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In the late 1920s, musicians from across Iraq were being recorded by a variety of companies: Baidaphon of Beirut, Polyphon of Germany, and HMV of England being the Big Three. As usual in those nascent markets, all were competing against each other for shelf space in the shops that sold gramophone records.
I chose an early piece from Iraq this week because of the appearance of a terrific Honest Jons release culled from original copies at the EMI Hayes Archive titled Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929. Two lovely songs by Badria Anwar are included on Give Me Love, but today's post is another of her long lost recordings, from ca. 1928-1929 or so. "Rah Wilfy" translates roughly to "My Lover Is Gone." She is accompanied by oud, kanun, violin, and percussion. (Thanks to the Pictures Clerk for translation!)
While I generally refrain from deep ruminations on this website, I thought I'd just write about Give Me Love as well as some thoughts on current reissues of historic recordings. Nobody asked me, of course, but these issues actually mean a lot to me. (In hindsight, I see I may have gotten long-winded, but what the hell…)
First, I think Give Me Love is an important collection. There has not been, until now, any serious survey of Iraqi historical recordings released - certainly not one with such a wide variety of styles. Musically, it is superb in my opinion - the taksims are amazing, the songs beautiful, from Kurdish melodies to Iraqi Jewish songs. I've little to say in that arena, as I was simply very impressed with the selection. Because of Honest Jons' access to the Hayes Archive they were able to use untouched file copies of these exceptionally rare recordings, or perhaps even the metal masters, for their transfers. (For those who are wondering, 78rpm masters have shockingly less surface noise than the final product, the mass-produced gramophone record copy of the master, which often contained loads of garbage, or filler, along with the shellac - Paramount Records used sand and cement in their mix, for instance, making virtually all of their records sound like crap.)
That does not happen often. Very few companies exist which still have accessible masters or clean file copies of their original 78s, much less are willing to work with a small label for a release. EMI and Hayes are the major exception. And, the transfers are alive: I've listened to Give Me Love a few times now and although I (and my ears) waver a bit on this thought - and I may change my mind still again - I have come to believe that we are finally getting to a point where, taking into account a number of factors, the majority of surface noise can be removed from a 78rpm recording to the actual BENEFIT of the recording itself. There are far too many CDs of historic international folk music (not to mention historic anything) which have been hampered by overzealous noise reduction in their transfers. Of course, on the flip side, some of these recordings are so rare (I've seen around 4 Iraqi records in the past 5 years, say), you have to take what you can get sometimes. In other words, I'd probably buy this if it was dubbed from an old Certron cassette tape. (And as if it even needs to be said, I clearly am in no way a professional engineer - I just do the best I can with what I present on Excavated Shellac. Better the stuff is out there than not, is my opinion. Just wanted to get that out of the way.)
On Give Me Love, it sounds like the musicians are next to you. Well, next to you in mono. As I mentioned, achieving this sonic quality depends on a host of important factors: condition of the original record, turntable, tonearm, a wide variety of specialized diamond cut needles of various sizes, analog noise reduction equipment, digital noise reduction equipment, equalization equipment and methods, and the most important factor, a finely tuned ear. It is expensive, time consuming, and surely a monetary loss in the short term. But, I think Honest Jons got it right. And that's good for both music fans, and scholars of this music.
Another thing Honest Jons got right is the design. Because I still prefer the tactile sensation of an LP (a DJ at heart), I purchased their double-LP issue of Give Me Love. Graphically it is beautifully done - and the design is current. While this may seem secondary to many, I believe the presentation of historical music is absolutely vital to its survival. These releases cannot and should not appeal only to the converted, the record collectors, the ethnomusicologists. They have to break through to new audiences, new listeners, people willing to take a chance. Releases like this, if they are to continue, absolutely must at the very least attempt to appeal to younger generations by methods of marketing, distribution, sale, and especially presentation. If not, the consequence is that the releases, the listeners, and by proxy the music, will become even more elitist, more rarified, more segregated - precisely what shouldn't happen. This doesn't mean dumbing down these releases, it just means an overhaul. The design of Give Me Love is, well, pretty damn attractive. It makes one feel that this is an important record, filled with mysterious lost music that is different than what one has experienced.
With all that said, I'm not above some critique. While comparatively minor, I had a few related problems with Give Me Love - in particular, problems with the notes which accompany the LP.
Despite its savvy design, Give Me Love presents itself, rightly I think, as a historical document, and includes a short essay on the backstory behind these recording sessions, with information on some of the artists and quotes from correspondence between HMV employees in Iraq and the home office. Why is it then that there is no detailed recording information (dates, specifically) for any of the tracks? This information could be extremely helpful to those wishing to study further, it would be very brief in terms of space to annotate, and would almost certainly be accessible in the Hayes Archive, as HMV kept scrupulously detailed recording ledgers. Since Honest Jons had full access and permission from EMI, why not list the original record catalog numbers, too? I realize that including this information may go against the whole "reaching out to new audiences" idea I just mentioned (in other words, it might be useless to most consumers), but I think not including it and still attempting to be a historical document is disingenuous. This is new territory they're working with, and why not go for broke - those adventurous enough to purchase the record may appreciate that detail somehow. Plus, it firmly places these works in a specific place, at a specific time.
The rest of my complaints are niggling and petty and I fear I've gone on too far as it is. If you've read this far, I appreciate your interest…the most important part of this post is of course way up above: the music.
Technical Notes Label: HMV Coupling Number: AX 568 Face Number: 7-213737 Matrix Number: BX4397


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Here's the Android 3.0 Honeycomb homescreen for tablets. It's slightly different from Android's phone-interface to take advantage of the larger tablet-sized screen, which means there's even better multitasking and widgets. Updating.
Besides this multitasking improvements, you also have improved notifications (popups in the bottom right corner). Developers can use these more advanced notifications using their API, which can include stuff like sounds, icons, music controls, and anything else that talks to applications.
And here is notifications.
They're demonstrating Fruit Ninja now—the Android phone version. It works fine on the tablet, the same way iPhone apps work fine on the iPad. But they say they want to encourage people to develop tablet-versions of apps, such as Gmail below.
The application bar on the top is something that changes when you interact with different objects and apps. For example, when you're in Gmail, it'll change to Archiving, Deleting and so forth—email actions.
Here's how you customize the homescreen. They showed this to show off the new 2D/3D frameworks, such as the YouTube browser below, or the books app. The 3D page turning animations and scrolling are very smooth, but they're more eye candy. It's also good that the eye candy doesn't get in the way of performance though.
More 3D demos: The Google Maps that was introduced in Android 2.3, and also the music app. Or, Google Body, the human body app.
Next up is media capabilities. First is the new camera app. It's more advanced, functionality-wise, than the current Android camera, and works on both phones and tablets.
Then, video chat. It's included in Android 3.0 Honeycomb by default. There's a contact shortcut widget on the homescreen, which you can use to email or video chat with someone.
Here is the CNN app for Android tablets. It looks quite similar to how it is on the iPad, but, you know, more Androidy. It also includes live video, streaming from the US or internationally.
The Android Market Web Store
The web store that we first heard about Google I/O is finally being released, today. You can buy apps from the web—meaning your computer—and install it automatically onto your phone. It functions the way you'd expect. You can browse through apps, click into individual apps to see reviews, an overview, ratings, screenshots and what's new in this version of the app.
When you buy something, you can choose what devices you want to install the app too—filtered by devices that are compatible with the app, if you have, say, a phone and a tablet.
Even Android phones can use direct links to the Android market instead of having to use QR codes or going into the Marketplace and searching. FINALLY.
It is live right now, so you can try it on market.android.com.
Also, buyer currency support is being introduced, so developers can enter in specific prices for different currencies.
Oh, and in-app purchases is coming as well.
A Disney guy is on stage talking about three apps coming to Android: Radio Disney, Jelly Car and Tap Tap Revenge.
Now, Cee Lo is video chatting with a Google person. End of the presentation! Check out our hands on in a second.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rancho de Chimayo Restaurant
About Us
The Chimayó valley is a verdant oasis extending from the foothills of the majestic Sangre de Cristo mountains to the expanse of the Rio Grande valley.The name Chimayó itself is from the Tewá Indian language meaning superior red flaking stone.
In October 1965, the home of Hermenegildo and Trinidad Jaramillo became Restauranté Rancho de Chimayó. Arturo, Hermenegildo?s grandson, and his wife Florence had an idealistic vision in their plans for the house and land. Their restaurant would preserve the rich traditions of their family and its proud culture.
The setting is comfortable and romantic. Fireplaces radiate warmth into cozy rooms and family photographs hang on the white washed adobe walls. The lovely terraced patio beckons you to exquisite outdoor dining.
In August 1984, the Jaramillo family completed restoration of Hacienda Rancho de Chimayó, Epifanio and Adelaida Jaramillo?s home. Their home has been lovingly renovated into seven guest rooms. Each room opens onto an enclosed courtyard and within each room one finds turn of the century antiques, a private bath, a quiet sitting area and fireplace.
In October 2005, Rancho de Chimayo Restaurante celebrated their 40 year anniversary.


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Plot your route
Several apps and websites help you find a safe route to run. You can chart your own course/distance or use a route that has been entered and shared by someone who has been there and done that.
Try these:
Runners World Route Finder --rw.runnersworld.com/
By John Roberts
Running along the roads and footpaths in the tiny village of Kinderdijk (pictured), we were surrounded on all sides by twirling giants. What a way to see this quaint destination in the Netherlands. We were away from the crowds and made our own way looping around from the water to the interior canals, and before an hour had passed, Colleen and I had spotted animals (many cows, horses and mallards), ships, trees, flowers, chatted with residents and seen every windmill in town.
This is often how we like to explore ports areas and other destinations. You get to see more, find a little piece of solitude and best of all, it's free and good for your health.
We have enjoyed runs in St. Thomas USVI, London, New York City, Key West, Orlando, Dublin and many, many more.
Many cruise-port cities offer great walking/running paths that are natural fits for excellent sightseeing while you get in your workout.
Just throw on your running shoes and grab your camera, then head out for a cheap self-guided tour in these spots.
Please share spots you have discovered for your runs/walks around the world.
Thanks for reading. Travel fit and travel happy!


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Home is where the heart is — and for Mila Kunis, that means home is where boyfriend Ashton Kutcher is. Namely, at his 9,000-square-foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
As the Feb. 25 issue of Us Weekly revealed, Kunis, 29, and Kutcher, 35, are taking their relationship to the next level: cohabitation. A source says the Black Swan star has been bunking with her Two and a Half Men actor beau while her own house is being remodeled, and she may make the move official soon.
"Ashton's male roommate is moving out to make room for her," the insider tells Us of the Oz the Great and Powerful actress. Adds another pal: "They really are perfect for each other."
Indeed, the former That '70s Show co-stars have seemed totally in sync ever since they first stepped out together last spring, four months after the actor and Demi Moore announced the end of their six-year marriage. And though Kutcher and his ex are still legally wed, he and Kunis are definitely committed to each other. In recent months, they've taken their relationship to Australia, Italy, New York, and Iowa, where they dined with his family at Red Lobster.
Kunis even planned a special surprise birthday party for her man: a star-studded fete at Go Kart World in Carson, Calif., with food from Umami Burger. (James Van Der Beek was among those in attendance.)
"They were friends first, and then it switched to love," a source tells Us of the couple. "That's a great foundation for a relationship."


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Friday, October 15, 2010
Old School Stationers
Brian and Amy Reed are the owners of Old School Stationers a letterpress studio located in Portland. They specialize in the production of handmade cards, journals and wall prints that are bold in color and inspired by old times art work. They print these gorgoues cards on a paper imported from that's more than 350 years old Italian family-owned mill and printed by a hand-run antique letterpress circa 1917.
Labels: Stationery · 3 comments
Masked Owl Costume: Martha Stewart
I believe it's safe to say that Martha Stewart loves owls too. Lately, I have discovered many wonderful owl crafts and costume ideas by her and have been sharing with you here. This masked owl costume is by far my favorite. It is a perfect fusion of an aviator and owl costume. Don't you love the goggles and pilot cap with that feathery belly?
To download the template and to read the instructions click here.
Labels: Crafts · 11 comments
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Halloween Shadow Makers: Mini Eco
Labels: Crafts · 2 comments
Patti Sandberg
I absolutely adore these ceramic mugs and dishes by Patti Sandberg. Artits said "I am drawn to working with clay because the process of building and the playfulness of the material is a connection with my childhood, and a form of communicating in a way that I can not do with words. My work is drawn from the living and natural world."
Labels: Pottery · 1 comments
Halloween Decor: Middleburg
Susan is a full-time artist of Middleburg a business based in Snow Hill, North Carolina. She crafts one-of-a-kind paper mache pieces prepared with earth friendly recycled paper and wood inspired by folk art. I love those chalkboard silhouettes on real twigs. These will make a wonderful addition to your Halloween decorations!
Labels: Decor , Holidays · 2 comments
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Virginia Johnson
Virginia Johnson's new range of decorative pillows and chain stitched bags. The owl wool pouches and pillows have been chain stitched by hand in Kashmir, India.
Labels: Bags , Decor · 5 comments
Pretty Little Things
Lori Marie of Pretty Little Things is a designer and textile artists presently living in California. Lori started out as an aerospace engineering major at UCSD and decided to take some art classes "to balance out my math and science courses." Lori shares "I realized that my passion for innovation and creativity was better applied to pattern making than rocket science...so I transferred to The Fashion Institute of Merchandising in San Francisco and graduated with a degree in fashion design instead."
Her primary inspiration comes by print and pattern among many other sorts of stuff. She works with lots of fun colors and hand detailing to great functional and unique pieces.
Labels: Decor · 3 comments
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Owl Smores
For full recipe and instructions hop over to Amy's blog here.
Labels: Something Sweet · 6 comments
Halloween With Martha Stewart
Year after year, Martha Stewart surprises us with tons of wonderful Halloween home decorations, holiday crafts and amazing ideas for trick or treat. I had to share some of my favorites with you all from her newest Halloween collection.
Labels: Crafts , Decor , Holidays · 4 comments
Stamp and Shake Owl Card Tutorial
Tricia Tharp of Frizzelstix was kind enough to put together this tutorial exclusively for My Owl Barn readers knowing that we'll all enjoy and could use a fun project like this with Halloween right around the corner. "Stamp and Shake" owl card is a great project for you to create your own unique Halloween card with your kids. Why is it called "Stamp and Shake"? {hint: sparkle!} Read the tutorial by clicking on the second image to find out.
You can use your own owl stamp or pick the special limited edition spooky owl rubber stamp from Tricia's shop now!
Labels: Crafts , Holidays · 3 comments
Monday, October 11, 2010
It's All In The Details: Wedding
The bride and groom holding hands on top of that huge house is my favorite picture.
Labels: Birthdays + Weddings · 7 comments
DIY: Owl Mask
Johanna and her friend Heather crafted this amazing paper mache owl mask inspired by Martha Stewart's bird masks. I like how it turned out - masculine. Read more on her blog on how she made the owl's feathers, beak and eyes.
Labels: DIY · 1 comments


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Crowley Tug Participates in Blackout Test with Ultra-Deepwater, Semisubmersible Noble Jim Day Rig in U.S. Gulf of Mexico
(HOUSTON, Texas; August 25, 2014) – Once again displaying their diversity for use in the domestic petroleum industry, one of Crowley's four ocean class tugs, Ocean Sky, recently provided back-up station-keeping and holdback services during a routine blackout test of ultra-deepwater, semisubmersible oil rig Noble Jim Day. This Shell-leased, Noble-owned rig is currently operating in about 9,600 feet of water in the 508 section of Walker Ridge as part of the Stones Prospect.
As part of routine blackout testing, Crowley was contracted to have the Ocean Sky connect its tow line to the rig, which itself has DP3 technology. The tug's connection was to serve as a contingency in the event the rig required additional assistance, which it did not during the 12-hour drill.
"These tugs have performed above and beyond each time they've been contracted," said Tommy Crosby, manager, sales and marketing, for Crowley's solutions group. "During this drill, we were able to demonstrate yet another feature of these ocean class tugs – tug holding position during stand by operations. These four tugs have repeatedly performed to the expectations of their build including salvage, heavy-lift barge towing, ocean towing and positioning of offshore structures, and standby and response in the Gulf of Mexico during Loop Current features and hurricane contingency planning."
Crowley's ocean class tugs are modern ocean towing twin-screw vessels with controllable pitch propellers (CPP) in nozzles, high-lift rudders and more than 147 MT bollard pull. The first two ocean class vessels, the Ocean Wave and Ocean Wind, are classed as Dynamic Positioning 1 (DP1) tugboats and are twin-screw tugs with an overall length of 146 ft., beam of 46 ft., hull depth of 25 ft. and design draft of 21 ft. The second two tugs of the class, Ocean Sky and Ocean Sun, are classed as DP2 and are 10 feet longer. All four vessels are capable of rig moves, platform and Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit tows, emergency response, salvage support and firefighting.
Crowley's solutions group encompasses ocean towing along with several of the company's other essential business functions – project management for the energy and resource extraction industries; marine salvage, wreck removal and emergency response; heavy lift barge transportation; commercial ship management; marine engineering, naval architecture and construction management; remote fuel management; project concept study development and government services. With main offices, equipment depots and vessel homeports in Jacksonville, Fla.; Houston, Texas; Seattle, Wash.; and New Orleans and Lake Charles, La.; supplemented by those the company has internationally, Crowley is positioned to respond to variety of maritime projects around the globe quickly, efficiently and most importantly – safely. To learn more about Crowley's solutions group, please visit: www.crowley.com/solutions.
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Since my first trip to Egypt in 1974 I think I have been to the Middle East more than two-dozen times. It is a long journey from California, but for me always well-worth it. Last fall we postponed a scheduled tour of Israel and Jordan to March of this year when a new Arab Intifada against Israel began. After a great deal of hard work, our faithful travel agent, Dawn McDaniel, finally put together a magnificent trip (see email@example.com/tour). Now that I have been home a couple of weeks I can honesty say that this was the best ever of all the tours I have taken to Israel. The group Dawn, Glenn Miller (http://www.christian-thinktank.com/) and I took to Israel this month has been an unforgettable life-changing time.
Our tour guide, Gameel, like most licensed guides in Israel, is fluent in at least four languages and wonderfully knowledgeable. Both Gameel and our congenial driver, Abu Yousef, are Muslims. Gameel went out of his way to be fair and balanced with respect to our beliefs. He warmed up to us in a wonderful way during our time together. In fact, he took the trouble of meeting us at the Tel Aviv airport to give us hugs and fond farewells when we left for home--well beyond his obligations to take good care of us. Those of us who went to Jordan for three days were hosted there by Firas, a fine young Jordanian Christian guide.
From the time a tourist finds his seat on the tour bus in Israel, the guide begins a long and always informative presentation of the history and significance of every mile of the journey. Israel is a small country and in any given day one jumps constantly back and forth through Old and New Testament Biblical events, one learns about the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders. Four thousand years of history are made to seem so real one would think it all happened yesterday.
I made a list of the stops along the way where Glenn and I took turns to read whole chapters of the Bible. I was amazed that there were 50 such separate "Bible stops" where we read to the group at the very locations where events in the Bible had taken place. In spite of very full days, Glenn found two evenings to give special presentations on the "Four-hundred Silent Years"(the history of Israel between Malachi and Matthew); and a seminar on the ancient history, culture and customs of Israel's Old Testament neighbors.
One of the great, lasting effects of visiting Israel is that any ideas one has that the Bible is myth or legend--and not history--are quickly dispelled. Secondly, every time one reads the Bible, he can immediately remember, based on his Israel tour, the setting of events recorded in Scripture.
Anyone who is at all aware of the bias and grievous distortions in US media reporting of events in Israel knows that the only way to know what is really going on in the Middle East is to read news originating in the region, and to go over there and see for oneself. Our group was wonderfully surprised during our two week trip to Israel and Jordan. The weather was perfect, we had no safety problems or travel delays, and probably the best possible trip one could imagine. A year ago Israel expected to receive a record number of visitors, but the reality since last fall's renewal of intensified violence has been an 80% drop in tourism. This meant we had the entire country virtually to ourselves. Seldom was there even one other bus at many of the popular sites, whereas in a "normal" year the volume of traffic most everywhere greatly detracts from the quality of a visit. Nevertheless we were constantly reminded of the serious loss of needed tourism revenue for Jew and Arab alike.
Many of the "Palestinian" peoples who live in Gaza or Samaria or Hebron or Bethlehem can not travel into Israel proper during times of civil violence--and these thousands of people depend on regular income from their jobs in Israel proper. Thus the current Intifada has cost billions in lost income for many Arabs. Promised foreign aid from the major Arab states usually does not reach the people who need it most, or never shows up at all.
The political situation in the Middle East defies any simplistic analysis. Many of the social and cultural conflicts date back 4000 years to the time of Abraham. Israel is mostly a secular state, with an Orthodox Jewish minority of perhaps 10-20%. But the Jews who constitute what the Bible would call the "believing remnant" surely number under 1% of the Jewish population. There are a number of Arabs in Israel who call themselves "Christians" by virtue of family background and tradition, but most of these know nothing of spiritual regeneration and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord. Muslim Arabs are vocal and evident everywhere, but for these people also their faith is often a matter of tradition and is not necessarily a studied and settled religious world view by any means.
What this means is that the Middle East is populated by three monotheistic religious groups, only a tiny few of whom have a real relationship with the living God. As far as God is concerned the region is populated not by "righteous" persons, but by the "unrighteous." If one were to ask the question "Whose Side is God on in the Middle East" one answer could be that God is always on the side of the righteous. However, Paul in Romans dispels any false ideas we might have that people can somehow be righteous in God's sight apart from the imputed righteous God credits to the accounts of the true children of Abraham--those who place their faith and trust in Jesus. In the Middle East only a handful publicly acknowledge such personal faith in Jesus. But there are many "God fearing" Jews and Muslims who may well be secret believers. Or when push comes to shove, there are no doubt many dear people in the Middle East who will call out to Jesus and find His salvation. Therefore God is greatly restraining evil and violence in the Middle East day by day, and His grace and mercy are still extended to all peoples, "Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance."
Evangelicals, feeling a special kinship for the Jews, often show biased sympathy for the physical descendants of Abraham, forgetting, perhaps, that Jesus has died for the sins of all mankind. God is not willing that any should perish and so His love should be extended to everyone regardless of their outward cultural group identity. This direct approach--caring for the individual--was the approach Jesus used in the gospels and it is certainly appropriate now when Christians meet the residents of the Land.
For the Jews, their God-given historic responsibility and assignment places them in an especially serious position of grave accountability to the true and living God of Abraham. When Moses brought the people of Israel out of the wilderness and into the promised land, he reminded them that the land had been given to their forefather Abraham unconditionally, but their right to live in the land was conditional on their godly, righteous behavior. (See Deuteronomy 28-30). Twice before the Jews have been expelled for their bad behavior--once at the time of the Babylonian Captivity, and again in the First Century AD for their rejection of Yeshua as rightful king in the line of David. Beginning in the late 1800's God began to allow Jews back into the land, and as Ezekiel foretold, they would come back in a state of unbelief. Their regathering is clearly described in Ezekiel Chapters 36-37, Romans 9-11, and Zechariah 12-14--just to pick three out of many Bible passages that are especially relevant to the days in which we now live.
There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that the Jews will be placed on probation a third time, and removed from the land again. This time God will save them in spite of themselves--by grace and mercy alone, apart from works, exactly the same way He saves us gentile believers. That is, we do know from the Bible that God will again choose the Jews--they will win the wars, their capital will be united Jerusalem, their nation will be the chief of the nations when Messiah returns. But they have yet to be judged for their many centuries of unbelief and the terrible blood-guilt Jesus charged them with when they turned Him over to the Romans for execution:
"Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'" And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You? But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!" Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! "What do you think?" They answered and said, "He is deserving of death." Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?"
When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor...Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" So Jesus said to him, "It is as you say." And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? "For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him." But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They said, "Barabbas!" Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said to him, "Let Him be crucified!" Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has He done? "But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!" When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." And all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children." Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified. (Matthew 26-27)
Jesus had predicted this very series of events earlier in that Passover Week. At His last public appearance He said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? "Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"(Matthew Chapters 23:27-39)
Several of us while on our recent Middle Eastern pilgrimage commented to one another that a terrible war in the Middle East is not only inevitable, it may well happen very soon. In one sense Israel has been "at war" since her declaration of statehood in 1948, though there has been no large scale fighting for a couple of decades now. The deep-seated family feuds between Jews and Arabs are only one causal factor in the regional conflict. Extreme elements in Islam insist on the total eradication of all the Jews once for all. Indeed Islam insists upon the final subjection of the entire world to the rule of the false God, Allah.
At this time in world history the entire Bible speaks with new light and clarity, with greater-than-ever relevance, for Israel, for her neighbors, and for the rest of the world. Now more than ever Christians need a sound Biblical world view and a thorough informed understanding of all of Scripture. Instead the church in America is weak, compromised, lukewarm and worldly. If one looks for help on the Internet one finds in general a sea of confusion and deception. But so we were warned by our Lord in His great teaching the week He was betrayed when He spoke to His disciples from the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24ff).
What can Christians do about the Middle East? I often mention to my Bible classes and to my friends about my concerns for the prevailing Biblical illiteracy and spiritual superficiality of our time. Many Christians have little understanding of God's program for world peace which actually does center on Jerusalem and Israel. Ordinary evangelism does not work well in the Middle East. But there are wide open doors for Christians to share Jesus Christ one-on-one with taxi drivers, hotel staff members, shop owners and people on the street. The topic of Jesus is a perfectly acceptable subject to bring up in many casual conversations in the Middle East. English is widely spoken and most all Jews and Arabs who live in the land are open and friendly and glad to get acquainted with Americans. Instead, tour agencies do their best to insulate American Christians from having any real influence on the people of the Land! Surely any Christian who makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land should make it a high priority to be used by God in the lives of the dear people who live there, especially since only the message of Jesus Christ can make any real difference. I do not understand how thousands of Christians who visit Israel annually can continue to be so utterly indifferent to the lostness of the people of the Land, most of whom welcome genuine Christian friendships and sensitive dialog.
A Prayer Request: In my opinion two weeks in Israel on a well-planned Bible study tour has more life-changing value than four years at most any college or university. As I see it, every serious Christian high school or college student should take at least one trip to Israel as an important facet of his or her "normal Christian discipleship." Yet most students can not afford the $2000-3000 cost of such a trip. Millions of older Christians, settled in their ways and their life styles, can afford to go, and sometimes do so more than once, but it is younger Christian men and women who could benefit the most from a Study Trip to the Middle East. In reality only a few of tomorrow's Christian leaders ever get an opportunity to visit the Holy Land. It is, I believe, a sad commentary on the budget priorities of most American churches that a million dollar church youth facility for "recreational use" a few hours a week is easy to fund but probably will make only a minimal contribution to the long-term spiritual maturation of the users. By all means build buildings, but a million dollars in scholarship funds would easily send 400 students to Israel for the spiritual experience of a life time. I don't know how to change the status quo except through prayer. Please join me in prayer if you agree with me on this issue--to the end that our Lord might make a way for our finest younger generation men and women to experience Israel in their formative years.
Of Israel's future the Apostle Paul writes:
"I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."(Romans 11:11-27)
"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done"by Ron Graff and Lambert Dolphin. On line book on Bible prophecy (http://ldolphin.org/kingdom).
"Who Own Jerusalem?"(http://www.ldolphin.org/psalm2.html)
"Israel's Birth Pangs"(http://www.ldolphin.org/odino.html)
"Understanding Muslims"(http://www.ldolphin.org/islamprimer.html)
"Israel the Church and the United States Compared and Contrasted"(http://www.ldolphin.org/IsChUS.html)
"There's A War On, Folks--The Coming Tribulation,"(http://www.ldolphin.org/war-on.html)
"Bible Prophecy Messages" by Ray C. Stedman (http://www.ldolphin.org/rayprophecy.html)
Lambert Dolphin, March 29, 2001.
My Newsletters are on my web site at http://ldolphin.org/news/


text: Life Is Tough But So Are You Printable Art. I love seeing this reminder hanging in a house. Every single one of us goes through pain, heart ache, and sadness and you feel like you can't go on or you're not strong enough to get passed it, but you are. You are strong and your are tough!


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Book Details
Liber chronicarum.
|[Nuremberg] : Hunc librum dominus Anthonius Koberger Nuremberge impressit ... consummatu[m] autem duodecima mensis Iulij anno salutis n[ost]r[a]e 1493 [12 July 1493]
|This is a rare chance to adopt a landmark work in the history of books and printing. The Nuremberg Chronicle is part of the library's collection of incunables, or books printed in the infancy of printing, prior to 1501. This particular book is a history of the world and was one of the most illustrated and ambitious printing projects of its time. Our copy was trimmed and rebound in the nineteenth century, and the endpapers are not original.
|The front free endpaper is detached and the front cover is beginning to come away from the rest of the book. The front free endpaper will be reattached and the front hinge will be reinforced. Preventative repairs will be made to the text block.
|Donation Needed:


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Hoax Leads To Lockdown (Updated) – May 27, 2010
Arcata Police Department press release
On May 27 at about 9:30 a.m., the Arcata Police Department received a report that an unknown male subject had telephoned a suicide hotline from within the Mad River Community Hospital building. The male subject told the suicide hotline staff that he was armed with a gun and was going to kill himself or someone else.
Officers from the Arcata Police Department immediately responded to the hospital, where they met with MRCH staff who had further information including a possible subject description. The hospital had conducted a lockdown of their facility. The Arcata Police Department contacted both Pacific Union School and the United Indian Health Services Potawot Health Village, both in close proximity to the hospital. Each facility conducted a lockdown as well.
With the assistance of the hospital staff, a room by room search was conducted of the entire hospital property. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department assisted. After an extensive search, the subject was not located and the hospital lockdown was cancelled. The lockdowns at Pacific Union School and the United Indian Health Services were also cancelled.
While the search was conducted at the hospital, Arcata Police Department detectives developed additional leads as to the identity and whereabouts of the subject. The subject was located in McKinleyville. The subject matched the description provided by the hospital and he admitted to making the threatening statements. The subject was evaluated and determined to be a danger to himself and others. He was detained on a Welfare and Institutes Code 5150 hold (mental health evaluation) and subsequently transported to Semper Virens in Eureka.
Mad River Community Hospital press release
A hoax seems to be the reason for a lockdown today at Mad River Community Hospital (MRCH) and subsequent search by the Arcata Police Department (APD) and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office (HCSO).
A phone call was made early this morning from a courtesy phone at the hospital to a suicide prevention hotline that in turn alerted the hospital switchboard operator to the possibility of an individual in the hospital who was considering suicide.
The hospital immediately followed its protocol to lock down the patient care areas and to contact the APD and the HCSO who responded within a few minutes and immediately conducted a search of the hospital buildings and its grounds. Patients and staff were kept from harm's way at all times.
APD eventually located and detained the subject who made the phone call from the hospital. As a standard procedure the Pacific Union School which is adjacent to the hospital was notified that a lockdown was in process.
"We thank everyone – patients, visitors, law enforcement officers, hospital staff and physicians for their understanding and cooperation in the smooth conduct of the lockdown and search," said Douglas Shaw, chief executive officer. "We are pleased at the quick response and that no one was threatened or in danger at any time."


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HENCH'S HARDBALL: Opinions expressed in Hardball are not necessarily those of Boston Dirt Dogs, Big Dog, or our sponsors:
Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2001
They both have a pathological inability to accept blame. They both make
themselves look worse every time they are interviewed. And members of their
staffs have a nasty habit of vanishing without a trace. But Craig Grebeck's
mysterious disappearance aside, I really don't think it's fair to compare Dan
Duquette to Gary Condit. Not fair, that is, to the congressman. After all,
Mr. Condit was elected. No, Dan, you are no Gary Condit. You see, at least
people in his district - and several paramours, apparently - used to like
him. I'm not sure anyone ever liked Duquette. The best he could hope for
was people agreeing with him, which we did, if only occasionally. Dan
Duquette has got to be one of the least likeable figures in the history of
New England sports.


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Inverse Square Law, General
Any point source which spreads its influence equally in all directions without a limit to its range will obey the inverse square law. This comes from strictly geometrical considerations. The intensity of the influence at any given radius r is the source strength divided by the area of the sphere. Being strictly geometric in its origin, the inverse square law applies to diverse phenomena. Point sources of gravitational force, electric field, light, sound or radiation obey the inverse square law. It is a subject of continuing debate with a source such as a skunk on top of a flag pole; will its smell drop off according to the inverse square law?
Applications of the inverse square law:
|Go Back
Inverse Square Law, Gravity
As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, the gravity field can be put in the form shown below, showing that the acceleration of gravity, g, is an expression of the intensity of the gravity field.
Gravity concepts
|Go Back
Inverse Square Law, Electric
As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, the electric field of a point charge can be put in the form shown below where point charge Q is the source of the field. The electric force in Coulomb's law follows the inverse square law.
Gravity concepts
|Go Back
Inverse Square Law, Radiation
As one of the fields which obey the general inverse square law, a point radiation source can be characterized by the relationship below whether you are talking about Roentgens , rads, or rems . All measures of exposure will drop off by inverse square law.
The source is described by a general "source strength" S because there are many ways to characterize a radiation source - by grams of a radioactive isotope, source strength in Curies, etc. For any such description of the source, if you have determined the amount of radiation per unit area reaching 1 meter, then it will be one fourth as much at 2 meters.
Gravity concepts
|Go Back


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Jesse Douglas
Quick Info
New York, USA
New York, USA
BiographyJesse Douglas's parents were Louis Douglas and Sarah Kommel. Jesse developed a love for mathematics while he was studying at high school in New York. After graduation from high school, he entered the City College of New York and won the Belden Medal for excellence in mathematics in his first year at the College. In winning this medal, he became the youngest person ever to receive it. After an outstanding undergraduate career he graduated with honours in mathematics in 1916 and entered Columbia University.
Perhaps it is worth at this stage explaining the difference between Columbia University and Columbia College. In 1754 King's College was founded in New York but following the American War of Independence, this name was regarded as inappropriate and the College was renamed Columbia College. In 1912 Columbia College became Columbia University but the university retained the name Columbia College for the undergraduate liberal arts school for men. It was therefore Columbia University that Douglas entered in 1916 to undertake research under the supervision of Edward Kasner. He took part in Kasner's seminar on differential geometry and it was there that Douglas developed a love of geometry. Also at the seminar he first met the Plateau Problem for which he would become famous. He submitted his doctoral thesis On Certain Two-Point Properties of General Families of Curves; The Geometry of Variations in 1920. In the following year he published the main results of his doctoral thesis in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society.
Douglas continued to undertake research in differential geometry while teaching at Columbia College from 1920 to 1926. His publications from this period are Normal congruences and quadruply infinite systems of curves in space (1924), and A criterion for the conformal equivalence of a Riemann space to a Euclidean space (1925). Then he was awarded a National Research Fellowship and, from 1926 to 1930, he visited Princeton (1926-27), Harvard (1927), Chicago (1928), Paris (1928-30), and Göttingen (1930). It was during this period that he worked out a complete solution to the Plateau problem which had been posed by Lagrange in 1760 and then had been studied by leading mathematicians such as Riemann, Weierstrass and Schwarz. The problem is to prove the existence of a surface of minimal area bounded by a given contour. Before Douglas's solution only special cases of the problem had been solved. In a series of papers from 1927 onwards Douglas worked towards the complete solution: Extremals and transversality of the general calculus of variations problem of the first order in space (1927), The general geometry of paths (1927-28), and A method of numerical solution of the problem of Plateau (1927-28). Douglas presented full details of his solution in Solution of the problem of Plateau in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society in 1931. For this fine achievement he was awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Oslo in 1936.
In 1930 Douglas was appointed as an assistant professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was promoted to associate professor in 1934 and spent the year 1934-35 as a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1937, spending another year as a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1938-39. He received Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships in 1940 and 1941, then was appointed to Brooklyn College and from 1942 to 1954 he taught there and at Columbia University. Douglas married Jessie Nayler on 30 June 1940; they had one son Lewis Philip Douglas.
After giving a complete solution to the Plateau Problem, Douglas went on to study generalisations of it. He published One-sided minimal surfaces with a given boundary (1932) and A Jordan space curve no arc of which can form part of a contour which bounds a finite area (1934). In 1943 Douglas was awarded the Bôcher Prize by the American Mathematical Society for his memoirs on the Plateau Problem. In particular the award was for three papers all published in 1939: Green's function and the problem of Plateau and The most general form of the problem of Plateau published in the American Journal of Mathematics and Solution of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the first of these Douglas looked at the following form of the problem: Given an aggregate of non-intersecting Jordan curves in -space, to find a minimal surface bounded by and having a prescribed genus and a prescribed orientability character (one-sided or two-sided). In the second paper the following problem is studied by Douglas: Given a Riemann surface (or semi-surface) with boundary , and given in -space a topological image of , to prove the existence of a minimal surface topologically equivalent to and bounded by . The third paper does not give the compete proof for the solution of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations but is an announcement of the result.
These three papers were, amazingly, not the only ones which Douglas published in 1939. He also published The analytic prolongation of a minimal surface across a straight line which gives a generalisation of some earlier results on minimal surfaces with a simpler proof, The higher topological form of Plateau's problem which compares the methods which Douglas used in the first two of his papers which won the Bôcher Prize, and Minimal surfaces of higher topological structure. Another five papers by Douglas appeared in 1940: Theorems in the inverse problem of the calculus of variations; Geometry of polygons in the complex plane; On linear polygon transformations; A converse theorem concerning the diametral locus of an algebraic curve and A new special form of the linear element of a surface. The second and third of these papers generalise the following elementary geometrical theorem: If on each side of any triangle as base an isosceles triangle with 120° as vertex-angle is constructed (always outward or always inward), then the vertices of these isosceles triangles form an equilateral triangle.
In 1942 Douglas published a non-technical survey of the theory of integration. His starting point was the quadrature of a circle and of a segment of a parabola by Archimedes. He then gave the definitions of the Riemann, Riemann-Stieltjes and Lebesgue integrals, and presented their properties. In the 47 page text, Douglas also mentions Fourier series and transforms, Denjoy integrals and the double integrals of Riemann and of Lebesgue. Douglas also worked group theory and, in 1951, studied groups with 2 generators such that every element can be expressed in the form , where are integers. He published a number of papers on this topic entitled On finite groups with two independent generators. He also presented a series of papers On the basis theorem for finite abelian groups.
His wife, Jessie Douglas died in 1955, the year in which Douglas was appointed professor of mathematics at the City College of New York. He remained in that post for the final ten years of his life, living in Butler Hall, 88 Morningside Drive in New York.
References (show)
- N Schaumberger, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990). See THIS LINK.
- Biography of Douglas, National Academy of Science (1972).
- T M Rassias (ed.), The Problem of Plateau - A tribute to Jesse Douglas and Tibor Radó (Singapore, 1992).
- J Gonzalo Pérez, Jesse Douglas and the Plateau problem (Spanish), Gac. R. Soc. Mat. Esp. 8 (2) (2005), 453-469.
- E Siegel, Vague recollections of a young CCNY poor-in-mathematics undergraduate student of Jesse Douglas, an old famous mathematics professor, in The problem of Plateau (World Sci. Publishing, River Edge, NJ, 1992), 35-36.
- F Steinhardt, Jesse Douglas as teacher and colleague, in The problem of Plateau (World Sci. Publishing, River Edge, NJ, 1992), 37-40.
- D J Struik, My recollections of Jesse Douglas, in The problem of Plateau (World Sci. Publishing, River Edge, NJ, 1992), 41-42.
- H S Tropp, Jesse Douglas, the Plateau problem, and the Fields Medal: some personal reflections, in The problem of Plateau (World Sci. Publishing, River Edge, NJ, 1992), 43-49.
Additional Resources (show)
Other websites about Jesse Douglas:
Honours (show)
Honours awarded to Jesse Douglas
Cross-references (show)
Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update August 2006
Last Update August 2006


text:
When today's developers, architects, property managers, and homeowners need an experienced water feature expert, the company most frequently relied upon for the job is the Award Winning Tranquil Waterscapes Inc. As South Florida's most experienced water feature firm, we are relied upon to Design, Construct, Maintain, and Enhance some of the most exquisite settings in Florida, with our unparalleled knowledge and technical abilities, customer service, and the relentless desire to surpass our client's expectations we routinely transform the everyday into a one of a kind Tranquil environment. So whether it's the soft, soothing melodious sounds of a waterfall, a quite retreat from all of life's bustle, or that exquisite Koi Pond that makes all who experience it stare in awe. We welcome you to experience the Tranquil difference.
"Bringing Water to Life"™


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Easter Breakfast Popsicles
- 500g Greek yogurt
- 1/2 Juice PLUS+ Complete Bar Chocolate
- Handful of blueberries
- 6 Strawberries
- 1 kiwi
Divide the yoghurt into three bowls.
Wash, clean, and peel the fruit.
Add the fruit to the yoghurt and mix.
Fill the silicone molds (motif of your own choice) with about 1/3 yoghurt.
Crumble the complete Bar Chocolate and sprinkle on top of the yoghurt.
Fill the rest of the molds with yoghurt.
Place the popsicle sticks into the yoghurt.
Freeze for at least 2 hours.
Remove from the mold and eat immediately.
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This A4 flat document case, made in genuine leather, has a simple design yet emanates of elegance. This document holder with 1 compartment can hold several A4 sized papers or folders at a time. The leather portfolio is your ideal companion for your 'light' meetings where you need not carry bulky papers. Soft by design, it is held by hand or under the arms. Your documents will remain secure during your travels thanks to zipped closure.
Size: 14.2 inches x 9.8 inches


text:
looking for a magician in Viseu?
Break up with the ordinary and surprise your guests with a fun and engaging magic show. A range of performance options are available for your grand event. Artur Santos speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish. Spread the magic and make unique moments later to remember.Know more
Contact us for rates & availability
Porto, PortugalSend us an e-mail


text: Secunia, the company specializing in software vulnerability management, has been acquired by software asset management company Flexera Software.The pairing of Flexera's asset discovery and management tools with Secunia's software vulnerability platform will give organizations the ability to thoroughly assess the security of applications discovered on the network, said Mark Bishof, Flexera Software's CEO.Flexera's tools, which includes FlexNet Manager Suite and AdminStudio Suite, currently help discover all the hardware and software assets within the organization, how the licenses are used, and how to optimize software use. With the Secunia addition, organizations will be able to scrutinize the discovered applications to uncover unpatched vulnerabilities. This will give IT teams the information they need to update to the latest patch or to create a workaround to temporarily mitigate the issue until a patch is available.IT asset management and security teams typically work in separate silos. Asset discovery and inventory is generally handled by asset management teams, even though including the security teams during the discovery phase would help identify vulnerabilities and risks a lot sooner. Combining Flexera and Secunia's offerings connects the dots between these two offerings and gives organizations a centralized repository and "a single source of truth" about the assets currently owned by the organization, Bishof said.The acquisition will let enterprises "proactively address cyber security threats as a core part of their processes for managing application usage," said Peter Colsted, Secunia's CEO.Secunia's portfolio of vulnerability management software includes Vulnerability Intelligence Manager and Corporate Software Inspector. IT teams and developers get access to comprehensive vulnerability intelligence from Secunia Research, which they can then use to manage patch creation and deployment. Secunia's reach will expand with this acquisition as it will be become a part of the organization's asset discovery lifecycle.Customers frequently ask about the security of an application recently discovered on the network. Adding Secunia will now make it possible to answer these questions and take active steps to minimize the risks, Bishof said.An abundant variety of insecure applications makes this kind of assessment critical. Secunia recently released its Vulnerability Update, a quarterly audit of vulnerabilities in enterprise products, for the period between May and July of this year. The report found that organizations tend to focus on operating system updates and patches to big-name software, but bugs in less popular software pose an equal threat. For example, 206 vulnerabilities were uncovered for Avant Browser in the latest report. IBM had the greatest number of vulnerabilities, with researchers finding 500-plus bugs in more than a dozen of the company's products during the surveyed period.A typical security breach resulting in loss of data can cost an organization between $2.5 million to $5 million to investigate and correct -- and soar to hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of infrastructure damage, loss of productivity, reputation damage, and regulatory fines. In buying Secunia and adding software vulnerability management to its portfolio, Flexera is hoping to reduce that risk.Correction: This story as originally posted misinformation misstated the name of Flexera's product. The article has been amended.


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From October 7 to November 1, 2013, the exhibition "Betty Gold: Edge, Color, Movement" will be on view at Mary Baldwin's Hunt Gallery. Gold's creative works include a diverse range of media. Organized by the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University in New York, "Edge, Color, Movement" features a selection of her geometric serigraphs (silkscreen prints). These works are from three portfolios produced in California in the early 1970s "Arrows," "Holistic Images," and "Surprise Packages." Gold's artwork is defined by brilliant color and strong directional shapes. The serigraphs featured in this exhibition accentuate the bold, graphic style that Gold is known for, and they reflect her interest in form, motion, and space.
Gold is primarily known for her large-scale steel sculptures that grace public and private spaces all over the world. Mary Baldwin University is proud to have three of them on its beautiful campus. The most recent one to become part of the college's collection is a gracious gift from Gold to the school: a four-part Corten steel sculpture entitled "Chodo IX" that will be installed in mid-September near the entrance to Francis Auditorium on the college campus.
Gold's large outdoor steel sculptures are angular and sharp without sacrificing a sense of movement and liveliness. With surfaces finished in rich mono-chromed color or left raw to rust to a velvety patina, the bold simplicity of her geometric work is beautifully suited for display in open public spaces. Gold's sculptures are featured at sculpture parks, university campuses, and city centers such as Baylor University, TX; City de Bratislava, Slovakia; City of Palo Alto, CA; Duke University Medical Center, NC; Fitzgerald's Park, Ireland; Hartwood Acre Park, PA; Northern Illinois University, IL; Purdue University, IN; The Ronald Reagan California State Building, CA; Virginia Commonwealth University, VA; and the Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, South Korea.
With her home and studio in Venice, CA, Gold has traveled extensively, studying and lecturing around the world. Her work has been collected and widely exhibited at museums and galleries across the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. Gold was born in 1935 in Austin, TX, and attended the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating with a major in elementary education and a minor in art history, she apprenticed with sculptor Octavio Medillan in Dallas, TX. Medillan (1907–1999) was a renowned sculptor, educator, and founder of the Medellin School of Sculpture in Mendocino, CA, where he taught students in a variety of sculptural media.
Gold was honored with a major retrospective exhibition in 2005 at the Casal Solleric Museum in Palma, Spain. "Betty Gold — 35 Years of Sculpture" filled ten rooms of the historic castle. Other artists presented at the Casal Solleric Museum include Columbian artist Fernando Botero (b. 1932) and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo de Rivera (1907–1954). Recent international exhibitions were mounted at the United States Embassy Invitational in Merida, Mexico; the Biennale in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and three exhibitions in California at the University of California Art Museum, Santa Barbara, The Buschlenmowatt Gallery, Palm Desert, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Major museums housing her work include the Albuquerque Museum of Art, NM; Art Museum of South Texas, TX; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; Civica Galleria d' Arte Moderna, Gallarate, Italy; Georgia Museum of Art, AL; Hawaii State Foundation of the Arts, Hawaii; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina, Madrid, Spain; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; New York University, NY; the Oakland Museum, CA; and, the Palm Springs Desert Museum, CA.
A reception will be held for the artist from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on October 7 in Hunt Gallery. The public is invited to attend. Hunt Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary work in all media by regionally and nationally recognized artists. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday during the college's academic year. Hunt Gallery's schedule for the 2013–2014 academic year can be found online.
Betty Gold will also give a special artist's talk about her life and work at 7:30 p.m. on October 8 in Francis Auditorium on the Mary Baldwin University campus. The public is invited to attend.


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text:
Allimadi, Arinde and White
[Community Announcement]
1. BEPAA MASTER CLASS, Sunday April 13, 2014 at 3PM at John Henrik Clarke House, Dr. Joseph Mack Speaks on The African Development of Astronomy.
Is Your God Too Small? Dr. Mack is a physicist, attorney, Biblical Scholar and he is also the man who published Amos Wilson's first book, The Developmental Psychology of The Black Child. Journalists Bernard White and Milton Allimadi will serve as brief respondents at this program then return later in the week with a program of their own. John Henrik Clarke House is located at 286 Convent Avenue, Harlem NY. Admission is free.
2. On Friday April 18, 2014 at 6:30 PM Black Journalists Bernard White, Nayaba Arinde and Milton Allimadi speak out in a forum entitled: "Black Media Up Against The Wall, Can We Unite" The program is held at John Henrik Clarke House and is sponsored by "Alliance for Progressive Media." Admission is Free Call 347-907-0629 for further information.
3. Jeff King and Craig Harris, headline the program at For My Sweet on Monday April 14, 2014. Admission is $10 at the door. SETS AT 7 PM AND 9 PM. For My Sweet is located at 1103 Fulton Street between Classon and Claver.
4. Saturday, April 12th drummer Winard Harper is at Sistas' Place as part of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival. Sets are 9 & 10:30 and just $20 if you call to make your reservation in advance (718) 398-1766. Sistas' Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue, corner Jefferson, where culture is a weapon.


text:
To be sure, test scores can go up or down for many reasons. But to many education experts, something is not adding up — here and across the country. In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning.In 2008 Dick Nelson and Dan Sarewitz had a commentary in Nature (here in PDF) that eloquently summarized why it is that we should not expect technology in the classroom to reault in better educational outcomes as they suggest we should in the case of a tehcnology like vaccines.
They introduce three rules for technological fixes as follows:
The three rules for a technological fix proposed by Sarewitz and Nelson are:
Although vaccinating children and teaching them to read may seem so different as\ to make them incommensurable, they are similar in several important respects. Both are carried out by trained professionals in a\ controlled environment using the standard tools of their respective trades. Notably, each has been, and continues to be, the subject of considerable research. But the reasons why progress has been so uneven point to three simple rules for anticipating when more research and development (R&D) could help to yield rapid social progress. In a world of limited resources, the trick is distinguishing problems amenable to technological fixes from those that are not. Our rules provide guidance\ in making this distinction . . .
Both vaccinating and teaching involve skilfully produced artefacts. But unlike vaccines, the textbooks and software used in education do not embody the essence of what needs to be done. That is, they don't provide the basic 'go' of teaching and learning. That depends on the skills of teachers and on the attributes of classrooms and students. Most importantly, the effectiveness of a vaccine is largely independent of who gives or receives it, and of the setting in which it is given. A health-care practitioner (unlike a teacher) doesn't usually have to figure out what will work on a case-by- case basis — no matter if the child is rich or poor, if he or she speaks English or Mandarin. The vaccine captures the basic go in a technological artefact, distinguishing it from the teaching of reading.
I. The technology must largely embody the cause–effect relationship connecting problem to solution.Obviously technology in the classroom fails with respect to each of the three criteria: (a) technology is not a causal factor in learning in the sense that more technology means more learning, (b) assessment of educational outcome sis itself difficult and contested, much less disentangling various causal factors, and (c) the lack of evidence that technology leads to improved educational outcomes means that there is no such standardized technological core.
II. The effects of the technological fix must be assessable using relatively unambiguous or uncontroversial criteria.
III. Research and development is most likely to contribute decisively to solving a social problem when it focuses on improving a standardized technical core that already exists.
The NY Times reports:
This conundrum calls into question one of the most significant contemporary educational movements. Advocates for giving schools a major technological upgrade — which include powerful educators, Silicon Valley titans and White House appointees — say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets.In this case, the evidence would seem to show fairly conclusively that the critics are right. Yet, despite the lack of evidence for the efficacy of technology in the classroom, the lack of data has not been an obstacle to developing a long-term love affair with the promise of technology.
Some backers of this idea say standardized tests, the most widely used measure of student performance, don't capture the breadth of skills that computers can help develop. But they also concede that for now there is no better way to gauge the educational value of expensive technology investments.
"The data is pretty weak. It's very difficult when we're pressed to come up with convincing data," said Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an investor in educational technology companies. When it comes to showing results, he said, "We better put up or shut up."
And yet, in virtually the same breath, he said change of a historic magnitude is inevitably coming to classrooms this decade: "It's one of the three or four biggest things happening in the world today."
Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals. They say the technology advocates have it backward when they press to upgrade first and ask questions later.
In 1997, a science and technology committee assembled by President Clinton issued an urgent call about the need to equip schools with technology.A 2010 review by the US Department of Education (here in PDF) found very few systematic studies of the role of technology in K-12 education. WHat this means is that the advocates of technology in the classroom as a means of improving educational outcomes are basing their advocacy on little more than faith -- faith that technology will make outcomes better, despite a lack of evidence to support that faith.
If such spending was not increased by billions of dollars, American competitiveness could suffer, according to the committee, whose members included educators like Charles M. Vest, then president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and business executives like John A. Young, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.
To support its conclusion, the committee's report cited the successes of individual schools that embraced computers and saw test scores rise or dropout rates fall. But while acknowledging that the research on technology's impact was inadequate, the committee urged schools to adopt it anyhow.
The report's final sentence read: "The panel does not, however, recommend that the deployment of technology within America's schools be deferred pending the completion of such research."
This sort of faith-based education will have consequences, consider this vignette from the Arizona school at the center of the NYT story:
"We have Smart Boards in every classroom but not enough money to buy copy paper, pencils and hand sanitizer," said Nicole Cates, a co-president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Kyrene de la Colina, an elementary school . . .The love affair with technology reflects a deeper problem in education, hinted at in this week's Economist:
But she loves the fact that her two children, a fourth-grader and first-grader, are learning technology, including PowerPoint and educational games.
So by all means lets have more technology in our education system -- such as technologies of operating machine tools, agricultural equipment, power systems and even food old-fashioned shop class.
Several economists, including Paul Krugman, have begun to argue that post-industrial societies will be characterised not by a relentless rise in demand for the educated but by a great "hollowing out", as mid-level jobs are destroyed by smart machines and high-level job growth slows. David Autor, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), points out that the main effect of automation in the computer era is not that it destroys blue-collar jobs but that it destroys any job that can be reduced to a routine. Alan Blinder, of Princeton University, argues that the jobs graduates have traditionally performed are if anything more "offshorable" than low-wage ones. A plumber or lorry-driver's job cannot be outsourced to India.


text:
Item #: SCP-353
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Biological hazard protocol [REDACTED] is to be maintained at all times (Biohazard Threat Level 4). Full hazardous materials suits, gloves, and oxygen supply will be required to examine subject. A disinfectant shower and decontamination spray are standard procedure before and after contact with SCP-353. The whole containment unit is to be kept underground, at negative pressure, and hermetically sealed at all times to prevent accidental contamination to the outside area. In the case of containment breach, all affected personnel are to be placed in immediate Biohazard Level 4 Quarantine. Termination will be required in the possibility of an outbreak of one or more Class 9 infectious agents.
Subject should be fed three times a day, as standard, and provided with the minimum required comfort items: a twin size bed, a pillow, and a blanket. Clothing in the form of disposable surgical scrubs are to be provided as needed, but requests for items should otherwise be denied. Any outward signs of disease in the subject, such as rashes, boils, vomiting, or sickly pallor or demeanor, should be reported with haste. Since the appearance of symptoms in SCP-353 means a willful effort on her part, subject is to be subdued and questioned.
Should SCP-353 need to leave its containment facility for any reason, it is to be fitted with explosive collar, time release drug delivery device (for dosages of euphoric substances), and biohazard containment suit. Should SCP-353's suit breach containment, emergency sterilization procedures up to and including incineration of the affected area are to be carried out.
Description: SCP-353 appears to be a normal human female, twenty-six years old, of average physical capacity and average intelligence. Subject has the capacity to siphon infectious viral and bacterial agents from her environment, nurture and store them within her body, and then redistribute them to devastating pandemic effect. SCP-353's mood directly affects the radius of infections recorded, with increased emotional states leading to massively increased potency.
SCP-353 seems to be immune from the symptoms of said infectious agents, but just as long as she is only passively storing them. Her active, willful attempts to nurture, manipulate, and change infectious agents while they remain in her body cause her to manifest symptoms ranging from mildly annoying to severe. Symptoms only last as long as she is actively inducing a change in the quantity or quality of an infectious agent, and thus rarely last longer than a few hours.
Examinations have shown that the subject is able to "store" almost any infectious bacterial or viral agents within her body, though she is only capable of changing agents that are able to naturally survive within the human body. As of the writing of this report, SCP-353's blood contains traces of over one thousand different infectious agents, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Ebola, Marburg, sixty-seven different strains of the common cold, herpes simplex A, E. coli, cholera, bubonic plague, SARS, and malaria. At least 30% of said infectious agents were previously unknown to the medical community, and were possibly engineered by SCP-353 herself, making SCP-353 an invaluable resource.
Addendum 353-01: SCP-353 was originally encountered in [DATA EXPUNGED], South Africa, where she seemed to be deliberately seeking to pick up strains of the Ebola virus. Foundation Personnel pursued SCP-353 to Dresden, Germany, where they determined that she had successfully contracted Marburg and redistributed said virus to [DATA EXPUNGED]. Subject was eventually subdued by physical means and taken into Foundation custody with minimal loss of life.
To date, her true identity is unknown, as she gives no name other than "Vector" and refuses to answer any questions about her past. SCP-353 claims to have traveled the western world seeking greater infections for her "collection". When asked why, she would not give a response aside from, "Because I can."
Addendum 353-02: Initial testing has shown that she is as adept at manipulating and changing infectious agents in the bodies of nearby subjects as she is at manipulating them within her own body. She seems to prefer to manipulate diseases within her own body, however, as it grants her full access to the results of her manipulations. Furthermore, her ability to manipulate disease in nearby subjects means it's likely that she is equally capable of curing diseases and dispensing them.
On a different note, personnel are reminded to refer to humanoid SCPs by their numerical SCP designation. Should SCP-353 refuse to cooperate, she is to be subdued and punished. We're not here to make her X-men villain fantasies come true. - Dr. Saarijärvi
Addendum 353-03: Given that this girl is a walking time bomb of viruses, I recommend that we tranq her, strap her to a table, and give her a massive dose of a ribavirin/interferon/██████████ cocktail to flush her system. Dr. ████████
Addendum 353-04: Flush her system? Hell no! Did you know that this girl somehow has the original strain of the 1918 Spanish Flu? As well as a half-dozen strains of viruses we've never seen? The research possibilities alone… Dr. ██████████
Addendum 353-05: Limited research approved. O5-██
Addendum 353-06: The embrace of this 'Vector' persona, including the fixation on the color black for cosmetic purposes, her 'might makes right' attitude, her desire to infect rather than to cure, and her disregard for human life all signal towards extreme malignant narcissism and psychopathic tendencies. Her obvious pleasure in manipulating and controlling diseases within herself despite the often painful symptoms involved are also quite troubling. Requesting approval for psychological examination; counseling or therapy may be useful in reducing her difficult demeanor. Dr. Glass


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A trilogy of Kravis nuptials has been completed with a (probably) final ceremony in Portofino, Italy.
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker each posted to Instagram on Sunday a photo of themselves kissing at the altar, with the caption, "happily ever after."
The photo showed a backdrop that included scores of candles and a Madonna-and-child painting. A smiling officiant looks on.
Kardashian later added another photo of the two smiling and facing the guests moments later, with the text, " Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Barker."
She wore a white corseted mini-dress and a floor-length veil with a giant Virgin Mary design on the side. He wore a black suit. Both were designed by Dolce & Gabbana, according to People Magazine.
The wedding was held at Castello Brown, a castle built in the Middle Ages overlooking the Gulf of Portofino, TMZ reported.
The ceremony came after an Elvis-impersonator-officiated "practice" wedding — with no marriage license — followed by a small ceremony — with marriage license — in Santa Barbara, California.
The wedding party arrived Friday in the jet set playground of Portofino, a seaside village known for its multicolored houses and crystalline green water on the Italian Riviera coast.
Photographers snapped the couple, along with the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan and Barker's daughter Alabama, as they arrived for dinner Friday and when they took to the streets again Saturday on their way to lunch. In a prelude to her wedding outfit, Kourtney wore a veil and short black dress emblazoned with a likeness of the Virgin Mary.
The reality star, 43, and the Blink-182 drummer, 46, are known for their PDA and didn't disappoint. They were seen Friday on a boat sharing a kiss in the abundant sun — she in a T-shirt of her beau's band and he in his favorite style condition: shirtless with his multiple tattoos on display.
A larger reception is planned later in Los Angeles, according to reports.
Barker and the oldest Kardashian sister went Instagram official with their relationship early last year. He popped the question in October, beachside with a ring of red roses and white candles at a Montecito, California, hotel.
Kourtney had a long previous relationship with Scott Disick, with whom she had three kids. Barker has been married twice. His first marriage, to Melissa Kennedy, lasted nine months. His last divorce, from Shanna Moakler, came in 2008. They wed in 2004 and share two teen kids.
AP Entertainment Writer Leanne Italie contributed to this report.
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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