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Month: December 2014
Many scholars have portrayed Queen Esther as a prefigurement of Mary
…. Pope Francis joins his predecessors in acknowledging the importance of Fatima. When the Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children almost 100 years ago, it was shortly after an urgent prayer to the Blessed Virgin as the Queen of Peace by Pope Benedict XV for the end of World War I.
Blessed John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life after an assassination attempt on May 13, 1981. In a 2010 visit to Fatima, Benedict XVI expressed his hope that the (then) seven years until the 100th anniversary of the apparitions would "hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity."
There is also precedent in the Old Testament for what Pope Francis and previous pontiffs ask of us in calling for repentance and for intercession: the Book of Esther. Indeed, many scholars over the years have portrayed Queen Esther as a prefigurement of Mary, and the Book of Esther as a prefigurement of the Book of Revelation.
You will recall that the king of Persia was asked by a scheming administrator to destroy the Jewish people since the administrator had been personally offended by Mordecai, Esther's uncle who was also a servant of the king. The king, unaware that his young and exceptionally beautiful wife Esther was Jewish, consented to the attack. Before she dared to approach the king to ask that her people be spared, Queen Esther clothed herself in sackcloth and ashes, and asked her people to join her in fasting from food and water for three days.
When Esther entered into the king's presence, something she was forbidden to do without invitation, he extended his scepter, thus sparing her life. Esther also rather audaciously invited the King and Haman to a banquet, where she revealed that she was a Jew and begged the King to spare the life of her people.
The King was angered by his administrator's schemes against Mordecai and the Jewish people, and dealt with the administrator accordingly. But since royal orders could not be annulled, the attack was allowed to continue, though the Jewish people were allowed to defend themselves and defeated their enemies in battle. The Jews celebrate this triumph each year as their Feast of Purim.
The date set for destruction of the Jews had been the 13th of the month of Adar, a month that corresponds more or less to February, which is when Purim is now remembered. This date is also significant in Jewish history for another reason: It is the day that the Maccabees liberated Israel after a four-year battle with the Seleucid Empire.
The significance of this for faithful and pro-life Catholics who seek greater understanding in what Scott Hahn calls Catholics' "away game" of the Old Testament, is this: Just as the Jewish people were saved through the intercession of Queen Esther, so Mary intercedes for the Church throughout history, and now.
A Catholic Revival in Northern Europe
By Filip Mazurczak Saturday, November 29 2014
Northern Europe has become one of the world's least religious regions. British Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative, has legalized same-sex "marriage" and said that he opposes abortion. . .after twenty weeks of pregnancy. A decade ago, Scandinavian Christian Democrats, whose national flags contain crosses, opposed including references to Christianity's role in European culture in the European Constitution's preamble. In today's Britain and Scandinavia, laissez-faire morality is the reigning political dogma and religious apathy is the dominant worldview.
At the same time, the state churches of the region have retained some social importance. In Britain, the queen remains head of the Church of England, while Anglican bishops are peers in the House of Lords. Meanwhile, polls consistently show that levels of trust in the Lutheran Church are high in Scandinavia. Most Scandinavians are baptized, married (if they marry – over half of births are to non-married couples), and buried by state churches. In Sweden, most families light Advent candles and St. Lucy's Day processions remain popular.
André Malraux predicted that the 21st century would be religious, or it would not be at all. Sociologists note that, even in secularized societies, people thirst for things spiritual. Despite the aforementioned social and cultural visibility of Protestantism in Northern Europe, however, the Lutheran and Anglican Churches there are dying. British sociologists predict that practicing Anglicans will soon meet the fate of the Dodo and woolly mammoth, falling from 800,000 to just 50,000 by mid-century (Episcopalians face similar disastrous prospects in North America). In Sweden, 4 percent of Lutherans attend services regularly, while the corresponding figures in Norway and Finland are below 2 percent.
By contrast, the Catholic Church is experiencing a mini-renaissance in Northern Europe. There are currently more practicing Catholics than Anglicans in Britain. In Scandinavia, there are about 600,000 Catholics, roughly 3 percent of the region's population (a proportion similar to that of Catholics in Asia). Certainly, part of this has to do with immigration. Since the European Union expanded to include less prosperous former East Bloc states in 2004, Scandinavia and the British Isles have been deluged by immigrants from the Catholic nations of Poland (2.2 million Poles have left their country in the past decade), Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania.
While Mass is celebrated in Polish or Serbo-Croatian across Northern Europe, the region's indigenous population is also being drawn to the Catholic Church. In the past decade, the number of British seminarians has grown fourfold. This cannot be explained by immigration (young Polish immigrants who enter seminary usually go home) or by short bursts of enthusiasm, such as that after Pope Benedict XVI's visit in 2010, as this upward tendency has been ongoing for ten years.
Currently, Scandinavia is one of the most vocations-rich regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The Church has 103,000 members in Sweden and 17 seminarians. By contrast, the Archdiocese of Vienna has thirteen times as many faithful but fewer than twice as many men studying to be priests.
In Scandinavia, the Neocatechumenal Way – a mission-focused community founded by Spanish painter Kiko Argüello – is playing a key role in evangelization. Denmark, a country with just 40,000 Catholics, has 18 Neocatechumenal seminarians, while Finland, with just 10,500 Catholics, has 15. Meanwhile, a growing number of Scandinavians are becoming nuns; their number has inched up to 680. Cloistered orders are particularly successful in attracting new members. There is one nun for 880 Catholics in the region; in the United States, the corresponding number is one per 1,400. However, the number of American nuns is rapidly declining, while female religious are growing in Scandinavia.
Northern Europe is proving to be fertile ground for converts. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI created the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, allowing Anglican priests to cross the Tiber. Since then, many Anglican clerics, frustrated with Canterbury's eschewing of tradition, have done so. Scandinavian converts are hoping that the Vatican will create a similar ordinariate for Lutherans. Meanwhile, one of Scandinavia's best-known Christian leaders – charismatic pastor Ulf Ekman – recently converted to Catholicism along with his wife. He said that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the best book he has ever read.
Northern Europe is clearly one of the world's most Godless regions. Yet, at the same time, the Catholic Church, while a minority denomination, is experiencing a revival that only Counterreformation popes could have dreamed of. There is an important lesson to be drawn from this.
As Christ said, His followers are to be the salt of the earth. The Lutheran and Anglican Churches have long lost their taste. Other than some fading rituals, they have become largely indistinguishable from the broader secular culture. The fact that the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm is a practicing lesbian perhaps best epitomizes what has happen to Northern European Protestantism. Catholicism has always been countercultural, and while political climates and intellectual currents have changed, it has retained its belief in one moral truth. Despite the pressures by some Catholics, the Church has remained steadfast in its proclamation of truth even while that truth has been unpopular.
Many have jokingly said that the Church of England is the Tory Party at prayer. Today, the Church of England and Lutheran churches are secularism at prayer. From teachings on life and marriage to women's ordination, Northern European Protestant churches have made it seem that morality is something changeable. This makes such churches seem less credible. Yet spiritually hungry hearts like Ulf Ekman and the ex-Anglicans Catholic priests want something more. They want a Church more interested being coherent in its teaching than in receiving praise in the New York Times.
Communion of Reparation and the Super Cyclone
…. During the super cyclone that hit the Eastern seaboard of the Philippines, almost all the parishes the diocese of Tacloban sustained heavy damage. All except one: the parish where a First Friday Eucharistic Adoration was going on at the time of the storm. This parish had been practicing the Communion of Reparation, a devotion which begins with an evening first Friday Mass, through nine hours of Adoration and rosaries, and closes with a midnight first Saturday Mass… as inspired by Our Lady of Fatima's requests.
Taken from: http://catholicstand.com/dont-turn-fatima/
"The Fatima lifestyle is a shield of the Church for these perilous times".
Did you hear the true story of the Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors? Fr. Hubert Schiffer, SJ and at least four other Jesuits were living in quarters eight blocks away from the epicenter of the bomb. They miraculously survived the bomb blast and Fr. Schiffer lived for at least fifty more years without a trace of radioactive side effects. Fr. Schiffer attributes the miracle in his own words as related by Fr. Paul Ruge O.F.M.I, "We believe that we survived because we lived the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home."
The Message of Fatima
'Fatima' refers to the Church approved apparitions of Mary in 1917 to three shepherd children in Portugal for a period of six months. The children were given messages concerning world events and the miracle of the sun capped the end of the public apparitions. Through St. Jacinta, St. Francisco and Bl. Lucia (the seers), the Church was introduced to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, entreated to pray the rosary daily, and encouraged devotion known as the Communion of Reparation where the faithful assist First Saturday Masses in reparation to the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mary also begged the world to stop offending the Lord and to make sacrifices so that sinners would be saved. She promised that if her requests are heeded, "a period of peace will be given the world… and in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."
The alarming Fatima prophecies centered around world wars, the Pope\'s assassination and the danger of Russia's communistic influence. Today, it is tempting to dismiss that the A-bomb of Nagasaki, the crumbling of the Berlin wall and St. Pope John Paul II's consecration of the world closed the case for Fatima's relevance. However, St. Pope John Paul II's successors didn't think so. Pope Benedict XVI on May 13, 2010 in a Mass at the Fatima shrine said:
"We would be mistaken to think that Fatima's prophetic mission is complete."
After him, Pope Francis, not even a year into his papacy requested Our Lady of Fatima's statue to be brought to St. Peter's square. On October 13th, 2013 (the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and anniversary of the last apparition), Pope Francis consecrated the world to Mary.
The threat of China and North Korea's communism over Asia, Russia's re-appearance in world events, middle east instability, killing of the innocent unborn, and universal Church persecution should alert us that this period of peace is not among us yet. What we see, in fact, looks more like the cusps of a brewing storm of global mayhem. Current events make for a compelling case of why we still need to listen to and live out Mary's message in Fatima. We put our own future at risk if we turn our backs on Fatima.
Living Out the Fatima Message
The Fatima lifestyle ushers in the reign or triumph of Mary\'s Immaculate Heart, a precursor to the coming of Jesus' kingdom on earth. St. Louis de Montfort once prophesied: "His [Jesus] kingdom will come. But this will happen only after the Blessed Virgin is known and has begun to reign…She gave him birth the first time. She will bring Him forth to us when He comes to us again."
How do we live out the messages of Fatima?
Pray the rosary daily
Follow Pope Francis' example and consecrate ourselves to Mary
Practice the Communion of reparation for First Saturdays
Make penance and sacrifices for sinners
The Fatima lifestyle is a shield of the Church for these perilous times. During the super cyclone that hit the Eastern seaboard of the Philippines, almost all the parishes the diocese of Tacloban sustained heavy damage. All except one: the parish where a First Friday Eucharistic Adoration was going on at the time of the storm. This parish had been practicing the Communion of Reparation, a devotion which begins with an evening first Friday Mass, through nine hours of Adoration and rosaries, and closes with a midnight first Saturday Mass… as inspired by Our Lady of Fatima's requests.
Taken from: http://catholicstand.com/dont-turn-fatima/
Saint Joseph the "perfect icon of God the Father"
The Vertex of Love
October 8, 2012 By Jonathan Fleischmann
When Mary was predestined in one and the same decree with Jesus Christ by the design of God—before the creation of angels or the universe, and before the existence of sin or evil—she was predestined to be the Spouse of the Holy Spirit … to hold within herself all the love of creation.
Love's Mechanics
In the return of all created things to God the Father (cf. Jn 1, 1; 16, 28), "the equal and contrary reaction," says St. Maximilian Kolbe, "proceeds inversely from that of creation." In creation, the saint goes on to say, the action of God "proceeds from the Father through the Son and the Spirit, while in the return, by means of the Spirit, the Son becomes incarnate in (the Virgin Mary's) womb and through Him, love returns to the Father." 1 The Saint of Auschwitz goes on:
In the union of the Holy Spirit with her, not only does love bind these two beings, but the first of them (the Holy Spirit) is all the love of the Most Holy Trinity, while the second (the Blessed Virgin Mary) is all the love of creation, and thus in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love: this is the vertex of love. 2
Love's Equilibrium
The form of the diagram shown in Figure 1 is not found in the work of St. Maximilian. However, it accurately represents the state of equal and opposite action and reaction, that occurs when two bodies make contact. In this case, the "bodies" represent heaven and earth: the uncreated and created orders, God and his creation. The first point I would like to make is that the state of equal and opposite contact forces in Newtonian mechanics requires "force equilibrium." It may then seem very wrong to use an image like this one, because how can the state shown between God and his creation be in equilibrium? Isn't God's act of love so much greater than the return of his creation that no "equilibrium" would be possible? This would certainly be the case if it were not for Emmanuel, that is, God with us. Jesus, who is truly man, and truly God, belongs to both the created and uncreated orders simultaneously. In his person, Jesus is both the son of Mary, fully human and like us in all ways except sin, and the Eternal Son of God the Father, infinite and equal in all ways to the Triune God.
Figure 1: The return of all created things to God the Father.
Thus, the love of Jesus, the Word Made Flesh who is God, is by itself enough to "balance" the love of God. However, there is even more in the equation of love's equilibrium than the love of the Son, infinite and sufficient in itself, though it is. According to St. Maximilian, the perfect love of the Trinity meets an adequate response in the perfect love of the Immaculate, which is the name St. Maximilian gives to the Blessed Virgin Mary. How is it possible that Divine Love can find an adequate response in the love of a creature? It is possible precisely because of the name that the Virgin Mary can claim for herself. In 1854, the Blessed Virgin Mary proclaimed to St. Bernadette Soubirous: "I am the Immaculate Conception." In the words of St. Maximilian, the Blessed Virgin is the created Immaculate Conception, as in the words of St. Bonaventure, the Holy Spirit is the uncreated Immaculate Conception. 3 The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and the Son ,as the perfect and infinite love between the Father and the Son in the eternal interior life of the Blessed Trinity. Thus, the Holy Spirit is truly all the love of the Most Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit is also called the "Complement" of the Blessed Trinity, because he is the completion of the Trinity, not in "number" (quantitatively), but in essence (qualitatively).
When Mary was predestined in one and the same decree with Jesus Christ, 4 by the design of God—before the creation of angels or the universe, and before the existence of sin or evil—she was predestined to be the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. So she was predestined to hold within herself all the love of creation. Thus, St. Maximilian says that the Blessed Virgin Mary "inserted into the love of the Most Holy Trinity becomes, from the very first moment of her existence, always, forever, the Complement of the Most Holy Trinity." We may paraphrase the thoughts of St. Maximilian Kolbe on the spousal relationship between the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the words of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner:
In virtue of this spousal union formally denoted by the title, Complement, Mary is able to enter, as no other, into the order of the hypostatic union, her soul being wholly divinized, because by the grace of the Immaculate Conception, it has been 'transubstantiated' into the Holy Spirit. 5
It is for this reason that Mary—though she is a creature in both her person and her nature—is herself the created Immaculate Conception, and, therefore, all the love of creation. She can actually provide an adequate response to the love of the Holy Spirit, who is the uncreated Immaculate Conception, and, therefore, all the Love of God. Thus, the equation of love's equilibrium is balanced again.
Now that we have balanced the equation of love's equilibrium twice over, we could certainly stop. However, there is reason to continue. St. Maximilian does not expressly mention St. Joseph in the context of these reflections. However, the diagram in Figure 1, based entirely on the saint's own reflections, certainly suggests the presence of St. Joseph in the order of the response of creation to God the Father. The order of Father, Son, and, Holy Spirit, shown in the diagram, reflects the order of God's loving act of creation. This was initiated by the zeal of the Father, designed by the wisdom of the Son, and effected by the action of the Holy Spirit. This is the order referred to by St. Maximilian when he says that: "the equal and contrary reaction (i.e., the return of all creation to God) proceeds inversely from that of creation." We see this reflection in the diagram, where the reaction "force" of love is inverted, and the order of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the "action force," is reversed to give the order of Holy Spirit, Son, and Father.
Notice, however, that in the return to God, it is creation that is reacting. Thus, the individuals reacting—while reflecting the Holy Spirit, Son, and Father to greater or lesser degrees—are all creatures. We have Mary, who is the perfect similitude (St. Bonaventure), transparent icon (St. Maximilian), or even quasi-incarnation (St. Maximilian) of the Holy Spirit, but who is still a created person, with a created human nature. We have Jesus, who is the Word Incarnate, the same Person as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, but who is still in possession of a created human nature. St. Maximilian stops here, but must we stop here? I would dare to say that the analogy we have carried out so far on the inspiration of St. Maximilian suggests an obvious completion. We have St. Joseph, who has been called the "perfect icon of God the Father" by more than one saint. 6 In the words of Fr. Joachin Ferrer Arellano:
In the light of the Scotistic thesis on the Primacy of Christ, to take one example, one discovers (…) how the virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph was predestined "ante mundi constitutionem" (before the constitution of the world), as an essential part of the one decree of the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Immaculate "ante praevisa merita" (before any consideration of antecedent merit). Such is the saving plan, "the mystery hidden before the ages in God," (cf. Eph 3:9) to be accomplished at the high point in the history of salvation. That high point is the fullness of time (cf. Gal 4:4) when God sent his Son into the most pure bosom of Holy Mary Ever Virgin, espoused to a man of the house of David (cf. Lk 1:26) in fulfillment of the prophecy of Nathan. God acted thus, that through the obedience of the Spouses of Nazareth the Son might be freely welcomed into history on behalf of all mankind in order to save it. This welcome took place in the virginal womb of Mary, the Daughter of Zion, and in the house of Joseph, in the family home established by the marriage of the two Spouses (Mary and Joseph), "sanctuary of love and cradle of life." This is the theological foundation of the holy Patriarch's greatness as virginal, messianic father of the Only-begotten of the Father: shadow and transparent icon of Him who wished to make Joseph unique partaker of his fatherhood in order to prepare the human nature of Christ for the holocaust of Calvary. In this way, He made Joseph Father and Lord of the Church gushing forth from Christ's opened side and born of the sword of sorrow of the Woman. 7
In addition to being the transparent icon of God the Father, St. Joseph was the true, virginal husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 8 In fact, it can even be said that St. Joseph is the virginal father of Jesus Christ. For, again in the words of Fr. Joachin Ferrer Arellano:
Although singular, unique, and not univocal with fatherhood as this is ordinarily understood and commonly found among men, the position more common and traditional among theologians upholds the truly real fatherhood of Joseph in relation to Jesus, based 1) on his marriage to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and 2) on the right of the husband over his wife. He, therefore, who is born virginally of Mary, by reason of his birth, intimately pertains in some manner to Joseph as father. … In view of the dignity of Joseph as husband of Mary, to whom belongs the fruit of his wife's womb, one is not permitted to overlook … how the indivisible virginity of both spouses—not simply that of Mary, but also that of her husband, the son of David—is ordered to the virginal fatherhood of Joseph according to the Spirit, in virtue of the obedience of faith to the saving plan of God. This plan includes the messianic fatherhood of Joseph as son of David in relation to his virginal Son, constituted Son of David, the messianic King, because He was Son of Joseph. 9
In the return of all created things to God the Father, it is under the leadership, and in imitation of, St. Joseph, our patriarch, that the individual members of the Church must, by the merits gained for us through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, be transubstantiated into Mary, who is the Virgo Ecclesia Facta (Virgin-Made-Church). 10 It is only by being transubstantiated into Mary, the created Immaculate Conception, that we can be united to God as she is uniquely united to God, being transubstantiated with her into the uncreated Immaculate Conception, who is the Holy Spirit. In virtue of this transubstantiation, we are possessed by the Immaculate, and we are thereby formed into a single community, or Church, sharing her personality. To St. Maximilian, this is the only way that we can be members of Christ's Church, and thereby united to God. In the words of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner:
To this dynamic union of love in which not only the being of the Holy Spirit and that of Mary are united, but the entire love of heaven and that of earth touch, merge and become one so as to culminate in the Incarnation, in the birth of the Son of God, the Man-God, and then in the incorporation of the members of the Church into that Body conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Saint of Niepokalanow and Auschwitz (St. Maximilian Kolbe) ascribes the fecundity of the Holy Spirit, precisely because Complement of Father and Son. … Whence the importance of Mary's possession of those who wish to be incorporated into Christ, conformed to him in life and in death: except through her it cannot be achieved (emphasis added). This mysterious mutual possession, then, is the basis of all other cooperation in the work of salvation, the reason for rejecting the Protestant solus, and "passive" ecclesio-typology, and affirming the universal Marian mediation of grace or active ecclesio-typology. 11
Thus, in accordance with St. Maximilian's principle of action and reaction, what was first reversed in the order of God's creative act, in the fullness of time, in the objective order of salvation, is reversed again in the subjective order of salvation. What was first reversed in the objective order of salvation means that, through the action of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and became man, and through him, love returned to the Father. What was reversed again in the subjective order of salvation means that, in imitation of our patriarch and leader, St. Joseph, through the merits gained for us by the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, we can be transubstantiated into the Immaculate, and thereby form one Church, sharing her personality. Consequently, we share in her unique union with God in eternity, which is the Beatific Vision. This can be illustrated in the diagram shown in Figure 1, if one imagines traveling from the top of the diagram to the bottom, and then returning from the bottom of the diagram to the top again.
Love's VertexOur final meditation on the diagram shown in Figure 1 is the point of contact between heaven and earth, the vertex of love, where all the love of God, and all the love of creation, meet and are joined: "in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love." 12 This point of contact, between the whole heaven and the whole earth, is, according to St. Maximilian, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is this? Why is the vertex of love not the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is love? Indeed, the Saint of Auschwitz has been sharply criticized, and even ridiculed by some theologians, for what they have called "a heresy" along the lines of that of Joachim of Fiore. 13 It is claimed that, by making the vertex of love the Immaculate Conception, the centrality of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is denied. However, precisely the opposite is true. For, in the words of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner:
Today, this joachimite tendency generally reveals itself in constant anxiety about Catholic proneness to "exaggerate" Mary, and a downplaying (emphasis added) of the active role of Mary in the work of salvation as Mother of God, and co-redemptress so as to exalt the "mediation" of the Holy Spirit as principal "co-redemptor" (and for some "mother") of whom Mary is but the instrument (as are we), or so as to speak of the suffering of the Father. … But such historical trends have always been the prelude of Unitarianism: not an affirmation of the Trinity, but its denial, a denial which must ultimately lead to some form of pantheism. … The significance of St. Maximilian's reflections on the Holy Spirit, and Mary, and of his preferred terminology cannot be underestimated. 14
It is the relationship of Mary to her Divine Son, which is the relationship of Mother of God, or Theotokos, which is the source of all her dignity, unparalleled among creatures. This dignity so far transcends the dignity of every other created being as to make her a "quasi-part" of the Blessed Trinity. It is in this very dignity, however, that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is central, which is why St. Maximilian Kolbe's reflections on the Blessed Virgin Mary are directly opposed to the joachimite heresy. Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner paraphrases St. Maximilian Kolbe on this subject as follows:
Thus, Mary's self-definition is: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Only Mary can say this, because only of Mary Immaculate, jointly predestined with Christ for an absolute primacy in creation, can it be said that the whole world and each of us was made "for her". 15 Therefore, of no other just person can it be said as it was said to Mary "The Lord is with thee." 16 For no other than the Immaculate can be Mother of God (emphasis added). Indeed, she remains only a creature; nonetheless in virtue of the Immaculate Conception she far transcends the supernatural perfection of even the greatest saints and of all the saints together, for as "quasi-part" of the Trinity, she not only participates in the divine perfections, she is "inserted into the very bosom of the Trinity and into the order of the Incarnation." 17 … 18 To be part of the Trinity, then, in so singular a way revolves about the divine Maternity, and by extension the spiritual maternity as well. For in loving the Immaculate the divine Persons love us. 19
In the famous Roman conference of 1937, St. Maximilian defined sanctity with an equation: "S: v = V". The letter "S" stands for sanctity, the lowercase letter "v" stands for the will of a creature, and the uppercase letter "V" stands for the will of God. It is Mary Immaculate who is the perfect image, or icon, of sanctity, because it is only she who satisfies Kolbe's equation. "We may add with the Saint: perfect sanctity is perfect charity or Immaculate Conception." 20 This is the meaning of the vertex of love, and why that vertex is the Immaculate Conception, rather than the Incarnation. Mary is a created person, and yet her will is perfectly united to the will of God: "v = V." In the words of St. Maximilian:
The Immaculate, the full of grace, was always united to the will of God. From all eternity, she was in the thought of God who had willed her so holy and perfect, to correspond with his will in a manner so complete. Hence, we can say that to do the will of God, means to do the will of the Immaculate, and to do the will of the Immaculate means to do the will of God, because she is always united to God: the Lord is with thee; because she is always docile to the call of God: be it done to me; because she is always solicitous for the glory of God, always adoring, praising and thanking: my soul magnifies the Lord. 21
We know well from St. Thomas Aquinas that love is in the will. 22 Thus, in the equation, "v = V," we see that all the love of creation (in the will of the Immaculate Virgin Mary) is united to all the love of the Most Holy Trinity (in the will of the Holy Spirit), and, in the words of St. Maximilian, "in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love: this is the vertex of love." 23
Oh sweet heart of Mary, be our salvation.
Ave Maria!
SK 1318. All citations from the writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe in this paper, with the exception of the Roman Conferences, are abbreviated SK and taken from Scritti di Massimiliano Kolbe (Roma 1997). ↩
Ibid. ↩
Regarding the Mysteries of the interior life of the Blessed Trinity, St. Bonaventure said that the Son can be properly said to be "a conceived", but only the Holy Spirit can be properly said to be "conception" (in I Sent.). St. Maximilian added the word "Immaculate" (perfect, holy) to the name given the Holy Spirit by St. Bonaventure, an addition St. Bonaventure would surely have approved. ↩
The following is an excerpt taken from the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius IX Ineffabilis Deus, issued on December 8, 1854, in which the Holy Father solemnly declared the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception: "From the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would be born into this world. Above all creatures did God so love her that truly in her was the Father well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully. … And hence the very words with which the Sacred Scriptures speak of Uncreated Wisdom and set forth his eternal origin, the Church, both in its ecclesiastical offices and in its liturgy, has been wont to apply likewise to the origin of the Blessed Virgin, inasmuch as God, by one and the same decree, had established the origin of Mary and the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom." Here Blessed Pope Pius IX makes use both of the Scotistic thesis on the Absolute Joint Primacy of Jesus and Mary, both of whose existence were ordained before God's act of creation and before any consideration of original sin (cf. R. Rosini, O.F.M., Mariology of Blessed John Duns Scotus, translated by P. Fehlner, F.I., New Bedford 2008), and the formulation of St. Anselm, who said that Mary "shines with a purity greater than which none can be imagined" (De Conceptione Virginis). ↩
P. Fehlner, F.I., St. Maximilian Ma. Kolbe, Martyr of Charity – Pneumatologist (New Bedford, 2004). ↩
St. Theresa of Avila and St. Bernadette Soubirous are among these (cf. A. Dozè, "Le mystère de Saint Joseph révéle a deux femmes: Therèse (d'Avila) et Bernadette", in Actas simposio de Kevelaer 2005), as well as St. Peter Julian Eymard (Month of St. Joseph). ↩
J. Ferrer Arellano, "The Virginal Marriage of Mary and Joseph according to Bl. John Duns Scotus", in Bl. John Duns Scotus and His Mariology, Commemoration of the Seventh Centenary of His Death, Acts of the Symposium on Scotus' Mariology, Grey College, Durham – England (New Bedford, 2009). ↩
Blessed John Duns Scotus and St. Maximilian Kolbe are both clear on this point, as are many other saints, including Blessed Pope John Paul II (cf. Redemptoris Custos). The fact that Mary is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that their perfect spousal love results in Mary's transubstantiation into the Holy Spirit, does not imply that the Holy Spirit is the "husband" of Mary, or that the Holy Spirit is the "father" of Jesus. To approach an understanding of the perfect spousal union of love between the Holy Spirit and Mary, it must be understood that highest experience of spousal love, which is between husband and wife within the holy sacrament of marriage, is but an imperfect reflection of the source of spousal love, which is the Love between the Father and the Son in the Blessed Trinity, both of Whom in the inner life of the Trinity are, of course, without "gender" in the human sense of the term. This Perfect Spousal Love is the Holy Spirit, and it is as a fruit of this Spousal Love that the Blessed Virgin Mary is one with the Holy Spirit; transubstantiated into the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit quasi-incarnate. (P. Fehlner, St. Maximilian Ma. Kolbe, Martyr of Charity…) ↩
J. Ferrer Arellano, "The Virginal Marriage of Mary and Joseph…" ↩
The title "Virgo Ecclesia Facta," or Virgin-Made-Church" is applied to the Blessed Virgin by St. Francis of Assisi in his Antiphon for the Office of the Passion (cf. J. Schneider, O.F.M., Virgo Ecclesia Facta: The Presence of Mary in the Crucifix of San Damiano and in the Office of the Passion of St. Francis of Assisi, New Bedford 2004). The phrase "transubstantiation into the Immaculate," though surprising, is used twice by St. Maximilian Kolbe to describe the total consecration to the Immaculate he demanded of his priests (cf. A. Geiger, F.I., "Marian Mediation as Presence and Transubstantiation into the Immaculate", in Mary at the Foot of the Cross – III: Mater Unitatis, Acts of the Third International Symposium on Marian Coredemption, New Bedford 2003). ↩
Joachim of Fiore was a theologian (c. 1135 – 1202) who de-emphasized the central role of the Incarnation in the Salvific Order. His theories were declared heretical at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and at the Synod of Arles (1263). ↩
Father Fehlner continues: "While this personal communion or inexistence of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate is absolutely unique in its perfection (a hierarchy or sacred order of its own kind), it is nonetheless the ontological basis making possible the sanctification of the Church as Bride of Christ, as sharing in the redemptive sacramentality of the Incarnation. This mediation of Mary qua created Immaculate Conception is the source of that mystical personality of the Church qua Bride, a personality of virgin and mother underlying and permeating every other dimension of the Church, including the petrine, hierarchical, sacramental-liturgical." (P. Fehlner, St. Maximilian Ma. Kolbe, Martyr of Charity…) See also J. Ferrer Arellano, "The Triple and Inseparable Mediation of the Immaculate, the Eucharist and the Petrine Ministry in the Building Up of the Church Until the Parousia (The Three Whites)", in Mary at the Foot of the Cross VI: Marian Coredemption in the Eucharistic Mystery, Acts of the Sixth International Symposium on Marian Coredemption (New Bedford, 2007). ↩
Ibid. ↩
St. Maximilian Kolbe, in Roman Conferences of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, translated with introduction and notes byFr. Peter Damian Ma. Fehlner, F.I. (New Bedford, 2004).↩
Despite the objections of Dietrich von Hildebrand (cf. Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Nature of Love). ↩


text: In the spirit of bringing more cute than scary into Halloween and because food toys are the best, I decided to try my hand at making a simple fleece candy corn dog toy for Hoku. I've made plushies in the past, but there's so much more to consider when making one for a dog. For durability and safety, I doubled up the outer layer with an old towel and used very minimal polyester stuffing. I bought the squeakers from Amazon.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Verkoper: absolute-vape (1.977) 96.2%, Objectlocatie: london, Verzending naar: Worldwide, Objectnummer: 162589441244 Absolute Vape ®Flavoured E-Liquid e liquid / e juice / vape juice / vape liquid / e cig liquid / 10ml Nicotine free 0mg / 3mg / 6mg / 12mg Vegetable Glycerin The V.G we use is 100% vegetable glycerine made in the United Kingdom. A all natural product which produces huge clouds Absolute Flavour We are the Modern day mixologist, we feed your thirst for intense flavours. Unique blends that can only be found at absolute vape Made In Britain All our ingredients are carefully sourced from British companies with only the highest grade ingredients making it into our E-Liquids "I have an effective age verification process that satisfies due diligence as described in the Business Companion guide for online age verification checks and I will not sell to persons that are under 18 years old". Condition: New, Modified Item: No, Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom, MPN: Does Not Apply, Custom Bundle: No, Unit Type: 10ml, Unit Quantity: 1, Brand: Absolute Vape®, Volume (ml): 10ml, Non-Domestic Product: No, Bundle Listing: No, Type: E-Liquid


text:
The Heraldry Society of Scotland
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HSS Members' - Scots Arms
Mark Nesbitt of that Ilk
Arms: Argent three boars heads erased Sable, armed Argent and langued Gules
Crest: a boar passant Sable, armed Argent and langued Gules
Motto: I BYD IT
Supporters: Two boars Sable rampant, armed Argent and langued Gules on a compartment Vert embellished with acorns Proper.
Badge: a boar passant Sable, armed Argent and langued Gules
Matriculated: The Court of the Lord Lyon 2nd March 1995. Lyon Register, volume 78, folio 1.
The Nesbit(t) or Nisbet family is recorded in the parish of Edrom, Berwickshire, from the 12th century onwards. A plausible path of descent can be traced until 1444; after this, the father-son descent from Sir Philip Nisbet of that Ilk (1444-1523) to the current holder of the arms is well documented. The family intermarried with other Border families, including Haldane of Gleneagles, and the Swinton family, with whom we share three boars' heads.
The Nisbet family lost its estates in the Civil War. Sir Alexander Nisbet of that Ilk (c. 1580-1660) was a fervent supporter of Charles I, but was to lose three sons, as well as his newly built tower house, Nisbet House. The family motto, "I byd it" (I endure it) was all too appropriate. The eldest son, Sir Philip Nisbet, was executed in Glasgow after the Battle of Philiphaugh; Col. Robert Nisbet was captured with Montrose and executed at Edinburgh in 1650, and Major Alexander Nisbet was killed at the siege of York in 1644. His youngest son, Adam Nisbet, had one son, Alexander Nisbet (1657-1725), the well-known author of A System of Heraldry. Nisbet "The Herald" died unmarried, and is commemorated by a memorial in Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
The family's male line continued through Sir Alexander's brother, the Reverend Philip Nisbet, who had moved south to York and become Rector of St. Martin's Micklegate. The Reverend Philip was a fervent Coventanter and supporter of the Parliamentarian cause. The future history of the family was to centre on York, then London. The family's interest in its Scottish ancestry of the family was muted until the researches of my great-grandfather, Robert Chancellor Nesbitt, author of Nisbet of that Ilk (John Murray, 1941, reprinted Phillimore 1994). R.C. Nesbitt matriculated his arms on 4 October 1933, but not as Chief.
In 1993 my father, Robert Anthony Ellis Nesbitt, undertook to reprint Nisbet of that Ilk. In discussions in Edinburgh, Lyon suggested both that he matriculate his arms and, that on further examination, that it would be correct to matriculate as Chief of the Name and arms of Nesbitt (or Nisbet). On the death of my father in 2000, as his only son, I inherited the arms.
The arms of Nisbet of that Ilk are shown on plate 5 of volume I of Alexander Nisbet's System of Heraldry (1722). Early depictions of Nisbet arms, as described in William MacDonald's Scottish Armorial Seals (1904), do not feature boar heads - the closest arms are those of Patrick Nisbet (1426), with three Moor heads. However, by the end of the 16th century, the related Nisbet family of Edinburgh were using arms bearing three boar heads (Henry Nisbet, 1598).
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Extreme TeamOS Windows Post-Install Wizard v0.2
Windows x64 | File Size: 12.6 GB
Windows Post-Install Wizard (also known as WPI, for short) is a comprehensive application that will enable you to customize your Windows setup process by allowing you to select which applications may be installed by the end user along with the operating system. This tool eliminates the need for administrators and users to manually download the software files, or to create highly complex scripts for only one-time use. You ca use Windows Post-Install to create a custom configured and automated image that will let users to install any application.


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What do you find people are generally asking for you to install?
Up until two or three years ago true smart home living was definitely for the preserve of the wealthy. Home automation systems carried large price tags. Thankfully those barriers are being removed by greater consumer awareness and household brandnames entering the market. Nearly all of our customers now ask for energy saving technology. With 60% of our household energy bills being accounted for by heating it seems obvious to start there. Smarter heating control from devices like the Nest Learning Thermostat, priced at £179, will start to reduce those bills. Heating your home shouldn't be guesswork. The Nest Learning Thermostat gives you precise control of the temperature, creates a personalised schedule for your home and eliminates the need for a programmer. It gives you the tools you need to save energy. Simply.
What would you advise people to install when retrofitting?
We don't always have the luxury of installing cables, those conditions are best suited to new build or major renovation projects. However, it would be advisable to speak with a professional installer to find out if home automation wiring is possible. A hard-wired cabled system brings superior performance over a wire free variant. If you can't run the cables then it is advisable to work on making your wireless performance as strong and secure as possible. Your wireless router is a prime candidate for an upgrade. Your router is the hub of your network, don't expect the freebie router from your service provider to be fit for duty.
Common retrofit options are made in heating and lighting control with Nest and Phillips Hue, curtain and blind automation by Lutron or Somfy and multi-room audio. Sonos has made the concept of your music in every room a possibility in any home, new or old. Heos by Denon has recently appeared as a realistic alternative to Sonos so have a listen to both before making your decision.
Are there any common errors people make when it comes to home automation?
Make the decision to have home automation in your project early, leave it too late and it may not be possible or be more expensive to install. Home automation wiring should be installed at 1st fix stage along with your electrical wiring and plumbing. Once the plasterboard is on the walls it is generally too late. Discuss it with your architect during the design phase. If the architect is not familiar with home technology seek out your local home technology installers or electrical contractors. For help finding your local home technology professional tweet @LiveInstall with your location.


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Great River Overhead Door offers many styles and designs that are sure to fit your needs. With a wide selection of residential, commercial and agricultural applications, we are sure to have the products you are looking for. You can trust that our experienced staff has knowledge to install and maintain your overhead doors throughout the life of your product.
Residential Garage Doors
We offer a full line residential garage doors where you are sure to find the styles, designs and hardware to match your home. We take great pride in the quality products we offer our customers. At Great River Overhead Door, we only work with quality vendors to be sure you get the products that meet your needs.
Enhance your home with a garage door that not only looks great but also is made to stand the test of time.
Commercial Overhead Doors
At Great River Overhead Door, we specialize in meeting the overhead door needs of businesses. For years, we have been outfitting companies with the overhead doors that meet the style and functionality they are looking for. There is not a commercial application too big or too small that we cannot accommodate. Our selection provides outstanding value with quality that will last. The doors, tracks and rollers sold at Great River Overhead door are heavy duty to hold up to your demands.
Our experienced staff will offer the styles and designs to complete your project. Give us a call today to find the door solutions that will meet your needs.
Agricultural Overhead Doors
Whether you are looking for a door for your free stall barn or storage shed, Great River Overhead Door has the doors to fit your application. Our doors stand up to the rigorous demands of everyday use and look good while doing it.
Our knowledgeable staff will work with you to find the overhead door options to fit your building. Our quality products are sure to stand up to the elements and offer reliable solutions to your overhead door needs.
Installation and Maintenance
The experienced sales and installation crew at Great River Overhead Door have the knowledge to take your overhead door project from concept to completion. With years of installation experience, our team members will get your project completed with quality in mind. We take great pride in our work and the relationships we build along the way. This shows in many of our customers being repeat business.
We stand behind our work and will your source for maintenance during the life of your door.


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Three new Aveeno coupons have popped up on Coupons.com tonight! I do not expect these to last long and I'm sure they will make for some really great deals, so make sure to print them soon.
$3.00 off any two (2) AVEENO products
$1.00 off any one (1) AVEENO Body Care Product
$2.00 off any one (1) AVEENO Facial Care Product
Here is one scenario to get you started at Target:
Buy (2) Aveeno Skin Brightening Scrubs 5oz $6.49 each
Buy (1) Aveeno Daily Lotion 2.5oz $2.99 (regional price)
-(2) $2.00 off any one (1) AVEENO Facial Care Product
-$5 Target Gift Card for Purchasing 3 Participating Aveeno Products
=$1.99 each!
Make sure to also check out the rest of this week's Target deals!
(Thanks Totally Target!)


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We would like to welcome you to the Restoration Path Blog. We hope to use this online space to encourage, educate and equip those seeking help and hope concerning their identity, sexuality and relationships.
Everyone here at Restoration Path is committed to honoring the Lord by serving you. We pray that this resource is a blessing.


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We arrived at the Tobin Center (awesome venue by the way). We were in the mid orchestra section, which is pretty much in the middle of the seating for the floor. Good enough to see, but definitely not front row seating. During the show Alice yelled and screamed with the audience, danced in the aisle, and sang along with the show. Several times Miranda asked for volunteers to come up on stage to help out in a skit. Most of the time, Miranda picked someone from the first few rows, but each time she asked for volunteers, Alice would run down the aisle closer to the stage and try to get Miranda's attention. We thought for sure this tactic would not work, but didn't see the harm in her exuberance.
The last time Miranda asked for a volunteer, Alice ran up and did her best to get her attention. To our surprise, Miranda picked 'the girl with the yellow jacket'. Her dad and I looked at each other and I said 'I can't believe that just happened....'
Alice proceeded to be led on stage for a You Tube Challenge called 'Chubby Bunny'. The basic rules were each contestant (Miranda and Alice) would put a marshmallow in their mouth and say "chubby bunny" until one of them could not talk. Miranda's marshmallows were the small ones you put in hot chocolate, while the marshmallows she gave Alice were each the size of their fist. Hilarity ensues when Alice only has one marshmallow in her mouth and can't speak.
At the end, Alice got a hug from her You Tube hero, a bag full of giant marshmallows, and a memory to last a lifetime!


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Personal Coaching is a one on one relationship based on complete confidentiality between the coach and his coachee. The coaching consists of series of conversations that will help you figure out where you are now and where you want to be. After that it is time to find out how to bridge the gap between those two. Basically coaching is geared for you to figure out what is truly important to you and if you can make sure your daily life is in line with this, you'll live a happier and more rewarding life. Many coachees have a long term, ongoing relationship with their coach to keep them continuing to move forward.
In my coaching I believe my coachees are smart, healthy and whole. And they know what's best for them. I believe they have their answers already within them, but haven't been able to pinpoint them or put them into action. That's where the coach comes in.
Coaching is a fairly new profession. At this point the profession is not 'protected', so anybody can call themselves a Life or Personal coach. Currently, there are virtually no governmental licensing requirements in any state or country. I believe this will be the case somewhere in the near future. It is now becoming more and more important to become an ICF Certified Coach since coachees and organizations are becoming more educated and are more likely to ask for credentials. I am educated by CoachU, one of the first training institutions of coaches and a member of the ICF. I am working with my own (mentor) coach to continue to grow as a coach myself and add more credentials to my portfolio.


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Students, Faculty, Staff Come Together for MLK Day of Service
January 27, 2014 – Students, faculty and staff from Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies (SCS) celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by volunteering in Washington, D.C.'s Ward 7 for a day of service to the local community on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The day of service is part of Georgetown's annual Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration and was organized by the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service.
"It was a privilege to join with our Georgetown community for this day of service in the city's Ward 7," said Walter Rankin, SCS interim dean. "I was happy to contribute and continue building on the school's commitment to mission and service, a particular focus for us since we moved to our new downtown D.C. location last summer."
Many of the day's activities were chronicled on social media and are gathered on Storify.
Engaging Students
Students participated in various service projects, including picking up trash in the streets, making sandwiches for local homeless shelters, writing letters of encouragement to international peace volunteers and visiting a senior citizens housing center where they cleaned facilities, folded laundry and visited with residents.
"It's an amazing feeling to give back to the community – from picking up trash in the streets to spending time with senior citizens, I feel proud to be a part of Georgetown University and its mission to serve others," said Ehsan Mahmoudyeh (G'15), a student in the master's in sports industry management program.
More than 50 students from the School of Continuing Studies and Georgetown University Law Center, located just a few blocks away from SCS's campus, volunteered. They joined with more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students from Georgetown's main campus.
"It was truly a rewarding experience to honor the legacy of Dr. King with a day of service," said Chloe' D. Kerr (G'15), a student in the master's in public relations and corporate communications program. "Many of the organizers expressed that service is universal, and it was a day for students, of all academic levels and backgrounds, to come together and give back."
Giving Back
The Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service and the D.C. Promise Neighborhood Initiative organized several of the day's service projects.
"This day of service was a fantastic opportunity to live Georgetown's values of being women and men for others," said Andrew Glass (C'13), who works in the SCS Office of the Dean. "I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to participate in service events as a Georgetown staff member, having graduated from the College last May. As SCS continues to grow, so too will our commitment to serve the communities in which we live and work."
After students, faculty and staff finished their service projects, everyone came together to reflect on the day's activities during a community lunch and celebration.
Building Community Ties
The School of Continuing Studies has continued to build ties with the Washington community since it moved last summer to its new location in downtown D.C. in the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood.
At the start of the fall 2013 term, new students joined SCS Interim Dean Walter Rankin and staff for a day of service at two local neighbors of SCS – Central Union Mission, a faith- based nonprofit social service agency, and the Asian and Pacific Islander Senior Center, which provides seniors from the Chinatown neighborhood with literacy classes, translation services and more.
And in December 2013, SCS sponsored holiday food, toy and book drives at its campus for three organizations: So Others Might Eat, an interfaith, community-based organization that exists to help the poor and homeless of Washington; the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots, a program that collects and distributes toys to less fortunate children across the country; and Georgetown's Angel Book Drive, an annual book drive that brings the gift of reading to children and young adults in the Washington area who have limited access to books.
"In these situations, you're able to reflect on your life and really appreciate what you have," said Mahmoudyeh. "We're very fortunate."


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Ensuring that your business or workplace meets health and safety standards is critical to avoid hefty pay-outs. Our range of safety equipment can help you to mitigate any risks of injury. In our superb range we have the very best in fire safety equipment. What's more we provide a range of fire exit signs, horns and alarms. In case of emergency we have a range of first aid kits and eye cleaning kits, plus a host of replacement equipment. In order to prevent spills we have spill kits and controls available. Our safety section also contains a number of traffic safety products including cones, traffic barriers, traffic management signs and lights available as singles and multi-packs. Finally we have a safety kit designed to protect you for hazardous tasks.


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So the plot of the movie would be like any other horror or ghost revenge horror movie. Hero/Heroine miraculously survives an ordeal where everyone else dies and the ghost/spirits from the past comes back to haunt her. Well the movie was in Thai and I really love Thai horror movies! They make some of the best horror or gore movies it must be said. But I was kind of disappointed with this one. It's very predictable and it seems like they didn't show most of the gore or violence. ( Yes I am a very sadistic person ) So yes it was very disappointing for their high standards. They also tried to mix it up with some humor especially with the gay guy but it was more towards lame then funny. Although I did find myself laughing at the lameness. The script too was very poor, it was like all of a sudden two stewardess "died" well we didn't even know they died actually. There was a lack of flow in the script to show the demise of the people on the plane. So on a whole this movie was just bad but the company I had was fun!! Don't go and watch it. Don't even buy the DVD!
After the movie, my friend, Gina, was like "Ryan! Why you so calm one?! The whole show you never show any expression at all!" Well I told her, "I'm a very practical person, I'm more afraid of what's real than what's not. ( To me I don't believe in ghosts ) And I said I was more fearful of terrorists than ghosts." And I would like to tell my readers a story.
Probably a month ago, on a Saturday, my mom and I were attending a church service. When we approached the seats, we saw a bag in front of us. So I instinctively thought OH NO A BOMB! My mom told me to wait maybe someone was reserving the seat. I waited until one Indian couple came and they sat at where the bag was, they pointed at the bag and were also wondering whose was it. So I thought, shit it ain't theirs, it must be a bomb! I told mom we should go to the back because when the "bomb" exploded we would be the first to die. Halfway through service, a suspicious looking person with full beard just walked out of mass. He put on a cap and a sunglasses and was headed for the exits. And yea I was like THAT'S THE TERRORIST. And I'm like panic mode "ON" My mom told me to watch him and suddenly he pulled out a cellphone. HE'S GOING TO DETONATE THE BOMB. I quickly grabbed my mum and followed him I kept telling her he was going to flee the scene before setting off the "bomb" So...We followed him to the bus stop, there he stopped and lighted a cigarette and he just stood there. So for a moment my fears were calmed and we went back for mass. After mass ended, there was still no explosion, so my mom told one of the warden's about the bag and we left. Then we saw the guy there still lighting a cigarette! I was like he's going for the 7pm mass! My mom quickly asked me to take a pic of him just in case. After snapping one, he suddenly moved and was following us. SHIT WE'RE CAUGHT. HE'S GOING TO KILL US! I quickly ran into the shopping mall stood at one corner, hid my phone in my mum's bag and just watched that man went to the MRT.
I look ugly in the two pics :x
Well yea, we were that bored! And yes I need to work on my complexion and I looked really ugly in those dam photos. Don't know why I'm even uploading them T.T Oh and do you guys wanna see what I call a casual outfit? It's an ugly picture so yea. CAN'T SEEM TO GET ANY NICE PICTURES TODAY
Won't be posting that on chictopia or lookbook or even enstyle! YIKES! Anyways I would love to give a big shout out to all my blog followers and readers! I LOVE YOU ALL! <3 byee!
-Ryan :)


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Feeling So Thankful
I woke up this morning to find the most thoughtful email in my inbox from Bonnie Hunter.
Graciela was kind enough to tell her about the benefit we are having for my mom, and Bonnie decided to help out, not only with a donation, but by blogging about it.
You can read her very sweet post here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/10/quilters-lend-hand.html
I was in shock, so touched. I truly appreciate the generosity Bonnie has shared by getting the word out to her readers, and I would like to thank each and every one of you who has donated or spread the word in order to help the fundraiser in some way. Please feel free to share the link on your own blogs, twitter, or facebook accounts. Every little bit helps.
Bonnie also mentioned donations of quilts for the silent auction, to be held in Chicago on October 28th. If you have a quilt to donate, we would be very grateful to accept it. Please email me directly to discuss shipping details. (jessunderquilts at yahoo dot com)


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Internet of Things (IoT) and EDA
Gabe Moretti, Contributing Editor
A number of companies contributed to this article. In Particular: Apache Design Solutions, ARM, Atrenta, Breker Verification Systems, Cadence, Cliosoft, Dassault Systemes, Mentor Graphics, Onespin Solutions, Oski Technologies, and Uniquify.
In his keynote speech at the recent CDNLive Silicon Valley 2014 conference, Lip-Bu Tan, Cadence CEO, cited mobility, cloud computing, and Internet of Things as three key growth drivers for the semiconductor industry. He cited industry studies that predict 50 billion devices by 2020. Of those three, IoT is the latest area attracting much conversation. Is EDA ready to support its growth?
The consensus is that in many aspects EDA is ready to provide tools required for IoT implementation. David Flynn, a ARM Fellow put it best. "For the most part, we believe EDA is ready for IoT. Products for IoT are typically not designed on 'bleeding-edge' technology nodes, so implementation can benefit from all the years of development of multi-voltage design techniques applied to mature semiconductor processes."
Michael Munsey, Director of ENOVIA Semiconductor Strategy at Dassault Systèmes observed that conversely companies that will be designing devices for IoT may not be ready. "Traditional EDA is certainly ready for the core design, verification, and implementation of the devices that will connect to the IoT. Many of the devices that will connect to the IoT will not be the typical designs that are pushing Moore's Law. Many of the devices may be smaller, lower performance devices that do not necessarily need the latest and greatest process technology. To be cost effective at producing these devices, companies will rely heavily on IP in order to assemble devices quickly in order to meet consumer and market demands. In fact, we may begin to see companies that traditionally have not been silicon developers getting in to chip design. We will see an explosive growth in the IP ecosystem of companies producing IP to support these new devices."
Vic Kulkarni, Senior VP and GM, Apache Design, Inc. put it as follows: "There is nothing "new or different" about the functionality of EDA tools for the IoT applications, and EDA tool providers have to think of this market opportunity from a perspective of mainstream users, newer licensing and pricing model for "mass market", i.e. low-cost and low-touch technical support, data and IP security and the overall ROI."
But IoT also requires new approaches to design and offers new challenges. David Kelf, VP of Marketing at Onespin Solutions provided a picture of what a generalized IoT component architecture is likely to be.
Figure 1: generalized IoT component architecture (courtesy Onespin Solutions)
He went on to state: "The included graphic shows an idealized projection of the main components in a general purpose IoT platform. At a minimum, this platform will include several analog blocks, a processor able to handle protocol stacks for wireless communication and the Internet Protocol (IP). It will need some sensor-required processing, an extremely effective power control solution, and possibly, another capability such as GPS or RFID and even a Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G Baseband."
Jin Zhang, Senior Director of Marketing at Oski Technologies observed that "If we parse the definition of IoT, we can identify three key characteristics:
- IoT can sense and gather data automatically from the environment
- IoT can interact and communicate among themselves and the environment
- IoT can process all the data and perform the right action with or without human interaction
These imply that sensors of all kinds for temperature, light, movement and human vitals, fast, stable and extensive communication networks, light-speed processing power and massive data storage devices and centers will become the backbone of this infrastructure.
The realization of IoT relies on the semiconductor industry to create even larger and more complex SoC or Network-on-Chip devices to support all the capabilities. This, in turn, will drive the improvement and development of EDA tools to support the creation, verification and manufacturing of these devices, especially verification where too much time is spent on debugging the design."
Power Management
IoT will require advanced power management and EDA companies are addressing the problem. Rob Aitken, also a ARM fellow, said:" We see an opportunity for dedicated flows around near-threshold and low voltage operation, especially in clock tree synthesis and hold time measurement. There's also an opportunity for per-chip voltage delivery solutions that determine on a chip-by-chip basis what the ideal operation voltage should be and enable that voltage to be delivered via a regulator, ideally on-chip but possibly off-chip as well. The key is that existing EDA solutions can cope, but better designs can be obtained with improved tools."
Kamran Shah, Director of Marketing for Embedded Software at Mentor Graphics, noted: "SoC suppliers are investing heavily in introducing power saving features including Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS), hibernate power saving modes, and peripheral clock gating techniques. Early in the design phase, it's now possible to use Transaction Level Models (TLM) tools such as Mentor Graphics Vista to iteratively evaluate the impact of hardware and software partitioning, bus implementations, memory control management, and hardware accelerators in order to optimize for power consumption"
Figure 2: IoT Power Analysis (courtesy of Mentor Graphics)
Bernard Murphy, Chief Technology Officer at Atrenta, pointed out that: "Getting to ultra-low power is going to require a lot of dark silicon, and that will require careful scenario modeling to know when functions can be turned off. I think this is going to drive a need for software-based system power modeling, whether in virtual models, TLM (transaction-level modeling), or emulation. Optimization will also create demand for power sensitivity analysis – which signals / registers most affect power and when. Squeezing out picoAmps will become as common as squeezing out microns, which will stimulate further automation to optimize register and memory gating."
Verification and IP
Verifying either one component or a subset of connected components will be more challenging. Components in general will have to be designed so that they can be "fixed" remotely. This means either fix a real bug or download an upgrade. Intel is already marketing such a solution which is not restricted to IoT applications.Also networks will be heterogeneous by design, thus significantly complicating verification.
Ranjit Adhikary, Director of Marketing at Cliosoft, noted that "From a SoC designer's perspective, "Internet of Things" means an increase in configurable mixed-signal designs. Since devices now must have a larger life span, they will need to have a software component associated with them that could be upgraded as the need arises over their life spans. Designs created will have a blend of analog, digital and RF components and designers will use tools from different EDA companies to develop different components of the design. The design flow will increasingly become more complex and the handshake between the digital and analog designers in the course of creating mixed-signal designs has to become better. The emphasis on mixed-signal verification will only increase to ensure all corner cases are caught early on in the design cycle."
Thomas L. Anderson, Vice President of Marketing at Breker Verification Systems, has a similar prospective but he is more pessimistic. He noted that "Many IoT nodes will be located in hard-to-reach places, so replacement or repair will be highly unlikely. Some nodes will support software updates via the wireless network, but this is a risky proposition since there's not much recourse if something goes wrong. A better approach is a bulletproof SoC whose hardware, software, and combination of the two have been thoroughly verified. This means that the SoC verification team must anticipate, and test for, every possible user scenario that could occur once the node is in operation."
One solution, according to Mr. Anderson, is "automatic generation of C test cases from graph-based scenario models that capture the design intent and the verification space. These test cases are multi-threaded and multi-processor, running realistic user scenarios based on the functions that will be provided by the IoT nodes containing the SoC. These test cases communicate and synchronize with the UVM verification components (UVCs) in the testbench when data must be sent into the chip or sent out of the chip and compared with expected results."
Bob Smith, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business development at Uniquify, noted that "Connecting the unconnected is no small challenge and requires complex and highly sophisticated SoCs. Yet, at the same time, unit costs must be small so that high volumes can be achieved. Arguably, the most critical IP for these SoCs to operate correctly is the DDR memory subsystem. In fact, it is ubiquitous in SoCs –– where there's a CPU and the need for more system performance, there's a memory interface. As a result, it needs to be fast, low power and small to keep costs low. The SoC's processors spend the majority of cycles reading and writing to DDR memory. This means that all of the components, including the DDR controller, PHY and I/O, need to work flawlessly as does the external DRAM memory device(s). If there's a problem with the DDR memory subsystem, such as jitter, data/clock skew, setup/hold time or complicated physical implementation issues, the IoT product may work intermittently or not at all. Consequently, system yield and reliability are of upmost concern."
He went on to say: "The topic may be the Internet of Things and EDA, but the big winners in the race for IoT market share will be providers of all kinds of IP. The IP content of SoC designs often reaches 70% or more, and SoCs are driving IoT, connecting the unconnected. The big three EDA vendors know this, which is why they have gobbled up some of the largest and best known IP providers over the last few years."
Things that seem simple often turn out not to be. Implementing IoT will not be simple because as the implementation goes forward, new and more complex opportunities will present themselves.
Vic Kulkarni said: "I believe that EDA solution providers have to go beyond their "comfort zone" of being hardware design tool providers and participate in the hierarchy of IoT above the "Devices" level, especially in the "Gateway" arena. There will be opportunities for providing big data analytics, security stack, efficient protocol standard between "Gateway" and "Network", embedded software and so on. We also have to go beyond our traditional customer base to end-market OEMs."
Frank Schirrmeister, product marketing group director at Cadence, noted that "The value chain for the Internet of Things consists not only of the devices that create data. The IoT also includes the hubs that collect data and upload data to the cloud. Finally, the value chain includes the cloud and the big data analytics it stores. Wired/wireless communications glues all of these elements together."
Tags: and Uniquify, Ansys Apache, ARM, Atrenta, Breker Verification Systems, Cadence, Cliosoft, Dassault Systeme, Intel, Internet of Things, IOT, IP, Mentor, OneSpin Solutions, Oski Technologies, power management, Verification


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I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day. We had a beautiful day to BBQ chicken for my MIL and her friend.
It is really getting busy around here with cleaning up the flower beds a bit and tilling the veggie garden, the deck to organize with flower pots etc. Never a dull moment around here.
This is yesterday's sketch, day 13 already, wow time is really whizzing by isn't it? I wanted to do a different expression than my normal looking straight on so I tried this and even tho it is not one of my better sketches, I think I captured it pretty good. Her nose is a bit too small and maybe even her mouth but by 11pm at night the sketches can depict my exhaustion of the day. Like I said it has been a busy couple weeks and trying to post everyday is something I am not used to, but, I am really enjoying the challenge and seeing all the participants work.
Thanks for dropping by and now off to post today's face.


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Food Articles
Rice Is Nice In Texasby R. Stephen Thompkins
No one really knows the origins of rice. Nevertheless, billons of people consume this ancient grain. Archeological investigations show it was gathered and eaten wild in humankind's prehistory. Such investigations also show it was cultivated in Southest Asia as early as 5000 B. C. in the same region which today consists of Southern China, Thailand, Viet Nam, and Laos. Rice cultivation spread in all directions to India, the Middle East, and Africa. The Moorish invasion of Spain in the eighth century introduced rice into Europe, and it arrived in North and South America in the sixteenth century.
There is no inhabited continent which does not produce rice. Scientists have identified twenty species of rice of which only two, Asian and African, are cultivated today. The African species grows in areas of West Africa. The majority of rice grown today is Asian rice of which there are three major groups, Japonica, Indica, and Javanica.
This variety and ubiquity means that there is no cuisine on the planet that does not have rice on its menu. Naturally, one thinks of Asia where rice is the staple food at every meal. China remains the world's biggest producer with India following as a close second. Readers not from Texas may be surprised to learn that Texas is the fourth largest producer of rice in the United States, and Texas cooking reflects the wide array of rice dishes from hearty side dishes to main courses spanning many ethnic cuisines.
Cooking RiceRice is easy to cook. However, novice chefs find it intimidating. Simply use two parts of water for every cup of rice. For example, a typical rice side dish consists of adding one cup of rice to two cups of boiling water.
Reduce heat immediately to a simmer. Boiled rice loses its texture and flavor. Rice should cook from 15 to 30 minutes depending on its size and processing. White rice and short or medium grain rices take less time. The bran on brown rice takes a longer time to soften. Consequently, brown rice and long grain rices take somewhat longer. Butter and salt are not necessary for cooking rice, however, anyone can add it to taste or if part of a recipe.
Rice With Garlic and Pine Nuts
Note that this is a very nutritious dish. Rice is not only rich in fiber, but also contains most of the B vitamins. Pine nuts are a rich source of zinc, selenium and other important vitamins.
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I originally had the idea for the Email Marketing Robot when I became a member of BNI a couple of years ago. It suddenly occurred to me while listening to the 60 seconds each week that there are a lot of businesses who regularly get business from certain types of companies.
For example, there was a weight loss consultant in my chapter named Shirley, who was at the time asking for introductions to beauty salons, tanning salons, personal trainers, and hairdressers. I did not live in the area and had few personal contacts, so I searched Google and found local companies, then simply emailed them and asked them if they would be willing to have a conversation with Shirley to see if there was the possibility of a mutually beneficial referral relationship.
I had great success generating referrals this way, and was bringing up to 15 referrals a week for Shirley. Only it was very time consuming. I realised that if I could create some software to do the same process it would enable me to generate even more referrals, while I got on with my work, and sales of the software would provide me with an additional income.
At that time I was doing really well with referrals and had just landed a big new client. I asked my Executive Director Jason Smith if there was any way I could get more involved with BNI, and we had a meeting after which I decided to become a Director Consultant.
At the Director Consultant training which covered starting new chapters, and at the European Conference I was speaking to a lot of other Directors. The theme of inviting visitors kept coming up. It occurred to me that there is the need throughout the world to contact local businesses, and invite them along as guests to BNI meetings. This gave me the motivation I needed to get the software created, which took about four months of trial and error.
Since creating the software, I have used it to start a new BNI chapter in Derbyshire, England called BNI Synergy which launched in just four months with 22 buzzing members. I've also successfully used the software to relaunch another struggling chapter, which has now become one of the strongest in the region. I continue to use the software to invite visitors to my own BNI chapter, as well as the two that I look after. People are always asking me how I manage to bring so many visitors, and I always tell them it's the Email Marketing Robot!
Several BNI Directors are also using the software to grow membership in their regions, including Gavin Bain who was a member of the first UK chapter, Iain Whyte in Scotland, Mark Kerr in Manchester, Michele Ibbs in the West Country, Paul Clegg who is a massive supporter, and many others too.
My vision is for every BNI region in the world to use the Email Marketing Robot to increase their membership, and for BNI to have more than 400,000 members worldwide by 2013, because more people in the room leads to more energy, more referrals, and more business for the members.
The Email Marketing Robot does the hard work of contacting businesses, then the Director Consultant just needs to be consistent in the follow up, and answering any questions people have prior to coming to the meeting. The key to success then is in the follow-up, making visitors feel that they are welcome to submit their application and lock out their competitors from the Chapter.
The software is priced affordably and represents a real cost saving for Director Consultants who would otherwise spend a lot of time with other forms of prospecting such as cold calling. It is also affordable enough for members who wish to build their own chapters, or use the software to generate referrals for fellow members. It will work anywhere in the world and we include for BNI members proven email templates and business categories for inviting purposes.
People who would like to see the software in action should visit http://www.emailmarketingrobot.com/ or contact me for further information.


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Italian saxophonist Edoardo Marraffa and drummer Stefano Giust meet West Coast/touring pianist Thollem McDonas for an album of focused and spirited free improvisation recorded live in Bologna.
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Label: Amirani Records
Catalog ID: AMRN031
Squidco Product Code: 16808
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2012
Country: Italy
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded live at Scuola Popolare di Musica, Bologna, Italy by Ivan Illich on May 14th, 2011.
Edoardo Marraffa-tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone
Thollem McDonas-piano
Stefano Giust-drums, cymbals, objects
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Artist Biographies:
• Show Bio for Thollem McDonas
"Thollem is a pianist, keyboardist, organist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher. He's spent his life skirting and erasing the edges of boundaries musically, culturally, geographically. His work is ever changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. Though Thollem's widely known as an acoustic piano player, he's also the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti and has recently branched out significantly into the world of electronics through a multitude of projects.
Thollem was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, studying the standard classical piano repertoire, composing and improvising since he was a young child and absorbing the myriad of sounds of his culturally diverse upbringing. After dedicating his 20s and 30s to grassroots political activism, he's refocused his attention these last 15 years on a breadth of musics that incorporate his myriad experiences and curiosities. In this last decade alone, he has played well over 1,000 concerts throughout N. America and Europe as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of musicians, dancers, and filmmakers. As leader or co-leader, he has released over 50 albums in that span on 22 different vanguard labels to international critical acclaim. "Thollem is an astounding pianist who understands the huge scope of the instrument" (Terry Riley) and who continues to delve into the furthest reaches and sub-genres of Post-Classical, Free Jazz, Noise, Punk, dance and film. A brief cross section of his many recent collaborators include William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Stefano Scodanibbio, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Rob Mazurek, Martha Colburn and ACVilla. He is the founding director of Estamos Ensemble, a Mexican-American cross border ensemble for musical exchange as well as the lead singer of the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti. Presently Thollem is developing an audio/visual experience about America through an 8 month, 48 state odyssey with his partner the videographer ACVilla. He's also a published author about art, politics and his travels in The Anthology of Essays On Deep Listening, Full Moon Magazine (Prague) and First American Art Magazine."-Thollem McDonas Website (http://www.thollem.com/bio.html)
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1. Polishing the mirror 16:07
2. Lucidare la lente 7:35
3. Lucidare la retina 8:12
4. Hinges 2:32
5. Ritorno 6:40
sample the album:
"Oustanding performers, high concentration, remarkable interplay! Awesome trio featuring the unmistakable powerful Edoardo Marraffa on tenor&sopranino saxes, the bold piano exploring of Thollem McDonas, the pushing dash on drums by Stefano Giust in a far from conventional, passionate and cutting edge concert recorded live in Bologna.-Amirani Records"
"The background of this trio is rich and varied, yet it is difficult to define their music as eclectic, because the factors that come into play in the relationship of composition, the different materials that make up the music, is developed in depth and time, in an original language. Change and transformation are under investigation, in this group: the harmonic relations, the melodic and rhythmic counterpoint always goes in different paths, sometimes evolving slowly, at times subjected to sudden acceleration, while maintaining a certain independence and complexity that allows a multi-dimensional musical journey, the trio of musicians prefer a unity of purpose and cohesion that leads them to an intense and expressive communicative. Each of the three musicians work with many international musicians, producing a lot of concerts and records through the years.
Thollem McDonas is constantly on tour as a soloist and in collaboration with various groups and musicians, has performed in theaters, art galleries, universities, elementary schools, concert halls, jazz clubs, rock clubs, festivals, warehouses, private homes, roads, forests, riots, television, radio and internet. He has performed symphony concerts for piano, has performed with groups of West African drummers, Javanese gamelan orchestras, punk bands, with hundreds of improvisational groups, and as pianist / composer for opera and modern dance.
Edoardo Marraffa devotes his attention to the transformation (acoustic) sound of his instrument, which becomes a source of polyphonic and with continuous changes of timbre and improvisation understood as collective composition. Has given rise to numerous musical projects and collaborates with international musicians. He has performed in many festivals dedicated to jazz and improvised music in Europe and America.
Stefano Giust is a drummer, electronic music composer and producer - since '93 for his label Setola Di Maiale, which produces his work as the work of many artists -. In the last thirty years his work has focused on the broad spectrum of improvised and experimental music; it develops into many different achievements, in which indeterminate music hold a central role. He collaborates with musicians, composers, filmmakers, dancers, actors, poets, visual artists. He has performed in all Europe and Brasil."-Magimc Website
Get additional information at Magimc Website
Related Categories of Interest:
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Trio Recordings
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Polishing the Mirror


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For Your Eyes Only
After disposing of a familiar looking face, Bond is sent to recover a communication device, known as an ATAC, which went down with a British Spy ship as it sunk. Bond must hurry though, as the Russians are also out for this device. On his travels, he also meets Melina Havelock, whose parents were brutally murdered. Bond also encounters both Aristotle Kristatos and Milos Colombo. Each of them are accusing the other of having links with with the Russian's. Bond must team up with Melina, solve who the true ally is and find the ATAC before it's too late.
Genres: Action, Thriller, Adventure
Actors: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover, Cassandra Harris, Jill Bennett, Michael Gothard, John Wyman, Jack Hedley, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell, James Villiers
Director: John Glen
Country: UK


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The next time you pour yourself a glass of water, take a moment to ponder where the liquid came from. If your water district is served by the Hetch Hetchy system, like those of most Peninsula residents, 85 percent of it was once snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada.
That simple fact should already have pinged an alarm bell or two, if you're concerned about global climate change. Several studies have projected that a warmer climate will mean less snow pack in the Sierra over the coming years, and thus less snowmelt. That means less water for an expanding population of Californians, who rely primarily on snowmelt for the water they use to take showers, keep their lawns green, irrigate their farms and feed their livestock.
While Peninsula jurisdictions such as Menlo Park are taking small steps to reduce water use, the issue of water conservation remains mostly theoretical for Bay Area residents, whose water supply is not immediately threatened. Menlo Park's residents consume water at much higher rates than the average Peninsula dweller, but conservation remains a noble goal, rather than an immediate necessity.
"The overall goal is to make the most efficient use of the resource we have available," Lisa Ekers, the city's engineering services manger, said in an interview. Ms. Ekers helps oversee the Menlo Park Municipal Water District, which serves about one-third of the city's residents, in Sharon Heights and areas east of El Camino Real.
The state has mandated a reduction of 20 percent in gross water use by 2020, but the city is more focused on ensuring its water supply starting in 2018, when its current allocation guarantee from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which controls the supply from Hetch Hetchy, expires.
The city needs to be prepared to cut back, Ms. Ekers said, but she doubts the allocation will be drastically reduced.
Accordingly, the city is taking baby steps in its efforts to reduce water use, hoping that a combination of education, law, and "tiered" water rates will nudge residents in the right direction, bringing local water users more in line with those in other Peninsula cities.
Residential customers of the city's municipal water system used 149 gallons per capita per day in fiscal year 2007-08, compared with an average of 90 gallons per day by residential users in the regional system represented by the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency (BAWSCA). (The agency covers parts of 27 San Mateo County jurisdictions, though it does not include Portola Valley, Atherton or Woodside).
The city is in the process of revising its water-efficient landscaping ordinance, modifying a model developed by BAWSCA. But while City Council members have spent hours debating the ordinance, the outcome of those deliberations isn't likely to make much of a dent in the city's annual water consumption.
BAWSCA estimates that its ordinance would reduce water use in the city's district by 4.75 million gallons annually by 2018, only about one-third of one percent of the total water used (1.3 billion in 2007-08).
Some residents have questioned whether the law can be effectively enforced.
The city is also reviewing its five-year water rate plan, and is considering "different options for rearranging existing tiered rates," with water rates increasing rapidly in relation to water use in order to encourage conservation, Ms. Ekers said.
Thus far, education has been the city's primary tool of choice in persuading residents to conserve water. It has fashioned advertisements aimed primarily at businesses, given away water-saving devices, implemented rebate programs, and sponsored classes on water-efficient landscaping, attended largely by professionals in the field, according to Ms. Ekers. Under a 1993 ordinance, the city also notifies property owners or businesses whose irrigation systems appear to have a leak.
Total water use within the city-run district has ranged from 1.22 billion to 1.45 billion gallons per year over the past decade, sometimes varying widely year to year.
While a trend in total water use is not readily apparent, Ms. Ekers suggested a statistical analysis would reveal consumption heading slightly downward since 2003-04. She attributes that trend to conscious efforts by residents and businesses to conserve, rather than formal action by the city.
The biggest recent change has come in industrial water use, which fell by 25 percent from 2007-08 to 2008-09, likely due to the recession.
While more draconian conservation measures such as water rationing aren't under consideration, the regional water agency has been investigating ways to expand the water supply, Ms. Ekers said. These include examining possible new sources and seeking water recycling opportunities.
Some jurisdictions have even batted around the idea of employing the expensive process of desalination, converting salt water to fresh water -- a procedure that might gain traction in coming decades if snowmelt continues to decrease, and if conservation efforts fall short.


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Goldilocks would have been so proud… Just the right amount of salty and sweet, just the right amount of crispy and soft, and just the right size to leave you longing but not wanting!
A variation on sue shepards recipe for upside down pineapple polenta cakes…. This one is richer in flavour, but not as sweet, and a million times easier to prepare due to the lack of soaking and refrigeration time.
I have made and absolutely love the pineapple version of these guys, but you can have that recipe as a variation of what I have decided is a winning recipe for a Sunday brunch date with coffee! (Yes I'm on about coffee again, yes I know it's not great for fructards… No I truly don't care as its the sole pleasure in the food world that I point blank refuse to give up!)
Prosciutto and caramelised banana upside down quinoa cakes
150g low fat vanilla yoghurt (ff)
80g butter softened
1/2 C castor sugar
1/2 C Glucose
2 tsp of vanilla essence
3 eggs
1/2 C quinoa
1 C water
1C Gf flour mix
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp zanthum gum
4 slices of prosciutto
1 banana halved lengthways skin on
Preheat oven to 180deg.
Microwave the quinoa and water for
10 mins in a microwave proof dish.
Mix the butter, yoghurt, sugar, glucose and vanilla in a bowl until smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix in thoroughly between additions.
Once quinoa is ready, you can add this to the mix. It's fine if its still hot.
In a non stick fry pan, add the prosciutto and flip after 1 min. Remove from fry pan, add the banana cooked side down and reduce heat. Cook the bananas until the skin blackens, then remove.
Into a regular sized 12 pan muffin tin put 12 silicon muffin moulds. (If you don't have these then lightly grease the tins, or use paper ones. Having the inserts helps with the upside down part).
Cut the banana (still in the skin) just through the fleshy part into 12 pieces, 6 for each half. Place the caramelised side into the bottom of each of the muffin moulds. Distribute the prosciutto evenly across the 12 moulds.
Sift the flour, zanthum gum, baking powder and soda into the mix then stir.
Portion between the 12 moulds.
Bake for 18-20 mins, or until golden tops and they spring back when touched. Allow to cool for 5 mins before turning out on a wire rack. Allow another 5 mins to cool before running a knife around the inside of the mould and lifting it out.
Making these with the same recipe but substitute the prosciutto and banana for any of the following….
1 can of crushed pineapple (make sure it's in pineapple juice not pear)
1 1/2 C Stewed rhubarb (200g rhubarb stalks chopped, 1C water 50g glucose, grated ginger and orange zest boiled for 3 mins)
You can make them in 15cm tins and top them with yoghurt and strawberries