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DEVELOP3D: The Importance of CAD Drawings
DEVELOP3D: The Importance of CAD Drawings
As the adoption of three-dimensional (3D) modeling becomes more prevalent, it's easy to downplay the role of technical drawings. But CAD drawings are still the primary mode of communicating with manufacturing—in many cases, a CAD drawing represents a contract between the designer and the shop floor.
How do you make sure that your drawings say everything they need to say?
This eBook from industry expert DEVELOP3D describes key aspects that you should consider when looking at your CAD drawing and documentation process.
What's inside?
In this eBook, you'll learn how to:
- Create accurate CAD drawings and data
- Effectively communicate information downstream
- Include all the information required for manufacturing in your drawings
It's the combination of the 3D model and associated set of drawings that allows you to define critical information and to communicate it where needed—to ensure that the process of design, documentation, and manufacturing is as efficient as possible.
Easy CAD drawing and drafting with Solid Edge
Drawings are the final deliverable for many engineering processes—they represent a contract between design and manufacturing—which means that accuracy is critical. But as product designs and assemblies become more complex, and with a host of global drawing standards to consider, creating, annotating, and updating drawings can be a challenge. Solid Edge® 2D Drafting software delivers a production-proven set of capabilities for creating two-dimensional (2D) documentation. It offers excellent drawing layout, diagramming, annotation and dimensioning controls. The 2D CAD is suited to a variety of tasks: laying out and optimizing schematics, streamlining 2D drawing production and learning how to design in a 3D CAD environment.
A free software offering, Solid Edge 2D Drafting, which is part of the Xcelerator™ portfolio, the comprehensive and integrated portfolio of software and services from Siemens Digital Industries Software, demonstrates our commitment to helping companies control costs. Solid Edge 2D Drafting capitalizes on years of production-proven capabilities developed by Siemens. An excellent tool for collaborating with suppliers and customers, the software allows you to share native Solid Edge drawings free of translation requirements with your suppliers while ensuring data integrity.
¿Es la primera vez que se suscribe a los correos electrónicos de Siemens Digital Industries Software? Asegúrese de confirmar su suscripción con el correo electrónico que recibirá en breve.


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A House Divided
The latest research suggests that divorce rates in the U.S. have been falling in recent decades. Still, many people face the difficult crossroads that comes when their marriage ends.1
Getting a divorce is a painful, emotional process. Don't be in such a hurry to reach a settlement that you make poor decisions that can have life-long consequences. If divorce is a possibility, here are a few financial ideas that may help you prepare.
The most important task you can do is getting your finances organized. Identify all your assets and make copies of important financial papers, such as deeds, tax returns, and investment records. When it comes to dividing up your assets, consider mediation as a low-cost alternative to litigation. Most states have equitable-distribution laws that require shared assets to be divided 50/50 anyway. When a divorce becomes contentious, attorney's fees can accumulate.
From a financial perspective, divorce means taking all the income previously used to run one household and stretching it out over two residences, two utility bills, two grocery lists, etc. There are other hidden costs as well, such as counseling for you or your children. Divorces also may require incurring one-time fees, such as a security deposit on a rental property, moving costs, or increased child-care.
Finally, dividing assets may sound simple but it can be quite complex. The forced sale of a home or investment portfolio may have tax consequences. Potential tax liability also can make two seemingly equal assets have varying net values. Additionally, when pulling apart a portfolio, it makes sense to consider how each asset will suit the prospective recipient in terms of risk tolerance and liquidity.
Remember, the information in this article is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation.
During a divorce, many factors are competing for attention. By understanding a few key concepts, you may be able to avoid making costly financial mistakes.
Chart Source: Familyinequality.com, 2019
1. The Wall Street Journal, 2019
The content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. The information in this material is not intended as tax or legal advice. It may not be used for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation. This material was developed and produced by FMG Suite to provide information on a topic that may be of interest. FMG Suite is not affiliated with the named broker-dealer, state- or SEC-registered investment advisory firm. The opinions expressed and material provided are for general information, and should not be considered a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Copyright 2021 FMG Suite.

subset: commoncrawl


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Why Would An Eye Doctor Measure The Axial Length Of The Eye?
If your child has myopia (nearsightedness), you probably take them to an eye doctor for regular eye exams. At these routine check-ups most optometrists will simply check the child's visual acuity and prescribe the appropriate lenses. At Brain Vision Institute however, we understand the risks associated with myopia progression and know that effectively slowing it down takes more than just measuring visual acuity. A myopia management eye doctor uses an additional — more precise— method of tracking the progression of myopia in young patients to ensure the best possible outcomes for ocular health and vision.
Understanding Myopia
Myopia is a common refractive error that occurs when the eye grows too long and the axial length of the eye increases. This alters the light's focal point inside the eye, causing distant objects to appear blurry. Children and adults with myopia generally need prescription glasses or contact lenses to correct the refractive error and improve vision.
All eye doctors measure visual acuity to test for myopia, but only some measure the eye's axial length as well. The axial length offers vital information about the child's myopia and the rate at which it's progressing.
What Is the Axial Length of the Eye?
The axial length of the eye refers to how long the eye is, front to back. In children with rapidly progressing myopia, axial length will increase faster than the normal rate. This information not only helps determine the progression rate, but also helps indicate the potential cause of the elongation. There is no doubt that measuring axial length is necessary for an effective myopia management program. Without this data, it's impossible to accurately judge the results of treatment.
Why Is Myopia Progression a Concern?
Knowing the rate of a child's myopia progression is critical to the child's ocular health, as childhood myopia increases the risks of developing serious eye conditions and diseases later in life. Macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and retinal detachment can all threaten vision and eye health.
At Brain Vision Institute, we provide our young patients with specialized treatment to control the progression of myopia and reduce long-term risks to give your child clear and healthy vision for a lifetime.
Our practice serves patients from Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, South Barrington, Hoffman Estates, and Arlington Heights, Illinois and surrounding communities.


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My free loaner Verizon Wireless global phone arrived yesterday and all my contacts have been transferred.
I have 16 gb of memory just waiting to be filled with glorious shots of Greece.
I got a pedicure and my toes are painted
I have Cheetos to snack on.
My outfit for tomorrow morning is already laid out.
My alarm is set and it's time for the Green Girl to go to bed.


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We're looking at Daniel chapter 6 tonight. What a wonderful and exciting adventure it is to go through this chapter. I'm often torn as I approach these narrative chapters about the possibility of splitting them down and covering them over a period of time, and yet the story is so wonderful as a whole that I find myself pressed to deal with all of it, and so we sort of run our way through these great narrative sections of the book of Daniel. This is the last of those. This sixth chapter ends the historical narrative portion, and from seven on, we get into some deep and exciting prophetic truth. We'll be touching on that beginning next Lord's day.
We're looking at Daniel chapter 6, the famous chapter in which we find Daniel in and out of the lions' den. Just as an introduction, let me make a couple of comments relative to what we'll learn in the text. Nations are born, they live, they die. They rise and they fall with great regularity. In fact, as you study history, you are more and more impressed with the fact that nations rapidly pass from off the scene. We look back to the Empires of the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and finally the Babylonians, where we find Daniel first taking the role of prime minister. They were followed by the Persians, and the Medes, and the Greeks, and the Romans. All of them came and all of them went.
On our own continents, in the Western Hemisphere, we find tales told of the great Mayan, the great Inca, the great Aztec civilizations, but little or no trace remains except for some archaeological artifacts. They have come and they have gone.
In more modern times, some of you have lived through the greatness of the days of England. You remember the greatness of France. You remember when Italy was a major power in the world and threatened even to dominate Europe under the leadership of Mussolini. We remember Germany. Hitler, who with his Aryan philosophy, thought he could conquer the world. We have seen the rise of Japan as a military power. China seems to have had its day. Russia seems to be having its day now. And America may be on the wane.
Nations rise, nations fall. They come and go. But the Bible tells us in Acts 17 that the times of the nations are bounded by the sovereignty of God. And what happens to the nations is all in the predetermined plan of God for history. Now what is especially thrilling is that the coming and the going of nations has very little to do with the ongoing of the people of God.
There couldn't be imagined a more cataclysmic event than just happened in chapter 5 of Daniel. Babylon has fallen. At the height of its glory, supposedly, the head of gold, the greatest Empire that humanity had ever known, the Medes and the Persians entered the city and without firing a shot, as it were, the whole Empire fell. But what is amazing about it is that it had little or no impact on what God did with His people, for Daniel rides through the ebb and the flow of nations.
And as we come to chapter 6, we enter the second in the great four empire scene in the image of Daniel chapter 2, the Medo-Persian Empire, the breast and the arms of silver. And as we look at that Empire, we don't see Daniel in absentia, but we see Daniel right at the heart of the matter. He was a prime minister of Babylon, and he will equally be the prime minister of Medo-Persia.
And it excites me to think about that. Because I see today, across America and even around the world, a preoccupation among many Christian peoples with the preservation of certain nations, even our own. And in a strange way, they are tempting to equalize America with the church, or America with the plan of God, and that just isn't the way it is. Nations come and go and God's work goes on. And no nation is really significant when set against the backdrop of eternity and God's plan.
For example, in Isaiah 40:15 it says, "Behold the nations are like a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance." A very interesting statement. Nations are like one drop that spills out of a bucket. The only word I can think of is "inconsequential." They are like the dust on the balance, which is not a factor in the weighing at all. When God sets about to weigh out the history of humanity, the nations are not the issue. And when God pours out the floods of the flow of His redemptive plan, one drop is inconsequential. The nations are drops. They are dust.
Backing up in Isaiah 40:7-8, he compares the nations to grass that withers and dies and fades away. We think back to Nimrod, and Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus, and Artaxerxes, and Alexander, and the Caesars, the Pharaohs, Napoleon, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao, Khrushchev, and into our modern time, and the leaders and the nations come and go and God's work goes on.
In Daniel 4:17, you'll remember that great word. "This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will."
God rules in history. And nations may come and nations may go, even our own. But God's redemptive plan as unfolded through His people will go on according to schedule. The people of God go through the rise and the fall of nations. They transcend. That's a great hope for us. And we see that in Daniel. Babylon is fallen. The head of gold is crushed. The times of the Gentiles is moved into phase two, but Daniel is right where God wants him, and God is unencumbered by the decisions of men.
When you think about the fact that Babylon has fallen, it's really amazing. Nebuchadnezzar, of course, had a habit of putting his name on every brick that he put into the buildings of Babylon. In fact, one writer says that we have literally found uncounted thousands of bricks with Nebuchadnezzar's name on them - trying to build a lasting empire. One brick, which is now in the British Museum, has the image and the name of Nebuchadnezzar and a dog's footprint over both of them.
So it is with the world, but God's people and God's plan transcends all that. So we see Daniel surviving, and in chapter 6, we find him in the midst of the Medo-Persian Empire.
Now, I want some key words to take us through this text. We're going to begin at the beginning of chapter 6. It's a narrative text. We don't need to spend a lot of time on each section. We want to get to the climax and then draw some practical implications. But we're going to use some key words just to help us keep our place as we go.
The first one is promotion, promotion. And that deals with verses 1-3. "It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom - " this is the Medo-Persian kingdom " - an hundred and twenty princes, who should be over the whole kingdom; And over these, three presidents, - " and by the way, that's the only place in the Bible that word, "president," is ever used in the Hebrew - or the Aramaic, rather - and it appears to be a word that means "chief."
He set over these hundred and twenty satraps, or territorial leaders, three chiefs to whom they reported. "Of whom Daniel was first: in order that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm."
Now, there we find the promotion. Notice, first of all, that we meet Darius. Now, Darius is a very elusive person because we have no extra-biblical data in existence to tell us anything about Darius. We just really don't know who he is. We find nobody at that particular point in history who is named Darius. There doesn't seem to be a place in the genealogical record of the kings of that time for a man named Darius.
Now, some scholars feel that Darius is another name for a king by the name of Gubaru, Gubaru, who was not really a king, but was really someone appointed under Cyrus as kind of a ruler of the territory of Babylon. Cyrus, being the great monarch of the whole Empire of Medo-Persia, appointed this Gubaru as the one to rule in Babylon. And some say that this word Darius is just another name for Gubaru.
But an explanation that I prefer is that Darius is just another name for Cyrus, just another name for Cyrus. I feel that that's perhaps the best explanation of all. Why? Because the word Darius is a title. It is a title. It's kind of like Pharaoh, or king, or Caesar. It's a title.
We find the word Darius, for example, used on inscriptions in archeology for at least five different Persian rulers. They're all called "Darius." So it seems best to see this as a title, as a title of honor, a title of significance. And so, we could assume, then, that it is just a title given to Cyrus. And if you look at 6:28, you might get some little help on that.
It says, "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius - " and, of course, in the Aramaic it could read " - even in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." And there are some commentators who favor that rendering, rather than " - and the reign of Cyrus - " making them parallel, using " - even in the reign of Cyrus."
Now, if you back up into chapter 6, you find that Darius sets over the kingdom 120 princes, and it seems to me that if he were doing that he would have to be bigger than some localized ruler in Babylon. And if he was going to establish three chiefs over the whole kingdom, he'd have to be somebody pretty important. I believe he is seen then as the Medo-Persian monarch Cyrus, just by another official title. The very fact that he had to set up 120 princes would indicate that he had to have a broader dimension of rule than just Babylon itself, just the city-state of Babylon.
So, we meet, then, this man Cyrus, perhaps best seen behind the name Darius. He is a capable man. He is an intelligent man. He is an effective man in terms of organization and structure. He's a powerful man. He's a man without commitment to God, that is the God of Israel, but to his own gods, and yet he is man who does indicate some great interest in the God of Daniel, and that increases as we get through this 6th chapter.
Now, notice that it says that when he appointed the 120 and the three presidents, verse 2 says, "Daniel was first." It is possible to see the word first as just the word "one," Daniel was one. Or, we could see it as the word first, and meaning that he was the first one chosen, or he was the first in rank. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is in verse 3 that "Daniel was preferred above everybody else."
And the word "preferred" in the Aramaic is a participle which means "he was distinguishing himself constantly over the others." He was, without question, the finest statesman in the entire Medo-Persian Empire, as he had been the finest statesman in the Babylonian Empire, as he perhaps is the finest statesman who ever walked on the face of the earth.
You'll notice that in verse 3 it says that, " - in him was an excellent spirit." That's really talking about his attitude. And, of course, attitude pervades everything we do. This is a commendable thing, a right attitude. But Daniel had more than that going for him. He had experience. I mean, he had lived through the last regime as the prime minister. He had wisdom, wisdom like nobody else had.
He had a sense of history. He had apparently dramatic leadership ability, if what he was able to do in the lives of the three young men earlier in the book is any indication of the model that he set. He had administrative ability and was given responsibility on a wide and far-reaching basis. And beyond all of that, he had the ability to interpret dreams and visions, and give everybody an idea of what was coming in the future, and that's invaluable to a monarch. What a man.
God put him right where He wanted him. God allowed Darius to recognize the capability of Daniel, and to put him in a very strategic place, a place of influence.
You know, what's interesting is in the first year of Cyrus, or the first year of Darius, he gave a decree that the Jews could go back to Judah. The decree of Cyrus, the 70 years of Babylonian captivity was up, and Cyrus gave that decree that he go back - rather that the Jews go back. And I really believe that Daniel was the one who was the great influence on him to that extent.
I think it was because of the power of the life of Daniel, because of the wisdom of the man, because of the influence of the man, that even in the first year of Cyrus' rule, around 538 or 537 B.C., he made the decree to let the people go. And that occurred before the lions' den incident, in the very first year of Cyrus.
So, we see again Daniel. But this time, rather than looking at him as a young man, as we have been in the past, we see him as a very old man. In fact, mark this, in chapter 6, Daniel is pushing hard at 90 years of age - 90 years of age - and he's still God's man. He's still God's choice. And he was still the choice of the king to be the prime minister. You know, the power of a virtuous life extends into old age.
Dr. Criswell at Dallas First Baptist tells of Robert G. Lee who was a great preacher in the south. And Robert G. Lee, on his 84th birthday, which was in 1970, November 11, was asked this question, "Are you going to keep on preaching, Dr. Lee?" This is what he replied. "When there are so many unsaved people around, when there are sorrowing hearts to be comforted, when so many young people are throwing away their life in folly's court and carnal pleasure's mart; when there are so many evils against which protest must be made; when so many old people are lonely on the sunset trail; when in 1910, at my ordination, I was married to preaching until death do us part; why should I not in the 85th year of my life keep on preaching?"
Dr. Lee added some fortifying statistics, by the way, that ought to bless and encourage any of you who are pushing 90 or 80. This is what he said. "Newman Darlan, a scholar of accepted standing, made an analysis of the lives and achievements of 400 foremost characters of history. The analysis showed that nearly 80 of the world's greatest figures closed active lives between 58 and 80. Twenty-five percent continued beyond 70, twenty-two and a half percent beyond 80, and six percent beyond 90. Consider what has been done by men beyond 80.
"When 83, Gladstone, for the fourth time, became Prime Minister of Great Britain. Michelangelo, at 89, executed his Last Judgment, perhaps the most famous single picture in the world. John Wesley preached with almost undiminished eloquence at 88, closing at that remarkable age, the most remarkable career of his time, having traveled a quarter of a million miles in an age that knew neither electricity nor steam, and he had delivered, someone estimated, 4,000 sermons, and written volumes and volumes of books.
"Edison was inventing at 90. Wright, at 90, was considered a creative architect. Shaw was writing plays at 90. Grandma Moses was painting at 80. J.C. Penny, the great Christian, was working strenuously at his desk at 95."
And we say, "Oh, I'm 55. I've got to get out." And we forfeit the richness of age, the richness of age. Daniel was pushing 90 and he was God's man. And God put him right where He wanted him and the politics of Medo-Persia had little to do to withstand it.
Second word - the first is promotion; the second is plot, verses 4-9. Whenever a man is lifted up by the Lord to a place of prominence, he falls into certain difficulty. There's always a price to pay. There's no exaltation, and there's no success, and there's no prominence that's not paid for by a certain amount of slavery. The man who succeeds is a man who works, the man who slaves, who labors. He is chained.
If he is a musician, he is fastened to his piano. If he is an artist, he is fastened to his canvas. If he is a preacher, he is fastened to his books and his prayers. If he is an author, it is his manuscript. If he is a poet, it is his lyric. If he is a physician, it is his patients and his books. If he is a theologian, it is his study. Anybody and everybody who excels is a prisoner. And so, there's a price to pay. He slaves at his assignment. He pours his life into it.
But, there's another price to pay for being in a position of blessing by God. And that is the fact that whenever you get into that position, you will find yourself dogged and hounded and followed by envy. It's just the way it is. We find it in Philippians chapter 1, don't we, where Paul was a prisoner, and some were adding affliction to his bonds by saying evil things about his ministry. They wanted to make him feel worse than he did being a prisoner. They were preaching Christ contentiously as a negative ministry against Paul.
It's amazing how when God lifts up somebody, other people's hearts burn in rage, and jealousy, and bitterness, even when that individual has done them no injury and absolutely no harm. How could anybody hate Daniel? How could anybody despise such a man? I'll ask you a tougher question. How could anybody crucify Jesus Christ? But they did.
In London, a contemporary with young Charles Spurgeon was an older preacher who had been in the city for a generation. He'd spent years laboring faithfully in his ministry. And along came Charles Haddon Spurgeon, this fiery, winsome, young, dynamic individual, who arrived at London when he was about 20 years of age. And rather immediately - I mean, not even in a year or two or three, but immediately when he hit the scene - he had such an impact that people just flooded to hear Spurgeon preach. He was like a star that appeared in the sky, just flashing.
And the older minister said that when the throngs began to crowd around the young man, envy and jealousy began to enter my heart and it ate me up, it ate me up. There he was, a famous preacher in London, but the throngs were listening to Spurgeon. And the older pastor said he got on his knees, and cried out before God, and he told the Lord all about it. And then he said the Lord began to put in his heart praise, and intercession, and pleading for the young man, Spurgeon. He said, quote, "The day came, after I prayed and took it to God, when upon every victory Spurgeon won, I felt as though I had done it myself." God gave him victory.
But, it doesn't always happen. Let's see the opposite of that as we look at verse 4. "Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." Daniel had no Watergates. He had no skeletons in his closet. There was no way to indict this man.
Now, when a man is 90 years old, and he gets all of the people in political office around him digging around to try to find something and they come up zero, that's an honorable man. Great integrity, great honesty, great purity, great nobility. They found no fault, shechath, which means "to corrupt." There's no corruption, no error, shalu, which means "to neglect." In other words, the corruption is the sin of commission, and the error is the sin of omission. They couldn't find anything he did that he shouldn't have done, and anything that he didn't do that he should have done. What a virtuous man. They couldn't find anything.
Verse 5. "Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." Now, people, I wish we had time to just preach on that verse. When they can't find anything against you but the fact that you are absolutely sold out to your God, then you are fulfilling the fact of the New Testament principle of suffering for righteousness sake. The only thing they said we'll ever get him on is that he is totally committed to his God. What a commendation. They couldn't find anything else. If there was anything, they would have found it, and they couldn't.
Verse 6. "Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever." Typical amenities. Every time you'd come in there, you've got to say that. Daniel even says that in the lions' den. That's pushing the point a little bit, but anyway, verse 7. "All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together - " Now, that's just pure intimidation because it's a lot of hogwash. There was a group of them that made a plot. Not all of them agreed, but just stacking up all of those individuals, just intimidated, and they all consulted, they said " - to establish a royal statute, and make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, except of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions."
You've heard of queen for a day? This is king for 30 days. We want you to be God for thirty days. Now, when you can be elected to be God, you've got bad theology. And when you're only God for 30 days, it's even worse theology. Here they come in, "We have consulted all the governors, and the princes, and the presidents, and the counsellors, and the captains, and everybody has agreed we ought to make a law. You're so wonderful, you are worthy of 30 days of being God. And we're just going - we're going to give you that privilege. And we just want to make a rule here, that whoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for 30 days, unless it's you, shall be cast into the den of lions."
It's interesting here that if you look back at verse 6, there's a verb there, "assembled together." It's a very interesting verb in the Aramaic. It means they "came hastily and tumultuously." It's kind of like a rabble. I mean, they were kind of a tumultuous group. They were stirring and milling as they came in. A very strong verb, and it does indicate a large group of them who had pulled off this plot. But not everybody agreed, because Daniel was the leader and he didn't agree. I'm sure he wasn't even consulted.
So, they all come in and pull off their lie. When they said, "all the presidents," that's not true. There was one of them who didn't agree, who didn't even know, perhaps. We want to make a statute and a firm decree. And by the way, the double use of that, a royal statute and a firm decree, shows you how binding and strong they wanted it to be, that nobody but nobody can worship or make a petition of anybody but you for 30 days.
By the way, in those days, of course, their religion had established deities that were like men. Their deities were as fallible as men were. In other words, they made their image of God from their own image. And so, their gods were fallible. And so, to say that a man could be a God to us is absolutely ludicrous, because God is holy, and righteous, and perfect, and has none of the imperfections of humanity.
But for them, it wasn't a problem. In fact, if we study history carefully, we'll find that the Egyptians believed that the Pharaohs were gods, that the Romans believed that the Caesars were gods. The Ptolemies were believed to be gods. There are indications that the Seleucids claimed the role of deity. Even the Herods, you'll remember in Acts 12, took the place of gods. So that it was not uncommon for monarchs to do this.
Well, Darius was flattered. I mean, when you get the whole body politic coming in and wanting to do that for you, boy, that's pretty tough to resist. And so, he wasn't thinking. He was swept away in the emotion of the whole deal. Verse 8. "Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth it not."
Now, we don't know a whole lot about the law of the Medes and Persians except we do know that once you made the law, you couldn't violate it. That was built into their system. And most studies indicate that the reason they did that was to prevent whimsical laws, that once a law was made, it was binding. And so, they were rather careful about those laws.
But when these guys came along and hit this king at the point of his vulnerability, his ego, he responded. Verse 9. "He signed the writing and the decree." Now there was a law. You make a petition of any god but this god, and you go to the lions' den.
So, we see the promotion and the plot. There's a third word, perseverance, verse 10, perseverance. Now the word got back to Daniel, and I want you to know what he did. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did previously." I like that.
"Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God." You know, what I see here is perseverance. They made a law, and Daniel went back to his room and did what he did every day. The pattern established originally by David apparently in Psalm 55: "Morning, noon and night, fell on his knees to pray." And, of course, in those days, there was very frequently on the top of a house a kind of a little upper room.
We see them even in the New Testament time. A place of retreat, and they didn't have glass windows. What they did was put a lattice work over the windows, and they would let them be open and the warmth of the area of Babylon, which is a very hot place, and the breeze could blow through and cool them.
And so he would go up there and through the lattice work he would be visible, and he would face toward Jerusalem because that's where the longing of his heart was, the people of God, and the city of God, which symbolized God to him. And he would pray, no doubt, for the peace of Jerusalem, the restoration of the city, and whatever else was in his heart, the confession of sin, and anything else, and he did it just the way he always did it. Perseverance.
In other words, men may make their laws, but when the laws intersect and violate the rules that God lays down, we don't worry about those laws. And we come to that point in Acts, don't we, where Peter says we ought to obey God rather than men.
Now, you say, "Well, couldn't have Daniel been a little discreet? Couldn't he just close the window and pray the same way?" Yes. "Couldn't he have just cooled it for 30 days and talked to the Lord standing up and walking around, and it wouldn't have been as visible?" Yes. But any compromise at all would have been read as self-serving and it wasn't in his character to do that.
When they burned Polycarp, for example, at the stake in Smyrna in A.D. 155, he had been a Christian for 86 years. Before they lit the fire, they called on Polycarp and they said, "Deny the Lord and save your life." In quiet assurance and with steady voice, this is what he said. "Eighty-six years have I served Him. He's never done me any harm. Why should I forsake Him now?" And Polycarp, that disciple of John, with praises on his lips and a quiet commitment to the Lord, looked down at the flames and accepted them as God's will.
I think about Simon Peter. Simon Peter was in prison. The next day he was supposed to be executed, and an angel came to deliver him, and had to wake him up cause he was sound asleep. Amazing. It's like that song, "He never sleeps, He never slumbers." I remember the guy who was on the bottom of a ship and he was fearful, and finally he read that, and looked up to the Lord and said, "As long as You're going to stay awake, there's no sense both of us losing sleep. I think I'll get some."
And so, perseverance. What a truly virtuous and godly man. And then there's another key word that takes us through the text and that's the word prosecution, verse 12. And now the plot thickens. "Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree." They had spied out Daniel. They saw what he did.
I'm sure that they went in the morning, and they saw that deal right away, maybe they saw it at the noontime. That's probably more likely. They came in and got the decree going in the morning. They went there to Daniel's place at noon to watch him do it. They just saw the one time, and they ran back to the king.
And they spoke concerning the decree. "Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty days, except of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?" Now they put the monkey on the king's back. "The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."
That's right. "Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Judah - " and they forever are throwing that at Daniel. That foreigner. That prisoner. That captive. Not even of the right stock " - He regardeth not thee, O king - " Was that true? That wasn't true, was it? Daniel was a loyal and faithful servant as long it never caused him to violate his principles. He regarded the king in the way a king should be regarded, as our Lord said, He "rendered to Caesar what was Caesar's." And he says, "He doesn't regard the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day."
Now, I know they didn't hang around a whole day to see it all three times. They just saw one, and that was the assumption that he was doing, and it was a correct assumption. And so, they confront the king. He started out as king for a month, god for a month, and wound up as a fool in one day. What a fool. What a stupid thing to do, unthinking. And you know who he was angry at? He's a wise man, himself. He was angry at himself.
Verse 14. "Then the king, when he heard these words, was very much displeased with himself." You know, at least the guy had the honesty to put the blame where it belonged. It was his own ego that entrapped him. The allurements are always going to be there, but we don't fall to them unless our own ego gets involved. And I like this. "He set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him."
Let's assume the thing was signed in the morning. They hustled out to see what Daniel would do at noon. Daniel was there praying. They ran back and told the king, and now he had all after noon because execution, according to their custom, was to come before nightfall. And so, he had all afternoon. And he exhausted every legal means possible. He went every way. That's the implication of verse 14. "He set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he labored till the going down of the sun."
Now I don't know what he did, but maybe he tried to find a loophole in the law, or maybe he tried to find something in past Medo-Persian law that could undo this thing. But technically, there was no way out. And you know what I love about this? Daniel never says a word. Daniel never takes up his own cause. Daniel never defends himself. Like Christ, he is dumb before his shearers and opens not his mouth.
You see, he had such confidence in God through all these years that he would just commit himself to God. There was no defense, right? There was no - what could he say except - "That's right. I was praying and I'll just keep on praying." There was nothing to say.
So, the promotion, the plot, the perseverance, the prosecution. And another key word comes in verse 16, and that's the word "penalty." Verse 15 says, "Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and the Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed." You are stuck with it. "Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions."
Now these are real lions, folks, real lions. Lions that were purposely starved to be used as executioners. And I don't know how many there were in there, but there wasn't just a couple. I've seen pictures where there's two or three lions. No, I don't know how many, but there must have been an awful lot of lions, because when you get to the end of the chapter and everything starts coming down on the heads of the people who made the plot, they throw all of them in there, and they throw all their families in together, and they get eaten up before they hit the ground. A lot of lions in there.
One commentator said, "Well, there were only a few, and Daniel found a corner and hid." No, no, no. It was a big place, right? "And he found a corner and he hid in the straw or whatever." No. Lots of lions. And they were lions like you think of lions.
And so, "A stone was brought, and laid on the mouth of the den." It's most likely a cave in the side of a hill, and on the lower place where the entrance was, they would have a stone to cover it. And then on the top of the hill, there was a hole with a grate over it. The reason we believe that is the word "den" is literally the word gob in Aramaic, which is related to the Hebrew word geb which means "pit." And so, it was a pit. That's basically the idea. Geb in Hebrew means "to dig."
And so here you have a sort of an underground pit with a side entrance, where they could sort of through that natural cave entrance bring the lions in and out, or do whatever they needed to do to feed them, and then this top entrance where the whole deal could be viewed as the people who were to be executed were executed.
And by the way, there has been some interesting study done in terms of archeology. They've discovered some of these lions' pits that were used by monarchs as places of execution. Keil, the very famous commentator on the Old Testament, describes one. It says, "It consisted of a large square cavern under the earth, having a partition wall in the middle of it, which is furnished with a door, which the keeper can open and close from above.
"By throwing in the food, he entices the lions from one chamber into the other, and then having shut the door, they enter the vacant space for the purpose of cleaning it. The cavern is open above, its mouth being surrounded by a wall of a yard and a half high, over which one can look down into the den." Now this might be what it was like, a great big area in a hillside.
Now you'll notice that it says in verse 16, "The king spoke and said to Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, He will - " what? " - deliver thee." Now where did he get that idea? Listen, you know enough about Daniel if you've been with us in this study to know that if Daniel had been hanging around for a year, at least by now, and perhaps two, that Darius had heard message, after message, after message about God. And you will also know that the history of what Daniel had seen God do in the past would be known to him, and that's perhaps one of the reasons he appointed him to the place he did.
It would seem apparent to me that Daniel would be one who would make manifest what he believed. He had already been involved in miracles. He had already been involved in giving advice about the release of the Jews to go home. And so I'm sure the message was very clear about the power of Daniel's God who had delivered him. I'm sure this man knew well the story of Azariah, Mishael, and the other – I can't think of his other Hebrew name - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Babylonian; but they had been delivered from the fiery furnace. And so he knew that this God could do it and this is great because this shows that Daniel's evangelistic effort is having some result.
So, "the stone was brought, it was sealed with the signet of the king, and the signet of his lords; - " neither one could break that seal " - the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel."
Now all of this leads to another key word, preservation. Verse 18. "Then the king went to his palace." You know, the Holy Spirit is so subtle about things. You'd think that you'd want to go right to the lions' den, right? I mean, if I was watching a film, for example, and the film came to the climax where they took Daniel and they threw him into the lions' den, and then they cut to the king's palace, I'd go, "Oh, you know? I don't want to see the king's palace. Take me back to the lions' den. I want to see what's going on in the lions' den." Cut to the palace. Never says anything about the lions' den, nothing.
"And the king passed the night fasting." Who cares, right? What happened in the lions' den? "The king passed the night fasting, and neither were instruments of music," one text says. Actually the Aramaic word is "diversions." It could be music, women, dancers, whatever they used to divert the king. But he didn't want any of that: No music, no dancers, no food, no nothing. "His sleep went from him." And he just paced around.
"And he arose very early, and went in haste." By the way, the "very early in the morning" means literally "at the brightness of the dawning." As soon as the sun was visible, he was gone. "And he went in haste - " and most commentators feel he was probably around 62 or 63 years old, so he was hustling for his age. Hustled down to the den of lions, at the crack of dawn to try to see what's going on. Now this indicates that he had some faith, doesn't it, in the God of Daniel.
Verse 20. "And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice - " a sad sorrowing voice, a voice of anguish, a voice of anxiety, " - and he cried unto Daniel - " you know, hoping for the best, but perhaps believing the worst. "Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God."
Now where do you think he learned that? Where do you think he learned that statement, "Servant of the living God"? I'll tell you where he learned it, from Daniel. Daniel had given him many lessons. "Servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee from the lions?" Frankly, it's a little late for that question? Is He? Now we're at the crux of the matter, aren't we? Was God able?
Well, verse 21. "Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever." Got to have those amenities in there when you talk to a king, just can't say, "I'm fine," you have to say, "O king, live forever." Then verse 22, "My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions mouths." And by the way, that's got to be extended to mean that He sort of took care of their paws too, because they could have ripped him to shreds.
God sent an angel. Now, angels are powerful. One angel took care of 185,000 Assyrians and slew them all by himself. So one angel would be plenty. "My God sent His angel, and he shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me: for asmuchas before Him innocence was found in me." That's not proud. That's true. And if it's true, it's not pride, see? "And also, O king, before you I've done no hurt, either."
Well, verse 23 says, "Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and he commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den." Now that's again an indication that it was a pit, probably dropped some ropes, and that nearly 90-year-old guy grabbed on to the ropes, and up he came. "He was taken out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God."
Daniel's writing the 6th chapter and Daniel is saying it was a vindication of his great faith in God. He believed God and God honored his faith. Now you want to know something? It doesn't always happen that way, does it? Isaiah believed God, too, but he got sawn in half. Paul believed God, too, and he laid his head on a block, and an axe head flashed in the sun, and severed it from his body. Peter believed in God, and he got crucified upside down.
Believing in God doesn't mean that the lions aren't going to eat you. There have been martyrs throughout all the history of God's dealing with men that have believed God and they've died. The issue is that we accept God's will. If it is to live, it is to live. If it is to die, it is to die. But in either case, we're never defeated.
In fact, if Daniel had been eaten by lions, he would have been in the presence of God, right? Which would have been better than looking up at Darius and saying, "O king, live forever." He couldn't lose. We never lose. If he had been torn to shreds, that angel that came would have carried him into the presence of the Lord in Abraham's bosom.
Now all of this is followed by another key word, the word "punishment." Verse 24. "And the king commanded, and they brought the men that had accused Daniel, - " the portion of the satraps, the princes, the presidents that had accused him " - and they cast them in the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they came to the bottom of the den." Amazing. There must have been a tremendous amount of lions.
And people say, "Well, you know, Daniel didn't get eaten because the lions weren't hungry." They were hungry. They were hungry enough to eat this huge group of people. Some have even suggested that Daniel didn't get eaten because the lions were old. And they were like Clarence, you know, the cross-eyed lion. It's amazing what liberal commentators try to do to the Bible.
But the point of this text here is to show you they weren't old and toothless. They weren't filled up. They were hungry. And they were so ferocious they shredded those people before they ever hit the ground. God did a miracle. A horrifying scene, the picture of retribution and vengeance of God.
By the way, it's a very interesting glimpse of pagan law. The law of the Medes and the Persians said, "On account of the guilt of one, all his kindred must perish." That was the law of the Medes and Persians. And so they did.
We see the promotion, the plot, perseverance, prosecution, penalty, preservation, punishment. Two more key words, proclamation. Verse 25. "Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages - " you remember that little trilogy is used many times in the book of Daniel, which just encompasses all the people in the realm " - and he wrote all that dwell in the earth; - " at least the earth as he perceived it " - peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel." Isn't that great?
One man, and he literally affects the entire empire. Now the whole Medo-Persian Empire is fallen under the decree to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. It doesn't take a lot of people. It just takes the right kind. "For He is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end." He sounds like the Psalmist, and he's a pagan king.
Boy, God has put on some convincing demonstrations in this book, hasn't He? Nations come and go, and whether they be Babylonian or Medo-Persian, when God puts His men in the right place, His message gets through.
"He delivereth - " verse 27 " - and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."
Let me ask you a simple question. Who gets the glory in the chapter? Daniel? Not Daniel. Not Daniel for a minute. Daniel was just there, that's all. God got the glory. I believe that if you see one thread through the book of Daniel, it is not the exaltation of Daniel, it is the majesty of God, who stands against the nations of the world and upholds His sovereignty.
Finally, the prosperity. "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, even in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." He prospered. Now I want you to listen to me. As I close, I want to sum up very rapidly, in just a couple of minutes, listen.
As we look at this chapter, what do we see about Daniel? Do you remember when we studied chapter 1 and 2? We took all of the characteristics of the virtue of Daniel as a young man and we cataloged them and we studied them, and we saw what makes a virtuous, godly man. Well, here we are, 20 - well, no, 60, 70 years later. What do we see in him again? What are the elements of character that we could translate to ourselves? What makes a man able to affect a nation? What makes a man or a woman have an impact that is as far reaching as an Empire? What is it in Daniel?
Let me suggest some things. I'm going to run them down, just listen to them, think them through. First of all, this man transcended history. He was great, and he was useful to God because he transcended history. He got his feet out of the muck of human issues. He sought the kingdom of God.
Secondly, he lived a consistent life from start to finish. He was virtuous when he was young, and so he was virtuous when he was old. And I really believe that there is no way to measure with a human measure the power of a virtuous life of that many years. The tragedy is that most of us find our virtue coming and going through those years. Not Daniel.
What are the lessons we learn about a man of God? He transcends history. He lives a consistent life from youth to old age, and this makes for great usefulness in his old age. Thirdly, he utterly fulfills his calling. In other words, he lives in the absolute center of God's will. His only desire is that God's will be fulfilled.
Fourth, he has a right attitude. They kept saying about him he has an excellent spirit. He has an excellent spirit.
Fifth, he will be envied and he will be hated by the world around him, but he will never be bittered by it.
Sixth, he is condemned, but if he is condemned, he is condemned for his righteousness, for there's no other flaw. He is as an elder of the church should be - what? - blameless.
Seventh, he is known for his virtue and integrity even by his enemies.
Eighth, he is a faithful citizen. He is subject to human laws until they would cause him to violate the laws of God.
Nine, he is willing to face any consequence within the framework of God's will and leave the outcome to God.
Ten, he will serve faithfully no matter what it costs him personally.
Eleven, he never defends himself. He leaves that to God.
Twelve, he strengthens the faith of others giving them hope in God. Didn't you see this in the king? I mean, the king was even believing because of the great faith of Daniel.
Thirteen, he is delivered from all harm, and he is preserved for every purpose within the will of God.
Fourteen, he is a vehicle for God's glory. I wish we could just preach on that. We as Christians are to be, above all things, a vehicle for God's glory.
Fifteen, he will be avenged by God. He will be avenged by God. His enemies will be dealt with by God. He doesn't have to deal with them himself.
And finally, he is exalted by those around him as well as by the One above him.
Principles manifest in this chapter that show the virtuous life of a man of God. I hope this has been practical for you, that God will apply this to your heart as He will to mine. Let's pray.
Thank You, our Lord, for the tremendous thrill of seeing your power manifest. We feel like we could reach out and touch Daniel. We feel like we could look right in that pit and see those lions. It's so vivid to us. And we know You're the same God, unchanging from that very hour, who meets us at the point of our greatest need. You're the God who wants to use us to transcend the ebb and flow of history. You're the God who has called us to live the life that Daniel lived in this day, from youth to old age.
O God, may it be that You'll raise up even in this congregation and around the world, men and women of honesty, integrity, and virtue, whose lives are given over to You totally, who suffer but know no bitterness because they've committed themselves to the keeping of the faithful creator.
Lord, make us this kind of person. Make me this kind of person by Your great grace. Shape me so that my life is consistent, that I may know the blessedness of a useful old age should Jesus tarry and You grant that to me. I pray the same for all these beloved ones gathered here, in Christ's name. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.


text:
* Freebloks 3D
Each player has 21 tiles: 12 tiles with 5 squares, 5 tiles with 4 squares, 2 tiles with 3 squares, 1 tile with 2 squares and 1 tile with 1 square.
Players take turns in placing one tile onto the 20x20 board. The first tile for each player has to be placed in their corner of the board. Each following tile has to touch a corner of one of your previous tiles, but it must never share an edge. It may share edges with the opponents' tiles though.
If a player has no more possible move, they have to pass. The game is over when no player can place a tile.
For each player, the squares of all their tiles on the board are added up. Finishing a game with all stones placed on the board gives a 15 points bonus. If the monomino is placed last, you will get a 20 points bonus. The player with the most points wins.
•  Swipe the list of available tiles with your finger.
•  Select and drag a tile onto the board.
•  Rotate the stone using one of the 4 handles.
•  To flip a stone, slide your finger from one handle toward the opposing handle.
•  Place the tile in the desired position. The tile will appear green if the position is valid, and red otherwise. Possible corners are highlighted on the board for convenience.
•  Tap the tile in a valid position to place it.
•  You can rotate the board at any time to see the opponents' tiles.
Quit the app at any time, your current game will be saved and restored on next start.
•  Supports 2-player modes, with 2 colors (Original and Blokus Duo), 4 colors (2 each).
•  Customizable board sizes other than 20x20.
•  Play against the computer or humans on the same device.
•  Play online against your friends
•  Hint and undo options
•  Leaderboards and Achievements (Google+ login required)
•  Looks great on tablets, too!
The game is network-compatible with Freebloks 3D for Windows and Linux: http://www.saschahlusiak.de/freebloks-3d/
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text:
Dear guests, hello and welcome to "Villa Schuler"! Allow us to introduce ourselves: We are Alessandro and Andrea Schuler – the great grandchildren of the hotel's founder. We probably haven't met you yet, because we only help out occasionally here in "Villa Schuler". As for me, Alessandro, I am studying "scienze per la comunicazione internazionale" (International Communication) at university in Catania. My brother, Andrea, is still attending the "liceo classico" (high school) in Taormina. Our father, Gerhard Schuler, runs the hotel where you are staying and, hopefully, having a wonderful time!
Much of our childhood was spent in the house where you are now our guests.
Children don't particularly notice whether or not the surroundings they happen to be living in are special. We took this magnificent place for granted, as if things could never have been any different. Only later did we come to realize just how special the place is. And "Villa Schuler" has a really extraordinary history. Standing on the hotel terrace beneath palms that are as old as the hotel itself, namely a proud one hundred years, you can enjoy the splendid panorama of the Bay of Giardini-Naxos, Mount Etna and the romantic Giardino Pubblico. Originally nothing grander than a private home with some exhibition rooms for antiques was planned on this site. But things were to turn out differently…
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If you're interested, over the next few pages we'll tell you a little about the turbulent family history of the Schulers – how "Villa Schuler" survived two world wars, how our grandmother transformed the rundown building into a charming hotel in the 1950s and thus, in her modest way, laid the foundations for the present success of our father's era.
Of course, it would be impossible to tell the story of a hotel without focusing on the most important factor: its guests. So we will also tell you something about the people who spent their holidays here over the decades. Indeed, an interesting and illustrious set of visitors joined us here from time to time. Many of our guests have valued the family atmosphere of "Villa Schuler" and have come back again and again.
Today, under our father's management,"Villa Schuler" is in the third generation of family ownership. That makes us the oldest owner-run hotel in Taormina. And our visitors come from every continent. In these one hundred years "Villa Schuler" has become something of an institution in Sicily.
But read this story yourself!
Alessandro & Andrea Schuler,
Taormina, Spring 2005
The late 19th and early 20th century saw large waves of emigration from Germany.The daring, the adventurous or simply the desperate were leaving the country for a better life. For some, it was fashionable in those days to move abroad.These were people in a financial position to make a new start and willing to take a risk. Of course many Germans headed for the United States of America. But there were also Germans who chose Italy as their new home.Goethe's "Italian Journey"was certainly influential in making Italy and, in particular, our home Sicily a popular destination.
Our great grandfather, Eugen Schuler senior, the son of a physician's family from Heilbronn, was one such migrant. At the age of 20 he left his German home one day and traveled almost 2,000 kilometers southward. That was 1886. And what an incredibly long and arduous journey it must have been back then: nowadays almost unimaginable for us as young people living in the 21st century. Our great grandfather suffered from an ear infection that was difficult to treat. He heard that the mild Mediterranean climate promised at least some relief, if not a cure.With this in mind he made his way to the port of Messina in Sicily. On arrival he found that a lively German community had taken root there. Among them had been once Konrad Duden, germanist and author of the famous Duden dictionary. It was in Messina that the young Eugen was to meet his wife.
He took up an apprenticeship under a Swiss clockmaker. Apart from learning this fine craft, he developed a keen interest in photography.And it was then that he married a German woman called Anna Märklen from Asperg. In 1892 their only son – our grandfather – was born in Messina.They named him Eugen after his father.
Having completed his apprenticeship, great grandfather set up his own business selling both jewelry and timepieces. He was now very much at home in Sicily. The story told in our family is that, after a few years, Eugen senior decided to move again, this time to look for new shop premises in the south of the island. He was heading for Syracuse, but on the way stopped at Taormina-Giardini train station where he bumped into an acquaintance who suggested trying his luck in nearby Taormina. He learned that a sizeable shop had recently become vacant in the town. Great grandpa decided straight away to walk up the slope to explore the wonderful place where many years later we were to be born.
He must have loved Taormina at first sight. In any case he moved into the shop and set up business as an "antiquities dealer" – as his business is advertised in a German guidebook of 1906 ("Meyer's Reisebücher – Unteritalien und Sizilien"). The shop's previous owners, also Germans, had already been selling antique artefacts, under the name of "März and Successors". The premises were large, with four shop-windows on the ground floor of the famous Palazzo Corvaja on Piazza Badia – the building, incidentally, where the Sicilian parliament of nobles had assembled in 1410 to choose a new king.
Our great grandfather ran the business with the active support of his wife, but also found time to pursue his passion for photography. In fact photography helped him to receive a high honor. It's a story our grandmother still likes to tell us: one day the imperial yacht of the German Kaiser,Wilhelm II, was anchored off the Sicilian coast.There was talk on board of a talented German photographer who lived locally. Eugen Schuler's reputation as a photographer must have reached the ears of the Kaiser, because he was summoned to develop pictures taken of the imperial family's visit and to do some interpreting for Wilhelm II.
Great grandfather's business must have been going quite well at this time, because he soon had the means to purchase some land on the town's lower slope at Piazzetta Bastione – the same delightful spot where you are, we hope, enjoying an unforgettable holiday. The house he built here was originally intended as a home for the family. However, our great grandfather decided to add spacious shop premises to the ground floor where he could exhibit all his treasures for sale.The future must have looked rosy: a young family, a magnificent house set in a superb landscape, and a successful and well-respected business. But his luck did not hold for long. Our great grandpa never reached old age. He died in 1905 at the age of 39.
Our great grandmother Anna suddenly found herself alone – a young widow with a 12-year-old child. A shadow was now cast over her hopes and plans for the future. As a widow with a child at school, she couldn't travel around for the antiques business. But the woman our great grandpa had chosen was not only a good wife but also had a good head for business. What did she now do with a big house in this wonderful location? Without further ado she turned it into a guesthouse! And so began the history of hotel "Villa Schuler".
Without doubt our great grandma Anna had recognized the signs of the times: at the turn of the century Taormina had already become an attractive destination for Europeans from colder climates. Many of them liked to stay for long periods, so money was coming into the town. Although "town" was not yet the right description for Taormina. A hundred years ago it was still basically a small village with an extraordinary history. But that was all changing thanks to foreign visitors.What hastened this development was the presence of a busy little colony of artists. One of them was Otto Geleng, a German landscape painter, who came to Taormina back as early as 1868, when he was twenty. Observant visitors to Taormina may notice the street named after him. Another was the photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden: his homoerotic pictures, not to mention the wild tales that were spun around them, made Taormina a talking point, increasingly drawing the attention of celebrities, artists, writers, bohemians and intellectuals. They, in turn, acted like magnets attracting people from high society. Indeed, a number of celebrities came here to follow the footsteps of Taormina's first ever great admirer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The list of "celebs" who over the years honored Taormina with their presence is long. To name but a few: Johannes Brahms, Guy de Maupassant, Oscar Wilde, Richard Wagner, Austria's Empress Elisabeth "Sissi", the British kings Edward VII and George V, Thomas Mann, André Gide, Jean Cocteau, D. H. Lawrence, Christian Morgenstern, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Somerset Maugham, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Cary Grant, Sofia Loren, Elisabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Christian Dior. The travelers drawn to Taormina obviously needed somewhere to stay. And quite a few wanted to stay for several weeks or months. No wonder the pension run by our great grandmother soon became a profitable business. Many of her guests belonged to Prussian nobility – after all, apart from the prominent resident artists at work here, the aristocracy was, at that time, probably the only social group who could afford to stay abroad for months on end.
An interesting glimpse of the early years of "Pension Schuler" is provided by a travel novel written in 1909, entitled "Seekers in Sicily". The authors, the well-known American travel writers Elizabeth Bisland and Anne Hoyt, drew from the experience of their own travels around the island."Seekers in Sicily" is a tale of two rich American ladies on a tour of a region of Europe that still seemed exotic, alien and – especially from an American perspective – deeply underdeveloped.
In the spring of 1908 the protagonists, Jane and Peripatetica, find accommodation for a few weeks in "Villa Schuler".With affection and full of humor, they describe their impressions and their delight at the hospitality shown by our great grandmother. Today's guests will recognize our hotel in many passages of the novel.The luxuriant garden and the distinctive terrace already existed back then.
"At the bottom of the crack a high wall and a pink gateway… they were in a delicious garden, descending a pergola of roses and grapes.Violets and freesias, geraniums and heliotrope spread in a dazzle of colour and sweetness under gnarled olives and almonds and blossoming plums; stone benches, bits of old marbles, a violet-fringed pool and a terrace leading down to a square white house, a smiling young German girl inviting them in, and then a view – dazzling to even their fatigued, dulled eyes.
In front a terrace, and then nothing but the sea, 700 feet below, the surf-rimmed coast line melting on and off indefinitely to the right in great soft curves of upspringing mountains (….) Fortunately the villa's interior showed comfortable rooms, clean, airy, and spacious. But the terrace settled it.They would have slept anywhere to belong to that."
Our great grandmother had just got things running nicely in the guesthouse when the next disaster loomed on the horizon: war in Europe.When the First World War broke out, German property in enemy countries was confiscated. "Villa Schuler" was no exception. Our great grandma and her son Eugen, who was now 22 years old, had to abandon the villa and flee. She made her way back to Asperg where she spent the war years. Eugen was called up to fight and reported to barracks at Karlsruhe. But he was lucky enough not to be sent to the front. A horse gave him such a kick in the knee that his injury saved him serving his fatherland in the trenches.
In April 1926 a daughter, Elisa, was born. But new life was followed quickly by death in December of the same year: Thea, our grandfather's wife died. Elisa and Heinz now grew up with their grandmother and father. And it wasn't long before the next great misfortune struck. At the tender age of eight Elisa died of an undiagnosed case of appendicitis. Only shortly before, the German artist Professor August Bresgen, a good friend of our grandpa's, had painted the girl's portrait. You will have already noticed the lovely painting, which has hung ever since that time in our breakfast room.Our grandfather Eugen's luck continued: in the military hospital he got to know a nurse from Hamburg called Thea Andersen, who agreed to be his wife. The two married and before long a baby was on its way: in 1921 Heinz was born – in Taormina! Returning with his wife and his mother to Taormina, our grandfather took the risk of making a fresh start. This venture wouldn't have succeeded without something very remarkable happening. After the First World War, the expropriated "Villa Schuler" was to be sold off by auction, but local bidders came together and agreed to withdraw their offer in favour of our grandfather. Clearly his parents had not only acquired a good reputation in Taormina but some good friends, too.The way was now free for grandfather Eugen Schuler junior to repossess his old parental home. As the only bidder he purchased the family heirloom. Very soon the pension above the sea was doing good business again. The guests had stayed loyal to "Villa Schuler" and began returning for their holidays. And perhaps we should mention at this point that in the 1920s and 30s foreign visitors had a very different approach to their vacations from that of today's tourists. Back then the guests would arrive in the autumn and spend the winter on the island until May or June of the following year. That brought secure bookings. This pattern of traveling and lodging was not to change until advances in transportation enabled people to reach their destination much faster and more comfortably.
Nobody was able to anticipate then that another world war would follow the first.Yet just 21 years after the armistice of 1918 the scene was set for the outbreak of the Second World War. And once again the existence of "Villa Schuler" stood on a knife edge. Again the villa was expropriated.
In the Second World War many people were forced to realize that there was no limit to the extents of human suffering, brutality and destruction. Like an inkwell spilling over, National Socialist aggression poured across continental Europe, spreading out as far as North Africa. The National Socialists set up their positions all over Europe, including Taormina. And what could have been better in a foreign country than to find a "German house" right there. The villa was expropriated and subordinated to the war aims of the Germans. From then on "Villa Schuler" served as a liaison centre for the German army. Our grandfather joined the Nazi party and found himself lodging Nazis like Dr. Robert Ley and his entourage whenever they happened to be staying in Taormina. The busy life of "Villa Schuler" as a hotel had ended abruptly for a second time
When the German military moved out of "Villa Schuler" in 1943, following the liberation of Sicily by the Allies, it was occupied by the British army. Our grandfather and his mother fled to Bolzano (Bozen) in the Alps. Appreciating the building's spectacular location, the British turned the hotel into a rest home for soldiers stationed on Malta. This change of function brought a number of alterations. Our grandfather had gradually improved the villa with the hotel business in mind – in 1938, for example, he had an extension built towards Piazzetta Bastione and added a series of balconies. The British had the balconies bricked in because, it is said, a drunken soldier fell over the balustrade and died.
When the British left "Villa Schuler" the building must have been in a frightful state. The wiring and plumbing had been ripped out and many of the rooms smashed. The anger created by the war was vented on "Villa Schuler" because it was the house of a German family. Happily, that is now history. Today, the British commanding officer at the time,Mr. Robinson, is one of our guests.
The Italian authorities, who now owned the ruins of "Villa Schuler", put the management of the premises into the hands of the "Banco di Sicilia". The bank relocated bombed-out civilians and homeless Taorminesi to the empty rooms. The same villa that had once offered its comforts to Prussian aristocrats and other wealthy visitors now became temporary accommodation for the inhabitants of Taormina who had lost their homes in the war. As was the local custom, chickens were kept on the roof-garden and rabbits were reared on the palm terrace. And what did our grandpa do? To secure a living for himself and his mother, he returned from Bozen and found a position as manager of the "Grande Albergo dell'Etna", over on the southern side of Mount Etna near Nicolosi. But his luck was to turn again in 1952.
The Second World War was over. Once again people began to take stock, reorientate and build a new life. Our grandfather did the same. He apparently couldn't and wouldn't give up his parents' home. It would certainly have been too late for him to start a new life in Germany, his father's country of origin. By now he was 61. So he approached the Italian authorities and managed to reach an agreement to have the family's property returned for a second time. This time he got it back in ruins but free of charge. And so, in 1953 "Villa Schuler" was returned to our rightful ownership. It was a family milestone that his mother never lived to see. She had died in 1949.
The situation must have been sad and forlorn: grandfather now lived in a brokendown house together with a maid, his now 32 year-old son, Heinz, and Heinz's wife – and with lots of memories of happy and successful times. Our step-uncle Heinz made it clear from the outset that he had no interest in running the hotel under those circumstances. Instead he decided to become an electrician and moved later with his wife to Messina, where he specialized in planning and setting up large electrical installations. For our grandfather, starting a hotel from scratch was a task simply too big to take on. In any case, no real progress was made for a while. In a period when our grandpa must have been beset by gloomy thoughts, the answer to his problems was already close at hand. He was soon to meet her: our grandmother Marta.
Change of scene: Germany just after the war. Our grandma, a determined young woman who could take life's ups and downs in her stride,was living in the German Kraichgau hills. One day she decided to give up her job and leave home – a remarkably brave step to take at a time when most people longed for nothing more than stability and security. Born in 1923, our grandmother belonged to a generation whose teenage years had been spent under a brutal and inhuman regime and under war conditions. She'd had to wait a long time to get a chance to train as a nurse – the profession she had always dreamed of. Life as a student nurse was hard, the work routines strict and exhausting. The combination of heavy responsibility and a deep concern for her patients pushed her to the limits. Eventually she fell ill with stomach ulcers.
Repeated treatment in sanatoriums brought no improvement. It was in this situation that a senior doctor came up with a suggestion that would change her life. Later she would say it was the hand of fate. The doctor was a friend of a wealthy family whose daughter had contracted tuberculosis and needed a private nurse.The assignment was at an unusual location:Taormina in Sicily.
Just imagine – in the 1950s the journey from Germany to Sicily would still have seemed like travelling half way round the world. But Marta, our intrepid grandma, set off for a world completely beyond her experience.At first she planned to stay for a year. But, as you will have already guessed, it didn't turn out that way. Marta's patient was married to the director of the local electricity works, Nino Bolognari.Our grandpa was a friend of the Bolognaris and regular visitor to their home. He soon got to know Marta. The two married in 1954. Between them an age gap of 31 years – and before them a shared future in "Villa Schuler".
That's how it can happen. Our grandmother Marta changed her profession from one day to the next – yesterday nurse, today hotel manager. In fact the new job required the same underlying human quality: the ability to take pleasure in helping others. Our grandma now realized that this would become her life's work.
The villa was in a desolate condition. There was only one thing to do: smile and get on with it.With a few workers from the town, our grandparents set about repairing and restoring the old building bit by bit. It didn't take long before the hotel could open again, at first with fourteen rooms. That was hard work in the mid-1950s. In the first five years they didn't have a single domestic electrical appliance – unimaginable today! The standard was still rather modest, but nobody seemed to mind renting a room with "hot and cold running water". After what people had gone through during the war, our grandparents' hotel must have been paradise on earth. At least that's the impression we get from the entries in the old visitors' books. As if a sudden interruption in the life of a hotel had been perfectly normal, the tourists returned. Word of "Villa Schuler" spread mainly by word of mouth.
Some of the children of visitors from the 1920s were now spending their holidays here. In those days the aristocrats from Eastern Prussia preferred to travel incognito. However, we know that distinguished names like von der Schulenburg, Baroness Rietesel, Baroness Gorup and Baroness Gablens came to stay. Our grandmother learned first-hand some of the stories of German resistance to Nazi rule. The widow of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, one of the leading figures behind the plot to assassinate Hitler on 20th July 1944, spent some time in the hotel accompanied by a younger relative. Other prominent guests in the immediate post-war years were the famous German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, the Austrian dramatists Thomas Bernhard, the liberal politician Thomas Dehler and the actress Elke Sommer.
But people's approach to travel was changing radically in the 1950s. Direct train links between Germany and Italy made the journey fast and comfortable by the standards of the time. More and more guests now chose Taormina for their summer vacation. The times when guests would reside here for the long winter months were never to return.
There was still no modern marketing as we know it today. A hotel had a good name – or it didn't. That was one of the reasons why grandpa kept in close touch with German consulates and members of the German embassies around the world. Many of his guests came on the recommendation of someone in the diplomatic service. Grandma still likes to talk about her personal acquaintances, how she knew every German consul in Italy. The visitors' books from those years have survived. They represent a unique historical document and bear impressive witness to the success of this "advertising strategy". Our visitors included an unusually large number of German civil servants, mayors, judges, privy councils and senators. The German navy also make an appearance on the pages: "We lay at your feet for three days", wrote the captain of the German training regatta "Brommy" in 1961. The ship lay at anchor in the bay with "Villa Schuler" in view up above. The hotel business was thriving again, so our grandparents decided it was time to extend the building – the 3rd floor was pulled down and rebuilt.
Our grandma ran the hotel with the help of a German nanny and three domestic servants. In 1954 our father Gerhard was born, and in 1957 his brother Claudio. Quite a handful for our grandmother.While grandma was busy, grandpa gradually withdrew from an active role in the business and dedicated his older years to his burning passion: Mount Etna.
Both great grandfather and grandfather had always been gripped by Etna's fascination. Both accompanied scientists up to the volcano rim. They documented the changes occurring over the years to Europe's biggest active volcano. Even today our grandfather's name still rings a bell among the Etna mountain guides. He made regular walks to the volcano and became an aknowledged expert at the Volcanological Research Institute in Catania. Guests who mentioned a strong interest in Etna would sometimes be invited to join one of his expeditions or he would give them a slide show and lecture in the hotel. Our grandfather died in 1975 at the age of 82. He found his final resting place here in his beloved Taormina.
Grandma often tells us how she developed personal friendships with her guests. From time to time she would join in their celebration of birthdays or wedding anniversaries. In the old days, she says, people had more time. There was more space for the personal touch, including a closer relationship with the staff. Anna di Camillo, one of our maids, worked here for more than thirty years – and she is now part of the family.The story of "Villa Schuler" is not only that it survived two expropriations; it also documents the remarkable development of tourism in the 20th and 21st century.
The 1970s saw the rise of mass tourism. Holidaymakers could choose between destinations all over the world. So the profile of our guests changed, becoming much more international. Our grandma ran the hotel until the end of 1983 and then passed on the business to her sons Gerhard and Claudio. Some years later our uncle Claudio took over our family's holiday apartments which are situated in Taormina's residential area "Chiusa". Since then our father has been running "Villa Schuler" by himself.
Our father's background as a student of languages in Germany has fitted perfectly with the demands of the new internationalism. Since the hotel management has been in his hands, a great deal has changed.Today in 2005, the year of our 100th, we have a total of 27 rooms and suites. And we have a staff of ten to make sure "Villa Schuler" runs smoothly 24 hours a day. The hotel building has been modernized with a number of additions to offer you the high standards and comforts that will make your stay a pleasant one.Yet while making all these changes, our father has preserved and cultivated the tradition of "Villa Schuler" as a matter of great personal importance.
Speaking as the youngest Schulers, but also in the name of the whole team, it is our wish that the villa's unique spirit will remain a tangible part of our guests' experience long into the future.We will always be delighted to welcome you again in "Villa Schuler", a villa with a really extraordinary history.


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- Phase 3 interim analysis including 131 Covid-19 cases indicates that the vaccine is 70.4% effective when combining data from two dosing regimens
- In the two different dose regimens vaccine efficacy was 90% in one and 62% in the other
- Higher efficacy regime used a halved first dose and standard second dose
- Early indication that vaccine could reduce virus transmission from an observed reduction in asymptomatic infections
- There were no hospitalised or severe cases in anyone who received the vaccine
- Large safety database from over 24,000 volunteers from clinical trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, with follow up since April
- Crucially, vaccine can be easily administered in existing healthcare systems, stored at 'fridge temperature' (2-8 °C) and distributed using existing logistics
- Large scale manufacturing ongoing in over 10 countries to support equitable global access
Professor Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said:
'These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives. Excitingly, we've found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90% effective and if this dosing regime is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply. Today's announcement is only possible thanks to the many volunteers in our trial, and the hard working and talented team of researchers based around the world.'
Professor Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, said:
'The announcement today takes us another step closer to the time when we can use vaccines to bring an end to the devastation caused by SARS-CoV-2. We will continue to work to provide the detailed information to regulators. It has been a privilege to be part of this multi-national effort which will reap benefits for the whole world.'
The University of Oxford, in collaboration with AstraZeneca plc, today announces interim trial data from its Phase III trials that shows its candidate vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019, is effective at preventing COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and offers a high level of protection.
Following the trial reaching the target for interim analysis, the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) recommended that the team at Oxford conduct its first analysis on all the cases with data locked on 4 November 2020.
These preliminary data indicate that the vaccine is 70.4% effective, with tests on two different dose regimes showing that the vaccine was 90% effective if administered at a half dose and then at a full dose, or 62% effective if administered in two full doses.
Additional cases are expected to accrue by the time of the final analysis and future analyses will determine the duration of protection. No serious safety events related to the vaccine have been identified.
Oxford will now support AstraZeneca in submitting both the interim Phase III efficacy data and the extensive safety data to all regulators across the world, including in the UK, Europe and Brazil for independent scrutiny and product approval, including for emergency use. Many of these regulators have been reviewing the trial data on a rolling basis during the trial.
In parallel, Oxford is submitting the full analysis of the Phase III interim data for independent scientific peer review and publication. The coordination of the programme and execution of the trials in the UK would not have been possible without the support of the National Institute for Health Research and UKRI.
These data also suggest that this half dose and full dose regime could help to prevent transmission of the virus, evidenced by lower rates of asymptomatic infection in the vaccinees, with further information to become available when trial data are next evaluated.
The interim Phase III data builds on Oxford's phase I/II peer-reviewed trial results which have shown that the vaccine induces strong antibody and T cell immune responses across all age groups, including older adults, and has a good safety profile.
The clinical trials, enrolling over 24,000 participants from diverse racial and geographical groups in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, will now continue to final analysis. Further trials are being conducted in the United States, Kenya, Japan and India and the trial team expect to have under 60,000 participants by the end of the year. These trials will provide regulators with further information about the efficacy and safety of the Oxford candidate vaccine, including its ability to both protect against and stop the transmission of COVID-19.
The Oxford vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) is made from a virus, which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus), that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans.
Adenovirus vaccines have been researched and used extensively for decades and have the significant benefit that they are stable, easily manufactured, transported and stored at domestic fridge temperature (2-8 degrees C). This means they can be easily distributed using existing medical facilities such as doctor's surgeries and local pharmacies, allowing for the vaccine, if approved, to be deployed very rapidly.
Oxford University's collaboration with AstraZeneca has been crucial to the successful development of the vaccine and vital for its global manufacturing and distribution across the world. AstraZeneca already has international agreements in place to supply three billion doses of the vaccine, with access being built through more than 30 supply agreements and partner networks.
A key element of Oxford's partnership with AstraZeneca is the joint commitment to provide the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis for the duration of the pandemic across the world, and in perpetuity to low- and middle-income countries.
Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford, said:
'This is a great day for the University of Oxford and for universities everywhere. Pushing at the frontiers of knowledge with partners across the globe and putting our extraordinary brainpower in service to society, is what we do best.'
Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca, said:
'Today marks an important milestone in our fight against the pandemic. This vaccine's efficacy and safety confirm that it will be highly effective against COVID-19 and will have an immediate impact on this public health emergency. Furthermore, the vaccine's simple supply chain and our no-profit pledge and commitment to broad, equitable and timely access means it will be affordable and globally available supplying hundreds of millions of doses on approval.'
Further information is available on the University of Oxford website