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Discussion in 'Wheels & Tires' started by Zahnarzt, May 8, 2008.
I wonder if our new BMW CCA Ombudsman would be helpful in this situation?
Marks on Wheels After Tire Change
I had very similar marks on all four of my 18" wheels after new Michelin RFTS were installed on my car last week at the BMW dealer. The service advisor and shop foreman quickly agreed with me that their installer did the damage. They will have the wheels refinished at their expense when I bring it in later this week. I'm glad they handled this in a responsible manner. My only concern is that their refinishing will be as good as the OEM fiinsh. They guaranteed me that it would be. Does anyone have any experience with a dealer refinishing their wheels? They said"refinishing" included repainting the wheels. This particular dealer has a full body shop.
Thanks for any feedback.
I've gotten nowhere, and it's been a while. Tell me more about the Ombudsman?
Terrible terrible terrible. All this time and they have been dodging you. Looks like you will have to bite the bullet on this one. Give them all 1's. But seriously, something needs to be done to teach these greedy dealers a lesson..........suggestions anyone?
Rick - I'd suggest calling the BMW CCA office and talking with them about what the process is. I am unsure myself. However from what I do know about the Club Ombudsman's duties, your case seems to fit the bill.
Please continue to let us know how it's going.....
When I took my 135 in for it's first oil change, I specifically told the dealership not to wash my car because the last time they washed one of them, they scraped the wheel on the entry guide going into the automatic car wash. Guess what...they washed it AND they scraped the brand new wheel on my 135!!
They agreed to fix it and I have to be honest...they did such a good job that I absolutely can not tell where the scrape was. I'm still furious that they did it but at least it was repaired well. If it's done correctly, you'll never be able to see the repair.
"Repairing" and "reconditioning" are two entirely different processes.
"Repairing" is more of a masking process and consists of a rotary buffer/drill of different grits followed by paint. If you have a big gouge, you'll see where it was refinished. It will be smooth, but you'll be able to see a dip wherever the it was. Minor scratches might not be noticeable.
"Reconditioning" is much more thorough, and your wheel will come back in "like new" condition. Basically, the dealer sends the wheel out to a facility that strips everything off the actual wheel via acid bath. Then, if possible, they right the wheel if it is bent. Then they smooth any scratches and gouges with rotary tools and weld the voids to fill them so you won't see any dips in the finish from deep gouges. Lastly, they repaint the wheel. This process usually takes a few days at best, so if you're getting your same wheel back the same day, they're not doing this. Some shops will pre-arrange a swap where reconditioned wheels are ready to go, and the dealer simply exchanges your damaged wheels for the reconditioned ones to minimize downtime. Not many places will do this without first checking out your wheels in advance to make sure they're not beyond repair, though.
Good luck.
John, our Ombudsman, has worked on this feverishly for some time now and eventually managed to get dealership owner (a nearly impossible feat in itself), the shop foreman, and himself together on a conference call regarding the situation. Very long story short, the pre-service vehicle inspection sheet disappeared, the foreman insists that this was pre-existing pothole damage, and I'm S-O-L. The owner indicated that this only happens in about 10 situations per year out of 40,000 service visits.
I'd love to get the pictures to the owner, but I somehow doubt that would be possible. I'm going to see if John can get a better phone number to me that might get past the front desk. Still can't believe the foreman guy flat-out lied to my face.
Avoid that dealership like the plague . *%#^%( Stealers!
Yeah, not going to happen again.
I dropped off my car at Fields BMW in Northfield yesterday morning and was shocked at how polite and thorough they were. A mechanic actually went for a ride with me to identify a noise and everything--what a concept. They took their time to make sure they got everything and didn't rush me out the door like Perillo. We'll see how it is on the other end when I get the car back tomorrow.
Our chapter has a VERY good relationship with one of our dealerships and that, I believe, is key. We have learned that the service ratings you give have a huge effect on many things. If the center has lower than acceptable rating, they can lose the number of service loaners allowed by BMW NA. Further, some training opportunities or special trips to the factory may not be subsidized by NA. There is more but that is what I can remember. Those ratings carry a lot of weight.
Unfortunately for them, the word of mouth negative comments have probably cost them way more that just fixing the damn wheel. BTW, those photos show classic tire installation damage....especially the marks by the lug holes that are clearly where the impact socket rubbed the paint. The other looks like when you spin the lugnut off with an impact wrench and it flies out of the socket striking the wheel. They also needed to replace the Teflon "boot" that goes on the tire changer arm that rides above the bead area. It protects the wheel from damage as the wheel assembly spins beneath and the inserted tire iron removes the tire.
I have gone so far as to install 1/2 in blue painters tape to the edge of my wheels as a "tattle tale". If they scuff the wheel, the tape will be torn....no getting around that. Mostly it lets the technician know you are serious about your car and they better take their time. With the hand polished bare aluminum lips on my M5, you better believe I'm watching.
Good luck with the omsbudsman....if that doesn't work, there is always the area market representative or the BMW Legal department. I am sure they do not want the spreading of negativity in these already trying economic times.
I like the painter's tape idea. If I ever have to go back to that place, I'll totally do that.
I just dropped a packet in the mail to Joe Perillo (the dealership's owner) containing copies of this thread and photos of the damage. We'll see if anything comes of it. Otherwise, I plan to send out my wheels myself for reconditioning this winter now that they're sitting in my garage.
I would be surprised if the owner would do something. However, if you included that you were "lied to your face" about the situation, then the owner would be concerned about his dealerships reputation and might help you out. Keep us updated.
Any word yet from Joe Perillo? It has been over 2 months now and I'm pretty sure the package has arrived. Very interested in how this turns out.
Nada. Nothing. An excellent strategy on their part. In the meantime, I'm sending them out to be reconditioned while I'm enjoying my disposable winter wheels from Tire Rack. I've officially written this issue off.
I would take it strait to the dealerships Genral Manger, I be he/ she can help if not, strait to the BMW of North America offices, but that me. I did that with Mini of Dallas, and I also never went back there again. I'll drive the extra hour to Houston to Mini of the Woodlands before I go back to Dallas Mini... shadey "bass-terds"
Terrible that the owner did absolutely NOTHING. However, with these economic times it seems like everyone is looking out for themselves and they will do anything to screw the other guy business wise.
Pretty sure BMW NA will be NO HELP as the dealerships are independent entities. BMW NA only tells the centers what they can and can't do as far as advertising/marketing with their stock images, how the center is to look (colors, theme, etc) how the shop is to be laid out, the service drive etc. This is for NEWLY built facilities at least. Further, they will tell you they to not set policy at said centers on how personal property damages are to be handled. They will NOT pull franchises unless you are operating a super scumbag center or have numerous infractions. I am not aware of any centers that have been pulled....I could be wrong.
That said, you can post as many negative messages you want here, in Roundel, Bimmerforums, local papers etc. In my opinion, looking at the damage, they were clearly at fault, said they weren't and are hoping you will get frustrated and just go away.
At least you are fixing the damage and not living with the constant reminder.
I noticed some marks simmular to that after getting my tires changed at perillo about 2 years ago. The marks on my rims were closer to the tire though.
Perillo even cracked one of the roundels in the center of the wheel and they didn't put valve stem caps back on all wheels.
I had some more bad experience with them after that...
I never got a call to rate their service. I had given them all 5's previously. I'll probably never go back.
Separate names with a comma.
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640 S Main St, Ste 201Greenville, SC 29601864-250-0022Contact Us
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The Apollo spacecraft was a type of 20th century Earth spacecraft used by the United States of America during the 1960s and 1970s. The Apollo spacecraft, which consisted of three primary components, was propelled into space by means of a rocket. In the Apollo program, it was responsible for successfully placing a man in orbit of Earth and the moon, as well as conducting several successful moon landings. After the last mission on Luna, the spacecraft was responsible for transporting astronauts to the space station Skylab.
Schematics of the Apollo Command Module interior and the Lunar Module were scanned by the Talosians as they reviewed the library computer files of the USS Enterprise in 2254. (TOS-R: "The Cage")
Apollo Command/Service Module
The Apollo Command/Service Module (or CSM) was the primary mode of transportation for shuttling the astronauts between the Earth and moon, or for transporting astronauts to Skylab. The Command Module provided a compartment for the crew and the mission's equipment, while the Service Module provided the spacecrafts power and propulsion. The assignment patches for Apollo 1, Apollo 7, Apollo 9, Apollo 10, the Skylab program, and Skylab II included the command/service module in their designs. (Star Trek: First Contact; Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits, ENT: "First Flight")
Commodore Maxwell Forrest had a model of the Apollo Command/Service Module in his office at Starfleet Command in 2143. (ENT: "First Flight")
Wesley Crusher had a model of the Apollo Command/Service Module in his quarters at Starfleet Academy in 2368. (TNG: "The First Duty")
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module (or LM) was a two person landing craft that was attached to the Command/Service Module, and when detached, was used to transport the crew to and from the surface of the moon. Lunar modules were first used with Apollo 9. The assignment patches for Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 included the lunar module in their designs. (ENT: "First Flight") The ascent and descent stages of the module carried fuel tanks filled with Aerozine 50. (TOS-R: "The Cage")
In the year 2000, Shannon O'Donnel had a model of the Apollo Lunar Module suspended from the rear-view mirror of her Ford LTD Country Squire. (VOY: "11:59")
In an illusion created by Barash for William T. Riker, Riker, who was the captain of the USS Enterprise-D, had a model of the Apollo Lunar Lander in his ready room. (TNG: "Future Imperfect")


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Dear Mr. Walder:
On behalf of the Queens Chamber of Commerce and our 1,200 member businesses and organizations, we join with Assembly member Audrey Pheffer and others in opposing the MTA's decision to end the Resident Rebate Program for the Cross Bay Bridge.
While we can sympathize with your organization's severe deficit situation, elimination of this program will have an adverse effect on the business communities of the Rockaways and the rest of the borough. At a time when the Rockaways is in the midst of an economic resurgence, the addition of an intra-borough tax on commerce between the peninsula and the rest of the borough is ill advised.
It is important that sacrifices and budget cuts be shared equally and it should be noted that the decision to end the Resident Rebate Program for the Cross Bay Bridge falls unfairly on the residents who count on this overpass to reach the mainland of Queens.
It affects commuters going to and from work, shoppers and consumers who frequent Queen's businesses and businesses on the peninsula who rely on free passage to and from their company's locations to keep costs lower to consumers and end users.
Mr. Walder, it is surprising that as a former resident of the Rockaways you would support this proposal. You should understand the difficulties connecting the Rockaways with the rest of Queens County. The financial impact on Queen's commerce and economic vitality will far outweigh any revenues raised through this discriminatory fee.
We urge you to reconsider this decision and continue the Resident Rebate Program for the toll on the Cross Bay Bridge and not allow the MTA to eliminate this essential program.
Jack Freidman
Executive Director
Queens Chamber of Commerce


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Okounkov wins prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics work
Princeton's Andrei Okounkov has received one of this year's Fields
Medals, widely considered to be the math world's equivalent of the
Nobel Prize. The awards for outstanding mathematical achievement were
presented earlier today (Aug. 22) at the opening ceremony of the
International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid.
Okounkov, a professor of mathematics at Princeton since 2002, has been lauded for his ability to find connections between seemingly unrelated fields, such as algebraic geometry in mathematics and statistical mechanics in physics. Andrew Wiles, chair of the mathematics department, said his colleague has a talent for bridging far-flung topics in math.
"One of his greatest strengths is his amazing versatility," Wiles said. "He works in many different fields of mathematics and succeeds in taking results from one area and applying them in a seemingly quite different field."
Another colleague, Peter Sarnak, said that Okounkov has made breakthrough contributions in a number of fields.
"I would characterize Okounkov as being a very powerful,
sophisticated and fast thinker who also has great combinatorial talent
and problem-solving skills," said Sarnak, also a professor of
mathematics. "This combination is rather unusual."
This year's other winners are Terence Tao of the University of California-Los Angeles, who received his doctorate in mathematics at Princeton in 1996, and Wendelin Werner of the University of Paris-Sud. Famously reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman also was named a winner, but has declined to accept his award.
Fields Medals are awarded every four years to mathematicians no older than 40, and two to four mathematicians can receive them each time they are presented. Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields created the medals, which were first awarded in 1936. Along with a gold medallion inscribed with the winner's name, the awards bring a cash prize of about $13,300.
Okounkov, who was born in Moscow in 1969, received his bachelor's degree and doctorate in mathematics from Moscow State University, and was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2000. Okounkov also has taught at the University of Chicago and the University of California-Berkeley. He has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, and has been a research fellow in the Dobrushin Mathematical Laboratory at the Institute for Problems of Information Transmission at the Russian Academy of Sciences.


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Page View
Edwards, George, 1694-1773. / A natural history of birds. Most of which have not been figur'd or describ'd, and others very little known from obscure or too brief descriptions without figures, or from figures very ill design'd.
[Part I] (1743)
The blue red-breast, pp. 24-[Plate] 24 ff.
Page 24
This material may be protected by copyright law (e.g., Title 17, US Code).| For information on re-use, see http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright


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|by Rachel Hauser
October 15, 1999
Only in the Amazon do fish live where birds fly. Six months of the year, from
December to May, the Amazon River floods the surrounding rain forest, allowing
fish increased habitat during the rainy season.
(Image courtesy of NASA's Passport to Knowledge: Live from the Rainforest. A new browser will open.) Water level can rise by as much as 10 meters (33 feet) in a flooded rainforest.
For more information, visit Global Rainforest Mapping - Amazon and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory DAAC (now named the Physical Oceanography DAAC). (A new browser window will open.)
Because of the difficulty of gaining access to the Amazon rain forest
interior, however, little is known about flooding extent. In addition to
obtaining a clear picture of Amazon flood patterns, scientists are interested in
determining the amount of water stored on floodplains during the wet season, and
the proportion of herbaceous versus woody vegetation that are important unknown
parameters in regional biogeochemical and hydrologic models.
Historically, obtaining any satellite data from the Amazon basin has been as difficult as gaining physical access; radar images have provided the only reliable source. Since the 1970s, the Brazilian government has acquired enough radar data to issue a series of maps outlining the basin, constituting a basis for many pioneering Amazon studies.
Recently, the Japanese, with help from the Brazilians and Americans, have begun a new mapping effort using satellite remote sensing that offers several advantages over earlier projects. Since mid-1995, a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) aboard the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1), has been collecting data from the world's tropical forests. The first data acquisitions of this project were of the Amazon rainforest during the low flood season of 1995.
It took 62 days to map the Amazon from coast to coast. Longer radar wavelengths, provided by the SAR, penetrated both clouds and forest. The return signal reveals the state of flooding beneath the forest canopy, simultaneously allowing remote sensing scientists to distinguish between woody and herbaceous plants.
Once collected, data were downloaded to the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) for processing into high-resolution images (12.5 meters), which were then sent to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in California, where they were converted to 100-meter resolution images. The images were also converted to a graphical file format and provided to the public via the World Wide Web. Finally, the images were sent to the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) Earth Observation Research Center in Japan, where individual images could be mosaicked to form large, geocoded images of geographic regions.
With the high-resolution data, scientists are able to determine the extent of flooding by comparing water extent for the dry and wet seasons. Knowledge of flood extent and land cover distributions will offer new insight into the Amazon's contribution to global methane emissions, said researcher Laura Hess, of the University of California, Santa Barbara. "There are no current estimates on the relative proportions of woody versus herbaceous vegetation in the Amazon floodplain," said Hess. "This becomes important because the methane generation for flood macrophyte (aquatic plant) beds is generally much higher than for flooded forests."
"Floating meadows are very productive, floating masses of grass. The stems elongate as the water rises and a canopy develops at the top of the water. Grasses can reach several meters in length and float at the top of the water. As water levels recede, the stems begin to decay. This causes a bubbling of methane and high methane emissions," said Hess. "The proportion of floating meadows increases as you go toward the mouth of the Amazon and the river channel geomorphology changes."
In addition to enhancing biogeochemical models, the Amazon data sets will be important for evaluating the health of fisheries that are essential to the physical and economic welfare of the people inhabiting the Amazon basin, said Hess.
Fish from the Amazon are a popular export to Asian countries, especially Japan. They are also a key element in the diet of people living along the Amazon River. Because of the high protein content of their diet, inhabitants along the river are much less likely to be malnourished than rural people in regions without fisheries, said Hess.
As the Amazon River rises, fish move through river channels into the floodplains. Some fish, such as the tambaqui, are specially adapted to the flooded forest environment. A keen sense of smell leads the tambaqui to fruit which has fallen from the tree tops to the water. The tambaqui are genetically adapted with powerful jaws and teeth that enable them to consume fruit. Not only do they gain and store fat to last them through the dry season but in the process they propagate the tree species by providing a dispersing mechanism for the seeds.
Over the past 15 years, naturalist Michael Goulding has noticed a steady decline in the size of many of the fish. This, together with increasing agriculture, raises concern about over-fishing and habitat depletion, especially in the lower Amazon where extensive agricultural production already exists and continues to expand.
The satellite mapping has many applications. These include enhancing scientific knowledge of river habitat, improving the existing geomorphologic information base on the Amazon basin, and providing functional data sets for geochemical modeling. The availability of this data set will offer scientists a greater understanding of the role of floodplains in the basin's hydrology and ecology, said Hess.
The international effort to map global rainforests is not limited to the Amazon, nor is it limited to SAR data exclusively. Since radar can image day or night, cloudy or clear, SAR data make it possible to study seasonal changes. Mapping of floodplain vegetation and sediment concentrations of river channels and lakes is also being carried out by Brazilian and American scientists using Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Landsat data offer a much longer data record, dating from the 1970s, offering researchers more detailed information on land use changes. But the optical instrument can take years to acquire cloud-free coverage over the entire basin.
Rather than abandoning Landsat data for new technology, scientists are using SAR to continue the available record. The regions with the best images, that is those with the least cloud cover, are archived in three blocks of time, the early 1970s, mid 1980s, and early 1990s. The desired outcome of fine-tuning the Landsat data is two-fold. The first outcome is to ensure that past data collection efforts are not lost, the second is to facilitate global change research. Data acquisition and processing are currently underway in Southeast Asia and Africa, and archived Landsat data are being used to facilitate global research.


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There's a point on the Inca Trail when you suddenly forget the accumulated aches and pains of four days' hard slog across the Andes. You're standing at Inti Punku, the Sun Gate, the first golden rays of dawn slowly bringing the jungle to life. Down below, revealing itself in tantalizing glimpses as the early-morning mist burns gradually away, are the distinctive ruins of Machu Picchu, looking every bit the lost Inca citadel it was until a century ago.
The hordes of visitors that will arrive by mid-morning are still tucked up in bed; for the next couple of hours or so, it's just you, your group and a small herd of llamas, grazing indifferently on the terraced slopes. That first unforgettable sunrise view from Inti Punku is just the start: thanks to its remote location – hugging the peaks at 2500m and hidden in the mountains some 120km from Cusco – Machu Picchu escaped the ravages of the Spanish conquistadores and remained semi-buried in the Peruvian jungle until Hiram Bingham, an American explorer, "rediscovered" them in 1911. Which means that, descending onto the terraces and working your way through the stonework labyrinth, you'll discover some of the best-preserved Inca remains in the world.
Sites such as the Temple of the Sun and the Intihuatana appear exactly as they did some six hundred years ago. The insight they give us into the cultures and customs of the Inca is still as rewarding – the former's window frames the constellation of Pleiades, an important symbol of crop fertility – and their structural design, pieced together like an ancient architectural jigsaw, is just as incredible.
You can only hike the Inca Trail on a tour or with a licensed guide. In Cusco, try SAS (www.sastravelperu.com) and United Mice (www.unitedmice.com).
For hundreds more ultimate travel experiences, get Rough Guides' Make The Most Of Your Time On Earth


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Bespoke Hong Kong Tailor Travelling London UK
Feb 13, 2019 at 00:00 — 20:01 (GMT)
Organiser: Kahn Tailor
We travel to the London UK several time a year bringing with us the latest fabrics and designs.
At these travel, we arrange a meeting at our hotel or visit clients offices, home upon clients request and convenience. We measure and fit new clients, meet up with old clients for periodic updating of their wardrobes and tweeting of the past purchases if needed.
To make early appointment email us


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Julie Judkins is a digital curator at the University of Michigan and a poetry advocate. She leads a young adult writing workshop at 826michigan and has taught workshops on erasure poetry and visual storytelling. Visit her blog to view her recent National Poetry Month series, as well as her series on the 2012 Ann Arbor District Library's Summer Game. Julie is the 2013 ACRL LES & Arts Emerging Leader. She'd love to hear from you. Write to Julie at julieju [at] umich [dot] edu or find her on Twitter @thatklickitat.
I recently facilitated a poetry workshop hosted by the Wayne State University Press (in conjunction with the Made in Michigan Writers Series' May 2013 Bus Tour) and the Ann Arbor District Library. If you're looking for an inexpensive way to incorporate poetry into your library's programming, holding a Mad Libs Poetry night is a good option. Even participants who don't consider themselves "poetic" will walk away inspired. Thank you to Gabe Gloden and the WSU Press team for generously sharing their materials with me.
Materials Needed:
Handouts: transcripts of original poems, directions
Paper easel pad(s), prepped (see exercise descriptions for directions)
Markers (for easel pad)
Pens (for workshop participants)
Tables and chairs
Scratch paper
The Mad Libs Poetry session I attended was held May 18th, 2013, from 11:15 AM – 1:00 PM in the Ann Arbor District Library's Multi-Purpose Room. The workshop was free to the public and designed for adults and children ages 10 and older. Workshop partners 826michigan and The Historical Society of Michigan set up informational tables outside the Multi-Purpose Room and a local bookstore sold books from the Made in Michigan Writers Series.
Following a brief reading by an 826michigan student, the attendees broke into four small groups of eight to ten people. Poets Chris Dombrowski, francine j. harris, M.L. Liebler, and Keith Taylor each led a group of attendees through two Mad Libs exercises: "Mad Libs" and "Reverse Mad Libs." Each exercise began with a partially finished work and incorporated random words at suggested points to complete the piece. At the end of each exercise, groups shared their poems with the other participants. The workshop concluded with Dombrowski, harris, Liebler, and Taylor reading their original work.
Exercise #1: Traditional Mad Lib
After workshop participants split into groups, each poet/workshop leader directed their group's attention to a paper easel pad.
This exercise uses two sheets of paper on the easel pad. The top sheet contains the prompts (e.g. name an adjective, name a place) written underneath rectangular cut outs that reveal the page underneath. This allows the scribe to write the chosen Mad Lib word(s) directly into the Mad Lib version, hidden below on the second page. When all of the prompts are completed, the workshop leader flips up the first page, revealing the completed new Mad Lib version on the second page.
To prep the paper easel for this exercise:
1) Flip to the second page on a paper easel pad. Write out the Mad Lib version of a poem you've selected, in a large font that will be legible from a few feet away. Just leave a blank space where a prompt occurs. You'll cue participants in the next step so there's no need to signal what each blank signifies just yet.
For example, here is a Mad Lib version of Tennyson's "The Eagle":
The [Animal]
By [Group Name]
He [Verb ending in "s"] the crag with crooked [Body Part];
Close to the sun in [Adjective] [Place],
[Verb — Past tense] with the [Color] world, he [Verb ending in "s"].
The [Adjective] sea beneath him [Verb ending in "s"];
He [Verb ending in "s"] from his mountain [Noun — Plural],
And like a [Noun] he [Verb ending in "s"].
2) When you've finished writing out the Mad Lib, flip back to the first page and carefully cut out a rectangle that corresponds with where each Mad Lib prompt falls. (Flip back and forth between the pages to get the placement right.) Underneath each rectangle, write the cue (e.g. "Noun – Plural").
3) Have a copy of the original poem on hand so you can read it to participants as a comparison.
You're ready to Mad Lib!
Exercise #2: Reverse Mad Libs
After the completion of the first exercise, each participant at the workshop I attended received a handout with these instructions:
"Now who's ready for Reverse Mad Libs!?
Now you're ready for a bigger challenge. For Reverse Mad Libs, we've given you only a handful of the words from a poem, giving you the freedom to fill in the rest of the poem as you see fit.
- Working as a team, you have fifteen minutes to create a completely original poem using the space provided on your worksheets.
- The first line of the poem is given… then you fill in the rest, making sure you incorporate the random elements along the way.
- There is NO word limit, but you must use the given punctuation.
- Take time to digest the given elements of the poem and let them inspire you. Do any themes present themselves? Consider the random elements a creative gift, rather than a burden… and most importantly… don't worry if your poem makes sense! It's a Mad Lib! The meaning will come out of the absurdity.
- Your author will be available for questions and inspiration, but they want to hear what you can come up with too!
- At the end of fifteen minutes, your author will enter your team poem onto the board and you'll give it a name.
- When all teams are done, a representative from each team will read their poem aloud.
- Then we'll reveal the original poem!"
A second handout was given to the participants at this time. It contained the prompt for a reverse Mad Lib. This example is a version of workshop leader Chris Dombrowski's "Small Fire in Snow." Participants completed the poem individually by hand before coming together to re-write the same poem as a group.
However arrogant I had to be
to say ___________, ______ poem __, ____
__________________ branch end
_____________ stabbed ___ hot dogs _____
_____________ ketchup.
___________? __________ not enough
_______ cook _______, wrapped ____
______ flames, ___________, charring–
__________________ meal,
______, taking ____, ________ bite, ____
_________, _________ hungry.
Here is my individual version, to give you an idea of what a completed poem might look like:
However arrogant I had to be
to say Molly, who cares how this poem ends, I
am but the branch end
that is stabbed with hot dogs roasted
over a campfire and served with ketchup.
Sounds tasty, right? I think not enough
people cook outdoors, wrapped up in the
flicker of flames, watching their food, charring–
a La Brea meal,
oozing, taking new form, with every bite, cold
then blistering, to answer your hungry.
To prep the paper easel:
1) Transcribe Reverse Mad Lib from handout onto a page of the easel. Make sure you're writing in a legible font that can be read from several feet away.
2) On another page, write the original version of the poem, to be revealed after the Mad Lib is completed, for comparison.
Other ideas:
- Instead of established poets, invite students enrolled in poetry courses at your University to submit their work to be turned into Mad Libs. Ask the students to participate in a short reading, before or after the Mad Libs event.
- Instead of poetry, turn a short story or pieces of flash fiction into Mad Libs. If working with a longer piece, split workshop attendees into small groups, with each group in charge of one of the story's sections. Ask volunteers from each group (or the author, if applicable) to read the story aloud at the end.
Additional "Traditional Mad Lib examples" examples:
"How doth the little crocodile…" by Lewis Carroll
How doth the little [Animal]
by [Your Name]
How doth the [Adjective] [Same Animal]
[Verb] his shining tail,
And [Verb ending in "s"] the waters of the [Body of Water]
On every [Color] scale!
How [Adverb] he seems to [Verb]
How [Adverb] spreads his [Plural Noun],
And welcomes [Adjective] [Animal — Plural] in,
With [Adverb] smiling jaws!
"Song of the Witches" by William Shakespeare
Song of the [Group of People]
by [Group Name]
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire [Verb] and [Container] bubble.
Fillet of a [Adjective] snake,
In the [Same Container] [Verb] and bake;
[Body Part] of [Animal] and [Body Part] of frog,
[Body part] of bat and [Body Part] of dog,
[Animal]'s fork and [Animal]'s sting,
[Member of Group]'s leg and [Member of Group]'s wing,
For a [Noun] of [Adjective] trouble,
Like a [Noun] boil and bubble.
"Dandelion" by Hilda Conkling
By [Group Name]
O little [Occupation] with the golden [Tool of that Occupation],
What are you [Verb ending in —ing] on my lawn?
You with your [Color] [Tool of that Occupation]
And your [Adjective] [Body Part],
Why do you [Verb] so [Adjective]?
There is only the grass to [Verb]!
See also:
- Mad Lib Poetry Tutorial, Victor Wyatt, writing.com


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Previous Lecture
Complete and continue
WebServices/REST API Testing with SoapUI
Introduction to Webservices
Course FAQ's (Must Watch) (13:33)
What are Webservices?Understand with Live example (13:23)
Explaining Types of Webservices..-Soap and REST (12:42)
What is WSDL? Importance of it in Webservices (15:31)
DIfferences between WSDL and Soap Protocol (10:42)
Exploring Soap UI Tool Basic Features
SoapUI Installation/Documentation (7:57)
Calculator WebService Example (6:26)
Creating Testsuites and testcases
Important Note
Local Webservice installation for practise (16:15)
Explaining Webservice operations in detail (11:00)
Webservices Testing(Manual) with SoapUI Free Version
Basic Assertions for Test validations (14:35)
Advanced Assertions for validating responses (14:04)
Strategy to use Xpath assertions in Tests (10:12)
Properties Access-Data driven Strategy (13:13)
Accessing properties from Testcase,Suite and project level (10:45)
How to send values from response to another request-Property Transfer (18:10)
End to end exercises (12:09)
Webservices Automation Testing in SoapUI Free version
Introduction to Groovy Script Test step (10:30)
testRunner methods for get and set Property() (14:27)
Accessing and updating the properties through Groovy methods (12:35)
Parsing the Xml requests and responses with XML Holder API (14:23)
Triggering the Soap Requests through Groovy code (9:50)
Practise Exercises- Automate the services (12:26)
Validating the service responses with Assertions (12:29)
Importance of TestRunner and Context variable (15:21)
REST API testing(Manual) with SoapUI Free version
Code download
REST API concepts (14:52)
REST API - Types of HTTP Methods (13:46)
Practical example on GET and POST (9:43)
Add Place Post http Example using SoapUI (12:38)
End to End Test with SoapUI features on POST http API (15:17)
Code Google Add/Delete Place download
REST API Automation Testing with SoapUI Free version
Json Script Assertion window-Automation
Parsing the Json responses for API validation
Examples on REST API Automation with Json as response
Examples on REST API Automation with XML as response
code download
Rest API Json Assertions and Validations
Flicker API Introduction (10:38)
Json Path extraction from responses (10:54)
Json Assertions on parsed responses (7:25)
Advance example on Json Assertions (17:58)
End to End Framework Design
Framework Design Plan (13:35)
Understand Preparing API Tests from the functional Documents (14:29)
API Document download
Building Rest API project in SoapUI (9:31)
create Testcases from the defined API (12:10)
End to End Testing on Library API (12:13)
API xml's download
Install Eclipse and Java for API Automation testing (12:25)
Creation of Java API project for Framework setup (6:09)
WSDL Project concepts for Java tests set up (14:06)
TestNG Integration to the Java API Tests (16:57)
Different combinations of Tests for WSDL API (16:27)
Defining Testng.xml file for one single Trigger point to all tests (7:54)
TestNG commands
Commands to trigger TestNG Java API Tests (10:15)
HTML Reports and Jenkins Installation (16:04)
Integrating the framework with Jenkins (12:01)
Code download
Soap UI PRO Tool extra Features
Basics of Pro version
Data Sink
Data Source
DatGen types
Testcase Debugging,Breakpoints
Reporting Techniques
Jasper Reports and WebRecording
Security Testing with Soap UI
List of Security Threats (17:41)
Security Testcases (17:25)
Security Testing-Practical example (15:58)
Database Testing with SoapUI
DataBase concepts (14:52)
Creating Database from scratch (17:16)
SoapUI Jdbc connection (13:00)
SQL Queries Testing with SoapUI feautures (8:57)
SQL Builder- SoapUI Pro (12:36)
Load Testing on REST API
Performance Testing tool used for Testing REST API (10:30)
Putting Load on REST Calls (8:29)
Interview Questions Module
Interview Questions - Part 1
Interview Questions -Part 2
Interview Questions - Part 3
Interview Questions - Part 4
Interview Questions download
Introduction to SQL Queries
Introduction to SQL and MySQL
Downloading MySQL server with workbench (7:29)
Overview of SQL Editor with basic features
creating Database and pointing to it
Creating Tables in database
Inserting records into Table
Retrieving records from the Table
Select Distinct keyword in queris
SQL WHERE command usage
Logical operators on Queries AND OR - 1
Regular expressions Introduction
Logical operators 'In' 'Between'- 2
Wild cards usage in Qeuries -1
SQL glossary on discussed topics
Old Videos with Groovy Basics- Worth watch !!
Using Script Assertions window methods
MessageExchange, Context variables usage
Declaring Namespaces for effective xpath identification
End to end examples on REST API -1
End to end examples on REST API -2
Code xml download
Basic Programmes (21:57)
Groovy operators,DataTypes (17:24)
Loops,Arrays,List (18:01)
MessageExchange, Context variables usage
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text:
And The Winners Are:
Jessie: "Yum, the Cajun flavor sounds awesome!"
Gina- "YUM! The Sweet BBQ sounds so good "
Perfected Foods sent me a few samples of their vegan jerky to try. They sent me one of each of their flavors Mesquite, Hot Wing, Cajun, or Sweet Barbecue flavors. Although these products are all natural, cholesterol free and vegan I didn't find them to be my favorite vegan jerky. They were really dry and tough to chew. I have to say I really like the creative flavors that they have. Now I am not a huge fan of jerky myself so others might like these more than I did. I am going to give 2 of you a chance to try Perfected Foods vegan jerky out for yourself. This giveaway will end March 9, 2010 at 8am.
To Enter:
- Visit the Perfected Foods website and let me know which flavor you'd like to try.
Additional Entries:
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You can also send a photo of yourself with a pack of Perfected Foods to email@example.com and they will post it on our site. ONE LUCKY PERSON A MONTH WILL WIN A FREE CASE OF SOY JERKY!!!!!


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On August 29, 2009, VH1 Australia will air a series of specials and documentaries to celebrate Michael Jackson's birthday. Here's a listing of what is airing:
Michael Jackson's Top 10 Video Countdown
Starts: Sat 29 Aug, 12:00 pm. Duration 90 mins.
A countdown of the top 10 Michael Jackson videos as voted by fans, with classic footage of notable moments, interviews and appearances by Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson's Human Nature
Starts: Sat 29 Aug, 1:30 pm. Duration 30 mins.
This documentary features people who were close friends with Michael Jackson, sharing their anecdotes about who Michael was and what it was like to really know him.
Michael Jackson's Influence on Music
Starts: Sat 29 Aug, 2:00 pm. Duration 60 mins.
A collection of videos, interviews and performances by artists most influenced by Michael Jackson's music and dancing.
Michael Jackson: Vh1 Salutes
Starts: Sat 29 Aug, 3:00 pm. Duration 60 mins.
Join Vh1 as we bring you back to back clips from the King of Pop, on what would have been his 51st Birthday.


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Global Freemasonry
VI. The Masonic War Against Religion
The existence of Masonry was first officially announced in England in 1717. Before this date, it had already spread first in England, then in France and the rest of Europe, and became a primary meeting-place for the opponents of religion. Many European Masons met in their lodges, announcing themselves as "free thinkers," by which they meant that they did not recognize Divine religions. An article entitled "The First Periods of Masonry" in Mimar Sinan, says, "The place where Masons gathered to seek truth outside the churches became a refuge."119
This group though, that sought truth outside religion, also harbored great animosity toward religion. For this reason, the organization quickly became a center of power that made the Church, particularly the Catholic Church, uncomfortable. This conflict between Masonry and the Church continued to grow, leaving its mark on Europe the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Masonry began to spread to other countries outside Europe, in second half of the nineteenth century, and, everywhere it went, it became the center for anti-religious philosophies and activities.
An article entitled "Politics and Freemasonry," that appeared in Mimar Sinan, maintains the following about the struggle against religion:
There is no doubt that here the Masonic writer is using language favoring his own organization when he states that Masonry is fighting a war against church domination. But, when we examine the matter more closely, we see that in many countries, that same "domination" was convenient for regimes founded or supported by Masons. Therefore, we may easily recognize that Masonry's claim to be fighting against "domination" is pretense. Despite the fact that the Church—because Christianity had become distorted—preserved scholastic ideas and oppressive practices, Masonry's hostility toward the Church was not founded on this but from its hatred of traditional monotheist religions.
It suffices to look at the structure of Masonry and its rites and ceremonies to come to an understanding of this matter.
Example of a Masonic Lodge: The Hell-Fire Club
In order to understand how eighteenth century Masonry was organized, and what it attempted to achieve, one of the things we must proceed to do is examine the various secret Masonic societies that came to be at that period. One such society was the "Hell-Fire Club," that was active in England in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Masonic structure of this club and its anti-religious, pagan character, is described by the Masonic writer Daniel Willens in his article, "The Hell-Fire Club: Sex, Politics and Religion in Eighteenth-Century in England." Here are some interesting passages from that article published in Gnosis, a journal of Western inner traditions:
This "unholy sodality," as it has been called, styled themselves, with suitably Gothic flair, "The Friars of St. Francis of Medmenham," though they have been immortalized by their popular epithet "The Hell-Fire Club." In that gossipy age there was much speculation about the infernal activities of the society, and in 1765, Charles Johnstone published a roman a clef entitled Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, which was popularly believed to reveal the secrets of the "Medmenham Monks." ...
On moonlit nights during the reign of England's King George III, immensely powerful members of His Majesty's Government, important intellectuals, and influential artists could sometimes be seen travelling up the Thames River by gondola to a ruined abbey near West Wycombe. There, to the sonorous tolling of the deconsecrated cloister's bell, they dressed in monkish robes and indulged in every manner of depravity, culminating in a Black Mass celebrated on... a debauched noblewoman and presided over by that notorious rake Sir Francis Dashwood. Their diabolical devotions concluded, the inner circle would adjourn to plot the course of the British Empire.
The reason for including this lengthy quotation is to get an idea of the atmosphere in which eighteenth century Masonry developed and of the influence it had on people. Masonry appeared as a secret, and curiously attractive organization, whose opposition to the general beliefs of society provided a kind of psychological satisfaction to its members. The basic characteristic of Masonic rites, as stressed in the above quotation, was the sanctification of pagan symbols and concepts instead of those of traditional monotheistic religions. So, those who became Masons, and turned their back on Christianity, became paganized, though not necessarily by adopting paganism as a belief, but at least through the adoption of its symbols.
However, Masonry was not content just to practice strange ceremonies; it also followed a strategy designed to alienate Europe from the Divine religions, and lure it into paganism. In the following section we will consider some high-points of European history, country by country, and follow the traces of this Masonic war against religion. The first country we must examine is France.
The Struggle Against Religion in France
In earlier works we have examined the important role played by Masonry in the French Revolution. A very large number of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, especially those with the strongest anti-religious views, were Masons. The Jacobins, who set the stage for the revolution, and became its leaders, were lodge members.122
The role played by Masons in the revolution was admitted by an "agent-provocateur" by the name of Count Cagliostro. Cagliostro was arrested by the Inquisition in 1789, and made some important admissions while under interrogation. He began by stating that Masons throughout Europe had been planning a chain of revolutions. He said that the main goal of the Masons was to destroy the Papacy or to take it over. In his confession, Cagliostro also admitted that Jewish bankers financially supported all these revolutionary activities, and that Jewish money also played an important role in the French Revolution.123
The French Revolution was basically a revolution against religion. In the determined effort of the revolutionaries to get rid of the clergy, as well as the aristocracy, many clergymen were killed, religious institutions destroyed, and places of worship ruined. The Jacobins wanted even to destroy Christianity completely, and replace it with a pagan belief they called "religion of reason." But, within a short time, they lost control of the revolution and France was thrown into total disorder.
Masonry's mission in that country did not stop with the revolution. The disorder that came as a result of the revolution was finally settled when Napoleon came to power. But, this stability did not last long; Napoleon's ambition to rule the whole of Europe only brought an end to his power. Afterwards, the conflict in France continued between the monarchists and the revolutionists. In 1830, 1848 and 1871, three more revolutions occurred. In 1848, the "Second Republic" was founded; in 1871 the "Third Republic" was established.
Masons were very active throughout this period of agitation. Their primary aim was to weaken the Church and its religious institutions, destroy the values of religion and the influence of its laws on society, and to abolish religious education. Masons regarded "anti-clericalism" as the center of their social and political activities.
The Catholic Encyclopedia provides important information about the anti-religious mission of the Grand Orient, as French Masonry was known:
The Catholic Encyclopedia continues its account of French Masonry's struggle against religion:
By the "Galilean" the Masons mean the Prophet Jesus (pbuh), because according to the Gospel, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was born in the Palestinian region of Galilee. Therefore, the Masons' hatred for the Church is an expression of their hatred for the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) and all monotheistic religions. They thought that they had destroyed the effect of the Divine religions with the materialist, Darwinist and humanist philosophies they established in the nineteenth century, and returned Europe to its pre-Christian paganism.
When these words were uttered in 1902, a series of laws passed in France broadened the scope of religious opposition. 3,000 religious schools were closed and it was forbidden to give any religious education in schools. Many of the clergy were arrested, some were exiled and religious persons began to be regarded as second-class citizens. For this reason, in 1904, the Vatican broke all diplomatic relations with France but this did not change the country's attitude. It took the loss of the lives of hundreds of thousands of French men against the German army in the First World War before the country's arrogance was tamed and it again recognized the importance of spiritual values.
As The Catholic Encyclopedia maintains, the war against religion, from the French Revolution to the twentieth century, was carried out by "the anti-clerical measures passed in the French Parliament" which "were decreed beforehand in the Masonic lodges and executed under the direction of the Grand Orient."126 This fact is clear from Masonic writings. For example, a quotation from a Turkish publication of "A Speech Made by Brother Gambetta on July 8 1875 in the Clémente Amitié Lodge" reads:
It will be noticed that Masonic literature consistently presents its own ideas as "far-sighted" while accusing religious people of being "backward." However, this is merely a play on words. The notion of "the specter of reaction," mentioned in the above quotation, is something that sincere religious people also oppose, but which Masons exploit to take aim at true religion in their attempt to alienate people from it. Moreover, it must again be emphasized that the materialist-humanist philosophy espoused by Masons is really a superstitious, backward system of ideas, a hold-over of the pagan civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
Therefore, the Masons' use of terms like "far-sightedness" and "backwardness" has no basis in reality. Indeed, it is unfounded because the struggle between Masons and religious people is nothing more than the perpetuation of the struggle between two ideas that have existed since the earliest ages of history. It is religion that proclaims the first of these ideas: that humanity was created by the will of Allah and that human beings are responsible to worship Him. This is the truth. The opposing idea, that human beings were not created but live vain and purposeless lives, is the one proposed by those who deny the existence of Allah. When correctly understood, it can be seen that their use of the superficial terms of "backwardness" and "far-sightedness" has no basis.
By making use of the idea of "progress," Masons seek to destroy religion. The "Catholic Encyclopedia" states:
The following are deemed the principal means [of freemasonry]:
(1) To destroy radically by open persecution of the Church or by a hypocritical fraudulent system of separation between State and Church, all social influence of the Church and of religion, insidiously called "clericalism," and, as far as possible, to destroy the Church and all true, i.e., superhuman religion, which is more than a vague cult of fatherland and of humanity;
It can be seen that Masonry has put a program into effect, under the name of "the liberation of society," whose purpose is to eradicate religion, a program that is still being implemented. This must not be confused with a model that seeks to provide the opportunity for every citizen of whatever religious faith to practice his faith freely. Rather, the model envisioned by Masonry is one of mass brainwashing, designed to remove religion completely from society and the minds of individuals and, if necessary, to persecute its adherents.
In every country where it is established, Masonry seeks to put this program into effect, though in a way that conforms to the culture and conditions prevalent in that country.
One such country is Germany.
The Campaign Against Religion in Germany: "Kulturkampf"
150 years ago, there was no such country as Germany. The present territory called Germany consisted of a number of principalities. The largest of these was Prussia, which occupied the eastern part of today's Germany and a large part of Poland. In the 1860s, Prussia began to annex other small German states and founded the German Empire in 1871. The ruler of this new state was the Prussian Prime Minister and Chancellor of the new German Empire, Otto von Bismarck.
Bismarck was a successful statesman, especially in foreign politics, but did not enjoy the same success in domestic affairs. One of the reasons for this was a group of intellectuals known as the "National Liberals," similar to the French anti-clerics, that adopted an anti-religious policy. In order to achieve the unity of Germany, the National Liberals believed it was necessary to rid the people of any sense of affiliation outside their borders, and regarded the relationship between one third of the population and the Catholic Pope as the largest obstacle to this. Encouraged by the National Liberals, Bismarck embarked on an anti-Catholic campaign known as the Kulturkampf, or "culture war." It was also described as a struggle to control the minds of Germans.129
During the Kulturkampf, Catholics, especially in the southern Germany, suffered oppression.
In 1872, in compliance with a law that had been passed, all Jesuit priests in the country were rounded up in a single night and their institutions confiscated. In compliance with the "May laws," (maigesetze) passed in 1873, all priests working for the government were fired, the Church was forbidden involvement in all matters related to marriages and education, and topics of sermons was restricted. A number of archbishops were arrested and 1300 churches were eventually found without a priest.
But, because these tactics produced a strong reaction among the Catholics of the country against the government, the Kulturkampf was relaxed. Bismarck ignored the suggestions of the National Liberals, who had led him into this campaign, and restrained the Kulturkampf little by little until he finally cancelled it completely. This whole campaign resulted in nothing other than the oppression of faithful German Catholics, and the ruin of the country's sense of social well-being. Many historians today believe that it was a fiasco that shattered Germany's sense of social security. Moreover, after Germany, the wave of this Kulturkampf encompassed Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland, causing a great social tension in these countries.
The interesting thing to note that it was the Mason intellectuals who lured Bismarck into this policy. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:
That is, in spite of the fact that the Kulturkampf was stopped officially by Bismarck, it was nevertheless continued by Masons, as an on-going anti-religious propaganda campaign directed at society at large. The bitterest fruits of this struggle were reaped in the 1920's: the Nazis, who aimed to convert the German nation back to their pre-Christian paganism, gradually gained strength and came to power in 1933. One of the most important actions of the Nazis was their initiation of a second Kulturkampf against religious authority. The American commentator Elbridge Colby explains that "the Nazis opened a new Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church, jailing priests and deposing bishops; unlike 1874, however, Hitler also moved against the established Protestant."131
In short, the activities initiated by Masons to alienate society from religion gave rise to one of history's most brutal dictatorships, the Nazi "Reich," and drew the world into the World War Two in which 55 million persons lost their lives.
The Struggle Against Religion in Italy
Another country in which Masonic activities were evident was Italy.
Until 1870, the Italian territory was occupied by several small states, remnants from feudal times. The most important of these was the Papal State. It was centered in Rome, ruled by the Pope, and controlled a large part of central Italy. The Masons in Italy were founded as an extension of the French Masons, and began to exercise an influence in Italy from the beginning of the nineteenth century. They wanted to destroy the Papal State and eradicate the authority of the Church in Italy as a whole. According to the author of the book entitled The Roman Catholic Church and the Craft, master Freemason Alec Mellor: "InItaly, the origin of irregular lodges was mainly political; they confused Masonry with the fight against the temporal power of the Pope."132
Masonry began its struggle against religion in Italy by means of another secret society that it founded and controlled. This society was known as the "Carbonari".
This society, first heard of in Naples at the beginning of the nineteenth century, took its name from charcoal burners. As the Masons used the emblem of the wall-builder and expressed their ideas with symbols, so the Carbonari adopted the emblem of the charcoal burner. But, the society had ulterior objectives. The members of the society sought to initiate a political program, first in Italy, and then in France, to destroy the influence of the Church, establish a new government and secularize all social institutions.
The connection between Masonry and the Carbonari is evident. Masons automatically became members of Carbonari societies; in fact, from the moment they entered the society they gained the degree of Master. (On the other hand, it was necessary for other Carbonari members to undergo a long process of advancement before achieving this degree) Two cardinals by the names of Consalvi and Pacca issued an edict on August 15, 1814 accusing the Masons and the Carbonari of being organized for socio-political interference and the fomentation of hostility toward religion.
This accusation proved to be true for members of the Carbonari had organized political ruses and armed uprisings. The armed uprising that took place in Macerata on June 25, 1817 was organized by the Carbonari, but it was suppressed by security forces of the Papal State. In 1820, in Spain and Naples, and in 1821 in Piedmont, revolutionary uprisings were organized by the Carbonari against the Church and public order.
It is an accepted fact that the Carbonari were founded by the Masons who engaged in parallel revolutionary activities with them. After the July Revolution in France in 1830, the organization lost its influence and gradually disappeared. In Italy, it united with the "Young Italy" movement founded by Guiseppe Mazzini.
Mazzini, a known atheist, had struggled for years against the Papal State and the Church and finally became a high-ranking Mason who would become founder of the Italian Union. With the support of two other prominent Masons, Guiseppe Garibaldi and Count di Cavour, he founded the Italian Union in 1870, and drew the boundaries of the Papal State within its present borders. Afterwards, Italy entered a process by which it became increasingly distanced from religion, and that was to prepare the foundation for Mussolini's fascist dictatorship in the 1920's.
In short, we can say that Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour were three prominent leaders who performed important functions in the struggle against religion in Europe. Mazzini was not only a political leader in the struggle against religion, he also played a role as an ideologue. His slogan "every nation a state" was the spark that ignited minority rebellions, which were to be the cause of the fall of multi-ethnic empires, such as the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires. This slogan of Mazzini alienated people from their sense of religious fraternity; it was a call that pushed them into ethnic conflict with one another and inspired them to "fanatical rage".(Surat al-Fath: 26).
The fact that this call came from Masons, indeed, high-ranking Masons, is certainly significant. According to information from the lodge publication 10,000 Famous Freemasons, Mazzini rose within the Masonic lodge, and years later, in 1867, was chosen Master Mason of the Italian Grand Orient. In 1949, at a ceremony in Rome to mark the unveiling of a statue of Mazzini, 3,000 Masons gratefully remembered their Grand Master. Garibaldi, Mazzini's right-hand man, achieved the 33rd degree of the Italian Supreme Council in 1863, and in 1864 was chosen Italian Master Mason. In memory of this Master Mason, a lodge is named after Garibaldi, which is attached to New York "valley" with the number of 542.
Masonic Revolutionary Agenda in Russia
Apart from Italy, it is also possible to find traces of Masonic revolutionary activities in many other countries of Europe. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "In…the later revolutionary movements in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Central and South America, Masonic bodies, it is claimed, took a more or less active part… In Russia also Freemasonry finally turned out to be a 'political conspiracy' of Masonically organized clubs that covered the land."133
The Masonic plot in Russia is especially interesting.
Masonry came to this country in the second half of the eighteenth century and was widespread among intellectuals. Although it appeared externally as merely a cultural club, anti-religious and anti-government ideas from other parts of Europe were discussed in these lodges. The first to take notice were the priests of the Orthodox Church. The priests sent the information they had obtained to Tsar Alexander I, whose relationship with the Church was good, telling of a Masonic plot to topple the Tsar's regime. In response, the Tsar issued a law in 1822 to shut down all the Masonic lodges in the country and outlaw the organization. Nevertheless, this failed to eliminate the Masons; they merely went underground.
Three years after Tsar Alexander I outlawed the lodges, he became ill and passed away. He was succeeded by Tsar Nicholas I. But, Tsar Nicholas' succession came as a result of a series of disputes and intrigues and gave rise to a disorderly situation in the country. Certain individuals who had wanted to bring stability to the situation by toppling the regime had planned a coup against the new Tsar. They had many supporters in the army. Confident in this support, a number of revolutionary soldiers, together with a number of civilians, marched into the Tsar's palace, in the capital of St.Petersburg, on the 14th of December 1825. There was an armed encounter between the revolutionaries and the forces of the Tsar in which the revolutionaries were defeated. This group was called the "Decembrists" because of the month in which they attempted their revolution. The leaders of this group were arrested and five were hanged.
The Decembrists were none other than Masons…The officers, intellectuals and writers who made up the group were members of the lodges outlawed by Tsar Alexander I three years earlier. One of these revolutionary Masons was the prominent writer Count Pushkin.134
The venture of the Decembrists ended in failure, but the Masons did not give up their intent to topple the Tsar. Masons always played an important role in those groups organized in the nineteenth and first quarter of the twentieth centuries against the Tsarist regime. In the 1917 February Revolution, the leader, Alexander Kerensky, and nearly all his close supporters were all Masons.135 And the majority of the new government was composed of Masons.136 The only contribution to history that the short-lived Kerensky Government made was to deliver the country into the hands of Lenin and the Bolsheviks he led.
Twentieth-Century Masonry: Silent And Remote
It should be noticed that in what we have examined so far, that is, that the activities of Masons in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Russia, clearly shows that the goal of Masonry was socio-political revolution. Masonry wanted to establish a new order in which religious institutions and religious faith are eradicated, and to this end has attempted to topple the monarchies in those countries. In many European countries, Masonic lodges became rallying centers for opponents of religion, where coups, uprisings, assassinations, political plots and anti-religious politics were conspired. Behind all such activities, whether on a small or grand scale, which have occurred since the French Revolution in 1789 to the twentieth century, is found the influence of Masonry.
According to the English historian Michael Howard, Masonic lodges concentrated their efforts in the second half of the nineteenth century to overthrow the two remaining important Empires: the Austro-Hungarian and the Russian Empires, and were able to achieve their goal as a result of the World War One.
In other words, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Masonry had, in great measure, achieved its goal of socio-political revolution.
Therefore, the twentieth century was not one of Masonic revolutions. Thinking they have no more obstacles to confront, Masons prefer to merely disseminate their philosophy instead of hatching political plots. They spread their materialist and humanist philosophy to the masses under the guise of science, or by means of art, the media, literature, music and all manner of popular culture. Masons do not intend by this propaganda to eradicate the Divine religions in a sudden revolution; they want to achieve this over the long-term, and to initiate all people into their philosophy only little by little.
An American Mason sums up this method as follows:
Freemasonry does its work silently, but it is the work of a deep river, that silently pushes on towards the ocean.137
High Priest J.W. Taylor, from the state of Georgia in the USA, makes this interesting comment on the same matter:
According to Voice magazine, published by the Grand Lodge in Chicago, "So, silently but surely and continually, it [Masonry] builds into the great fabric of human society"139 This "building into the great fabric" will come about when the basics of Masonic philosophy—materialism, humanism and Darwinism—are imposed on society.
The most interesting aspect of this silent and remote strategy is that those Masons who are carrying it out almost never reveal that it is being done in the name of Masonry. They do their work under different identities, titles and in different positions of power, but they impose a commonly espoused philosophy they adopted through Masonry, on society. One of Turkish Masonry's Master Masons, Halil Mulkus, explained this matter in an interview a few years ago:
However, these ideas, which Masonry persistently studies and tries to indoctrinate to society are nothing more, as we have seen in earlier sections, than deceit. Masonry's philosophy stems from sources such as the myths of Ancient Egypt and Greece, and in their eagerness to transmit these myths to society, wrapped in the package of science and reason, Masons deceive both themselves and others. In an age of globalization, this is the role of "Global Freemasonry."
The result of this deceit is very detrimental. The program of alienating the masses from religion, carried out by Masonry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, gave rise to neo-pagan ideologies such as racism and fascism, and secular and violent ideologies such as communism. The spread of social Darwinism deemed people to be animals struggling for their existence, the brutal results of which came about in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. World War One was the work of European leaders who, as a result of Darwin's suggestions, regarded war and bloodshed as a biological necessity. During that war, 10 million people went to their deaths, for nothing. World War Two that followed it, and in which 55 million people perished, was again the work of totalitarianism, like fascism and communism, that was the result of the seeds of militant secularism sown by the Masons. Throughout the whole world, during the twentieth century, all the destructive wars, conflicts, cruelty, injustice, exploitation, hunger, and moral degradation, basically, were products of irreligious philosophies and ideologies. (For details, see Harun Yahya's The Disasters Darwinism Brought to Humanity)
In short, the philosophy of Masonry has yielded bitter fruit. It could not be otherwise as that is a Divine law. Historically, those pagan peoples who rejected the religion of Allah, in preference of their traditional mythology and the religion of their ancestors, followed the road to destruction. Freemasonry, a contemporary manifestation of this paganism, is drawing the whole world, and themselves, into ruin.
It is for this reason that human beings must protect themselves from this potential calamity, by overcoming the intimations of what Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, a renowned Islamic scholar, referred to as "the disease called materialism and naturalism," and in this way preserve the faith of the masses.
119 Neset Sirman, "Masonlugun Ilk Devirleri" (The First Periods of Masonry), Mimar Sinan, 1997, No. 104, p. 41, (emphasis added)
120 Naki Cevad Akkerman, "Politika ve Masonluk" (Politics and Freemasonry), Mimar Sinan, September 1968, No. 7, pp. 66-67
121 Daniel Willens "The Hell-Fire Club," Gnosis, no.24, Summer 1992, (emphasis added)
122 For the relationship of Enlightenment and French Revolution with Masonry, see Harun Yahya, Yeni Masonik Duzen (New Masonic Order), pp. 203-215
123 Michael Howard, The Occult Conspiracy, p. 69
124 Compterendu Gr. Or., 1903, Nourrisson, "Les Jacobins," 266-271; The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," NewAdvent,(http://www.newadvent. org/cathen/09771a.htm), (emphasis added)
125 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org /cathen/09771a.htm), (emphasis added)
126 The Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771a. htm#VIII
127 Nur Safa Tekyeliban, "Taassuba Karsi Mucadele" (Struggle Against Bigotry): From the Speech of Brother Gambetta made on July 8, 1875 in Clémente Amitié Lodge," Dogus Kolu Yilligi: Ankara Dogus Mahfili Çalismalari (Dogus Branch Yearbook: Ankara Dogus Society Studies) , 1962, Kardes Press, Ankara, 1963, p. 19
128 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771a.h tm), (emphasis added)
129 Louis L. Synder and Ida Mae Brown, Bismarck and German Unification, New York, 1966,pp. 90-91, (emphasis added)
130 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771 a.htm), (emphasis added)
131 Elbridge Colby,"In Hitler's Shadow: The Myth of Nazism's Conservative Roots," In Bad Faith?: Politics and Religion at Harvard, October 13, 1999
132 Alec Mellor, The Royal Arch Mason, Spring 1972
133 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771 a.htm)
134 Michael Howard, The Occult Conspiracy, p. 105
135 Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood: The Explosive Expose of the Secret World of the Freemasons, HarperCollins, 1985, p.33
136 Daniel Ligou, Dictionnaire de la Franc- Maconnerie, p.1064
137 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771 a.htm), (emphasis added)
138 The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771 a.htm), (emphasis added)
139 Voice, Chr. 1889, II, 257 sq.; The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Masonry (Freemasonry)," New Advent, (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09771 a.htm), (emphasis added)
140 "Masonluk Gucunu Yitiriyor mu?" (Is Freemasonry Losing its Power?), Nokta, October 13, 1985, vol. 40, p. 30


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Description of the illustration bp_ht_busevents.gif
The image shows the Human Task editor. On the left are the following links from top to bottom: General, Data, Assignment, Presentation, Deadlines, Notification, Access, Events (selected), and Documents.
To the right, three columns display in this window: State, Java Class, and Trigger Workflow Event. The State column includes entries for OnAssigned, OnUpdated, OnCompleted, OnStageCompleted, and OnSubtaskUpdated. The Java Class column is empty. The first cell in the Trigger Workflow Event column is selected. Below the table is the Allow task and routing customization in BPEL callbacks check box and the Disable BPEL callbacks check box.


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Tagged: James Bond
I Believe in Manny Ramirez
My favorite movie of the year so far is "The Dark Knight." I could wax rhapsodic about this movie for hours (and have) because it encompasses the tension, debate and ambivalence swirling in the atmosphere surrounding the United States these days. However, the one quote from the movie that really stuck with me is when Harvey Dent says, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." The funny thing is that this sentiment is just as true in baseball as it is in Gotham City's political arena.
This season saw the return of Jim Edmonds to the Midwest but probably not in the colors people expected him to wear. And I'm sure the Cardinals faithful, like my friend Mr. Lung, wished for a moment that he would have either retired or suffered some fate that would have kept him off the diamond as opposed to watching him run onto the field at Busch Stadium wearing Cubbie blue.
I'd bet it's the same way Red Sox fans feel when they see a well-scrubbed Johnny Damon patrolling center field in the Bronx. Let's be honest, the age of free-agency (and especially the Faustian machinations of Scott Boras) has not been kind to baseball fans. No sooner have you purchased your CC Sabbathia Milwaukee Brewers jersey then he's shipping out to the east coast and the Steinbrenners' warm embrace.
However, all this is nothing compared to the uproar if and when Manny signs with the Yankees. Yeah, he may have dogged it in Boston to secure a trade. He may have pushed around old men while he was there, too. But can you really imagine Manny in Yankee pinstripes? Even talking about it sounds kind of dirty. But that's how it works today. One day a Cardinal, the next a Cub. Heart of the Red Sox in 2006, soul of the Yankees in 2008.
So what's a baseball fan to do? How do you accept it when the guy who is the face of your franchise leaves for greener pastures? How do you not see the old hero you loved as the Benedict Arnold he has become? Well, it turns out that there's one other movie franchise that reflects the world around us almost as well as Batman. And earlier this year in "Quantum of Solace" one of Mr. Bond's associates said it best: "When one's younger, it seems very easy to distinguish between right and
wrong. But as one gets older, it becomes more difficult… the villains
and the heroes get all mixed up." It's fitting that Bond would add nuance to a formerly black and white world. Still, that isn't going to get me any money back on that Ivan Rodriguez Tigers jersey.


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This is the second part of two posts examining how North Korea fell behind South Korea.
As the previous post found, for several decades North Korea kept up with South Korea. Then, during the mid-1970s, the country started falling behind. Ever since then the gap between the two countries has widened.
This post will explore several factors behind what caused North Korea to fall behind. There seem to be three main causes: the failed ideology of juche (self-reliance), the end of Soviet aid, and Kim Jong-Il's incompetent rule.
If one looks at Gapminder's graphic, North Korea and South Korea are neck-and-neck until the mid-1970s:
Then North Korea falls behind:
What caused this? Well, in 1972 North Korea adopted the ideology of juche into the constitution. Juche stands for self-reliance. There's a lot of fancy Marxist philosophical complexity behind the idea, but in its essence it seems to be basically a fancy form of protectionism.
Juche was very harmful to the North Korean economy. Here is North Korea before the official adaptation of juche:
As is evident, North Korea was progressing during this period. This is not to say that juche wasn't part of the state's ideology in these years. Rather, it seems to have played less of a role.
A description on this website provides a good description of the progress during this time:
The 1954-56 three year plan repaired the massive damage caused by the war and brought industrial production back to prewar levels. This was followed by the five- year plan of 1957-61 and the seven year plan of 1961-67. These plans brought about further growth in industrial production and substantial development of state infrastructure. By the 1960s North Korea was the second most industrialized nation in East Asia, trailing only Japan. While a number of internal limitations appeared, such as in the production of consumer goods, the national standard of living was considered by many third-world nations as an alternative to the capitalist model of development sponsored by the United States. Building upon the ruins left by the Korean War, the North Korean economy by the late 1960s provided its people with medical care, universal education, adequate caloric intake, and livable housing.
Here is what happens after the official adoption of juche:
The website continues with a description of North Korea's economic decline. I will quote the discussion in full because it's quite comprehensive:
In the 1970s the expansion of North Korea's economy, with the accompanying rise in living standards, came to an end and a few decades later went into reverse. A huge increase in the price of oil following the oil shock of 1974 hurt the economies of countries throughout the world, North Korea among them. North Korea has no oil of its own, and it had few export commodities of interest to the west. Compounding this was a decision to borrow foreign capital and invest simultaneously in the military and mining industries. North Korea's desire to gain as much independence as it could from China and Russia prompted the expansion of its military power. They believed such expenditures could be covered by foreign borrowing and increased sales of its minerals in the international market. North Korea invested heavily in its mining industries and purchased a large quantity of extractive machinery and tools from abroad. However, soon after making these investments, the international prices of for many of these minerals fell, leaving North Korea with large debts and an inability to pay off the debts and provide a high level of social welfare to its people.
Adding to the above, the centrally planned economy, which emphasized heavy industry, had reached the limits of its productive potential in North Korea. Juche repeated demands that North Koreans learn to build and innovate domestically had run its course as had the ability of North Koreans to keep technological pace with other industrialized nations. By the mid to late-1970s some parts of the capitalist world, including South Korea, were advancing into new phases of technology and economic development and phasing out the coal-and-steel-based economies of the earlier period.
Kim ll-sung, trapped in an ideology that had once been highly successful, was unable to respond effectively to the challenge of an increasingly prosperous and well-armed South Korea, which undermined the legitimacy of his own regime. Having failed at their earlier attempt to turn to the market and conduct market-economy reforms such as those carried out in China by Deng Xiaoping, Kim opted for continued ideological purity. The DPRK by 1980 was faced with the choice of either repaying its international loans, or continuing its support of social welfare for its people. Given the ideals of Juche, North Korea chose to default on its loans, and by late 1980s its industrial output was declining.
One should note that the images above are models of North Korea's economic path rather than based on North Korean statistics. Since North Korea doesn't reveal its GDP, people have to make educated guesses. The people on Gapminder put North Korea as slightly wealthier than South Korea in 1944 and then modeled equal economic growth rates until the mid-1970s. At that point they put 0% GDP per capital growth to model North Korea's stagnation during that period. Finally, they use slightly more accurate estimates after the fall of the Soviet Union to model North Korea's famine and its most recent years.
Nevertheless, these models are based off what happened in real life. It's undeniable that North Korea was stagnating during the late '70s and '80s. It's also undeniable that there was a famine during the late '90s. So while the graphic isn't perfect, it's a decent representation of reality.
The End of Soviet Aid
Juche seems to have been the main turning point in North Korean economic history. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that there are in fact two "parts" of North Korean economic decline. The first part, during the late '70s and 80s, is stagnation – when North Korea doesn't go forward but doesn't go backwards. The second part starts in the '90s, when North Korea actually starts going backwards.
What caused this?
Well, for all of its economic history North Korea depended extensively on communist aid. The Soviets were determined to prove that their system was superior and, like the Americans, gave lots of aid to their allies. Eventually it turned out that their system was in fact not superior, and by the end the Soviet Union couldn't really afford to give out that aid. In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and all Soviet aid withdrew.
This hit North Korea hard:
In fact, it eventually created a famine. This graphic shows North Korea after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is the second part of the country's economic decline, when it actually starts going backwards. Soviet aid was particularly important because the Soviet Union sold North Korea oil at low prices. North Korea's inefficient economy and agricultural system depended badly on petroleum, but it couldn't afford to buy petroleum at market prices. When the Soviets stopped giving North Korea oil, North Korea collapsed.
Here's a comparison with South Korea:
Kim Jong-Il
Kim Jong-Il's rule was incompetent and terrible for North Korea. Let's take a look at North Korea under his father Kim Il-sung, until his death in 1994.
We see progress throughout most of Kim Il-sung's rule. During his final years, however, stagnation and finally decline sets in. Nevertheless, one could say that Kim Il-sung did good for North Korea.
What happens under Kim Jong-Il?
Decline. Indeed, there's a startling coincidence between Kim Jong-Il's path to power and North Korea's economic decline. Kim Jong-Il began taking power during the 1980s. During that time North Korea is well into stagnation. He takes over the armed forces in 1991. North Korea then begins going backwards. His father dies in 1994, leaving him in absolute control. North Korea then suffers a famine from 1994 to 1998.
Here's North Korea and South Korea during Kim Jong-Il's rule:
It seems that there were three main events that caused North Korea's economic decline: juche, the end of Soviet aid, and the incompetence of Kim Jong-Il. Juche turned economic growth into stagnation. The end of Soviet aid turned stagnation into absolute decline. This backwards path gained momentum as Kim Jong-Il gained power and ruled incompetently.
North Korea's tale is fairly unique. It's the story of a country which achieved a decent standard of living and high industrialization under communism. Then the strains of the system became apparent, such as the overreliance on petroleum, and it eventually collapsed. This is why one hears of a lot of North Korean factories that used to work but now don't. One hopes that the new leader Kim Jong-un will turn things around for his people.