text:
Is it really tapas?
30 September 2001,Amritapuri
In this day and age, when huge lorries can rumble from one end of the ashram to the other, you have to wonder why Mother still calls for sand seva.
There is a long tradition of sand seva at Amritapuri. It began in the earliest days, when the ashram consisted of a few huts on a higher bit of land with water almost all around. When more huts were needed, or a meditation room, or a temple, land was needed as well. Land was obtained by hauling sand from the seashore or the banks of the kayal (backwaters) and pouring it where the land was needed. If enough people hoisted enough old cement bags full of sand onto their shoulders, or filled chutties (metal "bowls" with two handles) and shared the load with a friend, and took this sand to the desired location and dumped it there, land grew.
So in the early days, and really right up into the mid-nineties, it was a not uncommon event that the ashram bell would ring sometime after the evening meal, and everyone able would hurry to whatever site Mother had decided upon, and join Mother in the labour. Remember working your way up through a long line of people so that you could hold your sandbag for Mother to fill for you? Did you ever trudge along with a full bag on your shoulder, chanting your mantra, and suddenly look up to see Mother right beside you, carrying Her load? Remember how She would stand at the destination site, showing each person who arrived exactly where She wanted his or her bag dumped.
All of this used to make sense, in the days before there was even so much as a real road, never mind a truck, at this end of the island. There were no alternatives: you want land, you carry sand. You want space, you clear rubble.
But now, in 2001, there are high-rises in this ashram. No one lives in huts anymore. Passages have been widened to roads and daily large trucks pass easily from one end of the ashram to the other, bearing big loads of cement and construction lumber, or mounds of vegetables, or dozens of cooking gas canisters.
Who would dream of carrying individual bags of sand from one end of the ashram to the other? Who would even consider squatting in a huge mound of construction rubble (results of excavation for the big new high-rise coming up east of the temple) and, rock by stone by broken brick, filling old bags with the debris so that they can be hauled by hand or on a two-wheeled cart over to the boat jetty?
Mother would.
And if Mother does, so does everyone in the ashram: westerners, brahmacharinis and brahmacharis, householders, swamis, computer students and visitors. And not just the young and vigorous: everyone. There is no compulsion, mind you. Just, a bell rings, word goes around that "Mother is out for sand seva!" and suddenly so is everyone else. You don't have to go. As Mother says so often, "Mother doesn't push." But what you miss if you opt out!
It's crazy, when you think about it. Who wants to go out after a nice comforting supper, when really it's time for bed, and get completely filthy, develop aches in back and legs and shoulders, probably raise a few blisters on soft hands or suffer cuts on tender feet? And this is the rainy season, so the sand and rubble you carry will be wet, and more than likely you will be, too, when the skies open up with anything from a mild drizzle to a major downpour.
Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights, the bell rang, and the grandmothers and grandfathers came. The little kids came. And everyone in between. One old man arrived, pulling his airline hand-luggage cart so that he could strap his sandbag onto it. A woman in a wheelchair would not be stopped: she carried her load on her lap. Another with a walker was there, a suitably-sized sandbag clutched to the aluminium frame as she picked her way carefully from outside the hospital gate all the way past the temple, through the main gate, into the "press side" area, past the flats and Mother's parents' old (and now abandoned) house, right to the dock where the boat race will start next week. Partners would share a bag or a chutty, matching their footsteps so that they could progress smoothly. Some children raced back and forth at the typical high speed of new life, making up in numbers of trips for the minimal size of the loads they could lift. A grandmother carried the small pail she usually uses for bathwater. A westerner centred his sandbag between his shoulder blades like a familiar backpack. And all kinds of people got help hoisting their loads to the tops of their heads and strode steadily, weight centred, till they could, with a quick nod, drop the whole thing on the destination pile.
All this effort, to move dirt from one spot to another?
Not at all.
You could tell by the smiles on faces that this wasn't really all about work, nor all about the goal of moving earth and sand and stones. It was all about sharing the night with Mother.
There's this huge pile of rubble, and Mother is hacking away at it with a manvetti (a sort of cross between a pick and a hoe). She loosens big lumps of dirt and stone, which tumble down as someone nearby scrambles to gather them up into whatever carrying apparatus is nearby.
Or She squats down halfway up the side of the mound and with Her bare Hands tugs broken pieces of concrete out of the dirt, handing them off to whichever hands are lucky enough to be there, reaching.
Then maybe She mounts to the summit of the rubble heap and gazes out over the two hundred or more sevaks (workers), shouting encouragement to this one, and a scolding to that one. "Sacks!" She'll call out, and a pile of empty bags will grow at Her Feet. She'll take one and hurl it…and if you're lucky you'll catch it.
Prasad! Fill it; haul it, dump it and come back for more. She'll go on throwing sacks till the pile at Her feet is distributed, and then She'll sit. With some fortunate person holding a bag open for Her, She'll scoop up whatever is within arms' reach, fill the bag, hand it off, and call for another.
She spots a lazy non-worker and throws a clod of earth at him, laughing when he's shocked into the realization that he's been caught! She'll see some women leaning on their shovels, worn out, and tease and taunt them into new energy. Her glance will stun a shy visitor who will leave off gaping to look around, wondering, "Is it me She's looking at?!" Swamini Atmaprana will try fanning Her, and She'll push her away – how could Mother accept comfort while Her children strain and sweat? A visiting devotee will climb cautiously over the slippery shards to kneel near Mother, seeking Her advice and Her blessing. Mother's dirt-covered hands won't refrain from reaching out to comfort or to caress; the baby in the visitor's arms will be offered a smudged cheek to kiss.
This is what it is like when all the facets of the community gather to share a task – a night with Mother.
Then there are the surprises: the small events that make it hard to take your load and walk away from Mother – what if you miss something special? But in a spirit of obedience and service, you do your job, and maybe by chance or karma or grace you just happen to be near when a surprise occurs. Like the gloves, or the papaya tree, or the baby frog.
The second night of the sand seva, it was decided that Mother should wear gloves. At first She refused, but upon being pressured, She acquiesced. She took one glove, stuffed Her hand into it, gazed with apparent confusion at the result, shrugged, and donned the other. But how to function, with the glove-thumbs aiming upwards while the flesh-thumbs aim downwards? Helpful counselors nearby pointed out that She had managed to get the gloves not only onto the opposite Hands, but also upside down. Who wouldn't love the privilege of removing one of Mother's gloves and rolling it open and holding it just right so that She could slip Her hand in, properly, this time. But Her hands are so much smaller than the gloves that the long glove fingers hang empty.
That doesn't stop Mother, who, once properly outfitted, resumes work, scooping dirt and stones together between Her palms and depositing them in the bag held open beside Her, calling out orders while She works. She has run the gamut from being a helpless two-year-old (and you felt just like a mommy) to being the Boss (and you shrink back out of the way lest your lingering to watch attract Her attention). And in watching all this, and marvelling, your heart was opening up.
Then there was the papaya tree. On the third night of sand seva, Mother was causing Her children no end of concern by Her refusal to wear either shoes or gloves. She was scrambling up the nearly vertical slope of a pile of rock and concrete chips when She stopped short. "Who cut that tree?" She demanded, gesturing towards a truncated young papaya tree with only about four branches, bright and healthy leaves! – and a stem (precursor to a trunk) stretching up to where it had been rudely cut. No one confessed; that wasn't the point. Ascertaining that the tree was alive, Mother immediately stopped the mound demolition work closest to the tree and told one of the brahmacharis to dig it out carefully. Its top was gone, but its roots were unhurt; it could live. "Take it away and plant it," She directed. The ashram had to expand; for that, coconut groves had to be sacrificed; Mother needed to accommodate the thousands who come home to Her. But necessity is one thing, and carelessness with life another. Mother recognises the former and will not countenance the latter. Everything pulsates with life, and has feelings. She has told us this time and time again. But when in the midst of such driving work She stopped to save a small papaya tree, She turned from talk to action and drove home Her message in a way that philosophising never could.
The young tree safely removed, Mother continued Her demolition of the rubble heap, inching steadily higher while the hill itself grew smaller. With the help of eagerly outstretched hands, She clambered to the top, and sat. Sat to work. Immediately She was scrabbling together more dirt and sand and rocks, and beginning to fill a chutty. There was a small movement of something clinging to Her dress – a baby frog. Just out of tadpole stage, this tiny fellow clung successfully even though Mother's dress was moving. She reached Her Hand down and cupped it over him gently but decisively. She who can't resist loving even a frog held him close and announced: "I'm not leaving you until your Amma comes for you." But was that an excuse to stop working? Not in the least. Deftly Mother tied the little fellow into a cosy "room" made by the end of Her sari. Where other ladies tie their coins (saris don't come with pockets), Amma tied Her baby frog, and started to work again. Every now and then, She would stop grabbing for rocks and instead take up the end of Her sari, feeling softly for the baby – Ah! He's there! Or sometimes a look of consternation: "Poyi! He's gone!" And suddenly relief, "Here he is!" Still safely tied in his soft chamber, he hadn't really fallen out at all. Mother would check the security of the knot, and start working again. Just left of Her as She sat there cross-legged, there was a sudden movement: "It's a bigger frog!" someone nearby called out. "Then you can go," She said, and released the baby. Love but let go. It sounds like another of Her teachings. Be compassionate towards all beings; that sounds familiar as well. Words into action, once again.
Amma cannot do much for long without ending up teaching us. It is Her Nature. She calls us to carry sand, and joins in Herself, and we actually witness – and cannot but admire – selfless service. She does Her work with fullest attention, and we witness shraddha. She never loses awareness of the needs of those around Her – people, plants or frogs – and we recognize caring and compassion. She is cute and playful and we see that a spiritual person need not be drab nor dreary. Amma calls everyone for sand seva, and tells us (as She did at Satsang on Friday) how happy She was to see even the grandmothers and grandfathers working, carrying what they could. It is the attitude of readiness to make whatever contribution we can that counts, She told us, not the quantity we contribute.
There is a tradition of spiritual aspirants voluntarily taking on tapas (austerities) in order to be changed. They might wear hair shirts or stand on one leg for ten years. Some undertake extensive fasting, and some take vows of long silence. They choose tapas intentionally. You won't see a lot of that kind of tapas in Amritapuri. Our compassionate Guru provides opportunity for tapas but disguises it as play. She lets us balance on sliding shards, shoulder heavy loads, stay out in the dark and wet, be pushed and pulled by other struggling sevaks – NONE of which we would ever choose for ourselves. How we handle the discomfort, the pain, the inconvenience – that's where our spiritual work, and growth, comes in.
When work time is ended, Mother sits among Her sweat-stained children for yet another half-hour or so, handing them treasured prasad: a few banana chips.
Those who can tear themselves away from the close circle around Her can take steamy cups of sweet coffee, and look up at the almost-full moon not quite hidden by the waving tops of the palm trees behind Mother.
Naturally everyone is worn out. But no one is ready to leave the presence of the Divine Child, the Labourer, the Director, the Mother of a tree and a frog, our Guru. Maybe it takes a cloudburst (as occurred on the second seva night) to put an end to the festivities and send Amma to Her room and everyone else off to showers and to bed.
All of this happens, and all of these realizations come because when the bell rings, we don't say, "That's crazy – use a truck."


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Eight Tips for Windows 8
Planning on a Windows 8 purchase in the near future? While it may be the most secure version of Windows yet, a new operating system always introduces new security challenges.
There are a slew of security features in Windows 8 that we like (picture passwords, built-in antivirus, Secure Boot, among others). However, the changes in the graphical user interface, the introduction of the new online app store, and new capabilities raises security concerns. The following are some tips from the folks at Sophos on how to stay safe on Windows 8.
Which IE? The One in the UI
Internet Explorer has changed in Windows 8. One browser platform, but depending on how you are using it, you get two different experiences. There is the new Internet Explorer in the Windows UI and Internet Explorer for the desktop. While the desktop IE is familiar, IE in Windows UI have plugins disabled by default. Considering that plugins have become a major attack vector for exploit kits such as Blackhole, minimizing the attack surface as much as you can sounds like a great idea.
Exercise Application Control
Application control can help prevent malware from infecting your shiny Windows 8 system. Even if Microsoft is scrutinizing all apps listed in the Windows Store, users should assume that malicious apps may accidentally slip through. All applications in the Windows Store must list what resources they require access to. Review the permission carefully and make sure the apps aren't asking for too much.
Watch Out for Apps
Users should be careful when switching to apps for the new Windows 8 user interface (formerly known as Metro), Sophos recommended. Some applications have been completely re-written for the new user interface, so familiar applications may work differently than they used to. Existing security and management tools may no longer be able to monitor some of your applications.
Can You Detect Malicious Apps?
Related to the above point, make sure your security vendor of choice can flag Windows 8 UI apps that are malicious. Your security product should be able to distinguish between regular applications and Windows 8 apps, and be able to flag apps which are malicious, have been modified, or have an invalid license.
"Designed for Windows 8"
Make sure any Windows 8 hardware you buy has the "Designed for Windows 8" logo. This logo means the hardware is UEFI compliant, which is the only way users can take advantage of the Secure Boot functionality available in Windows 8. Secure Boot allows only signed code to run during the boot up process to minimize the risk of boot loader attacks.
Don't Encrypt and Hibernate
If possible, disable hard drive encryption hibernation. Encrypting the hard drive is a critical part of data security, and with BitLocker and the option to add self-encrypting drives, Windows 8 makes it even easier to protect data. However, Sophos recommends the hibernation option in Windows 8 be disabled through group policy, as it doesn't always work well with encryption.
Windows RT is a Mobile Device
Treat Windows RT (the version of Windows 8 that would be installed on ARM hardware) devices as any other mobile device and protect them accordingly. Disable apps that you don't need, and make sure you have the ability to track, control, remote wipe and encrypt them.
Do You Need NFC?
If you don't need them, block them. Near-field communications can be cool, but it's better to block the near field communications features you don't need and don't plan to use.
Oh, and...
Sophos also had a bonus tip. Don't allow sign-in to Windows 8 PCs with a Live ID. Keep the credentials for your online identity separate from the physical machine.
For more from Fahmida, follow her on Twitter @zdFYRashid.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Traité sur la tolérance, Volume 56
Voltaire Foundation, 2000 - Literary Criticism - 365 pages
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text:
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York offers a database of opinions listed by year and judge. For a more detailed search, enter the keyword or case number in the search box above.
Judge Margaret Cangilos-Ruiz
Judge Diane Davis
Judge Robert E. Littlefield, Jr.
Westcon Group North America, Inc. v. RBS Citizens, N.A. (In re Noblehouse Technologies, Inc.), No. 12-90045 [ECF No. 60] Bankr. N.D.N.Y. 12/24/2013
Lee E. Woodard vs. PSEG Energy Techologies Asset Management Company, LLC et al. (In re Tougher Industries et al.), No. 08-90161 [ECF No. 92] Bankr. N.D.N.Y. 10/10/2013


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So much, in fact, that now that her kids are 8 and 6, she has launched Dinner: A Love Story, a website about how to make family dinner doable for the rest of us. It was inspired by "Time for Dinner," the cookbook she helped write during her tenure at Cookie magazine -- the demise of which prompted her to move her blog idea from that maybe-someday back burner to the main course.
"You can make a ton of healthy meals if you keep quinoa, whole-wheat spaghetti, whole-wheat tortillas, onions, eggs, artichoke hearts, frozen spinach, and Parmesan on hand," Rosenstrach says. She adds, "Don't try to trick picky eaters. Have veggies on the table every night. They'll try them eventually."
Jenny's Favorite Things
We asked Rosenstrach what things she can't do without in her kitchen, and found her favorite products in stores and online. Pictured here: Chalkboard wall decal from Lot 26 Studio. "We use it to plan out the week," she says. $31; amazon.com
An easy-to-make fallback dinner is important for a family as busy as this one. Rosenstrach's favorite go-to meal? "Scrambled eggs with Parmesan and a tiny bit of truffle oil for me, and grilled cheese made in the waffle maker for the kids."
Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Cast-iron pan. "I love that it's naturally nonstick; I use it every day," Rosenstrach says. From $11; lodgemfg.com
With each dinner comes a blog entry, and she's figured out how to sharpen her tech skills like a Wusthof knife. Before, Rosenstrach considered herself "somewhat tech-savvy. I was doing the basic stuff like Flickr and Facebook," she says. "I hired a designer to create the site. Once I stepped in, it became clear that I knew nothing. I'm still figuring out things like search-engine optimization and the plugins on WordPress." But now, just months after her launch, "I have to force myself not to spend all day working on the blog. It's that much fun."
Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Stainless-steel tins. "Before these, I threw away so many plastic bags," says Rosenstrach. From $13; lunchbots.com
Plus, like dinner itself, it's a family affair, with regular entries from Andy, who calls their brightly lit dining room Eagle's Nest Studios because it's where Jenny photographs each meal. The actual eating is done in the bright-red chairs around their kitchen table. Rosenstrach hastens to point out that some nights dinner is a "10-minute nightmare of convincing Abby to eat something she loved but now hates, reminding Phoebe to use a napkin, and not having a single interesting conversation."
Of course, it's not always like that. "Hearing 'This is delicious' makes everything worth it."
Jenny's Favorite Things
Pictured here: Everyday Food cookbooks. "I share their philosophy," says Rosenstrach. $16 each; marthastewart.com.
Name: Jenny Rosenstrach
Age: 39
Hometown: Westchester County, NY
Day Job: Editor, writer (see "Take a Haycation"), founder of Dinner: A Love Story
Biggest inspirations: Jamie Oliver, the "Little House" books, working mom Tami Taylor on "Friday Night Lights" ("Don't tell me she's not real!")
New skills I'd love to learn: Gardening, knitting, sewing, first-grade-math tutoring. In other words, patience.


text:
Eastern Churches Council of Australia
Eastern Hierarchs is an organisation of Christian eastern-rite jurisdictions in Australia. It is focused on working for the love of God spreading throughout the Church in Australia, in a spirit of Christ-like co-operation, without accusation, judgment, condemnation, or lust for power.
Recent News
On Bright Monday, 24th April 2006, an annual ecumenical service was held to commemorate the suffering, death, descent and resurrection of Christ. 38 clergy and 8 nuns were present, including Metropolitan Archbishop Paul, and members of all levels of the clergy.
Churches represented include the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Cyprus, Greece, Romania; the Pre-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches of the Copts and Syriacs; and the Eastern Rite Catholic churches of the Maronites and the Melkites.
Apologies were received from the local bishops of the Pre-Ephesian Orthodox Churches of the Armenians and of the Assyrians.
External Links
- Eastern Hierarchs Ecumenical Service (24 April, 2006)


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text:
College of Business
The College of Business has been the proving ground for leaders in major accounting firms, CEOs and CFOs of banks and financial institutions, executives in insurance and manufacturing industries, top healthcare and nonprofit professionals, and scores of entrepreneurs. Their educations have given them a broad-based foundation in all facets of business along with the specific focus of their majors to contribute to the success of their organizations and their own careers.
Undergraduates can pursue 12 majors and several time and tuition saving combined degree programs. In keeping with national trends, 20% of business students registered at Open House are undecided. Our Exploratory Program gives you the freedom to consider all of your options–a smart way to maximize your investment.
At the graduate level, our flagship MBA program continues to set the standard by which others are measured and has helped thousands of individuals rise to executive roles. Capitalizing on the strengths of our accounting and leadership programs and the diverse offerings of the University, we are uniquely positioned to provide a wide array of advanced and combined degrees to open doors to even greater career opportunities.
Our reputation for personal attention to students, internship connections to the business community, and the highest business accreditation in the world, ensure that you will receive an outstanding business education that will take you successfully from the classroom to your career.


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According to most biochemical analyses, collagen is a protein, not a carbohydrate, as stated above
For cyclists needing to eat during long races or other endurance events, energy food usually means a gel or a bar. These Sponser Red Power Gums fall into a different bracket that can only be described as chewy sweets. They're tasty, easy to eat and deliver a good supply of carbohydrate for energy - plus a dash of caffeine for an extra little boost.
Red Power Gums are one of many energy products from Swiss manufacturer Sponser Sport Food. Each packet contains 10 gums, with a total weight of 75g. The total carbohydrate content is 58g, which is a high ratio and ideal if all you want is carbs.
The main ingredients include glucose syrup, sucrose and gelatine. Also in the mix is caffeine – a total of 150mg in the packet of 10 - plus some B-group vitamins, which according to the Sponser website 'are involved in the metabolic processes of the energy production'. There's also taurine and glucuronolactone, which 'serve as antioxidants and intercept free radicals'.
I have tested these gums on some long training rides and a couple of 100-mile sportives and found them very useful for that last hour or so when legs start to get tired and hills seem to get steeper. I've generally stuffed in about five gums at once, and felt the benefit almost immediately - which could be psychological, but if it does the job, that's good enough for me.
The Sponser website also suggests the gums are good for eating before a race, as well as for topping-up at any point during an event between eating other food.
Red Power Gums are available in only one flavour, called 'red fruit'. The taste and texture is pretty much like a normal wine gum. It's tasty, but a bit on the sticky side, so you definitely need to drink afterwards to take the stickiness away.
There's only one downside with these gums: they're tricky to eat on the move. Getting the packet out of your jersey back pocket and then getting a couple of individual gums into your mouth requires the use of both hands. This means riding no-handed (not always possible or advisable in crosswinds or a group situation) or simply stopping. If you can cope with that, then I'd recommend these gums as a very handy addition to your normal selection of energy foods.
When it comes to price, a single packet of Sponser Red Power Gums is £2. This is not cheap, although on a crude carbs-per-quid and carbs-per-packet basis, it's on a par with similar products such as ZipVit Energy Chews (46g of carb in a 60g pack) and Clif Bar Shot Bloks (48g of carb in a 60g tube) which both also go for about two quid. You can reduce the costs slightly by buying in bulk: on the Sponser Uk website a box of 20 packets of Red Power Gums is £38.
Tasty and effective - a welcome change to the usual choices - although not cheap and hard to eat on the move.
If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website
road.cc test report
Make and model: Sponser Red Power Gums
Size tested: One
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
This product is a source of energy, aimed at cyclists taking part in long races or other endurance events. The Sponser UK website highlights these key advantages: 'Quick and handy energy source; Caffeine for a better performance; Vitamins to support the energy metabolism; Antioxidants.'
To be honest, it's hard to tell if the vitamins and antioxidants make any difference, but the carb and caffeine combination definitely provides a boost.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
The website goes on to say: 'Red Power Gums contain the same amount of caffeine as 2 shots of espresso or 3 cups of tea. The beneficial effects of caffeine are well known: improved performance, better concentration, accelerated fat metabolism and improved muscle contraction.
.... added taurine and glucuronolactone serve as antioxidants and intercept free radicals, which are formed more rapidly during exercise.
... also enriched with B vitamins including vitamin B2 (43% of your RDA per sachet) and pantothenic acid (50% of your RDA), which are involved in the metabolic processes of energy production. They also contain Niacin (63% of your RDA), and Vitamin B6 (64% of the RDA) for protein metabolism and vitamin B12 for new blood formation.'
As a quick supply of energy, with the additional caffeine-boost, these gums perform very well indeed.
A packet of gums weighs 75g, or which 58g is carbohydrate. On a crude carbs-per-gram basis, that is a good ratio.
Red Power Gums are not cheap, although they are roughly on a par with the price of similar energy products.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Taste. Nice change to gels and bars. Good performance.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Fiddly to eat on the move - but that's the case for any similar product so not a criticism on Red Power Gums alone.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.
Would you consider buying the product? Yes.
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.
Anything further to say about the product in conclusion?
As a highly effective source of energy these gums are excellent and would score a 9, but the nothing-special price knocks a point off, so the overall rating is a very good 8.
About the tester
Age: 51 Height: 5ft 10 / 178cm Weight: 11 stone / 70kg
I usually ride: an old Marin Alp, or an old steel classic My best bike is: an old Giant Cadex (can you see a theme here?)
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: touring, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding,


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Main navigation | Main content
|SPS President Levi Walls at the Family Fun Fair outreach event
The School's chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) was named "Outstanding Chapter" by the national organization. Chapter President Levi Walls said that "despite being confined to Shepherd Labs due to the Tate remodel, SPS was able to increase the number of opportunities for members to volunteer within the department and community at large."
"In addition to a trip to the Monitcello Nuclear Power Plant that was over a year in the making," Walls said, "we solidified a connection with Xcel Energy, the owner of the power plant: SPS has been invited back for the foreseeable future." Walls said that the group focused on increasing representation of women in physics and STEM. Together, with Women in Physics and Astronomy, (WIPA) SPS co-hosted seminars, colloquia, and fun nights devoted to initiate important conversations about diversity in an engaging manner. SPS also collaborated with the newly formed Climate and Diversity Committee to offer suggestions for improvement to life as a physics undergrad. Walls said this step has helped SPS solidify its position as a conduit for the voices of physics undergrads to be heard.


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It seemed as if I'd have to settle for the overflow room, but the moment the first bass notes of the Pretenders "My City Was Gone" played, the doors opened and a few of us were let in. The energy in that room was higher than any rock concert I've ever been to.
It was an enthusiastic, energetic, standing room only crowd in the Regency Ballroom who heard Rush speak.
The main theme from Rush was how what has made this nation great, our freedom, is under assault from within. The concept of unlimited potential and achievement in individuals is under assault and punished by liberal Democrats.
Rush concluded with expanding on the remark which has the liberal media in a tizzy, that he wants Obama to fail, reminding us that liberals hoped for President Bush's failure and for our military to fail, noting in particular "Dingy" Harry Reid stating the "war is lost."
Why shouldn't we want Obama to fail? His plans are not in the best interest of the nation.
From the response to Rush's speech and the record breaking attendance at CPAC this year (around 9,000 is what I heard), don't anyone tell you that conservatism is dead.


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BOSTON (Reuters) - A mysterious group of computer hackers has spent four years spying on the South Korea military, U.S. security software maker McAfee said Monday, citing evidence uncovered from malicious software samples.
The findings, which were not confirmed by authorities in Seoul, provide one possible motive for ongoing attacks on South Korea that date to 2009.
McAfee, a division of Intel Corp, did not identify a sponsor for the attacks but said they were carried out by a hackers group known as the New Romanic Cyber Army Team. Seoul has blamed North Korea for some of the cyber attacks although Pyongyang denies responsibility and says it too has been a victim.
Officials at the South Korean Embassy in Washington were not immediately available for comment. A Pentagon spokesman said he was unaware of McAfee's findings and declined comment.
Experts with Symantec Corp, another security software maker, last month definitively linked the four-year string of attacks to a single group of hackers. The attacks hit government and corporate computers.
McAfee released a 29-page technical paper on Monday that analyzed the code of the software used by those hackers, whose identity is still not known.
It said the hacking gang infected PCs with sophisticated software that automatically sought out documents of interest by scanning computers for military keywords in English and Korean.
Once the software identified documents of interest, it encrypted those files then delivered them to the hackers' servers, McAfee said.
The paper also described in detail how the attackers siphoned data from infected computers using a sophisticated infrastructure known as a "botnet."
McAfee named the attacks "Operation Troy," because the word Troy frequently appeared in the code of the malicious software. The New Romanic Cyber Army Team makes frequent use of Roman and classical terms in their code.
On July 4, 2009, it launched its first significant attack, unleashing malicious software that wiped data on PCs and also disrupted some government and business websites in South Korea and the United States.
In March, the gang knocked tens of thousands of PCs off line at South Korean companies by destroying data on their hard drives. It was one of the most destructive cyber attacks on private computer networks to date.
McAfee published its report on the gang on its website: bit.ly/1davN52
Reporting by Jim Finkle. Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Cynthia Osterman


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Undocumented immigrants should be wary of scammers trying to charge money for procuring California driver's licenses, according to an alert issued by the San Jose Police Department.
A new state law passed in 2013 will make it possible for undocumented immigrants to get valid California driver's licenses starting on Jan. 1, 2015.
But some unscrupulous operators are trying to convince immigrants that they can get them a valid license now, and even posing as DMV staff and lawyers in some cases, police said.
Immigrants should be cautious of individuals who claim they can obtain a license for a fee, police said. Some scammers have asked for up to $1,000 per license, according to police.
The community should also beware of false DMV or "How to get a California license" websites, police said. The correct California DMV website is www.dmv.ca.gov.
People who plan to obtain a valid California driver's license on Jan. 1 should prepare their personal documents to confirm their state residency and identity, police said.
Individuals can also study for the written driving test and take practice tests on the DMV website. The California Driver Handbook is available in 10 languages, police said.


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When using a screwdriver this can be difficult as the screw tends to slip. Once the screw passes the veneer it is easy to finish screwing in... I'm looking for an easy way to get the screw past the veneer surface.
Is there a tool for this? (Say, a screwdriver with its tip shaped like a screw?


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Peanut Satay Sauce from Por Kwan, is a fine combination of exotic Thai spices and the selected peanuts. This peanut satay sauce makes the perfect partner for grilled meat such as chicken, beef, or pork. Made from natural ingredients, peanut satay sauce is very rich and full of flavors. With its unique style, peanut satay sauce also gives a wonderful taste for toasted bread. Ingredients: Red chili, sugar, peanut, coconut milk, galanga, lemon grass, shallot, garlic, salt, citric acid, paprika natural color. Net weight 8.0 oz. Product of Thailand.
Copyright © 2004 - 2019 GroceryThai.com


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After that weird video surfaced of Kanye West rambling on and on about changing his nickname from "The Louis Vuitton Don" to "Martin Louis King, Jr.," we really weren't sure if the kicks he'd designed in collaboration with Louis Vuitton would ever come to market. Thanks to If It's Hip, It's Here, we got a sneak peek of several of the designs back in January (which, we'll admit, we were less than ecstatic about), but since then, nothing.
Now La MJC has released some really spectacular shots of models wearing the ... wait for it ... $700+ sneakers and gallavanting around the streets of Paris. Naturally, the boys all look impossibly cool and hipster-y, all plaid shirts, oversized glasses, and such. Racked also has some great detail shots of the collection, if you're jonesing for a closer look.
As for the sneakers, the bizarre Gummi Bear-looking red pair we saw back in January still in the collection, as is arather goofy-looking white loafer style with tassels. This is supposed to be West's big fashion moment, right? He's designed sneakers before--his "Air Yeezy" collection for Nike--but this has been buzzed-over for months! Where's the drama? We'll admit there are a couple of pairs that we'd wear with some ripped jeans on a Sunday shopping stroll (the pale gray with bright red soles are alluring in a vaguely Christian Louboutin kind of way), but the tassels! Good lord, the tassels! The collection is still titled "spring/summer 2009," though it clearly won't be rolling out in the very near future, so you'll just have to be patient.


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Associated Press FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) The Army psychiatrist accused in the deadliest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation told jurors Tuesday that evidence would "clearly show" he was the gunman during the attack on Fort Hood, but he insisted it wouldn't tell the whole story.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan briefly laid out his defense as he addressed jurors during the first day of the long-delayed trial for the attack that killed 13 people on the Texas Army post in 2009. Acting as his own attorney, Hasan also cited his religion but didn't elaborate.
"The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter," he said, adding later that it also would show "that we are imperfect Muslims trying to establish the perfect religion... I apologize for any mistakes I made in this endeavor."
Prosecutors also laid out their argument, telling jurors that Hasan deliberately targeted fellow soldiers and meticulously planned to "kill as many soldiers as he could."
Col. Steve Henricks told jurors that Hasan tried to clear the area of civilians as he walked through and opened fire inside a building where service members were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in 2009.
Henricks described how Hasan entered the building as a civilian data cleric stood at entrance station and told her she was needed elsewhere in the building because a supervisor looking for her. The prosecutor said the cleric thought that was odd but went anyway.
"He then yelled `Allahu akbar!' and opened fire on unarmed, unsuspecting and defenseless soldiers," Henricks told the jury, noting that one of the soldiers who was killed ran after Hasan armed with nothing but a chair.
When Hasan left the building, a civilian approached him and asked what was going on. Hasan told him not to worry about it, and the civilian "walks away from the encounter unscathed," the prosecutor said. Hasan allegedly told another civilian that there was a training exercise going on and he was carrying a paintball gun.
Hasan only shot at one civilian who tried to stop him, Henricks said.
Henricks also said Hasan picked the date of the attack Nov. 5, 2009 for a specific reason, though he didn't immediately reveal details.
Hasan is charged with numerous counts of murder and attempted murder for the attack that left 13 people dead. He had wanted to argue that he carried out the shooting in "defense of others," namely members of the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan, but the judge denied that strategy.
His defense strategy still remains unclear, but over the next several weeks, he is expected to question witnesses and possibly present his own evidence.
The trial seems likely to unfold as a faceoff between the gunman and his victims. On the witness stand will be many of the more than 30 people who were wounded, plus dozens of others who were inside the post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. They've also said they saw Hasan shout "Allahu akbar!" Arabic for "God is great!" and opened fire on unarmed fellow soldiers.
The government has said that Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim, had sent more than a dozen emails starting in December 2008 to Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born Islamic cleric killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
Hasan has never denied carrying out the attack, and the facts of the case are mostly settled. But questions abound about how the trial will play out. How will Hasan question his victims? How will victims respond? How will his health hold up?
The defendant, who was shot in the back by officers responding to the attack, is now paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. He requires 15- to 20-minute stretching breaks about every four hours, and he has to lift himself off his wheelchair for about a minute every half hour to avoid developing sores.
Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who was wounded, is expected to testify. He said he looked forward to seeing Hasan, in a way.
"I'm not going to dread anything. That's a sign of fear," Lunsford said. "That man strikes no fear in my heart. He strikes no fear in my family. What he did to me was bad. But the biggest mistake that he made was I survived. So he will see me again."
But Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning said he dreaded the expected confrontation.
"I have to keep my composure and not go after the guy," said Manning, a mental health specialist who was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan with Hasan. "I'm not afraid of him, obviously. He's a paralyzed guy in a wheelchair, but it's sickening that he's still living and breathing."
The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, told jurors to prepare for a trial that could last several months.
On Tuesday, guards stood watch with long assault rifles outside the courthouse. A long row of shipping freight containers, stacked three high, created a fence around the building, which was almost entirely hidden by 15-foot-tall stacks of heavy, shock-absorbing barriers that extend to the roofline.
John Galligan, Hasan's former lead attorney, said Monday that he still keeps in touch with Hasan but wasn't sure what he would say Tuesday, if anything.
Hasan has indicated recently that he still wants his views to be heard. He has released statements to media outlets about his views on the Islamic legal code known as Sharia and how it conflicts with American democracy.
If he is convicted and sentenced to death, it will most likely be decades before he makes it to the death chamber, if at all. The military has not executed an active-duty soldier since 1961. Five men are on the military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., but none is close to an execution date.
AP National Writer Allen G. Breed and Associated Press writer Ramit Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report.
Follow Nomaan Merchant on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nomaanmerchant.


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On April 23, 2012, the plaintiff in State of Ohio ex rel. David P. Joyce, Prosecuting Attorney of Geauga County Ohio v. MERSCORP, Inc., et al., N.D. Ohio Case No. 1:11-cv-02474, filed its motion seeking an order certifying the action as a class action, appointing Geauga County as class representative, and appointing plaintiff's counsel, the New York law firm of Bernstein Liebhard LLP, as class counsel. The plaintiff argues that the case, which the plaintiff is attempting to bring on behalf of all 88 Ohio counties for relief relating to the allegedly unlawful failure of MERS and its member institutions to record millions of mortgages and mortgage assignments throughout Ohio, meets all requirements of Rule 23(a) and that certification is proper under any one of the 3 subsections of Rule 23(b). The plaintiff hopes to persuade the court that the MERS/member institution policy concerning recordation of mortgages and assignments is a "common scheme or course of conduct" that has given rise to claims "ideally suited for class certification."
[ipaper docId=94254592 access_key=key-2nn3qssi6kdpdxy704up height=600 width=600 /]
© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.


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"Linear Cramer-Shoup" is defined on pages 4 and 5 of $\:$ eprint.iacr.org/2007/074.pdf .
Are the ciphertexts in Linear Cramer-Shoup computationally indistinguishable from uniform
under a chosen-ciphertext attack? $\:$ (We can assume without loss of generality either that
$M$ is the identity element or that $M$ is a a random element unknown to the adversary.)
This is not homework, and is relevant to a Zero Knowledge
Proof of Knowledge protocol I'm thinking about.


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Guinness Premiership
Dupuy returns to France
June 25, 2009
Julien Dupuy is returning to France for personal reasons © Getty Images
Guinness Premiership champions Leicester Tigers have agreed to release scrum-half Julien Dupuy to Stade Francais.
Dupuy played a key part in Leicester's Guinness Premiership success last season and recently won international recognition for the first time, but the Tigers were powerless to stop the player leaving for personal reasons. Dupuy has been replaced by James Grindal, who rejoins the club from Newcastle Falcons. Grindal will now compete with England and British & Irish Lions scrum-half Harry Ellis for a starting role at Welford Road.
"Allowing Julien to leave the club is a decision that has not been taken lightly, but he made it clear that, for personal reasons, he wanted to go back to France," said Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill . "Stade were willing to pay a substantial fee to take him there and we have to think of the squad as a whole when making these decisions. It would have been difficult to keep a player who saw his future elsewhere."
Cockerill believes that Grindal will provide a boost to the Tigers, who faced the possibility of being without both Dupuy and Ellis for lengthy periods due to international commitments.
"Julien came here as a squad player from Biarritz and he has enjoyed an excellent year in the Tigers environment, to the extent that this summer he is a starting selection for France," said Cockerill. "Now that he has made his debut for France, we could have faced the situation where we lose both him and Harry Ellis to international squads for significant parts of the season and that has also had a bearing on my decision.
"We have a British & Irish Lions scum-half in Harry and we have had the emergence of Ben Youngs who we would like to see continue with his development. Now we have added James to the competition for the scrum-half shirt and we are very happy to be able to bring him in.
"James obviously knows the Leicester culture after coming through the ranks here as a young guy and he has a lot of experience. He has played more than 150 first-team games for Newcastle and he is still a young guy. We look forward to welcoming him.
"Julien had an added role as a goal-kicker with us last season and the transfer fee does allow us to have a look at our goal-kicking options if necessary."
© Scrum.com
Communication error please reload the page.


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TOKYO (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry defended the reorientation of Washington's foreign policy toward Asia on Monday as he ended a trip to the region dominated by concerns about North Korea's nuclear programs.
The "rebalancing" of the United States toward Asia has caused unease in Beijing, which has tended to focus on the military dimensions of the strategy and to view it as a way to contain China's rise.
On the final leg of a 10-day trip that included stops in Seoul and Beijing, Kerry sought to assuage Chinese concerns even as he offered reassurance to U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea that the United States wasn't going anywhere.
"Some people might be skeptical of America's commitment to this region," Kerry told students at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "My commitment to you is that as a Pacific nation that takes our Pacific partnership seriously, we will continue to build on our active and enduring presence."
The United States has beefed up its military presence in the region in recent weeks, deploying two missile defense systems following repeated North Korean threats to attack the United States and its allies.
The North increased its menacing language after the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions in response to its latest nuclear arms test - its third - in February. Speculation has mounted of a new missile launch or nuclear test.
Kerry has stressed his interest in a diplomatic solution.
"The United States remains open to authentic and credible negotiations on denuclearization, but the burden is on Pyongyang," he said. "North Korea must take meaningful steps to show that it will honor commitments it has already made, and it has to observe laws and the norms of international behavior."
On Sunday evening, however, Kerry appeared to open the door to talking without requiring the North to take denuclearization steps in advance. Beijing, he said, could be an intermediary.
"If the Chinese came to us and said, 'look, here's what we've got cooking and so forth,' I'm not going to tell you that I'm shutting the door today to something that's logical and that might have a chance of success," he said.
Denuclearization, he told ABC News in an interview, "means you strip down your current enrichment facilities and production facilities, and make it clear you will be a non-nuclear state."
If North Korean leader Kim Jong-un does agree to stop trying to build his nuclear arsenal, peace talks can reopen, Kerry said in a separate interview.
"If he will meet the obligations that we've all set out that are necessary, we are prepared to negotiate on a full range of issues," Kerry told CBS.
While signaling U.S. support for its Asian allies, Kerry also said in a speech that he did not want territorial disputes between Japan and China to jeopardize the region's security and prosperity.
"It is time also to put long-festering territorial pursuits behind us," he said. "The stakes are far too high and the global economy is too fragile for anyone to allow these inherited problems to divide the region and to inflame it."
Tensions between the two nations soared last year over rival claims to a crop of islands in the East China Sea.
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Christopher Wilson


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The Carrots UK Boys Bang on the Door Calf Socks are cool and fun. The Carrots UK Boys Bang on the Door Calf Socks come in Brown and Blue.
Size Kids (12 - 3)
Payment can be made online by any credit or debit card, Paypal or by Google Checkout.
Our site uses the latest 128 bit SSL security, complying with and exceeding all necessary security requirements to protect your details. We do not store any sensitive information (card number, etc).
SSL encrypts your order online to avoid any decoding of that information of anyone other than the necessary processing parties. To check the security of your connection, look at the status bar of your browser window after accessing the server. If you see an unbroken key or a closed lock then, depending upon your browser, SSL is active. You can also double check by looking at the URL line of your browser - while accessing a secure server the first characters of the address will change from HTTP to HTTPS.
All orders received before midday Monday - Friday will normally be dispatched the same day. Orders received after midday, at weekends or on public holidays will be sent the next working day.
If there is a problem with your order that prevents us from despatching it, for example it is not currently in stock in our warehouse, we will normally contact you within 24 hours of the order being received by us or on the next working day.
If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, you can return it within 14 days of purchase in its original unworn condition with original packaging and labels and we will refund the product price. This will not include postage costs.
If the main product in any offer is not suitable and needs to be returned, then the offer product should also be returned. If the offer product is retained then any refund relating to the main product shall be less the discount originally given on the offer product.
At Cross Country Style we stock an extensive collection of Carrots equestrian accessories online for less than RRP. Carrots are a fantastic range for men, women and children in order to add fun into your everyday equestrian experience. Our range of Carrots equestrian accessories includes riding gloves, riding hats & helmets and plenty of socks.
Carrots are a fairly new brand to the equestrian fashion scene having only been founded in 2007 but they have already made a name for themselves. They are popular for their equestrian accessories which are made to combine fashion, fun and functionality to your everyday riding experience. They manufacture clothing that are all bright colours and are very stylish within the equestrian fashion market. A lot of the time when buying equestrian gear it is usually quite plain; yet Carrots bring patterns into all of their designs and manufacture unprecedented products.
Usually Carrots interpret the designs from the high street and put them into their equestrian accessories; making it so that you get the best of both worlds. Their designs are perfect for anyone who has a love of fashion and enjoys the mixture of comfort and style when purchasing their clothes and accessories. Their children's range is extremely popular as they use fashionable accessories to brighten up your usual horse riding day – despite this it is also popular amongst many adults too.
Collaborating with various other brands such as Bang on the Door, popular for their Groovy Chick collection, only extends their experience and high quality accessories further. Their fantastic range is perfect for everyone's unique style and personality and there is literally something for everyone.
We are always updating our stock at Cross Country Style so if you check back next time then there may be something new for you to feast your eyes on from our Carrots collection. Take a look at our brilliant collection of Carrots socks and Carrots riding hats and helmets today.


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The best places to stay with kids in Erbalunga
Here is a list with the best places to stay with kids with in Erbalunga.
Download our app to book, create favorites, price alerts and much more!
- Hotels in France
- Hotels in Corsica
- Hotels in Erbalunga
Some good reasons
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Book with Guarantees
Our app redirects you to booking.com for finalizing the booking process. That way you will have all the gurantees.


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Innovative finance to catalyze more and better funding for education
The GPE Multiplier is a US$300 million innovative finance instrument that provides an incentive and the financial resources to catalyze more and better investment in education.
Approved by the GPE Board in June 2017 and scaled up in June 2018, the GPE Multiplier enables partner countries to invest additional resources in education, increasing total support for a critical sector.
A country can access its allocation by mobilizing at least US$3 in new external financing for every US$1 from the GPE Multiplier.
Since 2018, 16 countries have secured more than US$137 million in allocations from the Multiplier, which has mobilized close to US$560 million in reported cofinancing in support of quality education from regional and multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, foundations and other development partners.
View a factsheet on the GPE Multiplier


text: The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board appreciates your visit to this web site (the "Site"). Please read the following terms and conditions ("Terms and Conditions") carefully before using this Site as use of this Site constitutes your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. Your access to and use of the Site is subject to the following terms and conditions (the "Terms and Conditions") and all applicable laws. If you do not agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions, do not use the Site or download material from the Site.


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Love the revolutionary Che Guevara label, but the wine was not so great. Too earthy for a pinot noir .
More posts
- The carnelian project Pinot noir Santa Lucia highlands
- Big and cold. Key to celebrating any sunday home repair project.
- Tasty, but not exceptionally exciting
- Crisp fruit forward of black currant and strawberries. Sharp pointed tannin finish. Not as smooth as would have liked.
- Lightly bodied. It's dry finish is a pleasant surprise with this Pinot Noir. Otherwise unsatisfying ;(


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NAIA 2014 Women's Outdoor Track & Field Athletes of the Week - No. 1
By Chad Waller, Director of Communications and Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jessica Mattos of Concordia (Ore.) has been named the NAIA National Women's Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week and Lexi Mitzel of Corban (Ore.) has been selected as the NAIA National Women's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week, the national office announced Wednesday. Mattos and Mitzel were selected based on their performances from March 10 – 16. This is the first award of the 2014 outdoor season.
Mattos, a junior from Corralitos, Calif., opened her 2014 outdoor season with the Cascade Collegiate Conference's (CCC) top marks in both the hammer and the discus. At the Saints Open, hosted in Gresham, Ore., on March 15, Mattos' discus mark of 47.34 meters earned her an 'A' championship qualifying standard and is the NAIA's top overall mark this season. She also took home third-place honors in the hammer (44.82 meters) and was 25th in the shot (10.60 meters). At the conference level, Mattos currently has more than a 20-foot lead in both the discus and hammer.
Mitzel (pictured top left), a sophomore from Salem, Ore., was the top finisher in the 5000 meters at the Saints Open. Her effort of 17:37.46 earned her an 'A' qualifying time and was nearly one second off the Corban school record in the event.
For the complete Athlete of the Week calendar, click here.
Track Nominees: Amelia Maguin, Southern Oregon; Elle' Nelson, Warner Pacific (Ore.); Catherine Fakler, Xavier (La.); Jillian Benson, Baker (Kan.); Christine Sheppard, Southwestern (Kan.); Angie Vailas, Friends (Kan.); Valarie Segay, Kansas Wesleyan; Brielle Lund, Tabor (Kan.); Sarah Biehl, Shawnee State (Ohio); Allison Denetchee, William Carey (Miss.); Renea-Lee Hosang, Northwood (Fla.); Marina LeVine, Embry-Riddle (Fla.).
Field Nominees: Stephanie Techler, Southern Oregon; Devinn Rolland, Xavier (La.); Stephanie Nelson, Baker (Kan.); Kayla Wilson, Southwestern (Kan.); Brooke Doerksen, Friends (Kan.); Reta Woodard, Embry-Riddle (Fla.).
2014 Women's Outdoor Track & Field Athletes of the Week (Field, Track)
Week 1 (Jan. 22): Jessica Mattos, Concordia (Ore.); Lexi Mitzel, Corban (Ore.)


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Product 29/32
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|Walnut Creek, CA
|High School:
|Las Lomas HS
AS A FRESHMAN IN 2008: Saw action in 12 matches, started seven ... played 786 minutes ... made her Bronco debut starting against San Jose State (Aug. 22), helping SCU to a 3-0 shutout ... subbed in for an injured Lindsey Johnson vs. then-No. 5 Notre Dame (Aug. 29) ... saw time at then-No. 21 Cal State Fullerton (Sept. 7) ... started at defender vs. then-No. 6 Stanford ... started the final five games of the season in the backline - vs. USF (Oct. 19), at LMU (Oct. 24), at Pepperdine (Oct. 26), at Portland (Nov. 2) and vs. Gonzaga (Nov. 8).
CLUB EXPERIENCE: Played five years on Danville Mustang Fury club team ... 2006 member of ODP region IV regional team ... member of Cal-North ODP State team in 2005-06 and 2006-07 ... 2006 NSCAA/Adidas Youth All America Team.
AT LAS LOMAS: A 2008 graduate of Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, Calif. ... played soccer and ran track ... coached by Tom Frangoulis ... DFAL league MVP her sophomore year ... junior and senior years won DFAL league first-team honors ... school's MVP her sophomore, junior and senior years.
PERSONAL: Daughter of Doug and Sylvia Matthew; dad graduated from Stanford ... born in Walnut Creek, Calif. ... has one younger brother, Paul ... hobbies include traveling, reading and spending time with family and friends ... major is undeclared in the College of Arts and Sciences.


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amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
October 2010—Successful HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care depend on how effectively facts about this immensely complex disease can be communicated. For treatment educators and counselors in Asia, the task can be particularly daunting in low-literacy communities.
Discouraged by the dense explanations and complicated terminology of most treatment literacy materials, TREAT Asia's community program manager, Jennifer Ho, decided a few years ago to try another approach. Visual storytelling, she reasoned, could help make HIV/AIDS treatment less intimidating and confusing. "I thought, why not give treatment educators a tool that is entirely visual?," she remembered.
The result is a groundbreaking educational flipchart—widely distributed in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Viet Nam—which uses simple, vivid images drawn from everyday life to help explain HIV/AIDS. To describe how HIV attacks the body's immune system, for instance, the chart depicts a garden with a secure fence, which is damaged by termites (HIV), thereby allowing pigs and chickens (opportunistic infections) to invade and destroy the garden.
Saban Prak works with HIV-positive women in Phnom Penh and regularly uses the Cambodian version of the flipchart to explain treatment issues. "As an HIV educator, the most difficult things for our clients are the names of antiretrovirals. They are illiterate so they can't write them down—they have to remember," she said. "The flipchart makes it simpler by using pictures. The pictures also make it easier for us to explain things like the HIV life cycle."
By distilling complicated information about HIV and its treatment into accessible images and situations, the interactive booklet also helps strengthen the connection between treatment educators and their clients. For each illustration in the booklet, educators are offered instructions in their own language for using the image to explain an aspect of HIV—an interactive structure that encourages cross-communication.
The HIV treatment flipchart, which was developed through a grant from GlaxoSmithKline/Positive Action, is now considered a key training tool for counselors in each country, and hundreds of copies can be found in clinics and hospitals. In China, where the booklet has been in use since 2005, at least 20 Red Ribbon sites employ it regularly, reaching more than 6,000 patients.
Three hundred copies of the Vietnamese edition, which was revised in 2008 with the help of World Concern Vietnam, are used by counselors and self-support groups at approximately 55 sites around the country. A similar number of sites regularly use the Khmer version, which was revised and distributed in 2009 with the help of the Cambodian Community of Women Living with HIV. And in Indonesia, the PITA Foundation finished revising the Bahasa Indonesia version of the flipchart in 2009 and 50 copies are in use by clinics and counselors around the central Jakarta area.
© 2019 amfAR All Rights Reserved || amfAR's mission is to end the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research


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Views: 875
She cried.
If you are going to feel offended by her belief, then you're going to have a problem. You have to expect her to be offended by your lack of belief, and be prepared to deal with it. When you got married, you were a believer. Whether it's fair or not, she expected you to be a believer until you died, so on this matter you owe her a little more consideration than she owes you. She is not only going to feel offended, she is going to feel very vulnerable. Make sure she knows that you want to stay together. Be as honest as you can, as kind as you can, and assure her that your feelings about her have not changed. Use lots of non-verbal communication. LOTS.
I agree with Mark. You evolved after your marriage. So now you just have to be honest and be prepared for what happens next.
If you don't have kids already and are thinking about doing so, I think it is critical that you tell her now. She needs to know. I place high odds that you will both undermine each other in this one aspect of raising children. If you already have children the issue is much more complicated. I would recommend not directly contradicting your spouse on anything religious with the exception of new earth creationism. At the same time, I would encourage a strong interest in the sciences and scientific method.
Remember this is just an opinion. I waited until I was 29 to find the right heathen woman to marry. Actually it took that long to find someone gullible enough to marry me. So, I am not going to know that much about your situation.
We have two sons. As I read these responses, I felt a great sense of relief. I really don't see my wife reacting in a marriage-ending way (She's a divorced, pro-choice Catholic who believes Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark are myths, strongly believes in gay rights and gay marriage, etc).
Naturally, I agree that I need to be the patient one here and give her time to accept that I've come to this conclusion. I don't think the sky will fall on our marriage. I was critical of Catholicism before we got married, and she was okay with that. So really, not much changed with respect to my view of her religion.
Still, I can't pretend this won't be a big deal. I'm going to take this slowly and carefully. One day she'll ask why I do not insist on going to my old evangelical church anymore, and I'll tell her step by step: I, too, am pro-choice. I, too, believe the Creation story and Noah's Ark are myths. Etc.
Thanks for the advice. I'd love to hear more.
I think slowly and carefully is a good approach. Maybe you could discuss topics first, so your stance won't be a shock. Hopefully she won't be defensive when discussing topics before you finally tell her. I think most people think logically before they feel cornered. Then they will fight you no matter what.
Are you certain of her beliefs? My wife and I kind of came around at about the same time, not that either of us was ever really religious. Her only comments ever were "is there something wrong with me that I don't believe like these other people do?"
I just wanted, again, to thank everyone here for the support and sound advice. My wife and I still haven't had the talk, and I have no intention of rushing it. We had a delightful Christmas and our boys sang happy birthday to baby Jesus. They also were very excited about Santa Claus visiting on Christmas. We'll have our talk, or series of talks, when the time is right.
Glad to hear that you are having a good holiday. I wish you luck when the time comes.
Ok, so here's the latest...
I decided not to inject this issue into our marriage because I wanted to take it slow, and it seems to be paying off. Some time ago we had a discussion about the mythology in Genesis, and I came thisclose to exposing Exodus for the fraud that it is. But I let it stand as an implication rather than coming right out and saying it.
ANYWAY, that's the background for the conversation we had yesterday: I am closer than ever to fully coming out as an atheist to my family (my wife and others closest to me).
The catalyst was that my stepdaughter is 21, unmarried and now pregnant. This triggered a crisis of faith in my wife, who feels that God is paying her back for some of the things she did as a wild child. Anyway, my wife was sharing with me that she didn't want to go to church on Sunday (it's EASTER) and we both know we haven't been to church since we learned of the pregnancy.
I took this as an opening to share that I've been having doubts for years, citing our son and my sister as "evidence" for God's lack of attention to our family's needs and his probable non-existence. "I think you know that I've been having doubts for a really long time."
And we left it at that. There's only one place to go for the next conversation, and I don't know when it will take place. But I'm looking forward to it.
(Cross posted on another forum)
Actually, the way to make it clear is to say that this God seems to act the same way No God would.
I ended up saying I chased God for 40 years and I'm kind of done chasing him. It's high time he showed up.
© 2019 Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: The Nexus Group. Powered by


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Mentorship program aimed at promoting competitiveness
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Five Missouri firms and their mentors were recognized today for their work in advancing Missouri's entrepreneurial fire with the University of Missouri System's Advocacy-Mentoring Program.
The 2012 Torch Awards marks the completion of an 18-month mentorship for this class. The mentoring relationship is meant to increase the number of competitive minority- and women-owned firms that wish to do business with one of the University of Missouri's four campuses. Women- or minority-owned businesses are defined as business entities in which at least 51 percent of the ownership interest, stock or otherwise, is minority or woman owned.
"ABR's participation in University of Missouri's Advocacy-Mentoring program has been very beneficial to my gaining business acumen and to ABR's further development of core fundamentals," said Kayla L. Dennis, president of Ability Building and Restoration LLC (ABR), a 10-year-old specialty carpentry subcontractor in St. Louis. "We've gained new business relationships and resources. Our participation has provided opportunities to learn how like companies strategize and operate, and ABR has gained a broader perspective regarding partnerships, challenges and successes. It's been a very informative process."
Ability Building and Restoration is part of the second graduating class of UM's Advocacy-Mentoring program. Fellow 2012 graduates include Lackey Sheet Metal of St. Louis; Alpha Energy & Electric of Kansas City; EMED Medical of St. Louis; and TMN Staffing of St. Louis. Each business was paired with a mentor from a large firm, and three of the participants also worked with a team leader from one of the University of Missouri's four campuses.
Greg Silkman, manager of Facilities Planning & Construction at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, volunteered to participate in the program as a university team leader and was paired with a young company in Kansas City called Alpha Energy & Electric.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for these businesses, but it's also a chance for people like me to learn from these young entrepreneurs," he said. "It's a mentorship relationship that goes both ways."
He said Alpha's leadership team impressed him with their willingness to listen and try new approaches.
"When you have a company that has applied to this program, that is saying, 'I want to do good work, and I'm willing to put forth the effort to see how I can become better,'" he said. "That's certainly been the case here."
The Advocacy-Mentoring Program was launched at the recommendation of the university's Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Advisory Council, a volunteer group convened in 2008 to brainstorm ideas to increase the proportion of businesses owned by minorities and women that work with the university.
The UM System has seen growth in the ability of these businesses to compete, said Jacqueline Hall Kelly, PhD, director of Minority Business Development with the UM System.
"We have seen increases in the percentage of minority- and women-owned businesses in nearly every area we measure," Kelly said. "For example, in the last fiscal year, 17 percent of our architecture and engineering business went to minority-owned firms — double the portion we had seen in the previous four years."
Kelly added that the program is guided by the principle that the university's contractors should reflect the diversity of the system's students, staff and the state of Missouri.
"This program aims to increase the potential supply of firms that can more effectively bid on university contracts while at the same time reinforcing our university's values of respect and diversity and furthering our mission to advance Missouri's economy," Kelly said.
The Advocacy-Mentoring Program helps businesses grow and become more competitive through strengthening their core business competencies; networking; and instructing them how to do business with the University of Missouri.
In addition to the mentoring program, the university has simplified the request-for-bid notification system, which is available to all businesses. Individuals who want to know about business needs at the four campuses can now sign up for notifications through email.
"We're trying to do everything we can to bring some of these small firms into the fold," said Kelly, noting that small businesses based in Missouri make tremendous contributions to the local economy. "This is part of our commitment to growing Missouri's economy and being good citizens."
The Advocacy-Mentoring Program is just one example of the system's commitment to helping businesses grow, thereby improving the state's economy. Through University of Missouri Extension, small businesses can participate in free or low-cost assistance through Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Centers. Additionally, the University of Missouri has a statewide network of 10 research parks and business incubators, designed to help faculty, entrepreneurs and businesses collaborate to move innovative research to the marketplace.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: See attached for a list of those honored at today's event.]
Reviewed 2012-11-30


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Our weekly gathering where we come together to hear from God's word, remembering who God is, what He has done, and where He is taking the world. We sing, we pray, and we participate in the Lord's Supper.
Worship Gathering
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The sudden turnaround by the Boy Scouts of America on who is allowed to be a scout or scoutmaster is evidence of the new limits of religion-based conservative activism. Proof of the new boundaries can be found in what will change -- and what will not.
Bottom line: Gay boys and gay or lesbian scoutmasters may soon be welcome in some Boy Scout troops. Atheists and agnostics, not so much.
If you missed the news, the Boy Scouts headquarters issued a statement Monday that its leaders were rethinking the question of whether people who were openly gay or lesbian could be involved with the organization.
Excluding gays and lesbians has a long history in the Boy Scouts. The official polices once included this section (but does no longer):
"Boy Scouts of America believes that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the obligations in the Scout Oath and Law to be morally straight and clean in thought, word, and deed. Scouting's position with respect to homosexual conduct accords with the moral positions of many millions of Americans and with religious denominations to which a majority of Americans belong. Because of these views, Boy Scouts of America believes that a known or avowed homosexual is not an appropriate role model of the Scout Oath and Law for adolescent boys."
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the organization's right to maintain this policy.
And only six months ago, the organization ended a two-year examination of the long-standing policy excluding gays and lesbians with this:
"The committee's work and conclusion is that this policy reflects the beliefs and perspectives of the BSA's members, thereby allowing Scouting to remain focused on its mission and the work it is doing to serve more youth."
So Monday's announcement was a real head-turner:
"Currently, the BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation. This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization's mission, principles, or religious beliefs. BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their families."
Call it local option. (By the way, and not that I can find it on the Girl Scouts of America website, but other news sources say this has basically been that organization's policy since 1991 when it adopted a statement that says "there are no membership policies on sexual preference.")
Strictly by the numbers, the Boy Scouts aren't exactly a juggernaut: about 2.5 million scouts and almost a million scout leaders. That's a big crowd in one place but not much more than rounding error in a nation of more than 300 million people.
But the Boy Scouts have always represented something disproportionately significant in American culture: something conservative in the best use of that word. Where honorable values and ancient skills are maintained in ways that bond boys and men.
Even people who have never been scouts can have a Norman Rockwell feeling toward those aspects of the organization, a feeling that it's good to have it around even if you don't actually want to join.
But then there are the conservative values that aren't nearly so universal, many of which are rooted in the historical twining of the Boy Scouts and religion. As the Boy Scout oath puts it right up front:
"On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country..."
Atheists and agnostics need not apply.
American conservatism has always had the libertarian "leave me alone and I'll do the same to you" strain and the "God has told me what's right so I need to carry that to the world" strain. The religion-linked conservatism has had the loudest megaphone in American culture for a while. But I'd suggest that the Boy Scouts' latest announcement is evidence that the libertarian strain, at least as supported by some of the organization's largest donors and supporters, is now in the ascendency.
The local options being discussed wouldn't require any scouting troop to take any particular position on homosexuality. What that means is that there will be troops that are known to be open and those not, so parents will have the ability to choose what they want for their boys. (I can imagine diversity creating some real issues at the Jamborees, however.)
But what about parents and kids whose attitude toward religion is not doctrinaire? I sent an email to the Boy Scouts' national spokesman, Deron Smith. Will there be a "local option" offered for atheists or agnostics?
From his answer, it appears that religious conservatism still holds the line there.
"It is the position of the Boy Scouts of America that the ideals and principles of 'Duty to God' and 'reverence' set forth in the Scout Oath and Law are central to teaching young people to make better choices over their lifetimes."
It's certainly the right of the Boy Scouts to take that position, and maybe history has made it impossible to extract religious faith from the Boy Scout mission.
Of course, the organization was just as unequivocal not so long ago about sexual orientation. So maybe the non-religious still do have a prayer of becoming Boy Scouts one day.
Jeffrey Weiss is a reporter based in Dallas, Texas. He wrote this column for RealClearReligion.com.


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Five people may have died over the past three years after drinking Monster Energy, a popular energy drink that is high in caffeine, according to incident reports recently released by the Food and Drug Administration.
The reports, like similar filings with the F.D.A. in cases involving drugs or medical devices, do not prove a link between Monster Energy and the deaths or other health problems. The records were recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the mother of a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died in December from a heart arrhythmia after drinking large cans of Monster Energy on two consecutive days.
Last week, Wendy Crossland, the mother of that teenager, filed a lawsuit against Monster Beverage, a publicly traded company in Corona, Calif., that used to be known as Hansen Natural. The lawsuit charges that Monster failed to warn about the risks of its energy drinks; a spokeswoman for the company said last week that its products were safe and not the cause of the teenager's death.
That spokeswoman, Judy Lin Sfetcu, added that Monster was "unaware of any fatality anywhere that has been caused by its drinks."
Monster Beverage's stock ended down Monday more than 14 percent, sliding sharply after The New York Times reported about the F.D.A. filings.Continue reading the main story
In an interview, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, Shelly Burgess, said the agency had received reports of five deaths with possible links to the drink as well as a report of a nonfatal heart attack. Additional incident reports referred to other adverse events such as abdominal pain, vomiting, tremors and abnormal heart rate. The reports disclosed cover a period of 2004 to June of this year, but all the deaths occurred in 2009 or later.
The filings do not make clear whether the incidents involved other factors, like alcohol or drugs. However, the number of reports that the F.D.A. receives about any product it regulates usually understates by a large degree the actual number of problems.
The release of the filings about Monster Energy may increase Congressional calls for greater regulation of the energy products industry. Monster Energy is among scores of energy drinks like Red Bull and Rock Star, and energy "shots" like 5-hour Energy, that companies are aggressively marketing to teenagers and young people.
In a statement, Ms. Burgess, the F.D.A. spokeswoman, said that it was the responsibility of energy drink manufacturers to investigate accusations of death or injuries associated with them. She said that the agency was still looking into the cases but had yet to establish a causal link between the deaths and the drink.
But the release of the F.D.A. reports may also raise questions about how closely producers of energy products monitor their safety or whether the F.D.A. reviews those activities.
Late Monday, Ms. Sfetcu, the Monster Beverage spokesman, said that the company had not received copies of the F.D.A. incident filings about possible fatalities associated with its products apart from the one filed in connection with the December death of the Maryland teenager, Anais Fournier. She said she did not know whether the company actively monitored the F.D.A. database that collects reports about such incidents.
Monster Beverage makes a variety of energy drinks with names like Monster Rehab, Monster Assault and Monster Heavy Metal. Labels on the containers state that they are "not recommended" for some consumers, including children — a group that beverage producers define as those under 12 years — and people "sensitive" to caffeine.
Under current F.D.A. rules, companies are not required to disclose caffeine levels in their beverages and can choose to market them as drinks or as dietary supplements. Those regulatory categories have differing labeling and ingredient rules.
While healthy adults can safely consume large quantities of caffeine from sources like coffee, tea and energy drinks, the drug, which acts as a stimulant, can pose risks to those with underlying conditions like heart disorders.
The type of 24-ounce can of Monster Energy that the Maryland teenager, Anais Fournier, drank contains 240 milligrams of caffeine.
The lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the teenager referred to autopsy and medical examiner reports that said she had died of "cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity" that had exacerbated an existing heart problem. The report also showed that the teenager had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which can affect the body's connective tissue, including blood vessels. A lawyer for her family, Kevin Goldberg, said that the 14-year-old had been aware she had an underlying heart condition but added that her doctors had not told her to restrict her physical activities or her caffeine use.
In an April letter citing the teenager's death, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, urged the F.D.A. to enforce caffeine levels in energy drinks.
In August, F.D.A. officials responded by saying that there was insufficient evidence to take action on caffeine levels in energy drinks. However, the agency also noted then that it had not yet received medical reports related to the Maryland teenager's death.
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article described Ehlers-Danlos syndrome incorrectly. It is a genetic disorder, not an autoimmune disease.