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Recumbent bicycles are more efficient than ordinary upright bicycles, and velomobiles are even more efficient. Then why do we see them so rarely on the road? Is it because they are expensive, or are there some non-financial, significant disadvantages?
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My regular (commuting) bike is an old Cannondale mountain bike with road slicks. It's great for city riding, but it murders my back, crotch, hands, feet, etc. on long trips.
So, a couple years ago I bought a Bacchetta Giro 26 recumbent bike specifically for a 2000+ mile ride. I've used it since for rides of longer than a day. So here's my two cents:
Comfort: Riding a 'bent consists of sitting in a lawn chair doing leg-presses all day. IMO, no diamond frame bike (DF) will ever come anywhere close to matching a 'bent for comfort. Over the last week of my trip I rode back-to-back-to-back-to-back 110+ mile days with no issues other than some soreness in my knees. Best of all, you can look at the scenery instead of the asphalt, without craning your neck. This is a massive plus.
Safety: The bike I bought has 26" wheels front and rear. My head is a few inches lower than on a DF, but I've never had any issues with visibility. I rode through several major metropolitan areas in fairly heavy traffic and never felt unsafe or invisible.
Dork factor: Everyone is fascinated by the bike. Everyone. I had a Hell's Angels looking dude shout "nice hog" at me at one point. Lots of people ask if I built it myself. One guy pulled over to take a photo. Every single person who has remarked on the bike has been enthusiastic and friendly, with one (group) exception: spandex-clad road riders, who generally pretend they don't see me.
Hills: Climbing hills on a 'bent isn't all that tough. It just requires persistence. You won't blast up a hill, but you can climb for hours on end. The biggest negative is that on a steep hill, if you stop for any reason, it can be damn near impossible to get going again. Also, balance becomes an issue at very low speeds.
All that said, 'bents are ideal for touring, so-so for daily utilitarian use, and of course illegal for racing. Of those three uses, touring is the rarest, and it's pretty hard to build a market around something most people don't do.
It's a pity, IMO — 'bents are a lot of fun, but most folks will never know it. But then again, I've got mine and get a lot of use out of it. If other people miss out, that's their problem, not mine. I expect most recumbent riders feel the same way.
Talked to a guy who had a velomobile at a local charity ride. He said the thing cost $5000. Recumbents, while not as expensive as velomobiles are also quite expensive. Usually over $2000. That could be part of the reason. Sure, with economies of scale, they could be made cheaper, but that's kind of a chicken and an egg problem. Also, even though recumbents and velomobiles are so much more efficient, they do have quite a few of their own problems. Because they have so much extra weight, they tend to be quite a bit slower on the hills. Many people also don't like being so close to the ground. I like being able to stand on my pedals and see over most of the cars when riding in traffic. Also, regular bikes are pretty efficient these days. For $1000 you can get a pretty good bike. And one last thing. Don't underestimate the "conformity" factor. Many people don't want to be seen as weird, or outsiders, and want to fit in with social norms. Riding a bike is already going against social norms in many places. For some people, having a recumbent just takes things a bit outside their comfort zone.
I switched to a recumbent about 10 years ago, when I was 48. I rented one for a ride and was so impressed with the comfort and speed that I eventually changed over. My current rig has a full fairing and full-length spandex wrap.
1 - Cost. I waited over 2 years to buy due to the cost, then started out with a $900 bike (which I soon traded in for a $2,000 TourEasy, which ran up to $3,000 with fairing, lights, etc.). Many friends and family considered me crazy, but I live in an area where I can get almost everywhere by bike. In 2007, I spent less than $100 on gasoline. Since then I've been averaging 500-750 miles each year in my auto and 5,000 to 6,000 miles on my bike). For my situation, the cost was high, but the savings have been much higher.
2 - Comfort. No contest. There's a reason furniture does not use diamond-frame bicycle posture. No crotch numbness, neck issues, etc. These discomforts did not bother me before 45, but the comfort factor (for me) seems to be a bigger factor every year. The fairing and wrap offer even more comfort when the weather turns extreme--usually a light jacket and tights is sufficient, even in single-digit temperatures; and the shade compensates for less wind in the heat (plus no need for sunscreen).
3 - Performance. I can blast up a hill like a parachute in water--the best I can say for uphill riding on a recumbent is that maybe it builds character. Downhills and flats, though, are great--the fairing aerodynamics help. Speeds (note, I'm almost 60, diabetic, and had a triple bypass a couple of years ago, so these speed won't be impressive): Sustained on a flat - 25-30; steep downhill with a tailwind - 50-60; steep uphill - no comment (thank God for low gears!). Much wider turning radius. No flipping over the handlebars, though, on hard stops. Another performance feature relates to comfort--I can ride for hours and hours and hours, and rides over 100 miles makes me tired and my legs sore the next day, but no discomfort in my butt, back, neck, or other parts.
4 - Dork factor. I don't care (see number 2 and 3 above). However, reactions seem to be pronounced. Young kids say "Oooooh! Cool!" Older kids divide between "What the #$%#$ is that?" and "I want one!" I get tons of questions. I get noticed--so I try to obey all the traffic signs/signals and be considerate, which is not necessarily how I rode before. It also gets noticed when parked, sometimes attracting thieves and vandals.
5 - Safety. Bikes are dangerous around cars. Car drivers just aren't looking for us and don't see us--and often don't bear any blame when they run us down. To mitigate this, I use bright lights, brightly colored wraps, and a motorcycle helmet (allowed by the upright posture)--and avoid as much car traffic as I can. So far, so good (I was hit 3 times on my DF).
6 - Accommodation. A definite minus. Normal bike racks, bike carriers, bus racks, etc. usually won't work. Much longer and heavier than my DF was. No carrying it over my head through crowds.
Every person will have different priorities. You have to try one to know if it's for you or not.
I suspect the biggest reason is that they're very expensive niche machines that, for most people, do not offer enough clear advantages over regular bicycles.
A big reason you don't see more recumbents is safety in traffic. If you're on a "normal" bicycle, you're (theoretically) going to be relatively more visible to motor vehicles than if you're lying close to the floor on a recumbent.
Right or wrong, I think a lot of people just see recumbents as "dorky". I think its more a perception bias than efficiency.
Reason I do not ride a recumbent (based on my uneducated knowledge of them, which is probably ignorant and wrong, but typical.... ):
There are certainly many reasons why a minority product in a community stays in its niche. Some reasons are universal, others are product/topic-specific. In the case of recumbents it might help to understand what the community sees as the normal use case for a bicycle. Two main use cases come to mind:
(A) Short utility trips through the urban areas
(B) Sport-oriented cycling rather through the countryside
For these use cases we can discuss the disadvantages of recumbents. There are several. Let's start with use case (A):
And here disadvantages for use case (B):
Side note: The mentioned disadvantages are strongly dependent on the use cases. If we look at other use cases the disadvantages of recumbents can become marginal and some exciting advantages take over.
As an avid recumbent cyclist myself for nearly two decades I have obviously a different use case: Longer commutes in urban areas and long-distance cycling in the country-side. Here the big advantages of recumbents like a much better view of the scenery or a more comfortable seating position come quickly into play.
I have been commuting to work on a LWB recumbent since 1989. In those 25 years, I have never had a single driver comment that my bike was hard to see, nor have I had any close calls or collisions, knock wood. I have fallen a couple times due to unseen ice, wetness or rider error...it was kind of like falling off a chair. Contrast that to the accident I had at age 15, flying over the handlebars of a road bike, breaking my collarbone.
There are three main advantages to recumbents: safety, comfort (there is no comparison, and the view is awesome) and finally speed because of their aerodynamics. However this last factor will depend entirely on the fitness of the rider, and the terrain. Recumbents are heavier as a rule, and slightly slower on hills because of this.
To answer the question of the thread, I believe it is basically because of a perception problem: an unfamiliarity with their advantages, the strangeness/non-conformist factor, and finally the fact that they are not commonplace, so it is hard to test-ride them. Also, the first test ride may feel odd/novel, and may not give a correct indication of how the bike will feel after a week or two--or month or two--of riding...that was certainly my experience.
Why do we rarely see recumbents and almost never see velomobiles? Recumbents
a) Cost. Mine cost £2.5k.
b) Hostile road environment. Some people throw things at people on a recumbent, (in my case, it was a telephone directory). I have been threatened with being run-over. I also experienced what I suspect was deliberate aggression, I was left-hooked by a BMW driver, luckily I it was dry and my over-sized disk brakes stopped me in-time. The driver turned into a cul-de-sac. I turned round to discuss his dangerous driving, meanwhile he was sitting in his BMW, parked-up with the 1,00 yard stare. As I approached he drove off at speed. Clearly, his stupid-aggressive manoeuvre wasn't because he was going somewhere. I can only imagine that since there had been no previous interaction, that his aggressive and dangerous act was a deliberate attempt to frighten, injure or kill me, or a response to my unusual bike. My recumbent is quite high, but I would feel vulnerable on a low-racer, because being so low is not fun in traffic.
c) Drivers and Pedestrians
Apart from the occasional stupid driver intent on 'educating' me with their ignorance of taxation and the Highway Code, I rarely get any comments when cycling on my 'normal bikes'. Ride a recumbent and one will trigger a relative blizzard of opinions. Some undoubtedly positive, these will be people who own or are interested in recumbents. Others very ill-informed, stupid and deeply negative.
d) Security.
Recumbents can be difficult to secure, (depends upon frame design). Needs an insurance approved lock, or preferably, more than one. Bike insurance is very expensive, typically 10% of the bike cost. A GPS tracker and bike registration is a good idea, if not essential.
e) Recumbents are usually longer and heavier than normal bicycles. This and the odd shape can present problems with bicycle infrastructure, which seems deliberately designed to thwart even a bicycle with panniers. Transportation by train can be awkward.
f) Storage heavy and large.
g) Horses
BTW, my recumbent scares horses witless. I mean rearing-up, staring eyes, the works. It's not a reason not to buy a recumbent, but if you do, be extremely careful around horses. My other bicycles have no effect.
Velomobiles I am interested in velomobiles, but I foresee that the associated problems are likely to be similar to recumbents, but rather worse. I suspect that much cycling infrastructure is impassable, due to increased width and greater length. Train transport is probably not possible.
The primary advantage of recumbents over DF bikes is much lower wind resistance. This is really nice for long-distance touring, but is not very important for city riding/commuting short distances. For the latter, recumbents have several disadvantages:
In my area, recumbents are seen, but mainly on country roads or on recreational paths (where they are practical), not on city streets (where they are not).
Finally, while there are a few people who ride recumbents because they have a physical condition that precludes riding a DF bike, a properly-fitted DF bike is just as, or more, comfortable for the vast majority of riders.
I have a 250w peddle assist diamond frame bike, my wife has a recumbent tadpole trike I've fitted a 300w motor, we are both 78 and have the usual stiff joints, so if the knees play up we can get home under power, just in case people think we are lazy.
From my observations on the upright I have problems with balance especially at low speed, it's hard on the neck, shoulders and not that conformable even though I've fitted a special seat that takes the weight on the sit bones, works OK but not like sitting in an arm chair.
On the recumbent trike balance is no issue and easy to start on the hills as long as you have the crawler gears that recumbent trikes need, (you can't wheel them very well). best of all is comfort you can ride for miles with very little effort, have a rest when you want without putting your feet down.
For going into town though, being able to wheel the DF on the footpaths is a big advantage, so I see a good reason to keep the DF but still prefer the recumbent trike for all other cycling.
Cost though is what would put many of, the wife's recumbent with the 300w motor cost NZ$4600 and the DF with 250w motor NZ$1800 (new price is NZ$2500 with 300w motor) so a big difference , but we do have solar panels and can charge them for next to nothing when the sun shines.
The New Zealand dollar is about half the value of the UK pound so the price looks worse than it is.
I would say that the reason for so few of the recumbents and velomobiles is due to the cost factor, with the velomobiles being quite a bit out of the realm of expense practicality for most of us. You have to live in an area where you can ride any time and any place you please to justify an expenditure of around $5,000 plus. The recumbents would follow closely except they are a bit less expensive. From what I've seen, I'd just as soon be riding in a much higher and visible position, than pratcially being horizontal 2 feet off of the road surface. I'd just as soon see the traffic ahead and have them see me too. Prevents a lot of close calls with vehicles that will win the collision battle every time. And then there are the dogs that think you're an even easier challenge when you're looking up at them! I know they are much more comfortable than a standard bicycle, but I take a lot of comfort in knowing I have a much better chance against traffic and dogs when I'm up off of the ground! There are some aches and pains that go with biking as the years roll by, but they heal more quickly than cuts and bruises and don't leave scars.
I think the biggest reason is that recumbent and velomobiles are not popular besides price, is simply they not UCI compliant, if you cannot legally race them, why would you want to spend big bucks on a bike you can't race
Yeah, strange. It does seem that the velomobile would be more expensive, and I've seen only one in my short lifetime. Recumbents seem to be gaining popularity, though, especially in oceanside towns. As user Paul H. said, they do seem to be more popular among seniors. Maybe it's because they have more time to enjoy them? Anyway, I think that people might shy away from these bikes because these bikes are more expensive and people might think of them as unusual or strange. Also, they might not want to spend money on a new type of bike when they could get a more traditional bike that they know works for them.
Riding 5 km each direction I mostly see one or two recumbent bikes or trikes each ride, at least 8 different regulars, which one I will see depends on my timing, on top of that comes my own, which I always see as I ride it every time.
There are a few velomobiles in the area and I see one every once in a while, he seems to be using his daily.
That might seem much for most of you. But I see between 30 and 60 bikes on a normal commute, more in summer when many tourists do the long distance route which runs on part of my normal commute. (I live in the Netherlands).
About the costs? I had a new trike for less than €1000 about 9 years back and a second hand bike for €200 4 years back. I have spend a bit on either one, but on average less per year than one time car maintenance costs.
I guess it is because recumbent bike and trikes are less well known and not the normal option for most people. Even my friends do not want to try out my bike/trike, or when they do 'just for fun.' But I see more 'bents now than when I first started riding one. (I am female and was over 40 when I got my trike.)
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Obama to Congress: Back off the Hasan probe
posted at 10:13 am on November 14, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
In the aftermath of the massacre at Fort Hood and the deaths of fourteen people, some members of Congress demanded investigations into why the Army and the FBI failed to identify and stop Major Nidal Malik Hasan before he had an opportunity to commit mass murder. Some of the revelations from Hasan's past, including communications with an al-Qaeda recruiter in Yemen, have Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Sen. Joe Lieberman promising to conduct separate investigations into the failure of counterterrorism efforts. President Obama warned Congress to stay out of it, at least until the FBI finishes investigating the shootings:
President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.
On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.
"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.
There are two separate issues to be investigated, however, and nothing prevents them from being investigated in parallel. The first is the shootings themselves, which so far appear to be fairly cut-and-dried, at least in terms of identifying the shooter. Several witnesses saw Hasan shooting, and the military and FBI have publicly stated that they believe he acted alone. They certainly have enough evidence already to try Hasan, which will give the victims and their families justice.
But at the same time, we have to make sure that we don't have other Hasans waiting in the wings, and we have to fix the failures in our counterterrorism efforts that allowed this to happen. That can't wait until after Hasan's trial, which could take months. Furthermore, that oversight authority belongs to Congress, not the FBI or the CIA or even the executive branch. Congress has to investigate the series of decisions made that shrugged off Hasan as no threat even though he made a number of contacts to a figure considered a suspect in the 9/11 plot and who openly recruits for al-Qaeda, behaved so oddly that his colleagues considered him "delusional" and complained up the chain of command about his apparent disloyalty, and who may have sent a lot of his money to Pakistan, according to reports from the House Intelligence Committee.
The families of the victims deserves justice. The American people deserve an accounting of the failure quickly enough to fix the problem so that more American families won't have to cry for justice after other attacks. Fortunately, this country can walk and chew gum at the same time.
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subset: commoncrawl


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28 Jul 2011 7:12 AM #1
How to refresh a template in a panel ?
I have a template embedded in a Panel. The data for the template are received by ajax.
If I change data how refresh the template ? I don't find any render() or refresh() methode for a panel.
Has any one an idea ?
Edit: So sorry, wrong forum. I was reading both
29 Jul 2011 10:23 AM #2
I dont necessarily do the following with html templates in Panels, but I do do this with DataViews inside of Panels. It's a quick (thought-of) way to refresh something like that.
When the data changes, check to see if the component exists.
If the component exists, destroy the component, then recreate the component and add it back into the parent component.
Then call a doLayout() on the parent component.
29 Jul 2011 11:01 AM #3
In fact I found the method. It's update([data]) !
24 Feb 2013 8:08 AM #4


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Baptists, Catholics, and the Prohibition on Usury
Via Rod Dreher comes some good news: the Kentucky Baptist Convention is pushing for legislation to regulate predatory lenders:
Kentuckys largest religious denomination joined Tuesday in a growing call for regulations on payday lenders, saying such loans cost the annual equivalent of nearly 400 percent in interest and amount to usury decried in the Bible.At its annual meeting, the Kentucky Baptist Convention adopted a resolution without dissent calling for state and local regulations that would cap interest on short-term loans at 36 percent.Its the first public statement in recent memory by the state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention on regulating financial institutions, and it puts it on the same page with several other religiously affiliated organizations that comment more regularly on economic issues.
One of those "other religiously affiliated organizations" is, of course, the Catholic Church: witness Benedict XVI's call in Caritas in Veritate for financial regulations that will protect the vulnerable "from the risk of usury and from despair", plus the much louder condemnation in Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum:
Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
This article from the 1957 Catholic Encyclopedia provides a helpful (for me, anyway) summary of the development of Catholic teaching on the issue, and concludes as follows:
Lending money at interest gives us the opportunity to exploit the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions; men are robbed and left destitute under the pretext of charity. Such is the usury against which the Fathers of the Church have always protested, and which is universally condemned at the present day. ... It is in itself unjust extortion, or robbery. The sin is frequently committed. In some countries are found the exaction of interest at 30, 50, 100 percent and more. ... The exorbitant charges of pawnbrokers for money lent on pledge, and, in some instances, of persons selling goods to be paid for by installments, are also instances of usury disguised under another name. As a remedy for the evil, respectable associations for mutual lending have been instituted, ... and help has been sought from legislators; but there is no general agreement as to the form which legislation on this subject should take.
As the article notes, however, the framing of the prohibition against usury as a prohibition just against "exorbitant" rates of interest is a significant walk-back from the Church's earlier position, where figures like Thomas Aquinas stood with numerous official documents in arguing that Christians should be disallowed from charging any interest whatsoever on monetary loans. In a paper that she wrote in 1970 and was recently published in a posthumous volume titled Faith in a Hard Ground [edit: the title of the paper is 'Philosophers and Economists: Two Philosophers' Objections to Usury' -- JS], the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe explores the rationale for this position, observing that it lies in the idea that it is appropriate to charge someone for the use of something only if, when they give it back to you, its value has somehow decreased. Here is how that argument is addressed in the article linked just above:
The just price of a thing is based on the general estimate, which depends not in all cases on universal utility, but on general utility. Since the possession of an object is generally useful, I may require the price of that general utility, even when the object is of no use to me. There is much greater facility nowadays for making profitable investment of savings, and a true value, therefore, is always attached to the possession of money, as also to credit itself. A lender, during the whole time that the loan continues, deprives himself of a valuable thing, for the price of which he is compensated by the interest.
This seems reasonable to me, though I am sure that Anscombe would not be fully satisfied. (She rarely was.) Of course, another reason why it can be necessary to charge interest on loans is because it can be the only way to cover transaction costs and -- even more importantly -- make up for cases where loans are not repaid. Kiva, an organization that enables you to lend money for worthy projects via microfinance institutions, or MFIs, explains these points as follows:
There are three kinds of costs the MFI has to cover when it makes microloans. The first two, the cost of the money that it lends and the cost of loan defaults, are proportional to the amount lent. For instance, if the cost paid by the MFI for the money it lends is 10%, and it experiences defaults of 1% of the amount lent, then these two costs will total $11 for a loan of $100, and $55 for a loan of $500. An interest rate of 11% of the loan amount thus covers both these costs for either loan.The third type of cost, transaction costs, is not proportional to the amount lent. The transaction cost of the $500 loan is not much different from the transaction cost of the $100 loan. Both loans require roughly the same amount of staff time for meeting with the borrower to appraise the loan, processing the loan disbursement and repayments, and follow-up monitoring. Suppose that the transaction cost is $25 per loan and that the loans are for one year. To break even on the $500 loan, the MFI would need to collect interest of $50 + 5 + $25 = $80, which represents an annual interest rate of 16%. To break even on the $100 loan, the MFI would need to collect interest of $10 + 1 + $25 = $36, which is an interest rate of 36%. At first glance, a rate this high looks abusive to many people, especially when the clients are poor. But in fact, this interest rate simply reflects the basic reality that when loan sizes get very small, transaction costs loom larger because these costs can't be cut below certain minimums.
This strikes me as a significantly stronger argument than the first one. (It is notable -- and perhaps not an accident? -- that the rate cited is the same as the one suggested by the Kentucky Baptist Convention. Microfinance is singled out for praise in the paragraph quoted above from Caritas in Veritate, by the way.) For more on the Church's view of usury, see this piece by Dale Ahlquist (h/t Dreher once again). And while we're at it, let me note that Kiva gift cards make a fine Christmas gift.Image credit: Flickr user Steve Rhodes.
About the Author
John Schwenkler is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Florida State University.
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The explanation from Kiva could also be used to examine the rationale behind the one-size fits all interest rates charged by credit card issuers. An interest rate of 24% might be justified on a balance of $5,000.00 but is it equally justified when that debtor is carrying a debt of $25,000. Should there be legislation that requires that the percentage rate reduce on higher balances? It seems that the ability to repay would be enhanced and the risk of default would be reduced if this system were adopted.
Schwenkler is incorrect. The Catholic Church has not reversed its position on usury from condemning all interest charges to now condemning only exorbitant interest charges. Judge Noonan, formerly of the California 9th Circuit Court, previously made that identical erroneous charge. However, Avery Cardinal Dulles logically rebutted that false claim by explaining clearly in his FIRST THINGS article, October 2005, titled DEVELOPMENT or REVERSAL? that the Catholic Church merely developed its consistent position without change.
My post uses the word "development" in just that context, actually. But in any case I'm unsure why calling the change "a significant walk-back" (another phrase I used) entails that it was a reversal. Perhaps we could read one another with a bit of charity?
When a moral teacher tells you you must never do something, and later says that sometimes you may do it, the teacher has changed his/her teaching. It's the difference between "never" and "sometimes" that shows the change, unless, of course, in your vocabulary "sometimes" means "never".
"When a moral teacher tells you you must never do something, and later says that sometimes you may do it, the teacher has changed his/her teaching."This is true enough, but there is clearly an underlying commitment that remains the same despite the change; I take it that the point of calling it a "development" is to signal that this underlying idea comes to be better understood and articulated, rather than outright rejected.
John S. --Statements are either true or not true. The question here is: what did the Church mean in the 13th century and later when it said "You may never charge for lending money"? Unless there is evidence that the statement was ambiguous (in which case there would actually be *two* statements conveyed by one set of symbols), you don't have a case.Or is reasonable to think that when the Church now says and repeats and repeats, "You may never kill a fetus to save the life of a mother" that that statement really also means "With a few exceptions, you may not kill a fetus to save the life of a mother".
Ann,I am not denying that the teaching has changed. What is issue is whether that change constitutes a development of doctrine, involving a "preservation of type" as Newman puts it.
John,If you mean that the general principles embodied in the first statement have been retained in the new teaching, I agree that might true. But to replace specific teaching with a different specific teaching is not a development -- it's a change. Retaining some of your old position is just that -- retaining something old.
Most of the moral theology after the third century is an attempt by moralists to come back to the original gospel. So far had Christian leaders strayed from it. Christianity fostered the class system so much so that the clergy became the most privileged class until the French Revolution. In the majority of the Christian world blood relations have become more important than relationship to the body of Christ. Now too many moralists argue for a open system where banks and others can charge the market rate. But this problem is incidental to the fact that the unity of Christianity, at least with its leadership is a figment of one's imagination. The downtrodden are really despised as the victors get the spoils with the church approval. Nothing crystallized this more than the treatment of children by the church leadership.
A lender, during the whole time that the loan continues, deprives himself of a valuable thing, for the price of which he is compensated by the interest.Jct: The lender does not deprive himself of a valuable thing, he deprives himself of the receipt for the valuable thing, for the poker chip, not the asset. Usury is not interest on anything, it's no interest on cows, that could be excessive interest; it's not interest on grain, that could be excessive interest, usury is interest on sterile media: gold, silver, paper, computer credits that do not have babies and create a death-gamble mort-gage among players who all borrowed 10 and owe 11 in their elimination game of musical chairs with life-support tickets to the death! Thomas 95: Jesus said: "If you have money, do not lend it out at interest." Oh right, someone determined that Thomas wasn't worth keeping in the official Bible and ordered them all destroyed. Until they were rediscovered, undoctored by religious censors, in 1945 at Nag Hammadi! And who could have known Jesus's words better than his (twin?) brother "Judas of James," where James was their big brother. James didn't become King of the Jews like Jesus did because he had been consecrated from the womb as a priest. See Eisenman. Regardless, the early Christian communities ran a LETS Local Employment-Trading System where they pooled all their resources and no one was richer than the next. Personally, I don't mind those who score abundance having more as long their abundance supplies their want so that their abundance may later supply our want; in that way, he who gathered much didn't have too much and he who gathered little didn't have too little, that there be equality." CorrII,8:14 Of opportunity. But he who gathered much had more than he who gathered little, but not too much and not too little! Christian Communistic Capitalism where everyone gets to be a capialist whose winnings are available to help the poor! Imagine a world where the rich are the heroes of the poor! Instead of to those who have abundance will be given more and from those without abundance, even what they have will be taken away." "Taken away" meaning interest! This phrased differential equation explaining interest is the most repeated direct quote of Jesus in scripture! 7 times. His definition of interest, the malfunction turning the servant token system into a master slavery system, is his most cited quotation and absolutely no one but John The Engineer has ever explained what it meant. Of course, for arguing Christ spoke in differential equations, I was voted July 1995 global Kook-of-the-Month. I didn't feel so bad when my challenge whether, given the Bank Balance B, Interest rate i, and time t, anyone else could derive the differential equation in Christ's words. One Texas Physics student got it: dB/dt = iB dB/dt The rate of change of your bank balance B is the interest rate times your old balance so that to those who have abundance, positive Balance, will more be given and from those with negative Balance, even what they have will be taken away. I've put the whole exegisis to verse at http://johnturmel.com/poembibl.htm
I'm not sure how active or effective this campaign is, but Metro IAF's "Ten Percent is Enough!" website might be of interest to some folks here:http://www.10percentisenough.org/
Theology and philosophy should inform government decisions but shouldn't be allowed to make them - at least if you believe that democracy is the way to go. You can try to convince people that something is wrong, but if they don't listen or if they disagree, you're bound to accept their verdict. Of course, you can keep trying to convince them, as you should if you believe you're right.The trouble here is, of course, that modern America is built on debt. If we all lived within our means, we'd have a much smaller, less vibrant economy. Which maybe sounds nice until you realize that the temptation to debt is universal, and other countries likely wouldn't feel bound to live within their means. And in the global world, no country is an island.
Hi, John, I just want to commend you for this thoughtful post. One of my own little idiosyncratic thoughts is that debt has been an instrument of oppressing the poor for millenia, and free-market capitalism has its own ways of doing this.I've noted, in my own pastoral work, that there are two basic profiles of the poor in the US. One type is the underclass, who seem to be born into a thick culture of poverty, pass that culture along to their children, and find escaping that culture extremely difficult. The other profile are those who were born into the middle class, but have fallen into the dark and freezing waters of poverty. Often enough, debt is the powerful wave that washes them over ship's railing, and debt is the block of concrete tied to their ankles that prevents them from rising back to the surface. It could be a foreclosed house, it could be credit cards, it could be student loans. Those are the guises of the predatory lender, who has been around as long as humans have engaged in economic activity. In earlier times, we sold debtors and their families into slavery, or imprisoned them. Now we undermine their credit histories, and erect legal hurdles that make it nearly impossible to climb out of the water.


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Congressional GOP's pandering to the tea party may haunt them in 2016
Republicans are misreading the tea leaves
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a lackluster election year, the one story that seemed to offer decent drama was the "Tea Party versus the Republican Establishment" conflagration. The consensus is that the establishment won. The tea party didn't knock out any Senate Republicans and just two House incumbents.
I am now inclined to think that wasn't the big story and that the tea party didn't lose. The tea party did do poorly in elections and is losing support in the electorate.
But the movement is gaining power in Congress anyway. And that is likely to hurt the Republican Party badly down the road. That's the story.
Republicans are misreading the tea leaves when it comes to the tea party.
There is nothing about the 2014 primary election results that indicates the tea party is gaining broad support. There are ample signs the appeal of the movement is petering out. But Republicans in Congress, especially the House, are pandering to the tea party ethos more than ever, as demonstrated by their antics right before the August recess.
One vote crystallizes this. The House Republicans vote to curtail the program that offers amnesty to illegal immigrants who came to America as children, DACA, was a giant symbolic slap in the face of Hispanic voters. They are the fastest growing voting bloc in the country. They are also key to the national party's long-range strategy to win presidential and Senate elections.
So why would House Republicans cave in to the tea party once again, as they did over the government shutdown, when it is so clearly against the party's self-interest? To a have a chance for the White House, they have to do better with Hispanics, minorities and women than they have in past elections.
The widely accepted answer is that it is in individual House members' interests to cater to their right flank. They need to fend off conservative primary challengers and they don't have to worry about Democratic threats in general elections because their districts have been gerrymandered to be safely Republican.
But the threat of the tea party to GOP incumbents is exaggerated. What isn't exaggerated is the fear members of Congress have of losing their miserable jobs. It's also hard to exaggerate the weakness of the congressional GOP leadership in guiding their caucuses down a path that will help the party at large.
So where lurks this mighty tea party power?
Not in the voting booth.
No Senate incumbents lost to real right-wingers this year. No Senate incumbents lost any primaries at all. They rarely do.
A whooping three House incumbents lost. One was a guy who got to Congress on a fluke two years ago and didn't run a serious campaign for re-election. The other two did lose to tea party types, but the circumstances were also odd: Ralph Hall was the oldest serving member of Congress; Eric Cantor was in the leadership and fell out of sync with his district. But the Cantor loss scared his cronies in the caucus.
There are, however, tea partiers running for open seats. Ben Sasse of Nebraska is very likely to win his race and join the Cruz Caucus in the Senate. Tom Cotton of Arkansas also has a good shot at defeating Senator Mark Pryor.
It is harder to track House candidates and sort them into "Tea Party" and "Other" categories. There is no official list of tea party membership. According to one count, albeit a Democratic one, "21 of the 28 Republicans in House races have been endorsed by tea party groups or identify themselves as tea party Republicans."
But the Brookings Institution has been tracking the ideologies of GOP candidates and there are plenty of flavors beyond tea:
"The win-loss ratio of the tea party in this season's primaries is turning out to be a lot less important than the fact that they have been aggressively challenging Republicans at all levels," says Elaine Kamarck of Brookings. "If the House of Representatives' last week at work this summer was any indication, the tea party seems to be winning its internal policy battle regardless of what is happening at the polls."
They aren't doing well in the public opinion polls either, having steadily if not dramatically lost public support since their high in 2010.
According to a May report on a CBS News poll, "just 15 percent of Americans say they are supporters of the tea party movement - the lowest since CBS News began asking about the tea party in February 2010."
"The movement may be losing some of its core constituency – Republicans," according to CBS. "32 percent of self-identified Republicans now consider themselves supporters of the tea party - down 10 points from February and a decline of 23 points from July 2010, the summer before the Republican Party took control of the House of Representatives."
The tea party seems to have rebounded somewhat since that May low point but there has been no growth in support in years.
There is one trend that legitimately scares incumbents: They are winning primaries by smaller margins than usual.
Political scientist Robert Boatright of Clark University has the historical data on margins in Senate GOP primaries:
You can see that in 2014, the far right bar, there were more races with margins under 10 percentage points. But not many.
House Republicans are in slightly worse shape according to the National Journal, though incumbents did better in primaries this year than in 2010 and 2012: "So far in 2014, fully one in five House Republican incumbents (20 percent) has gotten below 70 percent of the vote in their primaries. One out of every 10 Republicans has finished below 60 percent, the point at which things start looking truly dangerous. Both rates are actually higher than in 2012 or the "anti-incumbent year" of 2010."
"There's no question that many members are much more concerned with their primaries than when I was first elected," Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania said to the National Journal."... And because too many of my colleagues are nervous about their primaries, it's interfering with their better judgment on governance issues. At times, I feel that too many of my colleagues are governing out of fear — or I should say, not governing out of fear."
There are, of course, many reasons why primaries are marginally tighter for Republicans than usual. The tea party phenomenon is just one of them. Congress is generally less trusted than ever. Independent expenditures are growing and change the dynamics. The country remains in a pessimistic post-recession mood that usually bodes poorly for incumbents.
Even in this climate, however, incumbents keep on winning. If congressional Republicans fear of losing is exaggerated, their fear of losing to tea party candidates is almost paranoid.
But tea party clout in Congress is growing. According to Elaine Kamarck of Brookings, "The absence of tools to enforce party discipline, the ubiquity of primary challengers to Republican incumbents and the early suggestion that incumbent margins are shrinking suggest that, in spite of tea party losses they are still having an enormous impact on their party and thus on the entire political system."
Clearly, the aggressively anti-government, nativist and doctrinaire outlook associated with tea party-ism has also become more mainstream in the GOP caucus, if not in country. The party in Congress has moved right and perhaps thinks the country has too.
In votes like the August immigration bill in the House, however, fear was the motivator, not kinship.
But looking out on the longer horizon of 2016 and beyond, Republicans are scared of the tea party for all the wrong reasons.


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More than 650 children and their families attended Early Childhood Health Fairs hosted in spring 2011 by the Special Education Clinic (SEC) with the generous support of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust. The fairs, held in Passaic and Vineland, New Jersey, offered information about federal, state and local resources and services that promote the healthy development and well-being of young children, with a particular focus on infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.
Click here (PDF) to see photos from the two health fairs.
|SEC Professors Esther Canty-Barnes (2nd from right) and Jennifer Rosen Valverde (2nd from left) with CVS representatives and Rutgers students.
Free and open to the public, the fairs featured more than 20 service providers/ programs, including:
— medical/health professionals, with information on child development, proper prenatal and post-natal care, nutrition, lead awareness, and early intervention services
— eye, cancer and blood pressure screenings
— social service providers with information on federal and state public benefits programs
— police and fire departments offering car seat safety checks, child fingerprinting, and fire safety awareness
— education providers promoting literacy and early childhood education opportunities.
Rutgers students and community volunteers ran health-related arts and crafts tables, read stories to the children, and provided other entertainment. A variety of companies and organizations as well as faculty and staff at Rutgers School of Law–Newark and Special Education Clinic alumni contributed books, health-related crafts supplies, food and drink, and monetary donations.
The Special Education Clinic/CVS partnership is just one of the many innovative ways SEC law and social work students, under the supervision of Clinical Professors Esther Canty-Barnes, SEC Director, and Jennifer Rosen Valverde, are educating parents and others involved in the lives of children with disabilities about their legal rights and responsibilities, and connecting children and families with community resources and supports.


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Sandy slowed US consumer spending and pay in October
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer
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#2. They Have the Worst Tactics
But let's put aside all the doubts we've raised thus far and just accept that Skynet is a "special needs" computer and is doing the best it can with what its got, bless it's heart.
Poor dear can't even remember to pick up its skulls after recess.
Fine: Skynet needs humanoid robots for some reason. Fine: It doesn't arm its most agile flying death machines for that same inexplicable reason. And fine: It needs to trick the humans into letting it in, rather than just exploding them from outside, because -- we don't know -- robo-vampires?
No, no. It's only his acting that's robotic.
There's still one more very basic tactic human beings have been using against one another for millennia, which the all-powerful supercomputer has apparently just completely forgotten about: biological weapons. Skynet has access to all of the military's databases -- that's where it came from, after all. And it has access to laboratories of some kind; it must, in order to do those flesh-cultivating experiments that allow it to graft the all-important cock and balls onto its soldiers. What's the downside to developing a biological weapon to deploy on the humans? Is it somehow beyond Skynet's intelligence? If so, how about using one of the thousands of biological weapons the military already had sitting around before Skynet killed them?
The military guys in The Rock left plenty of extras.
But no, the killer computer went straight to the nuclear option. Despite being robotic and therefore completely immune to biological weapons, Skynet opted to launch an explosive attack -- an attack that caused electro-magnetic pulses (which fry electronics), thus ensuring that its own forces around the strike point were all at least temporarily disabled too. An attack that, unlike with biological weapons, its own forces were also vulnerable to: The blast part of a nuclear bomb has pretty much the same effect on metal as it does on flesh and bone. An attack that (because Skynet's first army was built out of things it stole from the armed forces, and its first targets were military targets), pretty much blew up half of its potential resources right from the start.
So we say again, why not biological weapons? Why not a super-flu? Why not just spread some pre-existing disease around, like smallpox? Medical supplies are in short order, after all; you just blew most of them up. Why not poison the water supply? If there are bothersome ants in your house, you don't blow up your kitchen. You put the food away, leave out some poison or get some fucking bug spray.
A few billion tons of this ought to deal with the surface infestation.
#1. They're Built for Time Travel
But we're neglecting the whole time-travel aspect of the Terminator universe, and that's a central part of the plot: The main reason Terminators have to look and pass for human is so Skynet can send them, one at a time, back to the past, where they try to execute the leader of the resistance as a child, because he's too hard to kill in the present, when Skynet has access to millions of other Terminators, bombs, lasers and flying death machines.
John Connor only has the power of Scruff on his side.
Apparently Occams_Razor.exe failed to load on Skynet's last boot-up.
We'll roll with it, though: Terminators have to look human to blend into the pre-exploded world, and they have to be coated in flesh to travel backward through time, because in their universe time travel only works on living things. No clothes, weapons or artificial material goes back -- just flesh. So rather than just sit back and let the humans alter history, the Terminators found a loophole, coated themselves in skin and followed. That's the reason they can't bring back their crazy future weapons: They're not coated in flesh.
Why not?
'Cause it's grooooss.
There's nothing exclusive about the human form that causes flesh to grow on it and only it. Animals, fish and birds all have living flesh, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Terminators have to be human-shaped to blend in, sure, but the only thing that lets them step through the machine unharmed and wake up in the past is that vat-grown flesh. So why not coat one of those sweet laser miniguns in a skin suit and bring it back with you? You've already grown flesh over metal in one shape; there's no reason you can't slap it on any shape you damn well please. Sure, it would look like a giant throbbing meat-dong until you split open its flesh and pulled the weapon out, and that's gross and disturbing -- but hey, this is war. It's not a pleasant business.
That thing doesn't fire gumdrops.
Or for that matter, why bother sending Terminators back to hunt John Connor down at all? The movies have established that Skynet doesn't know exactly where the Connors are at any one time. But by going through records, it can always pinpoint the city, county or at least general area. So we've already established that the steel of a Terminator's skeleton, the wiring and circuits of its brain, and its nuclear power source can all travel back in time covered in a thin layer of flesh. You know what else you can make out of those same approximate materials? A nuclear bomb. Why not just grab the biggest one you can find, wrap it in a skin-suit, beam it back to Bumfuck, Arizona, where you know Sarah is hiding out somewhere, and take out the whole damn state with your gargantuan, fleshy, nuclear death-testicle?
Something like this.
Jesus, Skynet. Do we have to do everything ourselves ... including genocide?
Hold on, we're not finished picking apart this franchise yet. Check out 5 Reasons The Terminator Franchise Makes No Goddamn Sense and The Mapped Out Terminator Timeline (Will Melt Your Brain).


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WELLSBURG - Brooke County commissioners voted Thursday to implement a new addressing plan for unincorporated areas and said their goodbyes to three long-time employees as well as three outgoing elected officials.
Retiring are Christina Wells, a 20-plus year employee in the assessor's office; Sheriff's Deputy Matt Rogerson, a 20-year employee, and Cathy Metz, who'd been the sheriff's secretary for more than 22 years.
Celebrated for their devotion to public service were outgoing Brooke County Prosecutor Dave Cross, Sheriff Richard Ferguson and Commissioner Marty Bartz.
Article Photos
Linda Harris
PLAQUES PRESENTED — Recognized for their service to Brooke County residents over the years were, from left, Commissioner Marty Bartz, Prosecutor David Cross, Sheriff Richard Ferguson and Cathy Metz, the sheriff's secretary for the past 22-plus years. Commissioners presented each with a plaque Thursday recognizing their dedication and hard work over the years. Also recognized, but not present, were longtime employees Christina Wells and Sheriff's Deputy Matt Rogerson, each of whom retired after two decades or more with the county.
The mapping ordinance, meanwhile, requires residents in unincorporated areas, particularly those with rural delivery or rural route numbers, to post the city-style addresses assigned to them on their homes or businesses or, if that's not workable, at the entrance to their property.
The change conforms with a federal mandate intended to facilitate mail delivery and make it easier for police, firefighters and ambulance squads to respond to emergency calls.
Violators face a $500 fine.
Ferguson, who'd proposed the change, told the panel it's "a good thing for us," adding it's important that county residents know what needs to be done to comply with the new law.
"It's still a work in progress," he said.
Commissioners, meanwhile, also voted to return a parcel that the Brooke County Board of Education had donated for a new ambulance station.
Commissioners had considered taking the property, located across from Brooke High School, and leasing additional land from the Norfolk-Southern Railroad, but the plan fell through when they couldn't come up with the estimated $400,000 needed to build the station across from Brooke High.
Instead, two new, temporary stations were added - one north of Follansbee, the other at Marshall Terrace off state Route 67.
The land had been given to commissioners with a stipulation that, if the ambulance project fell through, it would be returned to the board of education.
In other business, commissioners:
Appointed Terry Bonaventura to the Brooke County Public Service District and tabled action on a proposed lease for the prosecutor's office until the January meeting.
Received a signed copy of a $4,000 grant for renovations and beautification efforts at Grimes Golden Park.
Were notified Comcast is changing its channel lineup, effective Jan. 29.
Set the reorganizational meeting for 10 a.m. Wednesday.
(Harris can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.com.)


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Hugh Osborne Jr.
Hugh Painter Osborne Jr., an 18-year resident of Valley, passed away on Oct. 27, 2012 in Spokane at the age of 74. Hugh was born on Dec. 19, 1937 in Binghamton, NY, the son of Hugh Painter and Ada (Phillips) Osborne. He moved often while growing up because of his father's work as an officer in the U.S. Army. Hugh graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1956 and began college. In 1958, he entered the U.S. Army and served for two years and then re¬turned to college as an "Aggie" at Texas A&M. On Oct. 7, 1961, Hugh married Priscilla "Perky" F. Hudon at St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Ione. Hugh was reinstated to active service as a result of the Berlin Crisis and was stationed at Ft. Lewis until 1963. Hugh then took a job for Seattle City Light, working on the Boundary Dam Project before relocating to Moscow, Idaho, where he completed his education at the University of Idaho in 1968. He and Perky began their family with the addition of their son, Joe, in 1965 and their daughter, Martha, in 1968. To¬gether they moved to Renton, where Hugh worked for an engi¬neering firm for two years. He continued engineering with his return to Seattle City Light in 1972 and the family relocated to Seattle. With over 22 years under his belt, Hugh began his re¬tirement in 1994. He and Perky moved to their retirement home in Valley, where he worked as an independent contractor until his passing.Hugh enjoyed snow skiing and shared this passion for over 25 years as a Ski Patrolman at Snoqualmie Pass and then for three years at 49 Degrees North. For many years, he coached Little League baseball and was actively involved with the Knight's of Columbus as a 4th Degree Knight, and American Legion Post no. 54 in Chewelah. Hugh shared his faith as a Lector at Holy Ghost Catholic Church. A proud patriot, Hugh served on the Stevens County Republican Central Committee as an executive board member.Hugh passionately followed his interests. He was a straight shooter, often energetically sharing his thoughts and convic¬tions. He loved and was loved by many who shared his interests and life. A loyal friend, a good father, and an awesome grand¬father, he gave of himself without restraint. His lived a full and active life, and will be greatly missed by many. Hugh was preceded in death by his father, Hugh Painter Os¬borne, and by his mother, Ada (Phillips) Osborne.He is survived by his wife, Perky, at the home; son, Joe Os¬borne and wife, Rhonda, Seattle;; daughter, Martha Osborne and husband, Robert Anderson, Mandeville, Louisiana; grand¬children, Joseph Jr., Helene and Carissa Osborne, Jennifer, Katherine, Victoria, Teresa and Madeline Anderson; brother, Samuel Osborne and wife, Nancy, Chapel Hill, NC; sister, Susan Girth and husband, Joseph, Oklahoma City, OK, many nieces, nephews and a host of extended family.A Rosary was held Nov. 2, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial Nov. 3 both at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Valley. The graveside service and vault interment followed the Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Valley.Please visit the on-line memorial and sign the guestbook at www.danekasfuneralchapel.com. Memorial contributions may be given to either the Knight of Columbus 4th Degree Chapter of the Unborn or the Chewelah American Legion Post no. 54. Danekas Funeral Chapel and Crematory is entrusted with the arrangements.


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BudgetBook is an iPad-only app made by the same developers as my favorite iPhone finance application, MoneyBook (you could have guessed from the name right?). The app is very well designed and has a lovely user interface which is a joy to use. The goal of BudgetBook is to let you keep track of your transactions in relation to a monthly budget you set, for total spending as well as category-specific budgets. In my view, this is the best way to keep track of your transactions and the only real reason you need a separate app compared to your internet bank. What makes the app as good as it is, is that it is simply and easy to use. Adding a new transaction doesn't take you long, nor does setting up your budget (if you know what budget you wish to give yourself that is). You are able to set up several different accounts, each with their own transactions, however an overall budget for all the accounts.
What I would like to see!
The budgets feature, although really good, has one major flaw in my eyes. When adding income as part of the category budget (salary) it will say "100%" when you haven't added a salary transaction. While this is the desired effect on expenses, income should be the other way around. With zero transactions for income, you have reached 0% of the budget. This may seem small, but for an application called "BudgetBook" it should be a non-issue. Since the same developer also makes MoneyBook with a My.MoneyBook cloud service, I would like to see some integration between these two applications. Being able to enter transactions on one device is fine, but both with syncing would be the killer feature.
As with MoneyBook, what I like about BudgetBook is that it is indeed so simple. Aside from the fact that it has got a gorgeous user interface, the app is very fast to use. It does not take you long at all to get your transactions into the app which is a big deal if you are going to use this on a daily basis. As our internet banks get more sophisticated, I like that the app just helps me find out how I am doing in relation to my budget. For these reasons, I would definitely recommend you getting BudgetBook if you want a solid finance app for the iPad that helps you keep track of where your money is going. Download BudgetBook for iPad here for $2.99


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Approaching Your Local Authorities
The purpose of this presentation is to educate law enforcement, prosecutors, or other authorities about SM-Leather- Fetish and/or swing practices on behalf of a local group(s). NCSF's goal in presenting this material is to help local group(s) to develop a positive relationship with their local authorities. The contents and delivery method of the outreach presentation are designed on a case-by-case basis. We suggest that local groups work together when presenting info
to local officials.
PDF Coming Soon
Zoning for SM & Swing Groups and Businesses
Zoning and permit issues are commonly used as a tool of local governments when seeking a method to attack SM groups and businesses. Typical "crimes" such as indecent exposure, lewd conduct, and the like are subject to interpretation by the police, prosecutor, and courts. Successful prosecution is
certainly possible but not guaranteed. Zoning and permit violations tend to be very cut and dry comparatively. For this reason, administrative issues are frequently used as tools to either move or shut down SM activities.
It is important for our community to have an understanding of these administrative rules in order to safely organize and maintain SM activities and functions. Zoning and permits vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This discussion will attempt address these issues in a general, overview
fashion. The attendees will benefit from the experiences of the panelists who have all dealt with legal and/or scene?related administrative issues.
There are numerous licensing, zoning, and permit requirements at all levels of government ? federal, state, regional, county and city. It's not easy to determine what licenses and permits you'll need, but it's very important. You should thoroughly research this issue if your SM organization or business may come under the scrutiny of law enforcement or local authorities. If you ignore these issues, you may face expenses and hassles you hadn't anticipated, and certainly don't desire.
Administrative (zoning, permit, and license) requirements can affect where you locate your organization or business, limit or require some remodeling, whether or not you'll have to provide off? street parking, whether you can serve alcohol, whether you can charge admission at the door, etc. If requirements are too restrictive you might decide to avoid the hassle and move to another jurisdiction ? if you find one that has fewer restrictions. Each jurisdiction has its own system of licensing, zoning, and permits. Obviously, it's impossible to provide a comprehensive list of every permit and license in every jurisdiction, so we must address items in general.
PDF coming soon
The Alleged Domestic Violence Call
It is important for SM/leather/fetish persons to have an understanding of the relationship between the SM community and law enforcement and of the numerous legal issues that can effect us ? specifically the law enforcement response to an alleged domestic violence call. Once this is accomplished, we can constructively interact with law enforcement if the need arises. This presentation will focus on two aspects of this relationship ? constructively dealing with officers and avoiding legal trouble. This workshop does not go in depth about the "cycle of abuse" or "real/actual" domestic violence, rather it is about consensual SM being misinterpreted as domestic violence by law enforcement. The discussion is designed to include the following sub?topics:
The law is a complex and ever?evolving system and has a long way to go before it takes all alternative lifestyles into consideration. In the meantime, we need to be as familiar with the law and of law enforcement as we can be. Utilizing our knowledge, people skills, and common sense, we can hopefully avoid becoming victimized by the society we live in.
PDF Coming Soon
Almost any day, you can find some reference to our kink lifestyle in the media. Because our choices are often sensationalized and mis-represented, it can be difficult for public organizations, our government, law officers and our courts to understand the vital difference consent makes. And within our own communities, we need to share the message that for all orientations and experience levels - Consent Counts!
The NCSF Incident Reporting & Response (IRR) program provides assistance to individuals and groups within the alternative sexual expression communities who become victimized because of SM, leather, fetish, or swing practices.
Request For Assistance Form
Emergency Number: (917) 848-6544
Copyright 2012-2015 - National Coalition for Sexual Freedom - NCSFreedom.org
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A corps is a company of Salvation Army junior and senior soldiers, recruits, adherents and other people (whose names may not be entered onto any Salvation Army Roll) who meet together under the care and direction of a commanding officer or other officially appointed person. A corps usually has a building or buildings in which it meets and it operates within a particular area.
Every Salvation Army meeting should have as its primary purpose the worship of God, leading to the salvation of the unconverted and/or the deepening of the spiritual life of God's people.
A mercy seat is available for use in all Salvation Army meetings. The mercy seat or penitent form (and, where used, the holiness table) is the central place in Salvation Army worship.
There is no virtue attached to either of these as such, but they provide a place for confession, repentance and consecration, as well as for spiritual guidance to be given to any seeker.
A section of the congregation in a typical Salvation Army meeting, with the Corps brass band accompanying the congregational singing.
Junior Soldiers
A Sunday morning meeting in progress at Boriach Corps, South Gujarat District. This is the pioneer Corps where the prayer hall was burned down .
As seen in the photographs below, Corps reach out from their buildings into the surrounding community:
n Amritsar City, local Salvationists lead the united Churches in the Palm Sunday witness.
Corps officers and Helpers leave for an evangelical campaign in the Beas District, Mukeria in spite of it being the hottest season of the year.
(from News & Prayer Bulletin, Northern Territory, April/June 2003)


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Nick: So that explains why I always get "breaks" in the ceiling and floor, because we can only optimize settings for horizontal view? And are u saying we can eliminate the ceiling and floor breaks by taking another 2 shots (one zenith and one nadir)? Thanks.
John: Well, with the Ultimate R1 and a known/common lens (namely Sigma 8mm f/3.5 Nikon mount), the given settings (by Nick) should already be free from parallax errors (only for horizontal view), isn't it? And in your article, you mentioned that the ideal should be 4 shots plus nadir and zenith (that's 6 shots in total). Could it be done with 3 shots plus nadir and zenith? Thanks.


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Endocrinologists are medical doctors who specialize in treatment of disorders of the endocrine system. The endocrine system is a network of glands in the body that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Among other things, hormones control growth, reproduction, metabolism, and blood sugar levels. Thus, endocrinologists treat a wide variety of conditions. Although endocrinologists may be nurses, physiologists, and educators (to name just a few), this article will focus on endocrinologists as a physician specialty.
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Terminal Fuse Block - Blue Sea Systems
This item is found in the following Product Families
Blue Sea Terminal Fuse Block - Marine Rated Battery Fuse
New isolated stud design uses standard M8 (5/16") hardware and permits stacking of terminals Compact, high-amp fuse-Appropriate for DC Main, …
MRBF - Marine Rated Battery Fuse. Easily and economically satisfies ABYC 7" circuit protection rule by mounting on a 3/8" battery post, battery switch or bus bar. Isolated stud design uses standard M8 hardware and permits stacking of terminals. Compact, high-amp fuse - appropriate for DC Main, inverter, windlass, and bow thruster circuit protection. Provides high current protection in tight space constraints. Weatherproof - suitable for small open-cockpit boats and other harsh environments. Insulating cap prevents accidental shorts. Accepts 5/16" or 3/8" ring terminals. *FUSES SOLD SEPARATELY*. Voltage Maximum Operating: 58V DC. Amperage Maximum Operating: 300A.
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Remember playing foosball at your favorite bar or arcade? Now you can bring home that same excitement with our iPad Foosball game. Just place your iPad on top, grab the control bars and show off your best pull, snake and bank shots. The free foosball app gives you multiple options for 1 to 4 players, while real score markers add the right touch of nostalgia. For tournament-grade action at home or away, iPad Foosball really scores!
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Item # 201561
Ever wish you could play foosball at home — or alone? Our iPad Foosball table is the ultimate gaming dock for tournament-grade action!
• Compatible with Apple iPad, iPad 2nd generation and iPad 3rd generation
• Powered by your iPad — no batteries or AC adapter needed
• Superb peripheral-to-game dynamics
• USB-B connector lets you charge and sync your iPad during play (cable included)
•Eight 2-axis control rods with comfort grips give each player total control
• Includes free foosball game app from the iTunes App Store
•Multiple playfields, teams and layouts
• Instant replay of every goal
• Sturdy design assembles/disassembles in minutes for easy transport
• Real score markers at each end of the table
• Includes optional adhesive pads to secure your iPad for aggressive play
• For 1 to 4 players
Length: 12.00
Width: 7.00
Height: 3.25
Weight: 2.80 Lbs
Our Price: $99.99
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Group in New York Arrested in Alleged ATM Cybercrime
Jose Familia Reyes allegedly withdrew so much money illegally from ATMs that he needed a backpack.
He carried it from automated-teller machines on Manhattan's Upper West Side to ATMs in the Chelsea neighborhood, and it grew heavier and heavier as he filled it with $20 bills, according to prosecutors. His alleged withdrawals were part of a theft that drained New York City ATMs of about $2.4 million in just 24 hours in February, making it the second-largest cash heist of any kind in the city's history.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., filed charges Thursday against Mr. Reyes and seven others, accusing them of taking part in a high-tech scheme to steal money from multiple ATMs simultaneously, using stolen prepaid debit-card numbers. The eight were part of a wider plot to steal tens of millions of dollars from locations across the globe, prosecutors allege.
The people charged mostly lived around Yonkers, N.Y., a city 2 miles north of Manhattan, but were members of a larger group that spanned five continents, prosecutors allege. Two cyberattacks in December and February involved ATM withdrawals in more than 20 countries, with one attack consisting of 36,000 ATM transactions over a 10-hour period, prosecutors said.
Lawyers for Mr. Reyes and the other people charged couldn't be located for comment Thursday.
No individual bank accounts were compromised as part of the alleged scheme. To carry out the theft, the cybercrime group allegedly hacked into computer networks for processors of prepaid debit cards provided by the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah PSC in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman, prosecutors said. The cybercriminals sharply increased the available balances for those cards and eliminated withdrawal limits on the cards, prosecutors said.
When it came time to withdraw the money, they would text or email PINs for the stolen cards to confederates around the world, who would execute coordinated ATM transactions at the same time, prosecutors said. In one instance, they allegedly used 12 stolen prepaid debit account numbers to withdraw about $40 million.
The cybercriminals would monitor the withdrawals in real-time from within the credit-card processing firms' computer networks, prosecutors said.
In order to conceal the proceeds, the money often was used to purchase luxury goods, such as automobiles and expensive watches, said prosecutors, who have seized tens of thousands of dollars in cash, Rolex watches and a Mercedes G63 AMG and are in the process of seizing a Porsche Panamera.
"This was indeed the largest theft of this type that we have yet seen," said Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. "This was a 21st century bank heist that reached through the Internet to span the globe. But, instead of guns and masks, this cybercrime organization used laptops and malware."
Citing the continuing investigation, Ms. Lynch declined to say where the organizers of the world-wide scheme are believed to be. She said they were looking into individuals in Asia and Europe.
The money was split between the "cashing crews" who made the withdrawals and the organizers of the scheme, prosecutors said. The cashing crews kept about 20% of the stolen money, prosecutors said.
The New York City theft ranked behind the theft of $5 million from John F. Kennedy International Airport after the money had arrived on a Lufthansa DLAKY 1.67 % flight in 1978.
Seven people living in the Yonkers area were arrested and allegedly were part of a New York cell of the organization, according to prosecutors.
An eighth person was charged but is believed to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic in April, according to prosecutors.
In addition to Mr. Reyes, 24 years old, the other people arrested are: Jael Mejia Collado, 23; Joan Luis Minier Lara, 22; Evan Jose Pena, 35; Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, 24; Emir Yasser Yeje, 24; and Chung Yu-Holguin, 22. Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, the alleged leader of the New York cell, is believed to be dead.
The charges include money laundering and conspiracy to commit access device fraud. Each person faces 10 years in prison on the money-laundering charges.
Write to Chad Bray at email@example.com