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Effect of Leptin Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Insulin Resistance
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00085982
Recruitment Status : Enrolling by invitation
First Posted : June 21, 2004
Last Update Posted : November 22, 2019
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Leptin is a hormone produced by the fat cells that researchers have shown to play a role in controlling appetite. Certain people with severe insulin resistance have little or no leptin.
The purpose of this study is to investigate people whose leptin levels have been found to be lower than 85 percent of the general population. Researchers will determine whether insulin levels in these participants improve when they are treated with genetically engineered leptin.
Study participants must be age 8 years or older and must have severe insulin resistance syndrome and leptin deficiency. During an initial 7-day visit to the Clinical Center, researchers will evaluate participants' metabolic parameters, such as insulin responsiveness, lipid levels, appetite, and hormone levels. After taking these tests, participants will self-inject doses of leptin once or twice a day and will be monitored for treatment outcomes as well as side effects via follow-up visits. These inpatient follow-up visits will involve both blood tests and imaging studies at the Clinical Center at 4, 8, and 12 months after the initial visit, and every 6 months thereafter.
|Condition or disease
|Severe Insulin Resistance
|Drug: Metreleptin
|Phase 2
Since this protocol was initiated, we have observed that recombinant leptin has improved metabolic abnormalities in subjects with lipoatrophy and leptin deficiency . The mechanism by which leptin treatment improves insulin sensitivity in lipodystrophy patients is correlated with the decrease in triglyceride content that occurs in the liver and muscle tissues during leptin therapy, but it is unclear if this completely accounts for the increase in insulin sensitivity .
We followed two patients with mutations to their insulin receptor, who were refractory to standard insulin resistance treatment. We administered recombinant leptin hormone for 10 months to these two patients and observed the effect on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in a pilot protocol.
Initial results from this study demonstrated that the two patients with extreme insulin resistance responded to leptin therapy by decreasing HgbA1c, decreasing fasting serum glucose levels, decreasing fasting serum insulin levels, and a concomitant improvement in glucose and insulin tolerance during their treatment period on leptin therapy. Three months following leptin withdrawal, these metabolic improvements deteriorated to the pre-treatment level. During this 10-month period of leptin treatment, no adverse reactions to the therapy were observed for these two patients.
The diabetes in this group is clinically very challenging to control. The new insulin sensitizing medications are currently being tested, but clearly are not sufficient to control diabetes in the optimal target ranges. In this study, we would like to continue to test the safety and efficacy of leptin replacement therapy in these rare, but complex group of patients. We would like to see whether leptin will improve insulin sensitivity, thus decrease insulin resistance in a situation where the mechanism of insulin resistance can be attributed to a presumed defect on the insulin receptor. This will allow us to learn if leptin can overcome a receptor defect by activating some of the down-stream molecules in insulin signaling cascade.
This will be an open-labeled study of 20 patients. We will include all ethnicities and all genders of patients aged 5 and higher, with identified or presumed insulin receptor mutations, and extreme forms of insulin resistance, manifested by fasting hyperinsulinemia, fasting hyperglycemia, or severe glucose intolerance during a standard oral glucose tolerance test. These patients also need to demonstrate concomitantly low fasting leptin levels (less than 12.0 ng/mL for females and less than 8.0 ng/mL for males).
Patients will be evaluated every 6-12 months during the first two years of therapy. If no improvements are seen after one year of therapy, then the study medication will be withdrawn. If the patient shows improvements in his/her metabolic parameters while on leptin, the patient will be invited to continue taking the study medication. After two years of treatment, extending the treatment period on an annual basis will be the decision of the patient, principal investigator and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals. Leptin is supplied by Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, LLP and currently is only available through research studies. Neither the NIH nor Aegerion Pharmaceuticals can guarantee that leptin will be available indefinitely and/or after the study ends.
With leptin therapy, we hope to continue to see the improvements in metabolic control that was demonstrated in the two pilot study patients. We hope to better assess the role leptin is playing in regulating the glucose control and insulin sensitivity in this unique population of patients, where the defect in insulin sensitivity is due to a known or presumed insulin receptor mutation.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|11 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Effect of Leptin Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Insulin Resistance
|Actual Study Start Date :
|August 21, 2003
|Estimated Primary Completion Date :
|January 1, 2030
|Estimated Study Completion Date :
|January 1, 2030
Experimental: Leptin Treatment
300 mg of study drug administered via SC injections.
Drug: Metreleptin
Administered SQ twice/day to achieve physiological concentrations that will be effective in improving the severe state of insulin resistance seen in patients with genetic defects on their insulin rece
- Improvements in HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, and fasting insulin levels [ Time Frame: Every 6-12 months ]Lower HbA1C, lower blood glucose values, & lower insulin levels.
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|5 Years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
- Ethnicity: All ethnic groups
- Gender: Males and females
- Age >5 years. In our experience with the younger children, we find that their participation in serial blood tests and MRI scans improves greatly when they are at least 5 years of age. Also, in our experience with the Type A insulin resistant patients, their initial insulin resistance is manifested as extreme hyperinsulinemia and hypoglycemia in the younger patients. We would not want to treat a young child experiencing chronic hypoglycemia.
- Clinically significant, severe insulin resistance. This can be documented by a known or suspected defect in the insulin receptor that have characteristic phenotypic identification. These include the following: Rabson Mendenhall syndrome, which usually is associated with mutations in the insulin receptor; Type A insulin resistance, which is usually associated with mutations in the insulin receptor; and Type B insulin resistance, which is associated with auto-antibodies to the insulin receptor. The inclusion criteria should include any patient with extreme insulin resistance who has appropriately low leptin levels. Syndromes of lipodystrophy are similar, but we already have approval to treat this group of patients.
- Circulating leptin levels < 12.0 ng/ml in females and < 8.0 ng/ml in males as measured by Linco assay from serum samples after an overnight fast.
Presence of at least one of the following metabolic abnormalities:
- Fasting insulin >30 (Micro)U/ml OR
Presence of diabetes as defined by the 2006 ADA criteria:
- Fasting plasma glucose >= 126 mg/dL
- 2 hour plasma glucose >= 200 mg/dL following a 75 gram (1.75g/kg if less than 40kg) oral glucose load, or
- Diabetic symptoms with a random plasma glucose >= 200 mg/dL
- General: Pregnant women, women in their reproductive years who do not use an effective method of birth control, and women currently nursing or lactating within 6 weeks of having completed nursing.
- Exclusions for underlying disease likely to increase side effects or to hinder objective data collection:
- Known infectious liver disease
- Known HIV infection
- Current alcohol or substance abuse
- Psychiatric disorder impeding competence or compliance
- Active tuberculosis
- Use of anorexiogenic drugs
- Other conditions which in the opinion of the clinical investigators would impede completion of the study.
- Subjects who have a known hypersensitivity to E. Coli derived proteins.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00085982
|United States, Maryland
|National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892
|Principal Investigator:
|Rebecca J Brown, M.D.
|National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Additional Information:
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
|Responsible Party:
|National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00085982 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|June 21, 2004 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|November 22, 2019
|Last Verified:
|November 4, 2019
|Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
|Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
Rabson Mendenhall
Type B Insulin Resistance
Type A Insulin Resistance
Insulin Resistance
Glucose Metabolism Disorders
Metabolic Diseases
Insulin, Globin Zinc
Hypoglycemic Agents
Physiological Effects of Drugs


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Rosemary is the herb of remembrance, and rest assured, this is one unforgettable cake. Both its mousse filling and icing are infused with the pungent herb—if you prefer a less assertive rosemary flavor, simply reduce the quantity of herb in each recipe or omit it altogether from the icing. MAKES ONE 8-INCH THREE-LAYER CAKE, ABOUT 16-20 SERVINGS
Chocolate-rosemary mousse
• 1/4 cup loosely packed rosemary leaves, stems removed
• 2 cups heavy cream, divided
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped and melted
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Chocolate fudge cake
• 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped and melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
Rosemary buttercream
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup loosely packed rosemary leaves, stems removed
• 5 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Garnish (optional)
• Fresh rosemary sprigs (at least sixteen)
1. To make mousse, put rosemary and 1 cup cream in saucepan and bring to scalding over medium heat. Turn off heat and steep about 30 minutes. In electric mixer with whip attachment, whip yolks on high speed until light and fluffy. Meanwhile, bring sugar and water to boil in another saucepan over medium-high heat. Boil 1 to 2 minutes until thick and syrupy. Turn mixer down to medium and gradually pour sugar syrup into egg yolks in slow, steady stream, mixer running. Shut off mixer and scrape down sides, working quickly so heat of syrup does not cook yolks. Turn mixer back on and beat at high speed until thick and fluffy, 5 to 10 minutes. Turn egg mixture into large bowl. Add melted chocolate, butter and vanilla extract, whisking until smooth. Strain cream mixture into chocolate base, pressing out excess fluid from rosemary. Whisk until smooth. Place remaining 1 cup cream in clean bowl of electric mixer with whip attachment. Whip cream to soft peaks. Fold into chocolate-rosemary base until cream is uniformly distributed. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours, until mousse is extremely firm. Note: A firmer mousse will make for much easier cake assembly later.
2. To make cake, move racks to lower third of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper; grease and flour paper. Tap out excess flour and set pans aside. Stir flour, soda and salt together in bowl. Set aside. In electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream softened butter and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add melted chocolate and vanilla extract, mixing and scraping down sides to evenly incorporate chocolate. Add reserved flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour. Mix on low only enough to incorporate each addition (overmixing can lead to a tough, open-grained cake structure). Pour boiling water into measuring cup and stir in espresso powder to dissolve. Add immediately to cake batter and stir by hand until smooth and uniformly blended. Batter will be very loose. Divide batter evenly among pans, filling each no more than two-thirds full, as batter will rise. Bake about 45 minutes, or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool about 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto racks, remove pans and paper, and cool completely before filling.
3. To make buttercream, melt 1 stick butter in saucepan. Turn off heat, add rosemary and steep about 30 minutes. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in electric mixer with whip attachment on medium-high until stiff. Meanwhile, combine corn syrup and sugar in another saucepan. Mix until sugar is completely coated with syrup. Bring sugar mixture to boil over medium-high heat. With mixer running on medium-high speed, pour hot sugar syrup into whipped egg whites in slow, steady stream. Beat until mixture has cooled, about 10 minutes. Strain melted butter into bowl to remove rosemary, pressing excess fluid from leaves. Add remaining 3 sticks softened butter and stir until homogeneous. Increase mixer to high and add rosemary-butter to meringue in small increments. Mixture will initially deflate, then turn grainy and eventually become glossy. If icing seems loose after last butter addition, refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes and beat again. Set aside until ready to use (refrigerate if not assembling cake immediately). If you refrigerate icing, soften to room temperature and beat again before spreading.
4. To assemble torte, trim any domes off cooled cake tops and split each cake into two, ½-inch thick layers. You will only need three layers, so fourth can be wrapped tightly in plastic and then foil and frozen up to 1 month. Fix bottom layer to 8-inch cake cardboard with dab of icing. Using pastry bag fitted with coupler, pipe mousse in concentric circles on top of cake. Level filling with spatula, add next layer of cake and mousse, and top with last cake layer. Trim cake back ¼ inch from edge of cardboard to leave room for icing. If mousse is soft or cake is difficult to work with, refrigerate 30 minutes before trimming. Spread buttercream on tops and sides of cake. Transfer to serving plate, and finish bottom with piped border. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Serve cake at room temperature, though, or buttercream will be hard. Garnish slices with sprig of rosemary.
Julia M. Usher is a food writer, recipe designer and food stylist in St. Louis. Visit her at www.herbcompanion.com/contributors .
Click here for the main article, Herbal Desserts For Valentine's Day .

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm of the mind that NFL holdouts never need to be taken seriously. The last player to hold out for a full season, to the best of my knowledge, was Sean Gilbert back in 1997. That was thirteen years ago. Occasionally, you might get a rookie holdout go into the season, the way JaMarcus Russell's did, or Michael Crabtree's holdout last year. But, in the end, the holdout is almost always resolved before a full season is lost.
This is because players A) Want to make money now, and B) Don't have much time to do it, especially playing a sport like football. Throw in the fact that the 2011 season is in danger, and players this year have all the more reason to show up. No rookie from this year's first round will hold out into the regular season, and you can bet that's a reason why.
Then we come to the very curious case of Chargers wideout Vincent Jackson and his teammate, tackle Marcus McNeill. On the surface of things, Jackson's holdout appears pretty much like every other holdout. Player wants more money (in Jackson's case, $30 million guaranteed). Management says no. Player holds out until caving. All that is fairly routine.
But there's a hitch in all this. Jackson is suspended for the first three games of this season for an offseason DUI charge. And just yesterday, the Chargers placed both holdouts on the roster exempt list, which means both players must sit for three games after reporting, an apparent nonfactor for Jackson given his suspension. Or is it?
Here's where it gets odd. Jason La Canfora of NFL Network says Jackson is in danger of missing SIX games if he doesn't report by September 4th.
The NFL released a statement Monday saying that Jackson would have to serve the three-game roster-exempt suspension if he isn't traded or doesn't report to the Chargers by Sept. 4. But Schwartz said Wednesday that he reviewed the matter with NFL Players Association officials, and they analyzed the collective bargaining agreement and don't agree with that interpretation.
"We don't see it the way the league sees it," Schwartz said.
U.S. & World
That means the case could go to a judge who would then rule whether or not Jackson's DUI suspension would have to be served after his roster exempt suspension, or if he could serve both concurrently. Either way, once the regular season hits, Jackson now has to think about missing at least three games out from the day he comes in.
Also complicating matters is the fact that Chargers general manager AJ Smith is a hardliner who is the exact kind of person to let a player hold out forever just to prove a point to everyone else in the building.
Usually, a team will give a concession to a player in order to let him save face at the end of a holdout. Smith isn't like that. At all. In fact, he already lowered his offers to Jackson and McNeill. Just to be all high and mighty like that.
A holdout usually ends when a player realizes he can't deal with the idea of not drawing a paycheck. This usually means most players cave at the beginning of the season. In Jackson's case, waiting until after the beginning of the season could mean the difference between getting paid by September, or having to sit out double the time. The pressure on him must be growing by the day. How long could you hold out? Expect him to report sometime next week. A million in the hand is worth two in the bush.


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Philip McGee plays four sports in high school, works part-time and is involved with his church youth group.
As busy as he is, the 16-year-old Callawassie Island resident also found time to earn his Eagle Scout Award this past year, joining about 5 percent of all Boy Scouts in the United States.
Philip joins his three older brothers and father in the Eagle Scout ranks. He attends Savannah Christian Preparatory School.
Philip said his father David was a big influence on the boys' decisions to stay in Boy Scouts.
"I think for boys, it's a fun thing to do," David said. "It gets them out of the house. It gets them off the TV, and they learn a lot of life skills in scouting."
Despite moving around from Indiana to England, back to Indiana, then to the Lowcountry, all four brothers were able to complete projects that took hours to plan and implement.
Skip, the oldest brother, installed bathroom in a food pantry and housing center in Indiana that is accessible for those who need extra help or are disabled. Will, the next in line, developed a cataloguing system for the library of aeronautical materials at the Atterbury-Bakalar Museum in Columbus, Indiana. The museum showcases aviation training history from World War II to the Cold War. Peter, who is closest in age to Philip, built 40 bluebird houses used for Smithsonian Institution research, sponsored by Clemson University and the Lowcountry Institute on Spring Island.
Philip used his project to build a playground for Family Promise, a resource center for homeless families in Beaufort County. McGee said he found the project through his church, Grace Coastal Church.
Elliott Brown, executive director of the Family Promise of Beaufort County, said the center doubled the amount of children and families it serves in 2011. Brown was not at Family Promise of Beaufort County when the facilities were built, but she said the playground and play area are used often.
"We greatly appreciate volunteerism," Brown said. "We couldn't exist without people like him."
A total of 143 hours of volunteer work was done on the project, with help from people at church, the community and members of Troop 213 of Okatee Baptist Church. The project also included getting donations for supplies.
Parents Lynn and David say they think their sons' experience in Boy Scouts has helped them to learn several life skills, including learning how to interact with adults outside the family, working a team environment and volunteering.
"One of the nice thing about scouting, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and even Future Farmers, I think, is they really have an emphasis on community service in a formal way," David said. "For a 15-year-old to put [a project like] that together, that's really good."
For Philip, the experience enabled him to learn leadership skills and enjoy the outdoors. All three of Philip's brothers joined the military, and Philip is on his way to join them, hoping to join the Coast Guard when he finishes school.
"The leadership and work ethic that Boy Scouts taught me, that will definitely help," he said. "I guess as a Boy Scout, the experiences, you think of things differently than other people would. Like in sports, it's about trying your hardest as much as possible."


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Residence halls are more than a place to live. They are vibrant and exciting communities where students learn, grow and develop. Students make friends, develop conflict resolution skills, expand leadership skills and learn to understand each other. Plus, national research shows that students in residence halls are likely to have better grades and are more likely to graduate than their counterparts who live off campus!
How to start
Choose a hall
Choose a meal plan
Roommate selection
Summer before you come
Directions to campus
Employment opportunities
Fall Welcome
Move in
Internet, cable and phone
Rentals and purchases (microfridge, futon, linens)
What comes in a room
What to bring/not bring
For the year
Cars, transportation and parking
Community Living Expectations (policies and procedure handbook)
Front desk services
Living with a roommate
Mail service
Overnight guests
Safety and security


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Search Results
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I just had a cold call from a blocked number. The gentlemen had an Indian accent and claimed to be from the wholesale division of Telecom. I was waiting for him to tell me my computer had a virus however he had a different offer.
He offered to save me 30-40% off my phone calling rates and then proceeded to tell me about a $79 deal with unlimited national calling and $1 cell phone calls.
He got a bit bambozzled with the fact that I was on VOIP but before I politely refused his kind offer I asked his company name and he said he was from Spirit (he spelled it out for me).
Has anyone heard of them?
Cheers, Matt.


text:
Spherical plain bearings requiring maintenance
Steel/steel radial spherical plain bearings must be relubricated to:
- reduce friction
- reduce wear
- extend bearing service life
- protect against corrosion and contaminants
The sliding contact surfaces are phosphated and treated with a "running-in" lubricant. This special surface treatment has a favourable influence during the running-in phase. The bearings must be greased prior to use and relubricated on a regular basis.
To reliably relubricate the bearings, grease ducts should be provided in the housing (fig. 1) or shaft (fig. 2) so that fresh grease can be supplied directly to the bearing. All SKF steel/steel radial spherical plain bearings (with the exception of the smallest E and ESA design bearings) have an annular groove and lubrication holes in both the inner and outer rings to facilitate lubricant distribution to the sliding surfaces of the bearing.
If the arrangement is appropriately designed, the bearing can also be supplied with grease from the side. To facilitate the passing of grease through the bearing, the grease should be prevented from exiting the bearing arrangement from the side it is supplied, e.g. by an end cover, and to provide an opening for the grease to exit on the opposite side, e.g. a V-ring seal that can open if there is pressure from the inside (fig. 3).
Generally, where possible, the free space surrounding the bearing should be filled with grease.
SKF recommends using SKF LGHB 2 grease to lubricate steel/steel spherical plain bearings. Its properties include:
- excellent performance under heavy loads
- very good rust inhibitor
- very good resistance to ageing
- good water resistance
a wide operating temperature range.
If operating temperatures exceed the temperature range limits, special grease should be used (table 1).
For additional information, contact the SKF application engineering service.


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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – On the final day of the 2013 regular season volleyball coming off of their huge win yesterday evening earned a hard fought split at the Vassar College Tri-Match first falling to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh 3-2 before earning a 3-0 win over Vassar Saturday afternoon.
In what could have been a sweep for the Beacons, Wisconsin Oshkosh managed to pull out the 3-2 victory to give the Beacons 15th loss of the year. However UMB would earn three hard wins over the host Vassar squad to close out the regular season with a 19-15 mark overall.
UMB will now prepare for next weekend's Little East Conference tournament which will be held in the Clark Athletic Center Gymnasium.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of Saturday's tri-match was record breaking accomplishment by senior hitter Corrine Porter (Huntington Beach, Calif.). The California native became just the second player in program history to record 1,000 kills and digs in her college career. The all-time leader in digs for a four-year player at UMass Boston, Porter currently has 1,011 kills in her standout career.
In the first match of the day the Beacons jumped out to 1-0 lead following a 28-26 victory in the first game. Oshkosh would then tie the score at 1-1 following their 25-18 decision in the second. In the third the Beacons squeezed out a 25-23 victory to retake the lead. Oshkosh would rally once again and earn a 25-20 win in the fourth to force a game five. In the fifth the two teams exchanged control of the lead, but it was Oshkosh who earned the win 15-13.
Porter led the Beacons in the loss with her 13 kills and .233 hitting percentage. Julia Murphy (Canton, Mass.) and Bri Sousa (Swansea, Mass.) each finished with 10 kills, while Patsy Boland (Chicago, Ill.) tallied nine. Setter Megan Pollock (Wilton, Calif.) recorded 34 assists and also had six digs to her name. Elizabeth Glavan (Edina, Minn.) put together another impressive performance with her 31 digs. Porter recorded her second straight double-double as she put-up 19 digs, followed by Pepper Baker (Tallahassee, Fla.) who had 13.
Sousa led UMB at the net with her five block assists, followed by Pollock and Murphy who each had four. Murphy also threw down a pair of solo blocks as well.
In the second match of the afternoon, UMB earned a tough 29-27 win in the first game before cruising to a seven-point win in the second (25-18). In the third it was all UMB as they finished off Vassar with a 25-22 win to close out the regular season on a positive note.
Pollock continued her strong play in the final match tallying another 34 assists to go along with four digs and two block assists. Boland led the Beacons with 10 kills with Murphy right behind her with nine and an impressive .692 hitting percentage. Glavan was solid yet again on defense tallying 19 digs in the win. Both Murphy and Sousa recorded four block assists and one solo block respectively. Molly Witzmann (Encinitas, Calif.) finished with three block assists, followed by Porter who had two.
Volleyball returns to action next Saturday in the semi-final round of the Little East Conference tournament. The regular season champs will host the two-day three-match tournament in the Clark Athletic Gym. The Beacons will face the winner of the quarterfinal match between Eastern Connecticut and Western Connecticut State University at a time still to be determined.


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The residents at Emeritus at Sugarland Ridge often enjoy going out to lunch on Fridays to one of the local restaurants. On Friday, September 28th, they decided to bid farewell to the Historic Sheridan Inn and loaded up the bus and went to 1893 Grille and Spirits.
While they were there one of our resident's Melvine, 103 years young, was talking about how she came to Wyoming. It was May 25th, 1925 and she was 16 years old. She boarded the train in Friend, Nebraska and came to Sheridan, Wy. "The first thing I saw getting off the train was the Sheridan Inn. I remember it was a busy place, a lot going on. It was nice inside too. I was picked up by Mrs. CC Riley who hired me as a nanny to take care of Billy."
When asked if she was scared coming out to Wyoming at such a young age she says, "No, I've never been a scardey cat." Melvine's story not only caught the ears of our residents and staff with her but also another couple, who remain anonymous, who were eating lunch as well. When it came time to pay for their bills the waitress told them that the bill for all 14 of them had and a very generous tip for her, had been paid by the gentleman who had caught wind of the story that Melvine was so excited to share.
There was a reason that we decided to go to 1893 Grille and Sprits that day and we would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the gentleman who so kindly paid for all of our meals.


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Fresh Holiday Eucalyptus & Berry Garland
Earn $8.45 (10%) back in rewards* on this item when using your Pottery Barn Credit Card.Learn More
- Overview
Grown, cut fresh and made by hand at a family-owned farm in Salinas Valley, California, our Fresh Eucalyptus & Berry Garland beautifully captures the spirit of the season.
- Hand assembled of eucalyptus and pepper berries.
- Hand assembled from hand-picked materials on a family-owned farm in Central California.
- Our Live Wreaths and Garlands are freshest within a week of their arrival at your home, then they dry beautifully.
- If you would like your wreath or garland to be fresh for a party or event, please see Shipping Info to time the delivery. Not available for rush delivery.
- For indoor display or an outside sheltered area. Protect from weather; bring garland indoors when necessary.
- Made in the USA.
- Dimensions & Care
- Overall: 8" diameter, 6' long
- Garland is made with freshly cut elements.
- Garland will begin to dry once shipped and will dry out in one to two weeks.
- Factors that affect drying time are temperature of the room where garland is displayed, direct heat sources and direct sunlight.
- Once dried, garland will last six months to one year.
- Shipping & Returns
This item is perishable and ships directly from the supplier to arrive within 5 business days. Perishable items cannot ship outside the contiguous 48 states and are not available for rush shipping or Next Day Delivery service.
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 4-5 business days.
Next Day Delivery and Processing
We can arrange for next day delivery to most destinations within the contiguous 48 states, for an extra charge of $26.00 per address. If we receive your order by 6pm PT Monday through Friday, you'll receive your order the next business day; orders placed on Friday after 6pm PT through Sunday will arrive on Tuesday. Note: Next Day Delivery service is not available for some oversized items, White Glove Delivery, out of stock items, personalized items or for items shipped directly from the manufacturer.
View the complete Shipping and Delivery Information page.
You can return eligible item(s) within 30 days of receiving an order or 7 days for Quick Ship upholstery items for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required. Monogrammed items and Made to Order furniture or rugs are not eligible for returns. Review the full list of ineligible items and our refund policy below before starting the process.
Easy Ways to Return:
- Stores - You can return most non-furniture items to your local Pottery Barn store for free.
- Bring to UPS Location (under 70 lbs) – See our full Easy Returns Policy to start the process.
Ineligible Items
Items non-eligible for returns or exchanges:
- Monogrammed items
- Mattresses
- Gift cards
- Made to Order items, including custom rugs and furniture
- Final sale items (with prices ending in $.X7 or $.X9)
- Items damaged through normal wear and tear
Questions? See our full Easy Returns Policy.


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How could we resist telling you a story that involves dope and babes all in the same breath? There is a legitimate use for the cannabis sativa plant, and that is to make hemp to be used for clothing. But the plant's
course coarse fibers have been sometimes associated with cloth that is anything but smooth and silky.
Now British clothier Enamore has figured out how to mix up the fibers from the hemp plant with silk and other recycled fibers to put together some soft and supple underthings worn by this pouty-lipped vixen. Only problem is, while underwear like this is certainly smoking, it must be hard to keep it lit.
Luxurious Hemp and Silk Lingerie From Enamore [Treehugger]


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Need flights? Booking flights with us can save you money, time and protect your holiday. Check flight availability here
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The 400 series replaced the 365 GT4 2+2 model at the 1976 Paris Salon, and for the first time a model with automatic transmission became available on a Ferrari production car, the 400 Automatic.
As with the 365 variant, the model number referred to the swept volume of a single cylinder, whilst the new engine had the same 81mm bore of its predecessor, the stroke was increased to 78mm to give a total capacity of 4823cc.Read more
The engine of cars with the automatic gearbox had a factory type reference F 101 C 080. Two banks of three Weber side draught twin choke 38 DCOE 110-111 carburettors were fitted, with twin coil and rear of engine mounted distributors, to produce a claimed 340bhp.
The Borg Warner three speed plus reverse automatic gearbox was, perhaps surprisingly for purists, an immediate hit with Ferrari clients, and would account for approximately two thirds of the cars manufactured for the remainder of the 400 into the 412 series production run. In Great Britain the figures were even higher, with the vast majority of purchasers favouring automatic transmission.
The power was transmitted from the automatic gearbox through a propeller shaft to a limited slip differential, and from there via half shafts to the independently suspended rear wheels with hydraulic self levelling units.
Although the chassis of the 400 series cars was structurally virtually identical to the preceding 365 GT4 2+2 models, there were nominal differences, which resulted in a new factory reference number F 101 CL 180 for this automatic transmission version.
Visually 400 series models can be differentiated from their predecessor by a small body colour spoiler on the lower edge of the nose, five bolt fixing for the five spoke alloy wheels instead of the single triple eared spinner, paired circular rear light assemblies, and the disappearance of the "Cavallino Rampante" from the radiator grille.
Inside the seat upholstery was made more sumptuous, and the stitch style and pattern altered, along with minor changes to switchgear on the centre console, and a change of style for the door release catch.
The 400 Automatic continued in production until November 1979, during which time 355 examples were produced in the chassis number range19353 to 28261. As with the 365 GT4 2+2, they were built and fully trimmed at the Pininfarina works in Turin, and then shipped to the Ferrari factory in Maranello for the installation of the mechanical components.
Right or left hand drive steering, with power assistance as standard, was available, but as with the other twelve cylinder models of the period, no USA market version was made.
|front, longitudinal 60° V12
|81 x 78 mm
|Unitary displacement
|401.93 cc
|Total displacement
|4823.16 cc
|Compression ratio
|8.8 : 1
|Maximum power
|250 kW (340 hp)
|Power per litre
|70 hp/l
|Maximum torque
|Valve actuation
|twin overhead camshafts per bank, two valves per cylinder
|Fuel feed
|six Weber 38 DCOE carburettors
|single spark plug per cylinder, two coils
|wet sump
|torque converter
|tubular steel
|Front suspension
|independent, unequal-length wishbones, coil springs over telescopic shock absorbers, anti-roll bar
|Rear suspension
|self-levelling, independent, unequal-length wishbones, coil springs over telescopic shock absorbers, anti-roll bar
|3-speed automatic + reverse
|power-assisted recirculating-ball
|Fuel tank
|capacity 120 litres
|Front tyres
|Rear tyres
|2+2 coupé
|4810 mm
|1796 mm
|1310 mm
|2700 mm
|Front track
|1470 mm
|Rear track
|1500 mm
|1700 kg (dry)
|Top speed
|240 km/h
|Acceleration 0-100 km/h
|0-400 m
|14.9 sec.
|0-1000 m
|25.5 sec.


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Obama got Eastwooded last night. Or should we say Romney took Obama to the Eastwoodshed? (Hat tip to Bob Owens for the imagery here.)
Last night was one of those nights when it is really fun to watch MSNBC. There've been many of those—the 2002 midterm election (though James Carville putting the paper bag over his head on CNN that night was something to savor, too), the 2004 election, and the 2010 midterm election—but last night was so off-the-chart delicious that I think we need to invent a new multi-syllabic German word for it: how about Matthewsmaddowschultzenfreude?
There are some lessons here. Remember how lots of people wanted Newt Gingrich as the nominee because he'd tear up Obama, and the media while he's at it? The trouble with that view is that Newt's abrasiveness turns off a lot of people in the middle. I've wondered for a while whether Romney's Mr. Roger's demeanor might actually play well in debate for the simple reason that his more gentle manner can deliver attacks without arousing the visceral dislike of the many people who hate the rancor of politics today. Paul noted yesterday that Romney should play to the middle without sacrificing the conservative base. He did that cleverly in several small ways. His mention of the Tenth Amendment, his pledge to make PBS pledge drives even worse by cutting off PBS funding (that was a nice twist), and several others. In other words, Romney was rhetorically effective with the swath of independent voters who don't necessarily share an axiomatic dislike of the federal government, but who are winnable. Plus, Romney's canned attack lines were delivered such that they didn't seem canned. Did you notice, by the way, his sly manner of the Solyndra attack: "a friend said to me . . . you pick losers." Finally, I've always been put off by Romney's affected stammer at the beginning of many of his topic paragraphs. There was much less of that last night. Romney's commanding fluidity subtly highlighted Obama's genuine stammer.
Obama is now in a box. His foam-flecked fanboys at MSNBC and the rest of the media will be demanding Romney's blood on the floor at the next debate. If Obama's demeanor in the next debate is noticeably different (and how can it not be?), he risks looking like the erratic Al Gore of 2000. Even if he attacks aggressively, the nation is now seeing what close watchers have seen from the beginning: under pressure and without a teleprompter, Obama isn't very good. (I kept expecting Obama to look at his wristwatch to see how much longer his agony had to go.) And there is the risk that Obama and the Democratic attack machine will repeat the error of Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan in 1980, with attacks that will backfire on Obama's asset as a likeable person.
By the way, I liked the way both Obama and Romney ran all over Jim Lehrer. It actually let both men argue directly against and at each other. Hopefully this will be the precedent for the remaining debates.


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So far, 15 bills mentioning the word "newspaper" have appeared in the N.C. General Assembly this session. They range from bills honoring the Rev. Billy Graham to bills allowing cities and counties to publish public notices digitally.
Legal advertisements and public notices, required by law, have been a little-noticed subsidy of local newspapers since Ben Franklin's time. In the last few years, talk has increased about eliminating the requirement of placing some public notices in newspapers because of the cost to government and the dwindling reach of newspapers. Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute wrote a good roundup about legal notices a year ago. I wrote about legislative bills affecting legal notices in North Carolina in 2011.
Some N.C. towns have already eliminated required print legal ads. This year, more towns (Greensboro, Morrisville, High Point) and counties could join them. With the changing face of journalism, including new digital startups, enhanced TV station websites and pay models at established media outlets, North Carolina should rethink how we write laws that require public notices. Our government's goals should be leveling the playing field, supporting strong independent reporting regardless of the source, and providing government transparency about how legal ads and public notices get placed. The original intent of the ads – notifying people efficiently about government actions that affect their jobs and lives – must remain a key goal. Government websites cannot reach that goal alone.
The word "newspaper" appears 310 times in North Carolina's general statutes. Rules requiring public notices grew organically over time, lack uniformity and tend to favor established newspapers. Sometimes, another news organization has broader reach, more reporting resources or more local reader engagement. In many cases, the rules allow non-elected officials to choose winners from among news sources, possibly fostering a spoil system that erodes trust.
The North Carolina Press Association keeps its eye on legislation affecting newspapers, and it has opened its doors to new journalism startups including the nonprofit Carolina Public Press in Asheville and the Raleigh Public Record. It must consider its own members' interests and will likely lobby for rules that continue existing subsidies through legal notices to newspapers, especially newspapers of a certain size. While that support could erode this year, that issue shouldn't be the only question on the table. Figuring out how to foster the growth of new news startups should also be a consideration in the General Assembly.
Federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission are studying how to preserve journalism as old business models fail. Journalism school deans from across the country, including the University of North Carolina's Susan King, have written a statement urging the IRS to quickly approve nonprofit status for emerging news sites as a way to foster innovation in journalism.
At the same time, our N.C. General Assembly members should bring independent, thoughtful approaches to encouraging quality, local reporting, from for-profits and nonprofits.
Steven Waldman, writing in a special report, "The Information Needs of Communities," for the FCC in 2011, made one suggestion:
"One possible solution that would benefit all parties would be for governments to save money by hosting public notices on their own websites and paying a lesser amount to run banner ads on other sites about the notices and linking back to the government site. The municipality would be able to spread information about the public notices to a broader range of audiences than they would by just publishing them in a particular newspaper. They would generate more traffic for their own websites, provide ad revenue for local news operations and advance the cause of government transparency."
Posting public notices and legal ads on town and county websites furthers open government. But to reach people in our fragmented information age, using multiple methods (including print for some areas), at lower costs, seems like the right solution. Our new laws should be fair, encourage innovation and provide flexibility as technology and news sources change.
Here are some samples of the words in existing bills filed this legislative session in the N.C. General Assembly:
"The County shall advertise a notice for interested parties to submit qualifications in such form as the County may require for possible selection as the private developer or private developers in the public‑private project in a newspaper having general circulation within the County."
"Advertise the sale by publication in a newspaper having general circulation in the county in which the property is situated. [AND] Make the following information about the property being sold available to the public both on its Web site and by mail. …"
"…sealed bids shall be solicited by advertisement in a newspaper widely distributed in this State or through electronic means, or both, as determined by the Secretary to be most advantageous… ."
"The secretary‑treasurer shall annually, at a time and in a law magazine or daily newspaper to be prescribed by the Council, publish an account of the financial transactions of the Council in a form to be prescribed by it."
"The Charter Board shall distribute information announcing the availability of the charter school process described in this Part to each local school administrative unit and public postsecondary educational institution and, through press releases, to each major newspaper in the State. … "
Disclaimers: I am not employed or paid by any of the news organizations in this post. I'm a former employee of the Charlotte Observer, and I'm working on a master's degree from the University of North Carolina in digital communications. These words are my own.


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Few writers can better tell the stories that happen on Wall Street and beyond than Michael Lewis.
He's the bestselling author behind Moneyball, Liar's Poker and The Blind Side.
Now some 20 years after Lewis captured the greed and hubris of the 80's in Liar's Poker he's back with a book that's being called "The single best piece of financial journalism ever written."
In 'The Big Short Inside: the Doomsday Machine'Lewis chronicles a handful of key players who got it right in the subprime mortgage market – and made billions.


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RYE -- The Sandpipers Seacoast Children's Chorus will present its 20th Annual Holiday Concert on Sunday, December 9. The 40-voice treble chorus will be joined by Sandpipers alumni guest soloists sopranos Lydia Beller-McKenna and Meredith Eib, lead by Artistic Director Tamara Rozek and Director Charles Leinbach, with piano accompanist Kathy Fink. The performance will be at Rye Congregational Church, 580 Washington Road in Rye, from 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Sandpipers auditions boys and girls ages 7-16 from all over the region, and is widely recognized for the quality of its performances and its unique educational opportunity. The program exposes children to the finest choral music from both sacred and secular repertoire, representing diverse styles, cultures, periods, and languages. Auditions are used to assess the musical maturity and skill of each singer for placement in one of three divisions: Senior Chorus (ages 9-16), Junior Chorus (ages 7-11), and Prep Chorus (open to all children 7-11).
This festive concert will include choral arrangements of beloved carols, including Angel's Carol by John Rutter, Sussex Carol, Silent Night, Fum, Fum, Fum, and Jingle Bells, to name a few, along with solos Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon, and Slumber Song (Maria Wiegenlied) by Max Reger. This is a fun concert which the whole family can enjoy.
Suggested donation at the door is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Visit our website at www.sandpiperschorus.com for more information.
If your child loves to sing, Sandpipers Seacoast Children's Chorus is holding auditions for Term 2 (Jan-May) on Saturday, December 15. Please contact Tamara Rozek, Artistic Director, for an appointment (603) 436-4226.


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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 4, by Edward Gibbon, [1788], at sacred-texts.com
Theological History Of The Doctrine Of The Incarnation. - The Human And Divine Nature Of Christ. - Enmity Of The Patriarchs Of Alexandria And Constantinople. - St. Cyril And Nestorius. - Third General Council Of Ephesus. - Heresy Of Eutyches. - Fourth General Council Of Chalcedon. - Civil And Ecclesiastical Discord. - Intolerance Of Justinian. - The Three Chapters. - The Monothelite Controversy. - State Of The Oriental Sects: - I. The Nestorians. - II. The Jacobites. - III. The Maronites. - IV. The Armenians. - V. The Copts And Abyssinians.
After the extinction of paganism, the Christians in peace and piety might have enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the principle of discord was alive in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to explore the nature, than to practice the laws, of their founder. I have already observed, that the disputes of the Trinity were succeeded by those of the Incarnation; alike scandalous to the church, alike pernicious to the state, still more minute in their origin, still more durable in their effects. It is my design to comprise in the present chapter a religious war of two hundred and fifty years, to represent the ecclesiastical and political schism of the Oriental sects, and to introduce their clamorous or sanguinary contests, by a modest inquiry into the doctrines of the primitive church. 1
I. A laudable regard for the honor of the first proselyte has countenanced the belief, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites, or at least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their obstinate perseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites. Their churches have disappeared, their books are obliterated: their obscure freedom might allow a latitude of faith, and the softness of their infant creed would be variously moulded by the zeal or prudence of three hundred years. Yet the most charitable criticism must refuse these sectaries any knowledge of the pure and proper divinity of Christ. Educated in the school of Jewish prophecy and prejudice, they had never been taught to elevate their hopes above a human and temporal Messiah. 2 If they had courage to hail their king when he appeared in a plebeian garb, their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerning their God, who had studiously disguised his celestial character under the name and person of a mortal. 3 The familiar companions of Jesus of Nazareth conversed with their friend and countryman, who, in all the actions of rational and animal life, appeared of the same species with themselves. His progress from infancy to youth and manhood was marked by a regular increase in stature and wisdom; and after a painful agony of mind and body, he expired on the cross. He lived and died for the service of mankind: but the life and death of Socrates had likewise been devoted to the cause of religion and justice; and although the stoic or the hero may disdain the humble virtues of Jesus, the tears which he shed over his friend and country may be esteemed the purest evidence of his humanity. The miracles of the gospel could not astonish a people who held with intrepid faith the more splendid prodigies of the Mosaic law. The prophets of ancient days had cured diseases, raised the dead, divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot. And the metaphorical style of the Hebrews might ascribe to a saint and martyr the adoptive title of Son of God.
Yet in the insufficient creed of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, a distinction is faintly noticed between the heretics, who confounded the generation of Christ in the common order of nature, and the less guilty schismatics, who revered the virginity of his mother, and excluded the aid of an earthly father. The incredulity of the former was countenanced by the visible circumstances of his birth, the legal marriage of the reputed parents, Joseph and Mary, and his lineal claim to the kingdom of David and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and authentic history has been recorded in several copies of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, 4 which these sectaries long preserved in the original Hebrew, 5 as the sole evidence of their faith. The natural suspicions of the husband, conscious of his own chastity, were dispelled by the assurance (in a dream) that his wife was pregnant of the Holy Ghost: and as this distant and domestic prodigy could not fall under the personal observation of the historian, he must have listened to the same voice which dictated to Isaiah the future conception of a virgin. The son of a virgin, generated by the ineffable operation of the Holy Spirit, was a creature without example or resemblance, superior in every attribute of mind and body to the children of Adam. Since the introduction of the Greek or Chaldean philosophy, 6 the Jews 7 were persuaded of the preexistence, transmigration, and immortality of souls; and providence was justified by a supposition, that they were confined in their earthly prisons to expiate the stains which they had contracted in a former state. 8 But the degrees of purity and corruption are almost immeasurable. It might be fairly presumed, that the most sublime and virtuous of human spirits was infused into the offspring of Mary and the Holy Ghost; 9 that his abasement was the result of his voluntary choice; and that the object of his mission was, to purify, not his own, but the sins of the world. On his return to his native skies, he received the immense reward of his obedience; the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah, which had been darkly foretold by the prophets, under the carnal images of peace, of conquest, and of dominion. Omnipotence could enlarge the human faculties of Christ to the extend of is celestial office. In the language of antiquity, the title of God has not been severely confined to the first parent, and his incomparable minister, his only-begotten son, might claim, without presumption, the religious, though secondary, worship of a subject of a subject world.
II. The seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen in the rocky and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full maturity, to the happier climes of the Gentiles; and the strangers of Rome or Asia, who never beheld the manhood, were the more readily disposed to embrace the divinity, of Christ. The polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek and the Barbarian, were alike accustomed to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain of angels or daemons, or deities, or aeons, or emanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange or incredible, that the first of these aeons, the Logos, or Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon earth, to deliver the human race from vice and error, and to conduct them in the paths of life and immortality. But the prevailing doctrine of the eternity and inherent pravity of matter infected the primitive churches of the East. Many among the Gentile proselytes refused to believe that a celestial spirit, an undivided portion of the first essence, had been personally united with a mass of impure and contaminated flesh; and, in their zeal for the divinity, they piously abjured the humanity, of Christ. While his blood was still recent on Mount Calvary, 10 the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of Asiatics, invented the phantastic system, which was afterwards propagated by the Marcionites, the Manichaeans, and the various names of the Gnostic heresy. 11 They denied the truth and authenticity of the Gospels, as far as they relate the conception of Mary, the birth of Christ, and the thirty years that preceded the exercise of his ministry. He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; but it was a form only, and not a substance; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence to imitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies. Articulate sounds vibrated on the ears of the disciples; but the image which was impressed on their optic nerve eluded the more stubborn evidence of the touch; and they enjoyed the spiritual, not the corporeal, presence of the Son of God. The rage of the Jews was idly wasted against an impassive phantom; and the mystic scenes of the passion and death, the resurrection and ascension, of Christ were represented on the theatre of Jerusalem for the benefit of mankind. If it were urged, that such ideal mimicry, such incessant deception, was unworthy of the God of truth, the Docetes agreed with too many of their orthodox brethren in the justification of pious falsehood. In the system of the Gnostics, the Jehovah of Israel, the Creator of this lower world, was a rebellious, or at least an ignorant, spirit. The Son of God descended upon earth to abolish his temple and his law; and, for the accomplishment of this salutary end, he dexterously transferred to his own person the hope and prediction of a temporal Messiah.
One of the most subtile disputants of the Manichaean school has pressed the danger and indecency of supposing, that the God of the Christians, in the state of a human foetus, emerged at the end of nine months from a female womb. The pious horror of his antagonists provoked them to disclaim all sensual circumstances of conception and delivery; to maintain that the divinity passed through Mary like a sunbeam through a plate of glass; and to assert, that the seal of her virginity remained unbroken even at the moment when she became the mother of Christ. But the rashness of these concessions has encouraged a milder sentiment of those of the Docetes, who taught, not that Christ was a phantom, but that he was clothed with an impassible and incorruptible body. Such, indeed, in the more orthodox system, he has acquired since his resurrection, and such he must have always possessed, if it were capable of pervading, without resistance or injury, the density of intermediate matter. Devoid of its most essential properties, it might be exempt from the attributes and infirmities of the flesh. A foetus that could increase from an invisible point to its full maturity; a child that could attain the stature of perfect manhood without deriving any nourishment from the ordinary sources, might continue to exist without repairing a daily waste by a daily supply of external matter. Jesus might share the repasts of his disciples without being subject to the calls of thirst or hunger; and his virgin purity was never sullied by the involuntary stains of sensual concupiscence. Of a body thus singularly constituted, a question would arise, by what means, and of what materials, it was originally framed; and our sounder theology is startled by an answer which was not peculiar to the Gnostics, that both the form and the substance proceeded from the divine essence. The idea of pure and absolute spirit is a refinement of modern philosophy: the incorporeal essence, ascribed by the ancients to human souls, celestial beings, and even the Deity himself, does not exclude the notion of extended space; and their imagination was satisfied with a subtile nature of air, or fire, or aether, incomparably more perfect than the grossness of the material world. If we define the place, we must describe the figure, of the Deity. Our experience, perhaps our vanity, represents the powers of reason and virtue under a human form. The Anthropomorphites, who swarmed among the monks of Egypt and the Catholics of Africa, could produce the express declaration of Scripture, that man was made after the image of his Creator. 12 The venerable Serapion, one of the saints of the Nitrian deserts, relinquished, with many a tear, his darling prejudice; and bewailed, like an infant, his unlucky conversion, which had stolen away his God, and left his mind without any visible object of faith or devotion. 13
III. Such were the fleeting shadows of the Docetes. A more substantial, though less simple, hypothesis, was contrived by Cerinthus of Asia, 14 who dared to oppose the last of the apostles. Placed on the confines of the Jewish and Gentile world, he labored to reconcile the Gnostic with the Ebionite, by confessing in the same Messiah the supernatural union of a man and a God; and this mystic doctrine was adopted with many fanciful improvements by Carpocrates, Basilides, and Valentine, 15 the heretics of the Egyptian school. In their eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and Mary: but he was the best and wisest of the human race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. When he was baptized in the Jordan, the Christ, the first of the aeons, the Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, to inhabit his mind, and direct his actions during the allotted period of his ministry. When the Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews, the Christ, an immortal and impassible being, forsook his earthly tabernacle, flew back to the pleroma or world of spirits, and left the solitary Jesus to suffer, to complain, and to expire. But the justice and generosity of such a desertion are strongly questionable; and the fate of an innocent martyr, at first impelled, and at length abandoned, by his divine companion, might provoke the pity and indignation of the profane. Their murmurs were variously silenced by the sectaries who espoused and modified the double system of Cerinthus. It was alleged, that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a miraculous apathy of mind and body, which rendered him insensible of his apparent sufferings. It was affirmed, that these momentary, though real, pangs would be abundantly repaid by the temporal reign of a thousand years reserved for the Messiah in his kingdom of the new Jerusalem. It was insinuated, that if he suffered, he deserved to suffer; that human nature is never absolutely perfect; and that the cross and passion might serve to expiate the venial transgressions of the son of Joseph, before his mysterious union with the Son of God. 16
IV. All those who believe the immateriality of the soul, a specious and noble tenet, must confess, from their present experience, the incomprehensible union of mind and matter. A similar union is not inconsistent with a much higher, or even with the highest, degree of mental faculties; and the incarnation of an aeon or archangel, the most perfect of created spirits, does not involve any positive contradiction or absurdity. In the age of religious freedom, which was determined by the council of Nice, the dignity of Christ was measured by private judgment according to the indefinite rule of Scripture, or reason, or tradition. But when his pure and proper divinity had been established on the ruins of Arianism, the faith of the Catholics trembled on the edge of a precipice where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall and the manifold inconveniences of their creed were aggravated by the sublime character of their theology. They hesitated to pronounce; that God himself, the second person of an equal and consubstantial trinity, was manifested in the flesh; 17 that a being who pervades the universe, had been confined in the womb of Mary; that his eternal duration had been marked by the days, and months, and years of human existence; that the Almighty had been scourged and crucified; that his impassible essence had felt pain and anguish; that his omniscience was not exempt from ignorance; and that the source of life and immortality expired on Mount Calvary. These alarming consequences were affirmed with unblushing simplicity by Apollinaris, 18 bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of religion. The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestled with the Arians and Polytheists, and though he affected the rigor of geometrical demonstration, his commentaries revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the Scriptures. A mystery, which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief, was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form; and he first proclaimed the memorable words, "One incarnate nature of Christ," which are still reechoed with hostile clamors in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Aethiopia. He taught that the Godhead was united or mingled with the body of a man; and that the Logos, the eternal wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place and office of a human soul. Yet as the profound doctor had been terrified at his own rashness, Apollinaris was heard to mutter some faint accents of excuse and explanation. He acquiesced in the old distinction of the Greek philosophers between the rational and sensitive soul of man; that he might reserve the Logos for intellectual functions, and employ the subordinate human principle in the meaner actions of animal life. With the moderate Docetes, he revered Mary as the spiritual, rather than as the carnal, mother of Christ, whose body either came from heaven, impassible and incorruptible, or was absorbed, and as it were transformed, into the essence of the Deity. The system of Apollinaris was strenuously encountered by the Asiatic and Syrian divines whose schools are honored by the names of Basil, Gregory and Chrysostom, and tainted by those of Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius. But the person of the aged bishop of Laedicea, his character and dignity, remained inviolate; and his rivals, since we may not suspect them of the weakness of toleration, were astonished, perhaps, by the novelty of the argument, and diffident of the final sentence of the Catholic church. Her judgment at length inclined in their favor; the heresy of Apollinaris was condemned, and the separate congregations of his disciples were proscribed by the Imperial laws. But his principles were secretly entertained in the monasteries of Egypt, and his enemies felt the hatred of Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs of Alexandria.
V. The grovelling Ebionite, and the fantastic Docetes, were rejected and forgotten: the recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus. But instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and we still embrace, the substantial, indissoluble, and everlasting union of a perfect God with a perfect man, of the second person of the trinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of the fifth century, the unity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrine of the church. On all sides, it was confessed, that the mode of their coexistence could neither be represented by our ideas, nor expressed by our language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was cherished, between those who were most apprehensive of confounding, and those who were most fearful of separating, the divinity, and the humanity, of Christ. Impelled by religious frenzy, they fled with adverse haste from the error which they mutually deemed most destructive of truth and salvation. On either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealous to defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and to invent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine, as were least susceptible of doubt or ambiguity. The poverty of ideas and language tempted them to ransack art and nature for every possible comparison, and each comparison mislead their fancy in the explanation of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic microscope, an atom is enlarged to a monster, and each party was skilful to exaggerate the absurd or impious conclusions that might be extorted from the principles of their adversaries. To escape from each other, they wandered through many a dark and devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horrid phantoms of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issues of the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight of sense and heresy, they started, measured back their steps, and were again involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To purge themselves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error, they disavowed their consequences, explained their principles, excused their indiscretions, and unanimously pronounced the sounds of concord and faith. Yet a latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among the embers of controversy: by the breath of prejudice and passion, it was quickly kindled to a mighty flame, and the verbal disputes 19 of the Oriental sects have shaken the pillars of the church and state.
The name of Cyril of Alexandria is famous in controversial story, and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party have finally prevailed. In the house of his uncle, the archbishop Theophilus, he imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dominion, and five years of his youth were profitably spent in the adjacent monasteries of Nitria. Under the tuition of the abbot Serapion, he applied himself to ecclesiastical studies, with such indefatigable ardor, that in the course of one sleepless night, he has perused the four Gospels, the Catholic Epistles, and the Epistle to the Romans. Origen he detested; but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, were continually in his hands: by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith was confirmed and his wit was sharpened; he extended round his cell the cobwebs of scholastic theology, and meditated the works of allegory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose folios, now peaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. 20 Cyril prayed and fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the reproach of a friend) 21 were still fixed on the world; and the call of Theophilus, who summoned him to the tumult of cities and synods, was too readily obeyed by the aspiring hermit. With the approbation of his uncle, he assumed the office, and acquired the fame, of a popular preacher. His comely person adorned the pulpit; the harmony of his voice resounded in the cathedral; his friends were stationed to lead or second the applause of the congregation; 22 and the hasty notes of the scribes preserved his discourses, which in their effect, though not in their composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian orators. The death of Theophilus expanded and realized the hopes of his nephew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided; the soldiers and their general supported the claims of the archdeacon; but a resistless multitude, with voices and with hands, asserted the cause of their favorite; and after a period of thirty-nine years, Cyril was seated on the throne of Athanasius. 23
1 By what means shall I authenticate this previous inquiry, which I have studied to circumscribe and compress? - If I persist in supporting each fact or reflection by its proper and special evidence, every line would demand a string of testimonies, and every note would swell to a critical dissertation. But the numberless passages of antiquity which I have seen with my own eyes, are compiled, digested and illustrated by Petavius and Le Clerc, by Beausobre and Mosheim. I shall be content to fortify my narrative by the names and characters of these respectable guides; and in the contemplation of a minute or remote object, I am not ashamed to borrow the aid of the strongest glasses: 1. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius are a work of incredible labor and compass; the volumes which relate solely to the Incarnation (two folios, vth and vith, of 837 pages) are divided into xvi. books - the first of history, the remainder of controversy and doctrine. The Jesuit's learning is copious and correct; his Latinity is pure, his method clear, his argument profound and well connected; but he is the slave of the fathers, the scourge of heretics, and the enemy of truth and candor, as often as they are inimical to the Catholic cause. 2. The Arminian Le Clerc, who has composed in a quarto volume (Amsterdam, 1716) the ecclesiastical history of the two first centuries, was free both in his temper and situation; his sense is clear, but his thoughts are narrow; he reduces the reason or folly of ages to the standard of his private judgment, and his impartiality is sometimes quickened, and sometimes tainted by his opposition to the fathers. See the heretics (Cerinthians, lxxx. Ebionites, ciii. Carpocratians, cxx. Valentiniins, cxxi. Basilidians, cxxiii. Marcionites, cxli., &c.) under their proper dates. 3. The Histoire Critique du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734, 1739, in two vols. in 4to., with a posthumous dissertation sur les Nazarenes, Lausanne, 1745) of M. de Beausobre is a treasure of ancient philosophy and theology. The learned historian spins with incomparable art the systematic thread of opinion, and transforms himself by turns into the person of a saint, a sage, or a heretic. Yet his refinement is sometimes excessive; he betrays an amiable partiality in favor of the weaker side, and, while he guards against calumny, he does not allow sufficient scope for superstition and fanaticism. A copious table of contents will direct the reader to any point that he wishes to examine. 4. Less profound than Petavius, less independent than Le Clerc, less ingenious than Beausobre, the historian Mosheim is full, rational, correct, and moderate. In his learned work, De Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum (Helmstadt 1753, in 4to.,) see the Nazarenes and Ebionites, p. 172 - 179, 328 - 332. The Gnostics in general, p. 179, &c. Cerinthus, p. 196 - 202. Basilides, p. 352 - 361. Carpocrates, p. 363 - 367. Valentinus, p. 371 - 389 Marcion, p. 404 - 410. The Manichaeans, p. 829 - 837, &c.
2 Jew Tryphon, (Justin. Dialog. p. 207) in the name of his countrymen, and the modern Jews, the few who divert their thoughts from money to religion, still hold the same language, and allege the literal sense of the prophets.
Note: See on this passage Bp. Kaye, Justin Martyr, p. 25. - M. Note: Most of the modern writers, who have closely examined this subject, and who will not be suspected of any theological bias, Rosenmuller on Isaiah ix. 5, and on Psalm xlv. 7, and Bertholdt, Christologia Judaeorum, c. xx., rightly ascribe much higher notions of the Messiah to the Jews. In fact, the dispute seems to rest on the notion that there was a definite and authorized notion of the Messiah, among the Jews, whereas it was probably so vague, as to admit every shade of difference, from the vulgar expectation of a mere temporal king, to the philosophic notion of an emanation from the Deity. - M.
3 Chrysostom (Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. v. c. 9, p. 183) and Athanasius (Petav. Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. i. c. 2, p. 3) are obliged to confess that the Divinity of Christ is rarely mentioned by himself or his apostles.
4 The two first chapters of St. Matthew did not exist in the Ebionite copies, (Epiphan. Haeres. xxx. 13;) and the miraculous conception is one of the last articles which Dr. Priestley has curtailed from his scanty creed.
Note: The distinct allusion to the facts related in the two first chapters of the Gospel, in a work evidently written about the end of the reign of Nero, the Ascensio Isaiae, edited by Archbishop Lawrence, seems convincing evidence that they are integral parts of the authentic Christian history. - M.
5 It is probable enough that the first of the Gospels for the use of the Jewish converts was composed in the Hebrew or Syriac idiom: the fact is attested by a chain of fathers - Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, Jerom, &c. It is devoutly believed by the Catholics, and admitted by Casaubon, Grotius, and Isaac Vossius, among the Protestant critics. But this Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew is most unaccountably lost; and we may accuse the diligence or fidelity of the primitive churches, who have preferred the unauthorized version of some nameless Greek. Erasmus and his followers, who respect our Greek text as the original Gospel, deprive themselves of the evidence which declares it to be the work of an apostle. See Simon, Hist. Critique, &c., tom. iii. c. 5 - 9, p. 47 - 101, and the Prolegomena of Mill and Wetstein to the New Testament.
Note: Surely the extinction of the Judaeo-Christian community related from Mosheim by Gibbon himself (c. xv.) accounts both simply and naturally for the loss of a composition, which had become of no use - nor does it follow that the Greek Gospel of St. Matthew is unauthorized. - M.
6 The metaphysics of the soul are disengaged by Cicero (Tusculan. l. i.) and Maximus of Tyre (Dissertat. xvi.) from the intricacies of dialogue, which sometimes amuse, and often perplex, the readers of the Phoedrus, the Phoedon, and the Laws of Plato.
7 The disciples of Jesus were persuaded that a man might have sinned before he was born, (John, ix. 2,) and the Pharisees held the transmigration of virtuous souls, (Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 7;) and a modern Rabbi is modestly assured, that Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, &c., derived their metaphysics from his illustrious countrymen.
8 Four different opinions have been entertained concerning the origin of human souls: 1. That they are eternal and divine. 2. That they were created in a separate state of existence, before their union with the body. 3. That they have been propagated from the original stock of Adam, who contained in himself the mental as well as the corporeal seed of his posterity. 4. That each soul is occasionally created and embodied in the moment of conception. - The last of these sentiments appears to have prevailed among the moderns; and our spiritual history is grown less sublime, without becoming more intelligible.
9 It was one of the fifteen heresies imputed to Origen, and denied by his apologist, (Photius, Bibliothec. cod. cxvii. p. 296.) Some of the Rabbis attribute one and the same soul to the persons of Adam, David, and the Messiah.
10 Apostolis adhuc in seculo superstitibus, apud Judaeam Christi sanguine recente, Phantasma domini corpus asserebatur. Hieronym, advers. Lucifer. c. 8. The epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, and even the Gospel according to St. John, are levelled against the growing error of the Docetes, who had obtained too much credit in the world, 1 John, iv. 1 - 5.)
11 About the year 200 of the Christian aera, Irenaeus and Hippolytus efuted the thirty-two sects, which had multiplied to fourscore in the time of Epiphanius, (Phot. Biblioth. cod. cxx. cxxi. cxxii.) The five books of Irenaeus exist only in barbarous Latin; but the original might perhaps be found in some monastery of Greece.
12 The pilgrim Cassian, who visited Egypt in the beginning of the vth century, observes and laments the reign of anthropomorphism among the monks, who were not conscious that they embraced the system of Epicurus, (Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, i. 18, 34.) Ab universo propemodum genere monachorum, qui per totam provinciam Egyptum morabantur, pro simplicitatis errore susceptum est, ut e contraric memoratum pontificem (Theophilus) velut haeresi gravissima depravatum, pars maxima seniorum ab universo fraternitatis corpore decerneret detestandum, (Cassian, Collation. x. 2.) As long as St. Augustin remained a Manichaean, he was scandalized by the anthropomorphism of the vulgar Catholics.
13 Ita est in oratione senex mente confusus, eo quod illam imaginem Deitatis, quam proponere sibi in oratione consueverat, aboleri de suo corde sentiret, ut in amarissimos fletus, crebrosque singultus repente prorumpens, in terram prostratus, cum ejulatu validissimo proclamaret; "Heu me miserum! tulerunt a me Deum meum, et quem nunc teneam non habeo, vel quem adorem, aut interpallam am nescio." Cassian, Collat. x. 2.
14 St. John and Cerinthus (A.D. 80. Cleric. Hist. Eccles. p. 493) accidentally met in the public bath of Ephesus; but the apostle fled from the heretic, lest the building should tumble on their heads. This foolish story, reprobated by Dr. Middleton, (Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii.,) is related, however, by Irenaeus, (iii. 3,) on the evidence of Polycarp, and was probably suited to the time and residence of Cerinthus. The obsolete, yet probably the true, reading of 1 John, iv. 3 alludes to the double nature of that primitive heretic.
Note: Griesbach asserts that all the Greek Mss., all the translators, and all the Greek fathers, support the common reading. - Nov. Test. in loc. - M
15 The Valentinians embraced a complex, and almost incoherent, system. 1. Both Christ and Jesus were aeons, though of different degrees; the one acting as the rational soul, the other as the divine spirit of the Savior. 2. At the time of the passion, they both retired, and left only a sensitive soul and a human body. 3. Even that body was aethereal, and perhaps apparent. - Such are the laborious conclusions of Mosheim. But I much doubt whether the Latin translator understood Irenaeus, and whether Irenaeus and the Valetinians understood themselves.
16 The heretics abused the passionate exclamation of "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Rousseau, who has drawn an eloquent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets that not a word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of the dying philosopher. In the Messiah, such sentiments could be only apparent; and such ill-sounding words were properly explained as the application of a psalm and prophecy.
17 This strong expression might be justified by the language of St. Paul, (1 Tim. iii. 16;) but we are deceived by our modern Bibles. The word which was altered to God at Constantinople in the beginning of the vith century: the true reading, which is visible in the Latin and Syriac versions, still exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well as of the Latin fathers; and this fraud, with that of the three witnesses of St. John, is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton. (See his two letters translated by M. de Missy, in the Journal Britannique, tom. xv. p. 148 - 190, 351 - 390.) I have weighed the arguments, and may yield to the authority of the first of philosophers, who was deeply skilled in critical and theological studies. Note: It should be Griesbach in loc. The weight of authority is so much against the common reading in both these points, that they are no longer urged by prudent controversialists. Would Gibbon's deference for the first of philosophers have extended to all his theological conclusions? - M.
18 For Apollinaris and his sect, see Socrates, l. ii. c. 46, l. iii. c. 16 Sazomen, l. v. c. 18, 1. vi. c. 25, 27. Theodoret, l. v. 3, 10, 11. Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. vii. p. 602 - 638. Not. p. 789 - 794, in 4to. Venise, 1732. The contemporary saint always mentions the bishop of Laodicea as a friend and brother. The style of the more recent historians is harsh and hostile: yet Philostorgius compares him (l. viii. c. 11 - 15) to Basil and Gregory.
19 I appeal to the confession of two Oriental prelates, Gregory Abulpharagius the Jacobite primate of the East, and Elias the Nestorian metropolitan of Damascus, (see Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental. tom. ii. p. 291, tom. iii. p. 514, &c.,) that the Melchites, Jacobites, Nestorians, &c., agree in the doctrine, and differ only in the expression. Our most learned and rational divines - Basnage, Le Clerc, Beausobre, La Croze, Mosheim, Jablonski - are inclined to favor this charitable judgment; but the zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and the moderation of Dupin is conveyed in a whisper.
20 La Croze (Hist. du Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 24) avows his contempt for the genius and writings of Cyril. De tous les on vrages des anciens, il y en a peu qu'on lise avec moins d'utilite: and Dupin, (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. iv. p. 42 - 52,) in words of respect, teaches us to despise them.
21 Of Isidore of Pelusium, (l. i. epist. 25, p. 8.) As the letter is not of the most creditable sort, Tillemont, less sincere than the Bollandists, affects a doubt whether this Cyril is the nephew of Theophilus, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 268.)
22 A grammarian is named by Socrates (l. vii. c. 13).
23 See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates, (l. vii. c. 7) and Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarchs. Alexandrin. p. 106, 108.) The Abbe Renaudot drew his materials from the Arabic history of Severus, bishop of Hermopolis Magma, or Ashmunein, in the xth century, who can never be trusted, unless our assent is extorted by the internal evidence of facts.


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Sure there have been movie scenes where a character has sat on a toilet seat. But there has never been a movie scene where two characters talk about true love with one character sitting on the toilet seat.
Until Charlie Day's performance in "Going the Distance."
In the romantic comedy opening Friday, Day talks about love with his roommate Justin Long while Day is doing his business (with the door open, mind you). The star of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is very proud of the scene.
"That Academy might not notice it now," Day tells PopcornBiz. "But when the lifetime achievement award comes around, they certainly will."
"There have been scenes on the toilet before," he adds. "But there is no precedent for sage wisdom from the toilet in movies."
Day was happy with the humorous scene, despite some initial reservations.
"I thought it turned out really funny," he says. "But it was something in the script we were not so sure about."
They key was not to lose the scene to gutter (or toilet) humor, so it took a little last-minute script revising.
"We thought we could make it work if we were talking about his relationship and the fact that he had finally said 'I love you" and that's a big deal and I just happen to be sitting on the toilet," says Day.
"We managed to pull it off."
He even managed to feel at ease during the scene.
"It was not awkward," says Day. "I'm extremely proud of the sight of my thighs."


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Erin Cullaro, a former assistant Florida attorney general who was fired last year after moonlighting for a "foreclosure mill," continues to serve on a state committee that investigates other lawyers for ethical violations.
Some lawyers and consumer advocates question whether such a position of authority with the Florida Bar is appropriate.
"The bar's self monitoring leaves much to be desired," said Lisa Epstein, of Foreclosure Hamlet.org, which tracks cases of foreclosure fraud.
Cullaro, who worked for the attorney general's economic crimes division in Tampa, was fired in April following a formal reprimand by Gov. Rick Scott's office, which questioned variations of her signature on legal documents.
© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.


text:
You'll Like The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD If...
Whether purchasing for commercial construction, agriculture or recreational towing, if your needs are truly "heavy-duty" you'll likely find those needs met with this new HD, which offers all of the virtues, with few of the vices, normally associated with a "heavy-duty" truck.
You May Not Like The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD If...
The Heavy Duty's principal mission is to haul or tow big and heavy things. If you don't need this sort of vehicle and its "heavy-duty" attributes, you'll probably be happier with something not quite so robust.
What's New
Essentially, all major components and the exterior are new for 2007. There are several interior choices, the pickup beds offer more load versatility and there are performance enhancements in both gasoline and diesel engines.
Interior Features
In the heavy-duty segment it's all about choices. With the 2007 Silverado there are two available interiors. The version standard in the WT (base-model Work Truck) and LT trims is all about functionality, with an instrument panel focused on ergonomic ease, door panels offering larger door pulls and handles, a specific center console and two glove boxes. The 'luxury' interior on the LTZ offers a driving environment straight out of a Tahoe or Suburban. With a distinct instrument design, large center console and other specific trim elements the end result is decidedly upscale.
Exterior Features
Prettied up might be a kiss-of-death descriptive for a heavy-duty pickup, but it will work for the Silverado HD. The Chevy exterior is all-new, and builds on those themes established with the 1500. The grille is both wider and taller, all the better to cool one of two available engines, and is flanked by large, reflector-optic headlamps. Corner lights wrap into the flared front fenders, which complement the bulge atop the Silverado's hood, and there is a sleeker profile by virtue of the 57-degree windshield angle. Functionally, door handles are larger and "grab-style" (all the better to operate while wearing work gloves), doors extend over the rocker panels and, on extended cab models, the rear doors provide 170 degrees of access.
Driving Impressions
Given the number of drivetrain, cab and chassis variations in the Silverado lineup, it's difficult to provide one set of observations regarding drivability. However, everything Chevy's engineering team did to enhance the driving experience has worked. A more rigid frame, in combination with a widened track and retuned suspensions (Z85, standard on 2WD and 4WD models; and Z71, the optional Off-Road suspension), supplies the needed capability without imposing the typical vices of a heavy-duty platform. The ride is composed, handling stable and steering accurate with good on-center feel. With the 6.0-liter gasoline V8, performance might be described as "almost recreational." The Duramax does what diesels do, pulling a lot of load (up to 13,000 lbs.) in an authoritative manner.
Pricing Notes
The Silverado HD has a base price of $24,575 for the 2500 Regular Cab in Work Truck trim, and $24,795 for the 3500 in the same configuration. The diesel is $7,195 extra, and one could easily spend $50,000 for a heavily-optioned crew cab in the LTZ trim level. These numbers are fully competitive with Ford's Super Duty, and slightly less than a Dodge Ram that is also near the end of its product cycle. Resale values for all three trucks are expected to be similar.
Notable Equipment
For truck-oriented capability, few things beat power; Chevy's standard 6.0-liter Gen IV V8 delivers 353 horsepower and 373 lb.-ft. of torque, and a new six-speed automatic transmission meshes perfectly with the engine's capability. Standard safety features include seat-belt pretensioners, tire pressure monitoring and OnStar.
Notable Options
For many, selecting the diesel is a no-brainer; Chevy's Duramax turbo-diesel provides loads of power and is a lot quieter and smoother than diesels of the past. Those carrying lots of random cargo might better organize it with GM's cargo management system, those living in excessively cold or warm climates will benefit from remote starting on certain trim levels and those wishing to be entertained will enjoy an enhanced DVD system and CD/MP3 audio. Finally, people who worry about getting lost should opt for the available touch-screen navigation system.
Favorite Features
Six-Speed Automatic
The new transmission has two overdrive gears to provide relaxed cruising with lower engine speeds and a first gear that's intended to enhance off-the-line response. Of importance to those towing is both Driver Shift Control (tap up and down) and standard Tow/Haul Mode. Though some may wish for an available manual transmission, the six-speed automatic's overall excellence might cure you from wanting to shift your own gears.
Gen IV 6.0L V8 (Gasoline)
For sheer day-in, day-out driving pleasure the 6.0-liter gasoline V8 is terrific, offering extraordinary response for a vehicle this large.
Under the Hood
Chevy offers two engine choices. Base power is the 6.0-liter gasoline V8 that delivers 353 horsepower and 373 lb.-ft. of torque. Although the EPA doesn't provide a rating for vehicles in this category, past experience suggests GM gasoline engines deliver competitive fuel economy. For those wanting more, the 6.6-liter Duramax provides 365 horsepower and a remarkable 660 lb.-ft. of torque.
6.0 liter V8
353 horsepower @ 5400 rpm
373 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4400 rpm
EPA city/highway fuel economy: N/A
6.6 liter V8 Turbo Diesel
365 horsepower @ 3200 rpm
660 lb.-ft. of torque @ 1600 rpm
EPA city/highway fuel economy: N/A
Editors' Notes
Building on the well-received Tahoe, Suburban and lighter-duty 1500 pickups, Chevrolet's Heavy Duty series brings increased capabilities, refined interiors and enhanced drivability. And, in a nod to Ford's Super Duty line, there's more to differentiate this newest Heavy Duty from its lighter-duty sibling.