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Thursday, October 14, 2010
Theism is the default position?
28 comments:
"P2 - The appearance of purpose, intention and order (Design) in the Universe"
"P3 - Hence, the belief in a designed universe
Notice the jump between appearance of design to the belief that there is design? In premise three, it should be that the belief of the appearance of design in the universe is the default position. Since this in no way infers that it actually is designed, it doesn't really pose a problem. It just makes the argument invalid.Wouldn't the default position change from person to person then?
So, apparently the default position is Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, Santa Claus, Cthulu, Karora, Njirana, Nonomain, Ungud, Baal, Bes, Bast, Ceres, Atlas, Artemis, Gaia, Iris, Fenrir, Geb, Frigg, Jesus, Ki, Leto, Neith, Shu, Utu, Odin, Turtles all the way down, Atheism, Zeus, Thor and the tooth fairy... all at the same time.
It doesn't seem very practical.That means I can say to the proponent of this drival:
I dont know why but when I first saw you I just had the impression that you are a pedphile who secretly wants to diddle children. Since first impressions are true until PROVEN false, I KNOW you secretly want to diddle children until you PROVE, not just deny, otherwise. Good luck presenting any evidence that you dont secretly want to diddle children. And until you do, I am justified in seeing you as a grave danger to children. And further (taking a page from religion) I am justified in taking drastic action based upon this beleif so I am going to put your name on the sexual predators list or lock you up in a sexual predator wing of a locked down mental hospital. Have a nice life!
Allen"...God (a purposeful, intelligent agent outside the universe that cannot be detected by our senses)..."
Wow! Look at that beard! Occam, get your razor!
A blind, non-intelligent agent inside the universe is equally plausible if not more so.
Also note that there is no mention of omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, or omnibenevolence - these have always been my favorite poniards upon which to hoist theistic arguments.Hey, that video is fun! Let me play its game, too!
1. I'm justified in believing whatever my first perception is, until proven wrong.
2. Looking at the existence of disease, my first perception is to infer malevolent intent behind sickness.
3. I am justified in believing malevolent intent is behind sickness until you prove me wrong.
4. I'm convinced that the best explanation for the malevolent intent I perceive is ethereal plague vampires.
C. Therefore, belief in ethereal plague vampires is justified until proved wrong.
Awesome! I'm gonna be all believey about everything now!Let's try another argument:
P1 - In order to accept that our rational faculties are reliable, initial sensory experiences of the world must be accepted until proven incorrect
P2 - God is defined as a purposeful, intelligent agent outside the universe that cannot be detected by our senses
P3 - It follows from P2 that no one has ever had any sensory experience of god.
C - The non-existence of god should be taken as the default position until proven otherwise.
I think it's very telling that I can use his premise to reach the opposite conclusion. Seems to suggest that there's something very wrong.I am always amused by descriptions of god as "outside the universe". You may as well say "outside of reality", which is what atheists have been saying about god all along.
This argument cannot even move the goalpost, it has already been set outside of the universe and beyond what our senses can detect. Such a being can have no effect on the universe, otherwise it might be detected.
I have no idea why so many theists cling to this argument, it is very nearly an admission that their god cannot do anything and is not real at all.@Kevin
P1 states that the initial appearance, however superficial it may be, is reality.
So, based on that premise, one could look at P2 and say "it looks designed, therefore it is". Or one could also say "it looks like there is no god, so therefore there isn't".
Or "judging by the fact that you have no exposure outside of youtube, it looks like god doesn't want people to listen to your arguments.""P1 - In order to accept that our rational faculties are reliable, initial sensory experiences of the world must be accepted until proven incorrect. In other words, these experiences must be considered default positions."
I'm actually going to agree with this premise. I think where it goes wrong is failing to acknowledge that mere sensory input is nothing more than that. Then comes pattern recognition. Then comes inference. Then conclusions.
In other words, first comes perception. Then interpretation, which is based on our knowledge set. It's at this point that investigation of fact begins, not at perception. You can infer design, but you can't perceive it.@Mark B: I think the point Matt was making was the same that you made, that a 'position' is derived from our perceptions, but is not the same as a perception. So I'm only commenting on a technicality, but one shouldn't agree with such a premise because it is invalid, even if part of it is on the right track. I completely agree with you about everything else you said. :)
A more nuanced premise would be that all sensory experiences must be interpreted as part of any rational analysis, but any perception prior to that analysis can be accepted as phenomenologically valid, but not necessarily representative of reality (e.g., if you see a mirage, whether you know what you see, you still see something and could describe it, but that description might not match reality). But of course that would be a very different premise.Mark:
What I was saying was P1--standing alone--is correct as read. It's when they try and bypass all that goes into processing sensory input straight to cosmological conclusions that they go wrong. In other words, almost immediately, LOL. Otherwise I totally agree with you that it's a fallacious argument. I guess I'm just trying to pinpoint the exact place where they slip up. After all, apologetics try to sound reasonable on the surface, and I think that's what they're trying to do--"we all trust our senses, don't we?". Sure, but that doesn't mean we should trust our conclusions.Right. But it's not correct, for the reasons you and Matt pointed out. We don't have to wait for them to get further into the argument to go wrong, it's already wrong right there in P1 where they say an experience must be considered a default position. It claims that an experience is the same thing as a conclusion, which you rightly point out isn't true.
Back to the mirage example, if we'd never seen a mirage before we would probably describe it as something which looks like water. But if we describe it like that we've gone beyond the undeniable experience of perceiving something - we've made the tentative conclusion that it looks like water. A default position, not an experience, and a position which we are not required to accept.
So you see, they're actually going from processing sensory input straight to conclusions in P1. It's true that they then go further to cosmological conclusions, but they're already off the rails before then.As much as I disagree with the overall argument presented here, I have to agree with premise 2:
"The appearance of purpose, intention and order (Design) in the Universe is an initially sensed experience."
We do see patterns, infer purpose, and assume design by default. Children do this all th etime when making inferences based on observations of the world around them. That rock was put there as a resting place for that lizard, etc.
I disagree with the rest, of course.@magx01: Hmm... The problem with that premise is in the term "sensed experience". It is making the claim that we *perceive* design, not that we *infer* it, as you rightly mentioned.
That's demonstrably false - show someone an ambiguous image and often they will tell you they see something. Something which definitely isn't there. If it were true that we *perceive* patterns/design, it would not be possible for us to see patterns which don't exist.
And P2 is even worse than that. It's making the claim that we perceive things which are purely conceptual. That's plain nonsense.@Mark
I agree. The phrase "initial sensory experiences" is used quite ambiguously.
If it truly means "initial sensory experiences", then design does not fall in this category since, as you mention, it's really an inference, not a directly sensed experience.
If we expand the category to include things like design and intent, then P1 essentially comes to mean: "whatever I happen to believe is the default position".
Definitely needs to be clarified if the argument is to be taken seriously.@Lukas: Agreed.
@magx01: Even then the premise is still false, for the 2nd reason I mentioned. 'purpose/design/intention' are conceptual. You don't sense/perceive concepts. As Matt said, you infer them based on perceptions and prior knowledge.
If P2 said, "The appearance of purpose, intention and order (Design) in the Universe is an initially infered experience" then it would be correct, at least developmentaly. It's not necessarily true for all adults tho - many of us have developed knowledge which prompts us to infer something other than purpose/design/intention where doing so is inappropriate. So in that case even the modified P2 would only be correct for a subset of the population, the young and the uneducated, or those biased towards believing there is purpose/design/intention where there is none. So it can't be used in support of an argument which claims purpose/design/intention/theism is the default. As Lukas pointed out, it relies on already holding that belief.Alright, fun time.
First of all, this is just the beta version of my argument. I've already mapped out the issues and unfortunately none of what you stated was part of that, Mr. Dilahunty.
I would like to respond, however, given that I feel some of your points are worth objecting to for the sake of clearing up the misconception that many atheists have regarding skepticism and what constitutes as a "default position".
Ultimately, the views you hold are anti-scientific and anti-realists in nature.
Allow me to explain. You first say the following:
This might be true for infants, who lack the wealth of knowledge with which to assess and evaluate the brains interpretation of sensory input, but it is not necessarily true for adults who are cognizant of the ability of our brains to misinterpret sensory data and who have a wealth of comparative experience with which to assess initial interpretations.
Actually, it's true of infants and adults. Just because one understand they may be mistaken in their initial impressions does not necessitate by any means that they must accept that they are. The fact that I may believe that I see an illusion is entirely dependent on the idea that there is something really there to begin with. In other words, illusions are simply appearances of a different nature, different reality. We are not born into this world or mature in this world with the idea that everything around us is an illusion. We verify whether something is an illusion based on seeing the reality behind the appearance, which is a result of our rational/sensory faculties interpreting the world around us.
So I may think what I see isn't the real thing, but I have no reason to actually believe that to be the case nor do I have any sufficient reason to suspect that I shouldn't believe it's real unless other experiences yield results in favor of that.
I can only see one justifying the contrary if they believe in Solipsism, which to my mind isn't a tenable position.
You try to justify this position by the following:
Realizing this, we are only acting rationally if we tentatively proportion our belief to the quality and quantity of evidence.
Once again, this is simply false. While it is certainly the case that we should require evidence for particular claims it should only be prompted if we have good reason to suspect that we need said evidence. We shouldn't apply this universally, nor do we have to.
When I walk outside and see a tree I don't get the initial impression that I need evidence to know whether or not said object is a tree.
If I know for a fact that I had been administered drugs prior to walking outside, maybe then I am given a reason, but in the meantime it's safe to believe (because I have no other option given what I am basically 'programmed' with from the start) that what I'm experiencing is actually there.Also, we have to distinguish between different contexts. For instance, just because I had good reason to suspect that the magician was using some sort of optical illusion in his show earlier in the day, does not necessitate that I now should suspect everything else being an optical illusion and I should ask for evidence for everything I experience. This is silly and undermines the very skepticism that you wish to promote as well, seeing as it calls that very principle into question.
You make this very mistake in the next claim regarding my first premise:
Premise 1, in simplest terms, is simply an assertion that we are justified in accepting our first impressions until they are proven wrong. This is demonstrably false and intellectually childish. Anyone who has ever witnessed a conjurer's trick understands that the mental image their brain has compiled from the sensory data simply does not map to reality. The same is true for any number or other examples where we can understand that the brain simply doesn't have enough information to accurately perceive events.
Only someone convinced that they could never be mistaken could hold this sort of view and remain intellectually honest. The rest of us should try to think like grown-ups and reserve belief for those things which are sufficiently supported by evidence (unless, of course, we don't care whether or not our beliefs are true).
Your justification is simply to ad hom those who hold the position of realism. I'm sure Sir Karl Popper wouldn't agree with this assessment and neither do I. When you have to resort to claiming that the person's position is "childish", then you should expect me to return the accusation given the lack of substance in your objection.
Your response to premise 2:
No, it isn't. It is an inference that the brain makes by comparing the internal model of the sensed experienced to other things that the brain already holds to be true. It is, the conclusion of an argument by analogy - and it's one that we understand may be flawed. It's also one that can be tested by scientific exploration.
We've done this and identified many instances where one may perceive intelligent, purposeful design where no such inference is justified.
Attempting to call one's inference of design "initially sensed experience" is a rather clumsy attempt to fabricate a predicate link to Premise 1.
This is where I may not have been clear given the fact that I didn't define "experience" well enough. Experience includes the inference, given that the ability to infer as such is innate. We aren't empty heads waiting to be flooded with information.
There are indeed experiences where we are mistaken about what we see, but this is only because we verify it based on more data. In other words, we agree here, but yet for some reason you seem to believe that one mistaken interpretation applies universally, which I think I've pointed to earlier as being seriously mistaken.
I may go through the rest later, but for right now I want to put forth a little problem regarding your stance on "default positions".
If the default position is to not accept a claim until it is proven by sufficient evidence, then how do you solve the fact that your claim regarding the default position has to be justified by evidence as well? And in having to be justified, does this not lead to an infinite regress of justifications? If not, then you've undermined your view on skepticism since it is based on non-skeptical assumptions.
Hope I've fleshed that out. Take care.
-AliIf the default position is to not accept a claim until it is proven by sufficient evidence, then how do you solve the fact that your claim regarding the default position has to be justified by evidence as well?
I'll just quickly deal with this one, since I've run into that one before and have a counter lying ready. I'll prove it by reductio ad absurdum:
The default position can be either belief or disbelief (understood as not accepting the proposition, not as believing the opposite). This is a true dichotomy.
Two hypothetical statements; A and B, are mutually exclusive and neither has evidence to prove or disprove it.
The default position is belief
From 2 & 3:
We should believe both A and B
Since A and B are contradictory, 4 is an absurd notion and we must reject premise 3
Since we have rejected premise 3, we must accept the only alternative: The default position is disbelief.
I can see an objection might be that in the specific cases where there are contradictory claims, we do not rely on belief as the default position.
However, it is possible to invent contradictory claims in almost all situations, even if we haven't yet.
In effect, this is simply granting the point that belief as a default is absurd.
This may relate to the rest of your argument. If "initially sensed experience" includes inferences, then wouldn't the idea "maybe I'm hallucinating and none of this is real" also count as an "initially sensed experience"?
How do you draw the line, exactly?
I'm not sure how you avoid what I wrote earlier:
whatever I happen to believe is the default positionLucas,
You stated the following:
The default position can be either belief or disbelief (understood as not accepting the proposition, not as believing the opposite). This is a true dichotomy.
Two hypothetical statements; A and B, are mutually exclusive and neither has evidence to prove or disprove it.
The default position is belief
From 2 & 3:
We should believe both A and B
Since A and B are contradictory, 4 is an absurd notion and we must reject premise 3
Since we have rejected premise 3, we must accept the only alternative: The default position is disbelief.
The entirety of this argument is based on premise (1). I reject premise (1) because it cannot be disbelief and I've already provided an argument for that conclusion.
You also seem to arbitrarily assert premise (3).
You then say:
I can see an objection might be that in the specific cases where there are contradictory claims, we do not rely on belief as the default position.
However, it is possible to invent contradictory claims in almost all situations, even if we haven't yet.
In effect, this is simply granting the point that belief as a default is absurd.
What we "invent" has nothing to do with what is a default position. Inventing something runs counter to a naturally disposed belief.
You then say:
This may relate to the rest of your argument. If "initially sensed experience" includes inferences, then wouldn't the idea "maybe I'm hallucinating and none of this is real" also count as an "initially sensed experience"?
Are you trying to say that the first impression of this world includes the idea of hallucinations before experiencing hallucinations? For instance, I may in fact have hallucinations, but if I have no way of confirming that, why would I call it as such? And if I do happen to have hallucinations and my mental states are affected by that on a frequent basis, then yes, in fact I would have to question my experiences.
How do you draw the line, exactly?
In what sense? I am arguing for an objective default position based on naturally disposed beliefs which are normative to the human species. I don't see what real lines need to be drawn. It's sort of like asking where you draw the line between a mentally healthy person and a mentally unstable one, while assuming no line can be drawn. Obviously we can draw lines, and we do.
I'm not sure how you avoid what I wrote earlier:
whatever I happen to believe is the default position
Easy, it's a strawman.Ok, I've been trying to write a response and failing. I suspect we have a communications bump, so let me try to sort this out. Basically, we're talking about two separate subjects:
1) your complete argument
2) your claim that belief should (universally) be the default position
I'll deal exclusively with 2 here, since that's where I started and since it's more basic than 1.
I took this statement
If the default position is to not accept a claim until it is proven by sufficient evidence, then how do you solve the fact that your claim regarding the default position has to be justified by evidence as well?
to mean that you, generally speaking, oppose the idea that disbelief should be the default position. If that's not what you meant, then please clarify.
If that is what you meant, then I think my argument holds, showing quite clearly that belief as default leads to absurdities. It simply isn't workable and that's why we should accept the only alternative: disbelief.
A few points:
The entirety of this argument is based on premise (1). I reject premise (1) because it cannot be disbelief and I've already provided an argument for that conclusion.
It's not legitimate for you to reject this premise, since all it really says is that there are two options that we are discussing. Rejection of premise one is tantamount to saying "your position doesn't even warrant being discussed." Presumably you can see the problem with that.
You also seem to arbitrarily assert premise (3)
It's not arbitrary. Rather, it's the whole point of a reductio ad absurdum argument. I assume your position in order to show that doing so leads to an absurd conclusion.
To ensure complete clarity, here's a few more points:
I define 'belief' as 'accepting a claim as true'.
I define 'disbelief' as 'not accepting a claim as true'
I define 'default position' as 'the position held with regard to any given claim in the absence of evidence. In other words, I'm discussing the universal default position.
It is my position that the default position should be disbelief, since belief would lead to believing contradictory claims.
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Filters: Author is Salakhutdinov, Ruslan [Clear All Filters]
Human-level concept learning through probabilistic program induction. Science 350, 1332-1338 (2015).
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Thousands have been killed in South Sudan since a political dispute devolved into targeted ethnic massacres. Secretary of State John Kerry visited South Sudan today. His trip is aimed at bringing the warring parties face to face to end the conflict. As NPR's Gregory Warner reports, the U.S. has special interest in the country because the United States is behind its political existence.
GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: Arriving in the capital Juba, John Kerry took a moment to recall his last trip to South Sudan on July 9, 2011, the day it became a country. He remembered talking with a man who was waiting in a long line under the hot sun to cast his vote for independence from the northern neighbor Sudan.
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY: And that person to me said, don't worry -- I was then a senator -- don't worry, Senator, I've waited 50 years for this moment. I'm not going anywhere until I've voted.
WARNER: But now three years later South Sudan's president Salva Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar are engaged in a ruthless struggle for power over the oil-rich country. Forces fighting for each side have recruited child soldiers, committed mass rapes and tortures and killings to terrorize the ethnic base of their rivals.
KERRY: If both sides do not take steps in order to reduce or end the violence, they will completely destroy what they are fighting to inherit.
WARNER: And then Kerry used a phrase he's been testing out a lot on this Africa trip. He said both sides needed to have discussions...
KERRY: About a transition government that can bring peace to the country.
WARNER: And this was Kerry's mission on this day trip. He pressed both presidents Salva Kiir in person and rebel leader Riek Machar on the phone to get them to agree to discuss a transition government. In other words, he's trying to get two men fighting for power to discuss steps to a government where neither would likely hold the reins.
And to understand why this is so tricky, I drove to downtown Juba to visit Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the former South Sudanese ambassador to the United States.
His living room is streaming with well-wishers. Gatkuoth was released from prison last week. He'd been thrown in jail in December by President Kiir for allegedly siding with Riek Machar in a supposed coup. But despite his four-month imprisonment, Gatkuoth was optimistic that Kiir could still end the war with a phone call.
EZEKIEL LOL GATKUOTH: Sure, why not? He should call Riek on the phone: My brother, this is very unfortunate; we need to end this war.
WARNER: And that would end the war?
GATKUOTH: This would end the war if these two leaders agree.
WARNER: And this is the paradox of South Sudanese politics. To much of the outside world, both Machar and Kiir have lost their legitimate claim to long-term power because of the violence. But inside South Sudan, they're still in charge and no peace is possible without them.
GATKUOTH: Because these are the leaders.
WARNER: Secretary Kerry has proposed measures to force both leaders to talk. He's pushing the U.N. Security Council to authorize 2500 peacekeepers from neighboring African countries to physically separate the two sides. And he's also threatened economic sanctions and suggested that if the violence continues both men could be indicted for war crimes.
And the former ambassador, Gatkuoth, feels that this pressure will make a difference.
GATKUOTH: You know, the U.S. brought this country to be an independent country. They're investing billions of dollars in different areas. They're ones who built this road that is linking us to Uganda. There is no other road that is linking us to any country in the world, except this road which was built by the US. They can impose a solution. We cannot continue to die like this. They have to impose a solution, even if it means force.
WARNER: And another deadline is approaching: Its planting season in South Sudan. And the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator has warned that people are too scared to go into their farms to till their fields. And if they're not coaxed back in the next few weeks to put those seeds in the ground, South Sudan could face years of famine.
Gregory Warner, NPR News, Juba.
You are listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Until the age of 21, I made several New Year's resolutions to learn Spanish that never panned out. After I graduated from university (as an electronic engineer who could only speak English) I managed to spend an entire six months living in Spain without picking up more than just a few phrases. I was tackling it the way I imagine way too many people are tackling their learn-a-language resolution this year. Today, I'm a successful language learner myself, having studied over two dozen languages. I'm able to speak half of them well and about eight of them with genuine fluency. Hopefully some suggestions here will make sure you don't make the same mistakes I made in my first years of doing it totally wrong!
Title illustration by Tina Mailhot-Roberge
Be Specific In What You're Aiming For
I find that the biggest problem is the vague or impossible goal itself dragging people down before you even get started. Many people phrase their resolution as "Learn Spanish/French/Japanese" without any qualifiers. What does "Learn Chinese" even mean? Learn it to sound like a native? To order food? To write it? And by when?
What you absolutely need to do is be as specific as possible, both in your target and in your timeline. And make it something absolutely achievable within a few months from now.
How about you aim to be conversational in six months? Or be able to ask directions in three weeks? Or talk about your life and your work in two months? Or order food in the language by the end of the month? You can aim for an achievable goal within a few months first, rather than working without a good plan of action for when you can "some day" get mistaken for a native speaker. Be specific and realistic about what you want and when you want it.
The Only "Failure" Is Not Doing Anything
A language is not an academic topic that you can pass or fail, but a means of communication. There is no "failure" here, just various degrees of success when you can use that language. Do NOT aim for perfection-or-bust. Even a small success of being able to buy lunch in the language, with bad grammar and not using precisely the right word, is something worth being proud of.
You Can Learn Well Before Arriving
To really prove to people that you don't need to go to the country to successfully learn a language, I decided to prepare for my upcoming trip to Egypt by spending the last three months immersed in Egyptian Arabic, while hundreds of miles deep inside Brazil. Here is my two month point, and if you subscribe to my blog, you'll see subtitled videos of me using the language with natives while in the country. To prepare for this, I had specific goals, accepted making mistakes as OK, and spoke with natives every day via Skype. I definitely won't lie to you and say that it was easy. I worked really hard and had to feel like an idiot a lot of the time, but it was worth all the struggles and time invested, because now I'm ready to discover this wonderful culture.
Focus on Your Priorities In That Language
Once you have a decent roadmap of where you want to be and when, it's important to focus your time and energy on where your priorities lie. This is why it's simply not possible to describe that "one perfect method" to learn any language that applies to "everybody". As an example, my focus is simple: I want to be able to converse and have real friendships in the language with native speakers. This may seem obvious as a universal goal that every language learner could have, but realistically it isn't, or at least it isn't the absolute priority.
Some people are more passionate about literature in the language, reading comic books / manga, enjoying movies, writing letters, or even learning grammar and the technical workings of various languages. For each of these types of people, I recommend diving into the very things they are so passionate about right from the start. Immerse yourself in that, and it will make other aspects of the language much easier when you come back to them later.
Since my focus is speaking, as I'm a very active traveller (over 10 entire years on the road so far, which has been one hell of an education about the world) this means that my priority is speaking. After I succeed in doing this specific aspect of it pretty well, learning to read and write and even work professionally in the language becomes so much more achievable, even for someone like me who barely passed languages in school.
Recommendations For Those With Spoken Priorities
If your main priority is to converse with natives, then please don't lock yourself away alone in a room with a dusty old book. You must speak with real people right now, and ideally every single day for at least a half an hour. Anything else you do should serve the main purpose of preparing for those spoken sessions. I study too of course, but that study is for today's spoken session, not for six months or two years down the road when I'm finally "ready" to use it. No matter what, you'll always be missing a few words or have some other aspect to improve on — accept this from the start and get cracking on using the language for real!
If you are not in the country right now, or don't have access to native speakers nearby, two completely free resources that I especially like for this are italki (connect with my profile here) and Verbling. italki lets you schedule a language exchange with someone wanting to learn your language, who is confirmed to be patient and helpful. Verbling lets you be more spontaneous about it, with random connections with native speakers in a chat-roulette style.
Remember: because you're both learning, it's OK to make mistakes! In fact, you should embrace making mistakes, because this is an essential part of learning any language.
A Few More Resources To Help You Progress Quickly
If you live in a major city that has a good international crowd, Meetup.com has many regular language specific gatherings, and I've actually found that Couchsurfing, a site usually associated with budget travel, has one of the most excellent per-language and per-city social searches to get in touch with natives.
Apart from one-on-one time with people, the resources that I use between spoken sessions to prepare and learn better include:
- Anki: a flashcard app for the iPhone (paid in iTunes or free on jailbroken iPhones in Cydia) and Android (free). An open database of pre-made decks cover many excellent word lists you can download in advance.
- Memrise: the vocabulary lists on this site include memory cues with their words, to give you tricks and mnemonics to make it much less likely you'll forget the words.
- Native content: Try an active language learning forum to ask for the best news sites or blogs for the language or dialect you are most interested in. One trick I like to do is flick through the top 100 sites by traffic in Alexa's per country list, to see what sites those in that country genuinely check out regularly. For instance, there is a Spanish equivalent of Reddit called Menéame popular in Spain with tons of great articles to read every day. Stumbleupon also has a language setting to find random nice content in a bunch of languages, tailored to your interests, and you can change your computer and software interface languages too.
Your learning approach naturally adapts to your priorities, which is the opposite of what most one-size-fits-all courses seem to aim for. You have great power to succeed in your language learning project this year. Work hard, adapt your learning approach to your priorities, make it about using your language rather than studying it, and you will get results!
Benny Lewis runs the largest language learning blog in the world, fluentin3months.com, where he offer tips and encouragement for adults who are interested in speaking another language. Follow him on Twitter @IrishPolyglot, or on Facebook here.


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Global Blockchain Summit
Denver on April 19-20, 2018
The birth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s gave rise to visions of a flat uncentralized world in which information and power were universally and equitably distributed and individuals could interact with one another on equal terms with giant corporations. A quarter century later, we find the entire world dominated by a handful of technology companies with more concentrated power and wealth than any others in history. Now blockchain has emerged with the power to change that. Will it finally lead to a world in which the individual reigns supreme or will it give rise to new centers of even more concentrated power?
This was a central question debated at the Global Blockchain Summit in Denver on April 19-20, 2018 in which WAAS was invited to share the findings of its research on Human-Centered Economic Theory and the potential for rapid global social transformation. The summit featured some of the world's most prominent distributed ledger experts as well as blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. Discussion focused on how to harness the new technology to maximize human welfare and well-being through diversity, inclusivity, and equality. It included noteworthy contributions by women from business and academia.
Blockchain is a direct, peer-to-peer transaction system, distributed ledger technology, designed for decentralization, democratization and transparency. It is already transforming supply chain, legal services, government operations and voting systems, insurance business, healthcare and more.
Our times of planetary crises and grand transition are demanding the designing of the new social architecture – the paradigm change and a whole system re-design. What are the implications of blockchain and cryptocurrency for the whole system design? There are systemic implications of blockchain for energy, security, governance, health, food and water security and education. So far, we have had to rely on a centralized entity, such as national government, bank, media company to establish trust and agreement for collective socio-economic relationships and interactions. Blockchain is creating a digital web that connects collective intelligence and activates direct collaboration of collective network. It provides organizational structure for socio-economic change – it eliminates middleman, reduces operating cost, lowers risks, increases security and speed, eliminates need to sit on inventory, ends delayed payment, frees up capital, generates more creative financing, builds new lines of businesses and unleashes creativity in general.
Just Imagine: A world in which every individual possesses their own unique identifier that is not dependent on any national agency for validation. A time when the title record of all property transactions is transparently verifiable every moment. A global social network site the size of Facebook but without the need for a centralizing agency that owns and controls all the personal information on it. Imagine universal transportation and accommodation systems like Uber and AirBnB that are owned and operated by the participating individuals rather than huge corporations. A world in which all international financial transactions can be carried out instantly and almost free of charge without dependent on the fluctuating rates of national currencies. Monetary systems specially designed to promote investments in education, healthcare, the other Sustainable Development Goals, or to track transparently all election expenditures so as to severely limit the impact of private money on election outcomes. These are just of few of the possibilities explored at the conference now made practical by the emergence of blockchain and the cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology.
The Global Blockchain Summit inaugurated the Global Women in Blockchain (GWB), an international organization designed to activate and accelerate women's leadership in the education, development and promotion of blockchain technologies. Special guest of the Global Women in Blockchain was Prof. Youngsook Park, renowned futurist, who led South Korean representation as the 3rd global hotspot for cryptocurrency use and exchange. Economist Navroop Sahdev describe the potential application of cryptocurrencies as a effective means for crowdsourcing new business ventures without dependence on traditional financial institutions.
Mila Popovich WAAS Fellow and a leader in GWB, pointed out that the technology of the future is the one that can create conditions for every individual to design their own destiny in the greater economy of life. In that sense, it is crucial that womankind, their financial literacy and well-being be supported and encouraged via the new technologies, which would, in turn, ensure the health and robustness of the whole new financial ecosystem. Popovich observed that without such inclusive and ethical leadership at this formative stage of blockchain, we are running the risk of having old systems of inequality made more efficient rather than seeing the technology applied for transformative social good. She forewarned that the bubbling of cryptocurrencies can lead to a bust if those currencies are programmed by the old mindset. The real value and longevity of cryptocurrencies can only be ensured by them being driven by social incentives.
WAAS CEO Garry Jacobs focused on the nature of money as a networking tool designed to promote economic relationships and wealth creation. Describing the current preoccupation with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a speculative bubble, he focused on their enormous potential for more rapid and equitable global economic development, employment generation, individual freedom, transparent democratic governance, and the redistribution of social power to the individual citizen. Among the many creative applications discussed was the proposal fo WAAS Trustee Stefan Brunnhuber to create special purpose cryptocurrency to fund global implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which was recently presented at the UN in Geneva.
Participants were unanimous in agreeing that we cannot afford to miss the opportunity to shape the course of global developments that the adoption of these new technologies brings. They were meant for positive social change and what is urgently needed is to have global technological and ethical standards established at their formative stage. With its ethical leadership, World Academy could play a significant role in steering the course of those developments.


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New tool helps make installing the Windows Phone 7.8 update slightly easier
Update: Files have been updated to make the app more stable and reliable and indeed it does work better now. (5PM ET)
Windows Phone Hacker has released a new "wrapper" tool called 'Seven-Eighter' that reportedly makes manually installing the 7.8 update less cumbersome than downloading all the files yourself. The app comes in x86 and x64 and is a simple executable that you run on your PC (you'll need to give it permission in Windows 8).
In theory, it's the same method we detailed in our CAB file post yesterday---you specify the languages on your device and then it fetches the files for you, all through a progress-bar UI.
Since Windows Phone OS updates are cumulative but iterative in the process, you'll have to go up through Tango before proceeding to 7.8 meaning there will be a few cycles of updates.
Testing it out
We gave the app a spin on our Windows 8 machine and ran into a few problems. We tried to do the update on our T-Mobile HTC Radar and had the app throw an "exception" during the process. In addition, it did not appear to have all of the language packs that were installed on our device, which would also cause a problem (having to manually check each language as opposed to 'select all' was also tedious).
We next tried on our Sprint HTC Arrive and had the same exception thrown. Granted, the app stayed "working" with the installing Tango screen in a permanent progression but for all intents and purposes, it had crashed.
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Interestingly, not selecting any languages does seem to get the process started but we don't recommend that. At least on HTC Arrive, we're unable to even access our About screen anymore, telling us something went awry with the update (spoiler alert: incorrect language packs).
Looking over on comments on Windows Phone Hacker, we can see mixed results from users—some are having success after a few attempts, some required that the right languages were supported while some are reporting failure. In other words, your mileage may vary.
Language, Languages, Languages
The key to doing these manual upgrades is choosing the right language packs. Doing that is easy but it's very crucial to the process.
- Settings –> Keyboard
- Make note of all of the languages installed
- Download the 7.8 language packs that are on your device
Some phones only come with a handful of languages installed, while others (including those in the US) come with every single language pack on board. If the latter, you must download all the CABs with those languages for the update.
If you don't do this, it's not the end of the world. You may have some Live Tiles that look odd (People Hub) and you won't be able to get further updates, including device specific firmware should it become available later on. You can always reinstall the OS with the proper language packs to correct the mistake, so long as you are even aware of it.
Our advice
You should first try the Wi-Fi force update method. That will give you the official OS and firmware update for your phone, assuming that there is one. For some of you, your device will never get this update making this method null and void. For the rest, this is the ideal method.
Next you can try 'Seven-Eighter' by Windows Phone Hacker as detailed here. It's a little bit easier than doing it yourself, though as we discussed your success rate seems to be about 50/50.
Finally, you can always just do the manual CAB update for the OS. Assuming you pick the right language packs, this instance will always work.
Read more on 'Seven-Eighter', including download link, at Windows Phone Hacker.
Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.


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OPERATOR: PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn
LOCATION: Carbon County, UT
CONNECTION SUMMARY: This power plant purchases coal from companies engaged in mountaintop removal mining. Of the Appalachian communities featured on this site, the one most closely connected to this power plant is Kayford Mountain, West Virginia.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Click any of the mine icons in the map below to get a close-up view of where your power comes from - each mine symbol represents a connection to mountaintop removal for Carbon and for electricity consumers connected to PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn. Direct suppliers of strip mined coal from Central Appalachia are shown in red. See below for the legend and navigation hints.
Carbon, operated by PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn |
Coal suppliers to Carbon that are not mountaintop removal mines, but which are owned by companies that operate mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia |
Mountaintop removal mines that are connected to your power grid |
The controls on the top left of the map allow you to zoom in closer to the ground or back out to get a broader perspective. Even easier, though, is to navigate with the "hand" tool. Clicking and dragging on the map will move the map in the same direction, double-clicking on a point will center the map on that point and zoom you in a little closer, and double clicking with the right mouse button (ctrl-click for macintosh users) to center on a point and zoom out. |
Appalachian Voices • Coal River Mountain Watch • Heartwood • Keeper of the Mountains • Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition • Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment • Sierra Club Environmental Justice
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards • SouthWings • Stay Project • West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
Site produced by Appalachian Voices 589 West King St, Boone, NC 28607 ~ 1-877-APP-VOICE (277-8642) ~ firstname.lastname@example.com


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I mean, it looks just like Lenin's perfectly preserved corpse, so I know you're salivating already. Why, just look how excited the kiddies are!
Ah, a little jawbone with a scoop of ice cream on the side... [kissing fingertips] magnifique!
Ellie P., Whitney G., & Ann W., I think I'm going to need a Unicorn Chaser, stat.
- Related Wreckage: Any Occasion Will Do
UPDATE: Wow, thanks for all the entries in the dead Lenin caption contest, guys! The winning caption is a combination of what Taylor, Jenniffer, the Suttons, & Anne S. wrote. Oh, and my friend Abby came up with "slice of the iron fist."
And here are a few more that made me laugh:
"Lenin cake again?" - Ivory Girl
"I said I wanted a LEMON cake." - Judy
"Well, it's better than cancer rat." – Chris
"Crotch, please!" - BookTender


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A study by the Electric Power Research Institute found that businesses lose between $104 billion and $164 billion per year due to power interruptions, and another $15 billion to $24 billion from other power quality problems. It's not hard to see how the numbers add up. Just consider what an outage of a day or two would cost your company. For some, an outage of even an hour can take a significant toll.
Still, many companies don't completely understand all the various types of power disturbances that can threaten their server rooms. While protecting against major events like hurricanes and floods is certainly important, there are many, far more subtle ways in which you can experience power disturbances. In this piece, I'll touch on six of them.
1. Transients
Potentially the most damaging of all disturbances, transients fall into two subcategories: impulsive and oscillatory. Impulsive transients are the most common type of power surge or spike, involving a sudden event that raises or lowers voltage and/or current levels, often lasting less than 50 nanoseconds. Caused by lightning, poor grounding, the switching of inductive loads, utility fault clearing and other issues, impulsive transients often result in corrupt data and physical damage to equipment.
Oscillatory transients cause the power signal to alternately swell and shrink very quickly, often when a load, such as a motor or capacitor, is suddenly turned off. A common issue associated with capacitor switching is the tripping of adjustable speed drives (ASDs).
2. Interruption
An interruption is the complete loss of supply voltage or load current, lasting from 0.5 to 30 cycles (instantaneous), 30 cycles to 2 seconds (momentary), 2 seconds to 2 minutes (temporary) or over 2 minutes (sustained). One common example of an interruption is when all electronic devices and lights go out in a house for a short period of time. While inconvenient in a home, a similar power loss in a business setting can be costly, as data can become corrupt or be lost entirely during the interruption.
3. Sag or Undervoltage
Usually caused by system faults or the switching on of loads with heavy startup currents, a dip is a reduction of AC voltage at a given frequency lasting for 0.5 cycles to a minute. Think of the drop in water pressure when multiple taps in a single home are turned on. Dips can cause significant equipment damage over time.
Often referred to as a "brownout" (albeit incorrectly so), undervoltages are the results of long-term power consistency problems that create dips in the short term. Undervoltages can lead to the failure of non-linear loads such as computer power supplies.
4. Dip or Undervoltage
The opposite of a dip is a surge, caused by an increase in AC voltage lasting 0.5 cycles to one minute. Common sources include high-impedance neutral connections, sudden reductions in large loads or single-phase faults on a three-phase system. Like dips, the damaging effects of surges – degradation of electrical contacts and semiconductor damage – usually go unnoticed for extended periods of time. However, immediate, more noticeable results are the flickering of lights and data errors.
Similar to undervoltages, overvoltages are the result of long term problems that create temporary power surges. Overvoltage conditions can create high current draw and cause equipment to overheat and become stressed.
5. Waveform distortion
A waveform distortion is any power quality variation affecting the wave shape of the voltage or current. There are five primary types of waveform distortion: direct current offset, harmonic distortion, interharmonics, notching and noise. To varying degrees, they can all cause damage or disruption to IT equipment.
6. Voltage fluctuations
A voltage fluctuation is a series of small, random changes in voltage caused by any load exhibiting significant current variations. A common symptom is the flickering of incandescent lamps.
Of course there are ways to protect against each of these types of power disturbances, often by using UPS systems, backup generators, surge protectors, power line conditioning, proper grounding and more. To learn more about each of these types of power disturbance, and how to protect against them, read APC by Schneider Electric white paper number 18, "The Seven Types of Power Problems."


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Timeline of Church History (Post-Roman Schism (1054-1453))
Timeline of Church History | |||||
This article forms part of the series Introduction to Orthodox Christianity | |
Holy Tradition | |
Holy Scripture The Symbol of Faith Ecumenical Councils Church Fathers Liturgy Canons Icons | |
The Holy Trinity | |
God the Father Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit | |
The Church | |
Ecclesiology History Holy Mysteries Church Life | |
Edit this box |
The History of the Church is a vital part of the Orthodox Christian faith. Orthodox Christians are defined significantly by their continuity with all those who have gone before, those who first received and preached the truth of Jesus Christ to the world, those who helped to formulate the expression and worship of our faith, and those who continue to move forward in the unchanging yet ever-dynamic Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.
Post-Roman Schism (1054-1453)
- 1054 Cardinal Humbert excommunicates Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, a major centerpoint in the formation of the Great Schism between East and West; First Letter of Michael Cerularius to Peter of Antioch.
- 1059 Errors of Berengar of Tours condemned in Rome; term transubstantiation begins to come in to use, ascribed to Peter Damian.
- 1064 Seljuk Turks storm Anatolia taking Caesarea and Ani, conquering Armenia.
- 1065 Death of George the Hagiorite.
- 1066 Normans invade England flying banner of Pope of Rome, defeating King Harold of England at Battle of Hastings.
- 1066-1171 Beginning reformation of English church and society to align with Latin continental ecclesiology and politics.
- 1068 By the time of the arrival of the first Seljuk Turks to Anatolia, the religious war between Byzantium and Islam had run a course of four centuries.
- 1071 Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, beginning Islamification of Asia Minor; Norman princes led by Robert Guiscard capture Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, bringing to an end over five centuries of Byzantine rule in the south.
- ca. 1071-1176 Byzantine epic poem "Digenes Akrites".
- 1073 Hildebrand becomes Pope Gregory VII and launches the Gregorian reforms (celibacy of the clergy, primacy of papacy over empire, right of Pope to depose emperors); Seljuk Turks conquer Ankara.
- 1074 Death of Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.
- 1075 Dictatus Papae document advances Papal supremacy.
- 1077 The Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem and kill 3,000 citizens; Seljuks capture Nicea.
- 1082 Council of Constantinople.
- 1084 Antioch is captured by the Seljuk Turks from the Byzantines.
- 1087 Translation of the relics of Nicholas of Myra from Myra to Bari.
- 1088 Founding of monastery of John the Theologian on Patmos; election of Pope Urban II, a prominent member of the Cluniac Reform movement .
- 1095 Launching of the First Crusade.
- 1096 Persecution of Jews by Crusaders.
- 1098 Anselm of Canterbury completes Cur Deus homo, marking a radical divergence of Western theology of the atonement from that of the East.
- 1098 Crusaders capture Antioch.
- 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states known collectively as "Outremer."
- 1108 Death of Nicetas of Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod.
- 1113 Latin Order of Knights Hospitaller founded as a religious/military order under its own charter, charged with the care and defense of the Holy Land and pilgrims.
- 1118 Latin Order of Knights Templar founded.
- 1118-1137 Imperial monastery of Christ Pantocrator founded.
- ca. 1131-45 Coptic Pope of Alexandria Gabriel II initiates addition of Arabic as a liturgical language with his Arabic translation of the Liturgy.
- ca. 1120-1220 Spread of Aristotelian philosophy throughout Western Europe, mostly via the translations of Averroes and Maimonides.
- 1120 Council of Nablus is held in Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
- 1127-1145 Constantinople largest city in the world by population.
- 1144 Bernard of Clairvaux calls for a Second Crusade to rescue the besieged Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; Kings Louis VII of France and Konrad III of Germany join Crusaders, but are defeated by Muslims; Muslims take Christian stronghold of Edessa.
- 1147 Moscow founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruki, a ruler of the northeastern Rus'; Roger II of Sicily takes Corfu from the Byzantine Empire, and pillages Corinth, Athens and Thebes.
- 1148 Death of Anthony the Roman, Abbot and Wonder-worker of Novgorod.
- 1149 On the 50th anniversary of the taking of Jerusalem by the First Crusade, Crusaders begin to renovate Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Romanesque style, adding a bell tower; in August, 1149, Abbot Suger of St. Denis together with Bernard of Clairvaux laid plans for a series of councils which would summon all of France to a new crusade to the Holy Land; this call to crusade included voices such as Peter, Abbot of Cluny who demanded vengeance on the Byzantine Empire over the failure of the Second Crusade and had correspondence with Roger of Sicily calling for an expedition against Constantinople.[1]
- 1156-57 Council of Constantinople (Synod of Blachernae) is held under Patr. Luke Chrysoberges to condemn the errors of Soterichus Pantengenus, patriarch-elect of Antioch, and of some others, who asserted that the Sacrifice upon the Cross was offered to the Father and to the Holy Spirit alone, and not to the Word, the Son of God.
- 1159 John of Salisbury authors Policraticus, a treatise on government drawing from the Bible, the Codex Justinianus, and arguing for Divine Right of Kings.
- 1164 Uncovering of the relics of Leontius of Rostov.
- 1166 Council of Constantinople.
- 1170 Miracle of the weeping icon of the Theotokos "of the Sign" at Novgorod; Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland; city of Dublin captured by the Normans.
- 1173 Death of Richard of Saint Victor, prior of the famous Augustinian abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris (1162-1173) and one of the most important mystical theologians of 12th century Paris.
- 1176 Sultanate of Rum defeats Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Myriokephalon, marking end of Byzantine attempts to recover Anatolian plateau; Al-Adil I, Muslim ruler of Egypt, suppresses a revolt by Christian Copts in city of Qift, hanging nearly 3,000 of them.
- 1177 Latin King Baldwin of Jerusalem and his knights, with Templars, defeat Muslim army of Saladin at Battle of Montgisard.
- 1179 Death of Hildegard von Bingen.
- 1180 Last formal acceptance of Latins to communion at an Orthodox altar in Antioch.
- 1182 Maronites, who assisted the Crusaders during the Crusades, reaffirm their affiliation with Rome in 1182; dedication of Monreale Cathedral in Sicily, containing the largest cycle of Byzantine mosaics extant in Italy.
- 1185 Second Bulgarian Empire founded; Death of John, Bishop of Novgorod.
- 1186 Byzantine Empire recognizes independence of Bulgaria and Serbia.
- 1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem after destroying crusader army at Battle of Hattin, and returns Christian holy places to Orthodox Church.
- 1189 Third Crusade led by King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, King Philip Augustus II of France, and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
- ca. 1189 Ethiopian Emperor Gebre Mesqel Lalibela orders construction of Lalibela.
- 1191 Cyprus taken from Byzantines by English King Richard I the Lion-hearted.
- 1198 Cyprus sold by England to Frankish crusaders.
- 1204 Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, laying waste to the city and stealing many relics and other items; Great Schism generally regarded as having been completed by this act; Venetians use the imperial monastery of Christ Pantocrator as their headquardters in Constantinople; Theodore I Lascaris establishes the Empire of Nicaea; death of Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, author of Guide for the Perplexed which harmonized the Old Testament with Aristotle.
- ca.1207 Stephen Langton divides the Bible into the defined modern chapters in use today.
- 1211 Venetian crusaders conquer Byzantine Crete, retaining it until ousted by Ottoman Turks in 1669.
- 1212 Children's Crusade, led by 12-year-old Stephen of Cloyes, sets out for Holy Land from France.
- 1213 Death of Tamar of Georgia.
- 1216 Latin Dominican Order formally recognized.
- 1217-21 Fifth Crusade.
- ca.1220 English Bp. Richard Le Poore is said to have been responsible for the final form of the "Use of Sarum", which had the sterling reputation of being the best liturgy anywhere in the West.
- 1223 Latin Franciscan Order formally recognized.
- 1226 Latin Carmelite order formally recognized.
- 1228 Sixth Crusade results in 10-year treaty starting in 1229 between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Egyptian sultan; Jerusalem ceded to Franks, along with a narrow corridor to the coast, as well as Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa and Bethlehem.
- 1231 Papal Inquisition initiated by Pope Gregory IX, charged with suppressing heresy.
- 1235 Death of Sava of Serbia.
- 1236 Córdoba was recaptured from the Muslim army by King Ferdinand III of Castile, and the Great Mosque of Córdoba was re-converted into a Christian church.
- 1237 Golden Horde begin subjugation of Russia.
- 1240 Mongols sack Kiev; Prince Alexander Nevsky defeats Swedish army at Battle of the Neva.
- 1242 Alexander Nevsky's Novgorodian force defeats Teutonic Knights in Battle of Lake Peipus, a major defeat for the Catholic crusaders.
- 1244 Jerusalem conquered and razed by Khwarezmian mercenaries (Oghuz Turks) serving under the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt Salih Ayyub, triggering Seventh Crusade.
- 1245 First Council of Lyons in the Roman Catholic Church mandates red hat for cardinals and a levy for the Holy Land.
- 1247 Ayyubids conquer Jerusalem, driving out the Khwarezmian Turks.
- 1248-54 Seventh Crusade.
- 1258 Michael VIII Palaiologos seizes the throne of the Nicaean Empire, founding the last Roman (Byzantine) dynasty, beginning reconquest of Greek peninsula from Latins; Salisbury Cathedral is consecrated.
- 1259 Byzantines defeat Latin Principality of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia, marking the beginning of the Byzantine recovery of Greece.
- ca. 1259-80 Martyrdom by Latins of monks of Iveron Monastery.
- 1260 Subjugation of Church of Cyprus to the Roman Catholic Church.
- 1261 End of Latin occupation of Constantinople and restoration of Orthodox patriarchs; Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos makes Mystras seat of the new Despotate of Morea, where a Byzantine renaissance occurred.
- 1268 Egyptian Mamelukes capture Antioch.
- 1269 Orthodox patriarch returns to Antioch after a 171-year exile and usurpation by Latin patriarch.
- 1270 Eighth Crusade launched by King Louis IX of France.
- 1271-72 Ninth Crusade led by Prince Edward of England to Acre, considered to be the last of the medieval Crusades to the Holy Land.
- 1274 Second Council of Lyons held, proclaiming union between the Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West, but generally unaccepted in the East; death of Thomas Aquinas, Latin scholastic philosopher and theologian, author of the Summa Theologica.
- 1275 Unionist Patriarch of Constantinople John XI Bekkos elected to replace Patriarch Joseph I Galesiotes, who opposed the Second Council of Lyons; 26 martyrs of Zographou monastery on Mt. Athos, martyred by the Latins.
- ca. 1280 Kebra Nagast ("Book of the Glory of Kings") compiled, a repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings.
- 1281 Pope Martin IV authorizes a Crusade against the newly re-established Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, excommunicating Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the Greeks and renouncing the union of 1274; French and Venetian expeditions set out toward Constantinople but are forced to turn back in the following year.
- 1285 Council of Constantinople (Second Synod of Blachernae) discussed and rejected the pro-western interpretation of the Trinity as enunciated by Patr. John XI Bekkos, as well as rejecting the decisions of the Council of Lyons of 1274, and condemning the the Roman (Byzantine) "latinophrones".
- 1287 Last record of Western Rite Monastery of Amalfion on Mount Athos.
- 1291 Fall of Acre; end of crusading in Holy Land.
- 1298 Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I are named collectively as the first Great Doctors of the Western Church.
- 1302 Papal Bull Unam Sanctum issued by Pope Boniface VIII proclaims Papal supremacy.
- 1326 Metr. Peter moves his see from Kiev to Vladimir and then to Moscow.
- 1309 Rhodes falls to the Knights of St. John, who establish their headquarters there, renaming themselves the "Knights of Rhodes."
- 1311-12 Council of Vienne in the Roman Catholic Church disbands the Knights Templar.
- 1332 Amda Syon, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces, allowing for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas.
- 1336 Meteora in Greece established as a center of Orthodox monasticism.
- 1338 Gregory Palamas writes Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, defending the Orthodox practice of hesychast spirituality and the use of the Jesus Prayer.
- 1340 Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra founded by Sergius of Radonezh.
- 1341-47 Byzantine civil war between John VI Cantacuzenus (1347–54) and John V Palaeologus (1341–91).
- 1341-51 Three sessions of the Ninth Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, affirming hesychastic theology of Gregory Palamas and condemning rationalistic philosophy of Barlaam of Calabria.
- 1342 Patriarchate of Antioch transferred to Damascus under Ignatius II.
- 1344 Death of Amda Syon, Emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1349 Prince Stephen Dushan of Serbia assumes the title of Tsar (Caesar); principality of Galicia (Halitsh) comes under Polish control.
- 1352 Death of Ewostatewos (Eusthathius), Ethiopian monk and religious leader.
- 1353 Death of Sergius and Herman, Abbots of Valaam.
- 1354 Ottoman Turks make first settlement in Europe at Gallipoli.
- 1359 Death of Gregory Palamas.
- 1360 Death of John Koukouzelis the Hymnographer.
- 1365 Crusaders under Latin King Peter I of Cyprus sack Alexandria, Egypt.
- 1378 Death of Alexis of Moscow.
- 1379 Western Great Schism ensues, including simultaneous reign of three Popes of Rome; death of the venerable Philotheus I (Kokkinos) of Constantinople in exile, an anti-unionist who opposed Emperor John V in his intent to negotiate re-union of the churches with Popes Urban V and Gregory XI.
- ca. 1380 English Church reformer John Wyclif writes that the true faith is preserved only in the East, "among the Greeks."
- ca.1380-1534 Lollard Movement in England; Lollards were effectively absorbed into Protestantism during the English Reformation, in which Lollardy played a role.
- 1382-95 First English Bible translated by John Wyclif.
- 1383 Stephen of Perm, missionary to Zyrians, consecrated bishop; appearance of Theotokos of Tikhvin icon.
- 1385 Kreva Agreement provides for conversion of Lithuanian nobles and all pagan Lithuanians to Roman Catholicism, joining Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Kingdom of Poland through a dynastic union.
- 1387 Lithuania converts to Roman Catholicism, while most Ruthenian lands (Belarus and Ukraine) remain Orthodox.
- 1389 Serbs defeated by Ottoman Turks of Sultan Murad I at the battle of Kosovo Polje; death of Lazar, prince of Serbia.
- 1390 Ottomans take Philadelphia, last significant Byzantine enclave in Anatolia.
- 1391-98 Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully besiege Constantinople for the first time.
- 1410 Iconographer Andrei Rublev paints his most famous icon depicting the three angels who appeared to Abraham and Sarah, the angels being considered a type of the Holy Trinity.
- 1411 Death of Niphon of Mount Athos, proponent of hesychastic theology and wonderworker.
- 1414-18 Council of Constance in Roman Catholic Church represents high point for Conciliar Movement over authority of pope.
- 1417 End of Western Great Schism at the Council of Constance.
- 1418 Latin monk Thomas à Kempis authors The Imitation of Christ.
- 1422 Second unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Constantinople.
- 1423-24 Council of Siena in the Roman Catholic Church was the high point of conciliarism, emphasizing the leadership of the bishops gathered in council, but the conciliarism expressed there was later branded as a heresy.
- 1433 Nicolas of Cusa writes his major work on church government, The Catholic Concordance (De concordantia catholica), a manifesto of conciliarism, advancing the notion of a constitutional papacy subject to the authority of a council representative of the different parts of Christendom, balancing hierarchy with consent.
- 1439 Ecclesiastical reunion with West attempted at Council of Florence, where only Mark of Ephesus refuses to capitulate to demands of delegates from Rome.
- 1440-41 Encyclical Letter of Mark of Ephesus.
- 1444 Donation of Constantine proved forgery.
- 1448 Church of Russia unilaterally declares its independence from the Church of Constantinople; Vatican Library formally established by Pope Nicholas V.
- 1452 Unification of Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in Hagia Sophia on West's terms, when Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, under pressure from Rome, allows the union to be proclaimed.
- 1453 Constantinople falls to invasion of the Ottoman Turks, ending Roman Empire; Hagia Sophia turned into a mosque; martyrdom of Constantine XI Palaiologos, last of the Byzantine Emperors; many Greek scholars escape to the West with books that become translated into Latin, triggering the Renaissance.
- ↑ John Gordon Rowe. The Papacy and the Greeks (1122-1153) (Part II). Church History, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1959), p.318.
- Some of these dates are necessarily a bit vague, as records for some periods are particularly difficult to piece together accurately.
- The division of Church History into separate eras as done here will always be to some extent arbitrary, though it was attempted to group periods according to major watershed events.
- This timeline is necessarily biased toward the history of the Orthodox Church, though a number of non-Orthodox or purely political events are mentioned for their importance in history related to Orthodoxy or for reference.
See also
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in America
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in Australia
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in Britain
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in China
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in Greece
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in New Zealand
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in Japan
- Timeline of Orthodoxy in Russia
- Timeline of Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic relations
Published works
The following are published writings that provide an overview of Church history:
From an Orthodox perspective
- Papadakis, Aristeides (with John Meyendorff). The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy: The Church 1071-1453 A.D. The Church in History Vol. IV. Crestwood, N.Y. : St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1994. ISBN 9780881410587
- Schmemann, Alexander. The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy.
- Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church: New Edition. (ISBN 0140146563)
From a Heterodox perspective
- Collins, Michael, ed.; Price, Matthew Arlen. Story of Christianity: A Celebration of 2000 Years of Faith. (ISBN 0789446057)
- Gonzalez, Justo L. A History of Christian Thought, Volume 2: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation. (ISBN 0687171830)
- Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation. (ISBN 0060633158)
- Hastings, Adrian, ed. A World History of Christianity. (ISBN 0802848753)
- Hussey, J. M. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire: Oxford History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 0198264569)
- Jones, Timothy P. Christian History Made Easy. (ISBN 1890947105)
- Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. (ISBN 080106211X)
- Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700). (ISBN 0226653730)
- Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 3: The Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300). (ISBN 0226653749)
- Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. (ISBN 156563196X)
- Walton, Robert C. Chronological and Background Charts of Church History. (ISBN 0310362814)
External links
- History of Orthodox Christianity (QuickTime movies)
- Timeline of Patriarchal History. Order of St. Andrew the Apostle. Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. (Pop-up Video Presentation, in Sections)


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Lookit (Part 1): a new online platform for developmental research. Open Mind 1, (2017). UNCORRECTED PROOF (561.21 KB)
Lookit (Part 2): Assessing the viability of online developmental research, Results from three case studies. Open Mind 1, (2017). lookitpart2.pdf (464.02 KB)


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Iran is planning a fresh round of talks on its nuclear program "in a few weeks" after a generally positive first round of multiparty meetings in Geneva aimed at defusing tensions with the West.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, commenting on his Facebook page, says the next meeting with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany would also be held in Geneva.
Reuters, quoting a Western diplomat, says the talks are set to resume in Geneva for two days beginning Nov. 7.
On Tuesday, Tehran presented a plan to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to end the confrontation over its nuclear program, which it has always insisted is for peaceful purposes.
No details of that plan were released, but as The Associated Press reports:
"[Comments] from Western officials meeting with Iranian negotiators indicated interest in the proposal, described by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as designed to allow Iran to leave the 'dark' path of international isolation.
"Previous rounds have often been fitful and sporadic, reflecting the deadlock between the two sides. Zarif's Facebook comments that negotiations will resume 'in a few weeks' strengthened expectations that some progress was being made. He said the follow-up will also be held in Geneva, the venue for the ongoing talks."
The election of moderate President Hasan Rouhani four months ago has opened the door to negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, which many Western analysts believe is aimed at acquiring a bomb.
Update At 12:08 p.m. ET. Zarif: 'Fruitful' Discussions
Speaking in Geneva, Zarif says Iran held "fruitful" nuclear discussions and hopes for a "new phase" in relations with the West, Reuters reports. He says he hopes world powers will be prepared to try to solve the impasse.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Me and the whole "A Pinteresting Saturday" haven't been getting along. The weekend comes and the last thing I want to or am able to do is blog.
However, I still need a solid excuse to accomplish a pin here or there from my pin boards. So many great ideas...I just can't let them sit there...or can I...hehehe...
Ehem...no. I have pinned most of them because I really do have intentions of doing a project, cooking a recipe, using a tip, getting inspiration, etc. You get the idea, I am sure!
So A Pinteresting Saturday is probably going to move to Wednesday...any objections?
Anywho, I digress.
My most recent Pin-tastic projects have a common theme.
That theme-
get some child labor...
crack the whip...
lay down the law...
teach some responsibility...
pull a Mama Bear from the Berenstain Bears (seriously if you get this reference you MUST tell me, we are kindred spirits)...
put some order in our
In other words--
We are tackling the whole CHORE issue.
Our kids have had responsibilities before...but there has been a lack of structure.
I got tired of explaining why--
"If you take out the toys, well then you need to pick them up".
Don't get me wrong they eventually did it...most of the time...Still uber tired of saying it.
Finally, when I saw THIS, I pinned it and decided to accomplish it post haste.
So I went to handy dandy PicMonkey and created myself a fun little label, and wrote my own little poem, for my new toy ransom bucket. I also just typed out a list of different chores/ways they can earn back each toy they left out. I printed everything off. I cut the chores into strips and put them in an envelope. Then I taped the label and the envelope to the lid of the bucket.
We have already had our first ransoming. The boys woke up with this bucket FULL...I kid you not...they are still working to get everything back.
Thanks to left out toys I have already had my dinning room table and chairs cleaned, the bath toys cleaned, the TV shelf dusted, and I got to watch Oldest run up and down the stairs 10 times (yup some are active things).
Still on the subject of CHORES-
NEW: Link to CHORE LIST
Thanks to THIS pin Hubby and I have been discussing our opinions of chores and the whole reward thing.
I will spare you our whole fascinating conversation and just give you the highlights-
-don't want them thinking they always have to get something to do something
-want them to recognize the responsibilities they have simply because they are part of our family
-want to reward them for "extras"
So with the whole "reward them for extras" in mind, I again headed over to PicMonkey and made our Little Men some fun punch cards.
Our rule with the punch cards is that they have to finish their "no arguing" chores. This means they need to finish the chores that are their responsibility period. No reward. Their reward is that they have the most awesomest parents ever and we have provided pretty comfy beds and a whole mess-oh-food they can eat.
So once they finish their regular chores, they each have a list of extra things they can do for a punch. Once they fill a punch card they can turn it in for a reward...we have not gotten there yet.
You can save the template to your computer. Then in PicMonkey click the "edit a photo" button. Pick this file then go to the text edit and add in your own chores...like I did here.
Whew! That was a lot of chore talk. If you are like us and weren't quite so organized yet, or you are just starting out and are looking for chore ideas, I sure hope this helped.
Here's to CHORES!


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Chapter 13 Dismissed When Infeasibility Discovered at End of Plan
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text:
Just kidding!
No, I live to complain. In fact, I can complain your face right off your skull. If you handed me a million dollars I'd find a way to complain about it. ("What is this, American money? You couldn't at least pay me in Canadian?") But you know what I like to complain about most of all?
People who complain.
See, there's no kind of complaining more satisfying than hypocritical complaining, since nothing's more annoying than people who do exactly what you would do in their position. Consider my upcoming visit to Melbourne, Australia for the Melbourne Writers Festival:
I'm both honored and excited to be a part of this. Not only that, but I'm proud of myself. That's right, proud. It seems like only yesterday I started this blog at work, and today here I am, unemployed because I was blogging at work and sitting on the couch in my underpants with three books under my belt (figuratively speaking--I'm not even wearing pants so how could I have books under my belt?) and an invitation to one of the top writers' festivals in the entire world (which is a distinction I just made up).
So am I breaking one arm patting myself on the back and using the other to give myself a congratulatory handjob?
You're goddamn right.
And do you know what I get in my moment of glory? Do I get a "G'day mate, so glad yer gonna hump the koala [Australian slang for boarding a plane] and head down under for a visit to Earth's Scranus!"? No I do not. No, what I get is people complaining that you have to pay to attend the events. "$40 to ride with you? Do I at least get my scranus tickled with that? You suck!"*
*(So far, nobody has actually said this.)
Well, I don't know if you realize it, but Australia is far. Really far. In fact, it's about as far from my home as I can get without leaving the fucking planet. Given this, do you know when I'd be visiting Australia if it wasn't for the Melbourne Writers Festival?
Never. Never, ever, ever.
It's not like I don't want to see Australia--I most certainly do. It's just that if I actually had the time and money to just fuck off to Australia on a whim, I'd have to be an idiot to actually do it when I could just stay home, ride my bike every day, and spend the airfare on booze.
But now, thanks to the Melbourne Writers Festival, I don't have to make the stupid decision to visit Australia since they're making it for me. See, they didn't give me the option to stay home, ride my bike, and get drunk. With them it's come to Australia and be in a festival or you get nothing. Therefore, it's a no-brainer, and thanks to them I'll actually get to see Australia before I die.
So you're going to complain that they want to charge you a few bucks so they can make my dream of visiting Australia come true?* You've got some goddamn nerve.
*Disclosure: visiting Australia is not, nor has it ever been, my dream.
Anyway, the point is that I'm really looking forward to this, I'm grateful to the Melbourne Writers Festival, and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
By the way, the same goes for people who complain about the ads on this blog. "Oooh, they blink, I don't like it. I need a special bike for riding on gravel. Blah, blah, blah." Do you understand these people give me money? If you get one cheap (free) laugh a week off this blog then I say it's all worth it. You shouldn't be asking me to remove them. You should be humping the ads with gratitude--and I mean literally mashing your genitals on the screen.
That's what I'm doing right now.
Speaking of paying for things, if you don't want to come to one of my Melbourne thingies, then you can always spend the money on something useful, like a cardboard cutout of Mario Cipollini and Magnus Backstedt (forwarded by a reader):
I don't know if they're doing "bro hands" because they just scored some EPO, or because Cipollini tends to have tacky palms from servicing himself and others and they've been stuck this way since 2005.
Either way, if you do buy it, be sure to give your Cipollini regular treatments with this proprietary Bianchi olive oil rub:
I like a good English "soft-sell" as much as anybody ("Please fund my bag if you would," he asked politely, and then adjourned to his study for some tea and sobbing), but I hope that road's not gravel because if it is he's out of his fucking mind riding on it without a dedicated gravel bike:
Holy shit, he's riding on plants now!!!
Please tell me someone's working on an ivy bike, because there's a giant leaf-shaped hole in my stable that only another absurdly specialized bicycle can fill.
Anyway, this reckless cyclist has invented a bag for having "lightweight, unencumbered adventures:"
Now, when I think of "lightweight, unencumbered adventures," I think of this:
But if stuffing a few things in a bag qualifies as an adventure for you, then this is your sack:
I was actually beginning to warm to this particular Kickstarter, but then the inventor abandoned his whole polite English soft-sell and started to get dirty:
Really dirty:
"It doesn't sway from side to side as you ride, or rub against your frame, legs or wheel."
Outrageous! Is this a bag for unencumbered adventures, or is it some sort of Victorian device for securing yourself to your pant leg?
And then, this:
"It'll come in several colors too."
So will Cipollini after he easts gelato.
Speaking of complaining, yesterday I mentioned the New York Times Portland bike style video, and the commenters on Bike Portland are complaining that the piece did not do their vibrantly self-indulgent community justice:
Please. The more I think about it, the more amazed I am that the Times managed to find four people in Portland who weren't wearing the standard uniform of a Nutcase helment and a dayglo Showers Pass jacket.
Lastly, elsewhere in the Times, I've finally checked out this interactive bike map of theirs, and I actually like it:
Ideally, every dot in Brooklyn would say "Please move to Portland already" when you click it, but other than that it seems like a useful resource.


text: What is Scientology?Scientology is a religion in its highest meaning, as it helps bring man to total freedom and truth. The essential tenets of Scientology are these: You are an immortal spiritual being. Your experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. And your capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized. Furthermore, man is basically good. He is seeking to survive. And his survival depends upon himself and his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe. Contact UsWe are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our services and activities, or any of our social betterment programs for the community. For any questions, please fill out the form and one of our staff members will gladly assist you. You can also come in to the Church or give us a call any day of the week. |


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Emmanuel, 20, sponsored through World Vision, says that clean water changes everything.
Read how World Vision's water and sanitation programs in Ghana have transformed Emmanuel's community and how they are the cause of new celebrations.
Emmanuel is a finance major in his freshman year at the University of Ghana in Accra. He's a serious, soft-spoken young man and clearly intelligent. He's a sharp dresser and fluent in French, English, and his local language. By every measure, Emmanuel has a very bright future.
But his life would have been much different without World Vision's community development program and his child sponsors from the U.S.
Emmanuel grew up in a rural village in Ghana, where he gathered water from a small stream. His sponsorship meant that his grandmother could send him to school, and World Vision worked with his community to provide a new school and clean water. His sponsorship means so much to Emmanuel that he always keeps a Christmas card from his sponsors with him. He received it when he was 6 years old.
I'm traveling with Emmanuel in the Afram Plains. This is an arid region of Ghana, a long day's journey from Accra. We cross Lake Volta by ferry and then travel over bumpy roads to the World Vision community where our staff lives, working to ensure community ownership of their water resources.
We're here to visit some of the oldest World Vision water wells. This effort started in 1985. One of the motivators for providing clean drinking water in this area was the fact that it had very high rates of Guinea worm infections.
We visit one of the local government officials, the Honorable Ibrahim Issaka, district chief executive of Afram Plains South. He is passionate about the impact that World Vision has made in this area and recalls the time before World Vision came.
He tells me that Guinea worm infection was very high back then. I'm shocked when he pulls up his shirtsleeve to show me the place where a worm left his arm. The eggs of the Guinea worm enter your body through contaminated water, and then the larvae bury into your tissue and grow quietly until they're ready to make a dramatic exit by crawling out of your skin.
This process is debilitating to the human host, and for Ibrahim, it meant his entire arm was swollen more than twice its normal size. He suffered, winding the head of the worm around a small stick and slowly pulling it out over two weeks. It was even worse for his sister, who had three worms and couldn't walk for a month.
Ibrahim tells me World Vision will always be a friend to him and his community because of the provision of more than 1,300 water facilities in the Afram Plains. He tells us proudly that Guinea worm has been completely eradicated and the clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene have also drastically reduced trachoma and childhood deaths.
While traveling, we see that most people already have clean water in the region. The community engagement World Vision provides as part of our development model is the reason water continues to flow for decades. For every water resource, we establish a committee, of both women and men, and train local mechanics on how to maintain and repair the pumps. The communities charge households a small fee so there is money for parts to repair the pumps when they break down.
We meet with a water committee and see that they have kept detailed records of pump maintenance as well as records of collected fees.
This water well is the same age as Emmanuel. In seeing the actual birth date of the well, Emmanuel determines that he is the senior by three months. Both are going strong at 20.
World Vision has recently started to provide new wells in the area, and today we hope to witness the birth of a new water source. We get an urgent phone call from the drilling team, encouraging us to hurry.
We arrive in time. Hallelujah! There is water. The eruption of water causes us all to jump back. But some of the children get excited and run to the erupting water. I see that Emmanuel is excited as well. "Go ahead," I encourage him, and he joins the celebration.
I'm amazed at how quickly the village elders gather to celebrate the new water source and to thank World Vision. The chief and his chairman make quite a team with their golden staff and fancy robes. The chief makes a speech that honors our team. He says, "The development of the Afram Plains cannot be celebrated without including World Vision."
Emmanuel sums it up by telling me clean water changes everything. He's enjoyed his visit to the Afram Plains but needs to return to Accra so he won't miss any classes. He tells us he's learned so much from the visit and will miss us. He doesn't know where he'd be without the support he received from World Vision.
In parting, he tells me, "May God richly bless you and guide all your steps to bring joy to the heart of hopeless people." I tell him that we're very proud of him and to do well in school.
I know he will.
When World Vision drilling teams strike water, entire villages erupt in celebration! Be a part of that celebration: Donate a share of a deep well.