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Last night, I was reading a thread on reddit titled "When did the use of gender start showing up in language, and what purpose did it serve?". One of the top posts, by a user named ggchappell, said that the original poster seemed to have it the wrong way around: languages "start complicated and sometimes get simpler", especially when those languages are used for trade. In response to this, user mojitz asked,
"The simplest languages are those that ended up being used for trade between multiple groups of people."I thought that was a really exciting question, and was prompted to write the response below.
Does English conform to this generalization by your estimate?
Depending on how you define "simple", English is a relatively simple language, but probably not because of trade.
The question of how to define language complexity (or, in fact, if languages differ in complexity in the first place) has been a hotly contested, very political issue in the world of linguistics. Because of this, it's really only been in the last few years that we've made substantive advances toward finding quantitative metrics of language complexity. Some really exciting work was done a few years ago by Max Bane, who applied Kolmogorov complexity – a concept from information theory that measures how densely you can compress some data without losing any information – to the inflectional and affixal morphology of various languages [1]. This is to say, instead of measuring how complex a language's sound system is, or how difficult that language is to learn, Bane was looking at how complex the words of a language are in terms of their internal structure: the rules dictating which prefixes and suffixes you can (or must) add to a "base" word form, e.g. "type" becoming "typed" to indicate the past tense.
If we use Bane's metric for complexity, we end up with languages like Hungarian and Latin (which, as others have pointed out, has a very rich inflectional system) being ranked as most complex, while morphologically "isolating" languages like Vietnamese and Chinese – languages that have on average fewer units of meaning per word (contrast "establish" with "anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism") – are ranked as the least complex.
Slightly more complex than isolating languages are a class of languages called "pidgins". Pidgins are communicative systems formed when two or more groups of people without a common language need to communicate. Getting back to what /u/ggchappel said, pidgins are very frequently the result of different language speakers coming together to engage in trade. Moreover, pidgins are very widely held as being particularly simple languages - in pidgins, we very often observe things like the reduplication of words or morphemes to augment their intensity (e.g., in Nigerian Pidgin, "sikisiki", meaning "someone who is always sickly", and "E big well well" to mean "It is very big" [2]). When children grow up learning a pidgin, it transitions into what linguists call a "creole", and usually as a result of this undergoes an increase in regularization and linguistic complexity. However, children don't normally grow up learning a pidgin as a result of trade – this is much more likely to be indicative of one of two situations: either multiple groups of people without a common language have been brought together as a result of slavery, or one group of people has invaded another. In the latter scenario, we see the establishment of a "prestige" language – a language of the elite and the learned, the language of the conquerors – and a "vulgar" language, the language of the conquered masses.
Now, this is where things start to get really neat. Let's take a quick look at the history of England (and English) from the 9th century through to the 13th century. In 9th century England, Old English was being spoken, a Germanic language strongly related to other continental European languages. In northern England, however, English was hardly being spoken at all: the Old Norse-speaking Danish had invaded, and established Danelaw. At this time Old Norse and Old English would have been mutually intelligible, much like modern-day Swedish and Norwegian – a speaker of Old English would have been able to understand a speaker of Old Norse, and vice-versa, although probably with some difficulty. It's very hard to overstate the amount of influence Old Norse had on Old English, but to give an example, the pronouns "they", "their" and "them" – core components of Modern English – derive directly from the Old Norse "þeir" ("their") [3]. But the amount of change Old English experienced interacting with Old Norse pales in comparison to what happened next.
In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and, in doing so, established French as a prestige language. Now suddenly we see incredible amounts of French influence on Old English vocabulary and grammar, so much so that by the 12th or 13th century Old English isn't even Old English anymore, it's Middle English. To give you an idea of how radical a change this was, Modern English speakers can understand Middle English, whereas Old English might as well have no relation to what we think of as English today. Middle English is the language of Chaucer, who in the 14th century wrote lines like
"Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour" [4].Middle English is the language of Orm, who wrote in the introduction of his 12th century book Orrmulum,
"[Th]iss boc iss nemmned Orrmulum, for[th]i [th]att Orrm itt wrohhte" [5].Old English is the language Beowulf is written in, which contains such unintelligible passages as
"Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum [th]eodcyninga [th]rym gefrunon hu [th]a æ[th]elingas elle fremedon" [6].About 90% of the words in Modern English are from either Latin or Greek, with the vast majority of these having come through French during this time period or later [7] (although roughly half of those used in everyday speech are still of Germanic origin [8]).
Let's get back to Bane. You might have noticed that I didn't mention where English ranked in Bane's complexity survey. Let me tell you, English is much less complex than Latin. English is much less complex than Icelandic, which has changed so little as to be mutually intelligible with Old Norse. English is less complex than French or German. In fact, in Bane's ranking of 20 languages using his complexity metric, English was less complex than any other European language. Instead, English falls somewhere between Dutch and Maori. More notably, though, the English language's complexity is, at 16.88%, closer to Nigerian Pidgin (at 9.8%) than French (at 23.05%). Old English underwent creolization to become Middle English [9].
In short, and to answer your question, yes, English can be construed as being one of the least complex European languages, not because of trade – but because of conquest.
In this blog post, I'd like to introduce a project I've been tinkering on and off (mostly off) with for the past few months. The idea behind the project was pretty simple: to write a program which, given a set number of triangles and a blank canvas, adjusts the coordinates, color, and transparency of the triangles over time in an attempt to replicate a given image. There were two primary motivations behind my project, at least initially:
This was one of the very first tests of my program, and is in my opinion also one of its most successful and impressive recreations. As you might infer from the stark difference between iteration 9,500 and 50,000 and moderate difference between iteration 50,000 and 1,293,000, the program's output approaches complete similarity to the target image roughly logarithmically with each iteration; this trend is plotted in the graph below.
Output at iteration 9,500
Image size: 3.38KB
Compressed SVG size: 0.88KB
Output at iteration 50,000
Image size: 2.95KB
Compressed SVG size: 0.88KB
Output at iteration 1,293,000
Image size: 2.74KB
Compressed SVG size: 0.88KB
Original image
Size: 6.53KB
The corresponding vector for the final result (below) is actually noticeably less accurate than the JPEG posted above, because the program has exploited JPEG artifacts as well as the specific dimensions of the target in creating its reproduction. When the triangles are used to create an SVG, these artifacts are no longer present and the image becomes less faithful.
One of the most noticeable issues with the program's image is that it entirely fails to capture the eyes in the source image. I explored various methods of solving this issue, which I will discuss in a later post on implementation. Overall, though, I thought that the program produced a more pleasing (if less accurate) image, kilobyte-for-kilobyte, than comparable "traditional" compression techniques (as pictured below), especially if enlarged.
To finish off this example: a video of the program's progress in making its output played at 30 frames per second, with frames produced every 500th iteration. The "jumps" in activity visible at 0:23 and 0:56 are instances when I made updates to the program.
Program's final output
Image size: 2.74KB
Compressed SVG size: 0.88KB
Original image
Size: 6.53KB
Image compressed with Paint.NET
Size: 1.91KB
Compressed size: 1.58KB
This example yet again highlighted an issue with the image similarity evaluation methods employed by the program. While many aspects of the source image are replicated with high fidelity, the facial features of Christian Bale are not. Below again is a video of the program's progress over time.
Output at iteration 737,500
Image size: 4.03KB
Compressed SVG size: 1.54KB
Original image
Size: 3.51KB
In this instance, I experimented with another evaluation method that incorporated a saliency comparison between the target image and the output. Although the results presented here seem promising, other tests using the method were lacklustre, especially given that the saliency map calculations added a lot of processing time to each iteration.
Output at iteration 769,500
Image size: 3.27KB
Compressed SVG size: 1.54KB
Original image
Size: 12.9KB
The competition
Recently, a couple of friends and I entered the Brilliant.org Hunger Games competition, in which competitors must create programs which are pitted against others in an arena of sorts. In any given round of the competition, the programs must choose for each other program whether to cooperate with them or take advantage of them. In the Hunger Games competition, these are framed as "hunting" and "slacking".
At face value, the competition is a very standard iterated prisoner's dilemma. For the general case, the optimal strategy for this game has already been discovered: tit-for-tat. This essence of this strategy is to reciprocate everything done to you in the previous round, and cooperate with everyone in the first round in a show of "good faith". However, the Hunger Games competition had a slight twist: although your program would be able to see the overall reputation of each opponent (id est how many times they hunted versus slacked), no other identifying information would be supplied. This limited knowledge makes true tit-for-tat impossible, since your opponents are effectively anonymized. Although you may know that a player you decided to cooperate with in the previous round defected against you, there's no way to retaliate against the same player in this round with 100% confidence.
Our strategy
My team's strategy, nicknamed "The Underminer", both compensated for this lack of knowledge and managed to exploit it. We started with the assumption that tit-for-tat is possible, to a degree. As the number of rounds increases, the reputations of individual opponents becomes solidified, thus making this a means of identification. Although a player with a reputation of 1.0 in round one could drop to a reputation of 0.5 in round two, a player with a reputation of 1.0 in round 20 can only drop to 0.95. Based on this, one can say that the ranking of players by reputation remains mostly static: the worst-ranked opponent will have a very difficult time becoming the highest-ranked. While this is very untrue in the first rounds, at a certain point changing ranks becomes almost impossible. This phenomenon can be imagined like a zipper: before any zipping has occurred, there's a very large degree of freedom of motion available. However, as you begin to zip, the freedom of motion becomes more and more constrained, until none remains.
While our program implements tit-for-tat as described above in most circumstances, there's a very specific scenario in which it deviates from this otherwise optimal strategy. As mentioned, the "tit-for-tat" allowed by the Hunger Games competition is not foolproof, since player identities can only be approximately tracked at the beginning of the game. Assuming other players are also tracking opponents by reputation, we can exploit this limitation in knowledge by occasionally attempting to "undermine" another player, assuming their identity. This technique is probably best illustrated by example. Suppose in some round we're ranked 2nd by reputation at 0.7, while another player is ranked 3rd at 0.6 reputation. Assuming both we and the 3rd ranked player slacked completely this round, there would be no way for us to displace our opponent as 3rd ranked player, since they already have the "bad reputation" head-start. However, the likelihood of our opponent slacking completely this round is very low. In fact, the decisions of our opponent can be estimated given their current reputation, the number of rounds elapsed so far, and a rating of how certain we want our estimation to be by using the lower bound of the Wilson score interval. While this formula is most often used to rank items based on user reviews (and is employed perhaps most famously by Reddit's "hot" algorithm), in this case we can use it to infer the "true" cooperation rate of opponents and, based on this, their (probable) reputation at the end of the round. Supposing in this circumstance that we predict with a large amount of certainty that our opponent's reputation at the end of this round will be at worst 0.55, and we can manage to lower our reputation below that, then we choose to slack completely this round. Assuming that the other player remained at 0.6 reputation, while we dove down to 0.5, from a third player's perspective, this is what happened: the 2nd ranked player went from 0.7 reputation to 0.6 reputation, and the 3rd ranked player went from 0.6 reputation to 0.5 reputation. For the third player to make the assumption that the 2nd ranked player went under the 3rd ranked player - going from 0.7 reputation to 0.5 - would be a strange and unintuitive leap of logic. So, in this way, we can choose to take the advantageous route of fully slacking while passing off some of the negative repercussions of this to a worse-ranked player.
In the field of Computational Neuroscience, saliency maps are a means of graphically representing the areas of any visual scene presenting the most "bottom-up" saliency to a human observer (i.e. those most likely to draw the viewer's attention). Although the generation of these maps is not particularly difficult on a conceptual level, doing so is quite computationally expensive if using a serial approach. Below, I provide code for quickly generating the component contrast maps needed to build a saliency map by parallelizing the task on the GPU, as adapted from MATLAB code provided by Vicente Ordonez of SUNY. To run this, you'll need pyopencl v0.92, numpy, and PIL.
Original image Saliency map
from PIL import Image import itertools import numpy as np import pyopencl as cl import pyopencl.array as cl_array from pyopencl.elementwise import ElementwiseKernel import math ## initialization of GPU context, queue, kernel ctx = cl.create_some_context() queue = cl.CommandQueue(ctx) kernel_args = "int width, int len_min_width, float *image, float *contrast" kernel_code = ''' contrast[i/3] = contrast[i/3] + (!( (i < width) || (i > len_min_width) || (i % width == 0) || ((i+1) % width == 0) || ((i+2) % width == 0) || ((i+3) % width == 0) || ((i-1) % width == 0) || ((i-2) % width == 0) ) )? ( pown((image[i] - image[i-width]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i-width-3]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i-width+3]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i-3]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i+3]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i+width]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i+width-3]), 2) + pown((image[i] - image[i+width+3]), 2) ) : 0''' # for each rgb value in image, if not part of a pixel on the image # border, sum the squares of the differences between it and the # corresponding color values of each surrounding pixel, then add # this to the corresponding output pixel's value contrast_kernel = ElementwiseKernel(ctx, kernel_args, kernel_code, "contrast") flatten = lambda l: list(itertools.chain(*l)) def contrast_map(image): width = image.size[0] height = image.size[1] ## creating numpy arrays image = np.array(flatten(list(image.getdata()))).astype(np.float32) #image array contrast_map = np.zeros((height*width)).astype(np.float32) #blank write array ## send arrays to the gpu: image_gpu = cl_array.to_device(ctx,queue,image) contrast_map_gpu = cl_array.to_device(ctx,queue,contrast_map) contrast_kernel(width*3,(image.size - width - 1),image_gpu,contrast_map_gpu) #executing kernel contrast_map = contrast_map_gpu.get().astype(np.float32) #retrieving contrast map from gpu contrast_map = np.nan_to_num(contrast_map) #conversion of NaN values to zero ## normalization: contrast_map += max(contrast_map.min(),0) contrast_map /= contrast_map.max() contrast_map *= 255 return contrast_map.astype(np.uint8) def saliency_map(image): width = image.size[0] height = image.size[1] resizes = int(math.floor(math.log(min(width,height),2)) - 3) #calculating necessary number of #images for gaussian pyramid resized_images = [image.resize((width/factor,height/factor),Image.BICUBIC) for factor in [2**x for x in range(resizes)]] #resizing images contrast_resized_images = map(contrast_map, resized_images) #generating contrast maps ## resizing contrast maps back to original image size: images = list() for i in range(len(contrast_resized_images)): image = Image.new("L",resized_images[i].size) image.putdata(list(contrast_resized_images[i])) images.append(np.array(list(image.resize((width,height)).getdata()))) ## combining images: result = np.zeros_like(images[0]).astype(np.float32) for image in images: result += image.astype(np.float32) ## normalization: result += max(result.min(),0) result /= result.max() result *= 255 output = Image.new("L",(width,height)) output.putdata(list(result.astype(np.uint8))) return outputTags: code, cognitive science, gpgpu, image processing, numpy, opencl, programming, python
Having learned a little about d3.js at a hackathon I attended, I decided to put it to good use. Below is an interactive implementation of the k-means clustering algorithm, as visualized using d3.js. Click to place points. Centroids are (initially) set on randomly chosen points, and the number of clusters is set by a supposed rule of thumb. You can choose to step through the algorithm one centroid-readjustment/simultaneous point assignment at a time, or view the process in real time.


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Lease Only: Beautiful 3.5 Acre Land for Lease on the Lake. $1,900.00 This beautiful piece of land is right on Lake Susan in Minnesota and is an absolutely beautiful place to live. And affordable too. More details below… Lease Only Terms: Lease for $1,900/year with a $400 deposit. Land for Lease on...3.50 Acres : LEASE
Beautiful 3.5 Acre Land On Lake
Lengby : Saint Louis Co : MN
Ed Johnson : Homestead Crossing

subset: commoncrawl


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The first downloadable content pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was launched this week.
Called "Awakening" the map pack was released on Tuesday playable first exclusively on PlayStation 4
The Awakening DLC will be bundled into a 9.1 GB patch which will include a new content pack as well as fixes and updates to improve the general playing experience.
Activision has warned gamers it may take a bit more than two hours to download the entire patch for those with a connection speed of 10MB.
The content features four new multiplayer maps called Gauntlet, Rise, Skyjacked, and Splash.
The design for each map is aimed at enhancing combat style present in Call of Duty with each location offering a different degree of craft and creativity.
My personal favourite is Splash, a brilliantly original deserted waterpark - and yes you can go through the slides.
Rise is a construction area set in Zurich, Gauntlet is set in a military facility with three very distinct areas and Skyjacked is a flying airship with more than a nod to the Hijacked map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
In addition to the exciting new game maps, Awakening DLC also includes the first chapter for another Zombies story. 'Der Eisendrache'.
It is set during World War II in a medieval Austrian castle and is as twitch-inducingly terrifying as ever.
Awakening is the first of four expansions planned for the military science fiction and first-person shooter game.
It costs £11.59 to buy from the PlayStation store.
CODBO3 has met with mostly positive reviews since it was released back in November last year and averages around 8/10 in review scores.
It was nominated for best shooter and best multiplayer game at the Games Awards 2015.


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Increase in Craft Beer Helps Turn Industry Around
(NEW YORK) -- Brewers can finally toast to good sales this year, after a mid-year report published by the Brewer's Association cited a 14-percent growth in beer sales.
The organization represents 1,400 U.S. breweries, or about 70 percent of the industry.
Craft beer also experienced a spike in sales -- six million barrels this year, a 12-percent increase in volume.
"India pale ales, seasonal beers, Belgian-inspired ales and a range of specialty beers are just a few of the beer styles that are growing rapidly," said Brewers Association director Paul Gatza in a statement.
Craft brewers, 97 percent of brewers in the U.S., are "small, independent and traditional."
American breweries are experiencing a surge, reaching a 125-year high of 2,126 breweries over the last year. An additional 1,252 breweries are in the planning stages.
The beer industry's sales decline over the past four years can be blamed on the recession, according to The Washington Post. Key consumers, blue-collar males in their 20s, were deeply affected by the economic downturn.
Liquor and wine sales weren't as affected. Liquor sales rose by four percent in 2011 and wine sales increased their store volume by four percent this year.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio


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kharmon necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 53 diseños de 22 diseñadores freelance.
Engineered Foam Solutions
I am the General Manager for a small company that is part of a family of companies in the plastics manufacturing business, specifically working with different types of foam extrusion and molding. My company focus on custom engineered polyethylene foam products and components (like what pool noodles are made from). We work with design engineers and product development staff for large companies who are looking for innovative components and product solutions related to foam. Our products and components are used for insulation, protective packaging, sound dampening, recreation products, foam exercise rollers, and many other custom applications. Currently we are part of Nomaco, Inc. and we are their custom profile division but we are splitting out and creating our own identity. We have come up with Engineered Foam Solutions as our name and need our own logo that helps illustrate who we are and what we do.
We work primarily with product developers, product managers, design engineers, research engineers and sales and marketing team members to help design and develop solutions to meet their needs. In many cases we are like an extension of their technical staff working with them from concept to commercialization of their products. Our components help make their products more energy efficient, lighter in weight, safer to handle and transport, more durable, more flexible and more cost effective (by replacing more expensive materials like wood, hard plastic, metal, more expensive foams).
Our business name is Engineered Foam Solutions. Nothing fancy, simply stated to describe what we do - we design customer engineered foam solutions to make their products better and more cost effective. We are a division of Noel Group (http://www.noelgroup.net) and was formerly part of the custom profile division of Nomaco, inc. (http://www.nomaco.com). There is some brand equity in the foam industry with Nomaco as we are widely known for our 25 years of polyethylene foam extrusion exertise and we have many success stories of our accomplishments. Since we mostly would work with technical engineering type people we want a logo that is straighforward and simple yet shows we are innovative and we partner with our customers to design and develop their products with them. There are many competitors in our industry who can duplicate what we do so we differentiate ourselves in our ability to innovate, our custom engineering expertise, the way we work to understand their problem before designing a solution, the way we partner with our customers as an extension of their R&D staff, our knowledge in the plastics and foaming industry, and our vast experience and expertise around formulation and extrusion die designs for making intricate foam profiles.
Design should also have "a division of Nomaco" at the bottom as well.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Hrabriat Eskimos
Aleksandar Denkov was born in Prague, Czechia. Although he only became 47 years old, his style was a big influence on Bulgarian comics. He began his career at the age of 17, publishing his work in the magazine Chuden Sviat.
Zagovor v dvoreca
Some of his comics were 'Hrabriat eskimos' (in Chuden Sviat), 'Zagovor v dvoreca' (script by Zmei Gorianin in Iliustrativno Chetivo) and 'Ban Ianuka'. Denkov studied painting, but eventually specialized in applied engraving. He is the creator of the first Bulgarian animated film, 'Little Thief', in 1945.
Hrabriat Eskimos
cover of Iliustrativno Chetivo


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Federal Aviation Safety Officer (ASO) Training
The Interagency Committee for Aviation Policy (ICAP) recognizes Aviation Safety Officers (ASOs) who aim to affect a positive change. Under this program, ICAP will issue a Certificate of Training to any ASO who completes voluntary, in-classroom training.
In order to qualify, ASOs must complete at least 24 hours of in-classroom training from trusted organizations such as the Transportation Safety Institute (TSI) or other recommended institutions. The course must be relevant to a safety officer's job and improve his or her performance.
ASOs must receive training on all of the following topics:
- Basic Aviation Accident Investigation
- Human Factors
- Risk Management
- Aviation Safety Program Management
- Legal Aspects of Aviation
Getting Certified
After training, ASOs can send both documentation of their coursework and a completed Application for ICAP Safety Officer Certificate [DOC - 30 KB] to:
Office of Aviation Safety
Attn: Aviation Safety Program Manager, Michael Miles
1800 F. Street, NW
Washington, DC 20405
Once approved, the applicant will receive an ASO Certification acknowledging his or her dedication to a safer aviation environment.
Maintaining a Certification
To maintain an active ASO Certification, aviation safety officers must complete an additional 16 hours of safety training every two years, and reapply for certification.
To get started, download the Application for ICAP Safety Officer Certificate [DOC - 30 KB]


text:
U.S. Soccer's Clint Dempsey Has Another Goal: Release a Rap Album
Team Captain—Who Scored U.S.'s Fastest-Ever World Cup Goal—Also Records Under the Name 'Deuce'
This is a big summer for U.S. soccer team captain Clint Dempsey. Not only is he leading the team in his third World Cup: he is releasing his debut album.
Unbeknown to his fans and teammates, the 31-year-old Mr. Dempsey spent two weeks in Los Angeles during the off-season recording a 13-track album, "The Redux," which he and his friend, the rapper XO, plan to release in the months ahead. Using his artist name "Deuce," Major League Soccer's highest-paid player raps about going from rags to riches, "banging...


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1 Samuel 19-21 New International Version (NIV)
Saul Tries to Kill David
19 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2 and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."
4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"
6 Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death."
7 So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.
8 Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.
9 But an evil[a] spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.
11 Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." 12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. 13 Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats' hair at the head.
14 When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill."
15 Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." 16 But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats' hair.
17 Saul said to Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?"
Michal told him, "He said to me, 'Let me get away. Why should I kill you?'"
18 When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. 19 Word came to Saul: "David is in Naioth at Ramah"; 20 so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul's men, and they also prophesied. 21 Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. 22 Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?"
"Over in Naioth at Ramah," they said.
23 So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. 24 He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
David and Jonathan
20 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?"
2 "Never!" Jonathan replied. "You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn't do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn't so!"
3 But David took an oath and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, 'Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.' Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."
4 Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you."
5 So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, 'David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.' 7 If he says, 'Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?"
9 "Never!" Jonathan said. "If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"
10 David asked, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?"
11 "Come," Jonathan said, "let's go out into the field." So they went there together.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, "I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord's kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord call David's enemies to account." 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, "Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever."
24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan,[b] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean." 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
28 Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, 'Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
30 Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!"
32 "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father's shameful treatment of David.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?" 38 Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."
41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.
42 Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, 'The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'" Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.[c]
David at Nob
21 [d]David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"
2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, "The king sent me on a mission and said to me, 'No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find."
4 But the priest answered David, "I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women."
5 David replied, "Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever[e] I set out. The men's bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!" 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's chief shepherd.
8 David asked Ahimelek, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's mission was urgent."
9 The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one."
David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."
David at Gath
10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances:
"'Saul has slain his thousands,
12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"
Cross references:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Luke 11:29-54 New International Version (NIV)
The Sign of Jonah
29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.
The Lamp of the Body
33 "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,[a] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,[b] your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you."
Woes on the Pharisees and the Experts in the Law
37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
43 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
44 "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it."
45 One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."
46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
47 "Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
52 "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.
Cross references:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Goal #5: Enrollment and Retention
**The below information is from the 2006-2016 UIS Strategic Plan. For information on the current 2018-2028 Strategic Compass, visit https://www.uis.edu/strategiccompass/ **
By improving access and opportunity, the University of Illinois at Springfield seeks to enroll, retain, and graduate a larger and more diverse student body engaged in classroom and technology-enhanced education in a thriving learning community and university that meet students' educational goals.
Strategic Thrust #1: Improve Access and Opportunity for Traditional and Non-traditional Students
Recognizing the shifting demographics and economics of our state's citizenry, UIS will be recognized as a leader in providing access and opportunity for traditional and non-traditional learners. The Office of Enrollment Management will discuss plans with the Academic Cabinet to ensure that goals are communicated effectively.Assure that no Illinois resident is denied a UIS education based solely on need constraints.
Action Step #1: Ensure that merit- and need-based financial aid are competitive with levels of other public institutions in Illinois.
Action Step #2: Develop and implement a plan for increasing need- and merit-based funding to increase access and ensure a UIS education remains affordable for all students.
Action Step #3: Increase private sources of funds to provide additional sources of funding for students.
Action Step #4: Develop curricular offerings in new general education program for delivery in fall 2006.
Action Step #5: Obtain Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) approval for general education coursework during 2005-2006 academic year.
Action Step #6: Align targeted marketing efforts with enrollment trends of online degree programs to ensure enrollment capacity is achieved.
Action Step #7: Explore venues for supporting continuing education opportunities for lifelong and non-degree-seeking learners.
Action Step #8: Create a mechanism for consultation between the Office of Admissions and Records and faculty about recruitment, admissions process, and retention.
Performance Indicators for strategic thrust #1:
- Comprehensive general education curriculum for freshmen and transfer undergraduate students developed by fall 2006
- Plan in place for assuring that no Illinois resident is denied an education based solely on need
- Enrollment of more students from outside the central Illinois region, especially in online degree programs
- Continuing Education program re-established
Strategic Thrust #2: Enroll a Larger and More Diverse Student Body
UIS is committed to enhancing the educational experiences of students by enrolling a larger and more diverse student body. Through opportunities to interact and learn collaboratively with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, our graduates will be recognized as being among the best prepared to work and live in our global society.
Action Step #9: Develop and offer a bridge program for students who have pattern deficiencies or would benefit from additional educational preparation.
Action Step #10: Expand residential housing options by opening another residence hall.
Action Step #11: Coordinate the scheduling of the general education curriculum to assure an adequate number of course sections at times and in multiple delivery formats that do not create conflicts for students seeking to enroll on a full-time or part-time basis.
Action Step #12: Ensure that the fullest array of dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, and College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) options are available for students matriculating to UIS.
Action Step #13: Complete the planned development of new online degree programs to broaden access to a UIS degree.
Action Step #14: Strengthen institutional partnership agreements to encourage transfer to degree programs offered online and at UIS.
Action Step #15: Annually align recruitment plans for both traditional and non-traditional transfer students with target markets indicating strong yield. Share the recruitment goals with the UIS community to help make the entire university community aware of the importance of recruitment.
Action Step #16: Implement an Office of Graduate Studies to strengthen recruitment and coordinate admissions processes for graduate programs following admission to the university.
Action Step #17: Involve faculty and staff in graduate recruitment by linking recruiting activities with their involvement in professional associations and other venues.
Action Step #18: Annually align recruitment plans with state demographics to increase the diversity of the student body to mirror ethnic, racial, economic, geographic, physical abilities, and family educational backgrounds.
Action Step #19: Strengthen the partnership between UIS and College Summit by increasing the number of downstate high school students who participate.
Action Step #20: Expand participation in Project Midstate Student Support for Teaching (MSST), PAP (President's Award Program), UIS Leadership in Public Service Program (LPSP), and Whitney M. Young Fellowship Program to support and encourage a diverse student body.
Action Step #21: Develop and implement action plans to address the gaps identified in the assessments of the multicultural climate.
Action Step #22: Improve the transition between the bachelor's and master's degrees and investigate increasing the number of five-year BA-MA or BS-MS programs to retain students for two degrees.
Action Step #23: Create additional undergraduate majors to attract and retain a broader student body.
Action Step #24: Design a more aggressive marketing campaign that reallocates resources to increase competition in the city and the region.
Performance Indicators for strategic thrust #2:
- Freshmen enrollments grow to 280 students by the fall of 2006.
- On-campus enrollment grows to 6,000 students by fall 2012.
- Plan in place for assuring courses will be offered for the new general education curriculum by the fall of 2006.
- Enrollment of more students from outside the central Illinois region enroll, especially in online degree programs.
- Increase in transfer student enrollments.
- Increase in graduate student enrollments.
- Increase in the percentage of minorities who make up the student body.
Strategic Thrust #3: Retain and Graduate a Larger and More Diverse Student Body.
Recognizing the opportunity to enhance retention and completion rates for students in higher education, UIS seeks to develop additional programs and services designed to encourage degree completion.
Action Step #25: Develop and offer a course or courses designed to assist students in effectively making the transition to college.
Action Step #26: Utilize a one-stop enrollment services model that includes the entire array of student enrollment services (admissions, advising, registration, financial assistance, student accounts, and withdrawal/graduation) to reduce attrition that may result from financial or other addressable factors.
Action Step #27: Encourage colleges and academic programs to create learning communities.
Action Step #28: Monitor retention rates and provide periodic feedback to colleges and programs.
Action Step #29: Develop plans in each college or program to recruit back students who have stopped out.
Action Step #30: Refine and offer orientation programs to freshmen, transfer students, and graduate students that effectively prepare them for transitioning to or repositioning at UIS.
Action Step #31: Assess student satisfaction on a periodic basis using the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).
Action Step #32: Develop and implement action plans to address the gaps identified through the SSI and NSSE.
Performance Indicators for strategic thrust #3:
- A first-to-second-year retention rate for freshmen and a first-to-second year retention rate for transfer students above national averages at institutions with similar admissions selectivity.
- One-stop enrollment model in place.
- Completion rates for all student populations at levels above the national average (e.g., undergraduate rate was 66.7% in 2004).
- Student satisfaction with academic, student, and business services; student engagement at levels greater than national norms and peer institutions.
Strategic Thrust #4: Provide
Classroom and Technology-enhanced Education that Meets Students' Educational Goals
UIS seeks to continue its reputation as a national leader in technology-enhanced and delivered education that extends beyond the university's classrooms to students seeking coursework, certificate programs, or degrees aligned with their educational goals.
Action Step #33: Develop an early warning system to identify students at risk of dropping an online course.
Action Step #34: Ensure students in online and on-campus courses have comparable access to educational and student support services.
Action Step #35: Strengthen faculty and staff development opportunities, both on and off campus, that address best practices in educational pedagogies and technology-enhanced learning.
Action Step #36: Monitor and identify changing needs of students as well as the State of Illinois for an educated citizenry.
Action Step #37: Develop and revise curricular offerings (degrees, certificates) that are aligned with these changing needs.
Performance Indicators for strategic thrust #4:
- Intra-term retention rates in online courses.
- National reputation as a university whose curricular offerings are aligned with the changing educational goals and opportunities for college graduates.
- Plan in place to monitor and identify changing needs of students and citizens; action taken to develop and revise curricular offerings as needed.
Strategic Thrust #5: Sustain a Thriving Learning Community and University.
UIS seeks to create a thriving learning community that transcends geographical space and integrates the university into the community and the community into the university.
Action Step #38: Design and build more "third-spaces" (coffee shops, lounges, gathering spaces) for students, staff, and faculty to informally congregate.
Action Step #39: Continue to seek support for development of a student union.
Action Step #40: Consider hybrid delivery models to integrate populations and allow for greater interaction of student populations.
Action Step #41: Renovate Brookens Library to be an exceptional "third space" for students, faculty, and staff.
Performance Indicators for strategic thrust #5:
- University's residential community grows to 2,000 students by fall 2012.
- National recognition as a leader in integrating on-campus and online learning communities.
- Regional prominence as a university that effectively integrates the university into the community and the community into the university.
"Stretch Ideas" for the University of Illinois at Springfield
This is no ordinary strategic plan. By design, we are highlighting here what we call "Stretch Ideas." These are projects and concepts that will stretch us far beyond where we are now and will help us pursue our vision.
1. Statement of Strategic Intent
UIS will be one of the top five small public liberal arts universities in the United States. UIS will take the steps necessary to get onto the "top-schools" lists.
2. Center for Online Learning, Research and Service
The UIS Center for Online Learning, Research and Service will become the UIS hub for the study and application of online learning pedagogy, technology, and best practices. It will provide support for original scholarly research in this field and the dissemination of results. It will build synergies between discovery research and the enhancement of current online education practices. The center will inform, empower, assist, and support the faculty of UIS in the delivery of courses, degrees, and certificate programs through the Internet. For graduate students, it will be educationally rigorous but appealing to their scheduling needs. It will reach around the globe to build new online collaborations among educational institutions, government agencies, and businesses.
3. College Preparedness: Transition Partnership Program
UIS will be recognized as an innovative leader in creating a transitional partnership program that prepares students to be college ready and in good academic standing as they make the transition from high school to college and from community colleges to four-year institutions. The program will offer assistance with the college admissions process, financial planning, , placement testing, and academic readiness through developmental or enhanced coursework offered through partnerships with Lincoln Land Community College, College Summit, The College Board, Illinois CAS (Course Applicability System), Illinois Mentor, and the Institute Career Assistance Network (ICAN).
4. Center for First-Year Programs
UIS will become recognized as having a nationally certified program of excellence in the area of first-year support services. Under the direction of the Division of Student Affairs, this center of excellence will be modeled on student-centered practices that are comprehensive, holistic, and retention-focused. Designed to enhance the educational experience and personal development of our first-time, first-year students and transfers, this center will provide summer bridge programs, non-academic first-year seminar courses, integrated community-learning initiatives, and transitional support to guide students in their social adjustment from high school to college or from first semester to second.
5. Annual Campus Dialogue
A topic will be selected each year for campuswide study and dialogue. Formats and forums will vary in order to spark interest and encourage broad participation of people on campus as well as people in the community.
6. Emiquon Field Station
UIS will significantly expand its support of a field station at the Nature Conservancy's Emiquon Preserve, near Havana, Illinois. Emiquon is one of the largest floodplain restoration projects in the world. The field station will provide a focus for faculty and undergraduate and graduate students to engage in hands-on research from disciplines such as biology, environmental studies, anthropology, history, and public administration and to collaborate on projects related to the Illinois River floodplain restoration.
7. Experiential and Service Learning Institute
While many institutions have in recent years come to develop programs of experiential and service learning, UIS has a 35-year history of an incorporating experiential learning into undergraduate and graduate education. We will build on our success with the Applied Study Term for undergraduate students, the Graduate Public Service Internship, the Public Affairs Reporting Program, and the Legislative Staff Intern Program. We will not only expand service learning opportunities but also establish an institute that will foster the scholarly investigation of experiential and service learning and promote best practices to colleagues at other institutions.
8. International Collaborations
UIS will nurture and develop new international collaborations in innovative, creative ways. Faculty have developed academic and business contacts on nearly every continent, and UIS is poised to play a highly significant role in the global marketplace, which includes faculty and universities around the world. UIS will encourage faculty to pursue international interaction aggressively, thereby enhancing opportunities for research, applied research, and graduate and undergraduate studies for students.


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Last week my little girl turned 6. I'm am totally amazed at the wonderful little girl she is becoming but in all honesty it is happening way way too fast.
We originally planned to celebrate Payton's birthday with a big birthday carnival... Then I checked the weather, then it rained, then I changed most of my plans. Luckily almost everything dried up prior to our first guests and the rain stayed away for all but the last 30 minutes.So some of our plans changed but we still had a great time!
Here are the invitations we gave out! You can find these and similar invitations here.
Hello dessert bar!
Marshmallow POPS! Found here!
Birthday Girl!


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Sunday October 20, 2019; 03:28 am EDT
Mother Nature's Got the Jump on Me
You and I will find them in this Bay Weekly
"I'm in energy," said the woman seated to my right at the long table where she and I, strangers heretofore, made conversation.
"Ah, so you're following in Mother Nature's footsteps," I replied.
Magnetic energy — and no, not the kind new age healers use — was my table companion's current favorite energy source, followed by geothermal.
Wood, coal, hydrokinetic, atomic, nuclear, natural gas, waste solids, methane, geothermal, magnetic, sun or wind: None of the energy sources we humans harness compares with the sheer force of Mother Nature. If we could walk in her footsteps, our energy problems would be solved.
The proof of Mother Nature's indefatigable energy is all around us this time of year, when she's full speed ahead.
We're experiencing spring in double time and double abundance. So extraordinary is Spring, 2012 that I've been keeping track.
For their centennial year, cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., came early, and they came fat. The five-leaved petals were huge, and the millions of blossom clusters were each as full as a cherry sno-cone before the first bite was taken. Walking the path around the Tidal Basin was like walking in a cloud forest.
Every cherry tree in Chesapeake Country was so inspired to its ideal of pale pink perfection.
Tulip magnolias were not to be outdone, opening their tender, long-petaled pink-purple cups to compete with bigger flowers and lascivious colors. Mother Nature is no Puritan.
When the winds came, cherry snow fell in blizzards, and lawns were carpeted in magnolia. Mother Nature is casual in her gorgeous excess.
Yellow is pouring from fountains of forsythia; its spilled drops color the daffodils so bright the sunshine is embarrassed to fall on them. Daffodils come on their irrepressible own, in so many colors it takes a spectrum to contain them and in so many shapes that the bells of musical instruments must have been made on their model.
Then there are the dandelions, already nodding their heedless yellow heads in confidence of inheriting the world.
Mother Nature is not selective in her breeding. She loves weeds like dandelions and tangly vines like multiflora rose best of all, I think, and her love has taken root. Lush clumps of chicory and plantain, bouquets of chickweed, fountains of seed-shooting cress, creeping speed weed are out-competing grass that is itself so thick and healthy that the cuttings of a field could be baled like hay.
Purple has been rushing to keep up, with periwinkle and Scylla, grape hyacinth and now violets. Wisteria and lilac should be weeks away, but their deep, nascent purples are pushing through the green bud covers.
It's a jungle out there, with flowers, shrubs and trees as loud as the birds, who are as loud as howler monkeys, and frogs, whose love calls keep me awake at night.
Energy is throbbing throughout nature this time of year. Has science measured what the power it takes for a single tree to break out in leaves? Especially a giant tree, like the two maples that surround my house.
Stupidly, I think of them as stable, static, dumb, when in fact they are forces of nature. In transformation from sleep to waking, they've produced a harvest of blossoms that, were it valued like corn or soybeans, would be red gold. Following soon are equal volumes of helicopter seeds. The baby leaves now opening will be big as my hands in a week.
Nature's energy is so vast I need a poet to help me imagine it. Every year at this time, Dylan Thomas reminds me it's the force that through the green fuse drives the flower …
Keeping track of spring, as I have done for history and for pleasure, is the easy part.
The harder part is keeping up, and that I haven't done. I'm a slacker in the wake of Mother Nature, who is even more awesome than was my mother in what she could do while I watched in (as my mother said) lazy wonder.
Last year's harvest of maple leaves has still to be raked, plus this year's blossoms and seeds. The pruners have to be sharpened before they're any good for cutting, yet there are canes that need trimming, bushes that need fighting and shrubberies that have to go. The grass is likely to devour the mower, and the weeds are taller still.
Spring is so far ahead of me that I cling to this year's Home and Garden Guide like salvation.
For starters, I pray for Dr. Glass to make a house call. With a power washer, please, to deliver my metal roof and decks from the gifts of the maple tree. Then — well, I've made my list of Home and Garden helpers I'll be calling.
It's time for me to leave you to your own list.


text:
Jay Cutler has beaten the Green Bay Packers just once in six tries during his time with the Chicago Bears. The Packers have found success disrupting Cutler's rhythm by playing physical against smaller Bears wide receivers.
That won't be nearly as easy with Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery lining up Thursday night. The fresh blood has Cutler feeling confident.
• Thursday, Dec. 13, 8 p.m. ET
• Watch on NFL Network and NFL.com/LIVE
Thursday Night Football Xtra
Download Thursday Night Football Xtra for a second screen experience while you watch the game.
Play TNF Challenge
Pick the game score and the players from each matchup you think will score the most fantasy points. Compete with friends and experts. Win a trip to the Pro Bowl.
"Good luck," Cutler said in a press conference Tuesday. "We invite press coverage. We invite man."
"It's all about matchups," Marshall said. "I'm 6-5, 230 pounds and there's not too many DBs walking around that big.
"If they want to get physical, I do welcome that."
We love this matchup, and we're not just saying that because it will be aired on the NFL's flagship network. (Dan patted on head by shadowy league figure.)
The Packers will be in a nasty mood after their stinker against the San Francisco 49ers. The Bears are looking to make a statement in the NFC North. Football is back. Everything in its right place.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @danhanzus.


text:
Think tank at Colorado Christian putting on "Conservative Bootcamp" Aug. 16 in Aspen
Conservatives, are you "feeling battered by the drumbeat of opinion that casts you and your mainstream views as extreme and intolerant? Tired of letting verbally maladroit political leaders speak for you and your politics?"
The Centennial Institute has just the thing for you: a lunch-time pep talk and training from Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Road to Freedom," Aug. 16 at the Inn at Aspen on Colorado 82 in Aspen. The cost is $50. People younger than 30 can get in for 20 bucks.
The flier I received in an e-mail Sunday from John Andrews — director of the think tank at Colorado Christian University, the former state Senate president and founder of the Independence Institute — sounds tough. It's called "The Conservative Persuasion Bootcamp," with two hours of basic training on becoming "more effective at communicating the appeal of liberty and limited government." The "trainee" will get "knowledge, skills and attitudes for winsomely vindicating with our fellow citizens America's founding principles."
Andrews will moderate the event along with Krista Kafer. the Centennial Institute's education policy consultant. Those interested in improving their conservative chops can register online or call 303-963-3424.


text:
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For millions of years, crabs have been scuttling about the bottom of the world's oceans and bays, but few regions have embraced the mean-spirited, omnivorous crustacean with as much vigor as we have here in Maryland.
When I moved here from the Midwest and soon after attended my first crab feast, I remember thinking, "What is wrong with these people?" Sitting in the hot sun for hours at a clip, smashing steamed crustaceans with a mallet and then sorting through razor-sharp bits of shell and crab entrails for a thimbleful of meat seemed more like some sort of torture than a good time.
Of course, I quickly learned the benefits of picking crabs when I had my first big bite of backfin meat. This delicacy, caked with Old Bay, has inspired an entire culture of entertaining. What would Maryland summers be without crabs?
As is true with other subcultures — groups of people that identify with, say, such enterprises as NASCAR, the NFL or Jimmy Buffett — the lowly crab has inspired a bevy of porch flags, key chains and stickers, as well as home accessories and decor. Thankfully, these consumer items are (at least sometimes) a bit subtler than Margaritaville wall decor or a Dale Jr. grill cover.
The global dispersion of our hard-shelled friend also means that it's not just here in Maryland that people have proudly decorated with crab-inspired home accents and furnishings.The crab has been an important icon to many civilizations, including the ancient Greeks, the people of pre-Columbian Central America, the Japanese, medieval Europeans and the Incas.
As with any home decor, crab-inspired pieces range in style from classy to kitsch. I have seen pewter crab chip-and-dip servers, crab pillows, crab doormats … the list goes on and on.
But I do have some favorites. Below are a few of them, as well as an assortment of some of the more unusual products available.
Art and accessories
Richmond, Va.-based online retailer Posh Living and interior designer Karen Robertson's collection of art and accessories both offer prints in a classical style.
The Karen Robertson Collection includes four different monotone-blue reproduction illustrations depicting a variety of crab species. One of these or the entire set will bring an air of tradition and sophistication to any decor.
Posh Living offers a variety of crab prints and canvases ranging from full-color illustrations and watercolor prints to screen-print style pieces inspired by commercial signage.
Local artist Nancy Hammond offers a fresh, casual approach to crab art with a variety of paintings available as signed and numbered limited edition giclee prints through Nancy Hammond Editions.
Looking for three-dimensional tabletop art? Design Toscano's bronze crab sculptures are beautifully cast and available in three sizes. Vagabond House makes a great hurricane-style candleholder supported by three polished pewter crabs.
Fun and functional
From televisions and soap dishes to glassware and trays, the crab motif makes functional pieces fun and decorative as well.
The most unusual crab product I've seen is a 19-inch LCD television from Hannspree, a maker of LCD products designed for clients looking for new ways to express their individuality. Framed with a stylized red crab body, the television would be a fun addition to a kids room or quirky coastal sunporch.
Bringing a more classical look to functional pieces, High Point, N.C. home furnishings manufacturer Maitland-Smith and tabletop accessories rivals Mariposa and Wilton Armetale offer a variety of crab-themed serving pieces and trays.
For subtlety, Mariposa and Maitland-Smith take home the prize. Mariposa's highball glass is etched with a simple crab or lobster motif and Maitland Smith's marquetry tray is raised by two brass crab-motif feet.
For items designed in the shape of the crab, Mariposa's sand-cast aluminum crab sauce dish is perfect for dips and condiments, while Wilton Armetale's crab serving dish features claws that can be filled with dip or garnish. Maitland-Smith's bronze crab soap dish adds instant personality to a powder room.
Furnishings and accessories
Seabrook Classics, as the name would suggest, specializes in nautically inspired home furnishings and decor. The company's crab daybed features large and small crab cutouts and is available in a wide variety of paints, stains and hand-rubbed finishes. Adding the trundle bed option makes a nice solution for a TV room that needs to double as a bedroom when guests are in town.
For a subtle decorative nod to the crab, throw pillows are an easy way to accessorize and add personality. Crab-embroidered pillows from the Annapolis Pillow Co. are part of a larger collection of customized pillows available for sale at Star Monograms in downtown Annapolis. For a more formal look, Sferra, a company known for luxury bedding, also has a line of decorative accessories, which includes a linen crab pillow ornamented with detailed embroidery.
Hardware and accents
Elements like hardware, knobs, trim and fixtures have long been a way of adding subtle decorative touches to the home interior with styles that range from purely architectural to those inspired by nature.
Carolina Hardware's decorative ceramic knobs with blue and red painted crab illustrations can be used to freshen up ho-hum kitchen and bathroom cabinetry or even give an old chest of drawers a fun new look.
Commonly used as an element in kitchen backsplashes, fireplace surrounds or on their own as accent pieces, decorative tiles are an easy way to express your personality and style.
One of my favorite tile works is run by the Bucks County, Pa., Department of Parks and Recreation. A National Historic Landmark, Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is still producing tiles in a manner similar to that developed by the pottery's founder and builder, Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). The tile works produces a variety of handmade reissues of tiles and mosaics made in the American Arts & Crafts tradition, including a four-square tile with a bas-relief crab motif.
Closer to home, Annapolis' Wells Cove is a supplier for solid brass door knockers — their best-selling design depicts the Chesapeake Bay blue crab.
Dennis Hockman is editor of Chesapeake Home + Living magazine. He can be reached at email@example.com.
For millions of years, crabs have been scuttling about the bottom of the world's oceans and bays, but few regions have embraced the mean-spirited, omnivorous crustacean with as much vigor as we have here in Maryland.


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Danbury turns out for chilly parade
DANBURY -- It was a day for the wearin' of the green, and a heavy coat.
But Sunday's decidedly un-springlike weather failed to dampen the enthusiasm of participants or the hearty spectators in the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which wound from Rogers Park to the Irish Cultural Center on Lake Avenue.
"It's a little cold today, but we're here, and that's all that counts," said former Danbury and current New Fairfield resident Paul DaSilva, as he and his family waited for the marchers to step off.
"It's cold, but the weather couldn't keep me away," said Isabel Figuerido, of Danbury, who was attending the parade for the first time.
Sponsored by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Danbury parade is usually held a week after St. Patrick's Day to avoid conflicts with celebrations in other communities, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee better weather conditions.
Temperatures on Sunday hovered around the 40-degree mark as a weak sun tried unsuccessfully to break through the clouds.
This year's parade, however, was one of the largest, in terms of participants, since the event began, AOH president Brian Hearty said. More bands and organizations were marching, along with several companies of volunteer firefighters from area communities who were in town to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Danbury's Wooster Hose Co. No. 5.
"I just hope some people show up to see it," Hearty said, glancing toward Main Street, where the sidewalks were mostly empty just 15 minutes before the parade was scheduled to start.
But as the engines of the Danbury Police Department's motorcycle escort roared to life, dozens of spectators emerged from their cars and took their places along the route, among them Jackie and Arthur Civitello, of Danbury, who were attending for the first time.
"We're here to see our son," Jackie Civitello said. "A friend of ours is a fireman, and he asked our son to ride the truck with them."
Parade Chairman Kevin Hearty conceded the weather could have been better.
"Last year, it was 65 and sunny," he said, then joked, "I guess we could hold it in July and call it a half-St. Patrick's Day."
firstname.lastname@example.com; 203-731-3342


text: Little Italy Mercato Saturday, October 14, 2017 8:00 AM 2:00 PM 08:00 14:00 Little Italy Mercato 519 West Cedar Street San Diego, CA, 92101 United States (map) Google Calendar ICS The Little Italy Mercato is located within minutes of downtown San Diego on Cedar Street. The market runs from 8am to 2pm every Saturday, and we will be attending every weekend. Our stand is located on Cedar Street just east of India Street.


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COLCHESTER � Talks are starting on a possible move for Colchester to eventually buy the building that houses the town�s senior center.
A committee that studied the center, and other buildings owned by the nonprofit Bacon Academy board of trustees, made the recommendation in a report released last month.
The plan would allow the town to use the senior center for several more years until a new facility is built or bought, plus provide funding to the board of trustees. The funding would allow the board to do much-needed repairs to both Old Bacon Academy and Day Hall, two historic buildings still in use in the center of town.
The major recommendation of the Selectmen�s Operations Committee was for the town to enter into a five-year lease-purchase agreement for the senior center.
�The board of trustees has been overly generous to the town through the senior center and Day Hall,� board member Arthur Liverant said.
The trustees have discussed a lease-purchase amount of about $300,000, or $60,000 per year over five years, based on the property�s assessed value, Liverant said.
The board traditionally charged the town $1 per year to lease the senior center, and only recently asked the town to cover about $3,800, part of the cost of insuring the building.
�We had an asset we made no money on,� Liverant said.
The board of trustees has been losing money annually on its facilities in the current rental and lease arrangements, town officials said.
�Basically, the senior center costs them $1,000 more than they take in,� First Selectman Gregg Schuster said. �Old Bacon Academy costs them $2,000 or $3,000 more than they take in from the Board of Education.�
The old Bacon building has housed a successful alternative education program on the first floor for 12 years. Trustees said that the program could expand to the second floor, if there were funds to make needed repairs to bring it up to code.
Day Hall, which houses a co-op nursery school, is short by $10,000 to $15,000 annually, Schuster said.
�Essentially, the co-op would fold if they were charged a real rent,� he said.


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Seriously. What's going on here?
A week after leaving New Orleans still smoldering from being torched by Drew Brees so many times, the Packers defense took a gut check and determined that no, their embarrassment still had not peaked.
"We felt the Saints game just left us with our tails between our legs. But what we really wanted to do was wet the bed," a member of the secondary told the Ranter.
Consider it soaked.
With just under two minutes left in the game and a three point lead, Crosby kicked off. Mark Jones, who had over 200 yards returning on the day, gave Carolina exactly what they needed for a potential game-tying FG. But when you're on the road and playing at Lambeau, I guess you go for it. Delhomme went deep and somehow the 5'9 Steve Smith came down with the ball at the 1 yard line. Williams then scored standing up - his 4th TD of the day.
Drenched. Sopping.
At 5-7, the Wild Card is about as realistic as making out with that chick from Transformers. It's the division or nothing. We're at Chicago and have Detroit at home the last game of the season. Very achievable wins, but with this team right now, who knows...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Season Slipping Away?
3 comments:
My tummy still hurts from Sunday. What's wrong with the D-Line? Special Teams? At least Brandon Jackson looked good. He's a tough runner who hits the cutback WAY better than R.G.ReplyDelete
But our game wasn't even what kills me .... How are the Vikings leading the division? All I have to say is this sucks hard!
Jackson definitely ran with some fire. I say go with the hot back. The good news is that the Vikings are still the Vikings and a collapse is inevitable (especially when the Williams sisters are suspended).ReplyDelete
The Vikings will screw up somehow, it´s inevitable. Like gravity.ReplyDelete
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