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Over half of the U.S. House of Representatives called in a letter on President Barack Obama to shut down the PLO office in Washington DC as punishment for its "pursuing non-member state observer status at the United Nations". Here is the official text of the letter.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
addressing the UN General Assembly. 29 November 2012
Washington DC 20515
December 21, 2012
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Your Administration discouraged the Palestinian leadership from
pursuing nonmember state observer status at the United Nations and took a firm
stance in both voting "no" and encouraging other nations to do the same,
and we appreciate those efforts.
We are deeply disappointed and upset that the Palestinian
leadership the entreaties of your Administration and the Congress and insisted
on pursuing this distinctly unhelpful initiative. This Palestinian action
violated both the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords, and it opened the door
for expanded Palestinian efforts to attack, isolate, and delegitimize Israel in
a variety of international forums _ a threat which, even if unrealized, would
hang over Israel's head during any future negotiation or any effort by the
Israeli government to defend its citizens from terrorism.
This is a truly unfortunate outcome. History has shown that direct
talks are the only means for resolving disputes between Israel and its
neighbors. Direct talks were the path that brought peace treaties between
Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. Direct talks also led to the
Oslo agreements between Israel and the PLO, and the PLO pledged in Oslo that it
would take no unilateral action to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza.
Now PLO Chairman Abbas has violated that signed agreement.
Accordingly, we believe the United States must respond strongly to the
Palestinian leadership's failure to uphold its obligations. First, we must send
a clear message of disapproval, beyond our negative vote, with Chairman Abbas
and the PLO's decision to seek a UN status upgrade at the General Assembly. One
important way of expressing U.S. disapproval would be to send the message that
such actions are not and that, at a minimum, they result in setbacks to
U.S.-Palestinian relations. We can do this by closing the PLO office in
Washington, D.C. We can also call Our Consul-General in Jerusalem home for
consultations. We urge you to take these steps.
Second, we stand ready to work with you and commit to using every
means at our disposal to ensure that this General Assembly vote does not serve
as a precedent for elevating the status of the PLO in other UN bodies or international
forums. Over the past year, Palestinian leaders have indicated an intention to apply
for full membership in the International Criminal Court and over a dozen other
international institutions in order to assert Palestinian claims against
Israel. Such efforts would not only unfairly target our Israeli ally, but would
devastate efforts to resume the peace process and do possibly i1'repa1'able
harm to those international institutions. We should do everything possible to
make sure that does not happen, including by reaffirming our commitment to
maintaining and enforcing U,S. laws that require withholding U.S. contributions
from any international forum that grants membership to the PLO.
Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to your
Respectfully, (signed)
Follow me on Twitter @NabilAbiSaab


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The Galaxy Note 10 is Samsung's most expensive flagship phone yet and as it should be it is also the most capable. We recently saw some slow motion samples that we wanted to share and why this phone is the best quality slow motion a Samsung phone has ever been able to produce. Sure the quality difference between the Note 10 and the Galaxy S10 is very small but it is there. We see less moire and aliasing than on the S10 and the detail retained is also better.
We were disappointed at first that 720p was still the top resolution for slow motion. But the only 1080p phone alternative the Sony Xperia Series like the Xperia One is only recording 0.1 seconds of slow motion at 960fps 1080p which is next to useless. Furthermore, the supposed 1080p quality looks just a tad better than the Samsung which is not particularly high quality either.

subset: commoncrawl


text: For reasons no one seems to understand, LSA sales remain lukewarm at best. The FAA sees LSA as a 200-a-year kind of market for the foreseeable future. Maybe the things just aren't enough fun or they're too expensive or they lack utility. Beats me. You don't get good answers when you ask people why they don't buy things.Two companies are addressing the fun deficit aspect with different takes on the same idea: sleek amphibious designs with folding wheels and wings. Icon has been out there a while with its A5 and here at AirVenture, we clapped eyes on a new one, the LISA Akoya. In case land and water aren't enough, the Akoya adds one more dimension: it has snow skis on its retractable gear. Here's a video report on the airplane.We wanted to do a comparison with the A5, but Icon denied us permission to shoot video of their airplane-a first for us at a show where vendors, after all, come to show off their stuff. I get the impression Icon is steamed at us for reporting that they've petitioned the FAA for a weight exemption for the A5.The Akoya doesn't seem weight challenged, which I find a little surprising given the articulated wings and retractable landing gear structure, all of which add weight. Not to mention cost. The Akoya is priced at a breathtaking $370,000, by far the most expensive LSA we've seen. I've given up predicting what will and won't sell based on price. For all I know, Akoya's climb into the stratospheric price zone will find lots of takers due to the prestige factor. Price value relationships can get weird when things get very expensive. And I don't know if buyers care as much about range, speed and payload as we think they do. (The Akoya wins on these comparisons.)Neither of these airplanes lack for looks, though. The Akoya is softer, sleeker and more rounded, the A5 more angular and compact with an automotive-style interior you'd think would be out of place but which fits the overall character of the airplane. Both of them strike me as of a piece; nicely proportioned and pleasing to look at without any visual catch points. We'll know in a couple of years if buyers resonate with these aesthetics or will find them just two more ho-hum LSAs among many. Either way, they're both worth checking out here at AirVenture.


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Equatorial Guinea Increases Protected Forests by 63 Percent, Shows New Atlas
Leer esta entrada del blog en español
Forests are the life blood of Equatorial Guinea. They cover roughly 98 percent of the total national land area, providing services and sustenance to hundreds of thousands of Equatoguineans. But despite the critical role of forests, the country lacked a comprehensive information system to support monitoring and responsible management of these ecosystems.
Until now, that is. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) of Equatorial Guinea in partnership with WRI recently released the Interactive Forest Atlas of Equatorial Guinea Version 1.0, which tracks land use in the country over the past 15 years. As the first source of open data for the country's forest sector, the Forest Atlas reveals some encouraging findings: Equatorial Guinea's forest management has improved in recent years, with protected areas significantly increasing and forest concessions decreasing.
The Interactive Forest Atlas of Equatorial Guinea
Congo Basin Forest Atlases
With the addition of the Interactive Forest Atlas of Equatorial Guinea, WRI has now completed interactive forest atlases for all countries in Africa's Congo Basin. View our other maps and resources below:
The Forest Atlas is a living information system combining the use of remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and ground-truthing to monitor and manage Equatorial Guinea's forests. Through a combination of interactive mapping applications, data visualizations, analytical reports, training, and outreach, the Forest Atlas provides users with access to timely, accurate, and harmonized information on the state of Equatorial Guinea's forests. The Forest Atlas displays the major official forest land use categories--forest concessions, protected areas, community forests, and forest plots--on one platform, including where these uses overlap. With a more complete picture of Equatorial Guinea's forest sector, government officials and other decision-makers will be better equipped to foster responsible forest management.
3 Major Findings from the Equatorial Guinea Forest Atlas
The first version of the Atlas encompasses 15 years of land use allocation data. The data reveals three major findings, some of which represent important progress when it comes to sustainable management of forests.
- Protected Areas Increased, while Forest Concessions Area Decreased: Between 1997 and 2013, the total area of protected areas increased by 392,023 hectares (63 percent), while forest concessions—those areas allocated for timber exploitation—decreased by 930,000 hectares (56 percent). Part of this change is due to the country's recent oil boom, causing the economy to shift away from logging activities and subsistence forestry. But it also reflects official changes in policy – notably implementation of the 1997 Forest Law and 2000 Protected Area Law – that move forest management away from a timber-only focus, towards one that is more holistic and sustainable.
Overlap Between Forest Concessions and Protected Areas Decreased: Areas where legally protected forest and concessions overlap significantly decreased over the past decade. Between 2002 and 2013, the total overlap area decreased from 129,816 hectares to 11,234 hectares, mostly due to the conversion of these overlapping areas into protected areas. These protected areas, when actively managed, help secure valuable forests for future generations.
Foreign Companies Operate the Majority of Larger Forest Concessions: As of July 2013, there were 11 logging companies operating in 48 forest concessions in Equatorial Guinea. Companies from Malaysia, Lebanon, Korea, and China represented the largest shares, with Equatorial Guinea nationals positioned as higher-level partners, as required by the law. Only smaller logging permits are exclusively held by Equatorial Guinea nationals.
Making Important Progress Toward Transparent Data
A look into the Interactive Forest Atlas of Equatorial Guinea reveals that land officially allocated to logging decreased over the last 15 years—encouraging progress toward safeguarding forests for future generations. However, the production of the Forest Atlas itself is also a major step forward. The Forest Atlas is the first open data platform for Equatorial Guinea's forest sector, representing a huge stride toward transparency, coordination, and access to information for all concerned actors.
MAF and WRI plan to regularly update the Forest Atlas, as well as strengthen capacity-building to better apply this information and produce positive action on the ground. With transparent and consistently updated data, Equatorial Guinea can build on its progress and better manage its forests.
- LEARN MORE: Check out the full Forest Atlas, interactive mapping application, and poster.


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Snapchat users are being targeted in a new scam - here's what to watch out for
Criminals are targeting Snapchat users, extorting money by threatening to reveal private photos and taking over accounts, according to the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC).
Users are now being advised by the SBRC to watch out for any suspicious activity or communications from friends accounts in order to stay safe while using the app.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHow does the scam work?
There have been reports of criminals contacting users over the social media app from another hacked account. This gives the false impression that the account is owned by someone the user knows.
The fraudsters have then been reported to deceive people by claiming to be a friend who needs help with their account or needs money to help solve a problem. Some claim they want to add you to a friends list and need your personal details to do so.
The fraudster's goal is to trick the user into handing over control of their Snapchat account in order to access their photos, personal details, and contacts list.
Some scammers then use a compromised account to ask for money from friends, while others access the victim's private photos to use for blackmail.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHow to protect yourself
The SBRC has published a variety of safety measures for Snapchat users to ensure they remain safe online.
These include:
- Check with a friend through other contact methods to confirm whether or not they have sent you a message over snapchat, if you receive a message from them which seems suspicious or unexpected
- Double check friend requests and don't accept any from people you don't know personally
- Don't share your email and password details and only login on the official website or app
- Never share any codes or pin numbers and be very cautious of sharing your phone number or email address over social media
- Make sure you use a strong password using at least three unconnected words that are memorable to you


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Liberal MPs were surprised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to shut down Parliament Tuesday, but many say they believe it was the right call to hit the reset button and deliver a new throne speech, given how COVID-19 has changed the political and economic landscape.
Liberal cabinet and caucus members alike say they were not given advance notice of Trudeau's plans to prorogue Parliament and only learned about it when it was reported in the media Tuesday.
While some might see it as a political tactic to silence committees probing the WE controversy, Francis Drouin, MP for the Ontario riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, said he believes a new throne speech is needed to give Canadians a better look at government's long-term plans.
"To me it just makes sense," he said.
"The issues that we were talking about a year ago aren't necessarily reflecting the realities of what we're now dealing with in our constituencies and what Canadians are dealing with. I think it's the right call."
Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay agreed, saying he believes the situation in Canada and in the world has changed dramatically since the pandemic and Canadians need to see how government plans to respond to those shifting priorities.
"Now is the time to put the road map in place to rebuild the economy and, obviously, that's what Trudeau wants to do and that's what will be done."
A new speech will also prompt a confidence vote, which will require the support of at least one of the main opposition parties to avert defeat of Trudeau's minority government.
Trudeau refuted suggestions Tuesday he was breaking a 2015 election commitment to never use prorogation as a way to "avoid difficult political circumstances." He argued he is inviting a confidence vote to allow his Liberal minority to be given a mandate for their post-pandemic plans.
Many Liberal MPs seem unconcerned about the possibility the vote could trigger an early election after the speech is released Sept. 23.
If opposition politicians want to send Canadians to the polls in the middle of a pandemic, that will be up to them to justify, MacAulay said.
But even as much of Trudeau's caucus appears on board with his hasty decision to pull the plug on Parliament, concerns are being felt in some corners about how the WE affair has played out.
The decision to select WE Charity to administer the multimillion-dollar Canada Student Service Grant has become a political headache for the Liberal government and is being blamed for the sudden resignation Monday of Bill Morneau as minister of finance. Trudeau named Chrystia Freeland to the crucial post Tuesday.
Morneau insisted his decision to leave was based strictly on the fact that he doesn't intend to run for re-election.
Both Trudeau and Morneau have close family ties to the WE organization have apologized for not recusing themselves from the decision to select WE Charity to administer the CSSG. Both are now being investigated by the ethics commissioner over the deal.
WE backed out of the program in early July, citing the controversy, but the political fallout has continued, playing out in Commons committees with marathon grilling sessions by opposition politicians of key WE and government officials, including Trudeau himself,
Rob Oliphant, who is the parliamentary secretary of foreign affairs, said he is glad to see his government will be taking a new focus with prorogation and a new throne speech, as he did not approve of the decision to give WE Charity the ill-fated contract.
"I don't think it was a good decision that cabinet made in the first place," he said.
"I think obviously government was trying to find a fast way to get a program out to help people. I didn't like it from the beginning and I'm very glad it's not happening."
READ MORE: Parliament prorogued, confidence coming on throne speech, says Trudeau
After spending dozens of hours chairing the finance committee's probe of the WE controversy, Liberal MP Wayne Easter said he is not concerned the prorogation has denied Canadians an opportunity to learn the finer details of the affair.
All the key players, both in government and at WE, have appeared at committee and thousands of pages of newly released government documents have offered a lot of information for Canadians, Easter said.
He says he's more concerned that Tuesday's prorogation has left other work of the finance committee unfinished.
This includes hundreds of submissions made during pre-budget consultations for Budget 2021 which weren't made available to the committee before prorogation and now can't be reviewed. The committee also hadn't completed its summary of hundreds of COVID-19 presentations from witnesses over the last four months — information gathered to ensure government's pandemic response would meet the needs of all Canadians.
"With the prorogation, that work is going to be crammed into a very, very tight timeline in the fall and we don't have that advice from the public to give to the minister (Freeland) right now," Easter said.
Virtually all MPs and cabinet ministers who spoke to The Canadian Press said they're not hearing concerns from their constituents in either in small-town Canada or in bigger cities, about the prorogation. Canadians are more concerned about their health, their families and their livelihoods during the pandemic, they said.
Oliphant's office received only two emails and one telephone call Wednesday about the prorogation and, of the 21 calls Oliphant proactively made to constituents during the day, not one person raised it.
"That's the pulse," he said.
READ MORE: Opposition parties decry black ink in WE documents, allege continuing coverup
Teresa Wright, The Canadian Press
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Many months ago my friend Jessica Walsh, who owns Illuminated Baby in Woodstock, told me about these lectures she'd been listening to on Simplicity Parenting. As she explained what she learned, I got really excited. I love a good parenting theory, but this one in particular appeals to me because it seems to offer a remedy for me and Coraline's greatest afflictions — transitions, material stuff, and connecting. The man behind the movement is Kim John Payne, M.Ed, founder of The Center for Social Sustainability and author of several books, including Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids. In order to reduce parent and child stress and promote connection and relaxation, Payne offers a plan to "simplify four realms at home": environment (i.e. de-cluttering), scheduling (i.e. streamlining hectic days and leaving unstructured time for play), unplugging (i.e. reducing media and consumerism exposure), and rhythm (i.e. "introducing more predictable rhythms"). Doing so reportedly helps kids flourish emotionally, socially, and academically, and helps parents reclaim some shred of sanity.
I've been tackling the four realms of our home — significantly limiting Coraline's screen time; de-cluttering every nook and cranny and reorganizing rooms to better facilitate her imaginative and creative play; attempting to totally coordinate my work schedule with her school schedule; and learning to leave the computer off and phone on silent. I have to say, there's a noticeable change in our interactions and the rhythm of our days — there's more connection, more creativity, more satisfaction out of our time together. I dig it.
If all this sounds like just what you need, you're in luck; Certified Simplicity Parenting Group Leader Meredith Johnson, M.S., MHC-LP leads an introductory workshop at Fiber Flame in Saugerties on Tuesday, January 29 (6:30-8 p.m.; $15). Go forth and simplify! Then tell me all about it.
» More from Mama Greenest blog
» Find a Hudson Valley healthcare provider or rescource
» Find a Hudson Valley kids resource


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Enter your email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password.
A program that gives you the chance to live a social experience with a young man called "Ghaith". Who is roaming countries to meet people in distress and pain; to look for an opportunity to make a difference in their lives.
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How to use this plug-in:
If you install and activate this plug-in before installing Contact Form 7, the default form created by Contact Form 7 will be accessible. If you've already installed Contact Form 7, you'll want to delete the default form and create new forms using the templates available in this plug-in.
Use Contact Form 7 with an accessible default form
This plug-in replaces the default template that Contact Form 7 automatically generates with an accessible equivalent of that form and adds a suite of additional basic form types that you can choose from to model your new forms.
The plug-in doesn't change anything about forms that have already been built with Contact Form 7. The structure of Contact Form 7 is such that it isn't possible for the plug-in to rewrite existing forms for improved accessibility, but it is possible to make sure that the base you have for starting a form is accessible.
Contact Form 7 is actually a very accessible plug-in. It has an accessible back-end, and if you create the right template, the front-end form will have great accessibility.
Since version 4.5, Contact Form 7 has included the label element; but the usage of them is limited, and isn't the best possible method. This plug-in supplies a new default form that includes everything you need to make your default form accessible.
For more information about making Contact Form 7 accessible, read how to set up an accessible form using contact form 7, by Rian Rietveld.
- Upload the
folder to your/wp-content/plugins/
directory - Activate the plugin using the
menu in WordPress - Create a new Contact Form 7 form.
Will this fix all my Contact Form 7 forms?
Nope. All this does is change Contact Form 7 so that the default form it generates is accessible. This gives you a model for what an accessible form should look like in Contact Form 7 (with appropriately associated labels and IDs, and with the response moved to the top of the form.), but does nothing at all to change how Contact Form 7 behaves.
Why aren't there demos for all types of fields?
Two reasons. First, with the current version of Contact Form 7 it's not possible to make the quiz input type accessible. I've already reported this to the plug-in author, and it will be updated soon. Second, because I haven't had time to create forms that use every possible field. If you've got another example you'd like to see in a basic form, let me know!
Contributors & Developers
"Contact Form 7: Accessible Defaults" is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors"Contact Form 7: Accessible Defaults" has been translated into 8 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate "Contact Form 7: Accessible Defaults" into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
- Update code style for PHPCS conformance.
- Update tested to & retest with WordPress 6.4 and Contact Form 7 5.8.3.
- Update copyright.
- Minor text & style changes.
- Code simplification.
- Misc. code quality changes. Minor.
- Test with WordPress 5.4 & Contact Form 7 5.1.6
- Update to docs.
- Test with WordPress 5.2 & Contact Form 7 5.1
- Test with WordPress 4.7 & Contact Form 7 4.6
- Add checkbox example in Address template
- Test with WordPress 4.5
- Bug fix: Only show template selector when creating a new form
- Add info link for this plug-in in Information panel for Contact Form 7
- Changed textdomain to match slug
- Update layout for better usability in Templates tab.
- Updated textdomain loaded method
- Rewrote parts of readme text
- Updated screenshots
- Update to reflect new Contact Form 7 UI
- Bug fix: incorrect label text for message field.
- New Feature: multiple selectable base forms to use as form starters.
- Initial release


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Cookie information
This page contains information on DASH Services' use of cookies on its websites and details on how you can stop your browser downloading them or delete them.
This cookie policy provides information on cookies DASH Services uses on its website, what they are for and how you as an individual users can control or block them using your browser. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of numbers and letters downloaded on to a device (e.g. computer, laptop, smartphone) when a user accesses some websites, including those of DASH Services. Cookies allow us to recognise devices and help us remember information regarding your preferences (e.g. if you have created a personalised homepage, or if you have logged into a site). This helps users of our website, as it means their preferences can be saved each time they visit, without the need to re-enter them. Most major websites use cookies.
How can I see or control cookies?
You may delete and block all cookies from our sites, but parts of these sites may not work properly.
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. Your browser's HELP function should also tell you how to do this, or your mobile phone manual.
Please be aware that restricting cookies on our websites may impact on some functionality.
Cookies used on this website
Session Cookies
These are temporary cookies, which only exist in the period you access the website. Session cookies help websites remember what you did on the previous page, or if you have logged in, thus avoiding having to re-enter information. On our websites, these cookies do not contain personal information, and cannot be used to identify you.
Persistent Cookies
These are cookies, which remain on your device after you have visited our website. These cookies help us identify you as a unique visitor (by storing a randomly generated number) and help us remember preferences when returning to our websites, again meaning users don't have to re-enter information.
Some cookies used on our website are provided by 3rd party services and applications. More details are provided in the table below
The length of time a cookie will remain on your device will depend on the type of cookie. On our website, these cookies do not contain personal information.
The table below identifies the cookies we use on our websites, their name and description.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics can be found on all listed websites.
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our websites. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.
Cookie |
Description |
Expires |
utmz |
Stores where a visitor came from (search engine, search keyword, link) |
6 months |
utma |
Stores each user's amounts of visits, and the time of the first visit, the previous visit, and the current visit |
2 years |
utmb and utmc |
Are used to check approximately how long you stay on a site: when a visit starts, and approximately ends |
End of session/30 minutes |
For more information, see Google Analytics cookie usage.


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Did you find this page useful? Do you have a suggestion to improve the documentation? Give us feedback. If you would like to suggest an improvement or fix for the AWS CLI, check out our contributing guide on GitHub.
First time using the AWS CLI? See the User Guide for help getting started.
[ aws . macie2 ]
Wait until a particular condition is satisfied. Each subcommand polls an API until the listed requirement is met.


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In what enthusiastic progressives are heralding as "one of the boldest acts of his presidency," environmentalist groups are hailing as "the centerpiece of President Obama's Climate Action Plan," embattled red-state Democrats are warning are "disastrous new rules," and industry representatives are branding a clear move "designed to materially damage the ability of conventional energy sources to provide reliable and affordable power," the Obama administration has finally revealed the emissions regulations on existing power plants for which they have long been prepping. Via the AP:
The 645-page rule, expected to be finalized next year, is a centerpiece of Obama's plans to tackle climate change and aims to give the United States more leverage to prod other countries to act when negotiations on a new international treaty resume next year. Under the plan, carbon emissions would be reduced 30 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, putting in motion one of the most significant U.S. actions on global warming.
The proposal sets off a complex regulatory process, steeped in politics, in which the 50 states will each determine how to meet customized targets set by the Environmental Protection Agency, then submit those plans for approval.
"The glue that holds this plan together — and the key to making it work — is that each state's goal is tailored to its own circumstances, and states have the flexibility to reach their goal in whatever works best for them," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said as she formally announced the proposal.
The regulations are going to require individual emissions-cutting plans from each state to add up to a national 30 percent reduction, with different state-specific requirements based on how much electricity they get from coal and how much they have already done to reduce their emissions in recent years. The Obama administration doesn't want to seem like it's unfairly coming down too hard on state economies that happen to rely more on coal for their electricity needs (West Virginia, for instance, is going to get walloped, with 95 percent of their electricity currently coming from coal, while Idaho actually gets most of its electricity from hydroelectric power and exactly none of it from coal), and in that vein, the EPA claims that the regulations will offer plenty of "flexibility" for states to adjust to the changes:
Many states that rely heavily on coal will be spared from cutting a full 30 percent. West Virginia, for example, must cut 23 percent by 2030 compared to what the state was emitting in 2012. Ohio's target is 28 percent, while Kentucky and Wyoming will have to find ways to make an 18 percent and 19 percent cut.
On the other extreme, New York has a 44 percent target, EPA figures show. New York has already joined with other Northeast states to curb carbon dioxide from power plants, reducing the baseline figure from which cuts must be made. But states like New York can get credit for actions they've already taken, lest they be punished for taking early action on climate change.
The fact that they chose 2005 as a baseline is also meant to be a mitigating factor, since our natural-gas boom along with increased fuel efficiency have already taken us part of the way there. Nevertheless, President Obama wants the EPA to finalize the rules by June 2015, and states are supposed to start submitting their implementation plans by June 2016 (with room to push their deadlines into 2018, depending on how they choose to approach the regulations) so that the rule can start having an impact before he leaves office — in theory. The legal challenges from states with a larger proportion of older coal plants are going to come hard and fast, not to mention some staunch lobbying efforts and less-than-uniform support from put-upon Democrats.


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Sweet+Single Candy Scrub Fresh Lemongrass
The perfect quick grab for self care anywhere. It's travel friendly, convenient, and easy to gift to your favorite human or yourself!
A smell so fresh and bright, it's like clean linens drying on a spring day. Green verbena and a dash of vanilla make for a purely energizing and uplifting aroma.
Big moisture in a tiny package. These single-use, candy-wrapped solid scrubs are super handy in a pinch—there's no mess, no jars, and nothing else quite like them. Grab, unwrap, and massage onto skin with a touch of water. Sweet + Single Candy Scrub turns into a 3-in-1 lotion, leaving skin silky soft and exfoliated. Single-use packaging made from biodegradable cellulose helps keep dirt and germs out for a fresh batch of goodness every time.
Pack contains 12 scrubs
Sodium chloride (fine grain salt), Sucrose (pure cane sugar), Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Butyrospermum parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Persea Gratissima Oil and Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Avocado Butter), Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Macadamia Ternifolia (Macadamia Nut) Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Tocoperol Acetate (Gluten Free Vitamin E), Fragrance, Green Chromium Oxide.


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Redeveloping Homes for the Next Generation
At CT Green Property, our core mission is to provide safe, comfortable, and energy-efficient housing to individuals and their families along the Connecticut shoreline. We acquire old and deteriorating properties, and restore them to like-new condition with professionally designed renovations and environmentally friendly upgrades. When homeowners buy with us, they have the peace of mind that comes with investing in sustainable and modern housing. |
Get the latest news and updates from CT Green Property
CT Green Property LLC, PO Box 6486, Hamden, CT 06517 • Phone (203) 654-9530 • info[at]ctgreenproperty.com
Copyright © 2012 CT Green Property, LLC. All rights reserved


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I could have said that he was a criminal. After all, his radical views and philosophies run antithetical to the established principles of Gallifreyan society. And he was even brought back to face the trial of a Time Lord on several occasions.
But I wanted to be more specific. He's a thief. A crook. A right sticky-fingers.
The current incarnation of the Doctor proved this in the recent episode "The Long Game". By using his cosmic spanner, the Doctor was able to access the 200,000 AD equivalent to an ATM and give Adam a real joystick - a pencil-length electronic box full of unlimited credit.
And this aspect of his personality is not due to the most recent regeneration (his ninth). All of his personae have had to resort to thievery while they've been on the run through Time. How else to keep himself and his companions fed? Or to support his addiction to jelly babies? And then there's the clothing expenses.
The wardrobe bill for his companions had to be considerable. The Doctor might have been able to traverse Time and Space without regard to wearing anything but the clothes chosen by each version of himself. But especially when it came to his companions travelling in Earth's past history, it was always best to have the appropriate apparel on hand.
Most recently, the Ninth Doctor had his companion Rose Tyler find a dress befitting Naples circa Christmas Eve, 1860. It turned out they were in Cardiff, 1869, but the dress she chose was still appropriate.
Even if it was for Cardiff.......
There are a lot of time periods, a lot of locations. There would be no problem in storing all of those clothes - because of the spatial anomalies of the TARDIS, the Doctor's wardrobe area was immense. (In that recent episode 'The Unquiet Dead', we learned that you reach the wardrobe from the main control room by taking the first left, second right, third on the left. Then go straight ahead and under the stairs, past the bins and it would be found beyond the fifth door on the left.)
The problem would be in supplying all of the necessary clothing to cover any era. And that would take some money.
Unless of course, you were willing to steal what you needed.
Considering the shabbiness of many of his own sartorial selections, it's possible he just sidled the TARDIS up to a donation bin and helped himself with a little dumpster diving for duds. But he may have also availed himself of any apparel no longer of any use to its previous owners.
For instance, it's my contention that at some point in the late 1960s or even into the 1970s, the Doctor found himself in Gotham City. Learning that a criminal known as "The Riddler" was presently incarcerated in Gotham City Penitentiary, the Doctor might have decided to relieve him of some of the custom-made costumes the Riddler wore during his nefarious exploits.
Who knows when such a thing might come in handy?
As it turned out, that would have been approximately 1984, present-day Earth time.
While on the planet Androzani, the fifth incarnation of the Doctor was forced to undergo yet another regeneration. And with this transformation, the Sixth Doctor exhibited personality traits that made his previous style and taste in clothing to be no longer of any interest to him. And so he rummaged about through his many bins of clothing in that expansive wardrobe and found perhaps the all-time most appalling amalgamation of apparel ever sported by a Time Lord.
If Elton John and Robin Williams had a love child, this would be the outfit he'd be dressed in.
And it was with this ensemble of clothing that the Sixth Doctor found a use for the type of dress shirts he had purloined from that puzzler known as the Riddler.
Want to see proof? Click on this link:
"I wonder why everyone dressed old-fashioned in those days.
They don't do it now."
Kathy Anderson
'Father Knows Best'
They don't do it now."
Kathy Anderson
'Father Knows Best'


text:
- 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
- 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
- 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Did you notice that in Romans 3:23 (above) it says that, "All have sinned"? This means that there is not a single one of us that has not sinned, and so we all have earned the "wages of sin", death. But if we want forgiveness, if we want to be made sinless, if we want to live and not die, all we have to do is ask. Then we must not resist God's love. We must "open the door" to our hearts and allow Jesus to come in. He knows better than we do what needs to be fixed and will come in and repair the damage sin has done to us.
"...the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".


text:
By Craig Harline ( originally posted at timesandseasons.org )
In March at BYU I gave a talk, or more accurately for a guy who can barely use Power-Point, a multi-media extravaganza, involving at least 10 non-fancy slides with absolutely nothing moving around on them. The topic was the title above.
For those who want to skip the movie and just read the book, I thought I'd post here a (believe it or not) condensed version of that talk, focusing on the main points, without all the low-tech effects. Of course, the post won't be nearly as exciting, but some of the clips used at the live talk didn't make it to the youtube version anyway because of copyright issues (you'll still see some phenomenal pictures of phenomenal 1970s bellbottoms, however, which certainly I thought would never change; the talk is at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-o23SurnGA. I start talking at about 9 minutes.)
POINT 1. When you study Really Old history in Really Distant Places, like I do, you have to explain a little more than usual what in the world your study is good for. Contrary to popular opinion among friends and family members, studying Really Old History is not just good for becoming a whiz at Jeopardy or other parlor games that make you the life of any party. It's not even just good for coming up with a lot of solemn platitudes you can then utter about History (like never repeating mistakes of the past—not true, by the way).
No, what studying Really Old History is most good for is the insight it can offer into life right now. And maybe the most fundamental such insight is some perspective on how things change, especially in my favorite realms of study: religion and culture.
POINT 2. Anyone halfway paying attention in life is familiar with cultural change, of course, as we see it happen right before our eyes, from one generation to another, with older generations usually lamenting the decline of just about everything and younger generations usually rejoicing at all the progress they've brought to the world—not only in obvious ways like hairstyles and clothing and music but also in abstract things like morals.
Then the younger generation becomes the older generation and the lamenting starts all over again, with the new oldies insisting that the changes they made were necessary and obvious while the changes going on with the new youngies are REALLY bad, in fact are probably the worst changes in the history of the whole world and signal that the end is near.
(This is where you want to get on YouTube and watch the two forbidden clips that essentially bookend the talk: Mama Cass belting out "There's a New World Coming," and then Archie and Edith Bunker singing "Those Were the Days." These are the twin theme-songs of every generation: the first when you're young, the second when you're old.)
POINT 3. What studying Really Old History does is to help us see beyond generational change and prejudice. Most of us make our judgments about the religious and cultural change we witness, and even about the entire history of the world, based on the really short and egocentric perspective of our own lifetime. But a closer look at change over the long haul lets us see that change and lamenting and rejoicing are pretty constant, and knowing this can save us a little fretting, or at least let us have better-informed debates over proposed changes in our own world.
For one thing, long-term study of change helps us see how hard it is to judge what constitutes progress and decline, or which generation is superior to another. You'd have to lay out all the deeds and values of every generation to do that. And even if you could lay them all out (highly doubtful), then which generation's standard of right and wrong would you use to judge things? Every generation is pretty sure of its superiority, and yet every generation has, usually without knowing it, accepted as right things which previous generations thought were wrong, and vice versa.
To settle that argument, you could of course trying bringing in some objective judge of right and wrong, which in the West has meant especially the Christian Bible. But that can be tricky too, because interpretations of the Bible have changed dramatically over time. Scholars have tried explaining change with some dreary-sounding theories like "cohort replacement" and "informational cascades." I'm in the early stages of developing my own ideas, but so far I'm thinking that it might be more helpful to understand change not as decline or progress but as a sort of reconfiguration, or as the Book of Acts puts it, a time of refreshing.
People start seeing old things differently, and seeing new things, because they ask new questions, often because of new conditions around them; then they work their new way of seeing into a new system of right and wrong.
POINT 4. There have been countless such reconfigurations over time, and I'll start with a few simple ones in western Christian culture alone to illustrate.
Example: language. My mother sometimes washed our mouths out with soap when we used slang words she thought were bad, so imagine my surprise when I learned decades later that some of the slang words she used herself were originally obscene, which of course she didn't know. Or how about the phrase Good Grief, so wholesome that even Charlie Brown says it? Turns out it's just another minced swear word. There are hundreds of such words, and most of us say some of them regularly without thinking ourselves wrong for doing so, which I know because I and the rest of the historical police hear you.
Example: lefthandedness. For centuries this was seen not as just another hand but as the evil hand. The Latin word for left is sinister, the French word for left (gauche) is crude, and so on. Any child who preferred the left hand was unusually willful and deliberately perverse. Religious rituals favored the right hand, a toast of ill-will was a left-handed toast, a subtle insult was a left-handed compliment, ambidextrous didn't mean using both hands equally, it meant having two right hands. Right wasn't just directional, but moral, clear into the twentieth century, until people began to view lefthandedness as just another form of handedness. Lefthandedness itself didn't change, but how it was seen changed.
Example: polyphonic music. What?! Yes, the church long preferred plainchant, everyone singing the same note and same word at the same time. Polyphony, or singing different notes and different words, was worldly. But around 900 some church composers started believing it was possible to incorporate polyphony into religious music. Many churchmen resisted, especially when third and sixth intervals were involved, which were seen as sensuous and "not conducive to holy thoughts."
Yet eventually the single most famous piece of polyphony in the Christian West became also the single most famous piece of religious music too: Handel's Messiah. Even though people are singing and playing all sorts of notes at the same time, even though all sorts of thirds and sixths are undoubtedly going on, even though Handel himself considered it a secular work and had it performed in concert halls instead of churches, most of us upon hearing it are not likely to run out and renounce religion but instead regard it as a supremely religious work—because our sense of right and wrong in religious music is different from that of the Middle Ages.
POINT 5. Beyond these changes were bigger ones that really did seem to turn the world upside down, and signal the end, and shake the foundations, and tear up the roots (root of course being the root meaning of the word radical), or whatever metaphor you want to use. These sorts of changes weren't just in fashion or music or technology, but in what people had been sure had always been right and wrong.
Such changes were long unimaginable, yet they occurred anyway. Most won't seem that radical to us; in fact they might make us chuckle or smirk because they seem so obviously right. But we can think that only because earlier generations made them part of a new configuration of values that eventually became part of our own configuration, without our even realizing it. At one time, these unimaginable changes were every bit as big as any unimaginable change in our own world, and were enough to make people start fainting, like during Khruschev's secret speech of 1956, because this just couldn't be happening.
Example: the famous dream of Peter in Acts. A voice that he takes to be God tells him to eat animals which Peter believes God has said not to eat. He was so astonished he had to be told three times to eat up. Peter took it all to mean that the Gentiles weren't as unclean as he'd thought, in fact that "God had put no difference between us and them." When other Jesus-following Jews heard the news about Gentiles, they were astonished too, including James the brother of Jesus.
Example: Paul. He also had revelations about the Gentiles, that he also took to be from God, but his went further than Peter's, and further than what James the brother of Jesus envisioned too: to the latter, it was fine for Gentiles to convert, but they would have to follow Jewish law too. But to Paul, going to the Gentiles meant adapting to them, in regard to divorce, and diet, and circumcision, for instance. Many Jewish followers of Jesus were horrified, and debates broke out, as they always do when change threatens. Conferences were held, agreements were struck, Paul continued on, and his version of things gradually became the most popular.
But the story wasn't over. Elaine Pagels' new book on Revelation shows that followers of Jesus were still arguing with each other for generations, and that one of the loudest critics of Paul's disciples was none other than their fellow Christian, John of Patmos, the Revelator. John had a vision too, a famous one of the end of the world. But that end wasn't in some distant time: it was in John's own Roman world. It was falling apart and God was about to take out his wrath on it, and why? Not just because of the wickedness of pagan Rome, but also because some alleged followers of Jesus (such as Paul's disciples) had compromised with worldly Rome and corrupted true religion. Even though the book of Revelation and Paul's epistles ended up happily under the same New Testament cover, Pagels argues that they reflect two competing visions of what Jesus's message meant: to John, Paul's sort of change, which most of us have inherited, was unthinkable.
Example: Sunday. Gentile converts could of course play the moral-superiority and moral-decline card too. They just had different ideas than John about what it was. One thing they insisted on, for instance, was not using the word "Sunday" to refer to the first day of the week. Modern English-speaking Christians have no problem saying "Sunday," or calling Sunday the Sabbath. But many ancient Gentile Christians would've been horrified that we use either term. Sunday, the day of the Sun, was a pagan day, and to say it was to compromise with Rome. Real Christians should call it the Lord's Day (still used in most Romance Languages for Sunday). And certainly the Lord's Day was not the Sabbath, which was for Jews only, and which fell on the Roman Saturday (also reflected in most Romance languages).
Views started changing after 600, as Christianity moved into Germanic northern Europe. Speakers of Germanic languages, including English, just kept using the term Sunday, because to them it didn't have an un-Christian connotation. Also, Christians had decided that one way to show their superiority to Jews was to observe their own special Lord's Day even more rigorously than Jews observed their Sabbath; some even began calling the Lord's Day a sort of Christian Sabbath. By the sixteenth century, English Puritans insisted that the Sabbath had actually been transferred to Sunday by divine decree. And so for English-speakers Sabbath and Sunday came to be synonymous, and religious, and good. But ancient Christians might regard us as complete heretics for saying either one.
Example: Usury. Even more stunning to ancient and medieval Christians would have been the Christian acceptance after 1500 of lending money at interest, and that churches would someday be filled with bankers. Usury was prohibited in the Christian west on the basis of various Old Testament texts, and violating that was not just another sin but one of the hugest sins. Then as more and more cities emerged after 1000, so did more and more merchants, and so did the need for more credit—causing some to rethink apparently unchangeable views of usury, and to develop a new set of values around it.
One of the leading reinterpreters of the relevant biblical texts was John Calvin, who used a historical argument: conditions in sixteenth-century Europe were different from those in ancient Israel. The implication was huge: something that had been assumed to be a lasting ideal might simply have been a temporary one. If that was true of usury, was it true of other biblical precepts too? In any case, by 1650 all Protestants agreed, and by 1750 Catholics did too. Future generations would be mostly unaware usury had even been a controversial issue in the past. But Christians before 1500 would have been stunned by the change, or by the later idea that fair interest rates and prices should be determined by some invisible hand rather than Christian morals.
Example: the Earth-Centered Universe (yes, a moral problem). For almost 2000 years, the Christian west accepted that the earth was at the center of all things, and that heavenly bodies were perfectly smooth crystalline spheres. This was based on Ptolemy and Aristotle, and on six or seven texts of the Bible. But in 1540 Nicolas Copernicus said that putting the sun at the center of the universe explained heavenly motion better than leaving the earth at the center did. Galileo agreed, and popularized the idea; he also had the novel idea to turn the newly invented microscope (in modified form) to the heavens. Most weren't interested in doing so, because it was assumed that the heavens were already understood.
Galileo saw that the sun had spots, and the moon's surface was irregular, and Jupiter had moons, all of which were impossible. He couldn't simply reject what the Bible said about such things, but he did reinterpret. Though the Bible could never err, he said, its meaning was not always obvious. Also, the Bible must be interpreted in light of new knowledge that emerges: "I declare that we do have in our age new events and observations such that if Aristotle were now alive, I have no doubt he would change his opinion." Maybe the writers of the Bible would too.
Some churchmen were interested in Galileo's ideas, but insisted he present them as merely a theory, rather than reality. Most, however, insisted that putting the sun at the center of the universe was "without any doubt against scripture," and anyone who said otherwise were proud "men of the world." This wasn't just a scientific matter, in other words. Another cardinal famously refused to look through Galileo's telescope, fearing it was a trick: it simply COULD not be true. The church condemned Galileo in 1633, and placed his writings on the Index of Prohibited Books. But the new universe won over most educated people by 1700, and others by 1900. In 1992 Pope John Paul II declared that Galileo had been right, and commended him for "adjusting scriptural interpretation in light of new knowledge," unlike the theologians of his day.
Example: Slavery. Maybe the best reason not to argue that an idea or practice should continue just because it's been around a long time is slavery. Slavery had been around forever when some western Christians began to oppose it in the eighteenth century, setting off a debate in the US that lasted into the Civil War. The most striking thing about the debate to us might be that those in favor of slavery had the best biblical arguments on their side. Both Old and New Testaments assumed the existence of slavery, and never condemn it. They condemn only masters who treat slaves badly. "The Bible teaches clearly and conclusively that the holding of slaves is right," said advocates of slavery, who could cite numerous passages specifically saying so.
Those against slavery weren't simply going to ignore the Bible, of course, no more than Galileo or Calvin would have. But they didn't have any passages on their side to specifically condemn slavery. Their strategy instead was to emphasize passages about human relationships in general, such as the Golden Rule. They also might use the historical approach: biblical passages in favor of slavery reflected the understanding of past societies rather than of some enduring practice. Or they relied on "the general tenor of scripture" being against slavery.
Example: Racial Mixing. After slavery ended, former slaves and their descendants were still treated as inferior people, even by many northerners opposed to slavery, based on various biblical passages taken to mean that races should not mix in any intimate way—housing, schooling, eating, or especially marriage. The last was said to be contrary to nature and to God's will. Such views lasted long: even when the Supreme Court finally struck down laws against interracial marriage in 1967, 81% of Americans still opposed such marriage. In a couple of generations momentum had turned: by 2011, 86% of Americans approved of interracial marriage, and within another generation or two many people will likely forget how unacceptable it used to be, or imagine that only bad people opposed it.
POINT 6. All the changes mentioned so far would, again, not impress modern Christians as tremendously earth-shattering. Most now regard them as obviously good and necessary. But if it's hard to imagine how big these changes once were, and how much debate they provoked, we can at least grasp this: by accepting these changes ourselves, we, like those who made the changes, accept some things in the Bible as written, and reject other things, even though we may not think about it.
This is also true of big changes contemplated and debated in more recent decades. I won't spend as much time on these, precisely because there is not consensus about them in the Christian west. But in short, some Christians have found ways to reconcile changes in these areas into their beliefs, while others contend it's not possible.
Example: Evolution. Many Christians in the late nineteenth century thought that evolution was completely incompatible with the Bible, but other Christians said it depended on how you read the Bible. The Creation account may have simply reflected understanding of the time. Or it wasn't even meant to be scientific, but was a morality tale to show that God was above nature, not within in. But many American Christians despised this sort of fancy Bible-reading; in fact evolution seems to have been the last straw, because biblical literalism arose at the same time. 46% of Americans, most of them Christians, still don't believe in human evolution, though 32% of Americans, most of them Christian too, believe that evolution was God's way of doing things.
Example: Just About Anything to Do With Women. Women shouldn't study too much, for example, said educators and moralists from the middle ages on, because, said one seventeenth-century Frenchman, their brains might explode, plus it didn't suit their nature, which was for bearing and raising children, plus if women cared too much about learning, they would neglect home and family and society would crumble. Women shouldn't lead or preach in churches either, said others, because the priest represented God, and God was a man (even though the orthodox God had no body, parts, or passions). Women couldn't run the 10,000 meters either, much less the marathon, or pole vault, or usually play full-court basketball, because their bodies weren't made for it.
On some women's issues there's still lots of fuss, of course, but on those I've mentioned we wonder what the fuss was about, and have even forgotten there was one. I'm surprised, for instance, by how many of my female students feel the need to declare that they are not feminists, making me wonder what they mean by the term, since these students regard such feminist ideals as equal opportunity at school and work and in sports as good things.
Final Examples. Vaccination was so controversial when it emerged in the 18th century that it could provoke shootings and bombings. Those against insisted that deliberately giving someone a disease had to be ungodly, while Christians in favor insisted it was a gift from God.
The argument over birth control that began in the 19th century went much the same way: it seemed to be against life, and to be playing God, said opponents, while a lot of Christian women showed at least by their actions that they considered it to be a gift from God.
This of course was related to changes in sexual mores generally and changes in understanding of homosexual relations as well, the latter of which went from 40% approval in 2001 to 54% in 2012, with perhaps predictably a huge gap between the younger and older generations.
And there is arguing over the proper Christian approach to the environment. And more.
For all of these subjects the Bible is used by both or all sides, with those having specific passages on their side insisting they be read at face value, and those without such passages emphasizing texts about human relationships and dignity or the "general tenor" of scripture.
POINT 7. These are a lot of subjects, but there are many more, and there will doubtless be many more in the future. My purpose isn't to suggest that every change or potential change is necessarily good, or that every single thing will necessarily change, or to say what's the right way to think about this proposed change or that, but to offer some perspective on current debates over change.
We don't have to feel like we are being uniquely and cosmically picked on because of current changes in our own time that might make us feel threatened.
We don't have to conclude that the changes we see in our lifetime are the worst ever in history, but can actually go study a little history and see pretty fast that worst ever has a lot of company, at just about any time.
And we can get out of the centuries-old habit of insisting that the old days were always better; even in the Old Testament, people were saying that, prompting the author of Ecclesiastes (7:10) to comment, "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." Just like Carly Simon said, these are the good old days. President Hinckley said it too: when asked whether the Fifties were better than today, he said, "I think the fifties were a good time and I think this is a great time. I don't think we've retrograded." The point isn't that there aren't awful things around us, but that we're not unusual that way: they are always there. So are good things. The point is to make the best of our particular situation.
Speaking as a historian, change in our understanding seems to be one constant we can count on. And speaking as a believer, maybe that's the way it should be. How dull it would be, and how little we would learn, if the point of life was only to jump through hoops already set up for us, rather than for us to help create life.
There's nothing wrong with having a system of right and wrong, obviously; and old systems shouldn't be casually discarded just because they're old. There's nothing even wrong in liking our particular system, or in disagreeing with others over what changes should occur.
But seeing a big picture of change over time should make us more inclined to disagree with each other humbly, with an attitude that we might be wrong and others right, because all that past big change should make us reflect that maybe all the things we're so certain about might also end up someday floating away like white puffs of dandelion on a summer breeze. In fact it's a good bet that future generations will shake their heads not only at what we were doing with our hair, and pants, but with what we were thinking about this or that.
POINT LAST. Mormons are of course familiar with change too. We've argued over every one of the topics I've mentioned starting with slavery, and have seen change in every one as well. Charles Harrell of the BYU faculty just published a book that shows changes in Mormon doctrine from beginning to present, and just weeks ago dozens of changes were made in LDS scriptures to make historical context more clear. But this doesn't have to disturb us: Mormons don't officially believe in inerrancy, and change doesn't necessarily mean errancy; in fact the belief in continuing revelation could make Mormons in theory more radical believers in change than most others.
But even to us change can feel threatening, as was evident in probably our two most radical changes, ending polygamy and the priesthood ban. Growing up, I knew little about polygamy, just vague impressions that ending it hadn't been a big deal and was obviously necessary and not very many people had been involved anyway, which turned out to be all wrong. But I remember the change to the priesthood ban well and that it was indeed a big deal, and experienced change within myself. So did many other people of my then-young generation, so I wasn't particularly heroic or virtuous for doing so. But older Mormons like Spencer W. Kimball were.
The process he went through is described in an article in BYU Studies from 2008, by his son Edward. President Kimball had thought about the ban since 1961, and had been against lifting it. But after he became prophet in 1974, he started reconsidering. He knew by now that Joseph Smith had ordained black people; he knew about the complications the policy was causing in Brazil, where the church was growing fast; but most of all he began questioning his own assumptions. During the first months of 1978, he went almost daily to the temple to pray about those, and was in great torment.
"Day after day…I went there when I could be alone. I was very humble…I was searching…I had a great deal to fight…myself, largely, because I had grown up with this thought that Negroes should not have the priesthood and I was prepared to go all the rest of my life until my death and fight for it and defend it as it was."
Defend. Fight. The usual language and posture we associate with the religious hero standing up for truth. Yet President Kimball was the hero in this whole matter not because he stood up for his old beliefs, which he like Peter assumed had come from God, but because even at his age he was willing to reconsider them. Unlike the cardinal who wouldn't look through Galileo's telescope because he might not like what he would see, President Kimball looked.
He later wrote about the incident, "Revelations will probably never come unless they are desired…." Or as President Hinckley later put it, "He was not the first to worry about the priesthood question, but he had the compassion to pursue it and a boldness that allowed him to get the revelation." And also just like Peter, he was astonished when it came.
Most everyone I knew was thrilled about the change, and pretty predictably within a generation or so young people didn't understand what a big deal it had been. In a few more generations, I wouldn't be surprised if they forget altogether. Today when younger people hear older Mormon people occasionally express some of the old attitudes, they are stunned, because they can't imagine that anyone holding those attitudes could possibly have ever been a good Mormon. But when you start thinking that changes in the past which agree with your own inherited views were obvious and necessary ones, you're on the road to thinking that you've figured everything out—and to not being willing to reconsider your own perhaps shortsighted views. As a historian and a believer, I find President Kimball's more humble attitude a much better one, as we debate possible changes in our world.
That's what History, including Really Old History, is especially good for.
Born and raised in California, Craig Harline is a historian of European religion and culture. His most recent book, "Conversions" (Yale, 2011) was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History prize administered by the Columbia University School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University.


text:
Special Education Teacher - Middle School
Job Summary
Responsible for working with children who have disabilities, including cognitive, emotional, or physical disabilities, at a middle school. Teaches disabled youth life skills and basic literacy and modifies general education curriculum to meet the child's needs.
Primary Responsibilities
- Teach disabled children who have mild to moderate disabilities.
- Instruct students at the middle school level.
- Modify traditional education curriculum to meet child's needs.
- Assist children with specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, visual impairments, autism, combined deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury.
- Help identify children with special needs.
- Use various teaching methods to promote learning, including intensive individualized instruction, problem-solving assignments, and small-group work.
- Ensure appropriate accommodations are available in class and when a student needs to take a test.
- Develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each student.
- Set personalized goals.
- Develop transition plan outlining specific steps to prepare students for middle school or high school or a job or postsecondary study.
- Review the IEP with the student's parents, school administrators, and the student's general education teachers.
- Inform parents of child's progress.
- Design and teach appropriate curricula.
- Assign work as needed.
- Grade papers and homework assignments.
- Record grades in grade book.
- Provide students with career counseling.
- Help general educators adapt curriculum materials and teaching techniques to meet the needs of students with disabilities.


text:
Henry Adams
Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History
Mather House Room 11
Other Information
Ph.D. Yale University, 1980
B.A. Harvard University, 1971
Professor Adams is a graduate of Harvard University, and received his M.A. and PH.D. from Yale, where he received the Frances Blanshard Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in art history. He is the author of over 300 scholarly and popular articles, ranging over the American field from the 17th century to the present, as well as of about 14 books or book-length exhibition catalogues. Among these are Eakins Revealed, which the painter Andrew Wyeth described as "without question the most extraordinary biography I have ever read on an artist," and Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, of which Donna Seaman wrote in Booklist:
"Adams practices art history with a novelist's narrative skills and psychological acuity, a sleuth's instincts, a passion for aesthetic and technical explications, and a gift for sea change interpretations… Encompassing a stunning discovery by his art-historian wife, Adams' commanding, corrective double portrait reveals myriad camouflaged truths."
In 1985, Prof. Adams received the Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize of the College Art Association, the first time this had been awarded to an Americanist or a Museum Curator. In 1989, when he was a curator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, William Jewell College awarded him its distinguished service medal for his services to Kansas City and the Midwest. In 2001, when he was a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, he received the Northern Ohio Live Visual Arts Award for the best art exhibition of the year in Northern Ohio. In April 2010, The Beauty of Damage, a Tom Ball/Telos Production film that he initiated and scripted with Tom Ball won the Kodak Best Ohio Short Film at the 34th Cleveland International Film Festival. In June 2010 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Cleveland Arts Prize. In 1989, in partnership with film maker Ken Burns, Adams produced a documentary on Thomas Hart Benton which was broadcast nationally on PBS to an audience of 20 million.
For further information on Henry Adams consult his website at: http://www.henryadamsart.com/


text:
Apache HTTP Server Version 2.2
Available Languages: en
Description: | Clickstream logging of user activity on a site |
Status: | Extension |
Module Identifier: | usertrack_module |
Source File: | mod_usertrack.c |
Previous releases of Apache have included a module which generates a 'clickstream' log of user activity on a site using cookies. This was called the "cookies" module, mod_cookies. In Apache 1.2 and later this module has been renamed the "user tracking" module, mod_usertrack. This module has been simplified and new directives added.
Previously, the cookies module (now the user tracking
module) did its own logging, using the CookieLog
directive. In this release, this module does no logging at all.
Instead, a configurable log format file should be used to log
user click-streams. This is possible because the logging module
now allows multiple log files. The cookie itself is logged by
using the text %{cookie}n
in the log file format. For
CustomLog logs/clickstream "%{cookie}n %r %t"
For backward compatibility the configurable log module
implements the old CookieLog
directive, but this
should be upgraded to the above CustomLog
(the following is from message <email@example.com> in the new-httpd archives)
From: "Christian Allen" <email@example.com> Subject: Re: Apache Y2K bug in mod_usertrack.c Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:41:56 -0400 Did some work with cookies and dug up some info that might be useful. True, Netscape claims that the correct format NOW is four digit dates, and four digit dates do in fact work... for Netscape 4.x (Communicator), that is. However, 3.x and below do NOT accept them. It seems that Netscape originally had a 2-digit standard, and then with all of the Y2K hype and probably a few complaints, changed to a four digit date for Communicator. Fortunately, 4.x also understands the 2-digit format, and so the best way to ensure that your expiration date is legible to the client's browser is to use 2-digit dates. However, this does not limit expiration dates to the year 2000; if you use an expiration year of "13", for example, it is interpreted as 2013, NOT 1913! In fact, you can use an expiration year of up to "37", and it will be understood as "2037" by both MSIE and Netscape versions 3.x and up (not sure about versions previous to those). Not sure why Netscape used that particular year as its cut-off point, but my guess is that it was in respect to UNIX's 2038 problem. Netscape/MSIE 4.x seem to be able to understand 2-digit years beyond that, at least until "50" for sure (I think they understand up until about "70", but not for sure). Summary: Mozilla 3.x and up understands two digit dates up until "37" (2037). Mozilla 4.x understands up until at least "50" (2050) in 2-digit form, but also understands 4-digit years, which can probably reach up until 9999. Your best bet for sending a long-life cookie is to send it for some time late in the year "37".
Description: | The domain to which the tracking cookie applies |
Syntax: | CookieDomain domain |
Context: | server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess |
Override: | FileInfo |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_usertrack |
This directive controls the setting of the domain to which the tracking cookie applies. If not present, no domain is included in the cookie header field.
The domain string must begin with a dot, and
must include at least one embedded dot. That is,
is legal, but foo.example.com
are not.
although such a domain ostensibly fulfills the requirements
, and allowing such cookies may be a security
risk. Thus, if you are under a two-part top level domain, you
should still use your actual domain, as you would with any other top
level domain (for example, use .foo.co.uk
Description: | Expiry time for the tracking cookie |
Syntax: | CookieExpires expiry-period |
Context: | server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess |
Override: | FileInfo |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_usertrack |
When used, this directive sets an expiry time on the cookie generated by the usertrack module. The expiry-period can be given either as a number of seconds, or in the format such as "2 weeks 3 days 7 hours". Valid denominations are: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. If the expiry time is in any format other than one number indicating the number of seconds, it must be enclosed by double quotes.
If this directive is not used, cookies last only for the current browser session.
Description: | Name of the tracking cookie |
Syntax: | CookieName token |
Default: | CookieName Apache |
Context: | server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess |
Override: | FileInfo |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_usertrack |
This directive allows you to change the name of the cookie
this module uses for its tracking purposes. By default the
cookie is named "Apache
You must specify a valid cookie name; results are unpredictable if you use a name containing unusual characters. Valid characters include A-Z, a-z, 0-9, "_", and "-".
Description: | Format of the cookie header field |
Syntax: | CookieStyle
Netscape|Cookie|Cookie2|RFC2109|RFC2965 |
Default: | CookieStyle Netscape |
Context: | server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess |
Override: | FileInfo |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_usertrack |
This directive controls the format of the cookie header field. The three formats allowed are:
Not all clients can understand all of these formats, but you
should use the newest one that is generally acceptable to your
users' browsers. At the time of writing, most browsers only fully
support CookieStyle Netscape
Description: | Enables tracking cookie |
Syntax: | CookieTracking on|off |
Default: | CookieTracking off |
Context: | server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess |
Override: | FileInfo |
Status: | Extension |
Module: | mod_usertrack |
When mod_usertrack
is loaded, and
CookieTracking on
is set, Apache will send a
user-tracking cookie for all new requests. This directive can
be used to turn this behavior on or off on a per-server or
per-directory basis. By default, enabling
will not
activate cookies.
Available Languages: en


text:
Today, the 2013 NFL season gets underway. The opening game will see defending Super Bowl XLVII champions Baltimore Ravens up against the Denver Broncos. Both teams met in the playoffs last year, but only one went on to become champion. Should be an exciting game that helps set the tone for this season. What better way to enjoy the 94th regular season of the National Football League than with companion apps on your Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 device. Oh, and your Xbox 360 is getting in on the action too. Ready? Break!
Some of the promotion we'll see from Microsoft and the NFL over the next few months
We first heard of Microsoft and the NFL getting all cozy back at the Xbox One unveil event in May. Since then the two expanded on what their partnership meant. The deal between the NFL and Microsoft lasts 5 years and we'll see most of the fruits of their endeavors on the Xbox One. But the Xbox One isn't an insular experience as apps on both Windows Phone and Windows 8 will help improve the experience of watching the game. That's why Microsoft and the NFL have launched NFL.com Fantasy Football apps on the Xbox 360 and Windows 8. This is what you'll be getting with the Windows 8 version:
- LIVE SCORING: Follow your teams and players in real time with Game Center featuring the exclusive live scoring chart
- VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Watch in-game video highlights to track your team like never before on game day
- SET YOUR LINEUP: Start or bench players
- PLAYER NEWS: Get official news and injury updates, direct from NFL.com
- MANAGE MULTIPLE TEAMS: Access and control all of your NFL.com teams and leagues
A version for Windows Phone is coming soon, we've heard, maybe even as early as next week.
We did play with both the Xbox 360 and Windows 8 version and we like what we see so far. After creating an NFL.com account and joining a Fantasy league the app loaded all our data. We've yet to have the draft yet, but it looks like a solid first showing from both Microsoft and the NFL.
Kick off starts soon, so head to the Windows Store to get your Fantasy Football on. Don't forget to go to the app section on your Xbox 360 and try that version out as well. We'll let you folks know when the Windows Phone version comes.
Who's winning tonight? Broncos or Ravens?
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Via: Xbox Wire
Thanks for the tip Kyle!


text:
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