text:
Let's open our Bibles now quickly to Revelation chapter 14. We are going to be examining verses 6 through 11 of Revelation 14. This is a profound and startling portion of Scripture in some respects...at the same time a gracious and encouraging portion in other respects.
You know, people in the world are hoping for a better day. You hear it all the time, The President would like to be able to promise and deliver on a better day for our nation, Congress, people who rule our states and our cities. World leaders across the globe are endeavoring to meet together and find a platform for common peace and harmony. Everybody would like to see a better day. We would like to eliminate poverty and disease and crime and all of those things that blight our culture.
And I hate to be a prophet of doom, but to speak the truth I must and the truth is there's not going to be a better day but a worse one. A better day is not coming. In fact, what is coming is terrible, eternal tragedy. And the society of the future is a society that will feel the judgment fury of God like no other has ever felt it. Things are not going to get better, they're going to get infinitely worse.
And as we turn to Revelation, the book of Revelation, this becomes clear to us because of the number of passages here that record the judgment of God to come. Coming into chapter 14 and arriving at verse 6, we come face-to-face with three angels. And while the primary message that they deliver is a message of judgment, there is a note of grace, there is a note of hope, there is even a note of salvation. But the doom of the world is clear.
Just as a footnote, angels are very involved in the economy of God. They were involved in the giving of the law, that is the Mosaic law. They have been involved in the care of believers. In fact, in Hebrews 1 it says they minister to the saints. And the time of the end, at the time of God's final judgment, angels are very involved in that as well. The role of angels will be a major, major factor in God's judgment. We see, for example, in the gospel of Matthew in the parables of Jesus Christ that angels will be the reapers who will gather people at the end for judgment, as well as gathering the elect into the kingdom. Angels are involved in many, many of the aspects of the end time.
Now as we come to this passage, we find the angels involved not so much in judgment or in gathering the elect, we find angels involved in speaking. Three particular angels in verses 6 through 11 and each of them has a message to deliver. Occasionally we see angels praising God in the book of Revelation. Occasionally we see them ministering His will. We see them fighting demons. We see them enacting judgments. We see them bringing messages from God. And that's the role they have here.
Just to give you a little bit of perspective. In the book of Revelation, angels are involved in every chapter from chapter 4 to 14, with the exception of chapter 13. So they are very, very involved in the activities and the messages of the end time.
There are three angels that we're going to see in verses 6 through 11 and there will be more angels as this chapter plays out to the very end. But beginning in verse 6 is a series of angelic messengers who bring astounding proclamations about the consummation of the age, or the end of the world. Before the chapter is over we'll see as many as seven of them, but the first three are linked closely together. And the role they play here is, as I said, not the role of judgment but the role of warning. Before they are the instruments of judgment, they are the instruments of warning.
Let's look at verses 6 through 11, you follow as I read. "I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. He said with a loud voice, `Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and springs of waters.' And another angel, a second one followed saying, `Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.' And another angel, a third one followed them saying with a loud voice, `If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger. And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest, day and night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.'"
Just to keep in mind, these are not sequential angels, they are not necessarily given in some kind of chronological order. In fact, all the way through the end of the chapter here you have an assortment of angelic messengers which direct their attention to giving certain messages to the world. They're not necessarily in a proper sequence, but they address certain issues and events which stretch clear across the time that we know as the Tribulation.
Now the three messengers which we have just read anticipate the judgment of the seventh trumpet. You remember the seventh trumpet judgment was announced in chapter 11. And then we've had a little bit of a respite or an interlude, and discussed some other issues. And now these three angels anticipate the seventh trumpet will be blown and when it's blown, the seven bowls will be poured out as will be described, chapter 15 and 16. So just before the final outpouring of the last seven judgments on the earth which come in rapid fire at the end of the Great Tribulation, we meet these powerful proclaiming angels.
And what is their role? Their role is to make a last final effort to produce a remedial fear, a saving faith so that people can avoid the holocaust of the day of the Lord and the devastation of judgment and eternal hell. Some of the most terrifying language of judgment I just read you. This is the terror of the Lord.
And there is a gracious element here because before the final judgment hits, the last seven bowls which are the seventh trumpet, they telescope out of that seventh trumpet, before that last series of judgments, before the terrors of the Lord fall in their final form as the day of the Lord reaches its fever pitch, the Lord gives these warnings. And here, as I said, we sense the heart of God in one final last effort that men might hear.
Now this stretches over a period of time that may exceed just the moment of the seventh trumpet blowing, but it certainly goes all the way up to that point so that people right to the very end are able to hear the truth. And if they will, to believe.
Let's look at the first angel. The first angel is preaching the gospel. The first angel is preaching the gospel. Verse 6, "And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people." Here, as I said, is the proclamation of God's last message of warning, calling the world to faith, calling the world to salvation in Christ at the climax of the period of time we call human history, namely that period of the Great Tribulation. And you'll notice at the beginning of verse 6 he says, "I saw another angel." There have been many already. In fact, I just told you that in every chapter from chapter 4 through 14, angels appear except chapter 13, here is another one of them. And there are surely millions of them. Back in chapter 5 and verse 11 it says the number of the angels gathered around the throne of God was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, murion times murion is ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. And it's a way to describe the indescribable or to count the uncountable. One of those millions of holy angels is here selected for a very unique purpose.
It shows him flying in mid heaven. Mid heaven is a Greek term that refers to the apex of the sun at noonday, to the point in the sky when the sun has reached its meridian, its high point, the very highest point in heaven where the greatest visibility will occur across the face of the earth, this angel will fly. And apparently from the indication of the text, he will fly there continually in the sight of everybody, flying at the highest point in heaven, the maximum point where the greatest amount of visibility is provided from the vantage point of earth. His pulpit at that juncture will be beyond the control of Antichrist. It will be even beyond the control of demons, who by then, of course, have been cast down to the earth, as Revelation 12 says, along with Satan. This preaching angel is going to be unobstructed and there have been holy angels, as you remember, from the book of Daniel obstructed in their heavenly mission. There has been a battle going on and goes on even today in the heavenlies between holy angels and demons, but not at this time. This angel will have absolute liberty and freedom because all the demons of the air have been cast down to the earth and he flies in mid heaven. Over a period of time, we don't know, but surely it stretches over this period of the end.
Now remember, the world will have already experienced incredible devastation, indescribable judgment by God, inconceivable and relentless holocausts will have spread themselves across the globe. The sky will have been shredded, as it were, and the earth as well. All of that described from chapter 6 right on through. The people of the world will have heard the preaching of the hundred and forty-four thousand Jews mentioned in verses 1 through 5 of chapter 14, who have been proclaiming the gospel surely since the midpoint, at least, of the time of Tribulation. They will have heard the testimony of the two witnesses. The whole world will know about them as it tells us in chapter 11. But in spite of all of this and additionally, all the other people who come to Christ out of Israel and out of the nations who are witnessing everywhere and many of whom are martyred, in spite of all of those preachers, be they men or angels, they will not believe. And here in one great dominating role, God identifies one angel to just fly back and forth in the mid heaven as the earth rotates so that the whole globe can hear him preach.
And what does he preach? It says in verse 6, "Having an eternal gospel to preach." The word "preach," euangelizo, from which we get "to evangelize." The gospel, euangelion, that's the good news. Eternal...in what sense is it eternal? This is very important. It is eternal in the sense that it provides the means to eternal life. It is eternal in the sense that it provides the means to eternal life. It is good news that relates to eternity.
Some people have suggested that the eternal gospel is one gospel and the gospel of grace is another gospel and the gospel of Christ is another, and then there's the gospel of God, and the gospel of peace and the glorious gospel. All of those terms are used in the New Testament. May I suggest to you that they all refer to the very same thing, they simply look at it from different viewpoints. The eternal gospel is the gospel that provides eternal life. It is the gospel of grace. it is the gospel of Christ. It is the gospel of God. It is the gospel of peace. And it is the glorious gospel. There's only one gospel. The same gospel of salvation has all of those elements. It is from God, it is about Christ, it is through grace, it provides peace, it is also, by the way the gospel of the kingdom. It is the good news that tells men and women how they can enter in to the eternal kingdom of God, the kingdom that has been opened by Christ and all who believe can enter.
This angel is not preaching anything different than anybody who ever preached the gospel preached. This angel is preaching that good news that God has provided a kingdom, He has provided grace, He has provided peace, He has provided glory, He has provided it in Christ. God has provided entrance into His eternal kingdom. Obviously, the implication here is that they will have understood that this is the gospel which they've heard. They've heard the truth about Christ. They've heard the truth about grace and forgiveness. They've heard the truth about peace and salvation. They have heard the truth about a coming kingdom and that there is a way to enter that kingdom. All of that has been being preached by a hundred and forty-four thousand evangelists all across the globe, by two witnesses, by many other believers who have been saved out of Israel and the nations. They have heard this all through this time period. They have heard about the death of Christ. They have heard about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel which is so clearly defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1 to 10. According to Matthew 24:14 which is a verse that you should note in this context because it relates so specifically to this, tells us the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations and then the end shall come. Before the end comes, the whole world will hear the gospel of the kingdom. And what better way to make sure that everybody on the face of the earth hears it than to set an angel in mid heaven flying back and forth day after day after day after day proclaiming this eternal gospel of the kingdom?
Good news, the door to the kingdom is still open. There is still grace. There is still peace in the provision of Christ. There is still the possibility of glory. It is not too late. The angel then is calling the people of the world to change their allegiance from the beast to the Lamb. There is still time to repent. There is still time to believe. The message, back to verse 6, is to those who live on the earth. That is to say the people here living on this very earth still alive who have not yet repented and come to Christ. They are further described in verse 6 as "every nation and tribe and tongue and people." God is so gracious. To the very end He is calling people to salvation. He's doing it by men and He's doing it by angels. This is new because in our day, in our time, angels do not proclaim. In the Old Testament economy, they often came with a message from God. And in the future they'll come again with a message from God and the message is to turn from the Antichrist to the Christ.
Now notice how directly this message comes in verse 7. "The angel speaks with a loud voice." That would be obvious. In fact, he shouts. The shouting indicates that he will be heard and it also is an indication of the urgency of the message. And what is it that he shouts? This is most important. He shouts with a loud voice, "Fear God and give Him glory." The message is so clear. The point is this, don't fear reverence, be afraid of, concern yourself with what Antichrist says, or Satan, but fear God. God is sovereign. God is in control. God alone has the right to be reverenced. God is the one to fear. "Fear not," Jesus said, "those who destroy the body, but fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Fear Him.
This assumes, by the way, the knowledge of the gospel of grace, the knowledge of the gospel of Christ, the gospel of peace, the glorious gospel of entrance into the kingdom through faith in the Lord Jesus who died and rose again. That...that will be clear to everybody. I believe that message will be across the globe.
And now this angel is simply calling day after day to the world, "Turn from Antichrist to Christ, turn from following Satan to following God, fear God." That is the great theme of Scripture. Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Proverbs 23:17, "Live in the fear of the Lord always." First Peter 2:17, "Fear God." It's another way of saying, "Worship God, the God who seeks true worshipers." Fearing God means living in the reality of His holiness, living in the reality of His sovereignty, living in the reality of His judgment of sin. Honor God, respect God, hold Him in awe, reverence Him, adore Him, worship him.
Then the angel adds, "And give Him glory." Fear God would be the negative side, give Him glory would be the positive side. Fear God means to live in the light of His sovereign holy judgment. You say, "Is this angel trying to frighten people into faith?" Yes, no question about it.
But on the other hand, he is also inviting them to recognize the glory of God. This is the very heart of the problem of unregenerate people. When they knew God, Romans 1 says, they glorified Him not as God. Romans 1 says because of the knowledge of God that is in them and the knowledge of God that is around them, men are without excuse and they have known God through conscience and they have known God through reason. Conscience demands a moral lawgiver, reason demands a creator. There is enough of the knowledge of God to make men inexcusable, if they do not believe in Him. If they do not come to the place where they know Him, that is man's great sin, when he knows God he refuses to glorify Him as God. And here the angel, for the last time, calls on men to fear God, that is to live in healthy fear of His coming judgment, and that is to glorify Him, that is to honor Him because of who He is. And the reason is given in verse 7, "Because the hour of His judgment has come."
The hour means the fixed moment for judgment has arrived. The seventh trumpet is blown. The seven bowls are to be poured out. Now is the last moment to believe.
The word "judgment," by the way, for a note, is used here for the first time in the book of Revelation. You'll find it again in 16, 18 and 19, but here it is used for the first time. It has the same meaning as another word that's used earlier in the books starting in chapter 6, and that is the word wrath. God's wrath and God's judgment is the same. Here are the righteous judgments that are the result of the wrath of holy God against a stubborn and obstinate world.
And I would just remind you that here you see the heart of God. How much warning does a world need? How many holocausts does it take before they wake up? A fourth of the population of the world dies, a third of the population of the world dies, a four of the seas are polluted. The fresh water is polluted. People die from famines and plagues and earthquakes and wars. The sky rolls up. The stars fall. The earth is pelted with fiery bodies falling out of the sky. The crops die. The green grass across the face of the earth dies. Two hundred million demons go across the globe with devastation and destruction. People are given diseases and ultimately even death. A world being massacred under the wrath of God and deceived under the guile of Satan and Antichrist. And with all of that going around, God is still calling, and still calling and asking men to fear Him and give Him glory because the last judgment is about to fall.
Then the angel, as if saying, "Fear God and glorify Him," isn't enough, adds at the end of verse 7, "Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters." Worship, proskuneo, very interesting word in the Greek. It means to do homage by kissing the hand. It means to bow in adoration. It means to prostrate oneself which people did before the throne of a monarch. Fear God, have a holy sense of fear, be afraid of His terrible judgment, glorify Him because He is a holy and glorious God. Fall on your face. Bow in adoration. Prostrate yourself before Him.
And what is the angel saying? He's asking them to do for God precisely what they're doing for the Antichrist. They're doing all of this to the Antichrist. They're worshiping Him. They're bowing down to him. They're prostrating themselves. And they're in fear of him and his great powerful killing machine. The angel says turn from him and turn to God. Why? Because God, verse 7, is the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.
Here again we meet this continual approach to the pagans of the world. Whenever the preachers of Scripture approach unbelieving pagan people, they approach them from the viewpoint of creation because that is the great unanswerable question, that is the great proof of God, that for this great effect known as creation there must be a cause. The Antichrist didn't create the universe, Satan didn't create the universe, God did. This is always the ground for worship, always the ground for glory, always the ground for fear and reverence, always the ground for faith. In Acts 14, in Acts 17 when Paul preached to the pagans, whether they were just the people on the street or the elite philosophers, he said the God you must worship is the God who made the heavens and the earth because the creator, my friend, is the judge. Whoever started it will end it. Whoever created it is in charge of it. The Maker is the executioner, the One who brought it into existence is the One who will put it out of existence. He is the One to fear.
And so this stern warning comes from a heavenly angel, hoping as Jude put it, to snatch some out of the fire. So the message of the angel then is the eternal gospel, the foundation of which is to worship God, to glorify Him and fear Him by acknowledging Him as Creator and Savior through the Lord Jesus Christ. What a gracious God we have with an earth that is literally burning and smoldering, across its face is death in every dimension from the plants to man. And the frightening, smoldering devastated universe gasping its last breath is still the object of God's gracious warning. And God is calling people even then from the kingdom of darkness that is really dark into the kingdom of light.
Then in verse 8 we meet a second angel. "And another angel, a second one, followed saying, `Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.'" Now here is an angel not preaching the gospel, here is an angel pronouncing judgment. Here is an angel pronouncing judgment.
This sadly implies the rejection of the first angel's message. If everybody in the world responded to the preaching of the first angel, the second angel wouldn't have to say this. It implies the rejection of the message of the first angel, so in that sense there's a certain...there's a certain flow here. In fact, it almost feels as if the second angel interrupts the first angel because nobody is really responding to the first angel or at least there's no great worldwide response, and so angel number two moves in and pronounces judgment. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great."
Babylon, what is it? Babylon refers to the worldwide kingdom of the Antichrist. It's just the name for the whole Antigod system of idolatry that is the worship of the Antichrist. And you remember they erect an idol that supposedly comes to life in the city of Jerusalem and the whole world worships the Antichrist in the form of that idol. But in the very end time there's no reason to assume that the very kingdom of the Antichrist finds its capital in the actual city of Babylon. Babylon, of course, in our life time in recent years because of the war in the mideast became very prominent. And numbers of books were written dealing with the prophetic significance of Babylon. We won't go into all of that now, we'll look more at it in chapter 17 and 18 where we get the details of this.
But Babylon is being rebuilt, as you know, by Saddam Huessin(?) as a ceremonial city. It is very possible that the rebuilding of the ancient city of Babylon may serve to be the capital city of the Antichrist in the final kingdom. His image will be at Jerusalem. There will be a certain focal point there but the system will be called Babylon in its totality and it may well be that its capital city is a restored Babylon. Back to the fertile crescent, back to the very place where Eden was. And, by the way, back to the location where the two hundred million demons had been bound and were finally released. It's almost as if that part of the earth became the seat of Satan because it was there that he corrupted the human race and established his kingdom.
But Babylon, by the time you get to the end of the Great Tribulation, is not just the city, it is a whole complete, political, economic and religious world empire being operated by the Antichrist. And the angel is simply predicting its entire collapse. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.
Now just a brief history. The first Babylon was a city founded by Nimrod. Nimrod was a God-hater. He was a rebel. You can read about him in Genesis 10 and 11. And Nimrod founded this Antigod city early in the book of Genesis. And it became the first...the first place where idolatry was introduced. And the first indication of idolatry we know as the Tower of...what?...of Babel. That was the birthplace of idolatry.
The Tower of Babel was what would be called in ancient times a ziggurat. It was an edifice attempting to reach high into the sky, not to climb physically up to God, but it was a monument to false deity. There the first world power of idolatry was designed and built. And the first Babel united men around a false god, a false system of religion, unspeakable idolatry, unspeakable spiritual adultery. And you remember what happened, don't you? God came down, Genesis 11, confounded their languages in judgment so they couldn't understand each other, there never had been any other than just one language until then, and then scattered them all over the globe.
And what did they take with them? Idolatry. Their false religion, their rebellious hearts. And so Babel then spawned all worldwide false religion. All the idols of the world were the children of Mother Babylon when the people were scattered.
So the source of idolatry, it all came from Babel. That's where it all originated. And in the end, it will all be reconstituted back in a final Babylon which will again become the container of one world idolatry that marks the last form of what began in Babel.
So history goes full circle, doesn't it? All of humanity was united in the first Babylon, and it will be reunited in false religion and idolatry in the last Babylon.
To show you how encompassing the influence of the final Babylon is, it says in verse 8 that Babylon is this woman, pictured as a woman, a harlot actually, as we'll see later. She has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality. It literally intoxicates and deceives the whole world. This is the final Antichrist system and it literally engulfs the whole world. We've already seen that the Antichrist is going to rule the whole world. Everybody is going to come from all over the globe and bow to him.
But the angel says, "Fallen, fallen," that's the end, divine destruction. The repetition serves to make the statement with great finality and great force. It shows the intense nature of the judgment, the comprehensive and complete nature of the judgment and the tragedy of it all. Fallen, fallen...by the way...is treated as if it were a future tense, although it is not because it's so certain that it's going to happen it can be spoken of as if it's already taken place.
Notice what else it says. "This evil system has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality." What does that mean? Immorality in the spiritual sense, please. Certainly there will be sexual sin like the world has never known. But the real issue here is what you could call whoring fornication on a spiritual level, that would be unfaithfulness to God. The people of the world get involved in the system and they imbibe the wine of the passion of spiritual immorality. The word "passion," thumoo, anything inflammatory, exciting or passionate, out of control with desire. It pictures an orgy of rebellion, an orgy of idolatry, an orgy of animosity and hatred toward God and the whole world will drink the wine of the passion of this spiritual defection from the true God. When we get to chapter 17 and chapter 18 you're going to see that in detail.
So angel number one comes and preaches the gospel and offers people an opportunity to respond. Those who won't believe, who won't be saved will fall with the system of which they are a part. So angel number one preaching the gospel. Angel number two, proclaiming the judgment. Let's look now at angel number three.
Angel number three is pronouncing the damnation--pronouncing the damnation. Here is another angel, not preaching the gospel, not proclaiming the judgment, but pronouncing the character of damnation. "And another angel, a third one followed them, saying with a loud voice, `If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand...'" Stop there for a moment.
Here again we see that each angel is successive. Each one reinforces the previous one and advances the truth to the next logical step. The gospel being rejected results in the pronouncement of judgment, which comes to pass in damnation. But God is just and God is gracious and He does not damn people to judgment by whim, or by decree, He damns people to judgment because they reject the truth they know, the truth they hear. That's why they're without excuse.
And I think even in this second angel and third angel's warnings there is still being given the effort to frighten men into faith...if we can simplify it to that degree, and you can't really, but to cause them to have enough panic to do some soul searching and pursue the truth. We are reminded then in verse 9, "Anyone who worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand is the one that needs to listen to this message." Back in chapter 13, you remember, we discussed all of that in detail, how that the Antichrist will mark out his people on the forehead or on the hand with his number. And the whole world will worship the beast and the image that the false prophet sets up. As we noted at the time, pagans were often marked, tattooed, if you will, by the name of their god...with the name of their god. Kings often marked out their own soldiers. And the people of the world will take some mark on their hand or their forehead which indicates their loyalty to the beast, as we saw back in chapter 13.
And what this angel is doing is saying...Look, here we are at the very end, you have heard the hundred and forty-four thousand, you've heard the two witnesses, you've heard all of the people who have proclaimed their faith in Christ, Jew and Gentile, and some of them were martyred. And certainly in the very martyrdom itself they gave testimony of the grace of God in Christ. You have heard an angel flying in mid-heaven. You've been warned by another angel who has pronounced doom. And here is one last note for you, if you still will worship the beast, if you still will worship his image, if you are still going to maintain your identification clear on out through all of this, verse 10, "You also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God." You will not just drink of the wine of the passion of the immorality of the system, you'll get another cup and it will be a cup filled with the wrath of God. You who have drunk the first cup, the passionate immoralities of the system Babylon, you're going to drink the wine of the wrath of God.
There's only one human being in the history of the world who ever drank that cup and survived. Who was that? Jesus Christ who said in the garden, fearing the very moment which He had to experience, "Father, let this cup pass from Me, but nevertheless, Thy will be done." And then He drank it to the dregs.
They have voluntarily drank the cup of the passion of the immorality of Antichrist, and now God will force this cup down their throats. The cup of God's wrath. This, by the way, is a term that you find in several occasions in the Old Testament, the wine of God's wrath, or the cup of God's wrath. Psalm 75 verse 8, for example, says, "For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams. It is well mixed and He pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs." God is going to pour wine down the throats of the ungodly.
Isaiah saw that same very dramatic and vivid reality, "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself," he cries in Isaiah 51:17, "you who have drunk from the Lord's hand the cup of His anger, the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs." Jeremiah, several occasions, makes reference to that same cup, Jeremiah 25:15 and 16, 51:7.
Now would you notice further what it says in verse 10? "This wine of the wrath of the God which is mixed in full strength." It's an interesting phrase. Sometimes when you read about wine being mixed, it's mixed with water. Not in this case because it is not mixed to be diluted, it is mixed in full strength, or literally, it is mixed unmixed.
What does this mean? Strong wine, unmixed with any water was made even stronger by spices that made it more pungent, more potent. And that's what you have here. The unmixed wine of God is made stronger, given full strength in the cup of His anger. Unmitigated vengeance. And the person who drinks this will be tormented with fire and brimstone. What a statement. Will be tormented with fire and brimstone.
Tormented refers to the ceaseless infliction of unbearable pain. Tormented, no relief, pain that is unrelenting and unmitigated, never lessened, never diminished and no split second of respite or rest. It says in the words of our Lord in Luke 16, "The rich man in Hades lifted up his eyes, being in torment." Unrelieved, unmitigated infliction of unbearable pain.
And it tells us that the torment will come with fire and brimstone. Those two things are often associated, by the way, with divine judgment in Scripture. I wish we had the time to see that. The prophet Isaiah makes reference to that in Isaiah chapter 34, verses 8 to 10. We find the same kind of reference made in the New Testament, Luke 17, just pointing out to you verse 29. "On the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all." And that takes us back to that monumental experience of Sodom and Gomorrah back in Genesis when fire and brimstone rained on the earth and destroyed those cities in the judgment of God.
It also says in Revelation 19:20 that the lake of fire burns with brimstone. And in chapter 20 verse 10 it says the lake of fire and brimstone, chapter 21 of Revelation verse 8, the lake that burns with fire and brimstone again. Hell, the final resting place of unregenerate people is a place of ceaseless, unbearable, unrelenting, unrelieved torment that is brought on by fire and brimstone. Brimstone being something like a hot molten burning lava, belching out of the fire of a volcano.
All of this, most interestingly, in verse 10 is in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. This is quite interesting. This casting of those who reject the gospel into the fire and brimstone will be in the presence of the holy angels. They're going to view this torture. This is a most devastating blow to the wicked, by the way. It certainly will add to their suffering that they must suffer while utter holiness and absolute purity is watching. How embarrassing, how shaming. And it says, not only in the presence of the holy angels, but in the presence of the Lamb. Even though we often would assume that the ungodly are cast out of the presence of God, and certainly 2 Thessalonians 1:9 says they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. There it says they'll be away from His presence. Here it says they'll be in the presence of the Lamb.
The point is this, they will be away from His presence in the term...in terms of any kind of care, any kind of relationship, any kind of comfort, any kind of mercy, any kind of pity, any kind of compassion. But they will not be away from His presence in terms of His omnipresence. After all, as I said earlier, Matthew 10:28, "Fear not Him who destroys the body, but fear Him who destroys both body and soul in hell." It is still God, the sovereign God of glory who is doing the destruction in hell throughout eternity. It is never out from under His control. The lake of fire, in a sense, is outside the presence of God. Revelation 21 verse 27, "Nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it," and that's the holy city. The ungodly are outside that where the Lamb lives and where God lives. Chapter 22, it says again that the people inside are the righteous and outside, verse 15, are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral and the murderers and the idolaters and everybody who loves and practices lying.
The ungodly are outside the holy city and they're outside the eternal new heaven and new earth. But what they are not really outside the pervasive omnipresence of God and Christ. For in fact it is God and Christ effecting their eternal punishment.
As if that's not enough, this angel has something else to say. In verse 11 he wraps up his message, saying, "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever." Some people would try to argue that hell is not forever. This angel wouldn't be on their side. This angel would like to debate those who believe in annihilationism, who believe in universalism, who believe in any form of conditional immortality. This angel would debate any of that.
There are people who say, "Well, nobody is ever going to go to hell." That's not what this angel said. There are others who would say, "Well they're going to go to hell for a little while and after a little punishment they'll be released." That's not what this angel said. Some others would say, "They're going to go to hell and they're going to suffer a while and then they're going to be annihilated." That's not what this angel said.
What this angel will proclaim is that the smoke of their torment will go up...how long? Forever and ever. Hell is forever...forever. It has no end. In Matthew 9:48...in Mark 9:48, I'm sorry, we find some very supportive words to this truth. It says, "In hell the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." There's no end to it. It goes on forever. You remember John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3, talking about the judge who would come and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire? That is a fire that cannot ever be put out. "Depart from Me," says the Lord in Matthew 25:41, "accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
And so sad, tragic, unthinkable, unimaginable fate of those who continue to reject Christ right to the end, along with all others who reject Him, their smoke from the burning torment will go up forever and ever. As if that's not enough, you think, "Well maybe there will be some times of rest, some times of solace." No, they have no rest day and night, it is relentless, absolutely relentless.
Look at verse 13 in comparison. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes...says the Spirit...that they may...what?...rest." Unending torment for those who reject Christ forever and ever and ever, without any rest. That's why it says, the words of Jesus, Matthew 13:42, "They will be cast into the furnace of fire, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, no relief." And those are the indicators of the unrelieved agony.
This, he says, end of verse 11, for those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. Simply, those who will not turn their allegiance from Antichrist to Christ. What a warning.
Madonna has a song. It repeats one line over and over again. I happened to hear it, and it just made me shake, it made me tremble. This is the line, "I don't give a damn if I go to hell." And that is a hit song. Frankly, that's going to be the attitude of a whole lot of people in this society and in the society in the time of the end. It seems to me we're already programming people, doesn't it? For this kind of mentality who can endure all of this gospel preaching and still say, "I don't give a damn if I go to hell."
Well I hope you do. There's no joy that heaven ever knows greater than when a sinner repents.
Father, what a compelling and powerful text of Scripture. What is said by these angels to the generations to come is the very thing being preached now. Preachers today and Christians today are saying fear God, fear God, give Him glory, worship Him, come to Christ, because this whole human system is going to fall, it's going to collapse into judgment, and ultimately it's going to end up in an eternal place of fire and brimstone where there is no rest but only unrelieved torment forever and ever. A place prepared for the devil and his angels, but to be occupied by millions of people who don't give a damn if they go to hell. How frightening, how obstinate. God, be merciful, to sinners as You are to us. And may they reach out while the message of salvation is still offered, for Your glory we pray in Christ's name. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
Cart - Quick view
Order Form
Jump to Itemnumber
Quick Navigation
Labels on Roll
Labels on Sheet
Please note our lowered shipping costs:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Rep. from 7,95 €
Switzerland, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway from 29,95 €
European Union from 15,00 €
Properties: after being applied correctly, the labels cannot be removed in one piece.
Application: inspection plates, assembly group markings with guarantee or closure seals.
Create customized labels in your desired size, material and color. Endless possibilities for your labeling demands.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Slow and Fast Light - Penetrating the Fog
Published on
Performance of optical delay lines and nonlinear devices based on slow wave propagation in photonic crystal waveguides in the presence of higher order dispersion is analyzed and compared with other slow light schemes, such as coupled resonators and media with electromagnetically-induced transparence. It is shown that higher order dispersion severely limits the bit rate of the system. Novel methods for increasing the bit rate are proposed and analyzed. These methods range from mundane dispersion-compensation schemes to the most elaborate methods using adiabatic changes and various parametric processes. The conclusion is that while the slow light is definitely not a "silver bullet", there still might be a practical niche for it.
Sponsored by
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Room 308, Marie V. McDemmond Center for Applied Research, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA
Mohammad Mayy, Taina D. Matos, Alexander Gavrilenko
Norfolk State University


text:
Stockton, CA
Mable Louise Swanson
July 17, 1924 - February 11, 2013
Mabel Louise Swanson, after suffering a short illness, passed gently into the night, surrounded by her family, on
February 11. Louise, the name she preferred, was born in Boise, Idaho on July 17, 1924, to Albert and Minnie Warner. The family moved to California in the early 1930's and settled in Manteca where Louise graduated from Manteca High School. Louise was a wonderful cook and baker and worked as head chef for East Bay Municipal Utility District for 25 years at Pardee Center in Valley Springs. She was well-known for her beautiful Wedding Cakes.
Louise is preceded in death by
her parents, Albert and Minnie
Warner, her two brothers, Roy and Milton Warner, her husband of 35 years, Calvin Swanson and her eldest daughter, Rayma Jacinto of Lodi. She is survived by two daughters, Cynthia Erlitch (Terry) of Texas and Deena Holman
(David) of Stockton and son, Skip Swanson (Julie), also of Stockton, along with 9 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She will be greatly missed. There will be no services as per her request.


text:
SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468 >November 10, 2005 > >Elvia H. Thompson >Headquarters, Washington >(202) 358-1696 > >Jane Glickman or Stephanie Babyak >U.S. Department of Education, Washington >(202) 401-1576 > >Joan K. Ozdogan >Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va. >(703) 750-8317 > > >HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TALK LIVE WITH SPACE STATION CREW > >In recognition of International Education Week, International Space >Station crewmembers William S. McArthur, Jr., and Valery I. Tokarev >will speak to students during a live television event at Thomas >Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), 6560 >Braddock Road, Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, Nov. 15. > >NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale and U.S. Secretary of Education >Margaret Spellings will participate in the live downlink from >Expedition 12, which begins at 9:30 a.m. EST. Media representatives >are invited to attend. > >International Education Week, Nov. 14-18, is a joint initiative of the >U.S. Departments of Education and State. This year, the theme is >International Education: Improving Student Achievement Around the >World. Established in 1895, TJHSST is dedicated to excellence in >science, mathematics, and technology education. The school serves >nearly 1800 students from six Northern Virginia school districts and >has a strong foreign language program. Three of the questions posed >to the space station crew by the students will be in Russian. > >The event will be broadcast live on NASA-TV and Fairfax County Public >Schools Red Apple 21 to all TJHSST students and to students in 240 >Northern Virginia schools as well as more than 250,000 home viewers. >Fairfax County Public Schools/Fairfax Networks is also providing >direct access to the program via satellite to interested school >systems across the country. Students around the world will be able to >watch the downlink via NASA's website. > >NASA TV's Public, Education and Media channels are available on an >MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 >degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical >polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, they're on AMC-7 at 137 degrees >west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal >polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver >Decoder is required for reception. > >NASA's Teaching From Space Office coordinates downlinks for the >agency. The office is part of NASA's education programs designed to >inspire the next generation of leaders and explorers, and engage them >through the Vision for Exploration. > >News media representatives who wish to cover this event and a media >availability following the downlink with Deputy Administrator Dale, >Secretary Spellings, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent >Jack Dale, and TJHSST Principal Elizabeth V. Lodal, must be in place >no later than 9 a.m. EST > >For more information about NASA's programs on the Internet, visit: > >http://www.nasa.gov/home > >For more information about International Education Week on the >Internet, visit: > >http://www.iew.state.gov/statements/sec_education.htm/ > > >-end- ---- Via the sarex mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe sarex" to firstname.lastname@example.com
AMSAT Home


text:
< Lawsuit Over New Basketball Arena In Seattle
Feb 22, 2013 07:14
Category: General News
Category: General News
Mice To Defeat Snakes In Epic Parachute Attack
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AP) — Guam is hoping that a planned airstrike can rid it of a miserable enemy. In this case the 'bombs' are dead mice laced with painkillers and the 'enemy' is the brown tree snake, an invasive species that gained a foothold during World War II. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines.


text:
You are here
TopGear.com builds a 2013 F1 tyre!
I'd like to think that if Lewis Hamilton manages to pull off one of his daredevil, physics-defying overtakes this coming season and his car happens to be wearing, oh, let's say a yellow soft tyre, it's down to me. Actually, if any driver manages to pull off a world-class pass, I plan on taking the credit. I imagine the drama, the panache of the move, the glamour and the excitement. All me.
Truth be told, I had to keep this thought super-glued inside my head, because I was actually stuck in front of a hydraulic machine, in a factory sitting on a bleak, grim, uncompromising industrial estate about an hour's drive from Istanbul in Turkey. Far away from anything even remotely glamorous or exciting or dramatic. I was in a place called Izmit, at the heart of Pirelli's tyre manufacturing hub.
And I was building a proper, 2013-spec Formula One tyre.
Why? Simple really. Pirelli is facing the last year of its three-year contract to supply the tyres for Formula One, and by all accounts, they've done a ruddy good job of making F1 actually exciting. Like, really exciting. Paul Hembery, Pirelli's motorsport director - the chap you see on TV floating around the pits - told TopGear.com exactly what Pirelli was charged with when they entered the sport a couple of years ago. "We had clear input from FOM (Formula One Management) and Mr Ecclestone, that the racing had to be more exciting. We sat down with a technical group headed up by Ross Brawn, and the description we were given was to try and replicate the Canada race of 2010."
That race of course, was won by Lewis Hamilton (ahead of then new team-mate Jenson Button), and was filled with, as Paul notes, "a good deal of unpredictability and lots of overtaking." So when Pirelli stepped up in 2011, they introduced faster degrading rubber to bring 'tyre strategy' into the game. And despite literally having a few months to work out the specific compounds to make the tyres, everyone was delighted with how fast the field suddenly got.
Well, nearly everybody. Schumacher was one notable critic of the new rubber, something Paul laughs off. "You're never going to please everybody," he says, smiling. "I spoke with Michael about it many times, but it depends on what your philosophy is of how Formula One should be. You could go for the maximum performance envelope - tyres, engines, aero all set to max - which the sport did, but that only ended up with processional racing.
"The fans left in their droves. We were asked to do something different," he adds.
And this year, Paul's promised even more drama, partly because Pirelli's philosophy is working, and partly because the cars aren't drastically different from last year. "That means we have to be slightly more aggressive," he says. And by aggressive, he means changing the structure of the tyre, and it's here where it all gets a bit complicated…
"We've made a change so that this year's tyres have more grip mid corner - what you would call 'combined traction'. We've also added to the rigidity of the belt package, the area just underneath the footprint, and due to these changes we've added 700g to each rear tyre, and 200g to each front tyre."
It's a big change. There are six different compounds: intermediate (green), wet (blue), medium (white), hard (orange), soft (yellow) and super soft (red). The tyres might look like simple blobs of rubber glued to an alloy, but they're highly complex composites made from lots of different materials and subjected to incredibly high pressures even before they leave the factory.
And we're in the factory that will produce all the Formula One tyres for this season. In Izmit, the research and development chief Bahadir Ozer guides us around our flailing attempts at putting together something quite complicated. There's an oft-quoted Top Gear maxim that could apply here…
"The whole tyre building process starts from our, ahem, 'secret area' " he says, with a wry smile, pointing to a closed-off section of the factory. What happens is the chemistry boffins in Milan send over the compounds to Turkey, where they're put together. But because this is a very secretive compound, nobody's allowed to look at it. Not even TopGear.com.
Once the compound is made it goes into the main factory, where part-automated machines put together the building blocks of the tyre. First, there's a rubber sheet that forms the tyre's inner liner - a sort of tyre-shaped drum - that gets put onto a spinning machine. And here's where TG.com comes in. We have to apply the 'ply', a sort of rubber sandwich (two layers of rubber with reinforcing material in-between), a sidewall (the bit on your normal tyre with all the sizes and lettering on), and a bead, which is a ring of very strong metal that forms a seal with the rim. It's quite difficult. Some Pirelli workers frown. I may have ruined a few tyres in my attempts.
Next comes the actual belt package Paul mentioned before. It's a combination of rubber sheets with steel cords inside, and once this is all assembled, the semi-finished tyre gets sent over to the 'curing' department. Sounds disconcerting, and it is. Here, the tyre is slotted inside a specially-built metal mould, which gets inserted into a very large, very hot and very scary machine that pressurises and heats the tyre up to 200 degrees centigrade. The reason for this pressure and heat is to bond all the various materials together into one happy tyre. It's also here where the FIA barcode - each tyre has its own barcode - gets 'hardcoded' into the tyre. And every tyre is scanned to track exactly where it is, who made it, when it was made, etc. It's all a bit 1984.
Once it pops out of the oven, it gets passed over for a visual inspection, then an x-ray check to inspect the spread of the materials inside, and finally a check for any imbalances. Once this is done, it's transported to the other side of the factory, and stored in a warehouse that's temperature controlled and has a capacity to house 22,000 tyres - including other motorsport disciplines such as rallying.
And if you want more stats, how about these: in an average year, this factory - which began life in 1960 and made its first tyre in 1962 - pumps out seven million tyres each year, 45,000 of which will go to Formula One. They make 10,000 prototypes ahead of the season for Pirelli to test around the world too (around 7,000km worth of hard driving). Pirelli reckon the finished tyres will be 0.5 seconds a lap quicker than last year, and once up to working temperature, these F1 tyres will hit 110 degrees centigrade.
And that's kind of the point - to get them up to temperature quickly - and assist in overtakes. "Warm up times will be reduced," Paul tells us. "We're hoping to create a challenge of thermal degradation which we saw quite a lot of in 2011. They help overtaking then, because what you get are differences in chassis setups and driver styles, and different points in the race where somebody might have changed their tyres, so that basically changes the overall speed.
"Cars can lap at different pace, and the idea is if you have different pace, you have an opportunity to overtake. We're changing the absolute relative lap times from one car to another," he says, as though he were reading the name of a biscuit pack. Clever chap, this Paul is.
And it's here, in this grim, monotone factory full of rubber and chemicals and Terminator-esque machines where Formula One gets its glamour and excitement. Because Pirelli can make or break this year's championship. As can TopGear.com. On cue, our F1 tyre pops out of the oven. It looks round. It looks rubbery. It looks yellow. Maybe, just maybe, we did something right? Some Pirelli men force fake smiles. There is some strained laughter and nervous glances. F1 driver chaps, a little note for the coming season: if you happen to come across a yellow soft tyre that looks a little…wobbly, please accept TopGear.com's humblest apologies. Ahem.
What do you think?
This service is provided by Disqus and is subject to their privacy policy and terms of use. Please read Top Gear's code of conduct (link below) before posting.


text:
LA Times
By Jay Jones
June 24, 2013, 7:00 a.m.
Twinkling new uniforms are making it easier to spot Chef Charlie Palmer's "wine angels" as they soar along the four-story-tall wine tower at Aureole atMandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Nearly 10,000 bottles of wine are stored in Aureole's iconic tower. The "angels" ascend and descend the climate-controlled, stainless-steel column on mechanical hoists.
So naturally, what they wear is important because the angels are unique. The new two-piece outfits are adorned with more than 100 LED bulbs, which means you probably can't miss them. They replace the black jumpsuits the "angels" previously wore as they sailed up and down the tower retrieving bottles of wine.
"We were often given feedback by our guests that they were hard to see in the tower, so we really wanted to make them shine," Palmer said in a news release. "Now they have a uniform that suits the excitement of their job."
The winning design is the creation of Las Vegas fashiondesigner Bunker Hill Bradley, who won a competition among local designers. The uniforms feature a progression of colors that symbolize the hues found in various wines. They're made of recycled materials.
Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel, like us on Facebook@Los Angeles Times Travel.


text:
|Executive Summary: SQL Server Magazine contributing editor Brian Moran believes cloud computing is coming to Microsoft SQL Server environments; the question is how soon will DBAs need to adapt to using and managing database services in the cloud instead of onsite in their organizations and data centers. Join in reader discussions about SQL Server and cloud computing and how SQL Server developers can improve performance of the database applications they design and write.
SQL Server in the CloudIf you've been keeping up with technology news, you've surely heard of cloud computing. The "cloud" encompasses computing services—applications, processing, storage, data protection, to name a few—hosted by offsite third-party providers. The upside of cloud computing: 24 × 7 access to applications and data without the overhead of an onsite IT team to maintain them. The downside: potential loss of control of your organization's data. SQL Server Magazine contributing editor Brian Moran recently pondered whether we'll eventually see SQL Server applications and data in the cloud (see "Cloud Computing: How Will It Affect Corporate IT?," InstantDoc ID 99835).
With SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) now in beta, the question makes sense. SSDS is Microsoft's first attempt to offer on-demand, online data storage and querying services. (For more information, see "SQL Server Data Services," June 2008, InstantDoc ID 98881 and the Microsoft SQL Server Data Services web page at www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx.) Although SSDS actually runs on Microsoft's SQL Server systems, for end users, it isn't really SQL Server—rather, it's just a means to store data and access it through querying.
In a cloud-based world where the data service, not the database platform, is king, what becomes of the DBA? Brian's answer: "It's reasonable to assume that cloud-based IT services will require fewer professionals to keep them up and running…, \[and\] cloud-based IT services lend themselves to be hosted from locations in which the cost of labor is substantially less than 'big city,' white-collar IT salaries." Reader comments on the article generally agree with Brian's conclusion, although shawnwjohnson thinks that businesses will choose to keep control of sensitive business and personal data while ceding control of nonsensitive data and applications to the cloud. What do you think? Is it only a matter of time before your company moves its applications and data into the cloud? And if that happens, what career steps will you take to prepare for the shift to cloud computing?
Performance DebateDBAs aren't the only SQL Server pros concerned about database performance; SQL Server developers also need to keep application performance in mind as they write database programs. Michael Campbell covered this angle in his article, "Performance Secrets for SQL Server Developers" (July 2008, InstantDoc ID 99148) and got thoughtful feedback from several readers.
Kurt Survance liked the article's tips overall but disagreed with Michael's recommendations about configuring Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) memory usage. "As I understand it…, AWE is irrelevant unless a machine has more \[than\] 4GB of RAM, not 2GB as implied here…. I know that there is a lot of disinformation, partial information, and outright wrong information on this topic. Most of it springs from a confusion between physical memory and virtual address space…. I have configured AWE on many systems, and it worked fine. I… never tried enabling AWE on a system with less than 4GB because there seemed to be no point, since any 32-bit process can access 4GB of RAM without AWE."
Reader Garry Mortimer disputed Michael's tip about improving performance by using multiple data files, referring to a Microsoft PSS SQL Support blog post stating that the more-data-files-equals-better-I/O-performance meme is an "urban legend" (see blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2007/02/21/sql-server-urban-legends-discussed.aspx). "I'm not sure if your article specifically \[recommends creating\] 0.25 to 1 data file per file group per processor (point 9). If yes, I don't think I would agree with it as I feel this recommendation is only contained to tempdb…. Most people have this misconception of a worker allocated per data file in SQL. Actually, this one worker per data file is… when you create \[a\] database \[on a\] different drive. Hence, workers do the creation so the database may be created faster due to parallel work streams." We passed along Garry's comment to Michael; check the article comments to see how Michael responded.


text:
"The X-Files." Cover by Sam Shearon. (IDW Publishing)Link
"Locke and Key." (IDW Publishing)Link
"Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness" No. 1. (IDW Publishing)Link
"Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness" No. 1. (IDW Publishing)Link
"Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness" No. 4. (IDW Publishing)Link
"My Little Pony" No. 1. (IDW Publishing)Link
The truth is still out there, and IDW is ready to search for it once more.
San Diego-based IDW Publishing is adding "The X-Files" to its already extensive lineup of comics based on beloved movie and television properties — a list that includes such major titles as "Star Trek," "Transformers," "Doctor Who" and "True Blood." The comic will pick up after the landmark sci-fi TV series and the two feature films chronicling the adventures of intrepid agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).
IDW will also reprint the "X-Files" comics published between 1995 and 2009.
The title is one of many that IDW editor in chief Chris Ryall was excited to discuss looking at what's ahead for his operation in 2013. Ryall, of course, is the author whose own Eisner Award-nominated series "Zombies vs. Robots" was optioned in 2011 by Michael Bay, and he was eager to talk about a number of bigger initiatives — among them, prepping for the end of longtime title "Locke & Key" by novelist Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, concentrating on compilations of artwork and comic strips and launching "Countdown to Darkness" — a direct comic lead-in to the "Star Trek" movie sequel due from newly anointed "Star Wars: Episode VII" director J.J. Abrams this May.
He also spoke to his approach to curating the IDW release schedule, working with rising talent versus established stars and some of the greatest challenges facing comics writers today.
HC: "Doctor Who," "True Blood," "G.I. Joe," "Star Trek" — you have some well-known titles in the stable. Because in some cases you're continuing worlds long abandoned by TV, how collaborative are you with prior creators?
CR: It very much depends on the property, and also a few other factors — past creators' willingness to continue on with a property, our desire to look backward instead of moving in a different direction and other things besides. With something like "Transformers," we launched with a beloved "TF" writer, Simon Furman, and have worked with Simon throughout our run while also bringing in many new voices. Same scenario with "Star Trek." With "True Blood" or "Doctor Who," there wasn't really any precedent in American comics — in "Who's" case — or at all in "True Blood's" case, so we developed new takes on those properties. On titles that tie in directly with a current project, like J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," we love to involve the creators—that not only makes for a more complete story line — like in the case of the "Countdown" projects and the "Trek" movies — but it also adds veracity to the project for fans. Similar to when we worked with Joss Whedon to continue his "Angel" series under his auspices.
HC: Who would you identify as some of the rising stars at IDW?
CR: I think he's perennially rising, since he's been in the business for over a decade, but Zach Howard, who I first worked with on a "Shaun of the Dead" comic in 2006, is doing some of the best artwork for his new "Wild Blue Yonder" series that I've ever seen from anyone, ever. It's jaw-dropping stuff, and I think this will be the series that finally elevates Zach to the stratosphere.
Both writer and artist on our new "My Little Pony" book, Katie Cook and Andy Price, have instantly won over fans with what they're doing on that title, and for very good reason. Both of them are only going to get better and better too.
There's a new artist named Vic Malhotra who's doing one of the Joe Hill projects with us that I'm excited to expose to the wider world too.
Nelson Daniel, the ongoing artist on "Judge Dredd," started out with us as one of the best colorists I've ever seen, and has since gone on to do Stephen King and Joe Hill projects as full artist, and the things he's doing penciling, inking and coloring "Dredd" are also setting him up as a premier talent.
HC: How do you balance bringing in new talent with managing more established comic creators?
CR: I tend to like to work with the same talented people as often as I can. I like the familial feel it gives the place, and once you've developed a good relationship with a creator, it's nice to keep them working and keep developing new things. So my first inclination on many projects is to work with people who've not only done good work for us but done so reliably and enjoyably. I like also working with new talents, because that's how this business keeps thriving, bringing in new voices and new artists, but I do temper that with trying to ensure that as many reliable, talented creators that have done work for us can continue to do so, while also growing the "family" along the way. There are some people — many who I listed above — that I would be happy to work with as long as they or I remain in this business.
HC: You worked at a few places as a writer before your EIC stint. What are the biggest hurdles that writers in today's comics world face?
CR: Just getting read, if all you've got is a proposal or a script. The days of comic publishers having dedicated submissions editors who can focus only on pouring through script samples and proposals is likely gone for good. So that leaves your typical comic editor who is buried under current scripts, deadline issues and so many other things. So pitching blindly without having any relationship with that editor or without any idea if the publisher is even open to projects is rough. It can be nearly impossible even to find time to reply to all those queries. So the best thing to do to circumnavigate that challenge is to not rely on it — if you want to make comics, go make comics. It's nearly impossible for a neophyte writer to start writing "TMNT" or "Spider-Man" or something else like that without a track record, so I recommend people go build that resume in the form of self-published books or online comics or anything else that can show in comic form what you can do. Coming to [publishers] can be tough and frustrating; better to build a name for yourself and then we'll come to you. Nearly every writer at Marvel Comics now got their start doing their own thing, self-publishing or doing their own title at Image Comics or otherwise getting their name and work out there, and then getting that tap on the shoulder. It's easy to get a "no" in this business, and there are, of course, exponentially more people who want in than there are spots. So if there aren't current spots for you, go make your own spot. It's harder, and can require patience, but like any creative pursuit, if you don't love it enough to make a lengthy go at it, it might not be for you.
HC: Are plans already forming for Wondercon and Comic-Con International?
CR: God, they are … it's depressing to me that even in mid-January, it feels like the clock is rapidly ticking on "con season." But we've got some good creators lining up for those shows, and some exciting announcements and debuts at both too.
— Jevon Phillips
Follow us on Twitter: @LATHeroComplex
'Django Unchained' comic: A 'straight-up hero'
Patrick Stewart talks 'Next Generation'
Symbolia's comics journalism language
'Transformers': Bay recruits Mark Wahlberg
'Star Trek': Benedict Cumberbatch lights it up
Zachary Quinto getting in Spock shape
'Star Trek': Movie trailer bonanza
'Star Trek' poster has a 'Dark Knight Rises' vibe
'Star Trek' plot: 'unstoppable force of terror'
'Wild Children': burning questions about education


text: panther4life 3,027 Report post Posted February 13, 2013 Gettleman mentioned this along with pass rushers and big men as things he's looking for. Here is every player who scored a TD on offense last year and how many they had. Rushing TD's Cam 8 Tolbert 7 Williams 5 Stewart 1 the 21 total rushing put us at 3rd in the league behind the skins and patriots. Playoff teams had the following overall rankings in rushing TD's for the regular season. 1.Patriots 2.Redskins 4.Texans 6.Ravens 7.49ers 9.Seahawks 10.Vikings 13.Broncos 14.Falcons 18.Bengals 20.Colts 25.Packers http://www.pro-footb...com/years/2012/ Receiving TD's Greg Olsen 5 Steve Smith 4 Brandon Laefell 4 Deangeo Williams 2 Stewart,Murphy,Barnidge ad Pilares all had 1 a piece. We ranked 21st in the league in passing TD'S. The league average was 23.7 passing TD's and we only had 19. Heres where the playoff teams ranked overall. 2.Packers 3.Broncos 4.Patriots 5.Falcons 7.Bengals 8.Seahawks 13.Redskins 16.49ers 17.Colts 18.Texans 19.Ravens 25.Vikings http://www.pro-footb...com/years/2012/ In 2011 we had the most rushing TD's in the league and finished 3rd this year thanks to Cam mostly. Even with that being the case it was not enough to help us have a winning season or more importantly a playoff appearance. Our passing TD's could definitely use a boost and its not going to come from Cam continuing to improve alone. Add in the fact that Steve Smith is not far from retirement and we have nobody who could step up as a decent starter if he gets injured. This team has several positions that could use and in some cases require an upgrade for us to improve to a playoff level team. That being said WR needs to be addressed early in the draft and the sooner the better imo assuming a player Gettleman and crew deem worthy of using our 1st round selection on is available at 14. This is just my preferred position to go in the first from a timing and value standpoint for our current and future roster. DT would be a close 2nd and then S, G, CB,and Offensive Tackle are how I rank our current needs via the draft. Of course we will have to supplement through free agency and the waiver wire just before teams cut down to 53. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


text:
Reading the forum on your cell phone? There's an easier way. We've enabled a Tapatalk app that makes browsing the forum a whole lot easier. Check it out in the iPhone or Android store if you don't own it already.
Would the helmet fit a five year old? If it will I'll take it.
If darwined doesn't take the kids helmet I would... in Conway.
Is this adult helmet still available?
Page created in 0.133 seconds with 31 queries.


text:
Text Size Large SizeMedium SizeSmall Size Color Scheme Black SchemeWhite SchemeGrey SchemePaper Scheme
Water's Daughter
Bella Swan has a secret, one she's hidden for all her life. See, Bella is a mermaid, and a very powerful one too. Edward Cullen and his family too, have a secret. They're vampires, who hunt animals. What will happen when they meet?
Not Stephanie Meyer, and I don't know her.
1. Mermiad
Rating 4.5/5 Word Count 503 Review this Chapter
Great. This life could be so boring sometimes. I mean, there was never anything to do, everything just gets so boring after a couple of decades. Yeah, I'm immortal. A mermaid, but no one of those mermaids you always see on TV, no, I am way different than that!
Have you seen H20 Just Add Water? I'm kind of like that. If any water gets on me, even just a drop, I grow a tail. It's very annoying. Plus, it means I have to be extra careful when it rains, stuff like that. But, what's really frustrating is the fact that I can't live in sunny places or I'll evaporate. It's happened before, though, and I don't die if it happens, actually, it's quite a pleasant feeling. The frustrating part is that I can't live in a sunny place so I have to live in a rainy place, which means I always have to be aware that at any moment, it could rain.
Currently, I living in Forks, I moved here yesterday. Today I'll be attending the small local high school.
That's another thing I don't sleep. I guess you could say that it's impossible for me to. I also have super human speed and strength, faster than any vampire, which has interested the Volturi a great deal, something I don't pride upon. See, they want to change me into a vampire, so my abilities become even more enhanced, but personally, I don't think that could happen. As it is, there is no voice too low, that I can't hear it, and from inside my house, I can hear what people are saying from two streets away, which is saying a lot, considering the fact I live in a privet area, where there are no other neighbours. Mostly, I just tune everything out.
And you know the way vampires have gifts, I do too, but mine are much more powerful. See, I borrow powers. Currently, I have more than you could imagine but when I get someone's power, I get it enhanced. Like with Jane's, I can be in a room, an unleash her power at full force on everybody. Or with Aro, I have no need to touch anyone.
As for eating food, I can't. I drink water and that's all I need to keep me going. I don't need to drink it all the time, just sometimes, and my eyes turn the colour of the water I drink. So does my tail, and then they darken.
I love my house. It really is amazing. A deep river flows past, which is amazing for swimming in, its even better than the one at my last house.
For school, I put on a deep blue scoop neck top and tight skinny jeans. I didn't really need to wear warm clothes, seeing as I can't be cold or warm, but I needed to appear to be suffering from the coldness of Forks.I jumped into my Porsche and drove to the small High School.
- Author
- mollycullen
- Rating
1 2 3 4 5
- Reviews
- 44
- Words
- 1691
- Views
- 1
- Published
- 02 Jun 08
- Updated
- 04 Jun 08
- Status
- In Progress


text:
Stripboeken browse by: Shop category:
Artist Dave McKeanBeschikbare series in de webshop categorie "Stripboeken"
Dave McKean in the COMICLOPEDIA
" Arkham Asylum Born in Maidenhead, England, Dave McKean is one of the leading comic authors active today. Not only does he excel in the graphic side of the medium, designing virtuoso mixed media images, but also he has many fine stories to tell. It is a perfect combination that..." [ Lees meer ]


text:
Showing 1 - 2 of 2 speakers.
CIA Director (1997-2004)
Types: Author, Male, University Professor
Bio Info
George Tenet, longest serving and one of the most influential CIA directors in history, speaks with amazing insights as he takes us with him to the various regions in the world.
Topics: Africa, Asia, Change: Living with It, Change: Managing/Leading It, China, Courage, Crisis Management, Current Events, Europe, Foreign Policy - U.S., Innovation, Jewish Interests, Latin America, Leadership, Middle East, Motivation, National Security, Negotiation, Overcoming Obstacles and Challenges, Patriotism, Risk Management, Teamwork, Terrorism
National Security Analyst, CBS News; Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (2004-2008)
Types: Female
Bio Info
With over 20 years of world crisis experience, Frances Townsend identifies the danger spots around the world and analyzes their potential impact on you and your organization.
Showing 1 - 2 of 2 speakers.


text:
Both the game drives and the launch trips offer an opportunity for one to come across distinct birdlife, including savannah forest birds, water birds and Albertine Rift endemics. The commonest species found in the plains include the Marabou Stork, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Secretary Birds, Black-bellied Bustards, Open-billed Storks and Widow Bird.
Closer to the river where there are more thickets and woodlands, the commonest bird varieties include the Swallow-tailed and Red-throated Bee-eaters – particularly in the Nyamusika Cliffs; Woodland, Pied, Giant and Malachite Kingfishers; Francolin; Hornbills, Grey heron; Hamerkop; Shrikes; Flycatchers; Cuckoos; Woodpeckers; Crombecs and Warblers. The riverbanks are also home to ducks, geese, stilts and plovers.
The park's main birding attraction is the Shoebill, best sighted in the dry season from January-March.


text:
Malicious and Banned Links 10/09/2016Please be careful of downloading ANY LINKS that are not originating from a MyBot.Run URL or another trusted URL (such as apkmirror.com, bluestacks, memu, xda-developers, etc). We have banned ALL telegram links and other verified malicious links we have come across already. Users attempting to do this or get around this ban will be banned permanently. Please report ANY suspicious links to MyBot Staff or pm me directly
Discord Server Closed 09/25/2018Hello, Our discord server has been closed. I will deal with the Discord team to find a solution. There is NO official Mybot.run Discord server atm! I'll keep you updated
MyBot.run V7.6.3 RELEASED! 10/06/2018MyBot.run continues the legacy again with release of V7.6.3!! This release supports the June 2018 game update and has some new features hidden inside as well Get your copy in thread below!! Click here to get to the release thread MyBot.run v7.6.3 Release
lvl 11 Clan Looking For Members Air+Ground
Recommended Posts
Recently Browsing 0 members
No registered users viewing this page.


text:
14-year-old was lone survivor of head-on crash in central Missouri
BENSON — In the same church where he received the sacrament of Confirmation two months ago, hundreds of people gathered Friday night to pray that Donny Schroeder lives.
A prayer vigil was held at St. Paul Lutheran Church for the 14-year-old Schroeder, who was listed in serious condition Friday night at the University of Missouri Hospital, and to mourn the deaths of his father, mother and twin brother. Terry Schroeder, 50, Cindy Schroeder, 46, and Dylan Schroeder, 14, were pronounced dead at the scene of a two-vehicle head-on collision Wednesday morning in central Missouri. Donny Schroeder was the lone survivor of the crash.
More than 400 people packed the church's pews and spilled out into the lobby and the basement to attend the vigil. Led by the Rev. Nathan Feig, prayers were offered and grief shared in remembrance of one of the most recognized families in the town.
"They were very well known and loved beyond belief as you see from the 400 people packed into the church tonight," Feig said.
The family served at the church often, Feig said, and he told the crowd that twin brothers Donny and Dylan received Confirmation in May in the very same worship space. Their sudden absence has been a shock to the community, a feeling that Feig said the entire town still is managing.
"It's hard to process," Feig said. "It just doesn't happen. So everyone is the same way. We're just kind of numb. Now we remember who they were and celebrate their life."
Benson residents weren't the only ones to make the vigil — many former residents of the town who grew up with Terry and Cindy Schroeder came back Friday night to pray and reminisce.
Leanna Barnard, 46, grew up in Benson as a childhood friend of Cindy Schroeder but has lived in Champaign since 1989. Her recollections were filled with joy and fondness.
"Cindy was wonderful and smiled all the time," Barnard said. "We had a great childhood together."
The number of people in attendance didn't surprise Barnard, who said it contributed to a very powerful atmosphere in the church.
"In a small community, bringing everyone together during a time like this is what it's all about," Barnard said.
Note: This story was updated on July 26 to correct the spelling of the name of Donny Schroeder.
Thomas Bruch can be reached at 686-3188 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasBruch.


text:
There is a radical Islam movement distributing 25 Million Koran copies in Germany at the moment.
It is quite funny to look at an image taken in Berlin from an English point of view....
Die Islamists wrote "LIES !" on the sign which translates actually to "READ !" in English.
As quite a few Germans have some basic English ability or more a German native speaker probably wouldn't have chosen the wording like this, also as it is a rather impolite form.


text:
It's become an annual tradition: LeBron James enters a season with tons of expectations on his shoulders, challengers coming at him from all sides, then somehow finds his way back to the NBA Finals.
When James was in Miami for four years, getting to the title round was practically necessary to keep the critics at bay. In Cleveland last season, a trip to the Finals was surprising to many — maybe even to James himself.
This year, with the regular season starting Tuesday, it seems expected.
Although there are plenty of teams that think they have a legitimate path toward getting into the Eastern Conference playoff race, it's James and the Cavaliers that look like the...


text:
What Scouts Say: "Athletic right back who can also be a centerback in MLS … Played multiple spots in 2011 and didn't really fulfill any of them ... Centerback for 2.5 years but best as a right back because he's so athletic. Proved it in 2012 ... One of the best athletes you'll see. Exceptional … He's still learning when to go, when to stay. Toward end of 2012, he really started getting a groove … Exceptional in the air … At the next level he may be used as a centerback because it's a little more simple … Played centerback for U23 Canadian Olympic team ... Technique is very good but has some trouble making decisions with ball at his feet … Grown up in his senior year ... Canadian citizen, but has a U.S. green card."
2012: All-MPSF Second Team selection • started and played in 18 of the Pioneers 20 matches at right back • tallied seven points on two goals and three assists • fourth on the team in minutes with 1,634.
2011: Selected to All-MPSF First Team • started all 19 matches • tallied nine points on four goals and an assist • recorded his first career two-goal game at Cal State Fullerton (9/23) • named DU's Most Valuable Player • netted the equalizer in a 2-2 tie at No. 14 Notre Dame (9/9) • knocked home the game-winning goal at Cal Poly (9/25) • represented Team Canada in Olympic qualifying games in March 2012.
2010: Started all 20 games for the Pioneers • scored the game-winning goal against Oral Roberts on Sept. 17 and tallied one assist for three points on the season • earned All-MPSF honorable mention.
2009: Started in 11 of 19 games this season, recording one assist against Belmont (Sep 13) • named to Duke Nike Classic All-Tournament Team.
High School: Named Colorado first team all-state and All-Centennial League selection • named the Centennial League Player of the Year.
Club Soccer/USSDA: Spent entire youth career playing for Real Colorado coached by Lorne Donaldson, Kevin Fickes and Neil Payne.
ODP/National Team Experience: U-17 Canadian National Team, 6 Caps (participating teams: United States, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Japan) • played at 2007 Copa Chivas in Guadalajara, Mexico (participating teams: UAG Tecos, Atletico Paranaense FC, FC Catolica, Japanese National Team, Santos FC), and 2007 CONCACAF Qualifying in Kingston, Jamaica • U-20 Canadian National Team Pool member and attended the Canadian U20 camp in January 2009 • Was a member of the Colorado ODP 90's State team and USYSA Region IV Team from 2005-07.
Personal: Born September 30, 1990 in Regina, Saskatchewan • son of Sheila and the late Gary Beckie • has three sisters Alysha, Jenelle and Janine • enjoys biking, reading, and watching the UEFA Champions League • volunteered with the Special Olympics Soccer and the local Soup Kitchen and participated in the Brown Robe Gala - Feed and Fundraiser for the less fortunate • was on Honor Roll three years running and was chosen Most Valuable Person his freshman year of high school • chose Denver because of its great location and potential for success • also considered Santa Clara, Virginia, Boston College, UC-Santa Barbara, UNC - Charlotte and was offered a spot in the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency Program • would like to one day become a professional soccer player or pursue a career in criminology or anthropology.


text:
Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.Classified ads are not allowed on the forum.
Steve, Rick does have his CRG shirt on, but it was still about 35 degrees with a stiff wind at 10 am this morning, so it is about his third layer at that point.
I'm wondering if those bikes fit in his Yenko trunk??
Phillip, I don't know Dan and I have no pics that will show very much on the 2 BM camaros I'm restoring.I will post some in the coming months. I'm close to putting paint on the Fathom green yenko camaro.


text:
The Campaigns That Tried To Break The Climate Science ConsensusRead time: 8 mins
Graham Readfearn | June 6, 2013
By Graham Readfearn • Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 05:00
So just in case anyone wasn't sure, a major study of almost 12,000 scientific papers on global warming between 1991 and 2011 finds less than one per cent disagree that humans are the main cause.
Published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the study led by John Cook, the Australia-based founder of Skeptical Science, confirms the debate about the causes of global warming had all but vanished in the scientific literature by the early 1990s. Almost all the research says it's mostly caused by humans.
For any followers of climate science in journals (the place where it actually matters) the finding wasn't really news at all.
Yet survey after survey finds the public still thinks scientists are arguing over the causes of global warming and the media continues to attempt to resuscitate long-dead ideas.
Does it matter that people have a clear understanding of the main thrust of the science? A 2012 study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that people were more likely to accept human-caused global warming if they were informed that scientists were in broad agreement (which we know they are).
For decades, fossil fuel-funded groups, free market think tanks (some of which also qualify as fossil fuel funded groups) and the fossil fuel industry itself have known the importance of the public's understanding of the state of climate science. A public that understands the state of the science is more likely to want something done about climate change. Doing something, means using a lot less fossil fuel.
But who wanted to tell the public that a consensus didn't exist? Here are just some of the campaigns run over the years showing how breaking the consensus in the eyes of the public was a key strategy.


text:
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The former Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, a key New York City thoroughfare flooded by Superstorm Sandy, is being reopened to cars.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced the first phase of the tunnel's reopening.
Currently, only buses are using the tunnel — and only on one lane. One of its two tubes is now open to cars, allowing for one-way car traffic at rush hour.
The tunnel is a major automotive link in the region. It connects Brooklyn to Manhattan under the mouth of the East River. It was recently renamed the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel.
The tunnel's other tube will be closed for perhaps several weeks as extensive repairs continue.
The tunnel was among the most damaged by Sandy and has been a nagging problem even as other tunnels and subway lines opened.


text:
Tartine's Shaker Lemon Pie
This recipe is adapted from the book 'Tartine'. I have lemons overflowing and absolutely love lemons and anything made with them...I enjoy eating the rind of lemons and the pith too which is full of vitamin C...also I have read now that research says lemons help with bone loss. I used my mandolin to slice the lemons paper thin and sugar soaked for a good 24 hours..nice tender and tasty sweet peels went into the pie baked in a tart pan. Delicious tender peels floating in a lemony custard with a butter flaky crust sprinkled heavily with baking sugar crystals...not to tart not to sweet.


text:
We're glad that you found your way to our website and invite you to look around and learn more about our family. We are a family of believers, brothers and sisters of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who come together regularly to receive His gifts of forgiveness and faith in Divine Worship. We are also a family who constantly strives to reach out and share the same love that we have received with others.
Like all families, ours is made up of many different people from many different backgrounds: young and old, married and single, those with kids and those without, and we would love to have you as a part of our family!
Spend some time navigating our website and learn about who we are and the One we strive to serve. If you have questions or if there is anyway we can help you, don't be afraid to ask. We love to talk about the basis for everything we're about: Jesus Christ! Most importantly, please know that you are invited to join our family as we journey with Our Savior through this world, always looking to the one He has prepared for us!


text:
|Version 15 (modified by 11 years ago) (diff),
The unicode branch
This branch aims to make Django's internals fully Unicode-aware.
How to get the branch
svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/branches/unicode/
See our branch policy for full information on how to use a branch.
The main goals of this branch are:
- Make it easier for developers to work with non-ASCII character data when working with Django.
- Be more consistent in our string handling behaviour inside Django (see StringEncoding for details on this).
Upon completion, you will be able to pass around unicode strings anywhere inside Django (or between Django and developer applications).
Note that we are not trying to switch to forcing everybody to only use unicode strings. You will also be able to pass around bytestrings and Django will assume they are UTF-8 encoded (we have to make an assumption because there is no way to tell what the encoding is otherwise). This feature means that a large chunk of existing code that uses Django will continue to work unchanged.
The branch was created on April 7, 2007.
Reported bugs from trunk that have been fixed and will be closed once the branch is merged back into trunk can be viewed here.
Todo Items
The various pieces will be converted in roughly the following order:
- Template rendering (Done in [4971])
- Database I/O (Done in [4971] for postgresql, postgresql_psycopg2, mysql, mysql_old and sqlite backends)
- Needs testing for servers/tables that are not in UTF-8 or ASCII encoding. The theory is that the client connection for each backend should be automatically converting everything to UTF-8 or Unicode objects (depends on backend), but this needs verifying. (Ivan Sagalaev and Malcolm have tested this feature a fair bit with various database servers, but more stress tests would be nice.)
- Model class support (Done in [5057])
- Form input encoding (Done in [5192])
- Other output methods:
- Audit other contrib modules (not all will required changes):
- Done: admin, auth, contenttypes, comments, csrf, flatpages, formtools, humanize
We also need to look at the i18n support functions (in django.utils.translation):
- Decide on usage of gettext() versus ugettext() in a number of places (Done. Recommended to use
ugettext()and friends everywhere. In [5230] this change has been made throughout the framework).
- Look at rewriting gettext_lazy() so that it acts as a better string and unicode proxy.
Finally, some documentation needs to be written describing good practices for creating unicode-aware Django apps.
Porting Applications (The Quick Checklist)
One of the design goals of the Unicode branch is that very litte significant changes to existing third-party code should be required. However, there are some things that developers should be aware of when writing applications designed to handle international input.
A detailed list of things you might wish to think about when writing your code is given below. However, for the programmer on a deadline, here is the cheatsheet version (if you only use ASCII strings, none of these changes are necessary):
- Change the
__str__methods on your models to be
__unicode__methods. Just change the name. Usually, nothing else will be needed.
- Look for any
str()calls in your code that operate on model fields. These should almost always be changed to
smart_unicode()calls (which is imported from
- Use the unicode versions of the
django.utils.translation.*functions. Replace
ungettextrespectively. There are also
ungettext_lazyfunctions if you use the lazy versions.
- Make sure your database can store all the data you will send to it. Usually, this means ensuring it is using UTF-8 (or similar) encoding internally.
- Use the
FILE_CHARSETsetting if your on-disk template files are not UTF-8 encoded.
That is all. Enjoy!
Things To Consider When Writing Applications
This section is no doubt incomplete. User experiences are welcome. If you discover something that is necessary to change, please add a bullet-point to the list (although we may edit the list periodically to be more coherent).
String Encoding
- In many cases, Django will convert any bytestrings passed to functions, such as filter functions, into unicode strings. All bytestrings, with the exception of form inputs and data read from files, are assumed to be UTF-8 encoded. Internal bytestrings that are not valid UTF-8 will cause fatal exceptions (because
my_string.decode('utf-8')will fail).
- Template files read from disk may be in an encoding that is not related to the output encoding or UTF-8. To specify the on-disk file encoding, use the
FILE_CHARSETsetting, which is new in the Unicode branch.
- String data read from the database will be converted directly to unicode strings. So model attributes based on text fields (TextField, CharField, etc) will be unicode strings.
- Field sizes for text fields such as TextField and CharField are specified in terms of characters, not the number of bytes used in the encoding in the database. All databases supported by Django can handle this (i.e. their VARCHAR fields are sized in terms of characaters and can store unicode characters). So you do not need to worry about how many bytes the encoded version of your data will take up when working with lengths.
- You might find the functions
django.utils.encoding.smart_unicode()useful in your application code. Particularly the latter is handy: it takes a bytestring or unicode string and returns a unicode string. It also knows to convert objects with a
__str__method into unicode strings. So if you have a string that is either a bytestring or unicode and you wish to make it uniform -- always a unicode string -- call
smart_unicode()on the object.
- Make sure that your database tables support an encoding that can hold all the data you are going to send to it. For example, if you may possibly be sending Chinese characters to the database, using the Russian KOI8-R encoding is going to cause errors. Django does not need to know what encoding your database uses, since the Python database wrappers take care of that. However, you should ensure your database is configured to handle the data you wish to send it. Generally, using a UTF-8 encoding for your tables is the simplest solution.
- TODO: Write up how to set and check this information for MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite.
- As mentioned previously, all model attributes retrieved from the database will be unicode strings.
- If you are supporting international data, it is not safe to return the value of a field directly in your model's
__str__method (in Python,
__str___will always coerce the result to a bytestring object, even if you return a unicode string from the function). There are two possibilities here:
- The simplest solution is to replace any
__str__methods with a
__unicode__method. This method returns a unicode string, so you can safely writeThe default
class MyModel(models.Model): name = models.CharField(maxlength=50) ... def __unicode__(self): return self.name
models.Model.__str__method will call your model's
__unicode__, if it exists, and then convert the result to UTF-8. So this single change should be transparent to the rest of your code.
- Alternatively, if you want to explicitly write the
__str__method for your model, it must return a UTF-8 encoded bytestring. No other encoding is acceptable here (certainly not
settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET), because the result of calling
str()on a model is used in more places than just template output.
- The simplest solution is to replace any


text:
Masai tribe man in his village
Uploaded on 10/24/2007 12:25:16 AM
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR Camera
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Scott Stulberg. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Log in to follow or message this photographer or report this photo.