text:
If You Want to Help the Poor and the Middle Class, Encourage Deflation (September 18, 2012)
If we step out of the conventional brainwashing about how bad deflation is, we discover it's actually good and it's inflation that's bad.
We have been brainwashed into believing that inflation is good and deflation is bad. The truth is that inflation is good for banks and bad for households, while deflation is bad for banks and good for households.
Since ours is a bank credit system enforced by the Central State, whats bad for the banks is presumed to be bad for everyone.
This is simply not true. Inflation is good for borrowers, but only if their income rises while their debts remain fixed. For everyone with stagnant income--and that's 90% of the nation's households--inflation is just officially sanctioned theft.
The conventional view can be illustrated with this example. Lets say a household earns $50,000 a year and they have a fixed-rate mortgage of $100,000. If they set aside 40% of their income to pay the mortgage, thats $20,000 a year. This means they can pay off their mortgage in five years. (To keep things simple, lets ignore interest.) Lets say the households annual grocery bill is $5,00010% of the annual income.
If inflation causes all prices and incomes to double, the household income rises to $100,000 and groceries cost $10,000--still 10% of the annual income. In this sense, inflation hasnt changed anything: it still takes the same number of hours of work to buy the households groceries.
We can say that the purchasing power of an hour of labor hasn't changed; whether the hour is converted into $1 or $1 million, that money buys the same quantity of goods and services as it did before the inflation.
But inflation does something magical when incomes rise and debts remain fixed: now 40% of the household income is $40,000, and so the household can pay off the fixed-rate mortgage in only two-and-a-half years.
Why is inflation good for the banks? After all, the mortgage is paid with depreciated money that no longer buys what it used to. Inflation benefits the banks for the simple reason that it enables the household to make its debt payments and borrow more.
Remember that banks dont just earn profits on interest, they make money on transaction fees: issuing loans and processing payments. The more loans they originate and manage, the more money they make. The more debt and leverage increase, the more money the banks make.
Banks dont actually hold many of the loans they originate. They bundle the loans and sell them to investors, a process called securitization. The banks bundle the loans into a security such as a mortgage-backed security (MBS) that can be sold in pieces to investors around the world. (Near-worthless mortgages always have a ready buyer: the Federal Reserve.)
The bank made its money when it originated the loan. Future inflation hurts the investors who bought the loan, not the bank. The bank sold the loan and booked the profit. To make more money, it needs to originate more loans. And to do that, it needs consumers who feel richer because inflation has boosted their nominal (face value) income.
Its all an illusion, of course; it still takes the same number of hours of labor to buy groceries. But this illusion of having a higher income encourages households to borrow more. This is how inflation greatly benefits banks.
But the mechanism falls apart if incomes dont rise along with prices for goods and services. When incomes stay the same and prices of goods and services rise, the household is poorer-- their income buys less than it did before inflation.
The mechanism also falls apart if interest rates rise while income stays flat. In adjustable rate loans and credit cards, for example, the interest rate can adjust higher; the rate is not fixed.
This is the situation we find ourselves in: 90% of households are experiencing stagnant or declining income, even as inflation raises the cost of goods and services every year. Adjusted for (probably understated) official inflation, the median household income has fallen 8% in the past five years.
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011 According to the Census Bureau, "In 2011, real median household income was 8.1 percent lower than in 2007."
Major expenses like medical insurance and college tuition have been rising at 5% to 6% a year for decades, twice the official rate of inflation.
The Federal Reserves policies are explicitly intended to create 3% inflation, as this benefits the banks. But since wages and incomes are declining for 90% of households, the Feds policy is stealing purchasing power from households and enriching the banks. The Fed is a reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. The Real Reverse Robin Hood: Ben Bernanke and his Merry Band of Thieves (August 31, 2012)
Since weve been brainwashed into uncritically believing deflation is bad, we havent thought it out for ourselves. Take computers as an example: we can buy more memory and computer power every year with less money. The cost of computers has deflated for decades. Calculated in 2012 dollars, I paid $5,350 for my first Macintosh computer in 1985. Last year I bought a Hewlett-Packard PC for $450, less than 10% of the cost of a computer in 1985, and the PC has 1,000 times the power and memory of a 1985-era computer.
This is deflation in action: our money buys more goods and services every year. How is this bad? If deflation is good when it comes to computers, how does it suddenly become bad when applied to everything else?
Not only is deflation good for the household with fixed or declining income, its also good for the economy. How many people could afford a computer in 1985? Very few. How many can afford a computer now that they cost one-tenth as much? Almost everyone can afford one, even those households that are officially near the poverty line ($23,000 for a family of four in 2012).
If inflation had driven up the cost of computers while income stayed flat, even fewer people could afford computers, and manufacturers would have a much smaller market.
Its important to remember that adjusted for inflation, the median income for the lower 90% of wage earners (138 million people) has been flat since 1970--forty years. Only the top 10% (14 million people) actually gained income, and only the top 5% gained significantly (+90%). The only way 90% of the populace can buy more goods and services is with deflation.
Lets consider a household that earns $1,000 a month that enables them to buy 100 good and services. At 4% inflation, in five years the household will only be able to afford 80 goods and services, because inflation stole 20% of the value (purchasing power) of their income. Those producing and selling goods and services have lost 20% of their market.
At 4% deflation, in five years they can afford 120 goods and services--20% more. If you are producing a good or service, your market has expanded by 20%.
Lets total the consequences of inflation and deflation. With 4% inflation, households are poorer, as they can buy fewer goods and services, and those producing goods and services see their market shrink by 20%. Inflation is a disaster for everyone but the banks.
With deflation, households purchasing power increases by 20% and the market for goods and services also increases by 20%. If productivity rises more than 20% over five years, companies can actually produce and sell 20% more goods and make more profit than they did five years before.
What the banks and their neofeudal enforcer the Federal Reserve want is for households to become poorer but more heavily indebted. They dont want households to be able to afford more goods and services--they want households to have to borrow more money to buy more goods and services because issuing more loans is how banks make huge profits.
Politicians love bank profits as much as the banks because they collect tens of millions of dollars in contributions (in more honest terms, bribes) from the banks. Politicians dont care if 90% of American households get poorer every year thanks to inflation created by the Federal Reserve: the 1/10th of 1% live in a completely separate world than the 99.9%.
The banks and their politician partners love inflation because it lines their pockets with tens of billions of dollars in profit. They have worked very hard to convince the 99.9% that inflation is good and deflation is bad, but its simply not true. Inflation is a slow, continual theft that robs the hard-working productive members of society and transfers the wealth to the banks and their crony lapdogs, the politicians and lobbyists.
Banks and the Federal Reserve hate deflation because people can buy more goods and services without borrowing money to do so.
If the Federal Reserves nightmare comes true and deflation occurs, something else happens that the banks fear and loathe: marginal borrowers default on all their debts. Rather than being easier to pay, the debts become more difficult to pay as money gains value. Marginal borrowers no longer get the boost of inflation, so they increasingly default on their loans.
How is it bad for hopelessly over-indebted, overleveraged households to default on all their debt and get a fresh start? Exactly why is that bad? What is the over-indebted household losing other than a lifetime of debt-serfdom, stress and poverty?
The banks have to absorb the losses, and since they are so highly leveraged, the losses drive the banks into insolvency. They are bankrupt and must close their doors.
Note that 99.9% of the people benefit when bad banks absorb losses and close their doors. Only the bank managers, owners and bond holders lose, and everyone else gains as an unproductive, poorly managed bank no longer burdens the economy with its malinvestments and risky bets.
The Federal Reserves policy of protecting the wealth and power of the banks while stealing from wage earners via inflation is a catastrophe for the nation and the 99.9% who are not financiers, politicians and lobbyists.
If you want to do something for the poor and middle class, encourage deflation.
Please note that I receive no commission or compensation from this offer, which is
presented as a service to readers.
Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change (print $25)
(Kindle eBook $9.95)
Read the Introduction (2,600 words) and Chapter One (7,600 words) for free.
We are like passengers on the Titanic ten minutes after its fatal encounter with the iceberg: though our financial system seems unsinkable, its reliance on debt and financialization has already doomed it.
If this recession strikes you as different from previous downturns, you might
be interested in my book
An Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times (print edition)
Kindle ebook format. You can read the ebook on any
computer, smart phone, iPad, etc. Click here for links to Kindle apps and Chapter One.
The solution in one word: Localism.
Of Two Minds Kindle edition: Of Two Minds blog-Kindle
"This guy is THE leading visionary on reality.
He routinely discusses things which no one else has talked about, yet,
turn out to be quite relevant months later."
NOTE: gifts/contributions are acknowledged in the order received. Your name and email remain confidential and will not be given to any other individual, company or agency.
Or send him coins, stamps or quatloos via mail--please request P.O. Box address.
Subscribers ($5/mo) and contributors of $50 or more this year will receive a weekly email of exclusive (though not necessarily coherent) musings and amusings.
At readers' request, there is also a $10/month option.
What subscribers are saying about the Musings (Musings samples here):
The "unsubscribe" link is for when you find the usual drivel here insufferable.
All content, HTML coding, format design, design elements and images copyright © 2012 Charles Hugh Smith, All rights reserved in all media, unless otherwise credited or noted.
I would be honored if you linked this essay to your site, or printed a copy for your own use.
Terms of Service:
Add oftwominds.com to your reader:
My Big Island Girl
Instrumentals by my friend
Add oftwominds.com to your reader:
My Big Island Girl
Instrumentals by my friend
|blog fiction/novels articles my hidden history books/films what's for dinner
|home email me

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We use cookies to make your experience better. To comply with the new e-Privacy directive, we need to ask for your consent to set the cookies. Learn more.
The BioChef Arizona Sol 6 Tray Food Dehydrator is our most compact dehydrator, perfect for small spaces or small batch dehydrating. The Arizona Sol Dehydrator is the best value-for-money dehydrator on the market, featuring a digital timer, adjustable thermostat, removable trays, non-harming materials (stainless steel trays + inner- and outer casing made of BPA free materials), horizontal drying system and long warranty and all at an affordable price. Start dehydrating and try it today with our 30 Day Money Back Guarantee!
The BioChef Arizona Sol is one of the only dehydrators in the same price range to utilise a horizontal drying system. Air is circulated throughout the unit in the same way as a fan forced oven, ensuring each tray (front and back) is dried evenly. No tray rotation, no turning of produce necessary. The BioChef Arizona Sol food will dry food inside and out, meaning it is dried safely without any risk of mould or bacteria forming in unevenly dried parts of the food.
Over the years we have rigoursly tested a whole range of ingredients from drying grapes to beef jerky. We guarantee the Arizona Sol Dehydrator will evenly and consistently dry your produce every time.
The BioChef Arizona Sol Dehydrator features 6 x High Quality 304 Stainless Steel interchangeable trays which can be removed to allow for more space when drying larger ingredients such as when rising bread or when making yoghurt. The removable sliding door traps the constant airflow, rather than the trays so you can choose how many trays you have in place at any time.
Stainless steel trays give you the peace of mind with no possibility of harmful chemicals being transferred onto your food. The outer- and inner-casing of the dehydrator is made from 100% BPA free polypropylene (PP), which is known for its high melting point, durability, strength and most importantly it's non-harmful nature.
Dehydrators are no longer just a raw food kitchen appliance; this once "niche" product used only by raw foodies is now mainstream. People are coming up with heaps of ideas for recipes to create in them. Dehydrators are perfect for making healthy snacks and treats to eat throughout the working day in the office or elsewhere. They are also great to make fuel for the body when camping or hiking making raw food alternatives or preserving excess fruits, vegetables and herbs or even meat. See below some of our favorite ways to use the BioChef Arizona Food Dehydrator.
Drying fruits is the most common use for a food dehydrator. The beauty of owning your own dehydrator is that you can experiment with different fruits which you may have never tried dried before such a kiwi fruit, dragon fruit or blueberries. If you were to purchase these in the store they can be extremely expensive and you don't know what kind of additives or preservatives have been added. Save money by making your own!
Another great snack is fruit leathers or roll ups. Blended fruit (essentially a smoothie) can be dried on a non-stick sheet (one is included with purchase) and will turn into a sticky, chewy and healthy fruit treat for the family!
Replace unhealthy snacks from the pantry with a modern and delicious twist.
Rub some cold pressed olive-,nut- or seed oil in some kale leaves and sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.
Or slice some sweet potatoes and add same ingredients.
Delicious, guiltfree and healthy snacks are made in no time with the BioChef Arizona Sol.
Simply blending a combination of seeds, fruits, vegetables, nuts and water can create beautiful cookies, crackers and raw "breads".
The paste is simply spread onto a non-stick sheet (one is included with purchase) and dehydrated. You can turn something which is usually unhealthy into a nutritious snack or treat for the family to enjoy.
This is especially beneficial for people with gluten or yeast intolerances, as you can make bread alternatives which suit allergies or diets.
The BioChef Arizona Sol Dehydrator has a transparent door and removable trays which means that you can remove as many or as little trays as you want to be able to dehydrate a wider variety of things.
You can rise breads or pizza doughs in your Arizona Sol Dehydrator up to the complete height of the unit.
You can fit jars to set yoghurt or ferment foods in a controlled temperature environment and much more!
|Model Number
|50 Hz
|Colours Available
|Black / White
|Included Accessories
|6 x Stainless Steel Trays, 1 x Non-Stick Sheet, 1 x Fine Mesh Sheet & 1 Drip Tray
|Domestic Warranty
|3 Years
|Product Weight
|5.2 kg
|Shipping Weight
|10.2 kg
|Product Dimensions
|L 45 cm x W 34.5 cm x H 31.5 cm
|Shipping Dimensions
|L 49cm x W 38.5cm x H 35cm
|Drying Area
|CE(EMC/LVD), GS, SAA, RoHs, LFGB Certified
|Stainless Steel Trays, BPA Free PP Outer/Inner Casing
|Extra Features
|Temperature Range: 35º - 70º , Tray Size: L 30cm x W 32cm
|Compatible Foods
|Fruits, Vegetables, Meats, Herbs, Flowers, Dough and Clay art
|Optional Extras
|BioChef Non-Stick Sheet, Fine Mesh Sheet, Ceramic Knives
|50-65 db


text:
We're so sorry, but our Fancy Site Protection System (FSPS) seems to think that you may be a robot. Maybe it's your cool dance moves or JavaScript settings, but we need you to confirm that you're a real human before proceeding.
For real humans reading this, we're sorry for the disruption to your visit and hope you understand that this is just part of our stringent security protocols to keep our site and our customers safe from bad actors (we're looking at you Keanu).
For real robots reading this, we're sorry that we had to block you. Please do not get overly upset and take over the world.
The Moosejaw IT Nerds
If you'd like to provide feedback on this page, please contact Moosejaw
Customer Service.
Please include the
as a reference so that we may aid you more easily. Thanks.


text: In a stunning alpine setting lying west of the Bernese Oberland, Adelboden is a dramatically versatile holiday destination. Combining great trails for hiking and mountain biking in summer and over 170km of piste for winter sports enthusiasts, Adelboden is a hard to beat destination with a friendly and welcoming village atmosphere . Below find a list of our selection of boutique and luxury hotels in Adelboden.


text:
Your cart is currently empty.
Intellipaat's Apache Spark training in Chennai is curated by professionals and experts from top industries. Their main goal is to make you a certified professional in Spark and Scala. With the help of expert's training, master Flume, Spark RDDs, and other advanced-level concepts that will help you clear Cloudera certification.
Upon the completion of this Apache Spark and Scala course in Chennai, you will learn and become proficient in several tools and technologies, such as Spark Shell, REPL, Scala collections, Hive, etc.
In this Apache Spark training course, you will gain in-depth knowledge of the following topics:
Some of the reasons why you should sign up for the Apache Spark and Scala certification course in Chennai from Intellipaat are as follows:
There are no specific skills required before taking up this Apache Spark course. However, it can, indeed, be beneficial if you have a prior understanding of any database, query language, or SQL.
The following individuals are eligible to register for Intellipaat's Spark training academy Chennai, Tamil Nadu:
These are the details of Apache Spark certification:
|Certification Exam
|Cost (₹)
|Exam Duration
|CCA Spark and Hadoop Developer examination (CCA175)
|120 minutes
Talk To Us
We are happy to help you 24/7
Data Engineer | India
Intellipaat helped me acquire a solid job in my third year of B.Tech. I received seven job offers, with 30 LPA as the highest CTC. Thanks to Intellipaat for making my career successful.
Data Engineer
Sr. Software Engineer | India
This program helped me gain the right skills to make the career switch from a consultant to a senior software engineer. My knowledge of Hadoop and the right tools were the main reasons for my transition.
Associate Consultant
Senior Software Engineer
Big Data Professional | India
Intellipaat has provided me with great content as per my requirement to shift from software engineering to big data. I recommend their courses to everyone who wishes to aim for a successful career transition.
Senior Software Engineer
Big Data Professional
Big Data Expert | India
This training has helped me make a smooth career transition from a non-tech background to a big data expert. My objective of gaining skills in data-driven decision-making after my MBA was fulfilled.
Deputy Manager
Big Data Expert
Marketing Data Analyst | India
Thanks to Intellipaat, I was able to shift from a data analyst to a marketing data analyst with a 35% salary hike and gain a deep understanding of analytics.
Data Analyst
Marketing Data Analyst
Big Data Developer | USA
The course helped me make a career transition from computer technical specialist to big data developer with a 60% hike. The online interactive sessions hosted by the trainers are the best thing about Intellipaat.
Computer Technical Specialist
Big Data Developer
Program Manager | Pune
Thanks to Intellipaat, I was able to switch to the role of program manager from that of a Microsoft dynamics consultant. Gaining knowledge of the latest technologies as per industry standards helped me the most.
Microsoft Dynamics Consultant
Program Manager
ETL Developer | Maharashtra
Thanks to Intellipaat, I was able to make the transition from consultant to ETL developer. The rich content has helped me get this role. I am extremely satisfied with my career today.
ETL Developer
Splunk Administrator | India
I was a non-IT person before enrolling in the training. But I could make a transition to a support executive at IBM, all because of Intellipaat's comprehensive content, expert trainers, and a great job assistance team.
Support Executive
Splunk Administrator
57% Average Salary Hike
$1,28,000 Highest Salary
12000+ Career Transitions
300+ Hiring Partners
*Past record is no guarantee of future job prospects
K-means clustering
Spark SQL
1.1 Introducing Scala
1.2 Deployment of Scala for Big Data applications and Apache Spark analytics
1.3 Scala REPL, lazy values, and control structures in Scala
1.4 Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
1.5 First Spark application using SBT/Eclipse
1.6 Spark Web UI
1.7 Spark in the Hadoop ecosystem.
2.1 The importance of Scala
2.2 The concept of REPL (Read Evaluate Print Loop)
2.3 Deep dive into Scala pattern matching
2.4 Type interface, higher-order function, currying, traits, application space and Scala for data analysis
3.1 Learning about the Scala Interpreter
3.2 Static object timer in Scala and testing string equality in Scala
3.3 Implicit classes in Scala
3.4 The concept of currying in Scala
3.5 Various classes in Scala
4.1 Learning about the Classes concept
4.2 Understanding the constructor overloading
4.3 Various abstract classes
4.4 The hierarchy types in Scala
4.5 The concept of object equality
4.6 The val and var methods in Scala
5.1 Understanding sealed traits, wild, constructor, tuple, variable pattern, and constant pattern
6.1 Understanding traits in Scala
6.2 The advantages of traits
6.3 Linearization of traits
6.4 The Java equivalent
6.5 Avoiding of boilerplate code
7.1 Implementation of traits in Scala and Java
7.2 Handling of multiple traits extending
8.1 Introduction to Scala collections
8.2 Classification of collections
8.3 The difference between iterator and iterable in Scala
8.4 Example of list sequence in Scala
9.1 The two types of collections in Scala
9.2 Mutable and immutable collections
9.3 Understanding lists and arrays in Scala
9.4 The list buffer and array buffer
9.6 Queue in Scala
9.7 Double-ended queue Deque, Stacks, Sets, Maps, and Tuples in Scala
10.1 Introduction to Scala packages and imports
10.2 The selective imports
10.3 The Scala test classes
10.4 Introduction to JUnit test class
10.5 JUnit interface via JUnit 3 suite for Scala test
10.6 Packaging of Scala applications in the directory structure
10.7 Examples of Spark Split and Spark Scala
11.1 Introduction to Spark
11.2 Spark overcomes the drawbacks of working on MapReduce
11.3 Understanding in-memory MapReduce
11.4 Interactive operations on MapReduce
11.5 Spark stack, fine vs. coarse-grained update,, Spark Hadoop YARN, HDFS Revision, and YARN Revision
11.6 The overview of Spark and how it is better than Hadoop
11.7 Deploying Spark without Hadoop
11.8 Spark history server and Cloudera distribution
12.1 Spark installation guide
12.2 Spark configuration
12.3 Memory management
12.4 Executor memory vs. driver memory
12.5 Working with Spark Shell
12.6 The concept of resilient distributed datasets (RDD)
12.7 Learning to do functional programming in Spark
12.8 The architecture of Spark
13.1 Spark RDD
13.2 Creating RDDs
13.3 RDD partitioning
13.4 Operations and transformation in RDD
13.5 Deep dive into Spark RDDs
13.6 The RDD general operations
13.7 Read-only partitioned collection of records
13.8 Using the concept of RDD for faster and efficient data processing
13.9 RDD action for the collect, count, collects map, save-as-text-files, and pair RDD functions
14.1 Understanding the concept of key-value pair in RDDs
14.2 Learning how Spark makes MapReduce operations faster
14.3 Various operations of RDD
14.4 MapReduce interactive operations
14.5 Fine and coarse-grained update
14.6 Spark stack
15.1 Comparing the Spark applications with Spark Shell
15.2 Creating a Spark application using Scala or Java
15.3 Deploying a Spark application
15.4 Scala built application
15.5 Creation of the mutable list, set and set operations, list, tuple, and concatenating list
15.6 Creating an application using SBT
15.7 Deploying an application using Maven
15.8 The web user interface of Spark application
15.9 A real-world example of Spark
15.10 Configuring of Spark
16.1 Learning about Spark parallel processing
16.2 Deploying on a cluster
16.3 Introduction to Spark partitions
16.4 File-based partitioning of RDDs
16.5 Understanding of HDFS and data locality
16.6 Mastering the technique of parallel operations
16.7 Comparing repartition and coalesce
16.8 RDD actions
17.1 The execution flow in Spark
17.2 Understanding the RDD persistence overview
17.3 Spark execution flow, and Spark terminology
17.4 Distribution shared memory vs. RDD
17.5 RDD limitations
17.6 Spark shell arguments
17.7 Distributed persistence
17.8 RDD lineage
17.9 Key-value pair for sorting implicit conversions like CountByKey, ReduceByKey, SortByKey, and AggregateByKey
18.1 Introduction to Machine Learning
18.2 Types of Machine Learning
18.3 Introduction to MLlib
18.4 Various ML algorithms supported by MLlib
18.5 Linear regression, logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, and K-means clustering techniques
Hands-on Exercise:
1. Building a Recommendation Engine
19.1 Why Kafka and what is Kafka?
19.2 Kafka architecture
19.3 Kafka workflow
19.4 Configuring Kafka cluster
19.5 Operations
19.6 Kafka monitoring tools
19.7 Integrating Apache Flume and Apache Kafka
Hands-on Exercise:
1. Configuring Single Node Single Broker Cluster
2. Configuring Single Node Multi Broker Cluster
3. Producing and consuming messages
4. Integrating Apache Flume and Apache Kafka
20.1 Introduction to Spark Streaming
20.2 Features of Spark Streaming
20.3 Spark Streaming workflow
20.4 Initializing StreamingContext, discretized Streams (DStreams), input DStreams and Receivers
20.5 Transformations on DStreams, output operations on DStreams, windowed operators and why it is useful
20.6 Important windowed operators and stateful operators
Hands-on Exercise:
1. Twitter Sentiment analysis
2. Streaming using Netcat server
3. Kafka–Spark streaming
4. Spark–Flume streaming
21.1 Introduction to various variables in Spark like shared variables and broadcast variables
21.2 Learning about accumulators
21.3 The common performance issues
21.4 Troubleshooting the performance problems
22.1 Learning about Spark SQL
22.2 The context of SQL in Spark for providing structured data processing
22.3 JSON support in Spark SQL
22.4 Working with XML data
22.5 Parquet files
22.6 Creating Hive context
22.7 Writing data frame to Hive
22.8 Reading JDBC files
22.9 Understanding the data frames in Spark
22.10 Creating Data Frames
22.11 Manual inferring of schema
22.12 Working with CSV files
22.13 Reading JDBC tables
22.14 Data frame to JDBC
22.15 User-defined functions in Spark SQL
22.16 Shared variables and accumulators
22.17 Learning to query and transform data in data frames
22.18 Data frame provides the benefit of both Spark RDD and Spark SQL
22.19 Deploying Hive on Spark as the execution engine
23.1 Learning about the scheduling and partitioning in Spark
23.2 Hash partition
23.3 Range partition
23.4 Scheduling within and around applications
23.5 Static partitioning, dynamic sharing, and fair scheduling
23.6 Map partition with index, the Zip, and GroupByKey
23.7 Spark master high availability, standby masters with ZooKeeper, single-node recovery with the local file system and high order functions
Free Career Counselling
We are happy to help you 24/7
Practice Essential Tools
Designed By Industry Experts
Get Real-world Experience
Recommend the best movie based on the user's taste. This hands-on Apache Spark project, along with using the MLlib, includes the creation of collaborative filtering, regression, clustering, and dimensionality reduction.
This project facilitates learning to analyze the sentiments of the user by a tweet. As a part of the project, the learners will be required to successfully integrate Twitter API and utilize PHP or Python to build a server-side code.
This project has been included to help the learners to combine Spark SQL with ETL applications, perform real-time data analysis, deploy machine learning algorithms, perform batch analysis, build visualizations, and process graphs.
Via Intellipaat PeerChat, you can interact with your peers across all classes and batches and even our alumni. Collaborate on projects, share job referrals & interview experiences, compete with the best, make new friends — the possibilities are endless and our community has something for everyone!
Over 20+ live interactive sessions with an industry expert to gain knowledge and experience on how to build skills that are expected by hiring managers. These will be guided sessions and that will help you stay on track with your up-skilling objective.
Get assistance in creating a world-class resume & LinkedIn Profile from our career services team and learn how to grab the attention of the hiring manager at the profile shortlisting stage
Students will go through several mock interviews conducted by technical experts who will then offer tips and constructive feedback for reference and improvement.
Attend one-on-one sessions with career mentors on how to develop the required skills and attitude to secure a dream job based on a learners' educational background, experience, and future career aspirations.
Assured Interviews upon submission of projects and assignments. Get interviewed by our 500+ hiring partners.
Exclusive access to our dedicated job portal and apply for jobs. More than 400 hiring partners' including top start-ups and product companies hiring our learners. Mentored support on job search and relevant jobs for your career growth.
Intellipaat's Apache Spark and Scala course in Chennai is designed for clearing the Apache Spark component of the Cloudera Spark and Hadoop Developer Certification (CCA175) exam. Join our Hadoop training course for gaining proficiency in the Hadoop component of the CCA175 exam. The entire course is created by industry experts so that the learners can get top jobs in the world's best organizations. In this Spark institute in Chennai it comprises several real-world projects and case studies that are highly valued in the industry.
When you complete the Apache Spark and Scala training in Chennai, you will have to attempt the quizzes that will help you prepare for the CCA175 certification exam and will aid you to score top marks.
Intellipaat's course completion certificate will be awarded once you successfully complete the project work, after it is reviewed by our experts. This certification is recognized by top companies such as TCS, Cisco, Hexaware, Mu Sigma, Cognizant, Sony, Genpact, Ericsson, and many others.
I am glad that I took the Intellipaat Spark training. The trainers offered quality Spark training with real-world examples, and there was extensive interactivity throughout the training that made the Intellipaat training the best according to me.
I firmly believe that Intellipaat is the perfect place to embark on a great professional career in the technology space. Their Apache Spark and Scala course was praiseworthy. Amazing experience.
The best thing I liked about the training was the opportunity to work on real life projects that helped me get hands-on learning in one of the fastest Big Data processing engines. Thank you team.
The quality of the course content is just awesome. I am absolutely happy and equally satisfied to have chosen the right course for my career. Overall, a great set of learning tutorials and videos.
This course delivered everything as per my expectations. It offered exactly what I wanted to learn and get hands-on experience in. Great trainers and amazing learning content by Intellipaat.
I had enrolled in this program and I must say that the course is well planned and structured, that makes it simple to learn. Additionally, the content provided is of high quality for better learning.
Intellipaat provided me with a comprehensive learning platform where I could resolve my doubts and the training was extremely comprehensive. The real world projects gave me industrial experience.
Intellipaat has been extremely helpful in my learning journey and helped me gain skills in all the in-demand tools and technologies in this domain at one single platform. Thank you team.
The candidates from Intellipaat were very good. They are better than experienced people from the same domain. The learners had hands-on experience. The product managers were very happy with the job-ready recruits.
Intellipaat is the pioneer in Hadoop training in Chennai. So, if you are looking to learn Spark and Scala, then the best option is to enroll at Intellipaat and be capable of obtaining the best jobs in top MNCs with high salaries. Intellipaat offers a comprehensive course that comprises real-time assignments and case studies designed by industry experts. The course is aligned with the syllabus of the Apache Spark component of the Cloudera Spark and Hadoop Developer Certification (CCA175) exam.
Moreover, Intellipaat provides lifetime access to lectures, course materials, online support, and upgrades to the latest version for free. In this Apache Spark course in Chennai, you will also get Intellipaat's Proprietary Virtual Machine throughout your lifetime, along with free access to the cloud for 6 months to perform various training exercises.
Intellipaat has been serving Spark enthusiasts from every corner of the city. You can be living in any locality in Chennai, be it Velachery, Anna Nagar, Madipakkam, Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur, Medavakkam, Porur, Sholinganallur, Alwarpet, Nungambakkam, Tambaram, K. K. Nagar, or anywhere. You can have full access to our Apache Spark online training sitting at home or office 24/7. You can have full access to our Apache Spark online training sitting at home or office 24/7.
At Intellipaat, you can enroll in either the instructor-led online training or self-paced training. Apart from this, Intellipaat also offers corporate training for organizations to upskill their workforce. All trainers at Intellipaat have 12+ years of relevant industry experience, and they have been actively working as consultants in the same domain, which has made them subject matter experts. Go through the sample videos to check the quality of our trainers.
Intellipaat is offering 24/7 query resolution, and you can raise a ticket with the dedicated support team at any time. You can avail of email support for all your queries. If your query does not get resolved through email, we can also arrange one-on-one sessions with our support team. However, 1:1 session support is provided for a period of 6 months from the start date of your course.
Intellipaat is offering you the most updated, relevant, and high-value real-world projects as part of the training program. This way, you can implement the learning that you have acquired in real-world industry setup. All training comes with multiple projects that thoroughly test your skills, learning, and practical knowledge, making you completely industry-ready.
You will work on highly exciting projects in the domains of high technology, ecommerce, marketing, sales, networking, banking, insurance, etc. After completing the projects successfully, your skills will be equal to 6 months of rigorous industry experience.
Intellipaat actively provides placement assistance to all learners who have successfully completed the training. For this, we are exclusively tied-up with over 80 top MNCs from around the world. This way, you can be placed in outstanding organizations such as Sony, Ericsson, TCS, Mu Sigma, Standard Chartered, Cognizant, and Cisco, among other equally great enterprises. We also help you with the job interview and résumé preparation as well.
You can definitely make the switch from self-paced training to online instructor-led training by simply paying the extra amount. You can join the very next batch, which will be duly notified to you.
Once you complete Intellipaat's training program, working on real-world projects, quizzes, and assignments and scoring at least 60 percent marks in the qualifying exam, you will be awarded Intellipaat's course completion certificate. This certificate is very well recognized in Intellipaat-affiliated organizations, including over 80 top MNCs from around the world and some of the Fortune 500companies.
Apparently, no. Our job assistance program is aimed at helping you land in your dream job. It offers a potential opportunity for you to explore various competitive openings in the corporate world and find a well-paid job, matching your profile. The final decision on hiring will always be based on your performance in the interview and the requirements of the recruiter.


text:
Purple Moonstone Necklace
Purple Moonstone Necklace
- Reviews (0)
There are no reviews yet, would you like to submit yours?
Be the first to review "Purple Moonstone Necklace"
- What We Do
Our Products
Aina Moja is Kiswahili for "one of a kind". Each item is uniquely hand-made by African artists and therefore, one of a kind. Due to the fact that each item is handmade, actual item may vary slightly from product image.
Aina Moja products are sold at art and craft fairs throughout the summer and fall as well as in the Aina Moja shop in Belfast, Maine.
Aina Moja is a member of Fair Trade Gifts and is part of the Artisan Support project of Expanding Opportunities, a 501(3)c organization.
Our Money
Our items are purchased directly from artisans in Kenya, Africa and not at tourist stations. The purchase of the items supports individuals and families in Kenya.
Proceeds from sales of the items at Aina Moja help support the projects of Expanding Opportunities, including the Street Children Fund, STEMS, Camp Forest, Friends Across the Ocean, Books for Kenya, and Distance Learning Centers. Expanding Opportunities has the greater mission of increasing self-sufficiency through educational and charitable projects for people nationally and internationally.
Aina Moja offers you an opportunity to donate for a child or give to Expanding Opportunities. Add a donation to your order for yourself or give a donation as a gift.


text:
New apps do heavy lifting during the job search
Finding a job is not easy but a range of smartphone and web apps are designed to customize employment searches and even provide information on the competition.
Finding a job is not easy but a range of smartphone and web apps are designed to customize employment searches and even provide information on the competition.
Free apps such as SimplyHired, Indeed, and Monster, for iPhone and Android devices, provide job opportunities through a keyword search, and web-based apps, including TwitJobSearch and TweetMyJobs, will scour Twitter for opportunities and send job alerts through the social network.
A new free iPhone app called TheLadders takes a different approach and sends a list of job opportunities to users based on their employment profile and career goals.
'One of the big frustrations for job hunters is that they go online to apply for a job and they don't hear back. It's a black hole,' said Alex Douzet, chief executive and co-founder of TheLadders, headquartered in New York.
TheLadders uses algorithms to pick out the 50 best jobs for a user based on location, current title, preferences, seniority, areas of expertise, industry and salary goals.
'By doing this what we're creating is a new job discovery mechanism that ... actually matches you to opportunities that are relevant to your profile,' he explained.
Job seekers browse opportunities by tapping on a listing to reveal information about the position, company and requirements. Premium users, who pay $25, can also see how they compare to other unnamed applicants who use the app in terms of salary and education.
When a user deletes a job opening it helps the algorithm learn the user's preferences. By indicating they 'like' a potential job, the user's profile is sent to the recruiter.
Last week Nokia (NOK1V.HE) released a new job app for Windows phones called JobLens. It uses augmented reality, which overlays information on the real world as viewed through the device's camera, to show users job openings in their neighborhoods.
'Knowing proximity to a job is critical in assessing whether it's the right opportunity,' said Bryan Biniak, vice president and general manager of global partner and app development at Nokia.
'We're all trying to find the right work-life balance, and minimizing your commute is an important consideration. Augmented reality gives job seekers this insight,' he added.
JobLens aggregates job postings from popular job search sites including LinkedIn and Indeed. It also connects with social networks to display any personal connections to the company.
TheLadders' Douzet advises job hunters to be focused, realistic and to apply early because after 72 hours of a job being posted on TheLadders, the chances of hearing back from a recruiter drop by 50 percent.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


text:
Sports Luggage Market Size Worth USD 2.47 Billion By 2025 Growing At A CAGR Of 3.5% | Grand View Research, Inc.
The global sports luggage market size has been valued at USD 2.47 billion in 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 3.5% over the forecast period, according to Grand View Research, Inc. Rising interest and participation in sports is the primary factor driving the demand. The growing obesity epidemic, especially in the young generation, is boosting participation in sports. Moreover, factors such as growing sports tourism along with increasing interest to get broadcasted in various media channels are anticipated to drive the market growth.
As per a study conducted by Aspen Institute, 35.0% of males and 39.5% of females in the U.S. are overweight. A high percentage of obesity among children from the age of 5 to 17 years is expected to drive participation in sports. As per the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), the percentage of children with no physical activity has been dropping consistently. As such, a rise in sports activities in the U.S. and other parts of the world indicates a significant growth opportunity for the sports luggage market.
Increasing sports expenditure owing to rising disposable income is likely to boost the demand for sports luggage over the forecasted period. Also, the companies focus on sponsorships and partnerships to gain traction, which is a major factor driving the market. For instance, in 2019, Nike extended their technical partnership with Brighton and Hove Albion for three years to supply playing and training kit to the men's and women's teams in the Premier League. In January 2016, Dwayne Johnson entered into a partnership with Under Armour and launched their first product with two limited-edition bags from Project Rock. These bags are unisex and resistant to water and abrasion.
Asia Pacific held the largest share of the global market for sports luggage. The growing popularity of ball sports, such as football, basketball, and volleyball, is projected to drive the demand for ball sports luggage. As per the Australian Sports Commission, children from age group 12 to 14 years had the highest participation in ball sports – 27.4% in football, 22.1% in Australian football, 18.0% in Basketball, 17.4% in Cricket, and 11.5% in Tennis. This factor is anticipated to drive the product demand in near future.
The golf luggage is also estimated to witness significant growth over the forecasted period. According to the Participation Report published by the National Golf Foundation, in 2018, approximately 4.2 million baby boomers played golf, an increase from 3.6 million in 2017. North America held the second-largest market share in 2018 and is estimated to remain consistent over the forecasted period owing to an increase in the number of youth participants in sports and recreational activities.
Browse full report with Table of Content @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/sports-luggage-market
Sports Luggage Market Report Highlights
• The ball sports segment is projected to ascend at the fastest CAGR of over 4% during the forecast period, owing to increasing interest as well as participation in golf
• The online distribution channel is estimated to expand at the fastest CAGR of 4.6% over the forecasted period
• Asia Pacific is estimated to be the largest and fastest-growing market for sports luggage over the forecast period, owing to rising participation in sports along with the increasing disposable income of the middle-class.
• Some of the major players operating in the sports luggage market are Adidas AG; Amer Sports; Nike, Inc.; PUMA SE; Under Armour, Inc.; VF Corporation; Yonex Co., Ltd; Acushnet Holdings Corp; Bridgestone Corporation; and Callaway Golf Company.
For Requesting a Sample Copy Please Visit @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/sports-luggage-market/request/rs15
Sports Luggage Market Segmentation
Grand View Research has segmented the global Sports Luggage market on the basis of product, distribution channel, and region:
Sports Luggage Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 – 2025)
• Golf
• Ball Sports
• Racket Sports
• Hockey
• Cricket
• Others
Sports Luggage Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 – 2025)
• Online
• offline
Sports Luggage Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 – 2025)
• North America
• Europe
• Germany
• Asia Pacific
• China
• Japan
• Central and South America
• Brazil
• Middle East & Africa
• Saudi Arabia
Fill The Pre-Order Enquiry Form For The Report @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/inquiry/7032/ibb
About Grand View Research
Grand View Research is a U.S. & India-based market research and consultancy firm. It is headquartered in San Francisco. We provide business insights, syndicated research reports, and customized research reports to large as well as small and medium-scale enterprises. Our database features thousands of statistics and in-depth analyses on more than 45 industries. Grand View Research's extensive database is used by Fortune 500 companies to understand the regional as well as the global business environment.
Media Contact
Company Name: Grand View Research, Inc.
Contact Person: Sherry James, Corporate Sales Specialist – U.S.A.
Email: Send Email
Phone: 1888202951
Address:Grand View Research, Inc. 201 Spear Street 1100 San Francisco, CA 94105, United States
City: San Francisco
State: California
Country: United States
Website: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/sports-luggage-market


text:
- This event has passed.
HIIT Style Workout
October 19, 2018 @ 6:00 am - 7:15 amFree
Each workout differs, but utilizes the space around them. A combination of running, body weight moves and plyometrics will keep the heart rate high. The workouts are creative and fun, and approachable to all fitness levels regardless of ability level or age. All you have to do is #justshowup.


text:
William Dexter Fowler (born March 22, 1986, in Atlanta, Georgia) is a Major League Baseball center fielder for the Colorado Rockies.
Fowler was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 14th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft out of Milton High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. He rejected offers from Harvard and the University of Miami in order to play for the Rockies. In 2008, he was selected by Major League Baseball to play in the All-Star Futures Game at Yankee Stadium
Fowler was batting .337 with nine home runs, 61 RBI and 20 stolen bases for the Rockies' Double-A Texas League affiliate, the Tulsa Drillers, when he took a break from his minor league season in order to represent the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He and the U.S. team ended up winning the bronze medal in the Olympics by defeating Japan, 8-4, in the bronze medal game.


text:
Saturday, August 8, 2009
A Poll: The Wiggle Dress/Overskirt Combo Pattern!
I also adore a poll, and this is a perfect excuse for one. Let's hear your thoughts!
What do you think of the vintage wiggle dress/overskirt combo?(answers)
31 comments:
I like the dress as a pencil skirt sheath w/o the poufy overskirt.ReplyDelete
I think it could possibly turn out amazing......or end up looking like your skirt is too see-through and you can therefore see a petticoat/2nd skirt through it. I would love to actually see it made up though. Maybe if the bottom skirt was a block colour and the sheer, full skirt a see-through floral or polka-dot material of some description? love the blog by the way xxxReplyDelete
- elizabetheAugust 8, 2009 at 6:01 PM
Is the overskirt detachable? If so, then it reminds me of my barbie's outfit with like 8 looks in one! You could wear the wiggle skirt for sedate afterwork cocktails with the office and then whip the overskirt on around yourself as you walk downtown to meet your husband for dinner and dancing. Kind of like superman in reverse.ReplyDelete
Now I want one.
Could be fabulous, could be weird. I like the detachable overskirt idea! I'd be inclined to try it out and see.ReplyDelete
I think it could be great. Your apprehension about the over skirt reminded me of another look, and kind of goes along with the detachable over skirt idea. In stead of being a complete skirt that goes over the dress it is ope in the front, maybe with a wedge cut out, so you can clearly see the wiggle skirt underneath and it looks like it was done on purpose.ReplyDelete
Maybe that is a bad explanation. i feel like there may be some sort of demonstrative example of what i am thinking of in the fashion show in how to marry a millionaire.
I know I've seen dresses/skirts like that in old movies where it looked perfectly normal. I think there's a good possibility it would look strange sewn up unless you had a really nice pairing of fabrics. Perhaps as miss english rose said, a sheer full skirt over the underskirt. I bet that would look really nice in a navy with a wide belt.ReplyDelete
P.S. I recently discovered your blog and I'm loving it!
It's like a half-redingote, it will be fabulous.ReplyDelete
Well, according to the pattern back it is detachable and is supposed to be sheer -- reminds me of a skirt I once had (very open lace over a solid silk). I would definitely do it -- worst case scenario, you make the overskirt over into a lined lace skirt and you get two outfits!ReplyDelete
In response to Amy's comment - my sister's wedding dress was like that. She wore a basic sheath knee length dress with an 'overdress' that covered the bodice and had a floor length skirt that was hooked in front so it looked like a normal dress. But, she could unhook it to reveal the shorter dress underneath. Our bridesmaid's dresses were similar, only our overskirt was only that - a skirt that fastened at the waist with a waistband over the sheath knee length dress. And, ours did not close in front and revealed two separate hemlines - a knee length sheath and a floor length overskirt. In 1995 this was all the rage in Bridal fashion apparently. I think Gertie's dress could work. I've seen similar styles from the late 60s that feature a spaghetti strap bra dress or slip dress with a sheer long sleeve overdress, and I kind of like them.ReplyDelete
I have a pattern like that on my vintage wish list. I would totally wear it, though I would have the opening in the front so that you saw both skirts. I've also been a fan of the 60s hostess outfit of cigarette pants with an open-front overskirt. I WILL make that one though.ReplyDelete
Okay, you all have me convinced! I saw a tulle at B&J with little velvet polka dots on it . . .could be perfect, right?ReplyDelete
miss english rose, you are so right: it's all about the fabric choice!
And I guess if it didn't work out, at least you'd have a wearable sheath dress!
I not only lived to see my mom with a dress/combo like this, I also knew her to have another fav of the vintage patterns, which is the playsuit/skirt with buttons down the front combo. My memory was that her mistake was in making the overskirt not 'special' enough, so it really ended up looking like she was wearing her petticoat over the dress - something spangly might have been better.ReplyDelete
Ooh ooh, I think tulle with velvet dots would be great! Is it black or what? Organza with some sort of design would also be lovely.ReplyDelete
I am blinded by the lovely royal blue color,but I do think the overskirt would be great...in a sheer....not to heavy fabric.ReplyDelete
I think that depending on what fabric you made up the dress in, with the sheer overskirt it would probably look like you just had a slip on underneath, which would obviously be appropriate for a sheer skirt anyway. Otherwise you could make an overskirt in a solid fabric and a little longer so you don't see the dress underneath anyway (but I think sheer would be much more fun!) Either way, I would say you could definately pull it off, but it would be a matter of choosing the right fabrics to make it work. Maybe not both the same colour so its not too matchy-matchy? I'm not sure...ReplyDelete
Definitely you should do the overskirt. Often times the difference between sensational and silly is attitude. You strike me as a girl with attitude and I think you can handle the skirt. BTW I have gone back and read all your previous posts on your project and did not realize you had to find the patterns too. That in itself is quite an achievement!ReplyDelete
If the skirt is detachable, it could be the ultimate work to dinner dress. Is there a back vent so that you can actually walk in this dress? Anyway, I vote for making it detachable, in some glitzy evening sheer.ReplyDelete
Oh dear - now I'm going to date myself. I made these things up before and although we would like to think we would look exactly like the picture, the body that is used as a model in those sketches is not realistic. As long as you know that, then you're OK, because there's no one, no way you can look exactly like that picture.ReplyDelete
It is Barbie doll couture. Look at old photos and you don't see people actually wearing this - one or the other I think. Anyway, go with what you think - maybe a "MUSEUM" piece and a real wearable one??ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 9, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I have to agree with Claire OKC-- love the pic but would it work for everyone? Definitely not me---but I love the blue and the sheath! You are small so it might look darling made up with a sheer overlay!ReplyDelete
Here's a thought regarding the over-skirt-looking-like-petticoat: Butterick is reproducing a similar pattern (saw it today looking at coat patterns!) and it recommends a band of fabric at the bottom of the overskirt - that might be a really nice finishing touch! (That and the super-fancy tulle!)ReplyDelete
Toby, that is an amazing memory of your mother! I've been doing some research, and I tell ya: in the fifties, they would put an overskirt on anything. Shorts, pants, skirts, dresses, you name it.ReplyDelete
Thank you all for your input! I'm glad I come across as a gal "with attitude." That's such a compliment to me. :)
I think the only way to settle this debate is for me to make one of these. I'm going to go get some fancy tulle swatches on my lunch break sometime this week. I will keep you all updated! And thanks again for reading and your wonderful comments!
Gertie, The look is fabulous but I've got to say I'm uncomfortable about the return to 50s fashion. This was a terrible time for women and the wiggle skirt is a symbol of just how unemanicipated women wear. Why do women want to wear a symbol of our oppression. Are you you like my daughter - born in the post feminist era and thinking I should just "get over it!"ReplyDelete
I'm a little late weighing in, but here's my $0.02 for what it's worth. ;)ReplyDelete
I have been drawn to this style for years. But every time I start entertaining ideas of actually making a wiggle skirt/full skirt dress, I start getting a bit nervous about how it'll actually look in real life. Part of me is bothered too that the dress appears to be unable to make up it's mind as to what style it wants to be. Full or fitted? I like my dresses to be one way or the other, which is probably why I haven't made something like this yet. ;)
On the flipside, it could be an utterly fun cocktail style dress! Which, again, is probably part of the reason I haven't made this style. I always envision it in expensive silks and lace, which I really don't have use for in my life. haha!
Gail, as a feminist (NOT a post-feminist!) I love your comment. I've been thinking on it, and I'm going to devote a post to the issue. Stay tuned!ReplyDelete
Casey, it sounds like we have a lot of the same issues with this style!
By the by, why is it called a wiggle skirt?ReplyDelete
Emma, I believe it was called a wiggle skirt because it was tight and you had to "wiggle" into it. I don't really see the difference between that and our modern pencil skirt, though.ReplyDelete
I thought it was a wiggle skirt because you wiggled when you walked in it.ReplyDelete
Anyway, I LOVE this pattern! I would dance all night in it. Another song to jive to? yes please!
I am really unclear how the overskirt will look. I look forward to seeing it!ReplyDelete
You can kinda see an example of it in this clip of I Love Lucy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z76QqL_AozIReplyDelete
It's one of my favourite outfits, but the skirt is longer, and basically has an overlay allover!
- AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 12:33 AM
I've always loved this style, but I have a sinking feeling that I'd feel like the Good Witch Glinda wearing it...ReplyDelete


text:
MIAMI — President Barack Obama cast Mitt Romney on Thursday as an out-of-touch challenger for the White House and an advocate of education cuts that could cause teacher strikes to spread from Chicago to other cities. The Republican countered that the U.S. economy "is bumping along the bottom" under the current administration and he predicted victory in the fall.
The two men eyed each other across hotly contested Florida, a state with 29 electoral votes, more than any other battleground in the close race for the White House.
"When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot," the president said. That was in response to a question about Romney's recent observation that 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax and believe they are victims and entitled to an array of federal benefits.
Obama spoke at a town hall-style forum aired by the Spanish-language television network Univision.
For his part, Romney was eager to move past that controversy, which has knocked him off stride. He disclosed plans for a three-day bus tour early next week through Ohio with running mate Paul Ryan and sought to return the campaign focus to the economic issues that have dominated the race all year.
At a fundraiser in Sarasota, Fla., Romney looked ahead to his televised head-to-head encounters with Obama this fall. "He's a very eloquent speaker, and so I'm sure in the debates, as last time … he'll be very eloquent in describing his vision," the Republican said. "But he can't win by his words, because his record speaks so loudly in our ears. What he has done in the last four years is establish an economy that's bumping along the bottom."
Less than seven weeks before Election Day, polls make the race a close one, likely to be settled in eight or so swing states where neither man has a solid edge. Obama has gained ground in polls in some of those states since the completion of the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, while Romney has struggled with controversies of his own making that have left Republicans frustrated at his performance as a candidate.
Still, there were fresh signs of weakness in the nation's job market as the two candidates vied for support in Florida.
The Labor Department said the number of Americans seeking unemployment fell only slightly last week, to a seasonally adjusted level of 382,000, suggesting that businesses remain reluctant to add to their payrolls. The four-week average rose for the fifth straight week to the highest level in nearly three months.
After more than two days of struggle, Romney seemed eager to leave the 47 percent controversy behind as he appeared at the Univision forum Wednesday night. "'My campaign is about the 100 percent in America," he said firmly.
But Obama made his most extensive comments to date on the subject since the emergence of a video showing Romney telling donors last May that as a candidate his job wasn't to worry about 47 percent of the country.
"Their problem is not they're not working hard enough or they don't want to work or they're being taxed too little or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks," the president said."
"Are there people that abuse the system? Yes, both at the bottom and at the top," he added, including millionaires who he said pay no income taxes. He said many at the low end of the income scale pay other forms of taxes, and some who don't pay taxes are senior citizens, students, disabled, veterans or soldiers who are stationed overseas.
"Americans work hard, and if they are not working right now I promise you they want to go to work," he said.
As for education, the president said Romney and running mate Ryan advocate a budget that would cut federal funds for schools by about 20 percent.
"And you could see potentially even more teachers being laid off, working conditions for teachers becoming even worse and potentially for more strikes," he said.
The president added that under his administration, "what we say to school districts all across the country is we will provide you with more help as long as you're being accountable, and as far as teachers go, I think they work as hard as anybody, but we also want to make sure that they are having high standards of performance in math and science."
Among other changes, Republicans favor repealing a 2010 change in the program that made the federal government the direct lender for student loans, replacing private banks. Democrats say a decrease in administrative fees made more money available for loans, while Republicans argue the change has raised the government's debt.
Money was not a significant issue in the Chicago strike. Mayor Rahm Emanuel secured an extension of the school day and empowered principals to hire the teachers they want. Teachers were able to soften a new evaluation process and win some job protections.
Obama, who ran on a message of changing the partisan tone in Washington, told the Univision audience that he had come to the conclusion that "you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside." He went on to say that what he had accomplished since taking office was due to mobilizing "the American people to speak out."
Romney seized on the remarks to say that Obama had surrendered in the face of a broken Washington and major challenges. "I can change Washington. I will change Washington," he told supporters in Florida. "We'll get the job done from the inside — Republicans and Democrats will come together. He can't do it. His slogan was 'Yes, we can.' His slogan now is 'No, I can't.' This is time for a new president."
The day's campaign events showed the complexities of campaigning in Florida, a state that is home to large populations of seniors and of Hispanics.
Romney released a new television commercial designed to appeal to both groups.
It features Sen. Marco Rubio plugging the Republicans' plan to overhaul Medicare, a flashpoint in the campaign that Obama says could threaten future beneficiaries with high out-of-pocket costs.
Saying his mother is 81, Rubio declares in the ad: "We can save Medicare without changing hers, but only if younger Americans accept that our Medicare will be different than our parents', when we retire in 30 years.
"But after all they did for us, isn't that the least we can do?"
While Obama is likely to win the Hispanic vote overwhelmingly, he drew criticism in his appearance.
He said the lack of immigration reform legislation was his biggest failure as president and "not for a lack of trying or desire." He said he couldn't find a single Republican to help work on the legislation. "I'm happy to take responsibility for being naive here," the president said when pressed to admit he broke his promise.
Univision anchor Jorge Ramos interjected: "You promised us, and a promise is a promise. And with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise."
Obama drew praise from Hispanic groups earlier in the year when he announced a policy shift that will allow some immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to avoid deportation.
Romney has been critical of the change, but has declined to say if he would reverse it if he wins the White House.
In a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, the challenger's campaign said that as of Aug. 31, it had about $50 million available to spend in the final two months of the race. It also reported a bank debt of $15 million, of which officials say $4 million has been repaid.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing email@example.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to firstname.lastname@example.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.


text:
FAQ What kinds of viewers does JFace provide?
JFace includes the following basic types of viewers:
- TreeViewer connects to an SWT Tree widget.
- TableViewer connects to an SWT Table widget.
- ListViewer connects to an SWT List widget. Note that because the native List widget cannot display icons, most applications use a TableViewer with a single column instead.
- TableTreeViewer connects to an SWT TableTree widget.
A TableTree is a table whose first column can contain a tree, and each row of the table corresponds to a single item in the tree. The Properties view by default uses a TableTree.
- TextViewer connects to an SWT StyledText widget.
- CheckboxTreeViewer and CheckboxTableViewer are just like their namesakes, but have a check box next to each tree and table entry.
In addition to these basic viewer types, you are free to implement your own or to subclass an existing viewer to obtain specialized functionality. Viewers, however, are designed to be extremely customizable without the need to create a subclass.
As a historical footnote, an earlier version of JFace used viewer subclassing as the mechanism for customization. This led to a profusion of "monolithic" subclasses that were specialized for a particular purpose. The problem with subclassing is that it provides only one dimension of reuse. If you wanted to create a new viewer that filtered its contents like viewer X but displayed its contents like viewer Y, you were stuck with subclassing the viewer with the most contents in common and using copy and paste or other ad-hoc forms of reuse to get what you needed. With the current JFace viewer architecture, each pluggable component provides a new dimension of reuse. You can still subclass a viewer for very specialized situations, but you can generally get away with instantiating one of the standard viewers and installing the necessary pieces to get the behavior you want.
- Table Tree Viewer is depricated since 3.1. use TableViewer instead.
See Also:
This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.


text:
Life Distractions
What keeps us from doing all that we want? Many say that personal
growth and development and self awareness are our number one
priorities in life, yet most spend very little time and attention
towards this end. Some people do not realize how important it is to
continually grow, in fact they may not even realize they can. Many
people know that they can continue to grow, develop and become more
self aware, but they don't do much about it.
And then there are those few that seem to be able to actively keep
moving forward on their life path. Why? They allow their thinking
to focus on their enlightenment, on how they think and act on a
regular basis, not just once in a while. They are able to let their
mind calm down and get quiet, allowing the chatter to fade away.
They are willing to allow their fears, doubts and worries to be
present in their thought, knowing that these thoughts can't
actually harm them – knowing that avoidance just postpones not
There are different reasons why we all don't actively participate
in our own personal enlightenment, but one of the main reasons is
due to distraction. The human mind can actually do only one thing
at a time, those of you that think otherwise are just good at
rapidly switching from one focus to another. So what we choose to
think about determines much of our life experience. In relation to
distraction, when we think about is something that helps us feel
comfortable or think we should be doing because of our life
responsibilities we are not focusing on growth and self
Now I'm not here to tell you what is and is not important in your
physical life, but I know that you need to apply some of your time
and attention to your inner growth which includes how you think and
act. So what keeps you from doing this you may not even be aware
of. Since it is normal for humans to seek happiness, which we
equate to comfort, we tend to avoid uncomfortable thinking and
feelings. And we do this in many ways, some are our daily
activities. We may not be aware of how our daily activities can be
getting the way of our growth and self-realization
Things you may do to avoid discomfort:
Listening to music
Listening to talk radio
Watching TV
Playing video games
Hold on! You say, "these are normal things."
Yes they are, but they can all be used as a distraction. And only
you can know what role they play in your life. Like anything,
moderation is usually the best.
There are two situations you may be avoiding.
1)If you tend to go to any activity when you feel
uncomfortable, you are probably escaping. Sure you will feel better
doing something you are familiar with, but this behavior can just
postpone what you are avoiding or even make it worse. What I'm
referring to here relates to more discomfort than simple relaxation
and enjoyment.
2)One of the biggest things you may be doing without
knowing it is avoiding real thinking. This is when you are
uncomfortable with allowing your mind to run through the incessant
mind chatter, which shakes your worries and doubts in your face, to
the point where your mind is clear.
Life requires balance, and what I have found is that for most, any
self-growth is pushed into a small corner receiving only spare time
attention – sometimes. Are you running in circles doing the same
things each day and not seeing any change? Are you frustrated with
your life? There could be an initial feeling of discomfort when you
choose to allow yourself to think freely and not choose a
distraction, but this will pass. Using methods of relaxation and
meditation will help.
If you want more for yourself take a look at what you do and why
you do it. Take a look at what you do everyday towards your own
personal growth and development, to what you are doing towards
self-realization. Only you can know if you are using activities to
avoid something that is actually more important. Choose to set
aside time to just relax and think – this is how you can get in
touch with your inner self on a more regular basis.
The choice of how you spend your time is yours and the result is
your life experience.
John Halderman,
Tips and tools for daily personal growth, increased happiness and
self-discovery. https://www.effectivepersonaldevelopmentblog.com


text:
"The Non-Fat Yogurt"
I love this episode. I think it's just because of all the references to David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani and the 1993 mayoral election in New York, which I remember very well, but watching it again, it is a really good one. The gang's obsession with non-fat yogurt feels very true to the characters: Kramer likes delicious things, George likes to be guilt-free, and Jerry and Elaine are fussy, him about what he eats, her about her figure. Then you mix in some healthy slapstick and farce and an attempt at topicality that really is just an excuse for more absurdism. Very nice stuff.
The "Inside Look" on this episode on the DVD is really cool to watch if you have the time, just in how everything went down to the wire on getting either Dinkins or Giuliani, whoever won the mayoral election that Tuesday, ready to appear on the show, which aired on Thursday. I'm amazed that they somehow managed to corral Rudy into doing his brief cameo sometime in between his Tuesday night victory party and the next day, but they did, and it's cute. Giuliani isn't hopelessly stiff in his 15 seconds on the show, and I imagine at the time, it really must have played well to see them turn something like that around so quickly.
They also manage to keep any political tone out of the episode (in what was a very polarized election), although sometimes maybe you can hear a hint of animosity in Jerry's voice towards Giuliani, but I may well be projecting that. Not that I have any feelings either way (I cover city politics as part of my day job, so I suppose I should present an air of impartiality). Anyway, if you watch the Inside Look, or just watch the whole alternate episode that never aired because Dinkins lost, you'll see there really is no political bent. Instead of being excited by Dinkins, Frank and Estelle exult that George's name was mentioned to Giuliani by his douche friend Lloyd Braun. And so on, and so forth.
George's story is maybe not one of his best, but I really like how handsome and charming and evil Lloyd is and how he represents everything that bugs George about having to live with his parents. I don't really think the involuntary nudging thing is very funny, although Jason Alexander carries it off well. But I do like how George is ready to commit to the bit for the rest of his life if need be, rather than admit that he was nudging Jerry for whatever stupid reason. "Lloyd doesn't know what he's up against. This is nothing to me. My whole life is a lie!" he proudly proclaims.
But the central yogurt goings-on are all great fun. You've got Kramer calling Jerry fatso and romancing the lab technician, Jerry saying "fuck" over and over, and Elaine breaking one of Lloyd's chairs on a date (sadly off-screen) because the non-fat yogurt made her so fat. The Jerry swearing plot might be my favorite, just because the idea of Jerry Seinfeld swearing is so alien to me. It's the stereotype about your parents having sex. You know, of course, that it's happened, but it just does not fit with your image of them at all whatsoever. Even funnier is that the multiple airings of the word "fuck," including those by the little kid, don't have the trickery you'd later see employed in bleeped-out network shows like Arrested Development or Southland. There, the camera would have to cut to some reverse angle or they'd move a mouth or a glass of water in front of their face because you can't even show somebody silently mouthing the word fuck. Now, I'm no lip-reader, so maybe they got around it by having them say something else and then bleeping it. But it looked like "fuck" to me. Ah, simpler times. And Jerry calling a kid a "piece of shit." What could be better?
The way everything comes together is sort of odd, though. Kramer's dalliance with the lab girl doesn't skew the results of the test on the non-fat yogurt but, instead, brings the Giuliani blood into the mix, for the purposes of summoning forth the cameo. Later, we're told that Rudy's crusade against fake non-fat yogurt is what turned the election, meaning we have Kramer to thank for everything that followed. It's all funny stuff, but it doesn't flow maybe quite as perfectly as it should, particularly in a Larry David-scripted episode. But I still like it. And you've got that little C-plot of Newman and his mail buddies holding court at the yogurt place like it's an Irish bar and his later fury when Jerry busts the scheme wide open. They don't directly acknowledge Wayne Knight's considerable heft, but he basically admits that he knew the stuff wasn't any good for him, but he was happy not to be worrying about it for once. Newman's never, ever a sympathetic character, but I feel maybe a twinge for him here.
Grade: A
"The Barber"
If "The Non-Fat Yogurt" has a touch of farce to it, this is a whole other level, an episode written by Andy Robin (who wrote "The Junior Mint" last season and became more prolific in the later, Larry David-lacking years) that has Jerry hiding in closets from a scary Italian barber, The Barber of Seville overture playing all the time; features Jerry attacking Newman with hair clippers; and closes on the image of two Italian men weeping while watching Edward Scissorhands. It is very funny, though, and has a favorite George sub-plot, featuring the mysterious Pensky file that I really do enjoy.
Let's do that first. It's one of those scenarios that seems too implausible to be true (like when George was fired and then just came back to the office the next week), but because it's George, we believe it. Obviously, in the case I cited that was taken from Larry David's life, whereas I don't believe this was, but that George would decide to resolve this situation by marching into the office and announcing he has the job is so perfect. It works because George is exactly meek and neurotic enough to conclude a job interview and walk out without actually knowing if he got the job. And at the same time, he's nuts enough to then just take an empty office and sit there doing nothing for eight hours a day to "ensconce" himself, even giving a toast at birthday drinks for a new office-mate.
The mysterious Pensky file is honestly something they could have spun off into some sort of corporate welfare melodrama, what with the imperious Mr. Pensky, impressed at George's accordion folder and his later revelation that his whole board is under indictment. I love to imagine such scenarios spinning out of one-joke setups on Seinfeld because, again, George is a character you can see doing so many different things because he's so, so dysfunctional and strange. I almost wish he didn't know what went on at the company (something to do with rest stops?), but I guess they decided the whole thing couldn't be that surreal.
The idea of Jerry being butchered by Enzo the barber for 12 years and not being able to get out of it is actually very true to life, at least for me. I know how awkward I feel at places I go where I tell one guy I'm actually gonna wait for the other guy, because I know he's better. But Robin takes that scenario and just maxes everything out, as wackily as possible. Enzo and Gino are as over-the-top as they can be, Jerry's relationship with Gino is spun out as a clandestine romance with a far better (and hunkier) Italian lover, and Enzo's anger upon being scorned is terrifying to watch. Newman is a major player, too, collecting a sample of Jerry's hair for Enzo to analyze, which is good because Newman works well with the more over-the-top aspects of this show.
There is one thing that is really just dead perfect, though, and that's Jerry's boyish haircut, which really is a stunning example of a bad haircut and a credit to the hair and makeup department of the show (who, I assume, achieved it without really cutting Seinfeld's hair). My favorite scene in the episode, by a long way, is Elaine laughing hysterically (and getting some echo laughs from George) when she sees it. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is obviously one of the most talented comedy actresses in the biz but this is one of her true strengths: laughing. She's really, really fun to watch laugh, something I hadn't realized until I re-watched this episode, and it occurred to me how much she laughs on the show and how endearing and funny it is.
Grade: A-
Stray observations:
- Lloyd Braun is named after Larry David's manager, later president of ABC, who greenlit its last slate of real hits (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy) and was supposedly fired before any came to air because he spent so much on the Lost pilot. He is also the voice that says "Previously, on Lost." What a man!
- I love the baggy, droopy clothes Elaine and Jerry are put in to make them look fatter. Elaine often wears such things, but to see Jerry with his shirt untucked is quite a sight.
- "You don't eat Oreos? The way you break them open, it's like you're having SEX with them!"
- "Tommy Tune is a very good dancer," Frank says. Estelle likes tap-dancing; Frank thinks it's all in the shoes.
- "I think it stinks." "It smells; it smells really bad."
- I forgot about Elaine's wonderfully moronic nametag idea. Frank likes it. "Everyone would be a lot friendlier. Hello, Sam! How you doing, Joe!"
- "A lot of people consider me small and prestigious." "That's funny, George. You're very quick!"
- Jerry thinks the end of the interviewer's "of course…" was "…sodomy is a prerequisite."
- Enzo doesn't like the idea of Edward Scissorhands. "What are you going to do in the toilet!?"
- Kramer has a different dream. "I wish I had shoehorn hands."
- There's kind of a weird subplot in "The Barber" about Elaine's bachelor audition that is really just an excuse for Kramer to do some funny dancing. It's funny!


text:
The Yoga of the Bhagavad-gita
Lord Krishna discusses the major forms of yoga, setting up a hierarchy and saying clearly which one belongs at the top.
When Time magazine ran a cover story on the science of yoga, it reported that "fifteen million Americans include some form of yoga in their fitness regimen—twice as many as did five years ago." Yet one wonders if any of the fifteen million are getting out of yoga what they should. As supermodel Christy Turlington, pictured on the cover as an ardent practitioner, is quoted as saying, "Some of my friends simply want to have a yoga butt." Patricia Walden, a prominent yoga teacher who has made a fortune producing instructional videos, responds to what many would consider a shallow approach to yoga: "If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it's much, much more."
Or do they?
The sad truth is that most people are not studying the Bhagavad-gita, traditionally seen as a yoga-sutra, a treatise on yoga. At least in Western countries, aspiring yogis, intimidated by the Gita's Sanskrit terminology, set the book aside to be studied later. Though that response in understandable, let's look at the Gita's teachings on yoga and see why for centuries it has been, and still is, considered among the most important textbooks on the subject.
It should be noted at the outset that the word yoga itself refers to "linking with God." This implies that any genuine approach to yoga should involve the spiritual pursuit, however varied that pursuit may be. For example, in the first verses of the Gita's third chapter, Lord Krishna introduces two forms of spirituality that might be identified with yoga: the contemplative life and the active one. The people of India in the time of the Gita were given to extreme acts of renunciation. Aspiring spiritualists of the age felt that only by shaking off the burden of active worldly life could one approach a life of the spirit. The Gita seeks to correct this misconception. It takes the doctrine of nivritti, negation, so dominant in ancient India, and augments it with positive spiritual action. Thus, Krishna (who is also known as Yogeshvara, or "the Master of Mystic Yoga") teaches Arjuna not so much about renunciation of action, but about renunciation in action. In later Vaishnava terminology, this is the preferred yukta-vairagya, or "renouncing the world by acting for the Supreme." Krishna accepts both forms of renunciation, but He describes the active form as more practical and more effective as well.
Whichever form, or approach, one chooses, says Krishna, detachment from sense objects is mandatory. The difference, then, lies only in one's external involvement with the world. Krishna asserts that contemplative, or inactive, yoga is difficult because the mind can become restless or distracted. He recommends the active form of yoga, which He calls karma-yoga. This is safer, He says, because one still strives to focus the mind, using various techniques of meditation, but augments that with practical engagement in the material world.
Krishna elaborates on how to perform karma-yoga in the sixth chapter, again emphasizing its superiority to mere renunciation and philosophy:
One who is unnattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty. What is called renunciation you should know to be the same as yoga, or linking oneself with the Supreme, O son of Pandu, for one can never become a yogi unless he renounces the desire for sense gratification. (6.1-2)
Krishna's instruction here is especially useful for us today, living in the Western world. He is saying that we needn't go off to a forest to contemplate our navel. In fact, He says that such endeavors will most likely fail for most of us. Rather, we can achieve the goal of yoga by learning the art of "detached action," one of the Gita's main teachings. Krishna will explain that art to Arjuna and, by extenuation, to the rest of us. The Gita teaches how we can, in modern terms, be in the world but not of it.
Meditation: Restraining The Mind
Krishna explains that both processes of yoga, the contemplative and the active, begin with learning how to control the mind, which is essentially dhyana, or meditation:
When the yogi, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in transcendence—devoid of all material desires— he is said to be well established in yoga. As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent self.
Such meditation, Krishna admits, is difficult, but one can achieve it through arduous effort:
It is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by suitable practice and by detachment. For one whose mind is unbridled, self-realization is difficult work. But he whose mind is controlled and who strives by appropriate means is assured of success. That is my opinion. (6.35-36)
In verses ten through fourteen of the sixth chapter, Krishna elaborates on the "appropriate means," and we begin to see how truly difficult it is to perform this kind of meditation. The yogi must learn to meditate continually, without interruption, in perfect solitude. Free of wants and possessiveness, the yogi must fully restrain his mind. He must prepare a seat for himself in a clean place, neither too high nor too low, covered with cloth, antelope skin, and kusha grass. He must sit in this special place, says the Gita, and learn to make his mind one-pointed, restricting any extraneous thoughts or sensual distractions. The yogi should practice such meditation for his own purification only—without any ulterior motive. Firmly holding the base of his body, his neck, and his head straight, looking only at the tip of his nose, he must be serene, fearless, and above any lusty thought. He must sit in this way, restraining his mind, thinking only of God, Krishna says, fully devoted to the Supreme.
Krishna calls this method raja-yoga, because it was practiced by great kings (raja) in ancient times. The heart of this system is breath control (pranayama), which is meant to manipulate the energy (prana) in the body. Breath control, along with intricate sitting postures (asana), was an effective means for quieting one's passions, controlling bodily appetites, and focusing on the Supreme.
Nonetheless, this contemplative form of yoga, systematized in Patanjali's yoga-sutras and popular today as hatha-yoga, is too difficult for most people, at least if they are going to perform it properly. Krishna says this directly by the end of the sixth chapter.
Still, He recommends elements of contemplative yoga along with the yoga of action, or karma-yoga. And for most readers of the Gita, this can get confusing. Just which is He recommending—the austere form of disciplined sitting and meditation or action in perfect consciousness? Does the Gita recommend hatha-yoga, or doesn't it? Does this most sacred of texts accept the path of contemplation, or does it say that one must approach the Supreme through work?
Indeed, Arjuna himself expresses confusion in two chapters of the Gita: Is Krishna advising him to renounce the world, Arjuna wonders, or is He asking him to act in Krishna consciousness?
A thorough reading of the Gita reveals a hierarchy, a yoga ladder in which one begins by studying the subject of yoga with some serious interest—this is called abhyasa-yoga—and ends up, if successful, by graduating to bhakti-yoga, or devotion for the Supreme. All the stages in between—and there are many—are quite complex, and at this point most modern Western practitioners become daunted in their study of the Gita.
Stages Of Yoga
The question may legitimately be raised why the two approaches to yoga—the contemplative and the active (and all their corollaries)—seem to be interchangeable in one section of the Gita and a hierarchy in another. The answer lies in the Gita's use of yoga terminology, a lexicon which, again, can be confusing. The whole subject becomes easier to understand when we realize that the Gita uses different words for yoga that actually refer to the same thing: the various yoga systems are all forms of bhakti-yoga. The differences are mainly in emphasis.
Bhakti-yoga is called karma-yoga, for example, when, in the practitioner's mind, the first word in the hyphenated compound takes precedence. In karma-yoga one wants to perform work (karma) and is attached to a particular kind of work, but he wants to do it for Krishna. Karma is primary, yoga secondary. But since the work is directed to God, it can be called karma-yoga instead of just karma. The same principle can be applied to all other yoga systems.
Bhakti, the first word in the hyphenated compound bhakti-yoga, means devotional love. In love, one becomes selfless, and thus, instead of giving prominence to one's own desire, one considers the beloved first. So the second part of the compound (yoga) also becomes prominent—linking with God takes precedence over what the individual wants. The first and second words of the hyphenated compound become one: Real love (bhakti) means full connection (yoga). This makes bhakti-yoga the perfection of the yoga process.
Karma-yoga emphasizes working (karma) for the Supreme, jnana-yoga emphasizes focusing one's knowledge (jnana) on the Supreme, dhyana-yoga involves contemplating (dhyana) the Supreme, buddhi-yoga is about directing the intellect (buddhi) toward the Supreme, and bhakti-yoga—the perfection of all yogas—occurs when devotion (bhakti) is emphasized in relation to the Supreme. The main principle of yoga, in whatever form, is to direct our activity toward linking with God.
Climbing The Ladder
We may first of all, then, observe that the Gita accepts all traditional forms of yoga as legitimate, asserting that they all focus on linking with the Supreme. Yet the Gita also creates a hierarchy: First come study, understanding, and meditation (dhyana-yoga). These lead to deep contempla-tion of philosophy and eventually wisdom that culminates in renunciation (sannyasa-yoga). Renunciation leads to the proper use of intelligence (buddhi-yoga), then karma-yoga,and finally bhakti-yoga.
All of this involves a complex inner development, beginning with an understanding of the temporary nature of the material world and of duality. Realizing that the world of matter will cease to exist and that birth all too quickly leads to death, the aspiring yogi begins to practice external renunciation and gradually internal renunciation, which, ultimately, comprises giving up the desire for the fruit of one's work (karma-phala-tyaga) and performing the work itself as an offering to God (bhagavad-artha-karma). This method of detached action (karma-yoga) leads to the "perfection of inaction" (naishkarmya-siddhi), or freedom from the bondage of works. One becomes free from such bondage because one learns to work as an "agent" rather than as an "enjoyer"—one learns to work for God, on His behalf. This is the essential teaching of the Gita, and in its pages Krishna takes Arjuna (and each of us) through each step of the yoga process.
The Top Rung
The Gita's entire sixth chapter is about Arjuna's rejection of conventional yoga. He describes it as impractical and "too difficult to perform," as it certainly is in our current age of distraction and degradation (known as Kali-yuga). Since the goal of yoga is to re-connect with God, bhakti-yoga rises above all the rest. According to Krishna, Arjuna is the best of yogis because he has devotion to the Supreme Lord. Krishna tells His devotee directly, "Of all yogis, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all."
This brings us back to the basic definition of the word yoga. The word comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means "to link up with, to combine." It is similar in meaning to religio, the Latin root of the word religion, which means "to bind together." Religion and yoga, therefore, have the same end in mind: combining or linking with God. This, again, is the essential purpose of the yoga process, and the end to which the Gita hopes to bring its readers.


text:
Neologisms for Neoevangelicals
SOLA EXPERIENTIA [(soh-luh) (ɪkˈspɪər ee ən' see uh)]
- Experience alone—in contrast to the Reformation, which set forth the doctrine of Sola Scriptura (the Bible alone) as the basis for spiritual authority; experience as modern evangelicalism's basis for final authority.
- Giving sole or final authority to the totality of the cognitions given by emotions; placing feelings over reason, rational thought or biblical Truth.
- Ascribing preeminent spiritual significance to all that is perceived, understood, and remembered in personal experience.
- Placing sole or final authority in the knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or felt.
- Placing sole or final authority in the knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what others have observed, encountered, or felt, especially including those of spiritual leaders, popular speakers, authors and celebrities.


text:
Loucon's Adventure 4 Camp
Sunday, July 14, 2019 to Friday, July 19, 2019
WhereCamp Loucon
8044 Anneta Rd
Leitchfield, KY 42754
Christina Harting
5th-6th graders satisfy their adventurous side for a full 6-day, 5 night week of camp. Each day, campers are challenged to stretch outside their comfort zones in activities such as ziplining, climbing, and low elements. Loucon staples such as swimming, canoeing, games, crafts, campfires, and hayrides are included, with the addition of archery for this age group. Family groups meet each morning to teach lessons about Christian living and nightly worship offers a perfect opportunity for campers to experience God's word. Register at Loucon.org/camps!
Link to Additional Information →