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Ninjawords dictionarySunday, January 17th, 2010
Online dictionary has no adverts and is fast
Online dictionary has no adverts and is fast
Works in the Mac OS terminal, and on Linux if you install curl.
#! /bin/sh
curl —basic—user "username:password"
Update of something I found from 2007, when twitter was using a different [...]
Useful freeware mapping tool
"An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose the ability to win by doing better work. And it's not fun for a smart person to work in a place where the best ideas aren't the ones that win."Paul Graham, via daring fireball
I'm getting serious about mobile platforms. I need to decide [...]
Students on science degrees usually learn how to present findings in the form of a 'poster'. A science poster is a special kind of wall display invented so everyone who attends a conference can present their results even though there is not enough time for them all to speak. MS PowerPoint (and OpenOffice Impress) can [...]
I've already blogged about the Most Important Key When Presenting with PowerPoint. The next most useful is the B key. Press the B key while presenting, and the screen goes black – your audience have nothing else to look at except you, and that means that you can get a hearing no matter how zappy [...]
Computers have windows and some way of pointing at things on the display. Mobile devices are moving over to touch sensitive displays with 'gestural' commands. Here is some pre-history…
Ivan Sutherland's SketchPad demonstrated by Alan Kay. Sutherland's PhD supervisor what Claude Shannon, and he in turn supervised Kay's research. Alan Kay contributed to the development of [...]
A spin on Godin's (the bald one) first few sentences: Running a class blog for students gets the teacher searching for really good Web links that fit that particular lesson's content and that help students understand it. As Dave C (the chemist blogger) has worked out, you can use those links next year and in [...]
A colleague draws a short line at the edge of the whiteboard recording the image of the window frame when the Sun shines in the classroom window and then carries on. As he is an enthusiastic and engaging teacher, the students' attention is drawn away from the mark. The students are always amazed at how [...]
Twitter includes a 140 character limit on each twit. Sounds like an ideal constraint to me. Challenge to students: summarise today's lesson in one twit. Provide a copy of the blank above to each student…
Paul Constant has written a review of twitter as a series of twitter posts (via daringfireball.net). Now, what I want to [...]
OFCOM have published comparative maps of mobile broadband coverage (Jan 2009) showing various providers for the UK.
t-mobile 3G above…
3G coverage.
No brainer, if you live in Scotland, you need a wired connection. What surprised me was the fractal holes in the Birmingham conurbation area on t-mobile (my current web'n'walk modem) and the contrast with 3G, the [...]
Image*After and MorgueFile are Web resources where you can find and download high resolution photos for use in PowerPoint presentations or Web pages. MorgueFile's name comes from the archives kept by newspapers and the Police of old photographs. You can used the 'advanced' search page in Flickr and specify only images with a Creative Commons [...]
Computers should be like toasters, they should just work for years and then when they stop working, you should be able to pop out and buy a new one. Toasters don't need backups, and a major cause of problems with computers is loosing data (which may include family pictures and purchased music as well as [...]
Virtual learning environments: an evaluation of their development in a sample of educational settings is a report from OFSTED that looked at 18 college VLEs, with 'reviews' of 5 more.
"We found that the exploitation of VLEs at curriculum level resembled more of a cottage industry than a national technological revolution."
Of course, if you want a [...]
The crux of the problem. Active learning is known to be more effective than receiving information, but we don't use the active tools in Moodle. Geoff Petty gives out a large number of handouts on the downloads page of his Web site. The pyramid above was found in the Word file called Active Learning Works, [...]
Professor Alan Staley is Head of the Learning Technology Development Unit at BCU. He has introduced Moodle as BCU's VLE and has used the introduction of a VLE to encourage more active styles of teaching and more focus on pedagogy. I attended a JISC West Midlands Regional Support Centre user group meeting some years ago [...]
Diana Laurillard is professor of Learning with Digital Technologies at the London Knowledge Lab. Laurillard wrote a very influential book called Rethinking University Teaching, published by Routledge, second edition with updated examples and a few modifications was released in 2001. Roger Rist has provided a brief summary of the conversational model from which I [...]
I hate to admit it, but the future is probably with small portable devices rather than Web Books.
Just a way of looking at Moodle courses that Alan Staley described during a Moodle User Group meeting some time ago.
Just a few sentences on each. A draft of some staff training material.
A search engine for Maths. You can type things like "y = (x+1)(x-1)x" or "weather Birmingham UK 2008" and get graphs and data. You can type a search term like "x^3 – 2x = 10" and the system will solve the equation exactly or approximately and draw graphs.
"The crux of the problem lies in the assumption that any program executing on a system on the user's behalf should have the exact same abilities and permissions as any other program executing on behalf of the same user."
OLPC wiki entry for bitfrost
Nice page on the security model built into sugar, the operating system [...]
Vanilla is a simple and rather basic forum script that runs on a Web server and needs a MySQL database and PHP (MySQL 3.23+ and PHP 4.1+). I had an instance working in about 5 minutes. The very basic functionality can be extended using plug-ins. In particular the rather ace autolinks plug in will automatically [...]
Uploaded the screencast about tree diagrams to MoleTV as a test of their system and embedding. I just uploaded the original .mov file I made using iShowU on my iBook. I'll try a .mov converted from an .ogg file recorded on Ubuntu later, shame there is no direct support for .ogg files. MoleTV converts to [...]
Thanks to Geoff Rebbeck for telling us how PebblePad is used in his college. PebblePad is a rich system, so I should not have been so surprised that the way its being used at Thanet is so different to the way I've seen the system for assessed portfolios.
The new building has IWs in each room (240+ across all the campusses), with PCs in teaching rooms. Staff do not have laptops, staff PCs are allocated to staff rooms. There is a campus wide wifi for students so they can use their own laptops – the students authenticate and are taken to a landing [...]
I'm attending an unconference tomorrow at Gloucester College. This event is supported by a community page on the ning.com social networking site, I'll link to that when the event is over. Ning is easy to use as a participant and provides a range of tools (photo, video sharing, automatic generation of slide shows from photos, [...]
Modem connected web book allows students to see YouTubes and encourages them to use blog between lessons.
Lens aberrations clearly visible on cheap compact digital camera
"For those uninitiated with Layer Tennis, the premise is simple: two players trade a Photoshop document back and forth, each player has 15 minutes to iterate on the previous "volley†however they see fit. The matches are played live on Friday afternoons, and people follow along and comment via Twitter. It really isn't about winning [...]
http://m.slideshare.com/ is a landing page on Slideshare for mobile phones. The resolution of each slide is reduced to 240 by 180 (still in horizontal mode). I noticed that slides with white backgrounds and sparse content did not always render properly (big black blocks on some slides obscuring the image, as if the writing was 'missed' [...]
Useful online graph paper generator allows you to save PDF files with a choice of grids
Fujifilm Finepix J12 point and shoot makes nice classroom pictures. Battery has to be removed for charging.
Ubuntu repositories contain this program, it does what it says on the packet
Record my desktop from the Ubuntu repositories produces a screencam video of your Ubuntu session
MSIE v6 ignores the two forward slash style comments in CSS, and Firefox and Safari don't. You can have different styles on different browsers…
ScreenToaster is now out of beta testing, and a lot of the sharp edges have been rounded off. ScreenToaster is a Web application that allows you to make screen videos of what you are doing on your computer and share them with others.
I've just used it to provide a series of videos of how to [...]
Individual attention?Self-directed learning?Tailored Curriculum?None of the above?
The BETT 2009 homepage has a poll on the right hand side of the page. After some deliberation, I went for 'tailored curriculum' and found myself in the majority (a fairly unusual position for me). I was dithering over 'none of the above' for some 30 seconds or so [...]
Simple metaphor, cross platform, open source
Contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity
8 minutes on how to link slides together and build a menu in PowerPoint.
areas of the states projected so that they are proportional to the number of seats in the electoral college. By Mark Newman
Will Richardson
Have a look at http://eduspaces.net/keithpeter/
I'm testing how the aggregation of feeds into ELGG blogs works.
Anyone else going to ELGG meeting in Brighton on the 1st of December?
ScreenToaster is in Beta but still creates smooth animations from my Ubuntu box
Answering some questions from today
Just a few slides on what, why, who and how
"If I were to do it again I might well go down the road of using students as actors, shooting very short scripts and using my digital camera to film. The results would be very different and not so generally useful, but it would be less of an investment in time."
Chris Jackson – skills for [...]
Free geometry software
Bob Staake screen cam…
Using older software because it is familiar and does what you need.
Using illustrations to convey concepts can save time and can support students who have a visual orientation. Drawing a visual representation of a set of ideas or a process forces you to think in a different way compared with linear text. A project run by several Universities in Europe has resulted in the visual-literacy.org Web [...]
gOS is a version of Linux that is intended to be easy to use and designed around what most computer users want to do (Web, photos, music, e-mail, documents). The distribution is based on Ubuntu, in turn based on Debian, but the gOS people have made an honest attempt to make the desktop easy to [...]
"Many of the students we spoke to are making some use of their own tools to socialise and network in personal and public spaces, and in doing so are actually supporting their learning in that they use these tools to communicate and share information and resources between themselves and their peers, even though they did [...]
What do we put in front of people's eyes?
Staff development: some reasons why we need to get serious about online learning as well as the mouse clicking
NeoOffice is a build of OpenOffice that integrates with the Mac OS X desktop much better than OpenOffice does.
Make tag clouds from text
The humble spreadsheet can encourage students to talk about doing mathematics. Ideas and investigations you develop are futureproof. The 'small laptops' that are becoming more common allow more flexible use of class based pair and group work.
The multimedia capture device we all carry
Teaching Creative Writing blog by Susan Lee Kerr
Feedback from the InTuition Spring 2008 article
How to use tumblr.com and why you would want to
Low power PC bolts onto the back of your LCD panel and provides Web access and basic wordprocessing and office.
What do the built in microphones sound like? Not too bad, a bit low on the treble but reasonable sensitivity. High pass filter in Audacity sorted it.
Windows or not?
We like this…
How to explain what VLEs, eportfolios and such things do
How about this as a synopsis of the role?
Scoping a portal for a college
Microsoft foobar
A series of course designs from the Institute of Education
Scatter diagram with draggable data points demonstrates line of best fit issues
You can use KeyNote 08 to make screencasts
Cross platform tape slide package for the Interweb thing
It is that time of year again – some text I wrote for an online conference on blogging.
For Mac OS X, cocoa native based on the Gnu Image Manipulation Program
How to install the well known quiz generator on Windows XP
Migrants are big users of communications technology
Oddmuse is a wiki script written in perl. It is based on the Usemod wiki script, but can produce valid xhtml. Oddmuse does not need a database, page data is stored in text files.
To get a wiki running on a Web server that runs Apache (1.2 upwards) and that can run perl cgi scripts, you [...]
Quiz program for individual student support
I'm both in different parts of the lesson. I think that many people assume that PowerPoint use implies Sage role, and I was trying to provide counterexamples.
Charles Nelson takes me to task in my post about PowerPoint in a post on his Explorations in Learning blog as follows
"One point that needs to be considered a [...]
What is appropriate, when and why?
The Learning Circuits blog has posed this question about PowerPoint, with some detailed side questions. My answers below. See also Clive Shepherd's answer on his Clive on Learning blog. I like the example slides put up by Jay Cross, especially the little chap 'reading' a technical manual upside down! In [...]
Testing the ScribeFire blog tool, a plugin for Firefox. You can post to blog directly from Firefox, and you can upload pictures using the WordPress image upload script.
The HTML produced by the rich text editor is familiar to Firefox and Mozilla users, full of line break tags. At present, there appears to be no [...]
Using a blog to get views before a staff development event.
Document sharing site, will this be useful?
Get a blog going, use flickr and TeacherTube, just do something
Latest stable version installs easily on hosted server space
YouTube for teachers uses 'post anything, the community decides' model for inappropriate content.
A list of names, each name appears and disappears in a three second cycle
What do we need to teach people about computers?
Being a little subtle can pay off, and not just with IT support
Do the findings actually help you design activities?
Michael Wesch and students producing remarkable stuff
Installing Apache and UseMod on Xubuntu
Slideshare.net lets you share slides. Imagine if you could record sound and time transitions…
The social browser has limited blogging tool built-in.
Mohamed Taher has assembled a nice page of links
Jason Fried's short blog post is all about communities of practice
From JISC North West. Value added over projector?
Kodak EasyShare C310 for quick snaps
Alan Staley gave a talk at the Moodle User Group meeting today. He showed one slide that struck me as being a very useful way of explaining the various ways of using Moodle to teachers. This simple (well, simple when you see someone else explain it) diagram provides a classification scheme for VLE courses.
This small app allows you to enter a Web address and then save a PNG graphics file of the whole page – screen grabs that are a couple of thousand pixels high.
Change two image files in the default WordPress theme to produce a white page area with sparse header image. I wanted a high key look with plenty of space and no 'boxes'.
YouTube screencast of RBL session 5 deals with distance travelled, the planning and milestones for resource based learning projects, the way I intend to use progress reviews to support participants in carrying out their project plans, and some quick hints on a piece of writing that is due in shortly. The screencast took two takes of about 7 or 8 minutes to produce. The visuals are simply the slides I will use in the f2f session anyway.
9 minutes and 46 seconds on basic probability, including the probability scale, expected frequencies, mutually exclusive and independent events, possibility space diagrams and even a without replacement problem. All aimed at a GCSE Intermediate group. The .mov file was produced by 'presenting' a PowerPoint while speaking a commentary recorded using iShowU screen cam software. YouTube provide the hosting and convert the .mov to a Flash movie.
Option-Backspace does deleting…
The screen design screencast MOV was uploaded to YouTube. I'm now waiting for it to be 'processed' so that the video can be watched.
A screencast made on Mac OS X using iShowU and Video2SWF to produce a flash movie with synchronised sound.
Just a trial of the tags for embedding. This post should show the Tiny Dot video about the scale of the solar system posted by saulatali79.
Intellectual property rights may damage innovation and split markets. Lessig explains using the Google Book Search as an example, through the medium of a presentation with sound track.
In previous years, we have used a collective blog for journalism students with the tutor acting as editor. Perhaps it is now time to encourage NCTJ students to set up their own blogs on blogger or similar and self-publish (with safeguards for the College).
Download a 34 page handout that describes the various ways in which a teacher in an FE College in the UK might support students using various ICT/ILT/e-learning facilities. This is a draft, and I'm starting with the text and then adding photos, screen grabs and Web addresses later. Some of my colleagues will actually scan a handout like this and read parts that attract their attention.
What is an Interactive Whiteboard? How can I use it? A description of the two main kinds of whiteboard ('hard' and 'soft' or membrane boards), and the two main modes (screen annotation and whiteboard).
MS PowerPoint makes it easy to produce screens with a mix of images, text and embedded sound and video clips. Microsoft have included a set of 'slide layouts' based on bullet points and screen-width text containers. Both Tufte and Godin are critical of these templates for contrasting reasons.
PowerPoint allows you to associate actions with buttons and other objects on slides. You can switch off the slide transition and use PowerPoint as a system for producing screen based learning packages. This 12 page handout covers the basics…
Staff development notes: I may turn these into a script. Just a few points on how to use e-mail effectively with students.
PDF newspaper free download from Guardian Unlimited
Minimalist pages show just the news stories as they update
What to do if one arrives in your room
Some web applications that let you choose and customise pictures
a bit of that reflection and story writing…
wikispaces.com provides relatively cheap wiki hosting
Learning through play
Keith patents breathing…
Richard Treves has analysed a free course on Google Earth and found that 'build it and they will come' does not always work
Inexpensive 'technology' to get all students responding
How to reduce cable noise…
Milton Keynes and the Open University go moodling…
Can students teach themselves using the Web?
It may be the technology
Now I have the topics mapped, it is time to start adding bits of content
Draggable triangle with perpendicular height
Time to start putting some content in soon
Tabbed browsing and RSS feeds in a side bar…
Photoshop and then copy paste a calendar in
Winner of recent BBC redesign contest does a Being John Malkovich
e-learning definition used by OFSTED very broad and includes ILT/ICT
This timeline is all my own work and I didn't look at the textbook… Lesson 2 and 3 applied to an animation showing how the area of a parallelogram is calculated…
Hog Bay software provide a small app that turns your iBook or MacBook into an Alphasmart with built in hand heater
External mailing lists and registrations can be a source of spam. Use plus addressing to keep tags on where the spam is coming from
Tinderbox from Eastgate systems allows rapid development of complex web sites and a visual map of 'emergent structure' of a teaching task
1 Gb storage for files on the Web.
Just some notes for colleagues for a training session
If you have any version of the Flash Player from 5 upwards installed on your browser, then the yellow and blue grid above should show a blue square and a red triangle moving around and changing their opacity.
The animation loops once and then stops, and the frame rate is 15 frames per second. According to [...]
Being able to express thoughts in writing is key to any career
Flash Journalism by Mindy McAdams, lesson 1. Why is a maths teacher using a book aimed at journalists?
Sound track acts as anchor to video
4 minutes and 15 seconds on what a Virtual Learning Environment can do for you
Does the blog act as a gateway to the VLE or does the VLE contain the blog?
Cheaper digital speech recorders can't produce CD quality but may have plenty of uses in the classroom – just put an external mic on!
Moodle at Shefcol according to Julia DugglebyBlogging by meSeb Schmoller's fortnightly mailing is now published by typepad. Seb is inviting guest contributions, and I was honoured to be asked to contribute. I wrote about using blogger as a way of getting colleagues interested in online support. My contribution meshed in with Julia's about the next [...]
"Some lecture classes have 250 students, so I question the effectiveness of a didactic lecture for an hour."
Dr Bill Ashraf will be distributing lectures by podcast soon in place of live lectures in a theatre. In groups of 250 plus I can see his point: no one ever asks a question in a group of [...]
Not tabloid hacks with fast habits but a book about how to use Macromedia Flash to make Web based news stories. One included exercise is about synchronising sound with image transitions: flash lessons here we come…
We were looking at finding a value for the intercept of a straight line graph when the scale of the graph made it difficult to have an X axis that started at zero – we were setting up and solving a simple equation within a context.
This second whiteboard processed using ScanR was taken in [...]
The photo above shows one of today's whiteboards as imaged using my Olympus Camedia point and shoot – the images are 1600 by 1200 pixels. I resized the image above using Photoshop Elements with bi-cubic resampling. No other adjustments have been made, the flat image is typical of this camera. A quick e-mail to ScanR.com [...]
Scanr is a Web service that claims to "convert photos of whiteboards and documents into searchable PDF files". The 'searchable' bit applies to pictures of documents with typed text (see later). The service certainly makes converting fuzzy badly lit images of (ordinary) whiteboards more readable. The 'whiteboard' function can also be used to convert [...]
Moodle 1.53 and 1.6 can be 'installed' on a USB stick. Just make sure the drive letter assigned to the stick stays the same on each machine
Yotophoto is a search engine for copyright free or free use images
Anyone got recommendations for simple digital sound recorders?
Re-installed Moodle 1.53 stable
Anyone going?
Inspiration now does Buzan style mind maps in addition to the more flexible free symbol maps provided previously.
Open Office 2.0 can export PowerPoint presentations as rudimentary flash animations
Script and MP3 of a short talk on blogs in education
Blog about presentations
Preview allows you to cut diagrams out of PDF files and save them as PNG or JPG files
Spreadsheet shows effect of adding two phase shifted sine waves
Pop some graphs on the gcse blog and ask for the equations by e-mail?
Google Earth and data handling activities
Google Earth for Mac OS X
To remove blank lines from a text file in Textwrangler, you have to run search and replace, tick the 'use Grep' option and then search on the pattern ^r. Replace with nowt and the effect is magic. A boon to the 'everything in one big text file' advocates.
The pattern < /?[^>]> can be used to [...]
Put the whole of GCSE Maths where you can see it
Netscape 8 for Windows has a spyware/adware scanner built in
OpenOffice is an Open Source office application produced with a large amount of support from Sun Microsystems. Because the application is open source, you can burn CDs and pass copies to students (or anyone!). Students have downloaded the package and used the Impress presentation component to produce presentations – laptops are often sold with [...]
The demonstration version of Reduce for Windows (scroll down page when it loads) – a computer algebra package – can be used to factorise large prime numbers (and polynomials!) as a way of demonstrating the properties of large numbers. Interactive sessions on a projector (the fonts are a bit small but there is no [...]
Note added 6 March 2006 :: It looks as if security update 2006-001 addresses these two issues, at least as regards Safari and Mail. I picked this one up through software update some days ago.
Its hassle Apple week, with a 'drive by download' exploit appearing and being reported on the front page of the BBC [...]
Quiz suite written by esol teacher is at version 6 and getting seriously useful
Excel on projector helps provide rapidly updated charts to trigger discussion
MeatBall wiki page about educational uses of wikis and other links
The transit time of a planet can help you find the planet in the sky and can help plan observing trips
MS Excel or any spreadsheet on a projector with whole class questions
Some projects in Southern Africa aim to reduce the impact of the digital divide
Minimal instant on keyboard usable on trains and allows capture of text in meetings and in odd corners of time.
MS PowerPoint can help you plan writing – forces focus on structure
A simple blog can act as a diary for a class.
Moodle runs OK under Mac OS X apache with MySQL 4.0.2x- just needs graphics library
Gossamer-Threads forum is free to non-profit organisations and has good user management but without bulk upload. Discus Pro costs about £70 but has user creation by spreadsheet.
Temperature records kept from 1659 to present day allow trends to be identified
Tinderbox allows a quick and dirty HTML export template and the construction of a course web site in a very short time
Industrial archaeology in the cyber age? We need to preserve the appearance of the older user interfaces and this site does it well.
Some links on learning theory
Use the 'forms' toolbar in MS Excel to link a slider control with a cell. Then you can make 'dynamic graphs'. Projected onto a screen, you can ask students to predict what the result of a change is going to be.
Download a spreadsheet that simulates breeding 60 fruit flies
The spreadsheet simulates the results of breeding fruit flies (F2 Generation – Second Filial?) where the expected outcome is a simple 1:3 Mendelian ratio of vestigial winged flies to winged flies
The screen shot above shows an anomalous result – a chi-squared statistic well above 3.84, the critical [...]
Try using 4 colours to colour in some maps – harder than it looks
Java applets and some DHTML Javascript can be used for educational purposes- and you don't have to code a line
Analogue synthesisers – a hoot with op amps and noise
Nicholas Negroponte's latest idea for improving education
Some differences between blogs and forums – blogs might encourage student involvement more by being less of a 'performance' but forums might be better for a structured activity
That 'no entry' sign causes lots of trouble
LaTiS Centre Image Archive from Essex University
Thanks for this resource – about 400 free pictures. Mostly .jpegs and around 400 to 600 pixels wide with white backgrounds.
The original Online Map Creator Web site provides an online interface to the GMT package
Planiglobe is the new simplified interface – faster but currently has few options
The original OMC has been around for years and will plot contours of ocean depth and continental height. You can pull the plots down as PS files or [...]
Download a handout for students on organising folders in My Computer. Saves all that stress with failing floppies.
"Alternatives to the 'monolithic' VLE, including public domain and open source VLEs, are emerging strongly. Some, such as 'blogs' and 'wikis', are completely different avenues to electronic publishing and collaboration and can be relatively inexpensive. Although UK universities seem to be surprisingly reluctant to spend less rather than more money on technology solutions, one can [...]
The Becta report based on an 'oportunity' sample of schools using Open Source software to varying extents compared to schools using commercial software (i.e. Windows servers, desktops and Office) has now been published (publication was delayed during the General Election).
The BECTa press release has a good summary
The full BECTa report Open Source Software in Schools [...]
Paper has a function and the paperless office isn't going to happen. Looking at how people use paper might lead us to understand where IT solutions might work well.
The Natioanl Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics is a Web site with a large number of Java applets that invite students to explore Mathematics problems. 'Manipulatives' is the US term for things like Cuisenaire rods and Dienes blocks.
The Java applets are mapped to the US curriculum based on 'grades'. I have used [...]
Java game speeds up estimation with three digit whole numbers.
"Within three months of opening up of the Internet kiosk, it was found that the children, mostly from the slum, had achieved a certain level of computer skills without any planned instructional intervention. They were able to browse the Internet, download songs, go to cartoon sites, work on MS Paint. They even invented their own [...]
Processing is a programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and sound. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional [...]
The NFER has a long term project (started in 2002) tracking students' experience of citizenship education. The most recent report is referenced as follows….CLEAVER, E., IRELAND, E., KERR, D. and LOPES, J. (2005). Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study: Second Cross-Sectional Survey 2004 Listening to Young People: Citizenship Education in England (DfES Research Report 626). London: DfES
The [...]
Free sound editor available for download
Versions for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows
Can edit MP3s and .wav formats
Can record from microphone or other sources supported by the computer
Supports a sound programming language called Nyquist
Possibly the best icon I have seen for an open source program – wouldn't mind getting the T-shirt!
I have this idea of [...]
"Teddys would be with their user for their entire lives. They would change in shape and form to match the growing sophistication and interests of the person, but each time someone got a new model Teddy, the information from the earlier version would be transferred to the new. As a result, Teddy would always retain [...]
Take on the world with a stack of 5 by 3 index cards – one way to get Web sites sorted before clicking on the Dreamweaver icon when building a moderately complex Web site.
This page describes card sorting techniques to help plan Web sites. Ideally card sorting can help define content – not so much [...]
I've been using a simple robust Web based forum with a number of students studying an ICT module on an Applied Science course – students include 16-19, mature full time and mature evening class students. Teaching is primarily face-to-face but with online follow up.
I used the Gossamer Threads forum as it is free to non-profit [...]
Fax your MP is a simple service that does what it says. You can fax your MP from a computer connected to the Internet. You just
type in your postcode
the database comes back with a page about your MP and links to recent votes and speeches
you can then type in a fax (or e-mail if the [...]
PROPS is an online publishing system designed to mimic the workflow found in a small newspaper. Journalists can write stories which can be assigned by an editor. A story can be tracked through first, second and third re-writes and finally added to an 'issue' of the newspaper. Issues can be final (ie published) or staged [...]
MindGenius is a 'mind mapping' software tool for making 'bubble notes' or 'mind maps' – visual diagrams that allow you to explore the links between ideas. Many teachers in humanities subjects use 'mind maps' to motivate students doing essay plans and so on. I'll be using one to help forensic science students produce a report [...]
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I suggest you use a very simple page design and navigation for course sites
In my opinion, that means…
** a home page that acts as a course diary
** a contact form
** a page with downloadable files such as the scheme of work
the course diary should have carefully chosen links added each week at the top of [...]
The ILT category has just a few ideas that have worked for me. The emphasis is on
things that require little preparation other than the teaching plan
30 minutes a week rule
ideas that increase interaction between students in the classroom
ideas that keep students in touch with teachers, peer group or the material in the periods between class [...]
You can use a simple guestbook script (such as Big Sam) to post links and a brief description of what was covered each week for students, especially evening students who come to College once a week and who will inevitably need to miss lessons now and again.
The best strategy is to use a script [...]


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1.5 CLE Credits
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This 1.5 substantive credit program will provide you with a detailed explanation of each step in the bail process under New Jersey law. Ideal for new attorneys and judges. Pretty good for people who are locked up too.
GSCLE Show ID 78

subset: commoncrawl


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Enhancing the Value of the MRC-funded Rheumatoid Arthritis Stratified Medicine and RA-MAP Consortia through Linkage to Complex Datasets
Methotrexate is a highly effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). For some patients, this medication works very well to control the disease and help them maintain a good quality of life. For others, methotrexate may not be suitable due to its side effects, or other medical conditions (comorbidities) can mean that methotrexate is not recommended. Furthermore, some people might respond only partially to methotrexate and need to take additional medication to treat RA. If it was possible to predict who was likely to respond well to Methotrexate, we would be able to start the most suitable treatment for each patient at the very beginning of their treatment journey, rather than using trial and error to find out which medication was best. This is sometimes called personalised medicine.
One of the problems restricting research into personalised medicine for RA is that people with comorbidities are less likely to be involved in clinical trials of drug treatments, due to concerns over the safety of using newer drugs or regimes in patients who may be at greater risk of suffering harm from such trials. One way of finding out how best to treat RA in people with comorbidities is to use observational cohort studies. Instead of offering new or different treatments, cohort studies simply observe what happens when standard care is given. A common problem amongst RA cohort studies is that information on comorbidities is usually obtained by asking the patient to recall details of other illnesses, usually only at the start of the study. This means that details of comorbidities may be incomplete and are not usually updated as the study progresses over time, which is often years.
We are planning to use information collected by general practitioners (GPs) in their practices (primary care) to improve the information on comorbidities available within our RA research cohorts. We will create a larger database containing not only the Leeds RA cohort data, but also details of comorbidities gathered from primary care and data collected from parallel genetic studies. Once this is established, we can conduct research to find out how to identify patients likely to respond to methotrexate, using the important comorbidity data to help make this information useful for treating individual patients. Once we have perfected this approach it will be possible to expand our research to study other treatments and study the long-term outcomes of patients with RA.


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[Opinion] Why Did Game Streaming Platforms, such as NimoTV, Fail in Indonesia?
Short answer? They failed to sell a dream.
There were at least 3 game streaming platforms in Indonesia, CubeTV, Game.ly, and NimoTV. Unfortunately, all of them failed. NimoTV was the last one to close its gaming operation a couple of months ago.
Some said that it's because NimoTV had bigger expenses than its revenue. Others said it had flaws in its business models. Well, it's kind of obvious I think. Many businesses failed because of their business models. It's kind of apparent too that income needs to be bigger than expenses. Yet, it still doesn't explain the underlying problems.
Moreover, we live in a tech startup era where venture capital firms pouring a lot of money into fast-growing companies – not necessarily the ones who make a lot of profit. Therefore, business models are not the only reason why a company fails these days.
So, why did NimoTV and other game streaming platforms fail in Indonesia?
First, I need to state that I don't know the exact reasons why the game streaming platforms in Indonesia closed their businesses. Maybe nobody knows, except the higher-ups in each company. However, I believe those game streaming platforms at least failed in selling the dreams to aspiring game streamers and content creators.
Selling a Dream
I would argue that if you want the masses to participate in your projects, companies, trends, or anything, you need to create and sell a dream. Whether the dream is achievable or not, that's not the point as long as you could sell it to the masses.
Esports has done this very well. In the previous era, it was only the jocks and the musicians who can be the celebrities. Gamers? Not so much. With esports, gamers who have exceptional skills could rise to be a star.
Another rising trend is NFT and cryptocurrency. Both of them also manage to sell the dream to become crazy rich in a matter of days or months, or with a little investment.
Meanwhile, game streaming platforms in Indonesia failed to sell the dream because they brought the biggest content creators and streamers from other platforms, especially YouTube.
JessNoLimit, Donkey, Zuxxy, and Luxxy are the ones I remember streamed on NimoTV. Meanwhile, I remember that, in the early days of Game.ly, Atta Halilintar would stream on that platform. In case you didn't know, Atta Halliintar is the most popular YouTuber from Indonesia, at least at the time of this writing.
Besides causing so much bigger expenses, the fatal impact is failing to sell the dream.
Imagine this as if you're an aspiring content creator or streamer. You would think that, in order to get a contract from those game streaming platforms, you have to be a star first on other platforms, such as YouTube. Or you have to be one of the best players in the esports scene, like Donkey, Zuxxy, or Luxxy. On the other side, you would also feel pessimistic to compete with the biggest name. It's certainly so much harder to compete with JessNoLimit and Donkey if you want to stream Mobile Legends – compare to competing with other amateur streamers.
If you ask me, I would have a totally different strategy. I would invite anyone to stream on my platform, whether they already have followers and experience or not. I would also find mid-class content creators or streamers from other platforms who have potential but are struggling to reach the top in their respective platforms.
Then I will curate the potential and new streamers, and make them rise to the top of my new platform. When I find my new stars, I would use the big budget (that otherwise needed to hire the stars from other platforms) to promote them outside of my platform as massively as possible. While I could also spread the idea about how hard to make money on other platforms, something like "did you know only 0.25% of all YouTube channels are making money?". I could also argue that making names on YouTube is also harder because you have to compete with content creators outside of the gaming and esports industries.
This strategy is definitely better in selling the dream – that you could rise from zero to hero on my platform, not on other platforms. If you don't believe me, let's check TikTok and Twitch. Who are the biggest names on Twitch or TikTok? The biggest names on Twitch and TikTok are not the most popular on YouTube.
If I said, Ninja and Pokimane, you would automatically think Twitch. Meanwhile, if I mention Charli D'Amelio and Khabane Lame, you would associate it with TikTok.
A Quick Buck
I am pretty sure it's not just me who could think of this strategy. I may be arrogant but not ignorant. There must be some people in those game streaming companies who have the similar idea that I mentioned earlier. So, why didn't they use that?
I think it's because the higher-ups want the company to generate revenue and gain viewers as fast as possible. The game streaming platforms in Indonesia generated revenue by making the viewers send gifts to their favourite streamers. The strategy does make sense if you want viewers to send gifts as early as possible. It's also a better strategy to gain new viewers on your new platforms. However, by favouring so much into viewers and fast revenue, you would be stunting the growth of new content creators and streamers on your platform.
IMO, hiring top YouTubers or esports players also doesn't create strong loyalty for the content creators or streamers. Let's say there is an imaginary streamer, JissNoLemet. He is very popular on YouTube but also streams on NimoTV. Then imagine there is a new star on NimoTV called LimitedJosh, who is as popular as Jiss but Joss started his career on NimoTV and only streams there. It would be logical to think that Joss will fight harder to promote NimoTV since he has nowhere else to go if it fails. While Jiss will always have YouTube.
In the end…
Since maybe there is someone who didn't get the answer from my explanation above, let me summarize this.
Like I said before, I don't know the exact reason why those game streaming platforms closed. It could be many things.
However, I do believe that those game streaming platforms failed to sell the dreams and create new stars -- unlike Twitch or TikTok. Most (if not all) of their stars are top YouTubers. The failure of creating new stars on each respective platform becomes the underlying problem that creates other problems.
First, it doesn't inspire new content creators unique to each platform. YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok are big because of their unique stars. In turn, each platform offers less content and its content varieties.
The cost of doing business becomes too big for too long because they can't rely on user-generated content. The revenue from the gifts might not be enough to sustain. Even putting ads as a new revenue source might not be enough or even make viewers run away because the platforms don't offer unique 'celebrities'.


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All your TV, all in one app
The Apple TV app is the home for everything you want to watch, including original films and TV programmes from Apple TV+, and every Major League Soccer match with MLS Season Pass. You'll discover the best of what's on, personalised and curated just for you.
Sign in to start watching now
Use your Apple ID to sign in. You can purchase or rent movies, and access previous purchases or rentals. You can also subscribe to Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, STARZ and more.
Watch together
With SharePlay, you can watch movies or shows with anyone, anywhere.
To explore the Apple TV App User Guide, click Table of Contents at the top of the page or enter a word or phrase in the search field.


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Do you have the skills to run your own entrepreneurial hustle, but you're missing promotional tips and marketing tools? Don't have the capacity to hire a team of marketing professionals or the time to go back to school and learn the ins and outs of marketing? Here is a place to get started!
Let's start with the basics. When you think about marketing, do you picture the influencers that you follow on Instagram? How about the sponsored posts you scroll past on Facebook? These are some fairly new examples of marketing in the digital age.
Marketing at its core is creating value for a product or service. This broad definition is jam packed with strategy, software, content, and design. Since graduating from Drexel University, I've only begun to peel back the layers of what people think marketing entails. When an electrical engineer types the position she is looking for into the search bar on LinkedIn or Monster, she sees all of the potential positions right in front of her. When a marketing professional searches for job opportunities, they have to think outside of the box:
- Media Design Coordinator
- Digital Media Coordinator
- Marketing Specialist
- Copywriter
- Integrated Marketing Representative
- Content Specialist
- Communications Manager
- Advertising Consultant
- Brand Sales Manager
- Marketing Analyst
The list goes on and on. Marketers wear a lot of hats – which can be challenging when you're first getting started, but as you move forward in your career, you learn more and develop skills you never thought you'd have. Some skills that fall under marketing are:
- Editing
- Blogging
- Website Maintenance
- Photography
- Video Production
- Photo Editing
- Copywriting
- Analytics
- Social Media
- Design
- Event Planning
- Branding
- Customer Relationship Management
- Market Research
- E-Commerce
- Search Engine Optimization
The more advanced technology becomes (thanks internet), the more skills and softwares need to be learned.
So why should this matter to an entrepreneur; aka the brains, the guts, and the ideas behind an organization? With all of these ever-evolving technologies, how are you supposed to keep up with the latest marketing tactics to promote to your target market and not get bogged down by the endless, overwhelming promotional opportunities? You need a one-stop shop to learn the bare minimum of skills to promote your new venture and to find your potential customers.
Until you have the money to hire your own marketing consultant or team of marketing professionals, use the resources on my blog to promote your business and find the people who you aim to help with your products and services.
What do I really need to get my business seen?
Let's break down the bare minimum starter pack you need as an entrepreneur.
Don't get overwhelmed – you've made it this far. You're the brains behind the organization, so let me help you get started!


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I have had this thought on my brain all day today — and I really need to get it out. It's getting late and I haven't even had time to make dinner yet. The stomach is growling. But the thought persists and will not be denied! Bear with me here while I fill you in.
This morning while walking and pondering the sorrowful mysteries as I said my mental rosary – I had one of those 'ah-hah!' moments that have been popping up quite frequently lately. Moments where I gain insight based on looking at something from a perspective that I hadn't considered before. This morning that perspective had to do with Jesus being condemned – his interview with Pilate – and Pilate's inability to do the right thing. The thought that caught my attention had everything to do with Pilate's motivation behind his actions. If Pilate found no fault in Jesus, no crime to convict him of — why condemn him to death? Simply stated – it was the path of least resistance. Literally. Pilate didn't want to rock the boat. He didn't want chaos, or disorder, or a rebellion, or an angry mob. He didn't want his boss to question his ability to maintain control. It was so much easier for Pilate to just 'give the people what they want', wash his hands of the entire mess, and walk away.
That's what started me thinking … this is where the 'ah-hah!' comes in. I have to ask myself — is there a little bit of Pilate within us all? How many of us have opted to not correct someone's misconception of the Church / our faith / belief in God because we simply didn't want the confrontation or the argument? How many of us have compromised our obligations to children or family members with regard to the Catholic faith because again – it's easier to just let it slide or give in this once or twice or thirty-three times? Have we ever thought 'I am just too tired to deal with this for now' or 'It's not worth the aggravation'? Can't drag that teenager out of bed for religious education? {Maybe next week}. Dare not tell your friend that NO, he shouldn't be dating before a divorce and annulment? {It's not my place, right?} Too embarrassed to put your foot down about Church teachings? {Everyone is entitled to believe what they want, I will keep my beliefs to myself}. Don't want to question why family members refuse to attend Mass? {That's on them, not me. I am not responsible for anyone else but me}. There you go … that little bit of Pilate within.
Don't rock the boat.
Don't start an argument.
Don't risk upsetting anyone. Or losing a friend.
Give the people what they want.
There's a lesson to be learned here. We are called to resist that little bit of Pilate. Embrace the Truth. There is only one Truth. Not your truth and my truth. Truth is not relative. Sometimes, being 'politically correct' or taking the path of least resistance is wrong. It's probably wrong a lot more than just sometimes. Some things are black and white. Sometimes you SHOULD insist, correct, explain, question, and rock that boat. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, to grant you the courage and the WILL to stand up for Truth, to do it lovingly and gently if possible. Keeping the peace isn't a virtue if you allow those around you to fall into error and remain there. Practice some of those works of mercy: instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish sinners, and comfort the sorrowful – but do it with love and without Pilate.


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John Hafzalla's Profile
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BiographyIn a few words, my greatest joys in life are fueled by words and pictures. Pretty simple right? I strive to inspire people through my writing and photography so they too can pursue their passions and fight for happier days when the rough times hit.
Varsity Tutors
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University of Washington
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Good morning everyone! We are so excited to kick off a week of collection reveals. We are starting off with the new collection from Maggie Holmes and it's completely gorgeous! Let's get started!
Capture moments of creativity with Styleboard, the newest collection from Maggie Holmes and Crate Paper. Inspired by designers' collage-style inspiration boards, Styleboard offers vintage icons of cameras, records, florals and butterflies in bright colors complemented by gold accents.
This beautiful collection includes 12 double-sided patterned papers, chipboard, stickers, photo overlays and journaling cards. The collection also includes versatile embellishments with gold accents including chipboard Thickers, labels, an ephemera pack, vellum shapes and vintage-inspired frames.
We hope you love the collection! Visit us every day for a chance to win a Styleboard prize pack! We will announce the details later in the week :)


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- The thickest padded belt offering wider webbing and extra comfort for heavier loads
- The key to a comfortable pack, shifts the weight off the shoulders
Proper Hiking Hip Belts are Included!
Our secret sauce, a proper hiking hip belt that loads the weight away from your shoulders and onto your hips. All Atlas Packs hip belt's are interchangeable and can be used with all packs. And because the hip belt is removable, it's easy to make your pack smaller when you need; perfect for daily use and light loads
The Adventure Hip Belt-our thickest padded belt offering two layers of foam padding and a wider webbing and buckle. Most comfortable for heavier loads or longer hikes. The Adventure Hip Belt construction includes dual layers of foam padding with 38mm buckle and webbing. Works best with heavy load outs. Available in S/M - XL/XXL sizes.
Why a fitted hip belt?
Finding the right size is easy. Checkout the fitting chart and follow the steps. The most important measurement is to make sure the padding is long enough to cover your hips. If the padding falls short, then the weight of the pack will not properly transfer away from your shoulders and load on to your hips
Option 1: Pants Size
Choose hip belt size based on your pants size. This is the easiest way and works 95% of the time. If you are between sizes, then use the other options.
Option 2: Measure Hip Span
Measure the span of your hips, just the length needed for the padding to cover both (end to end) plus a few smidges. Still unsure? Size up!


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Keta! The Land of Awesome Tourist Attractions That are Worth Visiting
Ghana is and has always been known for it's wide range of tourist attractions and facilities. For the traveller, Ghana is that latter-day unknown, unexplored and certainly an unexploited destination which abounds in an unbelievable array of striking attractions, distinctive and peculiar to each of the ten regions in Ghana and Keta is not different.
There are four major areas of interest to the tourist in Ghana, namely, Culture, History, Ecology and Recreation. Tourism in Ghana is regulated by the Ministry of Tourism of Ghana, the Government of Ghana ministry responsible for the development and promotion of tourism related activities in Ghana.
Keta has a lot of awesome Tourist attractions that are worth visiting everyday and like other tourist areas in Ghana, Keta's beauty will sweep you off your feet.
Keta is a town in the Volta Region of Ghana. It is the capital of the Keta Municipal District. It is the sixty-first most populous settlement in Ghana in terms of population, with a population of 23,207.
Located in South-Eastern Ghana, Keta Municipality is one of the most rewarding and interesting places of this beautiful country. Steeped in rich history and a fascinating array of cultures, Keta provides endless opportunities and excitement for the traveler looking for something a bit different.
Below is a list of 10 favourite tourist attractions worth visiting in Keta.
FORT PRINZENSTEIN: Fort Prinzenstein was built in 1784 by the Danes after a war against the people of Anlo and Keta. It is the only slave Fort built on east of the Volta river and has been the heart and soul of the Danish slave trade in Africa. Two Thirds of the fort was destroyed by the sea around the 1960s to 80s but 3 out of the 9 slave dungeons still stand.
ATORKOR SLAVE MARKET: Atorkor Slave Market is one of the major slave markets in Ghana and a monument has been erected at the place to remember the Africans who were sold in the slave trade. It is a well kept tourist site worth visiting.
CAPE ST. PAUL LIGHTHOUSE: Cape St. Paul Lighthouse in Woe is said to be the oldest lighthouse in Ghana and was built in 1901 to direct ships away from a mountain in the sea around Woe. A climb to the top of the lighthouse would give you a very beautiful and breathtaking view of the beautifully stretched sandy Keta Beach.
KETA BEACH: The white beautiful and clean sandy beach in Keta is one of a kind. The Keta coastline has a beautiful sandy beach that would massage your feet and the breeze would soothe your soul. If you love to have a long walk on a beautiful clean beach then go to Keta.
KETA LAGOON RESORT: Ever seen an African village city on a Lagoon? Well a trip to the Keta lagoon resort would make you not want to go back home. Although temporary closed down for renovations, it is one place you need to prepare to visit with your loved ones when it's reopened.
ABORIGINES BEACH RESORT: If you love to spend time on an African beach and truly feel the African atmosphere first hand then you need to visit the Aborigines Beach resort in Keta for a memorable experience.
MEET ME THERE LODGE: Meet Me There Lodge is one of the most beautiful African inspired lodge. You need to visit to see the way the owners are helping develop the community of Dzita and the environment is serene and natural. You would love this place.
CHILL RIVER RESORT: Chill River Resort at Tunu is the latest addition to the beautiful tourist attractions springing up at the Keta-Anloga area and the Chill River resort is just another place you would go crazy for. The resort stretches into the Volta river and they have boats you can take for a tour on one of the largest man-made lake in Africa.
COCOBAY BEACH BAR AND GRILL: In case you're in Keta and you want a quiet serene environment so you guys can eat some quality African home cooked food as well as have some tailored drinks or a party in Keta then Cocobay Beach Bar and Grill by the Ocean is your preferred choice. You would thank me later.
A&Y WILD CAMP: A&Y Wild Camp is one quiet environment you can camp at and enjoy nature in Ghana at its best form.
Source: Phamousghana.com/Barima Kwabena Owusu
Credits: Selorm Ameza


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How Much Does Florida "Homeowners Insurance" Cost?
Florida homeowners can save significantly on their homeowner's insurance premiums by taking advantage of wind loss mitigation credits available for those who take measures to protect a home from wind damage.
Florida homes that are located closer to the coastline are more exposed to damages caused by the high winds experienced during a hurricane. Insurers have calculated that higher amounts are paid in these areas due to wind damage, and have raised their premiums accordingly for homes located in these areas.
In Florida, policyholders must consider two sections of the premium. The first section is charged for wind coverage caused by a hurricane, and the second is for all other causes of loss. Under Florida law, policyholders can choose their own deductible from either $500, or a percentage of value of the home, which can be 2 percent, 5 percent or 10 percent. If you want to save premium it makes sense to choose a higher deductible, however it means that if a loss occurs you will have to pay more of the loss yourself.
Insurance companies operating in the State of Florida are required to provide discounts to homeowners that protect their homes against wind damage. Securing roof structures and protecting windows from flying debris are the two most common hurricane wind protections employed. Those who take such measures will see a reduction in the hurricane-wind portion of their homeowner's insurance premium.
In order to qualify for discounts, an inspection will need to be conducted by a licensed professional such as a building inspector, building contractor, architect, engineer or building code official. This professional will have to certify that proper wind mitigation steps have been taken.
The cost of wind mitigation improvements can vary. For best results, homeowners should seek estimates from qualified and licensed professional contractors.
Some characteristics of buildings that will qualify for discounts include how the roof structure is built. Nailing patterns of plywood and connections between framing members are evaluated. Sometimes these can be modified to meet code. The use of special metal clips can also be considered as wind mitigation techniques. These clips are most often used to secure the edges of rafters or trusses to the top of a wall structure. They can also be used to secure a wooden wall structure to a concrete foundation.
The shape of your roof will also play a factor. Hip roofs are shaped more like a pyramid than a gable style roof, and are more resilient to wind damage. It would be costly to modify a roof from a gable to a hip roof however.
Homes with shutters are considered more wind resistant as well. Not all shutters are created equally however. Be sure to have your shutters evaluated by a professional to obtain the maximum protection, and maximum wind mitigation discount available.
Consult a professional insurance agent for more information on the discounts that can apply to the hurricane-wind portion of your homeowner's insurance premium. Remember that wind mitigation steps can only affect the hurricane-wind portion of the premium however.


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The lame duck Congress and President Obama are retarding the recovery. It's tough medicine to swallow– ending unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for three years– but it is necessary if we want recovery.
The official U.S. unemployment rate has not been beneath 9 percent since April 2009, and it is unlikely to dip until much of the currently unemployed take jobs paying lower wages and benefits. Back in 2000, 7.2 percent of blue collar workers were either unemployed or underemployed. Today that figure is a staggering 19.5 percent.
When 2007 began, over 1 million Americans were unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans unemployed for half a year or longer. Since 2000, we have lost 10% of our living wage jobs. In the year 2000 there were approximately 72 million living wage jobs in the United States, but today, there are only about 65 million jobs capable of supporting a middle class lifestyle
When comparing 1940 with 2010, the United States now employs about the same number of people in manufacturing. Considering the fact that we had 132 million people living in this country in 1940, and well over 300 million people living in this country today, this is a very sobering statistic.
The real culprits in the unemployment problem are over 1) regulation– which retards growth, 2) high taxes – that encourage multinationals to move factories abroad, and 3) illegal immigration– which depresses entry level job wages.
We agree that now is a bad time to increase taxes, but to keep taxes at the current level, the Republicans accepted failed Obama stimulus policies that will continue to retard growth. Republican leaders should have waited until January and sent Obama a bill minus the Christmas tree of failed stimulus programs attached.
Currently the US economy is dealing with too much debt and too much spending.
We are like a family over extended on the credit cards, but we are refusing to cut spending. This situation can end one of two ways. The family can adjust the lifestyle, cut up the credit cards and pay down debt over time, or the family can be forced to adjust their lifestyle after the banks freeze the credit cards, the home is foreclosed, and the car is towed away.
We prefer the first scenario for the United States. But we are ashamed to admit the politicians, including Republicans, are likely to aggravate the problems until we face disaster.
The United States' creditor is China and the rest of Asia. It is projected that the U.S. trade deficit with China could hit 270 billion dollars for the entire year of 2010. The Chinese government has accumulated approximately $2.65 trillion in total foreign exchange reserves. They have drained this wealth from the economies of other nations such as the United States. Instead of reinvesting all of it, they are just sitting on much of the booty. This creates tremendous imbalances in the global economy.
The fiscal situation is much more desperate at the local level where these governments cannot depend on Chinese money to balance the budget. Incoming governor Jerry Brown is scrambling to find $29 billion more to cut from the California state budget. Brown's assessment of the desperate condition of California state finances is sobering: "We've been living in fantasy land. It is much worse than I thought. I'm shocked."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing wants to cut 20 percent of Detroit off from essential social services such as road repairs, police patrols, functioning street lights and garbage collection. The second most dangerous city in the United States – Camden, New Jersey – is about to lay off about half its police in a desperate attempt to save money.
Last month, the U.S. government budget deficit increased to a whopping $150.4 billion, which represents the biggest November budget deficit on record. Somehow, the government will roll over existing debt and finance new debt that is equivalent to 27.8 percent of GDP in 2011.
Economists mostly agree continued spending on unemployment benefits is retarding the recovery. Employment restructuring will be more orderly and create less chaos if it happens sooner rather than later. This situation is worse than most understand, and more spending is only exaggerating the pain.


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"Neural correlates of haptic pop-out of shape discrimination in the human brain", in 19th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Seattle, USA, June2013, 2013.,
"Optimal Control and Design Guidelines for Soft Jumping Robots: Series Elastic Actuation and Parallel Elastic Actuation in comparison", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013), 2013, pp. 2477 - 2484 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630914 [PDF] (1.13 MB),
"Optimal Control for Maximizing Velocity of the CompActTM Compliant Actuator", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013), 2013, pp. 516 - 522 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630623 [PDF] (937.54 KB),
"Packet-based dynamic control for nonlinear networked systems", in IEEE International Conference on Decision and Control (CDC2013), Florence, Italy, 2013, p. 6597,6603. 2013_FGGCB_CDC.pdf (266.32 KB),
"Packet-Based Dynamic Control of a Furuta Pendulum over Ethernet", in Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED '13), Platanias-Chania, Crete, Greece, 2013, pp. 464 - 470 [Online]. Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6608763&queryText%3Dfalasca+gamba 2013_FFFGB_med.pdf (1 MB),
"A real time robust observer for an agonist antagonist variable stiffness actuator", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013), Karlsruhe, Germany, May 6-10, 2013 , 2013, pp. 3988 - 3993 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6631139 [PDF] (589.45 KB),
"On the Robust Synthesis of Logical Consensus Algorithms for Distributed Intrusion Detection", Automatica, vol. 49, no. 8, pp. 2339 - 2350, 2013. 2013_FB_Automatica.pdf (948.01 KB),
"Shortest paths for wheeled robots with limited Field-Of-View: introducing the vertical constraint", in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Florence, Italy, 2013, pp. 5143 - 5149. 2013_SCPB_CDC.pdf (659.11 KB),
"Soft-Actuators in Cyclic Motion: Analytical Optimization of Stiffness and Pre-Load", in IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2013. [PDF] (622.83 KB),
"A Strategy for Dynamic Controller Emulation in Packet-Based Networked Control", in International Conference on Informatics in Control (ICINCO '13), Reykjavík, Iceland, 2013, pp. 29-38. 2013_FGB_ICINCO.pdf (504.39 KB),
"Synergy-Based Hand Pose Sensing: Optimal Glove Design", International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 396-406, 2013. [PDF] (5.72 MB),
"Synergy-based Hand Pose Sensing: Reconstruction Enhancement", International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 407-424, 2013. [PDF] (1.52 MB),
"A synergy-driven approach to a myoelectric hand", in 13TH International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, June 24-26, 2013, Seattle, WA., 2013, pp. 1 - 6 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICORR.2013.6650377 2013_ICORR.pdf (614.74 KB),
"SynGrasp: a MATLAB Toolbox for Grasp Analysis of Human and Robotic Hands", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013), 2013, pp. 1088 - 1093 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630708,
"Tele-Impedance based Stiffness and Motion Augmentation for a Knee Exoskeleton Device", in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2013), 2013, pp. 2194 - 2200 [Online]. Available: 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630872 2013_KATSBC_ICRA.pdf (2.51 MB),
"Teleimpedance Control of a Synergy-Driven Anthropomorphic Hand", in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2013, Tokyo, Japan, 2013, pp. 1985 - 1991. [PDF] (1.63 MB),
"Variable Impedance Actuators: a Review", Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 61, no. 12, pp. 1601–1614, 2013 [Online]. Available: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921889013001188 [PDF] (1.28 MB),
"Active gathering of frictional properties from objects", in Proc. IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2014), Chicago, USA, 2014, pp. 3982 - 3987 . [PDF] (1.94 MB),
"Adaptive Synergies for the Design and Control of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand", International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 768–782, 2014. [PDF] (1.03 MB),
"Biomechanisch sichere Geschwindigkeitsregelung fur die Mensch-Roboter Interaktion", At-Automatisierungstechnik , vol. 62, no. 3 , pp. 175 - 187, 2014. 2013_HHKRPBBS.pdf (801.7 KB),
"A change in the fingertip contact area induces an illusory displacement of the finger", in Eurohaptics, Versailles, France), June 2014, 2014, vol. LNCS - Free Preview Haptics: Neuroscience, Devices, Modeling, and Applications, pp. 72 - 79. [PDF] (672.86 KB),
"Design and preliminary affective characterization of a novel fabric-based tactile display", in Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 2014 IEEE, Houston, TX, 2014, pp. 591 - 596. [PDF] (1.69 MB),
"Drum Stroke Variation Using Variable Stiffness Actuators", in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2014), Chicago, IL, USA, 2014, pp. 3892 - 3897 . [PDF] (1.67 MB),
"Exploiting hand kinematic synergies and wearable under-sensing for hand functional grasp recognition", in 4th International Conference on Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare - "Transforming healthcare through innovations in mobile and wireless technologies" , November 3–5, 2014 Athens, Greece, 2014. [PDF] (4.96 MB),
"Exploring haptic feedback for the Pisa/IIT SoftHand", in Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 2014 IEEE, Houston, TX, 2014. HS_poster_SBG.pdf (695.8 KB),
"Exploring Teleimpedance and Tactile Feedback for Intuitive Control of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand", IEEE Transactions on Haptics, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 203 - 215, 2014 [Online]. Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6755554 2014_AGBCGTB_TOH.pdf (1.67 MB),
"A Fabric-based Approach for Softness Rendering", in Multisensory Softness: Perceived Compliance from Multiple Sources of Information, vol. Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems, Springer-Verlag, 2014, pp. 219 - 240 [Online]. Available: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4471-6533-0_11 [PDF] (20.39 MB),
"Grasping with Soft Hands", in IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (HUMANOIDS 2014), Madrid, Spain, November 18 - 20, 2014, pp. 581 - 587 [Online]. Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7041421&queryText%3DGrasping+with+Soft+Hands [PDF] (4.39 MB),
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Joshua Triplett Owner and Executive Principal Managing Partner of VIP Capital Funding, a top 10 Fin-Tech lender in the country says "Our main focus is to accomplish smart, effective and fast funding for any and all small to medium sized businesses across the country. VIP Capital Funding has a core belief system based on strategy and opportunity potential that has allowed our clients to prosper and remain insulated during these uncertain times. The approach we take to short-mid term lending among the rest of our financial products has benefited every range of businesses needing funding amounts anywhere from $50k to multi million dollars, the concept and strategy mostly remains the same."
VIP Capital Funding is stressing a sense of urgency in obtaining funds now due to the uncertainty coming from the current and upcoming political climate, fear of another and ongoing shutdowns and not to mention the current and ongoing effects of COVID-19. The Main Street Lending Program (MSLP) being paused has also been a blow to the hopes of millions of business owners who were counting on having access to the $450B in Federal Reserve funds set aside to help them sustain and adjust to the post pandemic economy.
Optimistic Future for Small Businesses in 2021 With Plans To Participate In the Additional Government Stimulus of $500BB For Small Businesses
Joshua Triplett, Owner and Executive Principal Managing Partner strongly advises small and medium sized businesses to have the foresight in taking heed of insulation with working capital/business funding to stay protected during the forecasted shutdown over the coming months. History doesn't always repeat itself but there is almost always a foreseeable pattern, around February 2020-March 2020 many small businesses were left stranded and scrambling for working capital. The stimulus package came delayed and many business owners were forced to shut down.This year is forecasted to be very similar but through the preparedness of VIP Capital Funding many business owners will be protected through the working capital obtained through them.
$500BB has been printed out by the federal reserve but funding is unlikely to take place until the new Presidential Administration. Joshua Triplett is enthusiastically throwing the javelin to small and medium sized business owners to wake up and understand that the capital that VIP Capital Funding has to offer will be tremendously beneficial in case of another shut down among other opportunity based reasons. VIP Capital Funding is a highly reviewed company that is very versatile in the verticals of products that are offered, as VIP Capital Funding doesn't target just one product but an array of products to set business owners on a program of financial prosperity that will lead to definite growth. This is one of the reasons why VIP Capital Funding has risen to be a top 10 lender in the country according to bestcompany.com due to their robust and effective strategy in solving massive financial problems for small and medium sized business owners.
What we have to offer, Short-Mid Term Covid Relief Funding up to $1MM | $400k annual revenue required:
With EIDL and PPP funds exhausted and the 2nd round of stimulus being uncertain or further delayed we strongly recommend small and medium sized business owners to take short-mid term COVID-19 relief capital while it is still here through our pvt lenders and investors. It is a win, win as the investors have more to lose than any business owner and if another shutdown comes, you will have the option to stop or slow payment and you will be left insulated.
Segway to this, when the 2nd round of stimulus does come the short term-mid term COVID--19 relief funding will serve as a bridge and be bought out with more in amount, longer terms, and lower interest rates. But business owners need to be pro-active as this could come later rather than sooner.
VIP Capital Funding's Reconsideration Request Service:
Time is running out!
You only have six months from the date on the official Decline Letter to submit a "Reconsideration Request" and secure your EIDL funding. If you are interested in discussing how VIP Capital Funding can prepare your SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan "Reconsideration Request" please contact Senior Vice President, Carlos Hernandez at [email protected] or call his office 919-300-0203.
With hundreds of thousands of American business owners getting decline letters after applying for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) VIP Capital Funding has experienced an immense calling to assist business owners who are having difficulties navigating the potentially brutal and lengthy reconsideration process. We have had the pleasure and honor of working with countless successful EIDL's and have learned the preferred formatting and methods of effectively communicating with the SBA and its Reconsideration Team.
In the case you have received the dreadful "Decline Letter" regarding your SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan and feel like you have no idea where to even start or have been anxiously waiting for a reply from the SBA, worry no more. VIP Capital Funding's one stop shop approach to all of our reconsideration submissions would most likely be the best solution for your situation.
We will review your decline letter and schedule a short interview to discuss the individual circumstances of your reconsideration. We have had great success in all reasons provided by the SBA to decline applications and feel very confident in our process yet we regularly advise clients to not use our services if we deem you to be an "automatic decline".
The process is very hands-on for both parties (You and VIP Capital Funding) for the first hour or two. After we retrieve & sign the documents required to execute a proper reconsideration, it will take us about 1-2 days to package and create the perfect reconsideration letter providing the proper information formatting and documentation.
Contact Details
VIP Capital Funding contact information:
Website: https://vipcapitalfunding.com/
Office Phone- 800-735-7754
Email- [email protected]
Will Winston, Vice President
Direct- 919-521-8954
Email- [email protected]
Cheynne Chong, Director of Risk Management
Direct- 919-521-8451
Email- [email protected]
Carlos Hernandez, Senior Vice President
Direct- 919-300-0203
Email- [email protected]
Kenneth Lewis, Chief Financial Officer
Direct- 702-517-3144
Email- [email protected]


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U.S. Rep John Yarmuth told a crowd recently that the tone of debate over healthcare must change from one of personal attack to one of policy debate.
"We need to change the tone of our dialogue, it really isn't productive, so if I believe that it's accurate to say that a certain health care policy will result in people dying, it's OK for me to say that. It's not OK for me to say that the supporters of that proposal are killers. I think that's the kind of distinction we have to make," he said during the town hall meeting Sunday July 10, at Bellarmine University.
I'm not going to make any personal attacks on people who are supporting policies that I don't support, but I am going to attack the policies that I don't support," he told the audience of more than 700 people.
A strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Yarmuth discussed how much the bill has benefited Kentucky, in particular causing the uninsured rate to drop to 6.1 percent from 13.6 percent. Every state that expanded Medicaid had huge drops in the number of uninsured as well.
Yarmuth said the Senate's healthcare proposal, written by Kentucky's senior senator, Mitch McConnell, would cause 22 million fewer Americans to have coverage. And then there is the threat of $772 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years
Many in the audience took extensive notes, and many shared their personal stories, concerns and questions surrounding the future of a healthcare system.
Yarmuth encouraged those in attendance to continue to pressure Congress, and he left with words of motivation: "Keep fighting, keep being loud."


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With approx. 350 employees, the GEBHARDT Group guarantees a comprehensive range of services, which span consultancy, planning, project management, realisation, control, stores management, ERP integration right through to maintenance, service and a hotline for our systems. All GEBHARDT products comply with the EC Machinery Directive. GEBHARDT is certified in accordance with ISO 9001:2008.
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Ⓒ Paraproy, 2019 - Todos los derechos reservados.


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Politicians running for national office- takes a special type. "Special" in the sense they have a layer of ooze that covers them to a depth of about about 18 inches. Ted Cruz's face I find exponentially more frightening than a rattle snake on the bedside pillow next to me- and that's before he opens his mouth.
The Trumpster seems like a swell fellow. Wow. The monitoring extraterrestrials from Andromeda are enjoying this particular performance more than Celebrity Apprentice.
"Feel The Bern" Bernie has a great plan that would end in every true innovator and creator this nation and economy has produced finding another country to live in that won't take their earnings and drop the cash from helicopters.
"Going to fight for you!...fight, fight, fight!" "Going to make America great again!,..right after I take care of all of the Special Interests groups that got me elected" shouts Hillary. The election would have been CANCELED and her GIVEN the nomination 2 years ago if not for the fact she has more buried skeletons than Arlington National Cemetery.
I digress.
The default "are you better off than you were 4 years ago"- we don't hear that question in this election because of a lame duck sitting president. It's a good question, though. The better question for people who've been in the workforce for many years is: Are you better off than you were at an earlier stage in your career?
Most people would answer no.
Worth mentioning, many if not most of these same people answering "no" enjoy a standard of living that exceeds virtually everyone, dead or alive, who ever took a breath on this planet. Some would say they were dealt a GREAT hand. But they have less than they used to...and they are pissed.
They shouldn't have less- most should live more comfortably than they did earlier in their life. Part of this is being a victim of circumstance (automation, globalization etc..). But part is also due to a very human trait- one of the nastiest: insatiable greed. The amended Golden Rule says "One who has the gold makes the rules". I could write a hundred pages on this but it's a lousy use of time. I'm not in favor of Bernie's Helicopter Plan for the economy but he's right that the system is utterly filthy.
There's still time to run , kiddoes!. I don't mean for POTUS, I mean Run for the Hills Have Eyes Part II- a film so frightening that Ted Cruz seems like Barney the Dinosaur in comparison. I'm sorry, I have that backwards.


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A couple months ago we talked about the ins-and-outs of entering recurring events into Event Manager. There are a lot of great features included in the recurring event option in Event Manager, but there are a few things to remember that we'd like to highlight today:
- Recurring Event End Dates
In Worship Times sites we have limited recurring event end dates to 2 years in the future. "Why is that?" you may ask, "We know worship will always be at the same time, and I'd love to have 10-years worth of worship times in my calendar, so I don't have to think about it for a while." Well, there are several reasons:
- Think about how many events you are adding when you add an event like Sunday worship, which happens every week (and for some of you, more than once every Sunday): At least 52 times per year, which is already over 100 events at the end of two years. Then multiply that by additional services, Sunday School, Choir Rehearsal, etc. – any event that is likely to happen 30-50 times per year. That adds up quickly.
- The more events you have in your calendar, the more data they take on your website, the slower it gets. Imagine 10 years of events at a busy church, and you are pretty much using all of your data storage on events.
- That many events loaded into the Event Management system has been known to cause not just slow-downs in loading your site, but other issues, including not being able to edit or delete individual events within the recurring event. This means valuable time lost you could be spending on other things.
- Editing Recurring Events
When you edit a recurring event it creates a bunch of individual events, as mentioned above. When you are editing a recurring event, it is important to remember the following:
- When you edit a recurring event within the recurring event (rather than in a single event within that series of events), you edit every event attached to that recurring event. There are ways to detach single events from the recurring event, but most of the time this will change every event attached to this recurring event, so:
- If you have edited single events (with information specific to that date or meeting), editing the recurring event will override those changes.
- So, try to avoid editing recurring events unless there is a major change, like a change in meeting time or day of the week that will continue into the future.
- Renewing Recurring Events (Setting up new recurring events with new end dates.)
Since you can only set end dates for recurring events to 2 years into the future, you might want to set a reminder near and before that end date, so you can add new versions of those recurring events with new end dates.
- Cleaning Up Past Events
At the time you renew your recurring events is a good time to clean up events that have passed, too. You can filter your events by category, but you can also filter them by whether they are future or past events. To clean up past events, you can filter the individual events, then select the ones you wish to get rid of, and use Bulk Action to send them to the trash. Even when they are in the trash, they are not completely deleted from your site, so if you accidentally trash an event you meant to keep, you can always restore it from the trash until you empty the trash to delete permanently. (Keeping at least a couple calendar months of past events isn't a bad idea if someone needs to remember a recent meeting or event date.)
- Best Practices
You might want to develop some best practice guidelines around entering individual and recurring events into the Event Manager so if multiple people in your ministry are entering events, or if there is ever a change in volunteer or paid staff, they will know what procedures work best, keeping in mind our tips above.
- Remember Worship Times Support!
If you ever have questions about entering, editing or deleting recurring or single events, we have several ways to get help.
- Video Tutorials – Available in the Support section of your Worship Times website Dashboard. (And on worshiptimes.org)
- Support Tickets – Send us a Support Ticket, also available in the Support section of your Worship Times website Dashboard. Email us questions, concerns, fears or successes as you create events. We love hearing from you, and we want to help whenever we can.


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All through the modern era, the primary accusation against Catholicism was its clarity, its being too sure of what reason and revelation meant. It was arrogant. Imagine her claiming that she had a handle on essential truths! What angered people was not the fact that the Church did not know what she was talking about, but the fact that she did and claimed that she did. People were comfortable with doubt. Doubt makes you free, not truth! Doubt leaves a lot of leeway. People claimed to be scandalized by certitude. To bring the Church into the modern world meant enticing, cajoling, or forcing her or her members to accept the supposed dubiousness of her own positions.
All religions, including Catholicism, are considered to be pretty much mythic. This origin of religion in fable is the majority opinion, especially among the elite. Religion is helpful only insofar as it does not interfere with more important things or claim that its truth was intended for everyone, that it had something to do with the way we should live. Religion was useful to keep the masses occupied. Catholicism is merely the extreme delusion of the religious mind. It brashly affirms that some connection with the divine can be established. Some divine intervention is thought actually to have happened in this world at a given time and place.
Let us add to this mix the multiculturalism and historicism that have governed academia and governments in recent decades. These positions affirm that "truth" varies from time to time and place to place. It changes according to current needs. The best religion, as it turns out, is a strange variant of negative theology, the idea that we know what God is not, not what He is. Only now we are reasonably assured that God is not. Taken together, all ideas of God reveal a mass of confusion and self-interest. They confuse people. They prevent the "progress" of humanity to a better world. We have found no god in outer space. The Big Bang just happened in an orderly way by accident.
Except for certain strands of recent evangelical Christianity, most Protestant sects accepted the terms of the modern world. The essentials of the sexual revolution have their religious approval. Civil law is supreme over any natural or divine law that might limit the individual or state. Ecology, itself mostly a blind faith masking itself as science, has reduced man to the terms of what are, erroneously, held to be "sustainable" limits of growth. Eschatology has become this-worldly. Transcendence has morphed into a futurology in which what man is becomes an object of his own science, not something given by nature and God, something discovered and understood by the use of his own reason.
Vatican II presented itself as a massive effort to retain tradition but also to reconcile the Church with the modern world in such a way that they harmonized with each other. It was not noticed at the time, as Tracey Rowland pointed out in her Culture and the Thomist Tradition, that the word "culture" was not neutral. Modern "culture" already contained some good things, but it also had with in it principles and techniques that could eliminate both faith and even the structure of man as we had known him. In many ways, "to conform oneself to the culture" was a form of religious and intellectual suicide.
In this mix, the thought of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI stood as a corrective. They carefully sorted out the subtle principles and tendencies motivating the modern mind. They identified where these ideas and customs were leading. Under their guidance, it was clear that the mind of Catholicism knew what it was about. Neither of these two popes had many intellectual peers. Those who were their peers usually recognized their genius. Catholicism understood where it came from in history and tradition. It clarified what it meant in relation to basic modern ideas, ideas that the two popes often defined more clearly than their advocates.
This papal teaching was profound and incisive. Not a few, however, came to think it was over the heads of most people, even most bishops. There is a kind of clericalism, as Fr. Mark Pilon has pointed out, that assumes that the laity cannot think. The request for clarification, which is their due, is often taken for disobedience. We needed a return to the original Gospels, it is said, to the simple life of faith.
Catholicism did not have to present itself before the world as understanding it. It is better to leave things more open, undefined. In this light, however, with Pope Francis' more recent emphasis on mercy and the poor, his many off-handed remarks, his hesitancy about explaining doctrine, the Church now, to many, seems confused, unsure of itself. It no longer seems to be a "rock" on which we can build.
The faithful are told that they are too "rigid". The divorced and the homosexuals are, rightly or wrongly, convinced that the Church has changed its doctrine at least implicitly, if not explicitly. Divine positive law does not seem to hold against what people "do" do. Everything must be discerned. Every act seems an exception, which in a way it is. But there can be no "law" of only exceptions.
Many recent converts begin to wonder whether the Church is not reverting to positions that they thought, in the name of truth, that they had left. It is difficult to see why anyone should convert or even be preached to. To many, the Church seems to present itself as a kind of modern humanism in culture and socialism in political preference.
In the meantime, some three thousand mosques, with much Saudi money, have been built in the United States, probably more in Europe. They are mostly closed enclaves. The decline of population of European citizens has been often noted. Traditional European national populations are being replaced by a more fertile group of Muslims who, for the most part, do not assimilate or convert, either culturally or religiously. Some predict that Sweden will be Europe's first Muslim country; others think it will be England. And if there is a first, there will be a second.
Islamic thinkers themselves shrewdly seem to opt both for terrorist and for democratic means to expand into Europe and America. The martyrdom and expulsion of so many Christians from the Mideast have gone largely unaccounted for. They appear more as an embarrassment than as objects of justice. Their specific witness seems almost lost.
It is a rare commentator or politician who notes the connection between Humanae Vitae, the decline of population, and the rise of Islam in Europe and America. "Refugees" fleeing into Europe can probably more accurately be described as "invaders" than immigrants, however sad their tale.
We are now experiencing something new, an incipient reaction. With Pierre Manent and Joshua Mitchell, we see that the nation-state and the family are the heart of true civilization. Globalism and world-state notions constantly reveal totalitarian tendencies. Emphasis on the poor has neglected the old Aristotelian notion of the middle-class, by far the majority in any decent society.
What are we to conclude from these considerations? The title of these opinions, and opinions they are, concerned "confused Catholics". The conclusion is that the confusion of Catholics about the unity and consistency of their faith has dimmed or even taken out of the public order a firm voice that has connected in our civilization the present and the past, time and eternity.
Few seem certain about where the Church stands on many core issues that once were thought to be settled. Practice does not really replace thought. It merely produces another kind of practice that seeks justification in a different line of thought. Practice, overtly or covertly, depends on thought. The origin of all deviant practice is deviant thought. The knowing why it is deviant is a function of mind based on a standard of reason. It is the steady "knowing why" that, before anything else, we are missing.
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Good advice from Abraham
Abraham offers a mix of advice for moving through life:
'Understand where you are in relation to where you want to be – and your emotions will tell you this.' (Paraphrased from Abraham).
The original video clip that I had here, included the 3 tips to successful manifesting:
- Ask for what you want (defined by the contrasts in your experience)
- Source answers your request
- Be a vibrational match to your desire
Abraham points out that most people are usually approaching things the wrong way:
'You are asking more clearly from the place that you don't want!'
Note: Sometimes YouTube links get deleted. If you spot a video or audio that no longer works, please contact Keekoo to tell me.
Hits: 313


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Ch Nisar won't leave Nawaz Sharif, says Mir Hasil Bizanjo
Ch Nisar won't leave Nawaz Sharif, says Mir Hasil Bizanjo
KARACHI (92 News) – Minister for Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Khan Bizanjo has categorically said that Interior Minister Ch Nisar will not leave Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Addressing a press conference at the residence of PML-N leader Shah Muhammad Shah on Sunday, he said that the JIT was based on dishonesty and the PML-N should challenge it.
"The objective of the JIT is to rollback the 18th Amendment," he said.
Mir Hasil Khan Bizanjo said that the prime minister was interrogated as if he was an accused. "Currently no one fulfills the article 62 and 63 of the Constitution," he said, adding that all political parties would be responsible if any harm was caused to the government.
The minister said that instability-like situation could arise in the country if the parties did not show maturity.