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|2004-10-31, 07:26
|Link #61
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Finland
Very promising start for this series, definetely one of my favorites in this season. When Anime-Keep releases their wide-screen version it will be hard to me to decide which one to follow.
|2004-10-31, 11:32
|Link #63
~Trying to Enjoy Life~
Hmm... This show is OK nia...
But one thing for sure, I really really hate the Hero... He worth not even a single cent in my point of view.
He is so rude to his sister which I could not accept at all, not to mention he treat her like maid... O_O Furthermore... what he knows is to buy all those nonsense stuffs.
Hmpf... Luckily the Doll come into his life and teach him some lessons of life. Sheesh... The clown should have kill him in the 1st place...
I'll give this show another episode for a try before Shift+Deleting it... The only thing keeps me watching is the strange dolls...
P/S: Somehow reminds me about the famous horror movie "Child's Play" Don't you think so?
|2004-10-31, 11:33
|Link #64
Disciple of the Flames
Join Date: Sep 2004
Then we have someone saying how they're not sure which group they'll be going with since both are of a high quality.
Where in all of that is the demand?
Personally, i take whichever comes first, and then when AK release get theirs, since i prefer to support the group that first introduced me to Anime. Thats why there's more than one group, it gives people variety, and lets them chose who they'll watch.
|2004-10-31, 11:36
|Link #65
Disciple of the Flames
Join Date: Sep 2004
|2004-11-01, 10:16
|Link #68
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
I have seen episode one and two yesterday.
After the first half of episode one I thought it might be an evil dolls are taking over the world show or at least that they might torment some children. Esspecially the opening and the first minutes have a creepy feeling to them.
For me this kind of dolls and clowns are creepy. Yeah I am a bit odd .
But after watching the rest of episode one and episode two it might not be a dark show after all.
That´s too bad .
I still hope it will be like Narutaru but with a better plot and not so bloodthirsty, just creepy...
We need some dead dolls and children here .
I will watch it even if it will be a cute/romantic/harem show. I like it so far.
|2004-11-01, 20:07
|Link #69
Rock beats scissors
Join Date: Jul 2004
After seeing the 2nd episode we have a general idea of where the plot is going with this, reminded me of Konjiki No Gash Bell although it's a bit different (the dolls are more in control and the price for failure is harsher) and possibly darker. Rozen Maiden looks promising, I hope it delivers. I also like both the op & ed song, with a preference for the ed. Anyone know the name of the ending song, and is a full version out yet?
|2004-11-01, 20:41
|Link #70
Bishy Collector
Join Date: Oct 2004
After watching the first fansub episode I'm more than willing to see another...and the second one is waiting to be viewed.
The doll seems to me to be a cross between Mrs. Peel and Mary Poppins, but mostly Mary Poppins. She has that no-nonsense-brooking, victorian looking, Brittish sensibilities aura about her. This can only be good news for a kid who really needs a nanny.
Maybe she can help him get over the compulsive disorder of ordering occult items online.
|2004-11-02, 01:02
|Link #71
Weapon of Mass Discussion
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, USA
|2004-11-02, 03:56
|Link #72
Join Date: Nov 2003
Just a side note, when Shinku slapped Tomoe , I look at him, and two things popped into my mind.
1. He looks as if he turns crazy and he is going to do something to the doll
2. Gosh that expression he had looks just like Shinji in EVA
|2004-11-02, 05:46
|Link #73
Rock beats scissors
Join Date: Jul 2004
Shinku is a doll, and I think she may be hundreds of years old (not sure what era that first scene in the first episode is, I suck at history). Only her appearance is that of a toddler.
Edit: victorian era comes to mind, which (I looked it up ) was from 1839 to 1901. So 100-200 years old *if* I'm correct.
Last edited by Trax; 2004-11-02 at 05:58.
|2004-11-02, 07:05
|Link #74
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Finland
Yes I agree. Hope they don't settle just introuducing another doll every ep.
Heh when I saw first ep. I so hated the male lead! But after shinku slapped him I was so happy. And after she made him her bitch I was hooked!
In ep 2 I was glad to see that those crazy hairstyle shinku has is not just for the show. It's also for bitch-slapping.
My Friend said this is some overcute anime for 2-year olds. I think that is just not true eve judging for the first few images out of the opening. God damn he is crying blood!
Btw. does anyone know where I could find a nice good quality picture of shinku? I could use this poster and divide it into pieces and then enlargen every piece before printing to get a nice big poster for my room!
The picture where male lead (I allways forget his name) is kneeling down before Shinku and kissing her rose ring.
|2004-11-02, 07:30
|Link #75
Rock beats scissors
Join Date: Jul 2004
Besides some humorous parts I have a feeling this anime could become pretty dark (hopefully), so I don't think it'll be for 2 year old at al. Has he actually watched these first few episodes?? Also the op&ed both have some unorthodox music, I love the eery ed sound especially. The op lyrics are pretty freaky aswell, and I love the moment in the op animation where Shinku turns her head sideways unsmoothly so you actually realize the creepyness of an animated doll.
|2004-11-02, 14:15
|Link #76
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Standing right behind you with a butcher knife...
|2004-11-02, 14:31
|Link #77
Disciple of the Flames
Join Date: Sep 2004
hmmm has anyone figured out what the first few minutes are about? I've just about fried my brain trying to figure it out. I get she had another servant, being the girl, but what was that entire thing about, there has to be some meaning to it, but ill be damned if i can figure it out.
|2004-11-02, 15:12
|Link #79
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Finland
|adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, nomad, peach-pit, seinen, supernatural
|Thread Tools


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This is a ranking simply of the online schools with the most graduates in the field of Agriculture & Agriculture Operations. While there are no quality metrics included in the ranking, there are advantages to picking popular programs. A program with lots of graduates and current students usually means a program that has earned a good reputation in the field. It also indicates a school that may devote a lot of resources to that specific program.
In 2016 a total of 636 students from 17 different online schools graduated with an Agriculture & Agriculture Operations degree.
The average graduating class was about 37, with some programs graduating as few as 4, and some with as many as 163.
Review the list below to find those schools with the most popular programs in the field, based on the number of annual graduates.
University Park, Pennsylvania
University Park, Pennsylvania

subset: commoncrawl


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Former Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation's grant recipient, Dr. Haining Yang (University of Hawai'i), is once again making news with the recent discovery of a protein that is activated following exposure to asbestos leading to the development of malignant mesothelioma. As reported by MedicalXpress.com, Dr. Haining Yang, PhD, and an international team of researchers have identified HMGB1 as a critical protein in the development of malignant mesothelioma. Dr. Yang's findings are the cover story of the July 1's Cancer Research, one of the nation's leading cancer research publications.
"We are very excited about this discovery and are extremely pleased that it was also chosen to be the featured cover story," said Yang. "The next step is to translate this discovery into actual treatments for mesothelioma patients."
This discovery into the growth of mesothelioma offers scientists an opportunity to develop specific therapies for mesothelioma patients. Mesothelioma, a malignant tumor of the lining of the lung, abdomen, or heart known to be caused by exposure to asbestos is considered one of the most aggressive of all cancers. Approximately 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year, yet available treatments have limited effectiveness. Identifying this biomarker for early detection will help shed light on developing new treatments for mesothelioma prevention and therapy.
Earlier this year this same lab worked collaboratively with others to announce the first gene associated with malignant mesothelioma BAP1. Dr. Giovanni Gaudino from the University of Hawai'i will be discussing BAP1 and its possible utility as a target for therapy and identifying those at high risk to develop mesothelioma at the Meso Foundation's 2012 Symposium during the "Demystifying Scientific Breakthroughs" panel. It is a very exciting time for mesothelioma research and the promise for further scientific breakthroughs will be the focus of discussion at the Symposium.
The current study was an international effort and included investigators from the University of Hawai'i Cancer Center, the John A Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu, the San Raffaele University and Research Institute in Milan, Italy, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and the New York University School of Medicine.


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Product Details
GMC Envoy / Envoy XL 2002, HELP!™ Rear Door Lock Rod Clip by Dorman®. Quantity: 1 Piece. Packaging Type: Card. Finish: Black. Material: Plastic. Dorman offers a comprehensive line of Door Lock Rod Clips manufactured to save you time, money and labor. Replace only the clip - instead of the entire door locking rod. This product is made of high-quality materials to serve you for years to come. Designed using state-of-the-art technology and with customers in mind, this product by Dorman will last a lifetime. It will meet your needs and deliver great quality at an affordable cost.
|Hole Diameter In: 0.25 In.
|Universal Or Specific Fit: Specific
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Dorman is here with excellent products that are available at a competitive price. The company does its utmost to provide the best possible solutions for your needs. All products by Dorman are made with expert care and created by professionals to meet all your requirements. The company does not accept compromises when it is going about quality, so you can be sure that all products have only first-rate. quality. With many years of manufacturing experience, Dorman is the name you can trust.
Dorman Products Inc. is well-known as a leader in providing quality auto parts to the aftermarket. They have earned their reputation for excellence from over three decades of experience in providing automotive replacement parts, fasteners and service line products primarily for the automotive aftermarket. Their prestigious position stems from a unique combination of application expertise, innovative product design, and breadth of product offerings, many of which are not conveniently or economically available elsewhere.


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The goal of this category is to locate and document the life of President Barack Obama, before and after becoming President. President Obama was born August 4th, 1961 and is the first African American to hold the office.
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Our View: Skip Harvey
For the 52 years before he entered public life, people probably knew Skip Harvey as "that guy with the smile on his face."
"Here comes that guy with the smile on his face again," people would say, and we'd notice they walked with a little more bounce to their steps just for having him pass by.
Matthew Lehman got to know Skip on the night that guy with a smile on his face rode his motorcycle cross-country to a party. "What a cool guy," Lehman says he remembered thinking.
On Mammoth Mountain, that smilin' guy was immensely popular as a ski instructor, and why not? His ebullience rubbed off on people. Soon, everyone up there had smiles on their faces after Skip finished a lesson.
One night in September, we ran across Skip at the blues event that Mammoth Brewing produces at Sam's Woodsite. Skip was holding an open bag of corn chips—the kind anybody can get at the supermarket. But the deli-master from Southern California had a trick. Order up a bag of chips, and you'd also get a ladle-full of chili over the top, right onto the chips and into the bag, along with a decent-sized spoon, too.
"I picked this up in Manhattan Beach," he said. "Good, isn't it?"
He scooped out a spoonful of chips and chili and then flashed that big, toothy smile. We couldn't decide what made us feel better—the chips-and-chili thing or the smile.
From time to time we'd drop into the Base Camp Café for some wholesome sustenance, and when the owner was in—that would be Skip—we could sit around and talk skiing, snow conditions on the hill, what the weather might bring and that kind of thing. It was more than chit-chat but less than what you'd call a serious discussion.
We loved that about Skip.
When he entered public life on the Town Council, he had built a large foundation of friendships and relationships—his own base camp, so to speak.
We couldn't help but notice that most of the media reports about Skip's death on Monday morning seemed to be almost totally focused on his work on the council during the last eight years.
We remembered, too, but there was something else.
One day, we were trying to reach Skip for some such or another thing. We rang his mobile number, and after a few rings, he answered. Obviously he was outdoors.
"Skip, where the heck are you?" we asked.
"I am standing on the top of Mammoth Mountain," he enthused. "It is SUCH a beautiful day up here. Why don't you come on up?"
We spoke about the issue at hand, but not before Skip got in a last word: "You have no idea how nice it is up here today."
We could imagine that big ol' smile creeping over his mug. We could picture him pointing his skis downhill from the gondola station. We could conjure the sight of Skip, disappearing over the lip and then swooshing into Cornice Bowl for some perfectly executed carved turns.
We're really going to miss moments like those around here.


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Casper BrinkleyFree Agent
Defensive Line
Ht: | Wt:
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|Panthers | Birmingham, Kaesviharn amongst players released
Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:44:50 -0700
Panthers.com reports the Carolina Panthers have released OL Justin Geisinger and S Kevin Kaesviharn. The team waived WR Larry Beavers, RB DeCori Birmingham, DL Casper Brinkley, OL Patrick Brown, QB Hunter Cantwell, WR Jason Chery, S Paul Chara, DB D.J. Clark, TE Andrew Davie, DT Marlon Favorite, DB Joe Fields, OL Keith Gray, LB Anthony Heygood, DT George Hypolite, LB Mortty Ivy, RB Jamall Lee, LB Jeremy Leman, WR Kevin McMahan, WR Marcus Monk, OL Jonathan Palmer and LB Kelvin Smith.
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|Panthers | Brinkley signed to practice squad
Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:44:08 -0700
Steve Reed, of CarolinaGrowl.com, reports the Carolina Panthers have signed free-agent DL Casper Brinkley (Panthers) to their practice squad.
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|Panthers | Team signs Brinkley
Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:02:22 -0700
Josh Buchanan, of NFLDraftBible.com, reports the Carolina Panthers signed undrafted free-agent rookie DL Casper Brinkley (South Carolina) Monday, April 28. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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|NFL | Brinkley works out at Pro Day
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:16:39 -0700
Gil Brandt, of NFL.com, reports South Carolina LB Casper Brinkley worked out at his school's Pro Day March 26. Brinkley ran a 4.80 and 4.86 40-yard dash, had a 28 1/2-inch vertical jump, a nine-foot, four-inch broad jump, a 4.51-second short shuttle, a 7.68-second three-cone drill and completed 20 repetitions on the 225-pound bench press. Brinkley ran position drills but kept the rest of his numbers from the 2008 NFL Scouting Combine. He measured in at 6-foot-2 1/8 and 259 pounds.
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text:
Marjorie Morningstar
The conservative novel that liberal feminists love.
Click here to read more from Slate's "Book Blitz."
Fifty years ago this month, the novelist Herman Wouk published Marjorie Morningstar, a romantic opus about a young Jewish girl from Central Park West with dreams of becoming an actress. By 1955, Wouk, an Orthodox Jew, had already established himself as a popular writer of entertaining, if bloated, novels, advocating for essentially conservative values, among them unquestioning respect for social propriety. Marjorie became an instant best seller, landing its author on the cover of Time and serving as the basis for a movie starring Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly. The book still sells several thousand copies a year and has become a staple of college courses and book clubs. Al Pacino recently optioned a remake of Marjorie and has reportedly landed his leading lady: Scarlett Johansson, who received the book from her mother. "I read it and thought, 'Oh my god, this is me,' " Johansson said.
Actually, Johansson is not Marjorie at all: Wouk's heroine never makes it to the stage. Instead, she winds up as the suburban matron she swore she would never become. But women like Scarlett Johansson continue to read and adore Marjorie Morningstar, overlooking its reactionary messages. Like a literary golem, Marjorie seems to have upstaged her creator, seducing readers in a way Wouk likely never intended.
She starts off as Marjorie Morgenstern, the beautiful, energetic, spoiled 19-year-old daughter of a Jewish family barely bourgeois enough to keep up with her. Through 556 of the book's 565 pages, Wouk successfully evokes her inner life as she rebels against expectations. Marjorie outgrows everything from her past—her Bronx boyfriend, her Jewish surname, even her mother's traditionalist messages about sex: "the strongest assault on her old convictions came from a most unexpected quarter: her own body." As she matures, she shakes off emotional and intellectual baby fat, finding in their place the muscles to interact with the world on her own terms.
Marjorie's independence is tested when she lets herself fall for Noel Airman, the charismatic summer-stock director who spouts Nietzsche and Freud and who, as one character puts it, "writes songs with his fingertips, the way he does everything else." "I eat little girls like you," he informs Marjorie, revealing why he's not the kind of guy to bring home for Passover Seder. But within a few chapters, the hunter becomes the hunted, as Noel realizes he may have met his match. "I love you," he exclaims at one point. "Don't you understand, you little torturer? You've executed the vengeance of your non-existent God on me."
Not surprisingly, readers—especially female readers—lap up this story: Naive good girl charms degenerate cad, finds herself along the way. Marjorie maintains her confidence, even as Noel accuses her of being one of the "Shirleys," those dime-a-dozen girls who swear they're destined for a higher calling but who are really out for "what a woman should want, always has and always will—big diamond engagement ring, house in a good neighborhood, furniture, children, well-made clothes, furs." Marjorie ripostes by offering her own theory of "Sidneys"—men who, despite pretensions to the contrary, end up following in their fathers' dull footsteps.
Still, Marjorie's inherited prejudices about men and relationships—why buy the cow, etc.—inhibit her from breaching the final frontier of this adventure: sex. For several hundred pages, the reader is forced to endure the maddening on-the-one-hand-this, on-the-other-hand-that of adolescent decision-making, until Marjorie finally gets on a friend's nerves. "What do you want me to do—sleep with him like all his other trollops? And then let him kick me out when he's had all he wants?" she asks her friend, Marsha, who—mercifully—blows her top: "YES, God damn you, YES! If you're not woman enough to hold him, all you deserve is to be kicked out. … Live your life, you poor boob."
Sex here is a metaphor for "living one's life"—which, as far as Wouk is concerned, is decidedly not a good idea for women. Marjorie lets herself follow her dream and, when it doesn't work out, lashes out at herself for being stupid enough to try, for not seeing "the miserable fallacy" in Marsha's argument: "Getting out of the bed, breaking off the affair, didn't end the matter at all. It was only the beginning of the heart of the experience, which was an ever-deepening ordeal of pain and depression."
Marjorie's relationship with Noel is portrayed as a rebellion—from her parents and her tradition. But, as Time noted in 1955, "[t]o Wouk, rebellion for rebellion's sake is an outmoded adolescent cliché." So, in one of the swiftest switchbacks in literature, a book that appears at first to be a languid exploration of adolescence curdles into an anti-adolescent screed, a fierce argument against exploration of any kind for women. In the final nine pages, the formerly vibrant Marjorie gives up on her career, gets married to a man named Sidney—er, Milton—Schwartz, and moves to Westchester. She is one of the lucky ones, Wouk seems to be arguing, a fallen woman fortunate enough to land a nice Jewish doctor who can forgive her straying from the virtuous path: "He took her as she was, with her deformity … that could no longer be helped; a permanent crippling, like a crooked arm."
Most female readers cry when they reach the end of this book, and for good reason. Marjorie Morningstar, as they came to know her, has become another woman entirely: "You couldn't write a play about her that would run a week, or a novel that would sell a thousand copies. … The only remarkable thing about Mrs. Schwartz is that she ever hoped to be remarkable, that she ever dreamed of being Marjorie Morningstar." These were Marjorie Morgenstern's options in life: Mrs. Schwartz or Marjorie Morningstar; a dull life—comfortably rooted in family and tradition—or a spectacular one, marked by romance, but also by heartache and instability. Wouk, who has said he modeled Marjorie's story after his sister's experiences, recently acknowledged that he's read "the occasional objection to the end as 'disastrous, wrong, too sad, too religious,' and what you will." But, he added, "it's just the truth."
Even in 1955, critics noted the absurdity in Wouk's Manichaean setup. Aspiring to be a famous actress may be an adolescent pipe dream, but, as literary critic Maxwell Geismar asked in the New York Times, "is there no other course for Mr. Wouk's heroine except total social conformity?"
Of course there is, or at least there has been since the 1970s: a "third way" in which one's professional aspirations are juggled with domestic ones, BlackBerrys balanced with baby bottles. So, why are today's post-feminist women still reading—and loving—Marjorie Morningstar?
To start with, the juggling act has proved less glamorous than expected, with women now portrayed as running themselves ragged trying to have it all. As a result, Marjorie Morningstar has emerged as a new favorite of those post-feminists and traditionalists who share Wouk's disdain for adolescent experimentation and his advocacy of more conservative roles for women. For them, Marjorie offers survivor's wisdom from the outside world. "Trust me," she seems to say, "I've been there, and it's not worth it."
Most contemporary readers, though, don't come to the book with any agenda, nor do they leave with one. In fact, since the book's publication, the end has confounded many readers, leaving more than one book club discussion in tatters over Wouk's intended meaning.
Regardless, there is one point of agreement: Almost everyone loves the Marjorie of the first 556 pages. This Marjorie evokes the period when girls are still free to dream about their future, before they actually have to start making choices about it. Wouk might wince at the thought, but what women enjoy about his book is the promise of adolescence. As she enters middle age, Marjorie continues to defy her paternal creator, like the rebellious teenager she was meant to be.


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In a video statement carried recently by several official channels maintained by members of the hacker activist group "Anonymous," a digitally generated voice explains that the online collective has decided to take down the Fox News website on Nov. 5th of this year.
The date, Nov. 5, is significant for its dramatic placement in the film and comic book "V for Vendetta," about a freedom-loving terrorist who destroys an authoritarian government that's come to power in the U.K. "Remember, remember the 5th of November," is his saying, hearkening back to the "Gunpowder plot" of 1604, in which the terrorist Guy Fawkes was captured and executed for his attempt to blow up Parliament.
The mask used by the Guy Fawkes character in "V for Vendetta" has also become a ubiquitous symbol for "Anonymous."
To mark this 5th of November, the latest "Anonymous" video points to the network's "continued propaganda against the occupations" as reason for vowing to "destroy the Fox News website."
"Since they will not stop ridiculing the occupiers, we will simply shut them down," the digitized voice explains, adding that an Anonymous-driven "propaganda campaign" against Fox News would follow.
"Fox News, your time has come," it concludes. "Operation Fox Hunt. November 5th. May the hunt begin."
Another ongoing "operation," called "Operation Cashback," is encouraging people to move their money from large banks to local credit unions.
A number of prior "Anonymous" operations have not generated the desired results, although the group has claimed quite a few stunning successes over the last year. Still, some other advertised "operations" have been fakes that never materialized at all.
Because of the nature of the group — whereas literally anyone could be "Anonymous" — it's irresponsible to say whether this "Operation Fox Hunt" might even happen. And while "Operation Fox Hunt" does seem to fall in-line with many of the group's stated political objectives in the past, the video also seems to exhibit a lower production value than prior legitimate "Anonymous" releases.
Still, for a group that's wrecked shop everywhere from the Iranian and Tunisian governments to U.S. defense contractors Booz Allen Hamilton and HBGary, it's also fair to say that anything's possible.
This video was published to YouTube on Oct. 22, 2011.
Photo: Flickr user Grotuk.


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Tech Committee Meeting Minutes 16 Jul 2013
From PKP Wiki
Present: Bart Kawula (OCUL), Brian Gregg (Pitt), Jason Nugent (PKP), Barbara Hui (CDL), Alec Smecher (PKP), Allan Bell (UBC), Bozana Bokan (FUB), Marc Bria (UAB), Lisa Schiff (CDL), Rachael Hu (CDL)
Minutes: Alec (PKP)
Round of updates
- Alec (PKP): Final preparations for OJS 3.0 alpha; successful review with CDL on Thursday; upcoming review with John on Tuesday. Theming discussion continues, with alpha not going to include results, but to form basis for hacking/discussion.
- Bartek (OCUL): Continued contact with UofO about OMP pilot; busy but keen, especially after seeing French; hope to hear back within a few weeks.
- Bozana (FUB): Working to port some updates to the 3.0 codebase; preparing 2 workshops.
- Brian Gregg (Pitt): Not much to report; just returned from OR2013.
- Lisa (CDL): Trying to add taxonomy to a workflow; adding new fields to article settings. Frustrating.
- Marc (UAB): Busy with non-PKP work. Participated in theming discussion; discussion on systems to get feedback from user community. Will send forum post to group describing hosting; will contact Alec re: problematic URLs in OJS.
- Barbara (CDL): Back-porting for OJS 3.0; stuck on upgrades. Alec will assist.
- Rachael (CDL): Introduction; working on UI/UX review. Hope to get user testing started by end of month/beginning of next. Working on recruitment; ensuring UI/UX review doesn't collide with user feedback discussion or alpha release. Want to capture all categories of use: editorial-only with publication elsewhere; full workflow and publishing; etc. Different roles. Open to joining this group again to keep projects synchronized.
- Marc: Shared http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/12/11/fullscreen-pageflip-layout/ as an inspiring example
- Rachael: May also be useful for environmental scan; will share credentials for wiki for others to view.
- Bozana: May have journals in Germany that would be interesting to include.
- Allan (UBC): Continue to be resource-constrained for technical personnel; not sure this committee is the best fit. Speaking with Brian about other opportunities.
- Rachael: Advisory? Coordination? Potentials there.
- Brian: Pittsburgh is in a similar situation.
- Alec: Suggest continuing to talk with Brian about opportunities and reporting back; he seemed optimistic about UBC's potential.
- Jason (PKP): Bug fixing; reader front end; preparing for OJS 3.0 alpha release. Will be traveling for approx. 2 weeks.
OJS UX Review project
- (As above)
Discuss process: Getting feedback from the PKP community
- Alec: Discussion covers several topics: bridging gap between high- and low-level tasks; soliciting feedback and prioritization; continuous feedback and testing
- Bozana: Email could work too, depending on process; feels more personal. Not sure whether this was specific to alpha release or ongoing. Not sure if this will involve a lot of additional administration.
- Alec: Was considering this for ongoing planning and community involvement, not so much specific to Alpha release. We're already looking at ways to categorize/display mid-level tasks internally, so exposing to community might not be much extra administration.
- Rachael: Was concerned about overlap, now less so. Can use UI/UX review to inform ongoing process.
- Alec: Like the idea, but can't really help design it because PKP doesn't have methodology. Open to proposals.
- Marc: Overall suggestions. Asks for a way/tool to know if an website is full reviewed (as far as translators need to test every possible screen); also suggest XAMPP as packaging platform for less technical testers.
- Rachael: Distinguish between technical testing and end-user testing per CDL.
- Bozana: Also specific tasks have opportunities for testing, e.g. file upload, which is quite different from before.
- Jason: Another testing platform option is VirtualBox images.
- Alec: VirtualBox image could be interesting tie-in to old/moribund "PKP appliance" discussion, which needs proposals. Packaging too much risks decreasing platform testing, but suspect it would result in more testers overall.
- Jason: Likewise Mark Leggott's work on Islandora (?) (WRT images and appliances).
- Alec: Conversation is diverging; suggest regrouping and problem-solving each element separately.
- Barbara: Will summarize based on minutes.
- Alec: Will introduce Marc to translation tools discussion (Pootle, Transifex)
ORCID grant opportunity
- Lisa: Might be an opportunity for a group to take it on and partner/cooperate with PKP.
- Alec: Have already been approached by 3 groups with similar ideas. Have to tackle some author disambiguation work internally before ORCID integration would be suitable; spec work underway. Not sure how applicable membership is going to be to our user community. Will inquire with ORCID about possibilities.
PKP Tech Committee Meeting
- At PKP Conference in Mexico City - Tuesday 20 August during lunch, which is 1:15-3pm
- Details for telepresence not available yet, but it's a priority


text:
Assignment: Gun control debate: Background checks
iREPORTS FILED
iREPORTERS SIGNED UP
Created December 18, 2012 by
For many Americans, the 2nd Amendment's right to "keep and bear arms" is among the most important parts of the U.S. Constitution.
But when it comes to types of firearms, what does that mean, exactly? Lately, Americans have been thinking hard about that question after the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Connecticut.
Lawmakers failed to get enough support for new gun control laws regulating certain types of semiautomatic firearms, and also failed to get background check legislation through the Senate.
We invite you to share your view: Who should get background checks? Should they be universal, or just for select groups of people? Should there only be checks for certain classes of weapons, like assault rifles? And what do you think now that the bill has been defeated?
A mother's journey to bearing arms
Why would someone own a military-style rifle?
Marine to senator: 'No ma'am,' I won't register my guns


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Enter a search term such as "mobile analytics" or browse our content using the filters above.
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Australia's online sporting and physical recreation goods industry is expected to hit a huge $1.04 billion by 2018, thanks in large part to a changing retail landscape and an ageing population.
A new IBISWorld report has forecasted that online stores selling goods such as bicycles, camping equipment, exercise and fitness tools (excluding apparel) will see revenue increase by an annualised 6.3% over the next five years.
And one of the reasons for this expected rise in revenue is Australia's ageing population, who are focusing more on health and fitness after retirement.
IBISWorld industry analyst Naren Sivasailam says that Australians are becoming increasingly more aware of the importance of physical activity, which is creating an optimistic outlook for the industry's future.
The industry has benefitted from increased awareness of the link between obesity and lack of physical activity, which has made sports participation and exercise a priority for households and government alike.
Changing demographics and increased leisure time availability have also boded well for sales of camping and outdoor equipment.
The widening availability of internet access is also helping the industry with more consumers spending their dollars online.
The roll-out of the National Broadband Network will see even more regional areas connect to the internet at faster speeds, widening the potential consumer base.
Jeremy Edwards, IBISWorld senior analyst, believes the market is ripe for opportunity at the moment and suggests that retailers ensure their websites are as user friendly as possible so not to exclude the older generation.
There's obviously a huge opportunity for people who are selling any sort of retail goods online, with 20% growth per annum in online retail.
There's room for new players and for bricks-and-mortar retailers to come online and make sure they're offering a physical storefront as well as an online platform.
Sivasailam also points to mobile commerce as being extremely beneficial to the industry as it allows retailers to reach a wider, more technology savvy audience.
Currently the major player in the industry is Super Retail Group, who IBISWorld estimates to have 55% market share. Super Retail Group owns Rebel Sport, Ray's Outdoors, BCF, Amart Allsports and Goldcross Cycles.
[Image credit: Donald Lee Pardue]
Comments (1)
Basically retailers like Super Retail have large holdings on, and in, the market place because of their propensity to take over other smaller successful players in the industry.
The downside of this is that people who are providing great service and business success are lost to the industry as these company types take over, become bigger and in some cases aragant, without giving the public at large what they really want.
I sometimes wonder what real economic benefit is actually provided by Companies that are really just BIG.


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PHILADELPHIA (AP) Built to win now, the Philadelphia Phillies crumbled without their biggest star players.
The Phillies' streak of five consecutive NL East titles ended and so did their run of nine straight winning seasons after an 81-81 finish that seemed like a decent accomplishment given their awful first half.
Injuries to Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Roy Halladay were too much for Philadelphia to overcome. The Phillies struggled to replace their Nos. 3-4 hitters who combined to miss 160 games to start the season, and sorely missed their No. 1 ace for a two-month stretch in the middle.
But can this down year be entirely blamed on injuries or are the Phillies trending downward?
``We have a talented group of guys and injury did play a part,'' general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Thursday. ``I don't like to use that as an excuse, but it is what it is. Be that as it may, we no longer are National League East champions. That goes to the Washington Nationals. We have to knock them off. We have a lot of work to do.''
Jimmy Rollins, the former NL MVP, once proclaimed the Phillies were the team to beat in the division before they even began their title run. Then they went out and conquered the East, winning a World Series championship along the way. Rollins isn't ready to concede that the Nationals are the best team in the East, even though they finished with a major league-best 98 wins.
``With us being healthy, they're still second place,'' Rollins
That's a bold statement for sure. Rollins, however, has a point.
The Phillies played their best baseball during a 7 1/2-week stretch from July 31 to Sept. 21, going 31-17 to climb back into the postseason race after falling to a season-worst 14 games under .500 right after the All-Star break.
They were 13 games out of a wild-card spot when they traded two-time All-Star outfielders Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino hours before the non-waiver deadline, and were already looking ahead to 2013.
Then they started winning as Utley and Howard found their groove, Rollins got hot and others contributed. A seven-game winning streak had the Phillies within three games of St. Louis for the second-wild card berth on Sept. 13. After losing three of four to lowly Houston, the Phillies won four in a row to get to a season-best three games over .500. They again were three games behind the Cardinals with 11 to play only to lose seven of the last 11.
``We got ourselves in a pretty big hole early,'' pitcher Cliff Lee said. ``It was too big of a hole to dig ourselves out of. We played really well in the second half, made our season definitely more respectable, but considering how bad we were in the first half, we were very fortunate to be where we were these past few weeks.''
Since winning the franchise's second World Series title in 2008, the Phillies have taken one step backward each season. They lost to the New York Yankees in six games in the 2009 World Series, lost to the San Francisco Giants in six games in the 2010 NLCS, lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games in the 2011 NL division series.
Now after missing the playoffs entirely, they aim to get back in contention and make a serious run at another World Series before their aging stars are completely past their prime.
``There is urgency,'' Amaro said. ``Our core guys are not getting any younger. The bottom line is this, if our players that we paid a great deal of money to do not perform next year, we're going to be in trouble. We need them to perform.''
The Phillies owe Howard at least $105 million over the next five years. Utley has one year and $15 million left on his deal. Rollins has $33 million guaranteed over the next three seasons with an option for 2015. Lee will get at least $97.5 million for the next four years. Halladay makes $20 million next year. Cole Hamels signed a $144 million, six-year deal that begins in 2013.
Howard hit just .219 and struck out 99 times in 260 at-bats. But he also drove in 56 runs in 71 games. Utley batted just .256, the fifth straight year his average declined. Rollins hit .250, though he had a team-high 23 homers and 68 RBIs out of the leadoff spot.
Lee had a rough season, going just 6-9. But he had a 3.16 ERA and didn't get much run support. Halladay was 11-8 with a 4.49 ERA that was the second-worst in his career. Hamels went 17-6 with a 3.05 ERA.
``Ryan Howard has to perform. Chase Utley has to perform. Roy Halladay has to come back and perform,'' Amaro said. ``And we have to get that performance out of guys like (Carlos Ruiz), Hamels and Lee. If we don't get their performance, it's going to be troublesome for us. We rely on those guys to perform. We think they will. We're hopeful they're healthy. We need to support them better.''
Amaro has several holes to fill. Manager Charlie Manuel can pencil just four regulars into his lineup right now: Howard, Utley, Rollins and Ruiz. The Phillies need a third baseman and have to figure out who will play in the outfield.
Domonic Brown, a former untouchable prospect, hit .235 in 187 at-bats so he's not guaranteed a starting spot. Darin Ruf led the minor leagues with 38 homers and hit three more in 33 at-bats with the Phillies, but he still has to learn to play left field in the Venezuelan winter league.
The Phillies likely will target potential free agents B.J. Upton of Tampa Bay or Michael Bourn of Atlanta. Trading Pence gave Amaro the financial flexibility to add a high-priced player if Philadelphia chooses that route.
``There are people there who might help us,'' Amaro said. ``That said, there may be some people on the trade market that may be better for us. The free-agent market overall on the offensive side is not fantastic, but that doesn't mean we can't get better.''
Either way, Amaro has a tough task ahead.
AP freelance writers Dan Feldman and Harvey Valentine in Washington contributed to this report.


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We come now to the gospel of Mark. Open your Bible, if you will, to the first chapter of Mark...the first chapter of Mark. And we are going to read for you the opening eight verses, and then we're going to look at them this morning. Mark chapter 1 and verse 1.
"The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold, I send My messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."
"John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him and all the people of Jerusalem and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And he was preaching and saying, 'After me, one is coming who is mightier than I and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'" Thus does Mark begin his history of the Lord Jesus Christ, drawn from his time spent with the beloved Apostle Peter who was the human source of his information. Of course, superintended and guided by the Holy Spirit so that when he wrote, he wrote under divine inspiration.
The key word that I want you to look at is in verse 1, it is the word "gospel." The word "gospel," of course, is very familiar to us. Sometimes when we use the word "gospel" we actually mean a book, like the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, or the gospel of John. But in the New Testament, the gospel is never a reference to one of those four books. The word "gospel" in the New Testament always refers to the message of salvation. And that's its usage here.
How are we to understand then in the context in which Mark is writing,, the usage of this word? How would first century people view its significance? There is here given no definition of the word "gospel." The Greek word, euangelion is the word "gospel" that appears in our English Bible. But what did the word euangelion mean to those who would read or hear this book read? Is it a word that is so inimitably Christian that we invented it? Is the word "gospel" our word? Is euangelion distinctively a New Testament word?
Well the answer to that question is no. It's a very old word and it was a very familiar word both to Jews and to Gentiles long in usage and rather specific in its meaning. Yes, the word euangelion means good news, joyous message, glad tidings. But it had a more technical usage both in the minds of the Jews and the Gentiles as well. And remember now, Mark is writing from Rome to Roman Christians and Roman non-Christians, primarily then a Gentile audience. It's important then to consider how they would understand this word since he doesn't define it for them.
But let's, first of all, wonder how the Jews would understand it. There certainly were Jews among the Christians. There were certainly Jews among the non-Christians who would read and have read and continue to read this book. So what does gospel mean to them? How does it connect to them?
Well, it is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, the Old Testament written originally in Hebrew but there is a Greek version of it in which the word euangelion is the best translation of the Old Testament word. For that, I would take you back to listen carefully to Isaiah chapter 40...Isaiah chapter 40. This is a very important chapter, by the way, Isaiah 40, because it looks forward to the coming of Messiah in the far-distant future. It also looks forward in the near future to the children of Israel being released from captivity and going back to their land. That is why chapter 40 begins, "Comfort, O comfort My people, speak kindly to Jerusalem, call out to her, her warfare has ended, her iniquity has been removed. She has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Her punishment is over, it's time for restoration." That's what Isaiah is saying and that looks in the near future from Isaiah's vantage point to the return of the Babylonian captivity and from the far viewpoint to the future coming of Messiah.
Dropping down to verse 9 in that chapter, we read this, "Get yourself up on a high mountain, there's an announcement coming. Find the highest point to make the announcement so you can be heard by most people. O Zion, bearer of good news." There is the word in the Septuagint euangelion, good news. "Lift up your voice mightily. O Jerusalem, bearer of good news, lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, 'Here is your God. Behold the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him.'"
It is announcing the good news of the arrival of God. That is its usage. It refers to the ascent of God to rule, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. When you're talking about good news, you're talking about, this is the best news possible. Remember now, these are people who are captive. They are being told there is coming a restoration. The punishment and chastisement is over. You're going back and the Lord is going to ascend again into His throne and He is going to rule over you. In the forty-second chapter...or the fifty-second chapter of Isaiah, we find a similar usage of this in the same context. Verse 7, Isaiah 52, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. Again this is the same good news who announces peace, who brings news of happiness, who announces salvation. And what is going to bring happiness and peace and salvation? Say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"
So while the word euangelion might have some broad meanings, its technical meaning was to describe the very best news possible which was the ascent of a new king, the ascent of a sovereign to His throne over His people to produce salvation and peace and happiness. That is the way the Jews would view it and that is the way it is used there by Isaiah. Both passages consider then the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile when they go back to their land and God again will dwell in Zion, God again will ascend to His throne, a new temple will be built which is like God's palace in which He dwells. And during the time of captivity, remember the temple had been destroyed, as it were, God's palace had been turned to rubble, the people had been carried away. God had dwelt with the exiles in Babylon, according to the prophet Ezekiel. "But the day would come," says Isaiah, "when the people will go back and God will go back with them and ascend to His throne." This will happen in the near future, and it did in the great return of the Jews from Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the temple and God again taking His place as the sovereign over His theocratic nation Israel.
So it is a word of enthronement. It is the word of the good news of a sovereign ruler taking His throne. And the imagery is of God, the God of Israel, the only true God establishing His throne in Jerusalem and the near fulfillment that happened in the return from Babylon and the far fulfillment, that is the Messianic promise, that the King will come in the future and establish His kingdom in Israel and set up His rule and His throne there. And that will happen when Jesus returns and sets up His millennial Kingdom.
So the word has reference to the arrival of a king, the ascent of a king in Jewish usage. What about pagan usage? How would the Romans understand that word since they didn't necessarily have any Jewish history?
Well, let me read you an inscription. This is an inscription from the Roman world, the date is 9 B.C. Okay? Before Christ. This is the inscription, "The providence which has ordered the whole of our life....translated in to English, obviously....showing concern and zeal has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving it to Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men and by sending in him, as it were, a Savior for us and those who come after us to make war to cease, to create order everywhere, the birthday of the God Augustus is the beginning for the world of the euangelion, of the gospel that has come to men through him." How interesting. They used the word euangelion on that occasion in that inscription to describe the arrival of Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus is by the providence, it says, the one who will bring to us the work of a benefactor, the work of a Savior, make war cease, create order everywhere. It is the arrival of a god.
The good news then is that Augustus Caesar has arrived. That actual inscription was dedicated to him, apparently, on his birthday. And then it is a technical term again to refer to the ascendency of the triumph of an emperor.
So the Jews and the pagans would both see that word as signifying the arrival of a new monarch and that would signify the arrival of a new era, and the new era would be an era of order and peace and salvation and blessing. So Mark chooses a word that spreads itself across Jew and Gentile and indeed he is about to write the history of a new king...a new king. The good news is about to be told. At least this is the beginning of the good news. The story is still being written for the King has not fully taken His throne, which one day He will in an earthly way, and finally in the New Heaven and the New Earth as an eternal King. But Mark will begin to tell the story of the arrival and ascendency and establishment and enthronement of the new King who is far more glorious than all other kings and His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the new King.
This is the story of the new King who has arrived who is about to inaugurate His Kingdom and bring a new era of salvation, blessing, peace and order to the world. One historical writer says, "The parallel between evangel or the gospel in the imperial cult and the Bible, is Caesar and Christ. The emperor on the throne and the despised Rabbi on the cross confront each other. Both are gospel to men. They have much in common, but they belong to two different worlds."
So Mark begins his historical account of the life of Jesus with language that would make his Roman readers know that the new and the most glorious King has come and He sets Himself against all other Kings, including Caesar. He is the theme of this history. And this is only the beginning of his story. And what is His name? Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus identified His human name, Jeshua, or Jehoshua in Hebrew, basically Joshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation, Yehoshua(?), Yahweh is salvation. That's His name, call Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins, Matthew 1:21. His title...His name is Jesus, His title is Christ. That is not a name, that is not His last name. That's a title, royal title, the anointed one. That's what Messiah means, Christ and Messiah, the same thing, it means anointed one. It's a royal title. His human name is Jesus, His royal title is Messiah, the anointed one, simply King. And His lineage, He is the Son of God, one in nature with God, coeternal and coequal. And thus does Mark introduce us to the beginning of the history of King Jesus...the beginning of the history of King Jesus,, the Son of God, not the son of some other earthly monarch.
In John 1:49, Nathaniel said to Jesus, "You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel." A new King with a radically new Kingdom, unlike any other King and any other Kingdom. And one who sets Himself above all other kings and all other kingdoms, one whom the Bible calls the King of kings. This is the beginning of the good news of His ascent to His throne.
He proves Himself to be the divine King, the Son of God, by His words and His deeds in the first half of Mark's gospel. He proves Himself to be the Son of God and the promised King in the second half by His death and resurrection. So at first it's His deeds and words that prove who He is, and the back half it's His death and resurrection that prove who He is. And in the very middle, the very summit of the book, Peter makes the confession, "You are the Christ," or better, "You are the King." You are exactly who You claim to be.
And so, this is a book about the arrival of the greatest King ever, the new King. The new King introducing a new Kingdom and a new era for the world. And it's only the beginning of the story because the story will go on through all of human history and finally be consummated in the New Heaven and the New Earth when He will rule and reign forever and ever. So Mark establishes then what this book is about in his opening sentence.
Now, he establishes several truths about the new Kingdom, let me give you five of them, okay? Truths about the new King. Number one, the promise of the new King...the promise of the new King, verses 2 and 3. "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Behold I send My messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."'" Those are prophecies attributed to Isaiah.
It is the only Old Testament prophecy in Mark's introduction. You will find through the book of Mark that there are a number of prophecies. In fact, they're in bold type, or upper case letters. So this is the only prophecy that's in Mark's introduction. This is the only one that he uses in the beginning. What is notable about it is it isn't particularly about the King, it's about the herald of the King.
And Mark, remember, is writing to Gentiles. He's writing to Roman Christians. And, of course, Roman non-Christians who will hear his history read. He is not primarily about the Jews, so he doesn't front load his book with a lot of prophecy. He doesn't make efforts to connect the arrival of Jesus with the Old Testament, say by giving genealogies like Matthew and Luke are so careful to give. He doesn't give specific prophecies about Jesus such as the virgin birth, Bethlehem, called out of Egypt, and there are a number of prophecies that Matthew refers to and Luke refers to, none of those does Mark refer to in the beginning of his history. It is simply enough to say He is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. Mark knows, however, that if Gentiles are to look at the story of this new King and see it as a sort of an authentic arrival of a new King, then they will expect that there would be some kind of authoritative credible herald who would announce t he arrival of the King because that's exactly the way it was in their world. No king ever arrived and said, "Hey, I'm the king and I'm here." The king always had a forerunner. The king always had an entourage. The king always had some coming before him to prepare the way and make the people ready and then was appropriately introduced by someone who bore authenticity and authority to make that introduction.
So Mark, consistent with the Gentile approach to how kings were announced, goes to the Old Testament for the only time in the beginning of his gospel, not to find a prophecy about Jesus, but to find a prophecy about His herald, to give authenticity to His herald. With all the Old Testament texts that connect to Jesus Christ, Mark uses prophecy not about the new King at all, but about His forerunner, the one who is to proclaim His arrival. This would be in the kind of official structure of what people in the Gentile world would be used to.
So, there is coming a messenger, that's identified in verse 2. "I send My messenger." And he further identifies the messenger as someone who would be a voice crying in the wilderness. This is from the ancient prophets. He's quoting from the ancient prophets. And he labels this from Isaiah the prophet. Certainly Isaiah was well-known to even Gentile Christians because of his vast book, much of which was centered on the arrival of Messiah, the servant of Jehovah as Isaiah identifies Him.
So he draws prophecies out of Isaiah. By the way, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all use...all use these prophecies to label John the Baptist as the fulfillment. John the Baptist is the fulfillment of these prophecies and all four gospel writers indicate that. "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet," or preferably, "As it has been written." The new King is not a new plan. The new King is not an afterthought. This is the plan that God was working out in ancient times. The plan is one culminating in the arrival of the new King, Jesus Christ the Son of God. The Gentile readers need to know that the one who announced His arrival is the one prophesied by the ancient prophets, and by the notable prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament. He is an official divinely commissioned herald for the new King. And so he's the one being described in these prophecies.
Now just as a note, it says, "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet," then you have a quote in verse 2 and a quote in verse 3. Verse 2 is actually Malachi 3:1 and verse 3 is Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3. This is not an uncommon thing to do, to refer to only one of the Old Testament prophets, the more prominent one, the more notable one, and tuck in another prophecy by another prophet since it all was the Word of God.
These prophecies go together so perfectly and both refer to the same person, so they may have been frequently used together. Malachi is the introductory one. Isaiah is the more important one. But both are general references. If you go back there and...this is something you need to know that New Testament writers do, sometimes they quote exactly from the Hebrew, sometimes they quote from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, sometimes they make sort of a general reference to a text and sometimes it's an interpretive reference because, remember now, the New Testament writers are inspired by God and so when they interpret an Old Testament text, they interpret that in an inspired way. So they always give the true interpretation of the text. Sometimes they directly quote it, sometimes it's an interpretive quote. Here you have some interpretive quotation, certainly in the case of Malachi 3:1. But let's look at Malachi 3:1 in the text of Mark 1.
Malachi 3:1 records, "Behold, I send My messenger..." And Malachi says, "Before me." Here you have an interpretation of that, "Behold, I send my messenger ahead of You who will prepare Your way." Obviously you and your refers to the coming King. But before the King comes, the head of Him comes the messenger. So this is a prophecy that there will be one who comes before the King comes whose job will be to prepare His way. I call prophets, this is a messenger. All prophets are proclaimers. He is a preacher. He will make a strong call for people to prepare for the arrival of the new King. Malachi 3:1 is a direct reference to this messenger, this herald of the coming new King.
And then in Isaiah 40 and verse 3, we read as recorded here in Mark 1:3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'" Now remember, I read you earlier right from Isaiah chapter 40 the opening, and then down in verses 9 and 10, Isaiah prophesied the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. He prophesied they would come back to Israel, they would go through the wilderness and God will lead them. And when they arrived, God would be with them and He would ascend to His throne and again He would rule over them.
And so, in the near intention of that prophecy, he was talking about the return from the Babylonian captivity in the ascendency of God to His sovereign place over to reconstituted Israel. And that would require making ready the way of the Lord. God would lead them back from captivity, would make the path for them, make the road for them, and they would head back and God would be with them. In the future sense, one would come who would make the road ready for the new King...make the road ready for the new King. And this, of course, is here associated with the forerunner of Jesus, namely John the Baptist. There would come one who would herald the new King's arrival, call people to prepare for His glorious ascent to His throne and the establishment of His Kingdom of salvation and blessing and peace.
Now the Romans would get this. The Gentiles would get this. The Jews would get this. This is not an ordinary monarch. This is no typical King, however, because of the nature of His person. First of all, He's not the son of some other king, He is the Son of God. That sets Him apart from all others. He is God the Son. That is to say He is co-equal, co-existent, co-eternal with God.
So let's go from the promise of this new King to the person of this new King and I want to show you something. We already know His name is Jesus, His title is King, that's what Christ means, His heritage is the Son of God.
But I want you to notice how deeply this is in the text of these prophecies. Verse 2, from Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I send My messenger," literally in the text of Malachi, "before Me." God says, "I send My messenger before Me." God is saying the King who is coming, the King whom My messenger announces is Me. That is a very important statement. He is Me who will prepare My way. That is to say, the King who is coming is one with God, the King who is coming is God. That's why John opens his gospel saying, "We beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father." I send My messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. The messenger is me...the messenger is announcing Me, announcing My arrival. And then, of course, Malachi 3 continues to say this, "And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple."
So it goes from before Me to the Lord will suddenly come to His temple. And you remember, when the Lord arrived, the first public thing He did was go to the temple and cleanse the temple. So He came suddenly to His temple. The one coming then is King. Coming as King, He ascends to His temple, His palace, finds it a den of thieves and cleans it out. But who is He? It is Yahweh, it is God. It is God. You see it even further in the second Old Testament promise, verse 3, from Isaiah 40 verse 3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," that's the messenger, that's what he does. That's where he does it. What does he say? "Make ready the way of...whom?...the Lord," ha kurios, again Yahweh, God, the Son of God, God Himself, Yahweh the Lord. Of course, verse 8, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Who else could give the Holy Spirit but the Lord Himself? The new King...the new King who is coming, the new King is none other than God.
The testimony of that reality is given at His baptism. If you go down to verse 11, Jesus is being baptized, "A voice came out of the heavens," this is the voice of the Father, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." The world has never seen a King like this. God Himself will come to His people as God Himself came to His people when they returned from the exile in captivity. God Himself will come to His people. God Himself, God the Son will be the new King. The good news is that God has come, God, the God of the universe, has broken into history to provide salvation and blessing and peace and His name is Jesus, King Jesus, Son of God. The new King is here. The new Kingdom is here. It's a new day for the whole world. It's a new day for human history. Salvation has arrived.
This is the good news. In the Greek and Roman world, euangelion was often used in the plural. Lots of good news. In the New Testament it's never used but in the singular, there's only one good news, for there's no other salvation except that in Christ. The new King is God come down to bring salvation, peace, order and blessing.
Then we meet the prophet of the new King. Verse 4, here's the messenger who is the voice crying in the wilderness. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness...there's the fulfillment of the prophecy. The word wilderness, the same word as desert. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching. John the Baptist.
Why do you think they called him that? You say because he was a Baptist, he's the first Baptist, he's the original Baptist. No, he is not the original Baptist. And that's not his last name either. Why would you call anybody John...actually in the Greek it's John the baptizer. It should be John the Baptizer. Why would you call anybody John the Baptizer? Because that's the thing that's so distinguishing about him. When you read through the New Testament, you have a Mary and then the Mary is identified by some other name, right? Like we saw last time, Mary the mother of John Mark, or Mary Magdalene, or Mary the mother of our Lord, or Mary the wife of Cleopas, or you've got to have some way to identify what Mary you're talking about. Well you need some way to identify what John you're talking about, too. John is a very common name in the Hebrew and so it is John the Baptizer because that's what's most ininimitable about him and that would set him apart from everybody else because nobody else did that. I don't want to get you to think that the idea in Israel every church had a baptistry. There weren't any churches, first of all, and there were any baptistries, the Jews didn't baptize. They had ceremonial cleansings, they had ceremonial washings, and all of that. But they only had one baptism that they did and it was a one-time symbolic event they did to a proselyte who came out of Gentilism into Judaistic religion, wanted to become a worshiper of the true God and they put him through a proselyte baptism, or her through a proselyte baptism, an emersion in water to symbolize that they were being purified from their former life and entering in to the clean religion, as it were, of Judaism. This is proselyte baptism.
It wasn't a common thing. It wasn't an occurrence that happened all the time. And that's why you could identify one as John the Baptizer because that was so unusual.
Furthermore he appears in the wilderness, in the desert. In fact, in John 3:23 it places him about 20 or 30 miles south of the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan River and up and down that river he went for the duration of his ministry, preaching out in the desert away from all the cities and all the towns and all the people. He was in that wilderness basically his whole life. According to Luke 1:80, spent his life in the wilderness. He was a wilderness guy, he was a desert man.
Now John the Baptist, there's a lot of wonderful stories about him, true...given by Matthew, given by Luke. There's some things told by John. We could talk about the fact that he was miraculously conceived because his parents were too old and had been barren. That's a wonderful story. We could talk about the fact that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. We could talk about the fact that he was a relative of Jesus, that Mary and Elizabeth got together when they both knew that God had done a miracle of conception in them. We could talk about the fact that he was the culmination of Old Testament prophetic history, the last prophet and t here hadn't been one for 400 years. We could talk about the fact that Jesus said, Matthew 11:11, "He's the greatest man that ever lived up until his time," because he was given the greatest responsibility any man ever had to point to the Messiah, to announce the new King. Mark leaves all that out. He leaves it all out.
He just says this about him. Verse 6, "He was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and his diet was locusts and wild honey." Ah...you might find that a little bit strange. It really isn't. If you're out in the desert to start with, locusts and wild honey would be a good way to sustain yourself because from what we understand, there was plenty of that available. And if you lived out in the wilderness of the desert your whole life, you wouldn't care about fashion. You'd basically care about staying warm because it can be freezing cold out in that desert.
He is a very familiar man, even in ancient history, even Josephus, the Jewish historian, writes about him and says he was a good man who commanded the Jews to exercise virtue and piety before God and come to Baptism. But the only thing Mark tells us about him is his style.
What is this about? He was clothed with camel's hair. That doesn't mean hide, that means camel's hair woven. They would take camel's hair, they would make thread out of it and then he would weave a garment out of it. It would be kind of a rough garment. It was a hairy garment. And then he had a leather belt around his waist, that's a rough leather belt. And that's what it tells us about him.
His life style, however, has a parallel. It says the same thing, by the way, in Matthew 3:4. But his life style has a parallel. What was he trying to do looking like that? Well, if...if you go back, you don't have to turn to it, I'll read it to you, but if you go back to well Zechariah 13, it talks about some false prophets and it associates in verse 4 false prophets who desire to deceive, putting on a hairy robe.
Now why would a false prophet who wanted to deceive put on a hairy robe? Because, a hairy robe was associated with a true prophet...a true prophet. When it says...when Jesus said, "Beware of wolves who come in sheep's clothing," look, that isn't a wolf with a sheep hide over his head. That's a...that's a false teacher in wool. Again, a hairy garment, as opposed to something made out of linen or cotton. That's the garb of a prophet. And more notably than that, if you go back to 2 Kings chapter 1, you meet Elijah the Tishbite, this is what it says about him. Verse 8, "He was a hairy man," that does not comment on his bodily hair but on the garment that he wore. "He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins," this is Elijah the Tishbite. This guy set the fashion for prophets. If you wanted to be taken seriously as a prophet, you found a hairy robe and a leather belt and you made sure that you conveyed that you were a prophet in the way that you looked. And even false prophets would deign to put on that hairy robe and that leather belt to appear as if they were prophets.
Well John was a prophet. Not only was he a prophet, but he was a prophet who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. That's right. He was one who came with an anointing from God on his head. Listen to Luke 1:15, "He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. He will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him, before the King in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
You remember that in Malachi 3 there was the promise that we just read that there is coming a messenger. A little more is said about that messenger in Malachi 4:5. "I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet." John, it says, was come in the spirit and power of Elijah. And Jesus said in Matthew 11:14, "If you are willing to accept...meaning Me and My gospel....John himself is that Elijah."
However, you remember, they didn't accept. They killed both John the Baptist and Jesus. So there's another time when Jesus will return, and before His Second Coming there will be another in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Did John understand that? Of course he understood that. The prophecy came to his parents before he was ever born that he would minister in the spirit and power of Elijah. He identified with Elijah from the get go. That's why he wore what he wore. That's why he lived the way he lived. He lived against the grain of the culture. He even ministered near where Elijah did. Read 2 Kings chapter 2 verses 4 to 12.
Now his diet was locusts. By the way, according to Leviticus 11:22 that was the only insect you could eat. Good protein, good source of mineral. If you want to prepare some, here's how you do it. You yank off the wings and the legs and then...depending on your preference...you can roast the body, boil it, dry it, grind it up and bake it in your bread with salt and it provided protein. And honey, wild honey, was everywhere and it was sweet, and it was good.
Do you notice this about John the Baptist? He didn't care to identify with the people. He cared to identify with the prophet. I think any preacher makes a bad mistake when he tries to identify with the line of the people rather than the line of the prophets. You want to stand in the great tradition of the prophet, you want to speak like a prophet, you want to act like a prophet, you want to look like a prophet.
Now what was his message? Let's go to number four, the preparation...the preparation. What was he saying? What did they need to do? Back to verse 4. He was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That's what he was doing. In ancient times, the envoy of the arriving king would go before him, remove all the obstacles in the path, sometimes they'd carve a path, sometimes they'd build a road, sometimes they'd make a bridge, removing the obstacles. And then they would make sure the people were ready to receive this new king.
What was the way the people were to prepare for the arrival of this king? A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. They needed to have their sins forgiven. In order to have their sins forgiven, which God would mercifully do, they needed to repent of their sins. And to demonstrate their repentance they would be willing to undergo a baptism. The baptism didn't bring forgiveness of sin, it only declared their intention. That's why John, as I said, was labeled the baptizer. The Jews had ceremonial washings, no baptisms except for proselyte baptism, so a Jew would be saying by doing that kind of one-time symbolic baptism, "I'm no better than a Gentile. I am no better than a Gentile. I am no more ready to meet the new king. I am no more ready for God to ascend to His throne. I am no more ready for God to establish His Kingdom and make me a part of it than a Gentile." That is a huge admission for the Jews who had been trained pretty much to resent and hate the Gentiles and think of them as outside the covenant. He's calling the Jews to declare themselves no better than Gentiles, to turn many of the hearts of the people toward righteousness away from rebellion, as Luke 1 put it. And to mark that repentance, that deliberate metanoia which means a turning, a genuine turning, they would need to bring forth the fruit of repentance. Remember how John the Baptist said that? Matthew 3:8 records it, Luke 3:8 records it, Luke says, "Bring forth fruits fitting for repentance." Prove it. The first step would be to be willing to undergo a proselyte baptism and view yourself as if you were no better than a Gentile, radical, radical repentance. And this was the message that came from God to John, Luke 3:2, "The Word of the Lord came to him, and this is what he said..." This is not baptism in Jesus' name, we know that because John the Baptist's followers were later baptized by Paul in Jesus' name, according to Acts 19.
Now you need to know one other thing about the context of John's message. His preaching was judgment preaching. In Luke 3, you can read it yourself, he preached judgment. He said things to the people, "You brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He said, "When the King gets here, He is going to baptize you with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, He's going to separate the wheat from the chaff and He's going to burn the chaff." He was a judgment preacher, fierce judgment preacher. That's what drove the people to want to deal with their sins, the fear that when the Messiah finally came, when the new King ascended to His throne and established His Kingdom, they'd be on the outside looking in. And so he was a judgment preacher. Judgment was coming. But while God was a God of judgment, He was also a God of grace and He offered forgiveness of sins for those who repented.
Well everybody practically wanted to be a part of the Messiah's Kingdom. They didn't want to get left out. They knew their own heart's sinfulness. So, according to verse 5, all the country of Judea was going out to him, all the people of Jerusalem were being baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. This looks like a national revival.
By making this pilgrimage, Mark Horne(?) writes to the Jordan, "Those who believed John's message showed that they wanted to be visibly separated from those under judgment when the Lord come. They wanted to be members of the future purified Israel, undergoing John's baptism help them anticipate that they were not only God's covenant people, but that they would remain in that covenant after God cast others out . In order to be assured that they would be included in the future forgiven Israel whose iniquity would be removed, they needed to repent and ask for personal forgiveness now," end quote. That's what they were doing.
So they came, confessing, being baptized. However, this was...as good as it might have looked...pretty superficial, wasn't it? By the time it's all over, and the true believers are gathered in Jerusalem after the ascension of Jesus, there's one hundred and twenty in the Upper Room. And here, hyperbolic language, to be sure, all the country of Judea was going out to him, all the people of Jerusalem, massive constant steady stream day after day after day.
Why the wilderness? Why the wilderness? William Lane(?) writes, and I think it's well stated, "The summons to be baptized in the Jordan means that Israel must once more come to the wilderness. As Israel long ago had been separated from Egypt by a pilgrimage through the waters of the Red Sea, the nation is exhorted again to exercise separation. The people are called to a second exodus in preparation for a new covenant with God. As the people heed John's call and go out to him in the desert, far more is involved than contrition and confession. They return to a place of judgment, the wilderness, where the status of Israel as God's beloved Son must be reestablished in the exchange of pride for humility. The willingness to return to the wilderness signifies the acknowledgment of Israel's history as one of disobedience and rebellion, and a desire to begin once more." Let's go back to the wilderness before we ever came into the land and start all over again.
Finally, Mark leaves the promise, the person, the prophet, the preparation and focuses on the preeminence of the new King...the preeminence of the new King. This is the sum of John's ministry. He was preaching, verse 7, and he was saying, "After me one is coming who is mightier than I and I'm not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." This is what is most true about the forerunner, he points to Christ, he points to Christ, he points to Christ. Never points to himself. John 3:30, "I must decrease, He must increase."
This is a model for any preacher. Don't identify with the people, identify with the prophets. Don't look like the people, look like the prophets. Maintain the dignity of that office, hand it down. And don't point yourself, point to Christ. After me THE one, literally definite article, after me THE one is coming who is mightier than I. How mighty is He? He's the Lord. He's Yahweh, He's Kurios, He's God the Son. He's the King...King Jesus.
How far above me is He? Huh...here's the negative, "He is so much mightier than I that I'm not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals." You know what? That was the lowest possible job that any servant could have. That was it. That was the bottom. If you were the servant who untied your master's sandals, you were the scum of the scum of the scum...dirty feet. Old quotes from Hebrew sources, "A Hebrew slave must not wash the feet of his master nor put his shoes on." That's beneath the dignity of a Hebrew slave. Another one, "All services which a slave does for his master, a pupil should do for his teacher with the exception of undoing his shoes." John says I'm below the people who do that. I'm not even up to the level of those who would untie His shoes, that's how low I am.
Now that's the picture, but what's the reality? Verse 8, why am I so different? Why are we so infinitely separated? "Because I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." All I can do is stick you in the water. He can transform you on the inside. This refers to the sole transforming work of salvation, being born of the water and the Spirit. This is not some Pentecostal second baptism, this is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit of Titus 3. This is the new covenant, purification, cleansing, transformation, regeneration, new birth. John says I can't do that. Only God gives the Holy Spirit.
So the new King? He will give you the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit comes salvation, sanctification, service. So Mark begins the language...with the language of good news. Good news means there's a new King who is God Himself bringing a new Kingdom. It's a Kingdom of forgiveness, blessing. It comes to those who repent. It's the culmination of all past redemptive history and the door to all future glory. The herald has come to announce His arrival and the rest is His story which he picks up in verse 9.
Father, we thank You for this marvelous book, for its deep riches, encouragement to us. Thank You for the beauty of Scripture, the magnificence of it, consistency of it, integrity of it, authenticity, inerrancy, purity, trustworthiness, beyond that, the power of it to change lives. We pray that there would be some even this morning who would say with Peter in the middle of Mark, "You're the King, You're the King," who would confess their sins, repent of their sins and come for forgiveness from the King who died for them. Father, we thank You again for Your work in our lives. We thank You that we are in Your Kingdom, thank You that we're not on the outside looking in, that You led us to confession and repentance and faith in the King, that we believe that Jesus is the King and believing we have salvation and life in His name. Thank You for this gift and may You extend it to many others who pray for Your glory. Amen.
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Unexpected Things: Guy Capitalizing On The Concept Of Music SEO By Recording 100 Songs A Day
from the this-modern-world dept
The more I thought about this, I realized this is yet another unique outcome of the modern digital era. In our Sky is Rising report from a few years ago, one of things we noted was the massive explosion in books (mostly ebooks), but we carefully noted that many of them were these odd automated productions, pulling feeds of information and releasing them in book form. That kind of thing is designed to be created cheaply and never sell many copies, but still might be incredibly useful for the 2 or 3 people who need exactly what's in that book. If you can produce enough things like that, perhaps it's worthwhile.
And, with digital music becoming so common, it's not such a crazy idea to basically try to thrive on search engine optimizing (SEO'ing) music searches. I say this as someone who has created Spotify playlists about trains, bananas and (just last week) "the ABCs" for my son. As I was setting those up, I thought about just how incredibly different the world my son will grow up in is than what everyone else has experienced. When he says, "I want to hear songs about trains!" it's actually not that difficult to do exactly that. This goes beyond just what many people thought the rise of digital music would bring about, which is the breakdown of the need for "albums" as people move to singles, but the opportunity to create songs on a theme or topic for those people who are looking for it. There may not be that many people actually searching for any such particular song, but if you can make enough of them, covering enough topics that when someone needs just any song on a particular topic, there's now an opportunity to do that.
This isn't "the future of music" or anything of that sort. It's just one of those wonderful, tangential things enabled by our digital world, filling a need that is actually quite useful for some, in a way that really wasn't possible not too long ago.


text: Facebook's Faustian bargain By Paul Gillin. Published on September 17, 2012. Progressive Insurance is struggling with the aftermath of a crisis that began when a New York blogger charged that the company gave legal advice to a driver who caused an accident that killed the blogger's sister, a Progressive customer. The social media shockwave has damaged Progressive's carefully cultivated image of customer-friendliness and driven it to a four-year low in customer perception as measured by YouGov. Walmart is dealing with Facebook taunts over a complaint by a Kentucky woman about the theft of her iPhone from a Walmart store. She eventually tracked the device to the home of a store employee. Meanwhile, photographer Thomas Hawk was blasting the retailer for deleting his Facebook posts about a mugging outside a store in Oakland. Some b-to-b companies have had a rough summer, too. Cisco backpedaled in July when tech bloggers savaged it for policy changes that let it peek at the Internet activity of Linksys router users. Have you looked at "Posts by Others" on FedEx's Facebook page lately? Welcome to customer service in the age of social networks, where everybody's tale of woe is public record. Many companies have jumped into Facebook expecting a bounty of word-of-mouth goodness only to find that it's also a magnet for everyone with a gripe. These companies are learning that social networks are a Faustian bargain. They're a great way to share accomplishments and rally fans, but they can just as easily be a prime vector for attack. Customers with a bone to pick can recruit others to their side with a few taps of the keyboard. And they do it on the pages of the very companies they attack. "There's never been a better time to be a critic," says David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards, which recognizes customer service excellence. What can you do about it? Start with asking whether you should be on Facebook at all. Many b-to-b companies shouldn't. Understand what your customers think of you. If you're in an industry where dissatisfaction is rampant—like travel or banking—staff up for the volume of complaints you'll get. Train staff to respond quickly, constructively and empathetically to gripes. Never delete comments that fall within the Facebook Community Standards. You'll make people angrier and drive them elsewhere. Don't copy and paste form-letter responses. And don't disable visitor comments entirely. You're on Facebook to interact. Six years ago, I told you in this space about Port25, a Microsoft blog that enabled open-source critics to vent on a Microsoft-branded portal. The idea of inviting critics into your living room seemed bizarre at the time. Now everyone does it. How times have changed. Most Popular In this article: BtoB


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center is celebrating the end of summer with free, outdoor health and wellness fairs at two of its primary care sites this month.
The first, "Grand Wellness" took place Tuesday at Grand Island Family Practice, 1801 Grand Island Blvd., Grand Island, in a huge, white tent in front of the M.O.G. (Medically Oriented Gym).
The second will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, at the River Road Primary Care Center, Wellness Park, 624 River Road, North Tonawanda.
Along with free health screenings, the upcoming event will feature music, food vendor Smoke on the Water, interactive healthcare displays and a jewelry sale sponsored by the Memorial Medical Center Auxiliary. Physicians and pharmacists will be on hand to answer health care questions. Children will be entertained by the Fidelis Care Fidelisaurus. Child car seat safety checks will be done by the North Tonawanda Police Department and free brown bag pharmaceutical safety reviews will be provided by Wellness Pharmacy. To receive a review, bring your prescription and over-the-counter medicines in their original containers.
For more information, call 716-278-4570.


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Gael Carnes
Gael Carnes, M.A., is the Assistant to the Chair and the Online Coordinator for the Department of Public Administration. Majoring in literature, Gael has had a variety of jobs, including a four-year stint as a Web editor, copy editor, writer, and "elf" for CNN Online.
Gael spends her spare moments reading, writing, listening to the Cubs in the summer, the Bears in the fall, working out, or on the lake. Spontaneous in nature, she is rarely at a loss for words and always ready for a lark.
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