text:
Our star, Larry Lawson, had a rousing morning slapping his girlfriend to her senses. She was still moaning over that fetus he pushed her to abort. Zooming down the parkway, he considered that he might stop by the bar after work and see if he could pick up a new hottie, maybe a Latino chic. That would suit him nicely. Who knows, he might get lucky, today. A light turned red, and he breezed through it unscathed, only to be stopped dead by a stale red with heavy cross-traffic a hundred yards later. A black kid with an iPod stuck in his ears strutted in front of him, earning a honk and a few nasty words. Larry thought to teach him a lesson for prolonging his red light with a crosswalk signal. The kid would probably think of this day whenever he considered white people, in general. He probably hated white men, already. Larry had the vague recollection of having honked at this kid before. Across the intersection stood a billboard photo of some guy in a white cowboy hat holding a telephone, with the words, "In trouble with the law? Call Jesse!" He chuckled to himself and made a mental note of the number. The traffic going straight got a green, but Larry couldn't waste time for the red left arrow, so he pulled an illegal U-turn and slid into the underground parking lot of his glass-walled high-rise office building. He did a quick glance into the rearview mirror for cops and mumbled, "Sorry Jesse, maybe next time."
Out of the car, he hopped into the elevator and waited for it to take him to the top floor, where a coffeepot and a corner desk had his name on them. Some sappy song played over the speaker while he waited; it may have been called Shooting Stars.
"Like shooting stars we shine and then fade,
Breaking the promises we made, what about the promises?
What about the promises we made? What about our plans for forever?"
Without thinking about it, he hummed along and counted the floors on the display above the door. He couldn't get out fast enough. He put on his best attitude, taking the long way to the coffee maker, past the desk of that hot new intern. He tried not to huff when she wasn't there. At his desk, he barely had the computer fired up when the guy in the cubicle next to him rolled around the cubicle partition and asked him, "Yo, Larry, you forgot to get a chain of custody receipt for yesterday's Picasso delivery."
Larry gave an over-the-shoulder smirk at him and said, "I didn't forget."
"Then where is it?" the pest insisted.
"I'll get it to you. I'll get it to you. Just wait a minute. I just got here," Larry snapped, "Don't rush me." As soon as the neighbor wheeled back out of sight, he brought up a blank form on the computer and hit the "print" button. Strolling as casually as possible to the printer, he snatched the document and slipped into a nearby vacant cubicle. A few forged signatures and falsified dates written in, and he was on his way back to his desk via the aisle next to the file cabinets. He learned long ago not to make the falsifications at his desk. The new guy was too sharp; he'd see Larry strolling back from the printer with a fresh document and pause in his own cubicle for a moment, only to appear with the requested document, which was only too obvious. Justifying the action was easy. The delivery had been made, and that's what really mattered. This was just a lot of red tape, and besides it was a mistake, after all. Granted, everyone would like to do things right the first time, but that's no reason to take heat for a stupid piece of paper, or so Larry figured. So long as the customer never complained of non-delivery, the document was never scrutinized.
All this was so much fuss over dry paint. Larry figured Picasso to have created almost nineteen hundred paintings in his lifetime. Of those, he had personally sold over twenty-five hundred, courtesy of a man on Thirteenth Street, named Joe Guiles. Old Joe was one of those artists who sold art by the pound. Larry loved his abstract works. The need to follow reality set rules that made realistic artwork difficult to forge. Bad art was bad, whether it looked like the original or not. Abstract art was the sort of thing that could never be bad art, because it never actually had to look like something real. It was essentially lawless. The consumer eye couldn't tell a Guiles from a Picasso, but it could certainly tell it from a Rembrandt. No Picasso fan could look at one of his works and identify it as a forgery by its poor quality. That's because it was all bad. Without having the real thing to hold up next to it, no one could notice the difference. With the advance of the Giclee printer, a downloaded work could be printed on canvass to look like a genuine double of the original. Granted, there were certain risks. He had to be careful not to sell any of the showcased works, or anything too famous. The best bet was always something that Picasso never attempted, yet should have. These were the "lesser-known works." That's where Joe's talent really shined.
Well, it wasn't too hard to rationalize, really. A painting was as good as the owner's enjoyment of it. It didn't really matter who made it or how it was made, so long as it had the certain visual appeal that the consumer was looking for. I mean, it's either worth hanging on a wall, or it isn't. In the end, it's just an image. If the consumer wanted that image, then that's what the consumer got. In return, Larry only asked for mass-produced artwork of dead presidents on rag paper. That should be fair enough.
The phone on his desk rang. It was Joe. He answered it, "Larry Lawson, superstar."
Joe replied that one of his works was ready, and then he disconnected.
Larry stood, passed the bad document over the shoulder of his coworker and disappeared around a corner. He had been in the office less than twenty minutes, and already he was headed for the elevator and freedom. Stopping by the receptionist's desk, he asked the lady to tell his boss that he was on his way to do a pick-up. She replied that the boss was not coming in today. This had "good day" written all over it. He counted the steps to the elevator, waited for the doors to shut, and then he did his best rendition of a football goal line victory dance. That stop at the bar would be coming earlier than he had planned. The elevator car dropped a level and opened to a pretty little clerk that he had gotten to know a month earlier. As soon as she saw him, she made an awkward nod of the head, mumbled, "Sorry, mistake," and hurried away. He made a mental note to study that case. Clearly, something went wrong with that one. Maybe he had pursued her a little to aggressively.
The doors closed and the elevator car continued on its way. "Shooting Stars," played softly over the speaker. "Come on, people, we just played that one," he muttered. Two lines later, he realized that the words were different. This one wasn't about shooting stars, like the kind one might watch on a hot August night. This one was about shooting stars, as in celebrities and with a gun. He shifted uncomfortably. "Odd, that one," he said to the wall. His cell phone rang. It was the jerk from the cubicle next to his.
"Larry," whined the jerk, "This receipt is a complete forgery! What the heck are you doing, trying to pawn this junk off on me?"
"Just file it," Larry answered, "you know no one's going to look at it, anyway."
"Larry, I looked at it! Now we're both involved. This isn't just your butt that's going to get fried. I never asked for this. It's illegal, you know!" the twiggy coworker cried.
"Laws were made to be broken," Larry returned, "Get a grip. You're not going to get arrested for possession of a fake receipt." He snapped his phone shut and continued waiting. This was taking too long. He looked at the display above the door, and it showed that he was ascending, instead of descending. "Drat!" he shouted. Actually, that wasn't quite the word he used. The numbers kept going up. Then, he was back to his own level, which was on the highest floor. Then he was on the floor above it. The numbers rearranged themselves into a little face, just a line for a mouth and two dots for eyes. "What the…?!"
"So, you don't like laws, do you?" the little face said, and he heard it through the speakers in place of the music. The face screwed itself up into various Chinese characters. Then the display went blank and the doors opened, revealing the roof and all of the workings one might find on top of a high-rise office building.
"This is nuts," he said with a shiver, "Elevators don't go clear to the roof. This can't be happening." But the unnaturally dark and smoky sky drew him outside and toward the parapet. Looking down, he saw that the whole city was on fire, making him think for a split second that it had caused his elevator to rise to the top, but that would still be impossible. The elevator still doesn't reach the roof, even if it malfunctions. A huge billow of smoke rose in the distance, forming what vaguely looked like an angry face, which turned and dissipated a second later. A moment after that, the roiling smoke formed another face, which rotated and obliterated. It was only the sort of thing one sees in clouds, when one looks up and makes believe that the thing is shaped like something familiar, even when it clearly looks dissimilar. Yet, face after face arose and disappeared. "What is going on, here?" he wondered aloud.
"At the moment, you're hallucinating, but that could all change in a few minutes," said a voice behind him.
He turned toward the speaker and saw a man in a leather jacket, leather pants and leather boots. In fact, it would appear that every thing he wore required the shedding of blood. "What's going on? What's happening," Larry asked.
"This day has been waiting for you for thousands of years, and you have only just now stepped into it," replied the stranger, "But I wanted to give you a moment longer before you met your destiny. The world burns like incense to appease the nostrils of a holy God, but one can burn swine meat forever without ever producing a pleasing aroma. Really, I don't think we need more of that. I like to think that there's a chance to reconcile you with the law you hate."
Larry tried to give him a look that said, "You've got to be kidding," that looked more like a terrified, "Man, I sure hope this is just a joke." He looked back at the rising smoke, which seemed to look back at him. "So what are you saying?"
"You need Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for your breaking of the law," the man in leather said.
"Yeah, whatever. Jesus overthrew the law," Larry replied.
"No, you overthrew the law. Jesus fulfilled it. He loved the law enough to die, rather than break it. He loved you enough to die, rather than break you. Something had to break. It was you against the law, and…."
"That's nice," Larry interrupted, "but I've got an elevator to catch," and he headed back to the entrance.
"Are you really in such a hurry to go down there?" asked the stranger.
Larry stepped inside the elevator, turned, and gave the button for the parking garage a resolute push. There's something about insanity that makes people compensate by attempting to be extra sane. They stand a little taller. They walk stiffly and talk about anything normal, if they can. They find themselves looking for any symbol of normalcy to which they can cling, even striding with ineffective slowness from an onrush of doom. For Larry, this meant resetting himself to the last moment before things went haywire, which meant standing in an elevator and pushing the button for the parking garage with the determination of one who actually expected it to go there. When the doors closed and his stomach rose into his throat from the descent of the car, he hoped life was as normal as it now looked, but four seconds later, when he became weightless and floated about the interior, he realized with horror that he was better-off on the roof, with the freak, where at least he was free and not trapped in a box. The display above the door showed the little face again, and he heard its voice through the speakers.
"You know, Larry, I know you think of yourself as a minor outlaw, but I happen to know that you love laws," said the voice in a synthetic sort of way. Larry was too busy floating about the cabin to venture a response, so it continued, "Take the law of gravity, for instance. You love that law. You like being able to use those little stilts you call legs to pry yourself away from the ground and move from place to place across the surface of a dirt ball. You love knowing that every day, God happens to follow that law faithfully. Or, take the laws of time and space, even. You like, or better yet, are tremendously excited to know that your elevator will get to where it's going in a timely manner. You like to be able to cross a room in a matter of seconds, rather than decades. In fact, it would kill you to know that you might not even get there in your lifetime."
"Oh, dear God," Larry mumbled, not reverently.
"Yes, both dear and God, in fact," said the voice. "Aren't you glad God obeys his laws? Don't you wish you had obeyed yours? Oh, but then there's the Master Law, and this one you love the best. It's the law that makes all other laws possible. It's the law of consistency. It's so universal and so important that most people don't even know it exists. You wake up every morning, go to work, come home and go to bed."
"I do not love that law," Larry groaned.
"Oh, but you do," argued the voice. "You don't like not knowing if, perhaps, you might wake up one day and find that you are a chicken, strapped to the back of a flying purple pig, singing We Are The World a hundred times really fast. For instance, you don't like floating about, trapped inside an elevator that talks nonsense to you."
Larry resisted the urge to puke, and said, cautiously, "You're right. I definitely do not like this."
"Ah, but fortunately for you God is very good at following his laws," the thing said.
"Then why isn't he?!" Larry roared.
"Ah, but he is!" the elevator cheered, "You may think that you are floating, but it only seems like that because your entire world is falling with you. Your coworkers are falling with you. Your elevator car is falling with you…and it still only takes four and a half seconds to hit the ground! Even the laws of time and space are obeyed. Did you know, Larry, that the terrified mind of a human fires signals so fast that he perceives that time comes to a standstill?"
"That's great! That's just fantastic, you stupid, little, whatever you are! What about consistency? What about your freaking Master Law?!" Larry screamed.
"It's about to be taken from you," said the elevator, flatly. "The Master is about to be taken from you, and there's really no way to have the Master Law without the Master, now is there? I mean, that wouldn't make any sense, now would it?
"You mean, I'm going to be stuck in this nightmare?!" Larry panicked.
The elevator was silent for a moment. Then it replied, "Yes, but this is all taking too long. We are nearly out of time."
All at once, the elevator groaned softly, and Larry was flung at the floor, where he stopped, mid-air, spread-eagle, with his nose an inch from the ground, hovering. He brought his arms and legs down, and he carefully stood to his feet. The moment the doors opened, he rushed outside, into the parking garage, and for a moment life seemed to have returned to normal. A short distance away was a small one-person restroom, used mostly by the security guards and the incontinent. Into this he rushed, either to vomit or to splash water on his face, whichever he could manage best. It was one of those cold, ugly places, with a steel mirror and a steel toilet and a push-button washbasin. He got one splash of water to his face before he began to doubt his own reflection. It didn't look right. He worried that the nightmare might be returning. It was his face, alright, and it even imitated his movements, but somehow it felt like the image of someone else. The man in the mirror looked like the sort of jackass a person loves to hate, bearing a sneer best removed with a tightly-clenched fist. Then, he could contain himself no longer. He fell to his knees before the toilet and spilled his breakfast, which appeared to be a diet of worms. In between retches he could still feel them wriggling in his throat, which made him retch all the more. Gripping the bowl with both hands, he felt himself surrender to the panic. There was no end to the worms within. That's when he noticed his hands. They were covered in worms, too. In fact, they were so covered that he could not see his hands. He swiped at them vigorously, knocking them in large clumps into the toilet, taking off whole fingers and then an arm, into the bowl. That's when he realized that the worms were not on his arms. The worms were his arms. He pushed himself to his feet and examined his body, a seething mass of worms in the general shape of a man. His right arm flopped detached over the edge of the bowl, spreading in an array of nematodes, until it no longer resembled an arm.
Larry had one thread of sanity left, and with it he barged out of the restroom, up the ramp and out onto the street. He was going to wake up or die trying. The street outside was packed with pedestrians, marching routinely to work. He pushed through them rudely, not knowing where he was going, or why. He overheard their conversations with each other, normal and unrelated to him, but his mind picked out one word from one person and one word from another, fitting it nicely together into a sentence that was never spoken by a single individual.
"Hurry…call…on…Christ!…now," said no one and everyone.
Larry stopped at the street corner and looked each way. It was an alley, crossing with the main boulevard. The alley had nothing but two old trash cans, a cat, and a homeless bum, who was striding purposefully toward him. Everyone else was walking or driving along the boulevard. In the moment that he recognized the bum as the man from the roof, he looked up at the street sign and saw that he was at the crossing of Hell Avenue and Heaven Alley. "Oh, very funny! Oh, yeah, this is all just one big hilarious joke, isn't it?!" he yelled at the stranger. The people on the street stopped in their tracks and stared. Even the cars slowed to watch the madman. Everyone was waiting to see what he would do next. He was about to say something more, when he heard the whistle of a train. It was the Seven-Ten, and for once it was right on time. He knew what he had to do. He turned up the boulevard and ran madly for the tracks. The stranger broke into a dead run after him, trying to stop him. Up ahead, he saw the tracks. To his left, he saw the coming of the Los Angeles Westbound. Larry was determined to meet the LAW head-on. Someone or something was going to break. With his legs spread, he stood and faced the oncoming diesel engine. To his left, the stranger kept coming, with a look of horror on his face and his hand upraised in warning.
"Larry!" yelled the man in leather, "You can't wake up from this kind of nightmare!" But Larry turned toward the engine and ignored him. The stranger slowed to a stop when the futility of his effort became evident. The words barely squeaked from his throat, "Not again. Oh, for pity's sake, not again."
The impact was so thunderous that everybody thought a bomb had gone off. The doors and large pieces of the elevator car blew out into the cars parked opposite, rebounding with a clatter, a tremendous racket and a billow of dust. A dozen car alarms sounded, honking in protest like frightened donkeys. The entire office building came alive with workers buzzing about, trying desperately to know what was going on.
The event was summed up in a news article the next day, that the elevator in a downtown office building had become detached from its pulley mechanism and fallen all the way from the top floor to its resounding demise far below, killing one person in the process.
A clerk from the top floor minus one considered that she barely missed getting on that elevator seconds before the disaster. Strangely, she was saved by her disdain of the victim, which, incidentally, made the victim harder to disdain. Had he not been on that elevator, she felt that the victim would have been her, instead. Somewhere on the top floor, the victim's coworker made a callous remark that he probably hit the ground and kept going, straight to Hell. Both were wrong in their own way. The reason she did not die was simply because it was not her time to die. He did not go straight to Hell, exactly. Somewhere along the way life took an unexpected detour, before continuing on into the permanent nightmare.
But it is not for others to know the full story of a man. His interaction with God is known only to him and God. He can't tell, and God won't.
Some say that the genre of Christian horror is a self-contradictory and impossible concept. In truth, those who see the world falling headlong into a permanent nightmare are audience of the ultimate horror story.


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If you want it touch you can buy a Garmin Dakota 20, if no touch etrex30
I am seeking a low-priced handheld GPS unit. I mostly hike well established and maintained but poorly marked trails. I want something simple and dependable.
While it would be nice to have things like a digital compass and an altimeter, I can do without to keep the price lower.
If I go on eBay I see tons of older units in mint shape (or factory reconditioned) for very low prices. I'm curious if there are any "classic" units out there that provide good, long-lasting value? Thanks much.
If you want it touch you can buy a Garmin Dakota 20, if no touch etrex30
You have to navigate to get to the good.
Galaxy S5 Kitkat 4.4.2 / Nuvi1200->1250 / Nuvi3790T->34xx / Nuvi 2200 / Nuvi 66 / Oregon 600
This one... anything beyond it is just bling!
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subset: commoncrawl


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I hear a lot of female friends complaining about gyms. The free weights section of local low cost chain gyms seem to be the source of frustration, anger and fear. The weights themselves are not the problem, but the racks, benches and platforms are inhabited by the absolute nemesis of every woman and a lot of men who have basic intelligence and aren't narcissistic thugs – the BIG, MUSCLY, GRUNTING, SWEATY MEN. They lift more than the rest of us. They look huge and intimidating. They're probably judging you. They think you shouldn't be there. Their brainpower has an inverse relationship to their constantly growing muscle mass. They stink. They take up all the space.
What if I told you that the most enormous, most gym-obsessed guys hoisting three times your bodyweight into the air with a grunt can be gentle, kind-hearted, intelligent, knowledgable and encouraging? What if, instead of being people to hate, despise and avoid, they could be one of the greatest supports you ever have in your own training? What if you actually walked into the gym and were genuinely happy to see them there? And what if a large proportion of muscly people bench pressing more than you can ever imagine, surrounded by a small crowd of enormous men yelling encouragement, were women?
Welcome to Physical Culture.
Physical Culture sounds like exactly the kind of gym women stereotypically hate. It's not small, but the gym floor is very full. There are odd-looking machines, squat racks, benches, a huge amount of dumbells ranging from teeny to ridiculously heavy, barbells, racked plates and very little empty space. There are platforms for all your deadlifts, cleans, snatches and so on, but very little space to stand around. On a busy peak time evening, you will have to move around and share platform space with all sorts of people. Big bulky powerlifters take turns on the platforms with bodybuilders rippling with muscles I didn't even know people could have. Olympic weightlifters prepping for competitions rub shoulders with brand new PT clients being shown how a squat rack works. The music is loud, but not nearly as loud as the weights hitting the ground after someone's max effort clean and jerk (hehehe jerk). Guys with headphones and expressions of grim concentration curl with dumbells like their lives depend on it while people resting in between heavy squats and deadlifts chat about protein, form and the election. So why is this one of my favourite places?
Number one is the people. While PC has excellent equipment and all the squat racks anyone needs (apart from at peak time, but hey, that's life) it's pretty easy to go to an EasyGym and get the basics. Most people don't need Eleiko competition plates or bars reserved for deadlifting only. But one of the things about the dedicated lifters who do need that stuff is that they tend to spend a lot of time in the gym, and people who spend a lot of time in their gym want and need it to be a good place.
Think about it – whether you are a veteran heavyweight or just super into getting hench, you don't want to spend a significant amount of your week in a gym where the equipment is damaged or you need to search all over the place for scattered plates or people are dicks to you. You likely go at regular times, and so you get to know the other regulars at least by sight, enough to exchange greetings, enough to ask if one of them can spot, enough to be asked to spot. Enough to start giving a bit of a damn. You get used to the regulars enough then you start to notice new faces. If someone looks a bit lost hovering at the edge of a platform, it stands out – and it doesn't take more than a few seconds to ask if they want to work in, does it? If you're already having a bit of chat between your own sets, it becomes natural to include that new person, or at least give them a nod and smile when they finish their set and step aside for you. And so your gym stays a good place, and you are part of that, and you take pride in it.
A hardcore bodybuilder or powerlifter or weightlifter or strongman also tends to be just a tad enthusiastic and even nerdy about their sport. If you have ever been enthusiastic about a sport, ask yourself if you have ever disparaged anyone new to it. If the answer isn't "of course not" then please stop reading this and take some time to reflect on yourself – but I bet most of you tend to be really keen on seeing new people enjoy learning and get better at whatever your interest is. I bet if you're a skater then you have seen and experienced so many failures yourself that you don't judge a fresh meat struggling with a T stop. If you're a full on crossfitter, you get psyched and high five a n00b managing their first pull up. Hell, never mind crossfit – if you do cross stitch you are probably understanding when someone gets it wrong and screws up their pattern (or whatever happens – I don't know how cross stitch works).
Lifters are no different. A dedicated lifter physique and challenging lifts are a sign of intense training and enthusiasm, not being a dick. The giant men at Physical Culture enthuse over someone's best lift to date like a parkour practitioner cheers someone's first vault. The giant, enthusiastic, mighty Physical Culture lifters are not going to shake their heads at your tiny overhead press. They've been there, they've seen others start small, they also have more than a basic understanding of how bodyweight and gender changes realistic expectations of what people can lift. They will just enjoy seeing someone slowly grow and develop over time.
People also like to have training buddies. Sometimes you want to put your headphones in, get yourself into a rack and just do your thing. But sometimes you want to work together. Heavy bench press needs a spotter, so people pair up. One of the best things I have ever seen at PC is a guy coming in with a pile of decorations and quietly putting them around the bench. Why? Because his friend and training partner, a long term regular, was coming in and it was his birthday. It was infectious. The gym owner fully endorsed and helped put the decorations around the place. The gym crowd were carrying on with workouts while shooting surreptitious and amused glances at the preparations. The owner put a happy birthday playlist on. Anticipation built as we waited for the birthday boy, who was late, to walk in and see it all. We were all in on it. We all signed his card – and we all stopped to enjoy his reaction when he finally came arrived. There was cake, there were happy birthdays, there were bench presses. Not all of us had known this guy for years, but we were all part of that birthday surprise and shared it with him and each other.
Some sports NEED group training. Strongman is one (at least around here). It's one I am new to, and I already love it. It involves an awful lot of going backwards and forwards while carrying enormous things, kind of like going home from Tesco but a bit harder. This means space, and as we've already talked about, there's not a lot of empty gym floor. Definitely not enough to run 20 metres in a straight line with an enormous metal frame on your shoulders.
This means teamwork. We need to get the equipment from the gym to the nearby park. A few weeks ago, this meant the gym owner, Chris, helping us to get access to various items, figuring out which of us could carry what, and having a buddy come along with a car – she herself was too injured to join in, but helped out with the transport, timed us and was encouraging. In the space of one afternoon I felt like I was part of a team.
Number two is how Physical Culture is run.
In an age of the customer always being right, convenience, promises of instant results and reduced staffing for reduced costs, I have never heard the term "customer service" at Physical Culture. You are a member, not a passive consumer of a "fitness" product. As members, we are part of a community and responsible for that community. Customers do what they want and expect to be catered to – I once saw a friend jokingly say that the best thing about just going to the gym instead of a taught strength class was that nobody made her put the weights away. Members, however, are responsible for those weights and their own behaviour. We put the damn weights away, because we respect our community resources and our fellow members.
Members are accountable. Membership is a privilege, not a right. Should your behaviour be unacceptable, that privilege an be revoked – there will be no harassing of people, rudeness or casual chucking around of the equipment at PC. If you give respect and consideration to others, you will get it in return.
Members have expectations of each other. Another customer at a chain gym is someone who has paid to be there. They're not answerable to you, and when the customer is always right, gym staff are there to keep their employers profiting, not to protect a community. As a member of PC you get to be part of the community, and know that everyone around you is held to the same standards that you are. You're all equally expected to share the equipment, play nice, be considerate to each other and so on.
Staff command easy respect and affection. The gym owner is not a man who is desperate for your money. There are no quick buck making schemes – PC has been going since 1928 and it offers nothing but honest training and results. There is no treating staff like skivvies and expecting them to pick up after you – we're all part of this community. Rather than someone far up a corporate chain looking at profit margins and innovative ways to make ever more cash, we all matter as people. We're held to account, yes, but we're also worth so much more than our monthly membership costs (which aren't high, to be honest). this is a guy who posts updates on how busy the racks are. This is a guy who wanders down and hands out bottles of lucozade, who brought us water and coke when we were training in the park, who celebrates our achievements and milestones. Show me a chain gym with a manager that will chat to you about taking some of the rustier weights to the park for a couple of hours.
There are PB boards for both genders on the walls, and I have seen a larger number of women lifting in this gym than I have in any other weights area. Women outnumber men some nights and there is no sexism. There is no talk about lifting like a girl. We are absolutely equal. I saw someone recently write that they were once asked by a man at their gym whether they would get off the leg press so he could "use it properly" – I have absolute confidence that this would never fly in our gym. It's not just against the rules. It would offend everyone on the gym floor, male and female.
There are no drop in passes for Physical Culture. Part of the deal when you sign up is that you are there to stay for at least a while. This creates a place where trust and personal relationships matter. I have seen so many mobile phones left out on benches, ledges and next to racks. I think nothing of chucking my bag down in the changing room before I head downstairs. Nobody there is coming in for one night and therefore doesn't care about how they leave the place when they are done, whether their behaviour will upset others, if they will be allowed back. Everyone you see is someone you will probably see again.
And so this is how a place full of loud, muscled grunting men can be absolutely perfect for a small woman trying to regain her fitness and work up her lifting ability. This is how the giant men can become friends and supportive training buddies. They give respect, and they deserve it in return. They have boundless enthusiasm and want to see you do well, and that lets you see beyond the intimidating size to the actual kind-hearted, good-natured people underneath.
So instead of fearing the giants in the gym, give them a chance to be part of your community. Offer respect, and see if it is returned. Build a community instead of a nemesis, and see if you can create a place like Physical Culture. And if not – if your gym is honestly full of assholes – then know that you have options, and it doesn't have to be that way.


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The price of Snickers in United Arab Emirates, February 2016:The chart shows the price of Snickers in United Arab Emirates relative to other countries. The price is 0 USD compared to an average of 0 USD for all other countries. The prices displayed on the website are collected from major online retailer with consistent methodology across countries.


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Gelada(redirected from Jelada baboon)
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(Theropithecus gelada), a monkey of the family Cercopithecidae, order of Primates. In males body length is 70-74 cm; tail length, 46-50 cm; and weight, approximately 20 kg. Females are smaller: body length, 50-65 cm; weight, approximately 13 kg. Geladas resemble baboons. The male's mantle of fur is brown, and the female has gray fur. There is an hourglass patch of bare red skin on the chest. Geladas are found in the mountains of Ethiopia above 2,000 m. They live in rocky areas in herds of up to 400 and feed on onions, grasses, and insects. They rarely climb trees.


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I examensarbetet jämförs undvikande av kollision och tidsefektivitet mellan det två metoderna hastighetshinder och partikelseparation i spelgenren Twin stick shooter. Arbetet försöker besvara frågan: Hur skiljer sig undvikandet av kollision och tidseffektiviteten mellan metoderna hastighetshinder och partikelseparation, i spelgenren twin stick shooter med flockbeteende? För att besvara frågan har en artefakt skapats. I artefakten jagar agenter en spelare medan agenterna undviker kollision med andra agenter, dock eftersträvar agenterna att kollidera med spelaren. I artefakten körs olika experiment baserat på parametrar som har ställts in. Varje experiment körs en bestämd tid och all data om kollisioner och exekveringstid för respektive metod sparas i en textfil. Resultatet av experimenten pekar på att partikelseparation lämpar sig bättre för twin stick shooters. Hastighetshinder kolliderar mindre men tidsberäkningen är för hög och skalar dåligt med antal agenter. Det passar inte twinstick shooter då det oftast är många agenter på skärmen. Metoderna för undvikandet av kollision har användning till radiostyrda billar och robotar, samt simulation av folkmassa.
The process of monitoring user emotions in serious games or human-computer interaction is usually obtrusive. The work-flow is typically based on sensors that are physically attached to the user. Sometimes those sensors completely disturb the user experience, such as finger sensors that prevent the use of keyboard/mouse. This short paper presents techniques used to remotely measure different signals produced by a person, e.g. heart rate, through the use of a camera and computer vision techniques. The analysis of a combination of such signals (multimodal input) can be used in a variety of applications such as emotion assessment and measurement of cognitive stress. We present a research proposal for measurement of player's stress level based on a non-contact analysis of multimodal user inputs. Our main contribution is a survey of commonly used methods to remotely measure user input signals related to stress assessment.
The work presented in this dissertation investigates techniques for robot Learning from Demonstration (LFD). LFD is a well established approach where the robot is to learn from a set of demonstrations. The dissertation focuses on LFD where a human teacher demonstrates a behavior by controlling the robot via teleoperation. After demonstration, the robot should be able to reproduce the demonstrated behavior under varying conditions. In particular, the dissertation investigates techniques where previous behavioral knowledge is used as bias for generalization of demonstrations.
The primary contribution of this work is the development and evaluation of a semi-reactive approach to LFD called Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL). PSL has many interesting properties applied as a learning algorithm for robots. Few assumptions are introduced and little task-specific configuration is needed. PSL can be seen as a variable-order Markov model that progressively builds up the ability to predict or simulate future sensory-motor events, given a history of past events. The knowledge base generated during learning can be used to control the robot, such that the demonstrated behavior is reproduced. The same knowledge base can also be used to recognize an on-going behavior by comparing predicted sensor states with actual observations. Behavior recognition is an important part of LFD, both as a way to communicate with the human user and as a technique that allows the robot to use previous knowledge as parts of new, more complex, controllers.
In addition to the work on PSL, this dissertation provides a broad discussion on representation, recognition, and learning of robot behavior. LFD-related concepts such as demonstration, repetition, goal, and behavior are defined and analyzed, with focus on how bias is introduced by the use of behavior primitives. This analysis results in a formalism where LFD is described as transitions between information spaces. Assuming that the behavior recognition problem is partly solved, ways to deal with remaining ambiguities in the interpretation of a demonstration are proposed.
The evaluation of PSL shows that the algorithm can efficiently learn and reproduce simple behaviors. The algorithm is able to generalize to previously unseen situations while maintaining the reactive properties of the system. As the complexity of the demonstrated behavior increases, knowledge of one part of the behavior sometimes interferes with knowledge of another parts. As a result, different situations with similar sensory-motor interactions are sometimes confused and the robot fails to reproduce the behavior.
One way to handle these issues is to introduce a context layer that can support PSL by providing bias for predictions. Parts of the knowledge base that appear to fit the present context are highlighted, while other parts are inhibited. Which context should be active is continually re-evaluated using behavior recognition. This technique takes inspiration from several neurocomputational models that describe parts of the human brain as a hierarchical prediction system. With behavior recognition active, continually selecting the most suitable context for the present situation, the problem of knowledge interference is significantly reduced and the robot can successfully reproduce also more complex behaviors.
A novel model of role of conditioning in attention is presented and evaluated on a Nao humanoid robot. The model implements conditioning and habituation in interaction with a dynamic neural field where different stimuli compete for activation. The model can be seen as a demonstration of how stimulus-selection and action-selection can be combined and illustrates how positive or negative reinforcement have different effects on attention and action. Attention is directed toward both rewarding and punishing stimuli, but appetitive actions are only directed toward positive stimuli. We present experiments where the model is used to control a Nao robot in a task where it can select between two objects. The model demonstrates some emergent effects also observed in similar experiments with humans and animals, including attentional blocking and latent inhibition.
In this chapter, the prediction algorithm Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL) is presented and evaluated in a robot Learning from Demonstration (LFD) setting. PSL generates hypotheses from a sequence of sensory-motor events. Generated hypotheses can be used as a semi-reactive controller for robots. PSL has previously been used as a method for LFD, but suffered from combinatorial explosion when applied to data with many dimensions, such as high dimensional sensor and motor data. A new version of PSL, referred to as Fuzzy Predictive Sequence Learning (FPSL), is presented and evaluated in this chapter. FPSL is implemented as a Fuzzy Logic rule base and works on a continuous state space, in contrast to the discrete state space used in the original design of PSL. The evaluation of FPSL shows a significant performance improvement in comparison to the discrete version of the algorithm. Applied to an LFD task in a simulated apartment environment, the robot is able to learn to navigate to a specific location, starting from an unknown position in the apartment.
Decision lists (or ordered rule sets) have two attractive properties compared to unordered rule sets: they require a simpler classi¯cation procedure and they allow for a more compact representation. However, it is an open question what effect these properties have on the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Two ways of forming decision lists are considered in this study: by generating a sequence of rules, with a default rule for one of the classes, and by imposing an order upon rules that have been generated for all classes. An empirical investigation shows that the latter method gives a significantly higher AUC than the former, demonstrating that the compactness obtained by using one of the classes as a default is indeed associated with a cost. Furthermore, by using all applicable rules rather than the first in an ordered set, an even further significant improvement in AUC is obtained, demonstrating that the simple classification procedure is also associated with a cost. The observed gains in AUC for unordered rule sets compared to decision lists can be explained by that learning rules for all classes as well as combining multiple rules allow for examples to be ranked according to a more fine-grained scale compared to when applying rules in a fixed order and providing a default rule for one of the classes.
It is evident that recently reported robot-assisted therapy systems for assessment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) lack autonomous interaction abilities and require significant human resources. This paper proposes a sensing system that automatically extracts and fuses sensory features such as body motion features, facial expressions, and gaze features, further assessing the children behaviours by mapping them to therapist-specified behavioural classes. Experimental results show that the developed system has a capability of interpreting characteristic data of children with ASD, thus has the potential to increase the autonomy of robots under the supervision of a therapist and enhance the quality of the digital description of children with ASD. The research outcomes pave the way to a feasible machine-assisted system for their behaviour assessment. IEEE
Detta är en reflexiv rapport om arbetsmetoden bakom skapandet av en filmtrailer som ska marknadsföra den fiktiva filmen om Gabriel Glömmer baserad på en bok av Ulf Löfgren. Boken handlar om en tillbakadragen pojke med en livlig fantasi som drömmer sig till en sagovärld där han får uppleva äventyr och möta nya vänner. Texten har ett fokus på skapandet av miljöer i 3D, med mål att behålla den grafiska stilen från 2D illustrationer som finns i boken. Resultatet av projektet är en filmtrailer med längden 1 minut och 40 sekunder. Filmtrailerns bilder har en uppbyggnad som försöker efterlikna de illustrationer som finns i boken.
In this article we present a novel neural network implementation of Associative Two-Process (ATP) theory based on an Actor–Critic-like architecture. Our implementation emphasizes the affective components of differential reward magnitude and reward omission expectation and thus we model Affective-Associative Two-Process theory (Aff-ATP). ATP has been used to explain the findings of differential outcomes training (DOT) procedures, which emphasize learning differentially valuated outcomes for cueing actions previously associated with those outcomes. ATP hypothesizes the existence of a 'prospective' memory route through which outcome expectations can bring to bear on decision making and can even substitute for decision making based on the 'retrospective' inputs of standard working memory. While DOT procedures are well recognized in the animal learning literature they have not previously been computationally modelled. The model presented in this article helps clarify the role of ATP computationally through the capturing of empirical data based on DOT. Our Aff-ATP model illuminates the different roles that prospective and retrospective memory can have in decision making (combining inputs to action selection functions). In specific cases, the model's prospective route allows for adaptive switching (correct action selection prior to learning) following changes in the stimulus–response–outcome contingencies.
Rapporten tar upp mina reflektioner dels angående projektarbetet både på ett personligt plan samt samarbetet mellan oss två som gjorde projektet. Vad har fungerat och vad har fungerat mindre bra under projekttiden? Från 2D till 3D är en röd tråd genom hela rapporten då vi gått från 2D-referernsbilder i barnboken Gabriel Glömmer till utrenderade 3D-sekvenser. Jag går igenom vad jag gjort och vad andra gjort under projekttiden då vi haft hjälp av lite olika människor. Dessa människor presenteras snabbt, något annat som presenteras är boken och min relation till densamma. Resultatet av projektarbetet blev att vi lyckades med de uppställde mål vi hade innan projektet startades.
This paper presents an ongoing study on affective human-robot interaction. In our previous research, touch type is shown to be informative for communicated emotion. Here, a soft matrix array sensor is used to capture the tactile interaction between human and robot and 6 machine learning methods including CNN, RNN and C3D are implemented to classify different touch types, constituting a pre-stage to recognizing emotional tactile interaction. Results show an average recognition rate of 95% by C3D for classified touch types, which provide stable classification results for developing social touch technology.
Given that original purpose of cognitive architectures was to lead to a unified theory of cognition, this chapter considers the possible contributions that cognitive architectures can make to embodied theories of cognition in particular. This is not a trivial question since the field remains very much divided about what embodied cognition actually means, and we will see some example positions in this chapter. It is then argued that a useful embodied cognitive architecture would be one that can demonstrate (a) what precisely the role of the body in cognition actually is, and (b) whether a body is constitutively needed at all for some (or all) cognitive processes. It is proposed that such questions can be investigated if the cognitive architecture is designed so that consequences of varying the precise embodiment on higher cognitive mechanisms can be explored. This is in contrast with, for example, those cognitive architectures in robotics that are designed for specific bodies first; or architectures in cognitive science that implement embodiment as an add-on to an existing framework (because then, that framework is by definition not constitutively shaped by the embodiment). The chapter concludes that the so-called semantic pointer architecture by Eliasmith and colleagues may be one framework that satisfies our desiderata and may be well-suited for studying theories of embodied cognition further.
In the enactive paradigm of cognitive science, development plays a crucial role in the realization of cognition. This position runs counter to the computational functionalism upon which cognitivist and classical artificial intelligence systems are founded, especially the assumption that cognition can be achieved by embedding pre-formed knowledge. The enactive stance involves a progressive phased transition from cognitive capacity to cognitive capability, highlighting the role of development in extending the timescale of a cognitive agent's prospective abilities and in expanding its repertoire of effective action. We review briefly some necessary conditions for cognitive development, drawing on examples from developmental psychology, illustrating the ideas by looking at the ontogenesis of instru- mental helping and collaboration in infants, and identifying some of the essential elements of a developmental cognitive architecture. We then focus on the fact that enactive sys- tems are operationally-closed, autonomous, and self-maintaining. Consequently, there are organizational constitutive processes at play as well as behavioural ones. Reconciling these complementary processes poses a significant challenge for the creation of complete model of development that must show how constitutive autonomy is compatible with and may even give rise to behavioural autonomy. We conclude by drawing attention to recent research which could provide a way of addressing this challenge.


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What Research About Cigarettes Can Teach You
Everything You Need to Know About Electronic Cigarettes
If you are a smoker and you want to stop smoking, you need to find the best method to do so. One of the reasons why smokers should stop smoking is because being addicted to smoking can cause negative effects to your health. That is why a lot of people now are using electronic cigarettes in order to stop their addiction. If you want to avoid health disease from smoking cigarette, you can do so through the use of electronic cigarettes. You can know more about it by reading this article. The good thing about electronic cigarettes is that it can let you enjoy smoking without having to worry about its harmful effects. Trying it will give you a lot of benefits in the end. The reason why a lot of people go for electronic cigarette is because they know that it will keep them healthy no matter what. With the electronic cigarette, you don't need to lit a fire for you to enjoy it. If you want to make sure that your body remains healthy at the same time enjoying your habit, this is definitely a product to consider.
If you think that electronic cigarette is not useful, search for its new improvements and you'll know what this article is talking about. Because of this, more and more people have relied on it to help them get through with their habits. With the works of technology, everything about it came to existence and has helped thousands of people across the globe. The good thing about electronic cigarettes now is that it is beneficial and easy for people to use. This means that anyone who has a planned to make use of it will surely enjoy. Aside from the features that it has now, electronic cigarette has also an improved look now. The size of it is almost the same as the traditional one. What most people like about electronic cigarettes is the fact that it lets people choose the flavors they like. If you think that it is too big or large for your hand to grip on, it is not. In fact, most people could not identify it as an electronic cigarette because it looks almost the same as the real one. If you are going to use it, though it may look the same as the real one, it does not contain the same ingredients.
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Discover Leh & Laddakh Tour
Duration : 06 NIGHTS/ 07 DAYS
Leh & Ladakhare thetrans-Himalayan regions of Jammu & Kashmir. Often referred to as the "Little Tibet", Leh & Ladakhare the most favored destination for adventure seekers and nature admirers.
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Day 1: Arrival Leh
On arrival at Leh Airport our representative will meet & greet. Later transfer you to Hotel in Leh. Check-in at the hotel and rest of the day free to acclimatize to the high altitude of Ladakh. In the evening take a walk to the local bazaar in Leh. Overnight at Hotel in Leh.
Day 2: Monastery And Sindhu Darshan
Today morning after breakfast, drive to Thiksey village, visit Thiksey monastery and drive to Shey Village to visit Shey Palace and Gompa. Continue drive to Hemis monastery to visit one of the most famous monasteries of Ladakh. Later on the way back to Leh get down at the Sindhu Ghat for Sindhu Darshan and walk along the river. After spending some time at the river come back to Hotel and relax. Dinner and overnight at the hotel in Leh.
Day 3: Excursion To Sham Valley
Today morning after breakfast drive to Alchi. Enroute visit Magnetic Hill, Gurudwara Patthar Sahib, Confluence of Zanskar and Indus river. Visit Alchi Monastery and drive back to Leh. Just before reaching Leh visit Ladakh Hall of fame. Arrive hotel in Leh for dinner and overnight.
Day 4: Leh - Nubra Via Khardungla Pass
Today morning proceed to Nubra Valley via the World Highest Motorable road (5602 Mts) Khardungla pass. Arrive Nubra and proceed for a visit to the White Sand Dunes at Hunder. You can enjoy the camel ride (On Own). Later if time permits visit Hunder and Diskit monasteries and check in at Deluxe Camp. Evening at leisure. Overnight at the camp.
Day 5: Nubra – Leh
Today morning after Breakfast proceed for Leh, once again driving via Khardungla pass the World Highest Motorable road. Evening explore Leh bazaar for souvenir, visit Leh Jokhang or Leh Mosque by foot. Overnight at the hotel.
Day 6: Excursion To Pangong Lake
Morning after breakfast drive to to Pangong Lake on the Indo China border. Evening back to hotel in Leh for dinner and overnight.
THE PANGONG LAKE: This route takes the visitor past the picturesque villages of Shey and Leh Ladakh Tour Packages India,Leh Ladakh Tour India,Leh Ladakh Holiday Tour PackagesThikse, and turns off the Indus valley by the side valley of Chemrey and Sakti. The Ladakh range is crossed by the Chang-la (18,000 feet / 5,475 M) which despite its great elevation is one of the easier passes, remaining open for much of the year even in winter, apart from periods of actual snowfall. Tangse, just beyond the foot of the pass, has an ancient temple. But the main attraction of this circuit is the Pangong Lake, situated at 14,000 feet (4,267 M). A long narrow basin of inland drainage, hardly six to seven kilometers at its widest point to which foreigners are permitted, is only some seven km along the southern shore from the head of the lake, but it affords spectacular views of the mountains of the Changchenmo range to the north, their reflection shimmering in the ever-changing blues and greens of the lakes brackish water. Above Spangmik are the glacier and snow-capped peaks of the Pangong range.
Day 7: Airport Departure
Leave on time for Leh airport to board your flight to Delhi
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We are bringing back our most popular holiday contest again and giving you a chance to enter to win a prize a day. Tomorrow starts our 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. From Monday, December 2nd until Friday, December 13th, we here at FaveCrafts will be running a different giveaway each day. Check back with us each day to see a wonderful new craft and what great prize you can win.
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Johannesburg - M-Net's local content investment strategy paid off when its channels collectively won 36 Golden Horns, scooping some of the biggest awards - Most Popular Soap, Best Soap, Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Achievement in Scriptwriting, and Best Achievement in Directing-Feature Film - at the 11th South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) held at the Sun City Super Bowl on Saturday, 18 March. Isibaya, Mzansi Magic's flagship soap, won Most Popular Soap and The Road was awarded Best TV Soap. kykNET won Best Feature Film for Sink, Best Documentary Feature for Nobody's Died Laughing, and Best Achievement in Scriptwriting for Die Boekklub. M-Net 101 won Best Achievement in Directing-Feature Film for its original film, Shepherds and Butchers. Thembisa Mdoda, presenter of Mzansi Magic's popular reality show, Our Perfect Wedding won Best TV Presenter and Greed and Desire's Linda Sebezo in the category Best Supporting Actress- TV Soap/Telenovela.
Here's a pic of Tembisa with her award:
The Best TV Presenter as voted for by you the public goes to Tembisa Mdoda @tembisa #SAFTAs11 pic.twitter.com/r1IZu6tZFY— SAFTAS (@SAFTAS1) March 18, 2017
The Best TV Presenter as voted for by you the public goes to Tembisa Mdoda @tembisa #SAFTAs11 pic.twitter.com/r1IZu6tZFY
kykNET (DStv channel 144) won a total of 26 awards including Best Supporting Actress-TV Drama for Die Boekklub won by Jana Cilliers, taking Best Actor- TV Comedy was James Borthwick as well as the 19 Golden Horns from the technical awards evening. M-Net's (DStv channel 101) original film, Shepherds and Butchers directed by Oliver Schmitz won the Best Achievement in Directing in the Feature Film category. A South African story set in the 1980's focuses on the skewed judicial system of the time. A second win for M-Net was for its ultimate talent contest The Voice South Africa, which won its very first Golden Horn for Best International Format Show. Voted for by adoring fans, Isibaya (on DStv channel 161), is a proudly South African story that has captured the hearts of Mzansi. It depicts the battle for wealth and power between rival taxi families, a reality that many South Africans can relate with. Isibaya also won for its brilliant production value in the category Best Achievement in Post Production-Original Music/Score-TV Soap/Telenovela.Sink, a kykNET original production, is based on the journey of a mother, who needs to make devastating choices. Nobody's Died Laughing, is a biographic feature documentary, an exploration of the life and times of satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys.
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Alamat Redaksi
Laboratorium Biologi Struktur dan Fungsi
Departemen Biologi, Fakultas Sains dan Matematika, Universitas Diponegoro
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Jl. Prof. Soedarto, SH Tembalang Semarang
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from the first followers of Jesus. He was a Roman, an army man, in the army that was
keeping the Jews down. There was no love lost between the Jews and the occupying forces;
as indeed one would expect. Moreover, there was a whole world of difference between the
Romans and the Jews. Yet none of these differences pinpointed by race proved to be a
barrier. Jesus healed this Roman officer's boy.
There are two points to note about this Roman. First, it was he who made the approach to
Jesus across the barrier. It wasn't the other way around. Similarly, it was the Wise Men
who travelled afar to see the Infant Jesus, not the other way round. So the Syrophoenician
woman came seeking on behalf of her daughter. And the Greeks approached Philip, 'Sir,
we would see Jesus.' So we see that the Christian way was broken into from the outside by
outsiders. The time came when the whole Church, took the Gospel to outsiders. This
Roman, however, saw the truth long before. The remarkable fact is that sometimes an
outsider can see more closely the purpose of God in the world. And Jesus did find it
remarkable, when he said; 'I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel…many shall
come from the east and west and sit in the Kingdom of God.'
Secondly, we should note how the Roman officer saw into the nature of Jesus' ministry by
examining his own. He said to himself, 'I have authority. I can say to this man, "Do this',
and to that man, "Do that". My belief is that this Jesus can do the same. No, there is no
need for Jesus to come in person to my house to heal my fever-tossed boy. He can simply
say the word and the boy will be healed.' That is to say, because of his overwhelming
authority Christ can heal from the outside, he can heal from far off, therefore he can heal
far off peoples. And that is the message of Epiphany. The Christian Gospel is for all
peoples. There are no racial barriers. And so the Church, wherever it has been true to its
Lord has been a missionary-hearted church. And, may it not be, that today, the failure of
the church, is that it has lost that missionary zeal, as it seems afraid to stand up and join
with this Centurion and declare absolute faith, without apology.
So this first lesson from the Gospel today, is to sweep away from our minds of any racial
barriers to the scope of the Christian Gospel. Because in the depths of our hearts we know
that they should not exist.
So now we move to our second lesson which we can learn this morning, and it is not so easy
to define. It might be called the barrier of social distinction; the manual/ non-manual
worker divide. Perhaps the financial barrier. We all know that probably every country has
parts of society plagued by violence, gang warfare, drug-taking, robbery etc. But against
that we read so often of the bravery of Gospel filled people and groups who are prepared to
wear their faith on their sleeves, and go among those, who could be seen in terms of this
Centurion as 'far off' people. But just as that Roman was to believe, and just as Our Lord
was to show him, healing is possible perhaps from afar, but also near.
And our third message is how Christian denominations can be a barrier, a barrier that is,
to the free flowing of the Spirit of Christ in a community. Whenever I am about to baptize,
I always remind those gathered, that nowhere does it say that I am to baptize the
child/adult into the Anglican Church of South Africa, but into the Church of God. The sad
divisions within the Church here on earth are of man's making, often through greed for
personal power, or theological ignorance. However, and thank God, there have been signs
of more openness towards unity; we do not look for, or need uniformity, but to be at peace
with each other in brotherly love.
The hymn 'O Thou, who at thy Eucharist didst pray'
puts it into perspective so well in verse 4. – 'So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
May we be one with all thy Church above,
One with the saints in one unbroken peace,
One with the saints in one unbounded love;
More blessed still, in peace and love to be
One with the Trinity in Unity.'
So we can, good friends, this week take home with us a very simple but powerful message
to sustain us, and it is this. "Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
We know that we can do thus, because like the centurion, we have declared
"I am not worthy to receive you, but say the word only", and we are healed. Amen


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They say the third time's the charm and what charming girls there are in this sensationally sexy third entry in the SCHOOLGIRL REPORT series! A new sexual education guide has been published in Germany to help teens understand and enjoy a healthy sex life. A series of vignettes "act out" some of the most puzzling sexual questions teens may have about the guide.
• Anamorphic (1.66:1) Transfer of the "International Version" of the Film
• Newly Translated Removable English Subtitles
• Chapter Selections


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The New Logo is actually collaboration among some symbols to be an excellent presentation and meaningful. This logo represents the vision and the missions of Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali to keep moving forward and developing to be one of the best World Class ICT Colleges. The changing of the logo visualized what has been happening in Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali since 2013.
|Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali Logo - Gear (Roda Gigi)
|Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali Logo- Fire
According to several articles about the development of technology, the speed of development, which is symbolized by "Gear", has an important role in the industrial revolution, which lead the human being to enter the modern age nowadays. Thus the 'gear' is the image of describing the developing of information technology. This becomes Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali perspective in moving forward. The 'gear' is also symbolized the on going activities of the institution in connection with the development of technology.
Fire is an image that often interprets as an object describing energy or eagerness. The true eagerness is expected to give positive energy to Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali in conducting the best educational service and also to encourage the competition among students in achieving the maximum goal. The image is improved into a smooth curve so that become well suited with the other images.
|STIKOM Bali Logo - Educational Level
|STIKOM Bali Logo - Sash
There are some levels in educational world to be accomplished step by step. This process is also happening in a college, which keeps moving forward in providing service and a better quality of education for the students. Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali always encourages its institution to increase the quality of the lecturing process and raising the brand value at the same time.
The image 'sash' symbolized an appreciation given to one who has an excellent achievement. Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali is the only ICT college in Bali and South East Indonesia area which is accredited in 'B' grade by the Board of National Administration for Higher Education, BAN PT.
The shape of the sash is adapted into all aspects to be a union of a unique logo.
|STIKOM Bali Logo - Flow
|STIKOM Bali Logo - First Leter
The enhancement of information technology is running fast, which urges all related aspects always be updated and follows the latest development. In order to keep growing, Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali has been cooperating with several national and international universities. The logo is composed with some aspects having a smooth curve which symbolizes flexibility..
Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali begins with letter 'S' and it is applied into imaging of the logo. The letter 'S' is distilled into the logo and become a different shape.
|STIKOM Bali Logo - Wing
The last aspect of Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali logo is 'wing'. It symbolizes the big effort of the students in achieving their aims. 'Wing' also symbolized the curricula prepared and analyzed by Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis STIKOM Bali so far that it becomes reliable to answer the challenges of technology development. One example of programs is "Dual Degree" which is a collaboration between STIKOM Bali and foreign university. This program is expected to having good quality of students who can compete in professional world globally .


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The fruit garden of Moominvalley is glowing in all its glory and bathing in a soft yellow light. Little My is sitting under a berry tree with a playful smile on her face. What is she planning now?
- Long pant legs
- Stretchy elastic waistband
- Material is pleasantly soft and ecologial organic cotton tricot
- One of the pant legs has a funny picture of Little My sitting under a berry tree
- Material: 95 % organic cotton, 5 % elastane
- Wash: +40C degrees, turn inside out and wash with similarly colored clothing. No tumble dry
- Clothing tip: Match the leggings with Moomin Magrove tunic!
Manufacturer: Martinex
Categories: Children's pants & leggings • Children's clothes
We ship worldwide! • 100% satisfaction guaranteed
The size guide for clothes can be found HERE.
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Upgraded my PC to Windows 8 and just want to confirm a few things.
1. My avatar and that of friends do not move (not 3D) in Xbox Live app, they are just static/pictures. Is this normal or I'm lacking a plugin?
2. I installed Microsoft Silverlight and it seems internet explore is not using it. Firefox shows my moving 3D avatar at Xbox.com but in IE10, the are just static....like pictures. Is this normal?
3. I now can't install my dell wireless driver, it tells me driver not found but I used to install it from the net back in XP mode......any help? I'm now using LAN cable.
Any help how to fix these please?


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Manresa's wine man aims to take guests on journey
One of Northern California's most thoughtful voices on wine can be found most nights on the floor at Manresa.
Jeff Bareilles is of that old school of wine director - cultured, intellectual, as interested in discussing art as Burgundy's 2010 vintage. It is an increasing rarity in an era when sommeliers often seem to be more interested in chasing merit pins.
David Kinch's restaurant, a tribute to regional bounty tucked into a quiet street in Los Gatos, might be the perfect spot for him. If Kinch's cooking is a contemplation of the bounty of Santa Cruz and nearby Monterey Bay, Bareilles' wine tendencies have a bit more wanderlust - including a fair amount of Spanish and French wines.
But always, there's homage to Manresa's home, particularly the wines of Mount Eden Vineyards in nearby Saratoga, where Kinch worked shortly after coming to California. Because most meals involve tasting menus, Bareilles has up to 20 wines open at any time to pair. "I try and take our guests on a little journey," he says. "I make sure the mountains are included."
Bareilles, 50, is a Bay Area native - born in Berkeley and attending high school in Hayward. It was during school at St. Mary's College of California in Moraga (run by the Lasallians, who also ran the Christian Brothers winery) that he became interested in wine. After college, he worked in restaurants in San Francisco before moving to New York, where he helped open the restaurant Zoe in the late 1980s, pioneering an all-California wine list.
He came back to the West Coast to be closer to family, and after his sister and brother-in-law found a house in Aptos in 2005, Bareilles was drawn to the Santa Cruz area - particularly Los Gatos. He sent a resume to Manresa, and within weeks had a job.
Living in Santa Cruz, Bareilles admits, isn't always the easiest choice for a wine intellectual. It's not that there isn't a dedicated posse of gastronomes nearby - more that Surf City, in its way of being tucked away from modern California's bustle, requires a more laid-back philosophy than you might find among San Francisco's Yelp addicts.
Which is why you might well find Bareilles enjoying a sunset drink at the Crow's Nest down by the harbor.
"Even though it's the cheesiest coastal restaurant concept you see in beach towns all over the world, they have a great happy hour. You're right on the bay, and it's beautiful.
"It's hard," he concludes, "to be a snob down here."
Bareilles' picks
Los Gatos
Enoteca La Storia and Donostia: This brother-sister pair of venues offer a counterpoint when Bareilles wants to escape the restaurant for a bit. He gets a plate of salumi at La Storia, with its Italian-focused wine bar and retail shop, and sits outside. Donostia, with its Basque focus, brings such northern Spanish wines as the fresh whites of Txakoli, plus excellent sardines. Bonus: They're open late on weekends.
Enoteca La Storia, 416 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; (408) 625-7272. www.enotecalastoria.com
Donostia, 424 N Santa Cruz Ave,, Los Gatos; (408) 797-8688. http://donostiapintxos.com
Dio Deka: A lot of people-watching; investor Stratton Sclavos was CEO of VeriSign and co-owns the San Jose Sharks, making it one of Silicon Valley's see-and-be-seen spots. But the town's other anchor restaurant has a wine list that, in addition to affinity with its Greek-inspired menu, goes far beyond, with about 1,200 bottles, or more than double Manresa's, including a lot of gems sprinkled between Napa stars like Screaming Eagle. "Some of it's predictable, but there are a lot of things that are off the beaten path. They have an interesting Loire selection that caught me off guard."
210 E Main St., Los Gatos; (408) 354-7700. http://diodeka.com
Santa Cruz
Soif: This bistro and wine bar is a wine lover's salvation in the Cruz, thanks in part to the work of wine buyer John Locke, who also runs the Birichino label and who mixes Santa Cruz bottles with things like the Jura wines of Jacques Puffeney. "He's really a fascinating person, and has great selections." Bareilles' tip: Get the duck breast if they have it.
105 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz; (831) 423-2020. www.soifwine.com
Bantam: Splendidly baked pizzas from chef Melissa Reitz (a veteran of several Bay Area spots, including Pizzaiolo) have made this "my go-to recently on my days off."
1010 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz; (831) 420-0101. www.bantam1010.com.
Ristoranti Avanti: The cooking is Italian, and there's a new location on Santa Cruz's Westside, but Bareilles prefers it for one of the few great lunches in town. Also: "they make a really good Bloody Mary."
1917 Mission St,, Santa Cruz; (831) 427-0135. http://ristoranteavanti.com
The Penny Ice Creamery: Mostly organic ice creams from Manresa's former pastry chef, Kendra Baker, include everything from vanilla to wild fennel. "She always was super into ice cream," he says. There's now a second location in the Pleasure Point area.
913 Cedar St. and 820 41st Ave., Santa Cruz; (831) 204-2523. http://thepennyicecreamery.com
41st Avenue Liquor: An unexpected find in a storefront near Capitola, next to a dry cleaner, whose owner has assembled a surprisingly diverse roster of wines, top-notch beers and more. "He's got a great Armagnac selection."
2155 41st Ave., Santa Cruz; (831) 475-5117
The wines
As his list reveals, Bareilles is a bit of a classicist when it comes to Santa Cruz, including the original power duo of Ridge Vineyards and Mount Eden, plus new star Rhys Vineyards. But his proximity has given him a chance to scout some of the area's other, smaller standouts, like Windy Oaks ( www.windyoaksestate.com) in Corralitos, which Bareilles recommends for a weekend tasting trip. Other highlights:
Alfaro Family: "I actually like Richard's Syrah. That's the strong point. It has this bacon fat quality that I like." ( www.alfarowine.com)
Cooper Garrod: "Their Cab Franc is pretty solid and it's a cool place. They've got stables there." ( www.cgv.com)
Bates Ranch: The Bates family continues to farm their vineyards near Mount Madonna. "I love the Cabernet they make out of the vineyard site." ( www.batesranch.com)
Sonnet Wine Cellars: A tiny label from Tony Craig, former winemaker at David Bruce. "I like the Pinot Noirs. It's a good lineup." ( www.sonnetwinecellars.com)
Beauregard: Ryan Beauregard's family has been farming for decades in the Bonny Doon area. "I'm liking his Byington Vineyard Pinot Noir. I'm pouring it by the glass right now." ( www.beauregardvineyards.com)
Birichino: "People are going over the moon over his Pinot Noir. It's from Lilo vineyard in Aptos, just out Trout Gulch Road." ( www.birichino.com)
Jon Bonné is The San Francisco Chronicle's wine editor. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @jbonne


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It now appears that all of the Black Ops 2 weapon camos have been leaked to the web. Here are some new images of all the camo in first person thanks to @stevetherepo. Still no word on what it takes to unlock the camo. Keep in mind these are all the ones you can view in the menu, there still might be hidden (gold) camos.. Which camo is your favorite?
[nggallery id=424]
SOURCE: @stevetherepo and Gold Camo via @Elemxnt
comments below


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Hidden deep in the maze of Park City's many trails is a place with giant candy canes, oversize muffins and all sorts of craziness. No Willy Wonka hasn't set-up shop in Utah and you won't spot Augustus Gloop floating down a chocolate river, this is Neffland, a terrain park with a difference. Cartel rider Justin Norman, his Dopamine and the rest of the Neff team paid Neffland a visit… and damn does it look fun!
Tags: Board, Heartbeat, Video, dopamine, I Ride Park City, justin norman, Neffland


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Get involved with the American Diabetes Association with some fun upcoming events! I would love to see you at 1, 2, or all! Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the events listed below.
1. Twins vs KC Royals @ Target Field – Sunday, April 29th 1:10pm
Buy a ticket for $30. The seats are in the home plate view section. The proceeds from this will go directly to the American Diabetes Association. Join me for a fun day out at Target Field! Park your car at my house beforehand (for free!) and we can take the light rail downtown. I need to know if you're in by Tuesday for this game. Once I get your check in the mail I will send out your tickets to you.
2. Twins vs Tigers @ Target Field – Sunday, May 27th at 1:10pm
If any of you participated in this game last year with me…all 100+ of us in our group had a BLAST! Don't miss out. Tickets are limited and on a first come, first serve basis. Ever wanted to walk on Target Field as the Twins were warming up!?! This is your chance! Not only for $40 do you get the opportunity to do a pre-game parade on the field (only our group!), but before the game join me at my house for a BBQ lunch. FREE parking included…just leave your car at my house and we will take the light rail downtown. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity!!! Feel free to pass this info on to any friends, family, or co-workers. Hurry though…tickets are going fast!
Gameday Parking + Lunch + Pre-game Parade at Target Field + U.S. Bank Home Run Porch View Tickets + supporting the diabetes cause = priceless (or $40 however you look at it)
Once again, Team "Tour de Q", will participate in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure fundraising event on Saturday, June 2nd. We would love for you to join us for the cycling event through the Twin Cities or sponsor us for the ride. I will be opting for the 45-mile route while others prefer the 27-mile scenic option or the 8-mile river scenic ride. My personal goal this year is to raise $13,000 in honor of the 13 years that I have lived with diabetes. This money will go to help find a cure for this terrible disease and improve the lives of those affected.
One out of three babies born in America this year will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime. I know that the fight to find a cure is formidable. Some may think it's impossible. However, curing diabetes is not only my platform, it is my life purpose. We need to have hope that a cure is possible, courage to continue to fight, and faith to know someday the battle against diabetes will be won. Together, I know a cure is within walking distance.


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Our Distribution:
DoNorth has a circulation of 10,000 magazines twice a year. The magazine is distributed among the Plattsburgh International Airport, the airport's PenAir flights to Boston and Maine, rest stops on I-87, north of Albany, as well as hotels in the Clinton County region. The magazine is also placed in welcome bags for fishing tournaments. This distribution allows us to make contact with our target market.
Our Readership/ Target Market:
85 percent of our readers are from Canada with the greatest concentration from Quebec, but they are also from Ontario and Ottawa. Many of these people are well-educated, well-traveled affluent families of four or more. They use the Plattsburgh airport for flights to Boston and continue on from there, or they come to Plattsburgh for recreational purposes, such as biking or fishing tournaments.


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I can't believe it's already Thursday again! This week has flown by but I'm SOOOOO ready for this weekend! 🙂 Since it is Thursday it's time once again to link up with Gussy Sews' Inspiration Workshop! This weeks inspiration – Favorite Shop.
I don't do as much shopping as I would like to be able to do. 🙂 But, there are few stores that are my fav other than the obvious (Target, Macy's, Ulta…)
One of my favorite and most inspiring stores is IKEA. They have some of the most practical solutions for small spaces and organization without sacrificing style. I mean, who else offers chic styling while providing everything you would need for your home or a specific room without breaking your budget? And, even when I don't purchase anything, I always walk away with a new idea or inspiration for my home.
Another favorite and inspiring shop is Barnes & Noble. From the moment I walk in the door I can sense the creative possibilities from the myriad genres, authors, styles etc. My first stop is (of course) the Starbucks counter where I order my venti soy no water chai tea latte (zen in a cup).
With latte in hand I begin to walk around until I end up in one section or another perusing whatever selections I feel led to. You see, inside of me is an author waiting to get out. 🙂 One day I just know I will write a book of sometime (until then, this blog is my writing outlet 🙂 ) I get so inspired by the DIY section, the Language section, the Self-help, etc etc etc. I could spend hours looking at recipe books, or fiction, or history… Reading is my passion, and B&N helps me get my fix. 🙂
What inspires you? What shops have you been to that fill you with inspiration to the point that you want to go and do something about it? Personally, I have to be careful not to replace food addiction with a shopping addiction. 🙂 BUT I do like to use "inspiration" trips to stores like I mentioned above to fill my time with something productive and useful rather than destructive and self-harming (i.e. over-eating, negative thoughts, etc). This journey I'm on is about self-discovery NOT just losing weight and getting skinny. So, where does your inspiration come from?
*Disclaimer: I have not been solicited by or received anything in exchange for mentioning these stores on this blog. I'm just sharing my opinion as a consumer.


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Mayssam Samaha discovers that her favorite mozzarella experience from Florence can actually be relived over and over again in New York City.
Text And Photo By Mayssam Samaha
The first time I walked into an Obika mozzarella bar was in Florence, Italy. We came upon it by coincidence really. I had been in Italy for about 10 days by then and if there was a theme to that trip then it was definitely mozzarella di buffala. My friends and I couldn't get enough of it and were consuming massive amounts of it on a daily basis. So you can imagine our elation when we "discovered" a mozzarella bar hidden in a gorgeous inner courtyard in Florence while casually strolling down a random street. I later found out that that "random" street was in fact Via Tornabuoni, a famous fashionable street and that the courtyard was inside the historic Palazzo Tornabuoni.
The whole experience was magical, being in that courtyard tasting some of the best and freshest mozzarella di buffalla with a glass of Chianti. After checking their website, I realized that I could relive that delicious experience closer to home! Among their 13 locations was one in New York and it was definitely on my list for my next trip to the Big Apple. I have now been there several times and although it's not quite like being in the courtyard of a Palazzo in Florence, the mozzarella still manages to retain its magical properties.
The 4 different mozzarellas are imported from Italy, along with several other Italian cured meats, pestos and specialties. The mozzarellas come from selected producers and are all handmade using milk from the water buffalo. My personal favourite is the Stracciatella with its sweet and creamy taste and almost liquid consistency. The idea is to choose one of the mozzarellas (or a tasting of 3) which you can accompany by a number of different sides, from salads to cured Italian meats to caponata (a Sicilian eggplant dish). However, the last time I was there, the waitress informed me that they had just received some burrata the night before. The whole concept of Obika revolves around high quality Italian ingredients and their freshness, which is easy to source when in Italy but in New York? I am happy to report that they manage to succeed and the proof was in that burrata! Burrata is a highly perishable cheese that is made with mozzarella cheese on the outside and filled with a mixture of mozzarella and cream and this one was so fresh and incredibly delicious drizzled with the vibrant green pesto.
So if like me you get a craving for fresh mozzarella di buffala but are unfortunately nowhere near Italy, then Obika is definitely the next best thing. Order a glass of Chianti while you're at it and it just may transport you to the courtyard of a Florentine palazzo… if only in thought.
Obika Mozzarella Bar
590 Madison Avenue (entrance at 57th Street and Madison Avenue)
The IBM Building, ATRIUM
New York, NY 10022
Tel.: 212 355 2217
Monday to Friday from 7 am to 6 pm
Saturday from 8 am to 6 pm
Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm


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Kikkoman Australia
For over 12 years MD has worked with the team at Kikkoman to conceptualise, prepare, test, style and photograph 3 monthly recipes for the Kikkoman Kitchens program. In addition to this MD published the kikkoman cookbook which showcased over 24 product specific recipes with photography to feature as a boutique customer booklet and interacitve eBook.
The team at MD work is currently working with EasyCook to prepare a variety of recipes for photograph and video to feature on their forethcoming website and TV.
Kenwood Australia
MD worked with Kenwood for several years managing the development and maintenance their online and offline marketing activites. Mainly focusing on their online activities and the Kenwood KClub which was concptualised, developed and maintaned by MD for several years before being managed in-house. The KClub was a subscriber based CRM program which sent customers and members monthly recipes, gift and promotions to promote Kenwood and their partners.