuration in half, compared with the cost of building it with regular iSeries Model 800 pricing, it sold twice as many boxes.
Another area that Zollar says he is focusing the iSeries division on is one of the standard drivers of the product line: high availability. "Because of the historically high reliability of the AS/400 and iSeries, our customers are very under-invested in high availability and resiliency." While high availability and system clustering software have been the biggest drivers of AS/400 and iSeries sales in the past decade, my guess is that only about 10,000 of the 215,000 OS/400 shops in the world have implemented high availability solutions. With cheaper and easier-to-use high availability software, and much cheaper i5 boxes, IBM should be able to make it up in volume.
Zollar says he has implemented a few other changes to help boost sales. For one thing, he said that the company is reaching out to the legion of small iSeries partners with only a few dozen accounts to try to get them back into the game. IBM is giving decent discounts to partners that buy Model 520 Express configurations in blocks of 10 or 20, and the company will not sell the new i5 machines direct in competition with its channel, which accounted for about 85 percent of iSeries revenue in 2003, according to Zollar. While iSeries sales growth in 2003 was in the "healthy double digits" for midrange and high-end iSeries machines (Zollar said the number "began with a two" when I pressed him to nail it down somewhere between 10 and 99 percent, and my guess is around 25 percent revenue growth), it is the low volumes of entry machines that has been a drag on both iSeries shipments and iSeries revenue. Shipments were flat and sales were up 7 percent in 2003 across the iSeries line. Clearly, getting partners excited about selling the i5 Model 520 Express configurations is a key to the new strategy.
But it is not the only opportunity IBM is looking at. Marrese says that IBM booked around $100 million in Linux-related iSeries server sales in 2003, a factor of six larger than Linux sales on the box in 2002. She says sales to support traditional green-screen applications was flat or down, and that Domino, high availability, Windows integration, and WebSphere are key drivers. But what has Marrese smiling is the coming support for native AIX within logical partitions on the i5 machines. As it turns out, nearly 40,000 OS/400 customers also have Unix servers in their shops, of which the vast majority are running HP-UX applications. Getting even a percentage of these customers to port their HP-UX applications to AIX and move them onto the i5 supporting both their OS/400 and AIX workloads will go a long way toward boosting overall iSeries sales.
Perhaps more than anything else, the timing of the i5 announcement with a recovery in the worldwide economy is auspicious. Marrese says that, in 2003, iSeries sales in Italy, German, and France picked up, that North America started off strong, and that Asia/Pacific countries like China are exploding (albeit from a very small installed base). "Customers have been buying to do the bare minimum," she says, "but now they are getting the green light to spend again."


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There are two types of people: those who see the bible as a book, and those who see the bible as more than just words.
They see God working all the time. When they read their bible, they are not reading the same stories over and over but are intently searching for where God may be guiding them that day. Believing that God tries to communicate to you personally every day, makes being a Christian very exciting.
How do you approach reading your bible?
More Than Just Words
It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 (MSG)
The bible is more than just words. When we read the bible, something is supposed to happen inside of us. It's supposed to change how we think, excite us, and give us a bigger picture of who God is. It connects the dots inside of our lives. The bible is amazing when we let it influence us.
People who are going to change are the people who are able to distinguish the difference between God's voice and people's voice.
The Word of God vs Human Words
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV)
The bible describes a struggle that is common to many people and that is wanting to look at the bible from a humanistic point of view (human words) rather than accepting it as the words of God. This leads to us relying more on traditions rather than going by the bible.
What are traditions? They are rules or a set of beliefs that are based on people, not necessarily the bible. Not all traditions are bad, but when they interfere with us obeying the scriptures, they will cause problems for us spiritually.
He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions."
Mark 7:6-8 (NIV)
Convicting words from Jesus. What he is saying is that the thing that blocks us from changing more than anything else is when we are stubbornly refusing to let go of our traditions to obey the bible.
Why do we do this? It can be way easier to live by human rules than by the Word of God. When we live by human rules, it gives us a way to remain distant from God. When rules take precedence over relationships, it takes the heart out of Christianity.We become comfortable with distance and turn everything into a performance. We will rate our closeness to God based on certain bench marks (how often we read the bible or pray, how often we show up to church, how much money we give in contribution) rather than how close and intimate we feel with God.
Can you identify the traditions/rules that you live by over the bible?
Once we identify and realize what these traditions and rules do to our relationship with God, we have to begin to uproot them.
Uprooting The Rules
So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured.
Isaiah 28:13 (NIV)
The best way to uprooting rules is to study the bible with friends. Studying the bible is a process of uprooting rules and starting to live by a heart for God. It is not replacing the rules with God's rules, it is replacing the rules with God's heart.
When you uproot rules and get God's heart, you get inspired and you inspire the people around you.
What things has God been communicating with you through the scriptures?
What rules can you work on uprooting today?
Written by
Scott Colvin
Scott Colvin is an evangelist at the Bay Area Christian Church. Scott ran cross country for the University of North Carolina. Some say he's still running to this day.
Today, we're excited to talk about what happens when we express our gratitude to God by being generous with other people.
It's clear that we live in a special place.
God's vision for the church is for every person to be inspired, connected, and "joined by faith as family."


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De Lama company will present the new technological method for low-temperature sterilization
De Lama has just presented and delivered on the market a technology of sterilization able to change the rule of the game. De Lama, already produing pass-box for decontamination with Hydrogen Peroxide, after years of reasearch evolved the technology in order offer on the market a state-of-the-art futuristic sterilizer with Hydrogen Peroxide under deep vacuum called DLVHP/ST.
This is the link to product page: https://www.delama.it/en/products/
This machines is unique on the market, as can reach, real sterlization (log -6 sterization level that can be reached with classic ETO, superheated water or saturated steam autoclaves) with a low temperature process, with no limit of space (equipments starts from 500 liters but can reach up to 30 cubic meters and even more), and offers a new way to sterilize, for example, medical devices, as syringes, catheters, surgycal kits etc, avoiding the use of ETO, a critical gas, very difficult to manage because of its explosivity and toxicity.
De Lama has been a leader player in production of ETO autoclaves, and still this sterilizer are part of an importan business fot the Company, but today De Lama is able to offer another solution.
The machine has already been order and delivered to some of the most demaning and advanced company in the world in the field of medical devices, prostheis and also food packaging.
The peculiarity of the use of the vacuum technology allows gas full penetration into the widest variety of packaging.
Vacuum system is composed by multiple step high vacuum system to allow the most effective sterilization phase and gas removal at cycle end.
The sterilisation cycles work in an open loop, without any consumable, and grant a very high level of repeatability.
Thermo-labile finished products in blister can be fully sterilised in the most recessed cavities.
- Capacity: from 500 lts. up to many cubic meters (30 cubic meter or more is feasible)
- Semi-automatic hinged doors or automatically sliding doors or new Magnetodoor® magnetic driven door.
- Chamber execution in highly satin finish AISI 316L stainless steel (mirror finishing on request)
- Direct ventilation in chamber with magnetic coupling fan to improve hydrogen peroxide circulation
- Open loop configuration with catalyst (no consumables) on exhaust
- Process reliable and fully validable
- Enhanced extraction of residual H2O2
- Low H2O2 consumption
- Cycle repeatability
- Time savings
- The process is extremely fast when compared to other low temperature sterilization processes
- Savings on filter elements and ventilation systems The final elimination of peroxide in the room does not provide for the impact on HVAC filters: in fact, there are no air flows for the degassing of the machine that impact on the company's ventilation systems.
- Savings on maintenance costs The DLVHP / ST is also equipped with a catalyst for the elimination of hydrogen peroxide residues which does not require the need for consumables and, therefore, maintenance costs for the replacement of components.
Sterilization of thermosensitive medical devices such as catheters, plastic syringes, masks, etc**.
For those thermolabile products, once sterilizable only through ETO (i.e. ethylene oxide gas) or gamma rays, today there is a new solution.
The result is to replace the demanding management of ETO (flammable, toxic and expensive to manage) with a much simpler, cheaper and eco-compatible process that can also be completely internalized in the company (unlike gamma rays, that for their criticality are managed in specialized centers outside the manufacturing company).
Terminal sterilization of packaging, even outside a classified area.
The process of packaging products such as syringes already sterilized, can now be done by totally eliminating the use of the very expensive Class A (or B) clean room where it was necessary to realize the packaging of the products. Although the contents of the syringe have been previously sterilized, the legislation stipulates that even the air inside the packaging and the external surface of the syringe must be sterile. Until now there was no other solution than to realize the packaging operations inside a classified and aseptic area. Today all this can be avoided. With the autoclave proposed by De Lama, Hydrogen Peroxide, by means of a strong vacuum, is able to penetrate the packaging and to penetrate surfaces such as Tyvek, thus sterilizing the environment inside the package and the external surface of the product.
Tyvek (or other) specific package, once extracted by autoclave, even if the operation is realized in a non-classified area, preserves the sterile environment inside packaging created by sterilization process through Hydrogen peroxide made with DLVHP/ST.
To carry out this sterilization it is sufficient to insert the packages in the chamber and start the cycle. All of this can occur, we repeat the concept, also in a lower classification environment, thus avoiding the costs of environments classified as high-level aseptic.
Heat-sensitive Surgical Kits.
Another field of application where until now the ETO was the only solution.
Prosthesis for implant.
Thanks to the deep penetration of Hydrogen Peroxide and its cold process, Sterilization through De Lama DLVHP/ST is a new solution for Prosthesis for implants of various materials and for diffrent surgical applications like: knee, ankles, elbow, jaw and more.
Prosthesis are usually sterilized inside their plastic or Tyvek packaging.
De Lama is always available to test the sterilization of every single prostheys produced in order to verify the perfect sterilization also in the most inner parts and holes for objects with a complex design and also to verify the complete material compatibility with Hydrogen Peroxide.


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Tourist info Pardubice - Prague
VISIT PARDUBICE - capital city of Pardubice region is famous for various sports events such as the oldest horse racing on the continet Great Pardubice Steeplechase or Golden Helmet motorcycle speedway. Pardubice is the seat of top Czech Ice Hockey club Dynamo. There is a unique castle-chateau, combining two styles of architecture. Pardubice is the seat of traditional gingerbread production.
PRAGUE - capital of Czechia is situated 100 km West of Pardubice. Prague is one of the most visited cities in the World and you can get there from Pardubice easily by train, going in average each half an hour, or by a car via highway. Both means of transportation take about 1 hour to travel.


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Hemidactylus whitakeri MIRZA, GOWANDE, PATIL, AMBEKAR & PATEL, 2018
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Hemidactylus whitakeri?
Hemidactylus whitakeri
Find more photos by Google images search:
|Higher Taxa
|Gekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
|Common Names
|E: Whitaker's termite hill gecko
|Hemidactylus whitakeri MIRZA, GOWANDE, PATIL, AMBEKAR & PATEL 2018: 15
Hemidactylus subtriedrus — BAUER et al. 2010
Hemidactylus triedrus — BANSAL & KARANTH 2010
|India (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu)
Type locality: "near Kodalagurki village, Bangalore rural district, Karnataka, India (13.297508°N, 77.700259°E), elevation 950 m"
|oviparous (not imputed, fide Zimin et al. 2022)
|Holotype: NCBS AU712, female, collected by Mayuresh Ambekar & Gaurang Gowande on November 20th, 2017. Paratypes: NCBS AU713, female, same locality as holotype, collected by Rishikesh Patil and Zeeshan Mirza; two males NCBS AU719 & AU720, GKVK campus, Bangalore Karnataka, India (13.072962N, 77.581215E, elevation 932 m), collected by Akshay Khandekar on April 16th, 2018.
|Diagnosis: A medium sized fairly stout gecko, adults ranging 45–60 mm in SVL. Dorsum in a shade of light brown with paired, thin black edged white bands at regular intervals. Dorsal scalation on trunk granular, intermixed with enlarged, keeled 16–17 sub-trihedral tubercle rows arranged in fairly regular longitudinal series on dorsum. Seven lamellae (rarely six) under digit I of pes and manus, eight to nine under digit four of manus and pes. An angular series of seven to eight precloacal femoral pores separated at a mid-pelvic by a diastema of three non-pored scales.
Hemidactylus whitakeri sp. nov. differs from most congeners in bearing the following set of differing and non-overlapping characters: dorsum with large, keeled sub-trihedral tubercles in 16–17 fairly regular longitudinal rows (vs. few smooth or rounded tubercles in H. aquilonius McMahan & Zug, H. flaviviridis Rüppell, H. frenatus Schlegel, H. garnotii Duméril & Bibron, H. leschenaultii Duméril & Bibron, H. giganteus Stoliczka, H. gujaratensis Giri, Bauer, Vyas & Patil, H. platyurus Schneider, H. anamallensis Günther, H. aaronbaueri Giri, H. yajurvedi Murthy, Bauer, Lajmi, Agarwal & Giri, H. hemchandrai Dandge & Tiple); dorsal pattern with fairly distinct bands and dorsal tubercles sub- trihedral (vs. dorsal pattern with spots in H. prashadi); SVL 45–60 mm (vs. SVL <50 mm in H. sataraensis Giri & Bauer, H. gracilis Blanford, H. reticulatus Beddome, H. albofasciatus Grandison & Soman, H. scabriceps Annandale); SVL >80 mm H. maculatus Duméril & Bibron, H. graniticolus Agarwal, Bauer & Giri, H. kangerensis, H. sushilduttai, H. vanam Chaitanya, Lajmi & Giri, H. acanthopholis Mirza & Sanap, and H. hunae Deraniyagala; dorsum in a shade of brown with distinct, regularly spaced transverse bands on dorsum (vs. overall in a shade of brown to grey with dark spots, lacking distinct bands on dorsum in H. persicus Anderson, H. robustus Heyden, H. turcicus Linnaeus, H. chipkali Mirza & Raju, H. treutleri Mahony, H. gleadowi Murray, H. parvimaculatus Deraniyagala, H. kushmorensis Murray, H. murrayi Gleadow, H. malcolmsmithi Constable). The new species is most similar to H. triedrus in general appearance, however, differs in bearing 16–17 rows of keeled, sub-trihedral tubercles in fairly longitudinal rows (vs. 19–20 keeled, trihedral tubercles in H. triedrus, 15–16 trihedral tubercles in H. sahgali sp. nov.), bands on dorsum thin, paired and usually broken incomplete (vs. bands complete in H. sahgali sp. nov.), 7–8 precloacal femoral pores separated by a diastema of three non-pored scales (vs. 11–15 precloacal femoral pores separated by a diastema of 1–3 non-pored scales in H. sahgali sp. nov.). Postorbitofrontal slender in anteriorly, gradually widens posterior to the Fronto-Parietal suture as seen in H. sahgali sp. nov. (vs. Postorbitofrontal uniform in its wide throughout in H. triedrus), Frontal much wider posteriorly as in H. sahgali sp. nov. (vs. frontal narrow in H. triedrus); quadrate bone moderately robust (vs. quadrate bone robust and thin in H. triedrus, slender and arched in H. sahgali sp. nov.), surangular slender as in H. triedrus (vs. robust in its width lacking a distinct constriction at the suture between—articular surface and retroarticular process).
|Distribution: see Figure 6 in Mirza et al. 2018: 15.
|The specific epithet is a patronym honoring Romulus Earl Whitaker for his valuable contribution toward the study and conservation of reptiles of India.
|External links
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Topaz 70mm rolls are a plain sheet in a roll format. They are a premium grade abrasive for use on a clip on speedfile or clip on sanding board/block, they are aggressive in cut and give an even sand pattern.
This listing is for 70mm Abrasive Roll sold Per Metre
Features and Benefits:
- Aggressive initial cut through superior tough grain and resin bonding
- Consistent performance due to even grit distribution
- Latex backing ensures toughness and flexibility
Shipping & Delivery
Orders will be shipped by couriers. Orders received before 1pm will be sent out same day.
If there are items missing we will send what we have with a note of when the rest of the order will be shipped or you will be offered a refund.
In some cases we ship from different locations, if this is the case you will be sent an email telling you of this.
We cannot ship out internationally outside of New Zealand.
Goods ordered which are either faulty or not as ordered may be returned for a full refund. This must be within a reasonable period.
This included goods which:
- are or become faulty through no fault of your own
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- don't match our description or sample (please note that some product pictures may not be of the actual product size - manufacturers supply us with a single product image to cover a range of package sizes - and that the size, volume or weight stated in the product description is what you will get)
- have defects that were not obvious or we did not bring to your attention.
Please ring us beforehand to get a Returned Merchandise number and instructions on how to return goods to ensure a speedy resolution.
Sealed and undamaged items may be returned for a refund or account credit, but you will have to pay the shipping costs. Please ring our customer service centre (04-5866681) before sending anything back.
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Sleep Matters: The Importance of Sleep on Your Physical Well-Being
Some people believe they need less sleep than the average person. While this may earn you bragging rights, it's not good for your health. Sleep is not just the absence of being awake; it's an active process that promotes good cognitive and physical health. While you're sleeping, your body is doing important work, such as forming pathways in your brain that help you learn and create memories and removing toxins that accumulate while you're awake. Sleep also helps your body support your immune system, repair cells and tissues and maintain a healthy balance of hormones.
Zzzzzs…How Many Do You Really Need?
It depends on your age, of course, but in general, adults need at least seven hours of sleep daily. Children need more. In fact, newborns sleep up to 17 hours a day. And your teenager—the one who seems to sleep the day away? He really does need 8 to 10 hours of sleep to support his growing body.
Sleep Is Important…and We're Not Getting Enough
Sleep deprivation is a serious public health problem. Roughly one out of three adults does not get at least seven hours of sleep each night. Insufficient sleep can affect all aspects of your life and raise your risk for serious disease. It can even be deadly. Here are a few ways sleep deprivation can be harmful.
Heart disease. Sleep helps your body repair the wear and tear on your heart and blood vessels. When you don't get enough sleep, it raises your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.
Diabetes. Lack of sleep can lead to higher-than-normal blood glucose (sugar) levels, increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes, which, in turn, raises your risk for heart disease.
Immune dysfunction. Without a robust immune system, you can't properly fight infection and prevent disease, and without adequate sleep, your immune system can't do its job.
Obesity. Sleep deficiency can lead to obesity, which is a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes and sleep apnea which also raises your risk for heart disease and diabetes.
Injury and accidents. Sleep deprivation can lead to deadly accidents and mistakes. Driver sleepiness plays a role in about 100,000 car accidents each year. Furthermore, several national catastrophes, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the Challenger spaceship explosion are all attributed, at least in part, to sleep deprivation.
Sleep Disorders:
Unfortunately, sleep disorders are common. However, they are also very treatable once you are correctly diagnosed. The most common sleep disorders are insomnia and sleep apnea.
Insomnia. Insomnia—the inability to fall, or stay, asleep—is the most common sleep problem in those 60 and older. Treatments for insomnia include nonmedical approaches (for example, cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation training) as well as medications.
Sleep apnea. If you snore and make gasping or choking noises during sleep, you may have obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which you momentarily stop breathing—sometimes many times per night—because of blocked airways. Nearly 24 million Americans have sleep apnea, many of them undiagnosed. People with sleep apnea wake up feeling tired and struggle with fatigue and difficulty concentrating. Once properly diagnosed, sleep apnea is treatable.
How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Need Each Day?
- Newborns: 14—17
- Infants (4—12 months): 12—16
- Toddlers (1—2 years): 11—14
- Preschoolers (3—5 years): 10—13
- School Age (6—12 years): 9—12
- Teens: 8—10
- Adults: at least 7
Don't compromise your health! If you have trouble sleeping, talk to your primary care provider, who may refer you to a board-certified sleep specialist (a doctor with special training in sleep disorders) or recommend an in-lab or at-home sleep study to diagnose sleep apnea.
© 2018 Relevate Health Group Inc. All rights reserved.


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Tim Holtz Distress Inks are a collection of 36 acid-free, non-toxic, fade resistant, water-based dye inks. They_re perfect for the new vintage, stained, aged effect crafters are creating in their altered books, scrapbook pages, cards and paper craft projects. Tim selected the colors and helped develop these inks to produce a realistic, weathered look on paper, photos and decorative fibers.
We aim to ship all in stock products within two working days. Orders over £25.00 ship free in the UK. Shipping to all other areas is calculated based on the weight of your order. Please proceed to checkout to see what your shipping cost will be.
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Tim Holtz Mini Distress Ink Pad - Broken China£2.75
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Photo credit | US News
Millions of Americans rely on some form of Social Security benefits, for their financial survival. Retirees, widows and widowers, disabled adults and children, all count on the system to be there when they need it. That makes changes to social security regulations and payment amounts, even more important.
Approximately 50% of people age 65 or older, depend on social security for half of their retirement income. 25% rely on the benefits for all their income. Highlighting the importance of the program, in poor households headed by someone on retirement income, social security is virtually the only source of financial support.
Photo credit | Seeking Alpha
So, to keep you up-to-date, we are covering all the adjustments for 2018. Most of the changes are good news for retirees, and those nearing retirement age. Several adjustments will directly impact the monthly amounts recipients will receive. Others, will help to ensure the stability of the program in the long-term.
Payment Increases
Photo credit | The Watermark Group
Let's start with the important stuff first. In September, we shared with you the possibility that payments would increase. Well, the official announcement is out and social security recipients will get a 2% bump. Now we know that is not a lot of money but it is the biggest increase in six years. Progress, even in small increments, is better than nothing.
As a result of the change, the average payment for single persons will be approximately $1, 404. AARP is issuing an official statement on the importance of the increase. "Today's 2 percent cost of living announcement gives some relief to Social Security beneficiaries and their families who depend on their earned, modest benefits," says CEO Jo Ann Jenkins.
Interestingly, the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) dates back to 1975. It is based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The CPI-W tracks how much consumers pay for goods and services. Therefore, several factors including jobs and the economy directly affect the index.
The best way to explain the cause and effect relationship between the CPI-W and the COLA is this- if prices go up, there is benefit increase. But, if prices on goods decrease, then benefits stay the same. Ironically, hurricanes Harvey and Irma most likely contributed to the increase.
For the 66 million retirees receiving payments, it is a complicated mess to say the least.
The Catch-22
Photo credit | Onedio
Consequently, social security advocates see the CPI-W method of calculating benefits as a "catch-22." The reason for that, is the fact that payment increases do not accurately address the real cost of living. The COLA is supposed to reflect the inflation they are dealing with in the present. However, critics argue that it's not even close.
But, other new changes may help to solve that problem.
Changes for American Workers
Photo credit | USA Today
Some may see the following changes as bad but for the fledgling system, they are very much needed. As we have discussed previously, the majority of payments into Social Security come from payroll taxes. Workers pay 7.65% and employers make a matching contribution. Those who are self-employed, pay the full 12.4%.
However, there is an income limit that reduces the number of people paying into the program. Earned income between $0.01 and $127,200 is taxable by the SSA this year. Any income above and beyond this figure, is not. Next year, that cap is going up to $128,000. This means approximately 10 million more people will be contributing.
Retirement Earnings
Photo credit | CNN Money
In addition to the higher tax cap, the amount a retiree can earn while receiving social security will increase. This is good news for those who want or need to work. The SSA currently withholds one dollar for every two dollars in earnings, for wages above $16,920. This only applies to workers who are under full retirement age.
In 2018, that limit increases to $17, 040. Moreover, if someone is still working during their retirement year, the earnings limit is moving from $44,880 to $45,360. Beginning the month of full-retirement age, there are no withholdings. It is important to note, that these changes are for retirees.
For Social Security Disability recipients, the thresholds are different.
SSD Changes
Photo credit | Yahoo Finance
For those receiving disability payments, earnings limits are also changing. Blind recipients will be able to earn up to $1,970 in 2018. Non-blind recipients can earn up to $1,180. Those who are in what's called a "trial work period," cannot have wages that exceed $850 per month. Keep in mind, these amounts vary individually and depend on things including age and work history.
Consequently, trustees are noting a decline in the number of Disability Insurance beneficiaries. Officials attribute the decrease to a healthier economy, where fewer older workers seek to qualify for that benefit as job opportunities are more plentiful. President Trump's efforts to create a strong economy, are crucial to preserving the social security system.
Another critical step is reducing shortfalls in the SS budget, is protecting against fraud.
New Medicare Cards
Photo credit | Seeking Alpha
One of the many steps Social Security and DOJ officials are taking to reduce fraud and abuse, is new Medicare cards. SSA is mailing new cards to all 58 million recipients in April of 2018. The most notable change, is that SSN's are no longer shown on the card. The new ID will feature a randomly assigned Medicare Beneficiary Identifier made up of 11 letters and numbers.
According to the Department of Justice, identity theft is increasing among the 65 and older population. The number of cases reached a staggering 2.6 million in 2014. And, thanks to new technologies, more sophisticated criminals are finding it much easier to steal social security numbers. That is the reason officials are working to update the antiquated program.
Modernizing the System
Photo credit | Social Security Administration
While it is unlikely to happen in 2018, the White House is pursuing an initiative to end the use of social security numbers. Cybersecurity Czar, Rob Joyce, is heading the project that will replace SSN's with safer and more modern technology. Cryptographic keys or a set of long random numbers are two of the options he is considering.
Speaking at a security summit earlier this month, Joyce admits that modernization is a necessity. "I believe the Social Security number has outlived its usefulness," he says. "It's a flawed system that we can't roll back after a breach." For the 145 million consumers affected by the Equifax breach, that is a major plus.
The new technologies Joyce is proposing,however, would provide individuals a secure means of storing and accessing sensitive personal data. More importantly, in the event of data breach, the numbers could be changed instantly to protect victims. It's all pretty good news so far, right?
Well, we're not done yet!
Lower Medicare Drug Premiums
Photo credit | Liberty Medical
Approximately 43 million Americans are Medicare Part D recipients. For enrollees, prescription drug premiums often wipe-out their monthly payment increases. But not in 2018. For the first time in five years, those premiums are decreasing. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, beneficiaries are receiving a 3% reduction in costs.
The savings are the result of bids that drug plans have submitted for 2018. CMS attributes these lower bids to increasing pharmaceutical manufacturer rebates and other price concessions the plans are receiving. CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, says the agency keeping a promise to reduce costs for seniors.
"We are committed to making prescription drug plan premiums affordable so that seniors and people with disabilities in Medicare can access the prescription drugs that they need," says Verma. "This is a step forward in fulfilling the Trump administration's promise to lower the cost of prescription drug coverage, particularly for Medicare beneficiaries."
Securing the Future
Photo credit | Daily KOS
As we said in the beginning, most of these changes for 2018 are advantageous for social security recipients. Payment increases and lower premiums are signs of a healthy economy, growing job market, and fewer burdensome regulations. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of work to be done. Thankfully, President Trump is working hard to create improvements.
And, contrary to claims by Democrats, the president is not making any cuts to social security. Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, made that perfectly clear back in March. "We are not touching [Social Security and Medicare] now, says Mnuchin. "So, don't expect to see that as part of this budget."
Nonetheless, it is President Trump's own words that best sum-up his beliefs on social security:
"Social Security and Medicare are not wasteful entitlement programs. People who think this way need to rethink their position. It's not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money's worth–that's not an "entitlement," that's honoring a deal. We as a society, must make an ironclad commitment to providing a safety net for those who can't make one for themselves."
My Social Security Account
Photo credit | American Workers
Incidentally, if you have not already registered for an online social security account you should consider it. Creating an online account is fast and easy and offers you access to a great deal of information about your current or future benefits. Not to mention, it is also an excellent way to monitor any changes that may be happening with your payments.
Another benefit of having a MySSA account, is you can apply for a replacement social security card. If you are not requesting a name change, and you live in one of these 16 states, all you need is a valid photo ID to get a replacement card. To anyone who has spent an entire day at their local office, it's a real time-saving change.


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Re: Alzheimer dementia, cholinesterase inhibitors, and impartiality
The authors of the BCMJ theme issue "The new era of treatable Alzheimer disease" (September 2004;[7]:332-347) strongly condone the efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil (Aricept) in the treatment of Alzheimer dementia.
Three months earlier in June 2004 and published in the Lancet were the findings of the AD 2000 Collaborative Group conducting an RCT on donepezil treatment in 565 patients (Lancet 363:2105-2115). The authors were at great pains to remove bias: the partaking physicians had to be uncertain that a patient would benefit from donepezil before randomization, and unlike previous major studies, AD 2000 was undertaken independently of any commercial interests and at arm's length from the pharmaceutical industry. The study period was four times longer than in previous trials.
The AD 2000 study agreed with previous ones to the effect that donepezil produces small improvements in cognition and ADL in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's. Cognitive improvement in the donepezil-treated patients was by less than one point on the MMSE scale. Compared to controls there were no significant differences in behavioral symptoms, well-being, or caregiver time, and no differences in the two primary end points of the study, namely rate of institutionalization and progress of disability. Worrisome potential findings of serious adverse events were recorded. An editorial comment (pages 2100 to 2101) in the same issue of the Lancet read, "the AD 2000 results are incompatible with many drug-company-sponsored observational studies."
Many BCMJ readers (including presumably those close to the topic) will have learned of AD 2000 in the lay press during May. Because of the publication time line of the BCMJ theme issue it may not have been possible for the BCMJ authors to incorporate into their texts the AD 2000 findings. However, the last article of the theme issue, that pertaining to the TREAD conference, was able to incorporate reference number 5 accessed in June 2004. Was it not possible for the authors to produce an addendum acknowledging the existence of AD 2000, which despite imperfections was arguably the best-conducted study to have appeared so far on this matter?
—Peter Rees, PhD, FRCPC
Peter Rees, PhD, FRCPC. Re: Alzheimer dementia, cholinesterase inhibitors, and impartiality. BCMJ, Vol. 46, No. 10, December, 2004, Page(s) 500 - Letters.
Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally
accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.
About the ICMJE and citation styles
The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.
An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.
BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:
- Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
- There is no period after the journal name.
- Page numbers are not abbreviated.
For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org


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News & Buzz
Grasshopper is everywhere
Beefed Up Tools Alter Online Video Measurement Goals
Two of the hottest topics in PR today are social media conversations—à la Facebook and Twitter—and measurement. But let's not forget the power of online video. There, too, measurement looms large.
While video platforms, and YouTube in particular, are enjoying record numbers of views—on YouTube, over 2 billion videos are viewed every day, and YouTube Mobile gets over 100 million views per day—for communicators, views are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to measuring the success of online video.
Unfortunately, says Tony Obregon, VP of digital media at Cohn & Wolfe, many PR professionals are still focused on viewer metrics and generating big numbers from their videos, which often are meaningless. "We try to provide context for our clients," says Obregon. "We can say, 'These 10 Web sites that cater to the decision makers you're looking to reach embedded your clip.' That's a more valuable metric to go by."
New technologies and tools are changing the way PR pros are measuring video effectiveness, says Obregon. Now, it's not just how many, but where viewers are looking at a video; what they're viewing it on (smartphone, laptop); and what parts of the videos people respond to (such as turning up the volume).
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The generation of meaningful video metrics should start with mapping out objectives before a video is uploaded, says Doug Simon of DS Simon Productions, a broadcast PR and video company. What are you trying to accomplish with the video? Is it to draw in new customers? Bring more people to your Web site? Or simply to create awareness around a new product or service? Setting the objective, says Simon, will have a big bearing on the kind of distribution you'll seek for the video, and ultimately in identifying the metrics you'll be tracking.
In your campaign planning, suggests Jared Hendler, global director of digital and creative at MWW Group, keep the following strategic concept in mind: Video is not about push, like an advertisement—getting the audience to take an action, he says. "Video is all about pull, bringing something of value to the audience—a clip that they would be excited to share with friends."
Indeed, the concept of getting the audience to buy something from a video clip is misguided, says Jonathan Kay, ambassador of buzz at Grasshopper Group, a company that supports entrepreneurs. "Most communicators don't like to hear that," says Kay. "But there's just a small chance that a link on YouTube will spark someone to take some kind of action."
Engagement, however, is another story. Those are the metrics that count, says Kay. A video that is distributed across a variety of digital platforms should spark comments, likes, tweets and retweets. Those kinds of actions are what Kay and his digital team track.
There's nothing too complicated about the process, either. Grasshopper uses Google Alerts and TweetDeck to track comments across the digital spectrum. And YouTube, says Kay, now has excellent analytics capabilities. Combining both YouTube and Google Analytics allows you to see all the sites on which your video is landing.
According to Obregon, YouTube Insights contains most of the measurement tools you'll need. Obregon highlights three in the YouTube toolbox that have been helpful to him and his team at C&W:
- Discovery: Find out how people discovered your video. See specifically which search terms on YouTube or Google led the user to your video, which related videos led to your discovery or which Web sites embed your videos. "Discovery lets you know if your video is being picked up by a different, sometimes unexpected audience, which may prove valuable to you," says Obregon.
- Hot Spots: Informs how people are consuming a clip and where they are dropping off. The tool allows you to tell which parts of a video are hot or cold. "You can really get a sense of audience threshold, and where to tighten videos up," says Obregon.
- Views and Popularity: "What's interesting to me is global consumption of videos," he says. "It can tell you what topics and content are resonating worldwide."
In terms of effective external measuring tools, both Obregon and MWW's Hendler recommend TubeMogul, a free service that lets you upload your clips to video sharing sites and track them. "You can load multiple clips to multiple sites, and collect data all in one place," says Obregon.
Another company, Ooyala, measures viewership by platform—laptop, mobile, PC, etc. Obregon predicts that this metric will become more important as time goes on. And if that isn't enough, Nielsen, famous for its broadcast analytics, moved deeper into the online video space when it acquired GlanceGuide in 2010. Though the service isn't cheap, Nielsen can track a video's viewing duration, visibility and even audio volume and—just like it does with traditional broadcast channels—offer a composite effectiveness score.
"Because there are so many more sophisticated tools coming into the market there's less emphasis on views," says Obregon. This rightly puts more emphasis on video as an awareness tool.
But Grasshopper's Kay cautions not to go video crazy. He worries about his entrepreneur clients who put video too high on their communications priority list. "They see videos going viral on the Web, and they think it can happen for them," says Kay. "If you have the five to 10 grand to produce a great video, then do it. Otherwise, start with a really great blog post."
While Hendler also recommends not putting your videos all in one basket, he takes a more measured tack.
"With digital, think of multiple points of engagement," he says. "Video is one piece of what should be an integrated campaign, which starts with understanding the marketplace and determining measurement goals."
Setting goals is key, says Simon, but when it comes to video, it's a process that communicators too often neglect. PRN
Gauging Online Video Success: Sometimes Numbers Do Lie
Doug Simon, president and CEO of DS Simon Productions, a broadcast PR and video production company, has created numerous online videos that resonate with audiences. The big misconception among clients? "Big numbers equal the best outcomes," he says. "Few campaigns get 500,000 hits, and even then those may not be the right hits." The solution: Set your target numbers lower and make sure your videos are being seen on the right sites by the right people. Here are some other tips from Simon on generating the best video metrics:
1. Look beyond the numbers. Set a business goal for the campaign. Example: improve search results.
2. Create a tracking ID. Come up with a 59 character keyword optimized title you will use throughout the campaign. You can search Google with that title in quotes to inexpensively identify where your content has been placed in full.
3. All numbers are not created equal. Focus on maximizing earned media placement and the importance of those sites to your business.
4. Make YouTube the bait. Companies often say "check us out on YouTube." You're driving them away from your site. Do the opposite—drive them from YouTube back to your site.
4. Go beyond views. Track confirmed Web site placements, video downloads and Web hits.


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Steven reviews Mortal Kombat X! But first we dish about the latest comic movie news for Suicide Squad, Fantastic Four, Batman v Superman, and Daredevil. And as always we share what made us level up this week!
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October 2016


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Congratulations to Grace Shen on the publication of her first book, Unearthing the Nation: Modern Geology and Nationalism in Republican China. Go check it out at the University of Chicago Press website. We asked Grace to tell us a bit about the book and how it relates to her teaching at Fordham and her new research… Continue reading
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