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Lost or missing teeth can diminish the appearance of your smile as well as affect your ability to speak clearly and properly chew food. In fact, an incomplete smile can even have an effect on your overall well being. Fortunately, modern dentistry offers several cosmetically pleasing and functional methods of teeth replacement to rebuild your smile.
Today, many individuals are interested in receiving dental implants to replace their missing teeth in order to reestablish a complete and beautiful smile. A dental implant is a small, biocompatible post that is placed directly into the jawbone during a minor surgical procedure. It behaves in much the same way as the root of a natural tooth. As the most advanced method of tooth replacement modern dentistry offers, a dental implant comes the closest to replicating the look, feel and function of a natural smile. Dental implants may be used to support either a single dental crown or multiple ones, as your smile requires. Special dental implants can also be placed in certain cases to provide added stability to a removable denture.
Once your dental implant has been placed and has had the time to integrate with the surrounding dental bone, it is ready to provide strong support for your new replacement teeth. At this time our office will fabricate the most cosmetically pleasing and durable crowns or dental bridges to give you back a smile that you can enjoy for many years to come.


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Some of you may have read about my Japan Diet trial from early this year. In case you're wondering how we're getting on and whether it works, we thought we'd give a quick update.
We've more or less kept with it for the past 6 months, and we recently did a repeat lipid test just to see if it's yielded any results.
I'm happy to report that while I'm not sure about us losing heaps of weight, it's certainly done wonders for our cholesterol levels. Both A's and my HDL (good cholesterol) levels have gone up, and our LDL (bad cholesterol) levels have done down. Yes, we also started taking a fish oil and plant sterol supplement around the same time that we started the Japan Diet, so that may have contributed as well, but overall, I'm sure the Japan Diet played no small part in our improved results.
A says:
Vinegar rice! Yum.

subset: commoncrawl


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BINGHAMTON, NY – David Harrell, actor, writer, speaker, dancer and disability advocate, will perform "A Little Potato and Hard to Peel," at the Binghamton University Forum luncheon program, Thursday, Feb. 23. The luncheon will begin at noon, at the Binghamton Club, 83 Front Street, Binghamton, followed by the performance at 12:30.
Written and performed by Harrell, "A Little Potato and Hard to Peel," is based on a true story of a little league baseball team on its journey to overcome all odds.
Harrell holds a BFA in theater performance from the University of Mississippi and an MFA from the University of North Carolina and Greensboro, and for the past 14 years, has worked as an actor. He served as the accessibility and outreach director for the Raleigh Ensemble Players Theater Company, and received a Triangle Access Award from the Alliance of Advocates in recognition of his work. Harrell performed his first solo show titled "The Quest," in theaters, schools, churches, and conferences throughout the Southeast.
In addition, Harrell produced a four-week run of "A Little Potato and Hard to Peel," off-off Broadway, and was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. He has also performed with the Actors Studio, Take Wings and Soar, TBTB and the New York Classical Theater and appeared on the television program "Law and Order: SVU," as well as in several independent films and webisodes.
The Binghamton University Forum is a membership organization comprised of business, professional and community leaders that brings nationally known authorities to speak at functions throughout the year. For more information, call the Forum office at (607) 777-4390.
This performance is being presented in collaboration with the Goodwill Theatre's Schorr Family Firehouse Stage.


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The picture painted a year ago when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 an official pandemic was uncertain.
We were told up to 240,000 Americans could die. The number is well over double that, around 530,000 now.
Things were supposed to peak last May. That dragged into 2021, when January became our deadliest time.
A poll from The Associated Press found one in five Americans lost a close friend or relative to COVID-19.
But at the same time, research and science worked at lightning speed, cutting through red tape, forming successful public and private partnerships to test therapeutics and develop multiple vaccines.
"If we continue this pace in about four to six months, we will have vaccinated enough people that we will probably be able to say that we've achieved herd immunity, population immunity, that magical point when transmission of the virus will essentially shut down," said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at the Emory School of Medicine.
Infectious disease doctors who became some of the most important voices through the pandemic can't help but reflect on mistakes made as well, like politicizing face masks and the inequities of the disease and economic fallout.
"The reality is, even though this virus was out there, this virus was determined by who you are and where you live," said the doctor.
The biggest concerns now include people possibly letting their guard down too soon. Some areas are rolling back masks requirements and lifting other restrictions at a time when variant cases are multiplying.
"I'm worried about the variants. We have a race right now between variants and vaccines, and if we don't shut down the variants, the variants are going to win."
CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensku released this statement in observance of the one-year pandemic milestone:
"One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The toll of this disease and the continued loss of life around the world and in our nation is heartbreaking. To so many of you who have felt the pain and loss of a loved one during this pandemic – you have suffered the ultimate loss, and we grieve with you.
After a year of this fight, we are tired, we are lonely, we are impatient. There have been too many missed family gatherings, too many lost milestones and opportunities, too many sacrifices. And still, through it all, there is determination; there are stories of giving and hope, of stamina and perseverance. We are better together, and together, we will endure.
The vaccination of millions every day gives me hope. Hope that we can beat this pandemic. And hope that we can get back to being with our family, friends, and community. And soon.
Earlier this week, CDC released our first evidence-based guidance for fully vaccinated people. These new recommendations are a first step in our process of returning to everyday activities – safely spending time with family and friends, hugging our grandparents and grandchildren, and celebrating birthdays and holidays.
While we accumulate more evidence to support the safe return to everyday activities, please continue taking precautions in public and when around people who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease. Whether you are already vaccinated or not yet vaccinated, wear a well-fitted mask, practice physical distancing, wash your hands often, avoid medium and large gatherings, and avoid travel. We know these measures work to prevent the spread of this virus and help protect each other.
This pandemic will end. And, our public health work will continue. Through the near-blinding spotlight of this crisis, we now clearly see what we should have addressed before– the long-standing inequities that prevent us from achieving optimal health for all. We see the impact of years of neglect of our public health infrastructure. We see the critical need for data that move faster than disease, to prevent rather than react. To move past this pandemic, we must resolutely face these challenges head on and fully embrace the innovations, the new partnerships, and the resilience of our communities that have emerged from this crisis. It is the only way we can turn tragedy and sorrow into lasting progress and improved health for all.
In one year, we have lost over 520,000 Americans to COVID-19. These are grandparents, parents, and children. They are siblings, friends, and neighbors. They are our loved ones and our community. We join together to grieve these losses and intensify our efforts so they were not in vain. I thank you for your perseverance and for your unity of mission. Together, our strength and hope will guide us to the end of this pandemic."


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Apple Inc. reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for its second quarter on Tuesday, indicating that customers may have held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition of the company's most important product later this year.
Under pressure from shareholders to hand over more of its $250 billion-plus hoard of cash and investments, Apple boosted its capital return program by $50 billion, increased its share repurchase authorization by $35 billion and raised its quarterly dividend by 10.5 percent.
Investors were unmoved, sending shares of the world's most valuable listed company down 1.9 percent at $144.65 in after-hours trading.
Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter ended April 1, down from 51.19 million a year earlier.
Analysts on average had estimated iPhone sales of 52.27 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet.
Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri argued the decline was not as bad as it looked, given the peculiarities of how phone sales are calculated.
The company reports what are called "sell-in" figures for the iPhone, a measure of how many units it sells to retailers, rather than "sell-through" figures, which measure how many phones are actually sold to consumers.
Maestri said the company reduced the volume of inventory going through its retail channel by about 1.2 million units in the quarter, meaning the company sold about 52 million phones to customers on a sell-through basis.
Despite the dip in unit sales, iPhone revenues rose 1.2 percent in the quarter, helped by a higher average selling price.
10th anniversary
Expectations are building ahead of Apple's 10th-anniversary iPhone range this fall, with investors hoping that the launch would help bolster sales.
Apple typically launches its new iPhones in September.
A big jump in sales usually follows in the holiday quarter, before demand tapers over the next few quarters as customers hold back ahead of the next launch.
Apple's 10th-anniversary iPhone range might sport features such as wireless charging, 3-D facial recognition and a curved display.
"There is a general softening in phone demand to contend with as well as expectations of a big upgrade, all of which softens the blow of this quarter's miss," said James McQuivey, a Forrester Research analyst. "If we see Apple downplaying expectations before the next upgrade cycle, it might mean that the company isn't confident it will beat those expectations."
The company forecast total revenue of between $43.5 billion and $45.5 billion for the current quarter, while analysts on average were expecting $45.60 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Analysts on average expect the company to sell 42.31 million iPhones in the current quarter, according to FactSet.
For the second quarter, the company's net income rose to $11.03 billion, or $2.10 per share, compared with $10.52 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected $2.02 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $52.90 billion in the quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of $53.02 billion.
A 17.5 percent jump in the company's services business – which includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud — to $7.04 billion, boosted revenue.
"We are particularly encouraged by the fact that service revenue is nowhere near as cyclical as product revenue," Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData Retail, wrote in a note to clients.
Apple's revenue from the Greater China region fell 14.1 percent to $10.73 billion in the quarter, as cheaper rivals in the region chipped away at sales.
Maestri said that sales of Macs and the company's services were strong in China during the March quarter. "The performance we're seeing in China should get better going forward this year," he said.
Apple's gross margin hit 38.9 percent, slightly ahead of analysts' average expectation of 38.7 percent, despite higher prices for memory chips. The company said it expects gross margins next quarter between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent, versus analysts' expectation of 38.3 percent, according to FactSet.
"NAND and DRAM [memory chips] are under pressure right now in terms of some price pressure. We saw that in the March quarter and expect that to continue into the June quarter, but for all the other commodities, we see prices declining," Maestri said.


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Bava Basra 163 - 169
When Compliments Backfire
Lashon Hara - forbidden speech regarding other people - is not limited to saying uncomplimentary things about them. Rabbi Dimi has warned us never to say nice things about another because this can lead to saying uncomplimentary things as well.
The obvious question which such a ruling invites is resolved by the following approaches.
- Don't be excessive in your praise of another for this will inevitably lead to mentioning his shortcomings as well. (Rashbam)
- Don't praise someone in front of people who do not like him because you invite them to mention the features they dislike. (Rambam)
- Bava Basra 164b
The Sages Beat Him to It
The Sage Abaye offered a bit of sage counsel which served him as well as others.
When there is a need for a man who is signed as a witness on a document to submit a signature specimen to the court to help it in certifying his signature he should be careful to write this signature only at the very top of a sheet. Should he write it lower there is the danger that it may fall into the hands of an unscrupulous person who will then write a promissory note on top of that signature and present it for collection as a signed admission of indebtedness which is considered a valid document.
An unscrupulous tax collector once came before Abaye and told him that he was prepared to offer an exemption from taxes to Torah scholars who presented a letter of accreditation signed by the Sage. He asked Abaye to give him a specimen of his signature and placed a sheet before him for this purpose. As Abaye started to write his signature on the top of the sheet this fellow attempted to pull the sheet away so that he would sign at the bottom and thus enable him to write what he pleased atop that signature. But Abaye simply reminded him:
"The Sages have already beat you to it!"
- Bava Basra 167


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Children between the ages of seven and 12 appear to be naturally inclined to feel empathy for others in pain, according to researchers at the University of Chicago, who used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans to study responses in children.
The responses on the scans were similar to those found in studies of adults. Researchers found that children, like adults, show responses to pain in the same areas of their brains. The research also found additional aspects of the brain activated in children, when youngsters saw another person intentionally hurt by another individual.
"This study is the first to examine in young children both the neural response to pain in others and the impact of someone causing pain to someone else," said Jean Decety, Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, who reported the findings in the article, "Who Caused the Pain? An fMRI Investigation of Empathy and Intentionality in Children," published in the currrent issue of Neuropsychologia. Joining him as co-authors were University students Kalina Michalska and Yuko Aktsuki.
The programming for empathy is something that is "hard-wired" into the brains of normal children, and not entirely the product of parental guidance or other nurturing, said Decety. Understanding the brain's role in responding to pain can help researchers understand how brain impairments influence anti-social behavior, such as bullying, he explained.
For their research, the team showed 17 typically developed children, ages seven to 12, animated photos of people experiencing pain, either received accidentally or inflicted intentionally. The group included nine girls and eight boys.
While undergoing fMRI scans, children where shown animations using three photographs of two people whose right hands or right feet only were visible.
The photographs showed people in pain accidently caused, such as when a heavy bowl was dropped on their hands, and situations in which the people were hurt, such as when a person stepped intentionally on someone's foot. They were also shown pictures without pain and animations in which people helped someone alleviate pain.
The scans showed that the parts of the brain activated when adults see pain were also triggered in children.
"Consistent with previous functional MRI studies of pain empathy with adults, the perception of other people in pain in children was associated with increased hemodymamic activity in the neural circuits involved in the processing of first-hand experience of pain, including the insula, somatosensory cortex, anterior midcigulate cortex, periaqueductal gray and supplementary motor area," Decety wrote.
However, when the children saw animations of someone intentionally hurt, the regions of the brain engaged in social interaction and moral reasoning (the temporo-parietal junction, the paracigulate, orital medial frontal cortices and amygdala) also were activated.
The study, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, provides new insights for children between childrens' perceptions of right and wrong and how their brains process information, Decety said. "Although our study did not tap into explicit moral judgment, perceiving an individual intentionally harming another person is likely to elicit the awareness of moral wrongdoing in the observer," he wrote.
Subsequent interviews with the children showed they were aware of wrong-doing in the animations in which someone was hurt. "Thirteen of the children thought that the situations were unfair, and they asked about the reason that could explain this behavior," Decety said.


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Confluence of the Three Systems
An examination of Tarot's history through ancient times
In this essay we will examine the most esoteric, interior architecture that connects Tarot to the historical stream of Mystery School teachings passed down and grafted together from most ancient times. We will compare and contrast the details of the most ancient Babylonian astrology model, the Hebrew Mysteries of Kabbalah, its Pythagorean adaptation in Greece, the Ari redaction of the Sephir Yetzirah (which changed the form of the paths and settled the Planetary Governors upon the Sephiroth), and Athanasius Kircher's resulting efforts to redefine the paths and the letters upon them. So this "confluence" to which I am referring is the result of three thousand years of ancient lore, refined in the fires of the European Renaissance.
For those of you not conversant with occultism, I recommend that you read the essays on the Minor Arcana, the Kabbalah and the Gnostics before you start into this essay. It also would help to know enough about astrology to follow a discussion about relations between the planets and the signs. Nevertheless, I urge all interested parties to read this anyway, whether you understand it or not, and keep coming back to it until you can follow right along. This essay contains the key to it all.
Once we can grasp the idea that the Arcana of Tarot have been organized around a blend of Hebrew Kabbalist astro-number theory and Pythagorean sacred geometry, we can appreciate what the Renaissance Rosicrucians might have seen in the Tarot-- flash cards for drilling on the curriculum of a Hermetic University course of study.
No such university could exist in public by Kirscher's lifetime, which spanned much of the 1600s. The Church had forbidden the universities from teaching the subject of astrology, the last trace of the ancient Mysteries, by the fourteenth century. Only the Secret Societies were keeping the ancient lore alive, and in some generations, there were only a few isolated scholars to pass it along. Luckily for us all, among them were a few truly enlightened members of the clergy, who used their privileged positions, excellent educations, and access to Church archives to study and illuminate the teachings of the ancients. Athanasius Kircher was one of those (for more on Kircher, see the essay Kabbalah/Cabbalah).
The Tarot, like all esoteric paradigms before it, outlines the Grand Plan, an overview of life at every level, with all its related mystical arts and sciences. As it has come down to us from history, we can see clearly how Tarot embodies the confluence of astrology/ Kabbalah/ number mysteries of antiquity. The goal of these schools was to redeem the soul of humanity after its fall from grace into eros, returning us to our primordial wholeness and immortality. Therefore we should expect to see a healthy trace of the Mystery School agenda still shining through the Tarot, despite its many superficial permutations in the last few centuries. Given what we now know about history, it would be more surprising if such values could not be found in the Tarot than if they could!
The Major Arcana, these twenty-two sophisticated and multileveled symbolic packages, have more often than not been presented in an order that parallels the numerical values of the Hebrew alphabet. Tables found in the first chapter of Stuart Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot (Volume 1) confirm that since at least the mid-18th century, the Major Arcana have been publicly associated with the Hebrew alphanumeric system on a card-for-letter basis.
Few people realize that this body of correspondences carries within it several other symbolic formations that would be familiar to a Renaissance Hermetic synchretist. These secondary internal structures link the Arcana to the Hebrew Kabbalah, the Seven Planetary Governors, the Hermetic Caduceus, Pythagoras' Tetractys and the Astronomical Wheel of the Year. In the essay on the Minor Arcana, some of those themes were taken up to explain the internal structure of the suit cards. In this essay, we will take on related themes to be found within the Major Arcana.
Internalized Structures of Tarot
Astrological Correspondences. The first internal configuration to examine is the ancient astrological underpinning which serves as the foundation for Hebrew Kabbalah, Pythagorean Numerology and Christian Cabbalah of the Renaissance, much less the relatively recent Tarot. If you were a Renaissance magus, you would have this model internalized at the foundation of your learning.
To see how astrology relates to the Minor Arcana, see"The Minor Arcana" essay. The Hebrew letters link astrology to the Major Arcana, which then assume the role of pathways between the Sephiroth of the Kabbalah/ Cabbalah Tree. We will see this correlation further investigated when we return to discussing the Tree later in this essay.
First, witness the ancient figure of the Planetary Rulerships of the Signs, showing the Seven Planetary Governors apportioned around the Wheel of the Zodiac. The essentially Gnostic character of this diagram is revealed by the fact that starting from Aquarius and working sunwise to Cancer you see illustrated the descent of the soul from heaven to earth, picking up the"planetary metals" from the Archons as it sinks to physical Earth. (This corresponds directly with the descending motion on the left-hand side of the Wheel of Fortune in most Tarots.) Then starting with Leo at the bottom and working sunwise back up to Capricorn, you see the regeneration of man, the soul's repayment of his debt to the Archons, who then liberate him to return to eternity on the rising motion of the right side of the Wheel. When lined up thus, we see the"Ladder of Lights" formed by the planets stacking up around the Sun. (Remember, when this diagram was created it was thought that the sun, moon and the other planets all revolved around the earth. Nowadays we can see this as a psychological model, where each ego thinks that the rest of life is revolving around it.)
These sign/planet correspondences have been in place since the time of Babylon (2200 BC). The fact that the axis of the diagram puts the midheaven/nadir axis on the cusps of Aquarius and Leo could indicate it was composed in the "Platonic month of Leo," 10800 BC to 8000 BC, as the vernal equinox precessed. A friend with whom I have enjoyed sharing metaphysical speculations pointed out to me that in this rulership diagram, you can see not only the rulerships themselves, but also along the left diagonal bias you can see the pattern of "exaltations," while along the right diagonal you see the pattern of "falls," as named in the ancient rulership relations. (Connecting the "detriments" makes a beautiful star in the center of the diagram.) I would never have seen this pattern if he had not mentioned it, because I don't use exaltations, detriments or falls in my astrological practice. He added that those same diagonal patterns prevail in astrological homeopathy as well, where the "exaltations" are thought of as the "sympathies" and the "falls" are seen as "antipathies," both to be used as remedies depending upon whether you want to strengthen a condition or disrupt it. C.C. Zain in the Brotherhood of Light teachings discusses this in his volume on medical astrology.
The Septenary
Another of these internal formations within the cards is the 7 by 3 division of the Major Arcana that expresses the three worlds paradigm within which the human soul must seek initiation to return to its original estate (see the essay on Gnosticism). Different modern Tarot teachers have highlighted this "three sevens" approach in which one sets aside the Fool card and arranges the rest in three horizontal rows of Arcana numbered 1-7, then 8-14, then 15- 21. Since Papus's tome The Tarot of the Bohemians emerged, in which a great deal of space is given to this topic, and despite the fact that modern teachers may disagree on what values to attribute to these three septenaries (or seven triplicities), this internal symmetry is too compelling to ignore.
Numbers: The Decave
Another internal esoteric structure to be found within the Major Arcana is the embedding of the ancient Mystery of the Decave into both the Major and the Minor Arcana (see the essay on the Minor Arcana as well). The divinity of the numerals one to ten is a long-established feature of the Mysteries. The Egyptians surveyed their fields and squared out their temples and homes with a thirteen-knotted string rather than manhandle the sacred numerals with addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. The Hebrews fitted their ten-based number system into their alphabet, making each word a number and an astrological spell as well as a name.
The Greeks and Hebrews are known to have studied each other's alphanumeric systems in Alexandrian times. It should come as no surprise that the Arcana were constructed with the intention that a one-to-one identification be drawn between the Greek and Hebrew letters/numbers and Tarot Arcana which are numbered in single digits.
The Tetractys (see Minor Arcana essay) expresses another revelation of this same Decave mythos, and there is every reason to place those same Arcana into that glyph with a rightful expectation of significance. You can easily see the symmetry between the Numbers 1-10, the Arcana 1-10, their stations within the Tetractys diagram, and their stations on the Tree. This is deliberate, not an accident. So even though there are twenty-two Major Arcana in all, the first ten are customized to play this double role, just as the stations of the Kabbalah Tree of Life do, to embody and reflect this ancient reverence for the principles behind the first ten numbers.
The Hebrew Letters and the Tree of Life
The arrangement of the Hebrew letters on the paths of the Kabbalah Tree was established in antiquity when the manuscript Sephir Yetzirah was formalized around the second century AD. The Hebrews had alphabet mysteries before this time (see "Kabbalah/Cabbalah"), but the Tree did not appear with named Sephira and paths until this manuscript. The connection between the letters, their number values and their placement on the paths of the Kabbalah Tree persisted unchanged in history from 1800 BC to the Middle Ages, when the Ari began to speculate about the consequences of "the fall" (see below). Even then, it was only the pattern of the paths that was changing, not the letters and their associated numbers. Whenever the Tarot Arcana have been associated to Hebrew, Greek or any set of magical letters derived from those two alphabets, one can expect those path numbers to carry over unchanged to the Arcana, giving the paths definite images to which they would innately belong.
A glance at page 30 of Aryeh Kaplan's great work The Sephir Yetzirah will illustrate the original ordering which the ancient Hebrews kept among themselves from ancient times, and which was recently reaffirmed in the 18th century by the Gra, also known as Rabbi Eliahu, Gaon of Vilna. This pattern is dictated very specifically in the Sephir Yetzirah text, with careful attention to detail.
We seldom see this form in modern occult literature or on Tarots of the last five centuries, however. This is because, from the 10th century AD forward, differing variants slowly crept into the tradition, some of which Kaplan suggests were released with deliberate errors to befuddle the ignorant.
In Kaplan's own words, "Since the Gra Version was considered the most authentic by the Kabbalists, this is the one that we have cho sen. . ."(p. xxiv). Because in this CD we are focusing intently upon the ancient tradition in relation to Tarot, we stand with Kaplan in taking this pattern as our baseline from which other patterns diverged over time. Two modern decks have taken up the correspondences as outlined in Aryeh Kaplan's The Sephir Yetzirah. The first is El Gran Tarot Esoterico from Spain, and the second is the Tarot of the Ages, published in America. The Esoterico has the distinction of having been commissioned by cardmaker Fournier on the six hundredth anniversary of Tarot in Europe and has the look of an old Marseilles Tarot "with a twist." The Tarot of the Ages has Alexandrian-looking Major Arcana and fully illustrated Minors. They seem to have appeared unbeknownst to each other, the first in 1977, the second in 1988. One can think of these as our two truly Hebrew Tarots (see "The Spanish School").
More research is needed to "type" the details on the Marseilles-based Major Arcana of El Gran Tarot Esoterico, although they are intensely suggestive of the ancient Hebrew Goddess mythos as chronicled in Raphael Patai's wonderful book by that name. Both this deck's pedigree, and its exact correspondence to the ancient Hebrew astro-alphanumeric infrastructure, cement El Gran Tarot Esoterico in the Tarot canon as an authentic representative of the Hebrew Gnostic Tarot tradition, parallel in importance to the Alexandrian/ Hermetic stream, the Etteilla decks or the Marseilles Tarots.
Christian Cabbalah: A New Set of Corre-spondences
When the Ari (title of the Rabbi Isaac Luria, late 1500s) set out to make sense of the Zohar in light of the older, idealized Gra format, he was attempting to explain to his followers how we humans had become trapped in our bodies, alienated from heaven and our original selves. This is the point when the planetary attributions of the Sephiroth become concrete, in response to the belief that the human soul is now caught in the karmic web woven around us by the planets. Now that the abyss has opened at Da'at, it is nearly impossible for the fallen and divided soul to return to the primordial state of the supernal triangle.
As Rabbi Luria speculated and studied the versions and explanations available to him, he was inspired to alter the paths on the Tree to reflect the whole creation's tragic "fall from grace" after the sin of Adam as detailed in Genesis. From his time forward, various asymmetries can be seen in the Tree diagram, as the later Hebrew philosophers grappled with the consequences of living in this imperfect world. They were also attempting to deal with considerations raised by the Zohar, a thirteenth century addition to the Kabbalah canon, which forced extensive adjustments to the original Sephir Yetzirah pattern (see the essay "Kabbalah/Cabbalah"). This new pattern was eventually responsible for the creation of Christian Cabbalah through the esoteric insight of Athanasius Kircher.
Linking the Systems
In the following comparison of crucial Hermetic diagrams, we shall see how that shift on the Tree made possible the late Renaissance synthesis by Kircher. This was then handed down through the Secret Societies, appearing more visibly on the Tarot cards after the persecutions of the Church died down in the 18th century.
We know from the Gnostic myth (see essay on Gnostics) that when the Shekhina is displaced from her original seat (at the heart spot in the Gra pattern), the upright heart and pelvic triangles turn downward, and Malkuth is shoved out on its own, below the others. In other words, the Shekhina takes residence in The World, Malkuth, and dwells with her creatures instead of the Creator. From the myth of the Matronit, we know that the depar ture of the Divine Consort makes Jehovah cranky, and leads to difficult times for the people. The Hebrew nation had been celebrating the Sacred Marriage every Shabbat for thousands of years to assist in the reunification of the Goddess and the God, but the world was not mended yet.
No doubt mystics who contemplated this situation were looking for teachings and techniques to begin the process of mending the breach. The problem mythologized by the fall of the Shekhina away from the Supernal Triangle corresponds to an ancient Creation moment when matter was externalized from spirit and the link between them was broken. A discontinuity broke the order of the emanations (the Sephira), creating a hole called "Da'at" in the pattern of the Tree and dropping the Goddess out of heaven. How would a Renaissance Magi construct the solution?
Piecing It Together
Compare and contrast the Wheel of the Year diagram with the Kircher Christian Cabbalah Tree diagram. They have a central theme in common, which is the ancient rulership pattern that links the Planets to the Signs in the Zodiac, as detailed above.
By looking back and forth between this rulership of the zodiac figure and the Kircher Christian Cabbalah Tree, you can see that the Tree diagram holds within it a wheel of Planetary Sephira ranged around the Sun at Tifareth. Drawing a spoke between Venus and the Sun, and another from the Sun to Mars, links the same planetary pairs that are joined in the rulership diagram. (Mars and Venus together cover the rectangle of Aries/Scorpio/ Taurus/Libra.) A similar spoke exists between Jupiter, Sun and Mercury on the Kaballah Tree (Jupiter and Mercury rule the Mutable Square in the rulership diagram).
The only unmatching correspondence between the Astrological Wheel and the Tifareth wheel is the fact that Saturn has been placed upon Binah in the Supernal Triangle instead of on the Middle Pillar, where it would complete the pattern. If it were placed either at Malkuth or at the throat station, you would then have Moon, Sun and Saturn all connected along the Middle Pillar, just like they are up the center of the astro-rulership diagram. I submit that the post-Ari Kabbalah/Cabbalah stations of the Middle Ages Tree are constructed to reflect this ancient rulership diagram.
In light of the Hebrew tradition that precedes the appearance of the Renaissance magi, it seems obvious that the placement of Saturn on Binah is in error. Frances R. Yates, in her masterful tome Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (p. 100, footnote 3), indicates that this misattribution was made by Pico della Mirandola in the late 1400s, and it has apparently stood uncorrected since. (Following the logic of the Hebrew Kabbalists on this matter, we would find Saturn with the fallen Matronit at Malkuth, where she awaits redemption and restoration through a rise to Da'at (see "Kabbalah/Cabbalah").
The Wand of Hermes
The relationship between the Tree and the Planets becomes even clearer when you then look at the Kabbalah Tree's links to the Wand of Hermes. This image, also known as the caduceus, is usually portrayed as a straight rod with two snakes twining around it. Occasionally the snakes are winged. This is yet another symbol, like the Tetractys, that served as an organizing principle in the ancient philosophers' thoughts. Looking at the caduceus with the Kaballah Tree overlaid, we see Moses' rod and serpents with the serpents' bodies crossing at Tifareth, dividing the Tree into the Macroprosopus and the Microprosopus, the "upper face" and "lower face" of Deity, as developed by the Hebrews.
The Tifareth wheel, seen in purely Hebrew terms, shows a rotary movement just like that HERMETIC CADEUCEUS ON THE TREE OF LIFE on the Wheel of Fortune Arcanum due to the Mother Pillar's downward attraction toward Malkuth, the Earth, balanced by the Father Pillar's upward longing for Kether, the Unmanifest. But when the caduceus is overlaid, one sees a new and more sophisticated kind of movement, more suitable to express the interplay of yin and yang around the center pole of androgyny (again, made up of Malkuth, Moon, Sun, Saturn and Kether). The two complimentary energies do not remain separated, each on their own pillar, but intertwine across the hub of Tifareth. The top of the Father Pillar is the head of the yang serpent, whose tail wraps around Hod to end in Malkuth, while the top of the Mother is the head of the yin serpent, who wraps around Netzach to end at Malkuth.
Each serpent is unique in its Supernal Triangle origins, but they each show seemingly opposite characteristics in their material extension at the bottom of the Tree. This pattern portrays the inverse reflection between "above" and "below," the mirror-image effect that happens when the soul falls "through the looking glass" from supernal or eternal reality into the material or reflected world, or inversely, rises up to transcend the ego and merges with Higher Self. The caduceus, symbol of the Hermetic Gnosis, comes from the same tradition as the Rulership Diagram showing the ascent and descent of souls on the Ladder of Lights. The Kabbalah molecule, the Wheel of the Year and the caduceus are all that same Ladder, and we can only wonder at the marvelous minds who were able to design this interlocking mystical puzzle.
Flash Cards of the Mysteries
Now that we have investigated the layers of the Mysteries in relation to each other, we can see the place of the various "schools" of Tarot in the transmission of those Mysteries. The El Gran Tarot Esoterico relates the Arcana to the pre-fall state of the Original Human, so it and the Tarot of the Ages give us instructions from the point of view of our immortal origins. One could most properly use them with the path-pattern on the cover of Aryeh Kaplan's The Sephir Yetzirah, as that pattern was proposed by the Gra at the same time as he restored the letter-to-planet correspondences. The unique feature of this Tree is that it closes the gap at Da'at without drawing Malkuth back up into the diagram (see "Kabbalah/Cabbalah").
The entire Continental group of Tarots, from the reformed Marseilles of the 1600s through Etteilla, Levi, Papus, Wirth and all others who follow either the"old Alexandrian" correspondences or Levi's subtle adjustment, are designed for the work of the Christian Cabbalists, who would be basing their theurgic rituals on the model inherited from the Renaissance magi (see Kabbalah/Cabbalah essay) and codified by Kircher. These are the Tarots that partake in the confluence I have detailed in this essay.
Tarots that have departed from this order or were never created in respect of it, cannot be used esoterically with the fullness of the decks created between 1660 and the late 1800s. For whatever reason, they lack the interior architecture we have explored above. Because of this, modern "esoteric" Tarots have had to work extra hard to justify their "corrected" systems. They have parted company with the Renaissance magi who gave us esoteric Tarot.
Now You Have Eyes To See
Whenever I examine a new esoteric Tarot, these are the kinds of tests I put its correspondences through. I look to see if the creator is in touch with these bedrock alignments which are built into the interior structure of the Hebrew alphabet, the Kabbalah molecule, the numerals, the astrological rulership pattern and the Arcana. I hope to see that all the internal linkages hold up--that if the deck shows Hebrew (or Greek) letters linked to signs and planets on the Major Arcana, then this symmetry between systems is held sacred. Of the Tarots available today, only those of the Continental Esoteric Schools (including the decks mirroring the Fratres Lucis manuscript) and the (unscrambled) Etteilla Arcana pass this test, although most of the very earliest handmade and woodblock Tarots can be used as if they were aware of these connections. Certainly since the "reform" of the 1660s (see "The Continental Tarots"), Tarot has been an esoteric document with a developed body of correspondences, and quite likely this has been true since its beginning.
For better or for worse, the modern Tarots with their reinterpreted correspondences are not representing historical Tarot, other than just the history of the twentieth century. I include here the Spanish decks taking off from Maxwell, the Golden Dawn group of Tarots, the BOTA Tarot, the Egypcios Kier and my very first real deck, the Church of Light Tarot. These decks or "schools" of decks have all moved on from the Renaissance paradigm of Christian Cabbalah, much less the older tradition of Hebrew Kabbalah. In all cases, the "corrections" to the ancient interlocking system undermine the position of Arcana within this family of related paradigms. This will be true of every other New Age attempt to reinvent the alphanumeric-astrologic connections of old, unless it is grounded in a thorough knowledge of the longstanding tradition Tarot rests upon. There are only a few ways one can adjust the correspondences without shattering the system, as we have seen.
Read more exerpts from The Underground Streams: Esoteric Tarot Revealed:
History of Tarot | Esoteric Origins of Tarot | Criteria for Esoteric Tarot | The Gnostic Tarot | Kabbalah | Confluence | Continental Tarots | Spanish School | The English School | Major Arcana Theory | Minor Arcana | Major Arcana Cards | Coins | Cups | Swords | Wands


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Drafting a succession plan now can help your business stand the test of time.
As a business owner, you've invested so much into making your business successful – hard work, time, money, energy.
It's truly hard to imagine your business without you. But chances are there will come a day when someone else will take the reins. And a seamless succession plan, one carefully and thoughtfully devised well in advance, is essential to making sure your business enjoys continued success for generations to come.
The facts are a bit grim. Only 30% of privately held businesses survive into the second generation, and less than 15% survive into the third, according to Nuveen Investments. However, a well-planned transition strategy can help support your business's longevity.
For many hardworking business owners, succession planning represents the notion they can be replaced – a pretty uncomfortable scenario. Perhaps that explains why only a third of business owners surveyed for the 2018 U.S. Trust Insights report on Wealth and Worth had established a formal succession strategy.
But in the manner estate planning seeks to protect your loved ones and assure your wishes are carried out as you intend, a succession plan does the same for your business if for any reason you are no longer there. In short, it's designed to safeguard your legacy.
A thorough succession plan considers not only your exit from the business but also your retirement needs and personal estate. It provides for an orderly transition of management and the passing of control of the business. It also avoids the potential pitfalls of loved ones having to make difficult decisions during stressful times, or leaving the future of your business to happenstance.
And it's never too early to start thinking things through.
With your professional advisors, consider these questions:
You may want to groom an heir from within the family, groom someone outside the family, consider an outright sale, or have an expert take over until your chosen heir is old enough or fully prepared. Any one of those scenarios takes time to develop.
The financial implications of business succession are complex, but you and your financial advisor can tap into several strategies to help you refine your plan.
Here are a few examples:
Putting a plan in place means you and your business are prepared come what may, even in the case of disability or an untimely death. But it's not just about being prepared in an emergency. It's about sustainability.
While these can be difficult conversations to have with family members and business associates, they can actually bring comfort – knowing everyone is on the same page when it comes to the future success of your business.
Source: Nuveen Investments
Changes in tax laws or regulations may occur at any time and could substantially impact your situation. Raymond James financial advisors do not render advice on tax or legal matters. You should discuss any tax or legal matters with the appropriate professional.


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To celebrate the day Strange Company style, I present to you the most sinister Easter bunny I've ever seen:
White House Easter Egg Roll, 1929. Via Library of Congress. |
Within five minutes after this photo was taken, Bunny strangled that little girl and buried her body in his secret den under the Rose Garden, where it lies unknown to this day. Count on it.


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【PWP Product】Earring - Bling Bling Double heart 微镶锆石双层镂空爱心耳环
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Welcome to the home of Action Figure Theater! I have been busy training my action figures to handle the different and diverse roles they will be playing in the near future. I am happy to say that they are already better actors than Kevin Costner or Tom Cruise. New scenes will be added every other week or so.
Depending on your connection the comic strip frames take a few seconds to load. So be patient :-)
The Trouble With Tribbles


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text: It's been a decade since the Civil Defense Corps was exposed as a fraud created by the U.S. Government for propaganda purposes. While most of the heroes who survived the catastrophe have retired or disappeared, the New American still carries on, trying to keep communities safe amid the social turmoil of the 1970s. But with the nation split in two over civil rights and the changing political landscape, this isn't easy. Some of the American's former colleagues are on opposite sides of the law: Amber Waves joined a group of domestic terrorists, while Missy, a.k.a. Ole Miss, has thrown her hat into the political ring. As the ground shifts beneath his feet and new threats arise, which side will the American choose? This sequel to the hit miniseries by the original team of writer John Ridley (Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave and creator of TV's American Crime) and artist Georges Jeanty (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse) moves the story forward in history, factoring in how real-life events might be affected by the presence of superheroes, and how those events change the heroes in turn.


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Cruelty can be described as indifference to suffering, and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept.
[edit]- Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!- Robert Burns, Man Was Made to Mourn (1786).
- Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.- William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book III, line 326.
- He who seeks his own happiness by inflicting pain on others, being entangled by bonds of enmity, cannot be free from enmity.
- Dhammapada Verse 251
- It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.
- Cary Grant, as quoted in "Love – That's All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About" by Sheilah Graham Westbrook in Motion Picture (June 1964).
- The pain was maddening. You should pray to God when you're dying, if you can pray when you're in agony. In my dream I didn't pray to God, I thought of Roger and how dearly I loved him. The pain of those wicked flames was not half so bad as the pain I felt when I knew he was dead. I felt suddenly glad to be dying. I didn't know when you were burnt to death you'd bleed. I thought the blood would all dry up in the terrible heat. But I was bleeding heavily. The blood was dripping and hissing in the flames. I wished I had enough blood to put the flames out. The worst part was my eyes. I hate the thought of gong blind. It's bad enough when I'm awake but in dreams you can't shake the thoughts away. They remain. In this dream I was going blind. I tried to close my eyelids but I couldn't. They must have been burnt off, and now those flames were going to pluck my eyes out with their evil fingers, I didn't want to go blind. The flames weren't so cruel after all. They began to feel cold. Icy cold. It occurred to me that I wasn't burning to death but freezing to death.
- Arthur Guirdham in The Cathars and Reincarnation, p. 89.
- Maybe God isn't the sex police, Richard. Sometimes I think Christians get all hung up on the sex thing because it's easier to worry about sex than to ask yourself, am I a good person? […] It makes it easy to be cruel, because as long as you're not fucking around, nothing you do can be that bad. Is that really all you think of God?
- Anita Blake, to Richard Zeeman
- Laurell K. Hamilton (June 2007). "chapter 44". The Harlequin (1st edition ed.). Berkley Books. pp. pp. 391-392. ISBN 978-0-425-21724-5.
- It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives.- Thomas Hood, Song of the Shirt (1843).
- Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.
- David Hume, The History of England, (1754-62), Volume I, Chapter LXII.
- The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased.
- C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins (1938), p. 88
- People try to excuse their brutality by saying that it is the custom; but a crime does not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible of all. In India at least there can be no excuse for such customs, for the duty of harmlessness is well-known to all. The fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it "sport".
- Jiddu Krishnamurti, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
- Cruel lands breed cruel peoples
- Maester Luwin, in George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Ch. Bran (VI)
- The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, History of England (1849-1861), Volume I, Chapter II.
- If we are to end our wars, we have to dispense with a threatening, vengeful, bloodthirsty God. If we're to have any kind of world brotherhood, we have to dispense with a God who reserves his favors for a chosen few. Life is given to all. The sun shines freely on each of us. Would a God be less kindly? More than this, we must also dispense with our species God, and extend our ideas of divinity outward to the rest of nature which couches us and our religious theorizing with such a gracious and steady support.
- Jane Roberts in The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto, p. 63.
- I must be cruel, only to be kind.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 4, line 198.
- Men so noble,
However faulty, yet should find respect
For what they have been; 'tis a cruelty
To load a falling man.- William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act V, scene 3, line 74.
- See what a rent the envious Casca made.
- William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act III, scene 2, line 179.
- You are the cruell'st she alive,
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act I, scene 5, line 259.
- If ever henceforth thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee
As thou art tender to't.- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act IV, scene 4, line 448.
- There is little more destructive than the passive bystander allowing cruelty to be freely imposed.
- I can only imagine the envy with which Donald watched Derek Chauvin's casual cruelty and monstrous indifference as he murdered George Floyd; hands in his pockets, his insouciant gaze aimed at the camera. I can only imagine that Donald wishes it had been his knee on Floyd's neck.
- Mary L. Trump, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man (2020), p. 210
- Franco's cruelty was that of the centurion, impersonal and efficient. Once, inspecting troops as a colonel of the Spanish Foreign Legion, he had food thrown in his face by a legionnaire protesting its quality. It spattered his uniform, but his facial expression did not change, nor did he say a word. He merely took out his handkerchief, wiped off the food and continued the inspection. Returning to his office, he calmly called an officer, pointed out the offender and said:
"Take that soldier out and execute him."- Alden Whitman, (November 20, 1975)"Franco Is Dead in Madrid at 82". The New York Times.
- Sadism is plainly connected with the need for self-assertion. At the same time it cannot be separated from the idea of defeat. A sadist is a man, who, in some sense, has his back to the wall. Nothing is further from sadism, for example, than the cheerful, optimistic mentality of a Shaw or Wells.
- Colin Wilson in The Origins of the Sexual Impulse, p. 158.
- Inhumanity is caught from man,
From smiling man.- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 158.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
[edit]- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 152-53.
- Contre les rebelles c'est cruauté que d'estre humain, et humanité d'estre cruel.
- It is cruelty to be humane to rebels, and humanity is cruelty.
- Attributed to Charles IX; according to M. Fournier, an expression taken from a sermon of Corneille Muis, Bishop of Bitoute. Used by Catherine De Medicis.
- An angel with a trumpet said,
"Forever more, forever more,
The reign of violence is o'er!"- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Occultation of Orion, Stanza 6.
- Je voudrais bien voir la grimace qu'il fait à cette heure sur cet échafaud.
- I would love to see the grimace he [Marquis de Cinq-Mars] is now making on the scaffold.
- Louis XIII; see Histoire de Louis XIII, IV, p. 416.
- Gaudensque viam fecisse ruina.
- He rejoices to have made his way by ruin.
- Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia, I. 150.
See also
[edit]External links
Altruism • Asceticism • Beneficence • Benevolence • Bravery • Carefulness • Charity • Cheerfulness • Cleanliness • Common sense • Compassion • Constancy • Courage • Dignity • Diligence • Discretion • Earnestness • Faith • Fidelity • Forethought • Forgiveness • Friendship • Frugality • Gentleness • Goodness • Grace • Gratitude • Holiness • Honesty • Honor • Hope • Hospitality • Humanity • Humility • Integrity • Intelligence • Justice • Kindness • Love • Loyalty • Mercy • Moderation • Modesty • Optimism • Patience • Philanthropy • Piety • Prudence • Punctuality • Poverty • Purity • Self-control • Simplicity • Sincerity • Sobriety • Sympathy • Temperance • Tolerance
Aggression • Anger • Apathy • Arrogance • Bigotry • Contempt • Cowardice • Cruelty • Dishonesty • Drunkenness • Egotism • Envy • Evil speaking • Gluttony • Greed • Hatred • Hypocrisy • Idleness • Ignorance • Impatience • Impenitence • Ingratitude • Inhumanity • Intemperance • Jealousy • Laziness • Lust • Malice • Neglect • Obstinacy • Philistinism • Prejudice • Pretension • Pride • Recklessness • Self-righteousness • Selfishness • Superficiality • Tryphé • Unkindness • Usury • Vanity • Worldliness


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TADSummit 2017 in Review
This weblog provides an overall review of TADSummit 2017, sharing highlights and insights shared during two intense days in Lisbon (14-15th Nov). We review the individual presentations (sharing the edited videos, slides, and brief commentary) across these weblogs: Day 1 morning part 1, welcome and innovation showcase. Day 1 morning part 2, sponsors' keynotes. Day 1 afternoon … Continue reading TADSummit 2017 in Review


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The Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauge features a robust design with industry-proven sensor technology to resist common traditional gauge failures.
This pressure sensor provides up to 10 years of maintenance-free operation and replaces mechanical components for more reliable readings and a higher overpressure limit. This innovative device also features WirelessHART®technology that delivers reliable field data communications as frequently as once per minute.


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SaxoSelect Performance Fees
Performance Fee Explained
The purpose of the performance fee is for the investor to (mostly) pay for their managed portfolio service upon attaining positive performance. This way the investor and the manager's interests are aligned.
A performance fee is paid to the manager based on the portfolio value surpassing the "high watermark" (HWM).
The HWM is the highest value your portfolio has ever realised, after other costs have been deducted and removing the effects of cash additions or withdrawals. This value is based on either the initial Investment value, or any quarter-end value during the time you are invested. Intra quarter values are not considered, except for when the initial investment is made or when you exit.
This means each investor incurs their own HWM as they invest at different points in time.
A performance fee is only incurred if the manager exceeds the HWM, and is charged at quarter-end or upon exiting the managed portfolio. The fee charged is based on the added value attained between the prior HWM and the new HWM or exit value, net of all other costs.
- Q1 End: Investor 1 invests 50,000.
- Q2 End: Investor 1 watermark is reviewed and increased, as the value is now 70,000. A performance fee is charged amounting to (70,000 -50,000)*20% =4,000.
- Q3 End: The watermarks for Investor 1 and Investor 2 are reviewed and maintained. No performance fees are charged.
- Q4 End: The watermark for each investor is reviewed. Investor 1 and Investor 2 watermarks are maintained and no performance fees are charged. Investor 3 watermark is increased and a performance fee is charged.
The Performance fee considers cash additions and withdrawals to appropriately adjust the high water mark. The adjustment of the HWM is dependent on the direction of the flow (addition or withdrawal). If you are adding to your portfolio, we simply add that value to the high water mark and any benefit of having additional capital for producing returns is reflected in an increase in a new HWM at quarter-end. If you are withdrawing from the portfolio then we reduce the HWM proportionately. This is because the simple subtraction method actually increases the HWM on a percentage return basis and unfairly punishes the strategy manager. We can illustrate this below:
Current High water mark: 45,000
Current Value of portfolio: 40,000
Distance from HWM: 12.5% return required to hit HWM (45,000/40,000)
Capital outflow incurred: 20,000
Value of portfolio after cash flow: 20,000
Correct Method New Adjusted HWM: 20,000 + (20,000 x 12.5% return) = 22,500.
Incorrect Method New Adjusted HMW: 45,000 – 20,000 = 25,000. This would demand a 25% return to reach HWM.
N.B. For simplicity we have not shown the service fee and trading costs, which are in fact deducted to calculate the HWM.
When adjusting the HWM for cash flows, we take the prior quarter end HWM, and adjust it on the day the cash flow is incurred, to become an adjusted HWM. Should another cash flow be incurred, then we take the adjusted HWM and re-adjust (and the process repeats until quarter end). It is important that we do this, rather than wait until quarter-end and amend the HMW based on the total cash adjustments over the period. This is because it factors the capital available to produce returns throughout the quarter and prevents an inflated HWM at the quarter-end.


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A student-curated exhibition.
Autograph Manuscript of "Appassionata Sonata"
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Autograph manuscript, not dated but almost certainly 1804, two pages.
Beethoven worked in sketches, jotting down his musical ideas on scrap paper and refining them later. Presented here is an autograph sketch of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, or the Appassionata Sonata. The "Appassionata" is famous for its dark, stormy character, and Beethoven considered it one of his finest piano sonatas. This sonata was published in 1807 as the composer's opus 57. Leon Robbin Collection.
View of the Ringstrasse, Vienna
Beethoven never saw this view of Vienna during his frequent walks through the city. In his day, a high wall, dating from the medieval period, surrounded the city. But several decades after Beethoven's death, Franz Josef I replaced the wall with a broad boulevard, the Ringstrasse, and lined the streets with new buildings in a range of architectural styles. Seen from left to right are the City Hall (Gothic style), the Parliament Building (Neo-classical style), and the University (Renaissance style).
From Die Wiener Ringstrasse in ihrer Vollendung und der Franz-Josefs-Quai (Wien 2004. Facsimile, originally published 1875). Georgetown Chimes Book Endowment Fund.
Manuscript of "Neueste Grose Symphonie"
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Manuscript, 1825, 110 pages plus title.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is the last large-scale symphonic piece he composed, and it is historically significant because it was the first multi-movement orchestral work to make use of a soloist and a large chorus. Beethoven set Schiller's poem An die Freude, (Ode to Joy,) in the fourth movement of the symphony, which is arguably the most influential piece of music ever written.
This manuscript, with easily legible notation, was compiled by a copyist who would have worked from one of Beethoven's own, slightly less readable manuscripts. The second movement shows some variations from the version of the work published in 1826. A small annotation on the title page associates this manuscript with Beethoven's secretary, Ferdinand Ries, who conducted a performance of the symphony at Aix in 1825. Gift of Professor Anton Gloetzner.
Autograph Manuscript of "In diesem Wetter"
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Autograph manuscript, not dated, but ca. 1904, one page plus title.
Mahler attempted to capture the essence of nature in his musical compositions, and he incorporated German philosophy – specifically that of Arthur Schopenhauer – into his music. As a conductor, he was known for his stringent perfectionism, and for using unprecedented numbers of instrumentalists.
German poet Friedrich Rückert composed 425 poems in 1833/34 in an outpouring of grief after the death of two of his children. Mahler selected five of these poems, and set them to music in 1901 and 1904. Seen here is an autograph sketch of the opening of "In diesem Wetter," the fifth song in Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (Songs of the Death of Children). In the score, Mahler has indicated the mood of the song: "Stürmish. Mit ruhelos schmerzvollem Ausdruck" (Stormy. With restless painful expression). Robbin Fund.
Autograph Manuscript of "Schnell-Polka"
Johann Strauss (II) (1825-1899)
Autograph manuscript, undated (probably ca. 1890), nine pages.
Johann Strauss Jr is remembered as a pioneer of dance music. His rhythmically innovative waltzes brought popular music to the fore in his home city of Vienna. People would gather in public spaces such as the Stadtspark (seen in the image above), and hear performances of popular tunes, like Strauss' Schnellpolka.
This manuscript reveals details of Strauss's creative process. An accomplished violinist, Strauss would initially write the music for first violin, establishing the framework of the piece, and arranging the remaining parts afterwards. Note how the barlines for the first violin are written in ink; the barlines for the other instruments were added later in pencil. One can also observe that Strauss's compositional technique was, in some sense, formulaic. He purchased paper already printed with the standard instrumentation for a salon orchestra, and adhered to this orchestration without fail. Leon Robbin Collection.
Autograph Manuscript of "Zwei deutscher Tänze, DEUTSCHE 841"
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Autograph manuscript, signed and dated April 1825, one page.
Schubert, a native of Vienna, is best known for his songs, which elevated the formerly lowbrow genre into the realm of high culture, where it has since remained. Schubert's music was instrumental in the democratization of elite Viennese artistic society. His songs were at once enormously popular and aesthetically valuable. Schubert performed his own songs at Schubertiades, gatherings held in the salons of his friends to showcase his music, a tradition that Schubert enthusiasts around the world continue to keep alive today.
This autograph manuscript shows a pair of German dances that were not published during the composer's lifetime. They were likely written for an informal social gathering. This manuscript is the only known copy of these pieces dating from the composer's lifetime. In fact, the dances first appeared in print, as a facsimile, in a Stargardt auction catalogue in September 1926. Four years later an engraved version was published.
The musical staff is drawn by hand. Spots of ink, which collected at the points where Schubert would lift his hand off the page, can be seen at the end of each line. Leon Robbin Collection.
Color-printed Aquatint of Vienna's Musikverein
Karl Schwetz (1888-1965)
Color-printed aquatint of Vienna's Musikverein. Undated (early 20th century).
Brahms' music was celebrated by conservatories across Europe in the early 20th century as the gold standard. Its conservative and systematic style lent itself naturally to scholarly analysis and creative imitation. This print by Karl Schwetz shows the Musikverein, the Viennese concert hall where Brahms debuted many of his pieces. The hall contains a small, gilded chamber called the "Brahms-Saal," named in honor of the composer in 1937. Georgetown University Art Collection.
Autograph Postcard
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Autograph postcard, posted from Bad Ischl, one page.
Brahms wrote this postcard to Wilhelm Kupfer, his copyist and friend, on 15 September 1894. The text reads as follows:
Dear Mr. K.
I expect to come to Vienna next week and would be pleased if you could arrange to have some time for me.
With best regards,
J. Br.
Brahms was returning from his summer vacation in Bad Ischl, a summer resort near Vienna, and is clearly eager to return to work. Leon Robbin Collection.


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The Medical Holocaust No One Wants to Expose
The Starfield Revelation:
Medically Caused Death in America
By Jon Rappoport
October 11, 2017
During my coverage of the Las Vegas shooting, many new readers have come to my site and blog. So I want to expose them to a story I've been covering for years now:
Verified medical destruction of human life in America.
No mainstream news outlet wants to touch this.
Buckle up. Here we go. Here is one of the original stories I wrote about this unconscionable ongoing crime—
My 2009 interview with Dr. Barbara Starfield, a year and a half before she died, focused on her stunning exposure of medically caused death in America.
Starfield was a revered public health expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her July 26, 2000, review, "Is US health really the best in the world?", was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In other words, this was a mainstream report. There was every reason for it to cause a firestorm in the press, and in the halls of government.
But that's not what happened.
After a flurry of press stories, intentional amnesia set in.
If you're looking for evidence that institutionalized American medicine doesn't care about killing people, here it is.
Medical societies don't care, most doctors don't care, medical schools don't care, public-health agencies don't care, Congress doesn't care, the Department of Justice doesn't care, Presidents don't care, drug companies don't care, insurance companies don't care.
As for major media and medical reporters, they intentionally hide this story and its implications every day of every year.
When people with the power to do something about medically caused death—and I'm talking about huge numbers of victims—know what's going on and ignore it…what do you call that? Depraved indifference? Negligent homicide?
I call it murder.
Mass murder.
Barack Obama and his allies have done everything they can to bring more people into the US medical system. Changing the nature of that system has never occurred to these politicians.
Like much of America, they accept the cliches and slogans about American medicine. "It's the best in the world." "People are being denied treatment." "We must take care of our citizens."
How about this far more accurate slogan: "Let's force more Americans to die in the care of doctors."
The American healthcare system, like clockwork, causes a mind-boggling number of deaths every year.
On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock, when one of its most respected public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America. Starfield was associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
The Starfield study, "Is US health really the best in the world?", published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:
Every year in the US there are:
* 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;
* 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;
* 20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;
* 80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;
* 106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.
The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000.
That's 2.25 MILLION deaths per decade.
This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.
The Starfield study is the most disturbing revelation about modern healthcare in America ever published in the mainstream.
On the heels of Starfield's astonishing findings, media reporting was rather perfunctory, and it soon dwindled. No major newspaper or television network mounted an ongoing "Medicalgate" investigation. Neither the US Department of Justice nor federal health agencies undertook prolonged remedial action.
All in all, those parties who could have taken effective steps to correct this situation preferred to ignore it.
On December 6-7, 2009, I interviewed Dr. Starfield by email. Here are excerpts from that interview.
What has been the level and tenor of the response to your findings, since 2000?
The American public appears to have been hoodwinked into believing that more interventions lead to better health, and most people that I meet are completely unaware that the US does not have the 'best health in the world'.
In the medical research community, have your medically-caused mortality statistics been debated, or have these figures been accepted, albeit with some degree of shame?
The findings have been accepted by those who study them. There has been only one detractor, a former medical school dean, who has received a lot of attention for claiming that the US health system is the best there is and we need more of it. He has a vested interest in medical schools and teaching hospitals (they are his constituency).
Have health agencies of the federal government consulted with you on ways to mitigate the [devastating] effects of the US medical system?
Since the FDA approves every medical drug given to the American people, and certifies it as safe and effective, how can that agency remain calm about the fact that these medicines are causing 106,000 deaths per year?
Even though there will always be adverse events that cannot be anticipated, the fact is that more and more unsafe drugs are being approved for use. Many people attribute that to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is (for the past ten years or so) required to pay the FDA for reviews [of its new drugs]—which puts the FDA into an untenable position of working for the industry it is regulating. There is a large literature on this.
Aren't your 2000 findings a severe indictment of the FDA and its standard practices?
They are an indictment of the US health care industry: insurance companies, specialty and disease-oriented medical academia, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries, all of which contribute heavily to re-election campaigns of members of Congress. The problem is that we do not have a government that is free of influence of vested interests. Alas, [it] is a general problem of our society—which clearly unbalances democracy.
Can you offer an opinion about how the FDA can be so mortally wrong about so many drugs?
Yes, it cannot divest itself from vested interests. (Again, [there is] a large literature about this, mostly unrecognized by the people because the industry-supported media give it no attention.)
Would it be correct to say that, when your JAMA study was published in 2000, it caused a momentary stir and was thereafter ignored by the medical community and by pharmaceutical companies?
Are you sure it was a momentary stir? I still get at least one email a day asking for a reprint—ten years later! The problem is that its message is obscured by those that do not want any change in the US health care system.
Are you aware of any systematic efforts, since your 2000 JAMA study was published, to remedy the main categories of medically caused deaths in the US?
No systematic efforts; however, there have been a lot of studies. Most of them indicate higher rates [of death] than I calculated.
What was your personal reaction when you reached the conclusion that the US medical system was the third leading cause of death in the US?
I had previously done studies on international comparisons and knew that there were serious deficits in the US health care system, most notably in lack of universal coverage and a very poor primary care infrastructure. So I wasn't surprised.
Did your 2000 JAMA study sail through peer review, or was there some opposition to publishing it?
It was rejected by the first journal that I sent it to, on the grounds that 'it would not be interesting to readers'!
Do the 106,000 deaths from medical drugs only involve drugs prescribed to patients in hospitals, or does this statistic also cover people prescribed drugs who are not in-patients in hospitals?
I tried to include everything in my estimates. Since the commentary was written, many more dangerous drugs have been added to the marketplace.
This interview with Dr. Starfield reveals that, even when an author has unassailable credentials within the medical-research establishment, the findings can result in no changes made to the system.
Many persons and organizations within the medical system contribute to the annual death totals of patients, and media silence and public ignorance are certainly major factors, but the FDA is the assigned gatekeeper, when it comes to the safety of medical drugs.
The buck stops there. If those drugs the FDA is certifying as safe are killing, like clockwork, 106,000 people a year, the Agency must be held accountable. The American people must understand that.
As for the other 119,000 people killed every year as a result of hospital treatment, this horror has to be laid at the doors of those institutions. Further, to the degree that hospitals are regulated and financed by state and federal governments, the relevant health agencies assume culpability.
It is astounding, as well, that the US Department of Justice has failed to weigh in on Starfield's findings. If 225,000 medically caused deaths per year is not a crime by the Dept. of Justice's standards, then what is?
To my knowledge, not one person in America has been fired from a job or even censured as result of these medically caused deaths.
Dr. Starfield's findings have been available for 15 years. She has changed the perception of the medical landscape forever. In a half-sane nation, she would be accorded a degree of recognition that would, by comparison, make the considerable list of her awards pale. And significant and swift action would have been taken to punish the perpetrators of these crimes and reform the system from its foundations.
The pharmaceutical giants stand back and carve up the populace into "promising markets." They seek new disease labels and new profits from more and more toxic drugs. They do whatever they can—legally or illegally—to influence doctors in their prescribing habits. Many studies which show the drugs are dangerous are buried. FDA panels are filled with doctors who have drug-company ties. Legislators are incessantly lobbied and supported with pharma campaign monies.
Nutrition, the cornerstone of good health, is ignored or devalued by most physicians. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to attack nutritional supplements, even though the overall safety record of these nutrients is excellent, whereas, once again, the medical drugs the FDA certifies as safe are killing 106,000 Americans per year.
Physicians are trained to pay exclusive homage to peer-reviewed published drug studies. These doctors unfailingly ignore the fact that, if medical drugs are killing a million Americans per decade, the studies on which those drugs are based must be fraudulent. In other words, the whole literature is suspect, unreliable, and impenetrable.
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.


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Hi my name is Maximillion, I love my human foster siblings but would love to have a pawmanent family to call my own. I enjoy long walk on the beach and to read a nice book in front of the fire! Im 3-5 years old.
was established specifically to: Rescue animals from local animal shelters, focusing on "Code Red" (at-risk and injured) animals in need of immediate attention; Educate the public on the importance of Spay & Neuter programs and all the low-cost options available in our community. We further our purposes under this program by conducting the following activities: We rescue unwanted, abandoned, injured, or ill companion animals -- primarily from "high kill" shelters and owner surrenders. We place these animals in foster homes where they can receive proper veterinary care, rehabilitation, and rest in order to prepare them to go to their forever homes


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Clarity and Motivation
Your Alignment
What is it you actually want in your personal life? More time, money or fun? You may be wondering what that's got to do with your business plan? Well, your business exists to provide money to do the things you want and also give you the time to do them.