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User talk:Espreon
Hello, welcome to Wiktionary, and thank you for your contributions so far.
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Again, welcome! --Μετάknowledgediscuss/deeds 02:09, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
/v/ a phoneme in Old English?[edit]
I'm not sure whether it is a phoneme, but I wonder why or why not. And if not, what is it an allophone of? Do you think that at some point in the history of Old English, the Germanic sound [β] moved from being an allophone of /b/ to an allophone of /f/? —CodeCat 17:50, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
- Everything I've read says that [v] is an allophone of /f/ that occurs between voiced sounds. As for your other question, I don't know; I haven't really studied Proto-Germanic and the like. ― Espreon (talk) 17:54, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
- I imagine that it's just a matter of coincidence, really, now that I think about it. Proto-Germanic had two phonemes, /f/ and /b/. /f/ was always [ɸ], /b/ was [b] at the beginning of a word, after /m/ or when doubled, and [β] elsewhere. At some point in the history of most West Germanic languages, [ɸ] and [β] shifted to [f] and [v] (they changed from bilabial to labiodental) without changing any phonemes. But in Old English, [f] became [v] in-between vowels, merging with the existing [v]. So, in theory, [v] is an allophone of both /f/ and /b/ in Old English, and only etymology can determine which.
- But there is still a point I'd like to address. In Middle English, /v/ became a phoneme because of Norman loanwords, which introduced the sound in positions that were not complementary to /f/, distorting the allophonic status. I wonder if there are any loanwords already in Old English that show this as well; loanwords from Romance languages that have /v/ word-initially. Do you know if there are any? —CodeCat 18:02, 14 April 2012 (UTC)
Old English IPA transcriptions and other things[edit]
Hello, Ƿidsið.
For quite a long time, I've been using Wiktionary to look up Old English words, declensions, and conjugations. Since you seem to be one of the main supporters of Old English around here, I've decided to tell you about some things I've seen. First, I've noticed things like [ç], [ð], [v], and [x] in broad IPA transcriptions, which is not good since it implies they're phonemes... and everything I've read says they're not. I took the time to fix the narrow transcription for æht and provided a more narrow transcription right next to it. It'd be nice if someone helped fix the rest of the narrow transcriptions (but perhaps I'll do it all myself if need be).
I also noticed the page for èfen; I never seen Old English words marked with grave accent marks, so I was wondering if you might know anything about that... because I'd like to know why this is.
And then there's the double-u–wynn inconsistency; some main pages of words use wynn while others just use double-u. For the sake of consistency, this should be fixed so that one is used in the main pages and the other in alternate form pages, but I wonder why this issue still is. If I can do anything, then I'd be willing to help fix this issue.
Also, how well-versed are you in Old English? Can you compose some stuff in it? I'm just curious.
Thanks for your time and for caring about my favorite language. ― Espreon (talk) 02:20, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
- Hi Espreon. In common with many dictionaries, the transcriptions we use for specific languages are often not totally phonemic, but nor are they very narrow either. The exact set is to be settled on by editors experienced in the language in question. When it comes to OE there haven't always been many of us :) I believe it's important to distinguish [ç], [ð], [v], and [x]. Now when I studied phonology it was impressed on me that transcriptions are not 'broad' or 'narrow' but rather there is a sliding scale between the two, however if you would prefer that these transcriptions go in square brackets I would be OK with that, as long as we agree exactly how narrow the transcription should be. I think that is better than making transcriptions too broad, as you have been.
- On your other points. Grave accents should not be used. The use of wynn is currently in a bit of flux. Most main pages exist with Ws, and wynn-forms tend to be redirects, but personally I would eventually like to see this reversed. Finally, the policy for OE is set down at WT:AANG. The first draft was written by me but other editors have made changes as community consensus has arisen. Ƿidsiþ 07:16, 15 April 2012 (UTC)
Thanks for catching that! :) Wiktionary needs all the watchful eyes reverting vandalism/spam it can get. - -sche (discuss) 04:56, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
- You're welcome, but, actually, someone on IRC pointed it out to me and let me have the pleasure of dealing with it. ― Espreon (talk) 04:59, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
Also, suggestions for translation of 'a wiki-based open content dictionary' ??
- Amgine/ t·e 15:52, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
- I'd transcribe it as [ˈwikiwordboːk].
- As for that phrase... only "ƿici" and "ƿordbōc" come to mind. Speaking of "ƿici"/"ƿiki", you should try to find out which spelling would be preferred.


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Tshabalala is back with another golazo!
Remember the guy who scored the opening goal of the South Africa World Cup 2010 which shocked everyone? Yeah, the guy with the name you can't pronounce. Well, Siphiwe Tshabalala hit another golazo recently and it puts his World Cup goal to shame, it's an absolute stunner. Check it out below:
Let us know what you think and if you can find any better, recent golazos then send them to @LBFutbol.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rev. Clarence Yates '41 - 1991 A Award Recipient
Bio from 1991
We pay tribute to a graduate whose successful career is no surprise to his classmates. So predictable, they elected him president their freshman year and applauded his basketball prowess on the hardwood. By his senior year, Clarence Yates had gained the respect and attention of the entire Asbury campus.
Born into the parsonage, this Asburian received the mantle of ministry from his father, a Methodist preacher, who once served as pastor of the Wilmore Methodist Church. Licensed to preach at the age of twelve, his entire life has been surrounded by this call to preach. God has anointed this Methodist clergyman wherever he has served. While in Lexington, Kentucky, as pastor of the Centenary United Methodist Church, the present stone structure was built on the property adjacent to Central Baptist Hospital.
The cold winters of the Bluegrass soon turned Rev.Yates' heart southward to Florida, where he devoted thirty years to the ministry. For eleven years, his leadership at the Pinecastle United Methodist Church brought national attention for its aggressive and vital growth. Membership increased from 1,200 to 2,900 with 1,400 in worship every Sunday. People from across Central Florida recognized in this church a strong program in evangelism and missions. Families were finding Christ and their lives were being transformed. During these years, more than 50 students under than man's leadership, including a daughter, Sharon, and son, Phillip, were directed to Asbury College.
His friends and church family called him "the golfing preacher." His bishop, however, reported that he was a "better preacher than golfer." In 1985, Rev. Yates launched a full-time evangelistic ministry. At the time of receiving the "A" Award, he was currently heard in Central Florida on the radio program called "Morning Light." His program entitled "Total Family Evangelism" takes him throughout the country in special evangelistic efforts. Although a candidate for senior citizen's discounts, this graduate continued to work hard in preaching the Gospel as he did fifty years ago.
As a college student, Clarence Yates proudly donned the red and gray of the Bulldog class. One loyal fan was his class sweetheart, Charlotte Louise Mott, who continued to encourage him in his call to preach. We salute Clarence M. Yates, Class of 1941, a distinguished graduate of Asbury College.
Other 1991 A Award Recipients:
Mrs. Madeline Kelso '30 Dennis
Dr. Carl Fliermans '66
Rev. Russell Williams '66


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When Pranks Are Deadly
I can't think of anything less practical than a "practical joke." But are they inevitably evil?
The stunt last week by a couple of Australian shock jocks started out as merely meh tasteless. They'd call the hospital where preggers Kate Middleton was recovering from a hyper form of morning sickness, pretend to be the Queen of England and Prince Charles, and see what they could learn. From the transcript, it seems pretty clear they expected to get hung up on -- and sooner rather than later.
On the audio, the "queen" sounds as much like Jon Stewart doing his queen "impression" as it does HM. But the nurse who took the call simply transferred it to a nurse actually caring for Kate. Almost nothing was revealed. That a vomiting patient arrived dehydrated isn't exactly a medical exposé. The jocks did learn what time Kate's husband left the hospital -- perhaps a small security breach. You can read the transcript of the whole call here.
So no real harm, no major foul and, while the British were singularly unamused, there were yuks all around in those parts of Oz where shock-jockdom is popular.
Until it was reported that the nurse who transferred the call had apparently killed herself. Then some pretty stout condemnations rained down on the jocks who, it was said, had "blood on their hands." Some compared it with the case of the Rutgers freshman who tried to broadcast a tryst between his male roommate and another man. That, too, was followed by a suicide.
Is that a fair charge and a fair comparison? I think not.
In the Rutgers case, based on everything I've read, Dharun Ravi specifically chose to video his roommate, Tyler Clementi. And chose to let friends know about it. And chose to try to do it again.
That Clementi killed himself can't be laid directly at Ravi's feet. Who knows how many prior straws lay on that camel's back? But an act of cruelty aimed specifically at Clementi surely preceded the sad outcome.
In the more recent case, the most likely outcome for the DJs was a joke on themselves and their terrible British accents -- a few seconds of lowbrow radio humor. But they were carried along by their unexpected success. (On the other hand, since the stunt was reportedly recorded and vetted by lawyers, the radio station managers could have chosen not to air it.)
Silly? Yup. Even stupid. But as evil as the cyberbullying of the Rutgers case?
In American civil law, plaintiffs in a malpractice case must prove that, "but for" the event in question, the bad outcome would not have happened. And they need to prove the bad outcome was reasonably foreseeable.
Again, we can only imagine the straws on this camel's back that would crush nurse Jacintha Saldanha into taking her own life. And did anybody who heard about this prank on the first day say they foresaw a suicide?
I wondered what faith traditions have to say about pranks. I started with a search for "practical joke" and "Talmud" and fell into hours worth of material. Turns out that traditional Judaism has chronicled thousands of years of discussions about pranks and jokes.
Start with Leviticus 25:17, which can be translated as "Do not cheat (or maybe "do not take advantage of") each other..." In context, it's about fair business dealings. But the sages expanded that to all manner of "theft." Time, reputation, peace of mind -- the sorts of things at stake in a prank are all of value. Emotional anguish is simply prohibited.
The Babylonian Talmud goes this far: "One who embarrasses another in public, it is as if that person shed blood" (Baba Metzia 58b). And "It is better for a man that he should cast himself into a fiery furnace rather than that he should put his fellow to shame in public" (Berakoth 43a).
A detailed list of examples of prank-like transgressions can be assembled from Jewish writings: Scaring another person, such as hiding behind a door in a dark room and startling him when he enters; jokingly scaring someone by telling him false information; withholding another's belongings, even as a joke; giving someone a hot coal when it should be cool.
Talmudic Judaism being Talmudic Judaism, there are disagreements and discussions about exactly how any of this is to be applied. But it is clear that there is a strong bias against pranks with very few exceptions.
One exception is the holiday of Purim. Costumes, drink and revelry are part of custom and ritual. It's also a time when some authorities say that a modest level of prankery is permitted.
This is even true in some Orthodox Jewish schools, the yeshivas themselves, where there is a tradition of a "Purim rabbi." One of the smarter students is assigned to give a satirical lecture, imitating the regular instructors. One can only imagine what a knee-slapper that would be to the uninitiated.
But even that custom has an "on the other hand." I found this reference:
"I have seen in writing that the Gaon, Rabbi Shimon Sofer died from the anguish he suffered in the wake of the insults hurled at him by the 'Purim Rabbi.'"
Bottom line for Judaism seems to be a moral risk/benefit analysis. What's the best that can come from most pranks? A few moments of amusement. What's the worst, unlikely though it might be? Death. And the most likely outcome is public humiliation of the victim.
I'm still not going to join the chorus of high-dudgeon condemnation for those two Australian shock jocks. They are surely as stunned as anyone at the tragedy that followed their prank. But particularly in this world of 24-hour "news" and the instant-transmission Internet, I'm inclined to agree with the Jewish sages:
The upside wasn't worth the downside.


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Paris SG could hijack Genoa's proposed move for Palermo's international goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.
The Italian is being considered by the Marassi outfit, along with Fiorentina's Sebastien Frey, as a replacement for the Benfica-bound Eduardo.
However, according to a report on TMW, Ligue 1 giants PSG are very close to netting the Azzurri custodian.
Paris SG, who have already signed Jeremy Menez from Roma and are tracking Momo Sissoko of Juventus, have apparently made the Rosanero a €3.5m bid.
The player himself, who has been in talks with Palermo regarding a pay rise, will be offered a four-year contract worth €1.2m a season. He currently nets just €250,000 a term.
See the latest Serie A predictions and betting tips with Eurotips.co.uk [11]


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Europe › Portugal › Sines › Sines Restaurants
Restaurante Nova Lota
Sines, Portugal
Restaurante Nova Lota Sines Reviews
1733 reviews
Restaurante Nova Lota Jul 25, 2009
My old favourite restaurant had changed owner since I was here the last time. The place had gotten a real face lift and there were now colours on the tables. The owner was a nice young guy who had a lot of drive and he was service minded as well.
Being the first evening in this little Portuguese secret of a city made me fall back to some of my favourites from this place. I started with a octopus salad with was good and spicy. There were loads of fresh garlic and herbs, amongst them a tiny bit of coriander. Something new for me was the tiny bits of carrot that was added; not bad it became crispier that way.
As a main course I took the lobster; a wild one but not a huge one; it only weighed in at 680 grams. I wanted it grilled which usually is very good. Being so close to the water meant that I had to go for fish or things from the sea. The lobster was good with melted butter and a huge bowls of salad. I was getting full the amazing way.
I chose a local white wine Quinta do Bacalhoa from 2007, which turned out to be a good recommendation from the owner.
In Portugal people go out and eat very late, sometimes I have been amazed when a family with small children enter a place at 11pm but it is how they do. I was early, very early but I had not got anything to eat since breakfast in Sevilla; I was in here at 8.00 pm and I was the first in the restaurant. Most of the tables were reserved but first as of 10pm; in Denmark this would be the time people would go home.
Part of the A 7500 km road trip round the Iberian Peninsula travel blog
Part of the list Restaurants around the world
Join TravBuddy to leave comments, meet new friends and share travel tips!


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A BUS depot, retail site and waste facility have all been proposed for a former target of Nazi propaganda.
The former MOD fuel depot, off the A259 Bognor Road, was formally allocated earlier this year as a site for a waste management facility by West Sussex County Council.
This month, Hunter Page Planning wrote to the head of planning at Chichester District Council Andrew Frost to request an environmental assessment impact screening was carried out for the 4.8ha site.
Jenny Henderson, from Hunter Page, wrote: "At this stage, the type and approximate extent of development is for up to 22,000sq ft of retail, a waste facility covering one hectare, a bus depot covering approximately 0.8ha, a mix of employment uses (B1/B2/B8 and trade counter) and associated car parking and landscaping.
B8 business use is generally for storage and distribution, with B1 and B2 for general industrial business.
Last year, the change of use of the site from a distribution depot to a waste transfer station was given the thumbs-up by the county council.
Over the years, there has been plenty of discussion about what the future holds for the site.
The latest plan, including a bus depot, appears to indicate there is the possibility of the site being partly used for a park-and-ride facility for Chichester city centre.
In 2011, the district council considered the possibility of the site being used for a park-and-ride, at a meeting behind closed doors, however confirmed afterwards there were 'no definite proposals'.
According to the county council's waste plan, the site has the capacity to deliver a single waste management facility on a section of the site, as part of the 'comprehensive redevelopment of the site involving complementary non-waste uses'.
"The actual waste management capacity achieved on the site would depend upon the specific type of facility and the chosen technology," it said.
The Observer has tried to contact Hunter Page Planning for more details on the proposals, but did not receive a reply before going to press.
To view the letter from Hunter Page, visit www.chichester.gov.uk and search for planning application 14/02813/EIA.


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Obtained during the "Love is in the Air" in February. It is also part of the achievement Lonely?
Cost: 10 Love Tokens
From what I can tell this boss has around a 2-3 hour respawn It is not the same every time. I like to camp him on days when I'm just farming bgs. I was lucky enough to get the Crystal of Insanity first try on my mage but, after around 15 other kills, no luck on any other characters, His shadow bolt ability is laughable but be sure to move out of the shadow pools he drops as they will kill you,
The 500 all stats buff from the crystal is amazing to have for anything other than guild progression so you don't have to waste your flasks. It is never consumed and has a 15 min cd with an hour long duration.


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7 Reasons Why You Will Love Tête-à-Tête Salon
- Our hair and beauty salon has been serving the Newton area since 1999 and has a pristine reputation.
- Our stylists are highly trained professionals who continually upgrade their skills.
- We use the best products on the market and keep up with latest developments.
- Wella color
- American Wave
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- Brazilian Blowout
- Bio-ionic/Japanese straightening
- Hairdreams enhancement
- Natural hard beeswax
- Bumble & Bumble
- Moroccan Oil
- We offer organic hair color and organic hair care products.
- O-way
- Organic Color Systems
- We offer the convenience of getting all your services done in one place such as hair cutting and coloring, relaxers, keratin treatment, makeup application, wedding and special occasion hair styles, hair extensions, manicure, pedicure, facials, and waxing.
- Our staff is very friendly and respectful of your time.
- We stand behind our work 100%.


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Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story
Booker Wright was an African-American restaurant owner who also served double-duty as a waiter in a "whites-only" restaurant in Mississippi in the 1960s. He became an unlikely activist for the Civil... View more >
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This is a usability benchmark of the checkout process of 150 top e-commerce sites. You're currently navigating by checkout step (Shipping address). You can also navigate by case studies.
In this checkout step there's 10 highlights (pro only) outlining what Sony are doing right and wrong. The screenshot was taken March 9, 2012 and depicts Sony's Shipping address.
In total, 8 of Sony's checkout steps have been benchmarked across 63 usability guidelines from the E-Commerce Checkout research study. See full Sony case study.


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basic shorts
The adidas Basic Shorts for men are made out of soft, French Terry fabric. The design adds a unique camouflage 3-Stripe for a high-contrast look. Pair these shorts with a basic or polo t-shirt.
- Side pockets for storage
- Drawcord on elastic waist for support
- Slim fit
- Material composition: 70% Cotton, 30% Polyester
Please note, refunds on Cash On Delivery purchases are not accepted; orders can only be exchanged for another item. Should you wish to return or exchange your item, you must contact email@example.com within 7 days of receiving your order. For more information on how to return your order, please visit our Returns Policy page. For details on delivery, head to our Shipping Policy page.
If you need any assistance please use our chat.


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NPL Events Calendar
NPL Programs and Events
Use the drop-down menus below to filter events and programs by age or program category, branch location, or both. You can also sign up to have NPL event eNotifications delivered to your inbox.
View the NPL Bookmobile Schedule online.
America's First Ladies
Women's History Month Event
- Date: 03/02/2017 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
- Location: Lafayette
1610 Cromwell Dr.
Norfolk, Virginia 23509
Return to full list >>
Hear inspiring stories about the lives of the wives of America's presidents. Refreshments will be served.
(Preschool & School Age)


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BART Board Director Rebecca Salztman
The transit agency's police force now wants $70,000 in restitution for the act. However, BART's General Manager Grace Crunican said Wednesday the 14 protesters charged with misdemeanor that day should instead perform community service.
The protesters have yet to appear in court and their fate rest with Alameda County Distict Attorney Nancy O'Malley's office.
The demonstration was part of the Black Lives Matter movement that followed non-indictments against police officers in Ferguson, Mo. and New York City.
Meanwhile, East Bay BART District 3 Board Director Rebecca Saltzman, who represents stations in El Cerrito, Berkeley and San Leandro, among others, agrees with Crunican. In a posting on Facebook, Saltzman wrote:
For the past week I have been in conversations with BART staff about the charges and particularly the $70,000 restitution component. I appreciate that BART General Manager Grace Crunican and Police Chief Kenton Rainey recently reached out to Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley about the pending charges and expressed interest in pursuing community service and restorative justice programs. I think that this is an appropriate path to pursue in lieu of financial restitution.But, then things got weird when Saltzman referenced the Black Friday protesters on Twitter with Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks.
@jpmassar Rosa Parks did not shut down an entire transit system for hours. @missmollie33 @marymad @blackoutcollect
— Rebecca Saltzman (@RebeccaForBART) January 8, 2015
UPDATE: Saltzman later apologized for the statement on Twitter.
Saltman told the East Bay Citizen Thursday afternoon that she regrets the tweet. "I do know the history. I do see the difference," she said of the Montgomery bus boycott sparked by Parks' act of civil disobedience. "Those were protests over the racist policies of a bus system."
She added, though, when it comes to the Black Friday demonstration at the West Oakland station, "BART riders impacted did not necessarily have anything to do with what they were protesting."
The District 3 director says she stands by her statement today on restitution. "We can't just let people shut down BART all the time."


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2012 ReSkilling Festival Preview
(Fast forward through the first 10 seconds or so to get to start of show!)
Dying to learn how to preserve food, keep bees, meditate or craft string from bark????? Please join us on the radio today as we highlight the 6th Ann Arbor ReSkilling Festival with organizer Rebecca Streng. Also in the studio is the fabulous Nate Ayers, a local permaculturist and educator.


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Messages Dated February 1997
5,581 - 5,585 of 5,585
Rat finds Food at End of Maze
More: to the credit of these super-devout Catholic parents, they became frustrated with the lack of response from the church and persistently followed through all the way to the Vatican. To their dismay, they were told that the church had taken steps to deal with it, i.e., sending the guy on some kind of course at one of their 'treatment' clinics. Happily, that's happening. He's out on bail but he has been charged and is going to trial. I'll post
He's just plain crazy. Somebody has do god's work here on earth. Ken knows in his heart that he's been called.
Second the motion. God Ron <bg> SFEMB 0.41 John Brawley Quantum but Non_local Whineing God. BBS TCode: -Devil-
Freedom of choice
No, I am far from racist. If you can cite any post of mine that shows otherwise, please do so. No, I do not see that. Explain to me, for instance, what is racist about what I said at the top. Blacks cannot help being black, so I certainly would not hate black people.
bozos, bozos everywhere
Fine, I'll rephrase it.. "Genetically ENGINEERED foods."


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The KC Stadium is the scene for tonight's Hull-a-Bull-oo
Hull FC meet the Bradford Bulls in the final Friday night live Super League game of the regular season in a game that should be a cracker.
Initially it may seem like an odd choice of match to be shown by the people at Sky Sports. Hull having nothing to play for after a pretty dire, inconsistent season and in-form Bradford will make the play-offs with a win, unless the Catalans Dragons get a point at St Helens. So that's a simple enough pick - Bradford away win - and the odds of 2/5 about them to win in 80 minutes would agree.
But it may not quite be a foregone conclusion and it will certainly be worth watching and betting In-Play on our range of markets.
Bradford are looking for the fifth Super League win in a row. That would be six wins in seven league games - considering they only managed to scrape together six victories in the previous 20 games of the season, it's a fair conclude that Steve McNamara has got his team firing on all cylinders just in time for the climax of the season.
That said, Hull are only three points behind the Bulls in the league. They may have only won three games since the start of June, against the two sides propping up the table and Harlequins who occupy the spot above them, but they will want to end the season with a decent show. Playing their last game in front of their loyal Old Faithful supporters they have to give them something to smile about before they endure their neighbours and rivals Hull KR playing a minimum of two play-off games.
Hull stalwarts Graeme Horne, Chris Thorman and Paul King will be making their final appearances for the club and players that have committed so much deserve a good send off. They are 11/8, 6/4 and 5/1 respectively to cross the whitewash on their swansong.
There will be tries aplenty tonight in Humberside/East Yorkshire (can anyone else keep up with the desultory name changed for the county?) so investment in the Anytime Try Scorer markets could prove profitable.
Bradford have scored nearly 40 points per game in their last four games and, bizarrely, conceded exactly 18 in each one. For the Bulls to register an 11-15 winning margin you can get odds of 11/2.
It could be closer than that though, with Hull FC chasing the Bulls all the way and are backable at 10/11 with a six-point headstart. Not so confident? There's 4/7 with the more "comfortable" ten-point start.


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Author has written 3 stories for Dream of Mirror Online, and X-overs.
Hello! I am the annoying toy most best known as a Furby. Funny story as to how I came up with this name: I was trying to make my third Runescape account, and I started by puting 'furby' then 453, then 75, and it was one of the options given to me. Quite frankly, it's become my most common user name for sites.
For other things though, I love to draw and write. I have been known for sitting in the middle of a note and drawing on my lap. i'd sit at the back of the class, but my long distance viewing is shit-tastic. I find it amusing that the only teacher who GIVES A DAMN is my french teacher... Anyways...
I mainly write stories about my Original Characters, who have absolutely no relation to games except for a couple, and those two are related to dream of Mirror Online. Recently, I have made a couple more characters who relate more to Ragnarok Online, which a friend and I have spun off a race out of it, and made the world into our own place. I imagine that without people writing and drawing, this world would be pretty dull. We need to be entertained somehow, right?
However, it's difficult to actually think of anything... AH!
My real name is Stephanie, but most people call me Steph, or Stephy. I am 16 years old, and indeed I am in Canada. It's peaceful up here actually, except for the random murders that are happening in Kingston. Chinese and Japanese cultures influence me greatly, as well as one of my close friends. I suppose I do more rolepalying than actual writing, maybe more than drawing, but it something to entertain oneself, and I take great pride in that. On DeviantART, I am known for anime drawing, short stories and a little photography. I am also know to do little critiques for some people, but I don't go too overboard now. Not once have I been tagged for a meme, so it's a little sad. I'd really like some more people watching me over there too. Gets annoying not having people looking at your art, and ignoring it outright.
...Another thing I do is play online games. I am currently playing KituSaga (Aeriagames), Grand Fantaisa (Aeriagames), Dream of Mirror Online (Aeriagames) and Ragnarok online (Gravity/ Private server heRO). Usually I'm comfortable for doing things like this. Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place...
^^~ ← Foxie :D
...Umm... Randomness spree I suppose? /sweatdrop


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You press the power button on your PC. A bunch of messages scroll by, or perhaps a flashy animation if you're using a desktop-oriented distro, and finally you arrive at a login prompt. What exactly happens in the mean time? That's what we'll be explaining in this instalment of our School of Linux series. Like last month, which focused on identifying and managing hardware on your Linux system, this tutorial will help you prepare for Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certification. So it's useful if you want to get a job in the Linux world, or even if you just want to learn a bit more about your operating system.
Linux certification avoids whizz-bang, rapidly updated distros and teaches skills applicable to the more stable, enterprise-friendly flavours such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS and Debian. We used CentOS for last month's guide – this time it's the turn of Debian (version 5).While distros vary in the way they implement certain features, much here will be applicable across the board.
The Linux boot process is an intricate collection of processes and scripts that turn your PC, initially nothing more than a lump of cold metal, into a powerful workstation or server. Let's go through the key steps in order.
The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a small program that lives in a chip on your motherboard. When you hit your PC's power button, the CPU starts executing BIOS code. You've no doubt seen the 'Hit F2 for setup' messages that appear when your system starts, providing you with access to the BIOS for changing settings such as the disk drive boot order. Typically, the BIOS performs a quick check of your hardware – making sure the RAM chips are working, for example – and then tries to find a bootloader. It attempts to load the first 512 bytes from a floppy drive or hard drive into RAM and, if this works, executes the contents.
So the BIOS has handed over control to the first part of the OS: the half-kilobyte bootloader. Back in the 1980s, such a tiny amount of memory was fine for loading an OS kernel. However, modern bootloaders must support many different filesystems, OSes and graphics modes, so 512 bytes isn't enough. In the case of Grub, as used by most Linux distros, the half-k loader then loads another program called Stage 1.5.
This is a slightly larger bootloader that's located towards the start of the drive so that it can be found easily. It then loads Grub Stage 2, a fully fledged bootloader that provides all of the features you're used to. Grub reads a configuration file, loads the Linux kernel into RAM and starts executing it.
Traditionally, Linux (and Unix) boot scripts have run sequentially – that is, one follows the other. This is simple, and guarantees that certain bits of hardware and features will be enabled by certain points in the boot process. However, it's an inefficient way of doing things and leads to long bootup times, especially on older hardware. Much of the time, the scripts are waiting for something to happen: for a piece of hardware to activate itself, or for a DHCP server on the network to send a lease, for instance.
Wouldn't it be great if other things could be done in the delays? That's the aim of parallelised init scripts. While your network script is waiting for DHCP, another script can clean /tmp or start up the X Window System. You can't just put ampersands on the end of every script call and run them all in parallel, though; some scripts depend on certain facilities being available. For instance, a boot script that gets an IP address via DHCP needs to assume that networking's already been enabled by another script.
InitNG is a parallelised boot system in which scripts have dependencies to sort out their order. Upstart, as used by Ubuntu, starts scripts based on system events, such as when a hardware device is detected. Then there's System D (due to be in Fedora 15) and other approaches. For the sake of documenters and administrators, let's hope the Linux world will eventually settle on one system, but in any case the move towards parallelisation is hugely speeding up the Linux boot process.
When the very first bytes of the Linux kernel begin executing, it's like a newborn, unaware of the outside world of your system. First, it tries to work out what processor and features are available, sees how much RAM is installed and gets an overall picture of the system. It can then allocate itself a safe place in memory – so that other programs can't overwrite it and cause spectacular crashes – and starts enabling features such as hardware drivers, networking protocols and so forth.
Once the kernel has done everything it needs to, it's time to hand control over to userland: the place where programs are run. The kernel isn't interested in running Bash, Gdm, and so on directly, so it runs a single master program: /sbin/init. This is the first proper process on the system. Init is responsible for starting the boot scripts that get the system running, but needs to know what to run. The main config file for init is /etc/inittab, a plain text file you can edit.
This file is based around a concept called runlevels – the different running states the system can be in, such as single user, multiuser and shutting down. We'll cover these later, but for now you need to know that /etc/inittab tells init to run the /etc/init.d/rc script, with the runlevel as a parameter.
This script calls other scripts to set up various parts of the system – to establish a network connection, start system loggers and, on a desktop machine, launch the X Window System and login manager. Once you've given your details, the login manager launches your desktop or window manager of choice and you're ready to go. This entire process – from power button to clicking icons – involves a lot of work, but is generally well-shielded from the user.
Want to see how much time is being spent by your boot scripts? Get a graphical representation with Bootchart (it's in most distros' package repositories).
Now let's look at the bootloader in more detail. In most cases, this will be Grub, a powerful program that can launch a range of OSes and enables you to make configuration changes at startup. We're going to cover Grub's configuration files and related utilities in a future tutorial – for now, we'll focus on making changes at boot time on our Debian installation.
When Grub appears, just after the BIOS screen, you're given a list of boot options. You can hit Enter to start one of these, but you can edit them in place as well. Select the entry you want to edit and hit E. After this, you'll be taken to another screen with three lines that look like the following:
root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686
Have a look at the second line. This tells Grub where to find the Linux kernel, and what options to pass over to it. In this case, we tell the kernel where the root partition (/) device is, then ro says the partition should be mounted as read-only. This is so that filesystem checks can be run if needed – but it will be remounted as read-write shortly after. Meanwhile, quiet tells the kernel that we don't want it to spit out lots of messages, making the boot cleaner and easier to follow.
Grub is a hugely flexible bootloader. With a tap of the E key you can edit its options before starting the boot sequence.
We can modify these options by using the Down cursor key to select that second line and hitting E again. The screen will switch to a plain editing mode, where you can add and remove options. The cursor keys move around in the line. So let's try something: after quiet, add a single s (with a space separating them). What we're doing is specifying the runlevel we want the kernel to boot in – s means single user.
Hit Enter to return to the Grub screen, then press B to start the boot process. Since we're booting into single user mode, the normal process stops after the kernel's initialised and mounted the root partition, and you'll be asked for the root user password. Provide it and you'll enter a prompt. This is a limited mode of operation, but handy for sorting boot problems – you can edit and fix scripts unhindered
Changing runlevels on a single-user machine is no problem – you're already prepared for it. But what about on a multiuser machine? What if you have other users logged in via SSH and running programs? They don't want everything to disappear from under their feet in an instant. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways you can alert them about the changes to come. First, if you log in as root and enter wall, you can type a message and hit Ctrl+D to finish. This message will then be displayed on the terminals of every currently logged-in user. So you could, for instance, broadcast, "Shutdown in 10 minutes." Normal users can run wall too, but they can also disable messages from other normal users with the mesg command.
An alternative way to contact users in order to alert them is to mail them. This is similarly simple and can be done in a single command, such as the following:
echo "Reboot in 10 minutes" | mail -s "Reboot notice" user@localhost
If the users are running an email notification tool, they'll see the new message immediately. If you've got a big installation, with hundreds of logged-in users, you'll want to give several hours rather than minutes of advance notice.
With the aforementioned quiet option and the overall speed of modern PCs, it's quite possible that the photons from the boot messages will barely have time to reach your retinas before the boot process is finished. Fortunately, then, we can read them in peace once the system is fully up and running. Look in the file /var/log/messages (you'll need to be root to view this) and you'll see everything generated by the kernel, right from the moment it begins execution. However, since the kernel is trying to find out what hardware it lives in, it's sometimes surprised by what it finds, so don't panic if you see entertaining warning messages such as 'warning: strange, CPU MTRRs all blank?'.
Roughly, the order in which the kernel works is like this, although there's some overlap:
Once the kernel is happy with the state of the system, it mounts the root filesystem and runs /sbin/init, as described before. While /var/log/messages is a valuable resource for finding out what the kernel has done since it booted, it can become cluttered with lines from other programs as well. For instance, on our installation many lines include debian:, but there are others with dhcbd and the like.
If you want to get a kernel-only list of messages, run the dmesg command. (You can redirect this into a text file for easier reading with dmesg > listing.txt.) While most of the messages contained therein will be from the early parts of the boot process, this information will be updated if you plug in new hardware. Add a USB flash key and then run the command, for instance, and you'll see new lines describing how the kernel detected the device.
Try gnome-system-log or KDE's Ksystemlog for a slightly more attractive view of your log messages.
Earlier, we mentioned runlevels, which play a massively important role in the workings of your Linux installation, even if you've never heard of them. A runlevel defines a state for your system – specifically, which processes are running and which resources are available. It's not some secret, inner-kernel black magic, but merely a system whereby /sbin/init runs scripts to turn functionality on and off. There are eight runlevels, seven of them with numbers:
Then there's runlevel S, for single user mode, which we enabled before when editing Grub's boot parameters. This is quite similar to runlevel 1, but there are subtle differences: S is the runlevel you use when booting the system and you need to be in a safe recovery mode. In contrast, you use runlevel 1 when the system is already running and you need to switch to a single user mode to do some maintenance work. Don't worry, though – already logged-in users won't be kicked off.
Although runlevels 2 to 5 are identical on Debian, in some other distros there are specific runlevels in this range. For instance, many distros use runlevel 3 for a multiuser, text-mode login setup, and runlevel 5 for a graphical login (such as Xdm/Gdm/Kdm). To find out which runlevel you're currently using, run /sbin/runlevel. To switch to another runlevel, use the /sbin/telinit command, as root, like this:
/sbin/telinit 2
Now how do you find out which runlevel your distro runs by default? The magic here lies in the /etc/inittab file. Towards the top, you'll see lines like this:
# The default runlevel.
Lines beginning with hash marks are comments, while the lower line tells init that runlevel 2 is to be the default. If you create your own custom runlevel using the scripts for runlevel 3 and want to boot into it all the time, you can simply edit this file as root, change the number and restart your machine.
Slightly further down in /etc/inittab, you'll see a bunch of lines like the following:
l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
These will continue all the way to 6. These tell init what to do in each runlevel: run the script /etc/init.d/rc with the number of the runlevel as a parameter. Then /etc/init.d/rc will work out which scripts it needs to execute for the current runlevel. These are neatly organised in numbered directories inside /etc. So you'll find /etc/rc0.d, /etc/rc1.d and so on.
Let's have a look inside /etc/
So we have S30gdm, which starts the Gnome Display Manager. What do the first three characters mean, though? S denotes that it's a script to start something and 30 gives it a position in the boot order. You can see that each script has a number like this and they're executed in numeric order. In this way, important scripts such as S10rsyslog are executed early on (to enable logging), while more trivial features such as Cron (S89cron) are enabled towards the end of the runlevel.
In the desktop operating systems of the 1980s, you normally had no special process to shut down the computer – you just hit the power button when you were done with your work. This was fine back then, but on today's machines it can be very risky for two reasons. Firstly, some operating systems, including Linux, don't immediately write data to drives when you save a file. They wait until other processes want to save data, then bundle it all together in one big write operation in order to improve performance. You can, however, force Linux to write all data stored in its RAM buffers to disk with the sync command.
Secondly, Linux startup scripts also have shutdown equivalents, which make sure processes end safely, temporary files are cleaned up and so forth. Don't worry too much, it's not a massive crisis if they're not run, but it does help to keep your system in a tidy state. Most of us shut down via widgets on our desktop, but if you'd rather do this via the command line, have a look at the manual pages for shutdown, halt and reboot. With shutdown, for instance, you can specify a delay, but the most common command to power off a machine immediately is shutdown -h now.
If you look carefully with ls -l, though, these scripts aren't actually unique files, but symbolic links to scripts in /etc/init.d – that's where the real scripts live. This is because scripts can be shared across runlevels. You might want to change the way Cron starts, for instance, so by editing /etc/init.d/cron you can make your modifications active across all runlevels that use it. You can have a look inside /etc/init.d to see what's available.
These scripts are carefully written wrappers around the programs after which they're named. For instance, /etc/init.d/gdm isn't just a single-line text file containing gdm; rather, it sets up necessary environmental variables, adds messages to log files and so on. In a Debian system, most of these scripts can be called with parameters. For instance, run /etc/init.d/gdm and you'll see a line like this:
Usage: /etc/init.d/gdm {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status}
So you can run /etc/init.d/gdm start to get Gdm going, and /etc/init.d/gdm stop to halt it. Note that restart does a stop and start, whereas reload asks the program to reread its configuration files without actually stopping, if this is possible. You can freely use these scripts outside of the whole runlevel system – for instance, to restart Exim or Apache after you've made changes to their configuration files.
Lastly, let's make a quick mention of something else in /etc/inittab, which isn't related to runlevels but is useful nonetheless. Have you ever wondered where the text terminals at bootup come from? The ones you can switch to with Ctrl+Alt+Fx from the X server? These are defined towards the bottom of /etc/inittab with lines like this:
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
The /sbin/getty 38400 tty2 part is simply a command to run a login prompt on the second virtual terminal. You can replace this with anything, so you could even have a virtual terminal devoted to Tetris! Meanwhile, respawn means that it restarts every time it quits. It's fun to play around with, but be careful – if you make it run a program that hogs all keyboard input, you won't be able to switch to another terminal to kill it. Still, it's not brown trouser time – just reboot into single user mode and revert your edits.
Each runlevel has a directory (/etc/rcX.d) with symbolic links to scripts in /etc/init.d.
First published in Linux Format magazine issue 142
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Featuring a Variety of Live Bands Every Thursday and Saturday
Guests are invited to enjoy live music at Carlucci Restaurant in Downers Grove Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. August's music lineup also features entertainment by Vinyl Answer, Tony Ocean Show, Soda and more. Complete entertainment schedule is below.
Every Thursday, guests can BYOV (Bring Your Own Vino) and receive no corkage fee while they enjoy the live music. Guests can also indulge in $3 and $5 appetizers available from 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM Monday through Friday in the bar area with the purchase of a cocktail (dine-in only and a limit of one appetizer per drink). Outdoor patio and bar are now open for alfresco dining and entertainment.
Thursday, August 1 - Silver Screen - 7:00pm-11:00pm - www.mdee-music.com (Pop from the 60's-80's; Elvis, Madonna, Neil Diamond)
Saturday, August 3- Second Opinion - 8:00pm-12:00am - www.secondopinionband.com (60's thru Today/Dance/Party)
Thursday, August 8- James Libera - 7:00pm-11:00pm - http://www.jameslibera.com/ (Hits by Elton John, Elvis, Michael Buble, Sinatra, and More)
Saturday, August 10- Reddy R Knot - 8:00pm-12:00am- www.reddyrknot.com (The Best of Rock, Pop, Country, and Dance Music)
Wednesday, August 14 - 7th Heaven Unplugged - 7:00pm-11:00pm - www.7thheavenband.com (Hair Bands, Dance, Alternative and Originals)
Saturday, August 17 - Vinyl Answer - 8:00pm-12:00am - www.vinylanswerband.com (50's thru 80's; Classic Rock and Soul Covers)
Thursday, August 22 - Jim & Justin - 7:00pm-11:00pm - http://www.moderndayromeos.com/ (Acoustic Blend of Everything...)
Saturday, August 24 - Tony Ocean Show - 8:00pm-12:00am - www.tonyocean.net (Rat Pack, Motown, 70's, 80's, Dance, Rock and More)
Thursday, August 29 - Soda - 7:00pm-11:00pm - www.sodarocks.com (Classic Rock; 80's New Wave; Motown; Disco; Reggae; Alternative and Hip-Hop)
Carlucci Restaurant
1801 Butterfield Road
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Hours of Operation:
Monday - Thursday: 11:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Friday: 11:30 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Saturday: 4:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sunday: 4:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Bar remains open until close.
About Carlucci Restaurant
Carlucci, a popular suburban dining destination, intertwines good food and a lively, entertaining and comfortable atmosphere. In addition to enjoying seasonally influenced dishes by Executive Chef Jonathan Harootunian, guests can hear live music on Thursday and Saturday by Frank and Dave, Soda, and more.


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|Posted on Apr 12, 2013 03:00pm
Jack and Phyllis enjoy their vacation in Istanbul when Jack gets a surprise call from Congressman Wheeler. The case against Wheeler reaches a shocking climax. Nick speaks to Summer and Kyle on separate occasions and warns both of them to stay away from each other. Kyle tells Nick he will stay away from Summer but he should be aware that her new mature look with attract attention from other guys. Nick tells Avery he wants to have more kids with her. Later, Dylan tells Avery that she'll be an excellent mother. Katherine is shocked when she receives her test results. Tyler confides in Lily about all of his issues with Gus.


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January 30, 2017
For news media inquiries: (614) 249-6349
For current customers, call Nationwide Customer Advocacy: 1-800-882-2822
Nationwide Continues as an Official Sponsor of the National Football League Through 2020
Company to remain presenting sponsor of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award
Columbus, OH - Nationwide and the National Football League announced today that the Ohio-based company will remain an official auto, home and life insurance sponsor of the league for the next four years.
As part of the agreement, Nationwide will continue as the presenting sponsor of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, which honors a player's volunteer and charity work as well as his excellence on the field.
"Nationwide cares deeply about the communities where our members and associates live and work. This award aligns closely with our mission to improve those communities and be more than a business," said Terrance Williams, Nationwide's chief marketing officer. "As the first corporate sponsor of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, we're proud to spotlight the life-changing work these men are doing off the field. Over the past three years, Nationwide has given nearly $800,000 to nominee foundations, and we look forward to continuing to support these efforts in the years ahead."
The new agreement includes associate sponsorship of the NFL Draft and provides additional Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award integrations into the first and third rounds of the NFL Draft, giving Nationwide an opportunity to share the message of the work being done by the nominees and the winner year-round. Nationwide also remains a top-tier sponsor of NFL Honors, a star-studded football and entertainment event where the NFL salutes its best players and plays from the season.
"Nationwide has been a terrific partner of the National Football League and we're excited to extend our relationship with them," said Renie Anderson, Senior Vice President of Sponsorship for the National Football League. "As evidenced by their work with the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, Nationwide's partnership has a positive impact on communities across the nation, helping to highlight some of the wonderful charitable work that our players perform."
As an official sponsor, Nationwide will be able to feature the NFL "shield" and the collective marks of all 32 NFL teams in national marketing and advertising campaigns.
"The NFL remains one of the best avenues to share Nationwide's message of being able to protect the many sides of our members," said Williams. "Partnering with the NFL allows us to continue to share that message with a diverse and extensive audience."
About Nationwide
Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's. The company provides a full range of insurance and financial services, including auto, commercial, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; banking and mortgages; excess & surplus, specialty and surety; pet, motorcycle and boat insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.


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Skip to comments.Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?
Posted on 05/13/2012 12:12:29 PM PDT by KantianBurke
One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call summer camp. For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michaels eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study less summer camp than camp of last resort.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This was a sad and creepy article.
There's a bunch of stupid comments on the site such as he'll do well in the corporate world to psychopathy is a variation where the successful ones are republican presidential candidates and the stupid ones end up in jail. Really stupid liberals.
It's safe to say "Michael" is going to cause plenty of harm in the near future.
I am of the opinion that "first born syndrome" comes directly from the parents who dote hand and foot on the first born. They don't teach him to be a well behaved child and to obey his parents. The child is allowed to get away with behavior that is not tolerated when the child gets older.
Then, when the next child comes along, there is a sudden switch. The parents attention is now on the new born and the oldest is expected to behave but has never been corrected or taught to behave. The child develops a deep seated resentment, especially for being forced to grow up all of a sudden.
The corrective action is the rapid application of a switch anytime a tantrum starts, the kid acts out or disobeys. However, since the child was not taught discipline from the beginning, I doubt the parents will apply discipline now.
The symptoms described in the article are way beyond that sort of rivalry. These individuals are clearly dangerous now and more so later.
While certainly, some people just aren't "wired right," it makes you wonder how much spiritual structure there is for some of these kids in their households.
Any spoiled child is a Psychopath....
America loves to spoil their children generally..
Proof: Republicans running the inventor of Romney-care against the inventor of Dohbama-Care..
America spoils the children they do not murder thru abortion..
Dohbama(biden) is just punishment for doing that..
A Psychopath as President and Vice President..
who fills the Executive Branch with other Psychopaths..
Many parents send their troublesome juniors into Boy Scouts (and other youth programs). I can put names on these guys ~ Hoon, .............. ~ dozens of them! One boy had an additional blood pressure problem and he'd have to run in place most of the time.
And I've seen them just "grow up".
Not once did we have a cutting.
My impression has been that these kids are all a problem to everybody in their growing years, but not necessarily so once they are adults ~ but some are. Paul Baker pops into my mind! And some others ~ mostly their parents ~ the interstate car thieves, the mobsters, the girls who ran away with the carnival.......
Makes one wonder if some haven't dabbled in the occult and some children might be demon possessed.
That's a legal question ~ I gather professionals in this field have to pay attention to age just to avoid malpractice suits by crazy parents who thought their kids could be cured instantly.
My aunt and uncle had two children; the oldest was the nicest person one could meet while the youngest was a terror diving into drugs and sex. Same environment with the same loving parents who never exhibited any different treatment for either of the kids. My aunt and uncle were constantly running off to see psychologists and therapists to no avail.
Sometimes it can be the parents but I'm convinced that sometimes it can just as easily be the mixture. Parents simply can't be blamed for everything.
That might be the case. Regardless, I'll purchase some more ammo. Can't be too careful.
Same with my sister. She has 5 kids that run the whole range.
At the end of the article he says, why don't more people do bad things? And the answers he offers are because they are inhibited, by empathy, by worries of isolation, by fears of getting caught.
I'll throw in my own two cents and say part of it is these people believe they are masters of their own lives; they don't believe in God or authority. Why should they listen to anyone? How many times in people's lives would they do things, but for the fear of God?
Back in the day it was worse being the firstborn, easier being second and third, we could watch and find out how the "game" is played to stay out of parents line of fire. The youngest was the spoiled "baby" of the family.
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At a press conference inside the new headquarters of online food ordering company Seamless, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his in-your-face anti-obesity ad campaign while professing his preference for popcorn and fried chicken at the same event.
Mayor Bloomberg began the event by ordering delivery from a local cafe through the company's website.
"You saw me order one of the best lunches one can have, chicken soup with rice and popcorn," he said. "Probably not great for my waistline, but that's okay, I'm going to do it to celebrate being here."
In spite of his not exactly nutritious lunch order, he later found himself passionately defending the city's graphic anti-obesity campaign, which some critics have labeled over the top.
"What do you want to do, have people lose their legs or do you want to show them what happens so that they don't lose their legs? Take your poison," he argued. "It saves lives, that's why New York City's life expectancy is 2.5-3 years greater than the country as a whole."
Another questioner asked how often the Mayor himself orders delivery. He responded that he usually eats out, suggesting the fried chicken at Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn, but that, occasionally, he's been known to grab take-out from a local diner or pizza place.
The Seamless order did indeed arrive after the press conference. Mayor Bloomberg signed the slip for his food and accepted his soup and popcorn from the waiting deliveryman.
Watch the video below:


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I get the error that "the Wave Input device cannot open" Huh?
The full error is "The Wave Input device cannot open. Another program may be using it." Close the other program and try again. If you have more than one soundcard, you may try an alternative device to record from in the "Recording" tab of the Preference dialog."


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Each coin is struck in .925 silver with a weight of 31.1 grams and diameter of 16 mm. The mintage is limited to 5,000 pieces.
Most analysts are agreed on one point, as long as China remained a strong economy with lot of manufacturing, silver is the best investment and will surpass gold soon as the number one choice among investors.
Each coin is struck in 92.5% silver with a weight of 22 grams and diameter of 35 mm. A limited mintage of 5,000 pieces is indicated.
Mitchell Krebs, President, CEO and a Director of Coeur Mining (CDE: NYSE – CDM: TSX) was elected Vice President of the Institute, succeeding Mr. Alanis in this role.
The Land Down Under series showcases various aspects of Australia's discovery, ancient culture, lifestyle, and iconic landmarks.
The 2013 Maple Leaf Impression Fine Silver Coin features an intriguing impression of a central maple leaf created from the negative space within a field containing more than 100 maple leaves. Each coin has a face value of $3 with weight of 7.96 grams and diameter of 27 mm. The mintage is 10,000 pieces, with an ordering limit of one per household.
The conference will examine important factors affecting silver industrial demand. The event will commence with a cocktail party on the evening of October 22, and the conference will take place on October 23.
According to a top RCM official, the discount is modest. For the gold ETR, it was 1.7 per cent on Wednesday; for the silver receipt, slightly less than 1 per cent.
Now, according to the US Geological Survey, China's direct mine production was up 100 metric tonnes from 2011 to 2012. The drop in April 2013 signifies around 48 tonnes of silver.


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The Good Soul Of Szechuan, London
Jane Horrocks of Little Voice and Ab Fab fame folllows in the footsteps of Peggy Ashcroft, Janet Suzman and Fiona Shaw when she takes the lead in the Young Vic's new production of The Good Soul Of Szechuan. Bertolt Brecht's parable - concerning a good-hearted prostitute tested by the gods - was written when the playwright was in exile in America in 1943. The production has a fine pedigree: the new translation is by David Harrower (author of the award-winning Blackbird) and directed by Richard Jones, known for his unconventional opera work.
Mark Cook
· Young Vic, SE1, Fri 8 to Jun 28
Patient No 1, York
There are many who think that George W Bush is probably insane, but Donald Freed goes further in his imaginings with this tragic farce about US democracy. Set two years in the future it sees Dubya in a secret psychiatric institution, where secrets and truths are revealed. Inspired by Walt Whitman's assertion that the loss of democracy can send nations mad, Freed - much admired by Pinter - is that rare thing: a politically engaged US playwright.
Lyn Gardner
· Theatre Royal, Sat 3 to May 17
An Infinite Line, Brighton
Fevered Sleep's David Harradine has spent a year observing the light in Brighton and the result is this performance-cum-installation, a vision poem which explores how we see. Using chalk, a rain machine, a sound artist, two actors, two musicans, a wind machine and a malleable set, it sounds risky. But in taking the risk the company may well deliver something just as extraordinary as sitting on Brighton beach and watching the horizon.
· The Basement, Sat 3 to May 24
Big In Falkirk, Falkirk
Back for the ninth year, Scotland's National Street Arts Festival has a great lineup with plenty of talent, including new pieces from the Bureau Of Silly Ideas and Circo Rum Ba Ba. Headliners include Poorboy who will be invading the secret corners of the park to unmask a hidden world working with the local youth theatre and ace pyrotechnicians The World Famous who are presenting the world premiere of their new show, Full Circle. Based around the idea of the changing seasons it provides the finale to a festival which also includes the Scottish premiere of the highly enjoyable outdoor dance piece, Bollywood Steps. There'll be music (including an appearance by 70s hit-makers 10cc and Celtic dance band Peatbog Faeries) and art events as well, in a weekend that has something for all the family, as well as street theatre enthusiasts.
· Callendar Park, Sat 3, Sun 4
Marguerite, London
Jonathan Kent's year-long tenure directing productions at the Haymarket Theatre comes to an end with the world premiere of a new musical, Marguerite. Written by the same team behind Les Misérables (Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer) plus Michel Legrand, it is inspired by Alexander Dumas's romantic novel, La Dame Aux Camélias but updated to second world war Paris. Marguerite, played by West End and Broadway star Ruthie Henshall, is the mistress of a high-ranking officer in the occcupying German army who becomes the object of the obsessive love of a musician half her age. Alexander Hanson and Julian Ovenden make up the male love interest.
· Haymarket Theatre, SW1, from Thu 7 to Nov 1
Stockholm, Brighton
First seen in Plymouth last year, this collaboration between writer Bryony Lavery and Frantic Assembly is an erotic danse macbre about the way love can hold us hostage. Focusing on an apparently perfect couple living a perfect life in the perfect house that love built, it gradually peels back the glossy surface to reveal the reality below. This is a very clever and mature piece of work in which script and movement are beautifully layered with a superb design in which the walls seem to come alive. It is an intense and emotionally devastating 70 minutes that builds to a terrific climax as the kitchen knives come out and blood is spilled on the carpet. Modern love and abusive relationships have seldom been studied in such forensic detail, and the fallout from this doomed affair sends a shiver down the back and into the soul.
· Corn Exchange, Sat 3 to May 10
Brighton Fringe Festival, Brighton
If you're old enough to remember what the Edinburgh Fringe used to be like about 20 years ago, then you have a flavour of the Brighton Festival Fringe which is beginning to attract companies looking for an alternative to Edinburgh. Udderbelly will make its presence felt in Old Steine while James Seabright revives hits such as Potted Potter and Lizzie Roper's Peccadillo Circus and local venues such as Komedia and the Nightingale offer work that encourages local talent such as Prodigal. Unlike Edinburgh, most shows only have very short runs, but you can pack a great deal into a day. Look out in particular for Andy Field's Exposure which sends audiences out into the city armed with a disposable camera and some clues to solve. I took part in a prototype version in Edinburgh last summer, and it was clear that this little piece had huge potential.
· Venues all over Brighton, Sat 3 to May 26
Not With That Hand, ManchesterDirected by Told By An Idiot's Paul Hunter and presented by local Manchester company, Coal, this play about two former school teachers banned from working with young people after the disappearance of a child 10 years previously, was a success at Manchester's 24:7 new writing and performance festival last July. Now it gets a second showing and it certainly sounds intriguing as it follows the lives of two women who relive a school trip a decade ago and try to cope with their situation by creating an alternate reality and re-enacting scenes from Arthur Miller's finger-pointing play, The Crucible.
· Royal Exchange Studio, Thu 8 to May 10


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From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 18, 1987:
- A heavy snowstorm continued to cause accidents across the region. Five people had been injured on the previous day in a Kansas Turnpike accident involving five semi-trailer trucks, a Kansas Highway Patrol car, and three other vehicles. The pile-up had occurred in a heavy snowfall about four miles east of the Topeka turnpike interchange. In Lawrence, police were reporting 98 traffic accidents due to slippery road conditions. According to forecasters, the Lawrence area was to receive up to a foot of total snow accumulation before the storm was expected to end later today.
- Local tax preparers were offering assistance with the new W-4 forms released this year. Once a simple slip of paper requiring only a few seconds to fill out, the new form "now comes in a four-page packet that includes a 'worksheet,' tax tables and a lot of instructions with boldfaced 'shoulds,' 'musts,' and 'stops.'," according to a recent news story. Everyone working for an employer was required to fill out a new version of the W-4 because of major taxation laws going into effect for 1987.
Copyright 2018 The Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We strive to uphold our values for every story published.


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A MORAY hydrotherapy pool has been given the all-clear following a bacteria scare.
The Forres facility closed last week after high levels of pseudomonas were discovered in the water during routine testing.
Moray Council announced today (Monday) that a follow-up water sample had proved negative, enabling the pool to reopen.
However, it will take some time to get the water back up to the correct temperature and reopening has been set for Wednesday.
Following the discovery, the water was super-chlorinated and the temperature lowered in the hope of exterminating the bacteria. The pool's operation was also reviewed to minimise the likelihood of recurrence.


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Christian Living
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A Call To Think
by Owen Carr
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"Sometimes people try to justify their lack of intellectual engagement by asserting that they prefer having a "simple faith." But here I think we must distinguish between a childlike faith and a childish faith. A childlike faith is a whole-souled trust in God as one's loving Heavenly Father, and Jesus commends such a faith to us. But a childish faith is an immature, unreflective faith, and such a faith is not commended to us. On the contrary, Paul says, "Do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature" (1 Cor. 14.20 RSV). If a "simple" faith means an unreflective, ignorant faith, then we should want none of it. In my own life, I can testify that, after many years of study, my worship of God is deeper precisely because of, and not in spite of, my philosophical and theological studies. In every area I have intensely researched—creation, the resurrection, divine omniscience, divine eternity, divine aseity—my appreciation of God's truth and my awe of His personhood have become more profound. I am excited about future study because of the deeper appreciation I am sure it will bring me of God's personhood and work. Christian faith is not an apathetic faith, a brain-dead faith, but a living, inquiring faith. As Anselm put it, ours is a faith that seeks understanding." -- William Lane Craig, " In Intellectual Neutral".
There isn't much question among interested observers that the 21st century Church of Jesus Christ here in the west is riddled with problems--everything from the hideousness of the prosperity gospel to the tragedy of people abandoning their faith in favour of atheism and all forms of new age thinking. I find it peculiar that when people speak about the decline of Christianity or the lack of influence the gospel seems to be having on this culture, that the problem, as they see it, comes down to church attendance, Bible reading, and public schools. If only more people were home schooled, going to church, and reading their Bible, we'd witness a titanic revival, seems to be the implication. So churches come up with attendance-marketing schemes, more easy-to-read Bible programs, and urge all parents--whether they can afford to or not--to haul all their children out of public schools.
Yet, Christianity continues to flounder in the west despite having a plethora of Bible colleges, seminaries, and access to enormous resources that few Christians in other countries have. People are departing the Christian faith in droves, especially our youth. Most of the students entering universities that identify themselves as believers are going to be atheists or agnostics by the time they finish, and a lot of them will become not only unbelieving, but bitter as well. So what is going on?
Well, Dr. Craig in the above quote summarized it I think perfectly. The problem isn't with church attendance, Bible reading, or schools and universities: it is with our minds and the grave reality that most Christians are not using them. It is as Craig put it, a " lack of intellectual engagement". While the hearts of many a believer may well indeed be in the right place, their minds are far removed. Somehow evangelicals have come to believe that a thinking Christian mind is somehow worldly, and unbecoming of a true born-again believer. We have come to believe that because Christianity demands faith, that that's all it requires. That true Christianity is based on nothing but belief without evidence, or that sound logical reasons for believing it are unnecessary. In fact, if you speak to evangelicals, they think reason and logic are the enemies of the gospel because that, as they imply, is what worldly people take up. They take scriptures like 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 to mean that believers in Christ should shy away from intellectual pursuits and the study of logic and so forth, and adopt a purely emotional, and sentimentally fluffy type of experiential Christianity. Since we read 1 Corinthians to mean that wisdom and intelligence are foolishness, we see them as Satanic worldly devices that we ought to avoid. So in other words, according to that interpretation of scripture, godliness entails ignorance.
What 1 Corinthians actually says is that " God has made foolishness the wisdom of the world". Systems of thought like atheism, humanism, paganism, liberalism, existentialism, and so on is what is referred to here in the context of the world. This was written during an age when Greek philosophy was in high gear, and its philosophies, for the most part, were not Christian. In fact, Acts 17 tells us that Paul "reasoned" with the Stoics and Epicureans concerning their view of reality. Clearly, Paul was in favour of using his mind in the propagation of the gospel.
Our churches of today are well equipped in many areas and there are a plethora of fine pastors leading them who are preaching a sound doctrinal gospel. There isn't a shortage of evangelists, teachers, pastors, or the financial resources needed to function--we indeed have all the advantages we require in the prosperous west. However, what modern evangelical churches are lacking is apologetics.
The term "apologetic" is derived from a Greek word " apologia", which means " in defense of ". In the context of Christian application it means a reasoned defense of the faith. It is the goal of apologetics to provide good reasons why one thinks the Christian faith is a coherent view of the world. The biblical exhortation to do this is found in 1 Peter 3:15, which says " But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear". When a Christian is asked why they have staked their entire lives upon the words and promises of Jesus Christ and the Bible as a whole, a good apologetic seeks to answer the question. It is to give to the questioner some sort of evidence why one thinks the Christian faith is true, because commonsensically, that's really what they're looking for. This is because most people separate faith and reason as two mutually exclusive entities that are in conflict, as it is the case with a lot of Christians unfortunately. Those who are not Christians ( the "natural man" as the Bible puts it) and do not possess that inner witness of the Holy Spirit can't understand faith. They think the idea is preposterous having been conditioned by cultural scientism to think the only measure of truth is the scientific method. What they'll never understand though, is that the Christian faith has more strengths than the witness of the Holy Spirit. There are good reasons-- logical and evidential reasons-- apart from this that lead myself and millions of others to conclude that Christianity is more than sensible to hold to. So the natural man expects to hear these explanations when he asks you why you are a Christian. Now of course you can tell him that you're a Christian because you've been transformed from the inside out by the power of God unto salvation, but more likely than not he's going to then say " Okay, but what else?" And the " what else" is where apologetics comes in.
I think a lot of sincere Christians would be surprised to learn that there is treasure of good reasons why they ought to believe in Jesus Christ, compiled brilliantly and meticulously by their forefathers as well as theologians, Christian philosophers, and scholars both ancient and contemporary. For instance the study of natural revelation which seeks to offer evidences for the existence of God. Such evidences include The Cosmological Argument; The Teleological Argument; The Ontological Argument; The Moral Argument; The Argument from Contingency, and so forth. Moreover, there are also historical evidences and the field of Biblical criticisms, focusing on the inerrancy, reliability, and veracity of the New Testament documents, as well as the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which Dr. Craig specializes in. Additionally, there is also the scientific apologetics which deals with the evidences for creation or intelligent design ( interestingly enough, it was the evidence compiled in this discipline that convinced the late Anthony Flew, one of the most well known atheist philosophers of the 20th century, that God exists). And to add to all this, there is also apologetics centered on comparative religions, which the Christian can use to demonstrate why Christianity is superior in its claims to the claims of other faiths.
Also take note of the story of Simon Greenleaf, a law professor, and one of the key builders of the Harvard School of Law, and an expert on the legal rules for evidence. He believed the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a hoax and actually set out to disprove it using the rules of evidence he helped cultivate. He went through the four gospels with a fine toothed comb, comparing and examining the internal witness of the documents. He ended up concluding that the resurrection of Jesus Christ not only occurred, but that it was of the most credible and well attested facts in all of recorded history. There are legal scholars today who maintain that the resurrection of Jesus Christ would stand up in a court of law.
The faith that Christians share is rooted in truth, and it isn't that the majority of Christians deny that; on the contrary, Christians believe Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, is the truth. But what they seem to think that this truth is rooted in what the skeptics often call " blind faith". We've unfortunately earned that moniker for a reason, largely because we believe it ourselves, holding to an almost stubborn type of fideism. Our view of evangelism suggests that if a person is to be brought to God, then the Holy Spirit will do all the work, and we need not do much more than memorize a short presentation of the gospel. Of course when you do this, people who are naturally curious are going to start asking you questions; questions they are entitled to ask. So if all you know is what you've memorized from a gospel tract, you're unlikely to be able to answer anything.
We live in a culture where people have heard enough gospel to save Iran, many of whom were brought up in homes where Christianity was the family religion--whether devoutly or nominally. There aren't too many folks who haven't been exposed to some form of evangelism at one time or another, or have sat inside of a church listening to a minister preach. They only real exceptions might be our young people, who we'll get to momentarily. Most folks also believe in God, and the majority of those believe Jesus is His begotten Son. However, they have no real conception of what salvation really means, or who Jesus really is, or who God is, or what Christianity is all about. And the reason for that? The church does not make it a point to answer questions about their faith, believing that they aren't obligated to because the Holy Spirit will change their minds through a mystical revelation; and I agree with that, but people have to also be led to the Holy Spirit, and the ability to give an answer for your hope is usually the mechanism by which this takes place.
Too much of Christianity today adheres to the notion that gospel is designed simply to corral people into heaven or ensure them comfort and joy. For sure, it's central objective is the reconciliation of lost persons to God, and it does indeed bring joy when understood in the proper sense, but there's more to it than that. The truth that resides in the person of Jesus is the truth that answers all questions about the most perplexing questions of human experience. Questions are what people have, and it is the questions non-Christians have that go mostly unanswered by believers, often causing people to leave the faith in droves.
Take our young people for example. Countless are the number of times I've heard teenagers say they are no longer Christians because neither their parents nor their pastors could, nor would they bother to, answer their curiosities. In part this is because most pastors and Christian parents, while faithful stewards of Christ, are ignorant themselves of the ordinary curiosities people have about God, Christ, and the universe. Some of these curiosities include:
Why, if God exists, is there Evil and Suffering in the world?
What about evolution and the Bible?
Why Should I Trust the Bible?
What about other religions?
Who Created God?
Why would God send my really nice non-Christian friends to hell?
Is there really any Evidence that God exists?
Why won't God answer my prayers?
Why is being gay a sin?
They go on and on. Our young people live not in a Christian society, they live in a society predominantly secular in its actions and philosophies. Nowhere is this more intense than in the classroom, where secular ideas are not only assumed, but encouraged, and not primarily in science class either, it spans the spectrum of the whole of the curriculum. Public schools claim to bar religious instruction from the classroom, forgetting however, that humanism is a religion. So it really isn't opposed to religion, just certain flavours. Public education is akin to a large church for atheism, only it happens to be funded by taxpayer money. That's another matter though, and truthfully, the influence of godless philosophies bestowed upon our youth in these institutions would not be as detrimental as it is to Christian students if Christian parents and Christian pastors did well to instruct them in the apologetics of their faith.
We are not, however, doing any such thing for the most part. We work to provide them with biblical knowledge, informing them that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, except that we do not guard them against the inevitable attacks of the counter perspectives, namely those of atheism and humanism. That Christianity is to be believed is one thing, but why this is necessarily so is another; and the failure to equip our children with training in the latter explains the continuing exodus of our young people from the faith. Apologetics is really no more than answering questions, and when the church neglects their duty to answer the inquiring young minds seated in their pews, those minds will turn elsewhere for those answers. To expect our young people to simply close their eyes and believe whatsoever is preached from the pulpit or written in the Bible without at least feasible explanations, is to encourage them towards apostasy. An adolescent comes to think that this Christianity they've been made to believe since early childhood is just some sort of mythology their parents imposed on them for moral and cultural purposes, and not grounded in objective truth. And this is further reinforced when they can wrestle no clear answers, or even attempts at plausible answers, to their questions from the people who have taught it to them.
So when they get a hold of books like " The God Delusion" or " God is Not Great" without having had an ounce of apologetical experience, you can kiss their faith goodbye. They will tumble like dominoes, and what's worse is that the books aforementioned contain some of the weakest attacks against the Christian faith ever propagated--I mean we're not talking Bertrand Russell here. An amateur Christian apologist would have little trouble taking them to pieces, yet it is these atrocious arguments furnished by aggressive, yet intellectually shallow atheists that is tearing our youth away from the faith. This is unsettling to me. That such sophomoric material could be so persuasive to our kids is splendorous evidence that the church is, as Dr. Craig put it, stuck in " intellectual neutral".
Is every Christian parent reading this absolutely sure their son or daughter actually believes in the existence of God, the Bible, and the work of the person of Jesus Christ? Have you ever asked them? Or do you only assume they do? Judging by the swarms of teenagers leaving Christianity, I'd wager there are many who sit quietly in pews, declaring to their parents and pastor that they indeed believe all this stuff, but whom secretly doubt it, or disbelieve it entirely. Eventually when they become adults and move out from under the supervision and authority of their parents, it is likely they'll never set foot in a church again, preferring rather to visit bars or nightclubs after Dawkins and company get a hold of them. Is this too presumptuous? It shouldn't be because what I've just described is happening right now.
Unless a person has a strong foundation for what they believe, one of two things, or both are likely to occur: either at some point they will themselves abandon their faith, or they will be unjustified and unable to persuade anyone else that what they believe should be believed by others. If a person does not have good reasons to believe what they do, their faith will disintegrate. The foundation for our faith is of course in Christ, but this doesn't only entail that we " have a relationship" with Him via emotional and mystical experiences. Knowing Christ begins with knowing who He is; to know about Him. Knowing about Him is to know his truths, his claims, and how he has communicated with mankind. It is not sufficient of course to simply know about Jesus, but unless you know something about him, how then can one claim to know him intimately? And how would we expect others to come to know him? Apologetics besides being a method of defending what we know about Jesus, also works as a method to know Jesus--to know about His creation, His word, His ministry, and His offer for eternal life. Apologetics isn't only a tactic we use to persuade the unbelieving, it is also an indispensable way to grasp a deeper understanding of Christ. It is as much for the saint as it is for the sinner. When rigorously compiling a defense of the Christian faith, one finds themselves always learning something they didn't know previously. My understanding of Christian theology has been tremendously sharpened by studying the arguments for the truth of Christianity.
With the aggressive push the New Atheists are making, no Christian can afford to remain in stagnate ignorance about the treasure of sound arguments there are for their faith, nor can they neglect the art of proper reasoning through the study of basic logic. Do you know what annoys me the most about this problem Christians have with anti-intellectualism? The fact that these new atheists are not intellectual heavyweights. As I said earlier, the arguments of Hitchens, Dawkins, and others are not that hard to counter because these guys are popularisers, not scholars. They are largely ignorant of classical theistic apologetics ( but so are most Christians to be fair) and the arguments they put forth never ascend beyond the level of popular cultural opinion. You ought to see what happens when these people when confronted by a Christian who really studies deeply--they really are left speechless. You don't have to be a scholar to be a studious defender of the faith ( although it helps) and a laymen like myself has easy access to scholarly material. The work of great apologetic scholars like Dr. Craig, N.T. Wright, J.P. Moreland, Gary Habernas, and others is easy accessible. All we have to do is read it. C.S. Lewis was a laymen, but that didn't stop him from thinking, nor did it prevent him from defending Christianity.
A good dose of apologetics will not only better arm us for our encounters with unbelievers and non-Christians, but it would also solve most of the problems in our church. It would make feel-good sermons a thing of the past; it would combat the intrusion of heresy, it would nullify all the ridiculous pragmatism going on in mega churches; and it would strengthen the foundations of faith for every believer.
Any worldview that cannot attempt to produce tenable answers to the great questions of our existence, or offer any coherent reason why it should be believed or taken seriously, is not worthy of reverence and is essentially useless to anyone. This is what the majority of people living in the western world think of Christianity now, and that is our burden to bear because we have embraced the emotional and the mystical experience of our faith, but have shunned the intellectual. If people want to feel good, there is a plethora of religions and secular philosophies that will accomplish that for them. But if they want truth; if they want answers, they need the truths and philosophies grounded in the person of Jesus, and the immeasurable glory of God. If we can consecrate our hearts, bodies, and souls, then we can also consecrate our minds.
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Hoey has pointed out that "while it is quite usual to speak of my doctor or my accountant, it is not usual to speak of my carpenter or my
bricklayer", but isn't this just because we see the first two more regulary, or we don't change them as often as we would a carpenter, for example?
I would guess the Lord at the manor would say "my carpenter/gardener/etc.".
I think this will depend on context. There are two in which I can see "my" being attached to a workman in this way - as you say, an aristocrat with a large staff of workers, or if you are having work done in the house:
My electrician has had to rewire the entire building.
If you want to come round and I'm not there, my carpenter will let you in.
It is a colloquial use that is not uncommon here. It merely means someone who you have employed.