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Three and a half centuries after the treaty of Westphalia ended the bloody religious wars that plagued Europe during the late 16th and early 17th century, religious fanatics are again threatening to undo the progress of Western civilised society, the achievements of science, the Enlightenment and liberal democracy. Such is the charge of the 'new atheist' movements of which Michael Onfray is but one example. Onfray's self-confessed task is to rekindle the Enlightenment, to shine 'Atheology's dazzling light' on the tyranny and darkness of monotheism. And in just 219 pages, Onfray exposes 4000 years of evil and darkness perpetrated by the three monotheistic religions - or so his Atheist Manifesto claims.
There's a YouTube clip floating around of representatives from the Christian right, gathered around the bronze Wall Street Bull, gathering ... wait for this ... to pray and lay hands on the Wall Street Bull and 'ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the "Lion's Market" or God's control over the economic systems. While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.' Such was the call put out to the faithful to gather on October 29th, 2008, designated - Day of Prayer for the World's Economies, put into action by Cindy Jacobs from The United States Reformation Prayer Network.
The fear of fundamentalist violence that drives Onfray, and the curious image of worshipers laying hands on the Wall Street Bull, may seem two unrelated images to start a presentation. Yet both violent fundamentalism and capitalist forms of Christianity are representatives of uniquely modern, innovative and pragmatic movements that Karen Armstrong argues have a symbiotic relationship 'with an aggressive liberalism or secularism'. Karen Armstrong in her books The Battle for God and the more recent publication The Case for God has quite a bit to say about fundamentalism. Significant in terms of this paper tonight is her claim that the 'new atheist' reaction to violent monotheism, such as that of Onfray, belongs to the same category of 'fundamentalism. That is, new atheism is as fundamentalist as the forms of religion it denounces. Armstrong claims 'new atheism' is the mirror image of the uniquely modern form of 'rationalized' religion. Like their fundamentalist theist counterparts, new atheists believe they alone are in possession of truth. Mirroring their counterparts, they read scripture literally, mine it for simplistic 'moral teachings' and have a 'literalist' idea of God where God is the Supernatural Designer. Both parties exaggerate their enemy as the epitome of evil, both are theologically illiterate and both claim there is only one correct way of interpreting reality. And like their counterparts, the new atheists have rejected toleration. Similar to the unorthodox form of fundamentalist faith, the new 'secularisation' of reason, declares Armstrong, turns reason into an idol that destroys all rival claimants.
It is this lack of toleration and a puritan pursuit of 'reason' that I likewise find most disturbing in the new 'evangelical fervour' of modern forms of atheism. John F. Haught, Senior Fellow in Science and Religion at the Woodstock Theological Centre at Georgetown University, describes the new atheism as 'cognitional and ethical puritanism'. New atheists, says Haught, are so confident of having unimpeded access to truth and ethical rightness; they can make a complete break from the intellectual and moral impurity of religious faith that has so bedevilled human beings in history to date. Haught argues that both intellectually and morally, the new atheistic Puritans promise to ground humanity in a rationality cleansed by science.
Notice the keywords used by Haught: the 'new atheist' claim for truth or 'right knowledge' and ethics or 'right practice', intellectual and moral purity and the cleansing of impure faith through the practice of Science and Reason. In my paper today, I want to explore what the drive to this new 'puritanism' entails, where its historical roots lie and what, if any, alternatives are available for those who do not wish to join the new age of evangelical fervour and moral cleansing.
I suggest the puritan character of the new atheism is representative of a longer historical project that has married truth to reason, word or logos in an attempt to fully rationalise being human or human being. Certainly some have seen it as a continuation of the Enlightenment project, but I think it is also representative of an even earlier human thinking, grounded in religious imagery. Haught describes the new atheist movement as representative of a struggle between two ancient religious ideals: the puritanical and the incarnational. I think this is also reflected in a second struggle which finds its religious expression in the clash between 'iconoclasm' and 'iconodulism'; where the Puritans are iconoclastic in their relation to truth, and the iconodules find truth in incarnation.
Iconoclasm, Greek for image breaking, is the deliberate destruction of religious icons in one's own cultural tradition. Iconodulism involves the veneration of icons. The Greek translation is - one who serves an image. The historical opposition is between those who venerate images and icons, and those who are against the use of religious images. The clash between the two is something of importance to theology, but also says something of the way human beings relate to truth.
Let me try to elaborate on this.
The puritan iconoclast places great emphasis on Transcendence, Truth and Thought. There have been a number of iconoclastic periods, most famously, the Byzantine iconoclasms between the 8th and 9th century. But I want to focus on the great iconoclast of the 16th century, the Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) who devoted three chapters of the first book of his massive Institutes of the Christian Religion to the issue of icons. Calvin's motive for his iconoclasm stemmed from a concern for true knowledge of God.
In his book, God is not great, Mr Christopher Hitchens despairs of the millions who grovel and wallow in their unworthiness, who require priests, hierarchy, doctrine, sacrifices and ceremonies, who live with relics and worship images and objects - 'how much effort it takes to affirm the incredible!' exclaims Mr Hitchens.
How much effort it takes to affirm the incredible! Indeed, said John Calvin - 'it is perfectly clear that those who try to defend images of God and the saints with the example of those cherubim are raving madmen. What, indeed, I beg you, did those paltry little images mean?'
For Calvin, it was impossible to visually depict God who is invisible and transcendent. Calvin's own emphasis on the Bible as the only basis of knowledge of God leads him to exclude images or art of any kind as a way of coming to know truth. The Calvinist and later Puritan emphasis on the written word of God in favour of images of God led to a unique Protestant church and faith. Protestant churches are often devoid of art, with plain interiors, focussed on the pulpit and the power of preaching.
But iconoclasm is not limited to religious expression. It is often wedded to political revolutions and attempts to overthrow perceived entrenched occupational powers. The Netherlands, my country of birth, underwent widespread Protestant iconoclasm in the summer of 1566 before it became a sovereign nation. In fact, the Beeldenstorm, or destruction of statues and images, instigated the war against the Spanish occupation and the Catholic Church that lasted no less than eighty years, and ended only with the recognition of Dutch sovereignty at the Treaty of Westphalia. Protestantism and iconoclasm is an integral part of the formation of the Dutch nation-state. The English Puritans followed in the iconoclastic footsteps of the earlier Reformers and became a powerful movement in England during the English Civil War, and with their emphasis on intellectual and moral purity, Puritans were also the first exports to the 'New World'. Cultural iconoclasm can also be seen in the destruction of political and cultural statues, such as what took place during the French and Russian Revolutions, or in recent years, following the 'liberation of Iraq'. Indeed, the Oxford English dictionary gives the wider definition of an iconoclast as any person who breaks or disdains established dogma or conventions. I suggest new atheism is iconoclastic in this sense. Yet, as Armstrong has already indicated, perhaps modern fundamentalist movements are equally 'iconoclastic' as they pursuit the destruction of what they perceive is the false idol of 'secularism'.
I think the problem lies in a concept of 'truth' that is found in some nebulous sphere of 'Reason' or an abstracted 'Word of God'. This leads into a kind of intellectual and moral puritanism that destroys both the false and the possibility for true images of invisible truth, or a truth beyond our human knowing or reckoning. In this kind of puritanism, the image, the art, or the practice of life is subjected to the higher qualities of invisible and spiritual truth. Right belief or right dogma becomes the basis for being part of the believing community. A true scientist cannot 'believe' the stories told in church in her 'other life' as a practicing religious person. A true evangelical Christian cannot 'believe' the theory of evolution in her practice as a scientist. And after the breaking of the idols in the external or epistemological world, comes the inquisition of the internal or moral world of the human being. The interiority of the soul or human psyche becomes vulnerable to the gaze of Puritan believers and rationalists alike.
For Karen Armstrong modern fundamentalism is a symptom of a sick society infatuated with logos. Armstrong describes logos or reason as a pragmatic mode of thought that enables us to function in the world and corresponds to external reality. Logos has brought us the world of scientific rationality, economy, technology and capital investment. Armstrong argues that because logos is forward looking and dynamic, the modern scientific period began to discard the mythologies of the past as superstition and an impediment to progress. I have already indicated earlier that the Reformation was also decisive in this change, both theologically and technologically. With the birth of the printing press, the printed page itself became an image of precision and exactitude; it spoke to the importance of accuracy and efficiency - leading to the cleavage between symbol and the knowledge or logos. The modern infatuation with logos has led to all forms of fundamentalism, religious and atheistic.
According to Armstrong, the cure for this ailment lies in a rehabilitation of modernity through mythos, a tradition found and nurtured in the mystic traditions of all religions. Armstrong emphasizes that mythos and logos have had different fields of competence, and when they are confused, the result is bad science and inadequate religion. It is this confusion that has led to the current polarization of reason and faith. According to Armstrong, the opposition can be mediated by returning to mythos as a way of knowing the divine and being human in the world.
The art of religion is the practice of mythos; religion and mythos marks the limits of logos. The limit of logos is that it cannot make sense of the rich inner life of human beings - the pain and sorrow, the contraction and tragedy of human existence. This is the realm of mythos, rooted in the unconscious mind and what Armstrong calls an 'an ancient form of psychology' that, unlike logos, was able to address the tragedy of human existence. Myth is intuitive, expressed in religion, art, music, poetry or sculpture; it looks back at the beginning and provides a 'conservative spirituality'. Like music, religion is a skill that requires practice, discipline and hard work until it becomes a part of us. According to this analogy, the modern age has become tone deaf and has lost the art of religion. Mythos functions as a therapy and can be found in our own religious tradition, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox tradition of negative or apophatic theology. Apophasis - Greek for 'denial' or 'to say no', takes the utter transcendence of God seriously. God himself is completely incomprehensible; therefore language and rational concepts cannot be a way to know God. Silence is the only way to 'understand' or 'stand under' the divine. Armstrong describes how the silence of negative theology affirms the radical otherness of the divine. This, in turn, brings humility to humanity and fosters compassionate action in the world. In this way, negative theology can act as a therapy for a neurotic modernity.
Using Armstrong's idea of a return to mythos through the example of 'apophatic' or 'negative' theology, I want to contrast the iconoclastic emphasis on Transcendence, Truth and Thought with the concepts of Incarnation, Image and Imagination that is part of the practice of religious life for the iconodules, those who venerate icons.
The Eastern Orthodox Church with its theological focus on Incarnation led to a form of worship mediated by images, of which the icon is the most distinct. The theology of icons rests on two premises, the first is emphasised by Armstrong and leads to 'unknowing or silence' - 1) That God is utterly transcendent and unknowable. The second is not mentioned by Armstrong, but equally important in terms of Eastern Orthodox Theology - 2) that God's transcendence has been bridged through the Incarnation - the Image of God in which his likeness is revealed. This provides the basis for the vernation of icons: The idea of Christ the Incarnate as a true image of God. The veneration of images, thought the late 7th century Syrian monk, priest and polymath St John of Damascus, demonstrates faith in the Incarnation where the unseen God had made himself visible in matter. Uniting both the transcendent or unknown God with the Incarnation of God, painting an icon was therefore a profession of faith. Christ became Incarnate, wrote the Eastern Orthodox Maximus the Confessor, so that 'the whole man should become God, deified by the grace of God-become-man, becoming whole man, soul and body, by nature, and becoming whole God, soul and body, by grace.' For Maximus the Confessor, God and humanity became inseparable.
According to Armstrong, 'unknowing' or 'apophatic' thinking has returned to the West in the twentieth century in the wake of the First World War. For Armstrong, it is the modern physicists who returned unknowing to modern consciousness and who are evidence that human beings seem structured 'to pose problems for themselves that they cannot solve, pit themselves against the dark world of uncreated reality and find that living with such unknowing is a source of astonishment and delight.'
Alongside the physicists, Armstrong contends, it is the post-modern philosophers and theologians who return mythos to its rightful place and have set out to rediscover the practices, attitudes and ideals that were central to religion before what Armstrong calls, the birth of the 'Modern God'. And it is these postmodernists that attempt to overthrow the grand narrative of the omnipotent and omniscient God, and the deification of logos that
gives rise to the equally absolute totalizing claims of atheism. As John Caputo states,
'If modern atheism is the rejection of a modern God, then the delimitation of modernity opens up another possibility, less the resuscitation of pre-modern theism than the chance of something beyond both the theism and atheism of modernity.'
John Haught is a theologian who likewise returns to a language that precedes the modern split between transcendence and incarnation, or between reason and matter. For Haught, God is not a hypothesis that can be abstracted from the contingencies of natural and human history, including concrete events, images, symbols and metaphors that arise from culturally, geographically and historically contingent experiences of actual human beings. Haught argues God has always been known through images, including images from nature.
For Christopher Hitchens, his own conversion to atheism began as a result of an encounter with woman of simple and sincere faith - Mrs Jean Watts, his teacher in nature and scripture. Hitchens describes her as a marvellous teacher until the day she over-reached herself - seeking to fuse her two roles as nature instructor and Bible teacher when she said - 'So you see, children, how powerful and generous God is. He has made all the trees and grass to be green, which is exactly the colour that is most restful to our eyes. Imagine if instead, the vegetation was all purple, or orange, how awful that would be.' This caused the first crack to appear in the edifice of faith for the young Mr Hitchens, who thereafter discovered all the main objections to religious faith, all as he put it - 'before my boyish voice had broken'.
Yet, as Haught suggests, perhaps God is not an explanatory hypothesis but has always been known through images, including images of nature. Perhaps poor Mrs Watts is in fact something of a modern day iconodule. Her faith might seem simplistic and ham-fisted, but she might just be responding to something that is deeply human and that is, I think, the need to bring transcendence and matter together in full embodiment.
So let me speculate as to what that deeply human thing might be and how we bring together the transcendent and the incarnate, the vista of reason and the concrete reality of our existence.
If reason or logos is the sphere of problem solving, of managing the affairs of daily life and basic human existence in the natural world, we should firmly acknowledge not all of human existence and experience is 'problem solving'. Being human is a paradoxical being between the reality of being part of a natural world, of the world of matter and our ability to transcend the natural world. We are the beings that control and shape the world and ourselves. But being human remains ever elusive, ever beyond our total control. Our own full self-knowledge lies always just beyond our grasp. At times, instead of exercising self-control, aiming towards an ideal, we find ourselves inexplicably at the mercy of something else - something like a force of nature that fights against the noble things towards which we aim. I think Freud got it right when he referred to these things as Eros and Thanatos, the life and death drive.
We do not want to be at the mercy of forces beyond our control. The fundamentalists call on God, the new atheists look to Science to halt death, and if not halt death, at least manage and put the inevitable end of all human beings firmly under our own control. But our problem-solving ability comes at the cost of cleaving the human being in half.
I agree with Armstrong that we pay too high a price when we give up the world of mythos. Karen Armstrong describes myth as 'something that had in some sense happened once but that also happens all the time.' In Armstrong's narrative, the divine came into being in the womb of the earth, in the underground caves of France, emerging from out of the cave into the light of modernity. Religion was born when our early ancestors they found themselves at the edge of 'reason'. We find our origins as conscious beings with our ability to look at what is and to ask what can be, between actuality and possibility.
Myths are an incarnation of the divine or the transcendent, that which opens up possibility for us, that which enables us to transcend the world in which we find ourselves. This is the world of imagination. Imagination is openness to questioning, curiosity and wonder - imagination constantly asks what if? Imagination is unbounded freedom to be other than what is. Imagination is inspired by the Muses, by song, tragedy, comedy, dance and poetry. But the Muses also include Clio, daughter of memory, who proclaims from the scroll of history, and Urania, the muse of Astronomy, she who holds the globe and the compass and is today the official seal of the U.S Naval Observatory, and patron of the numerous astronomical observatories around Europe that bear her name. Myth includes our history and our orientation in the natural world.
I think despite our best intentions, the modern 'iconoclasts' may have also lost the art of mythos, and through this forgetting, we have unwittingly created a new idol of the Word of Reason. It is time to welcome back the iconodule, the bearer of the image or icon; the myth. It is the muses, those personifications of the highest in Greek art and intellect that remind us the cleavage between logos and mythos, word and image, reason and imagination, can be healed.
How does this occur? It can only be overcome by a turning away from intellectual and moral purity to recognising and accepting nuance and complexity. To be human is to be aware of, to be conscious of the strange contradictions of human beings. To be human is also to practice all the ways of human being. Affirming images and imagination is to acknowledge and accept nuance and complexity.
Myth establishes and is established through ritual, liturgy and practice. In modern parlance, it is holistic learning - with the body and mind. I said earlier that religion is a sibling of music and both are deeply mythological, in so far their practice internalises the skill until we are shaped in the image of what we play, dance, sing, dream and think. And so it becomes clear - science and religion are not only about 'knowing' the word, or logos, but also practicing the myth. Science and religion both take practice and must be cultivated in the same way as art, music or poetry. Any trained musician knows that it doesn't take credulity but perseverance to achieve the utterly impossible. Excellent scientists practice their discipline to perfection but are never content to 'play the music of the composer who has gone before'. After perfecting the craft, the scientist turns to the edge of what is known, imagines new visions as to how things might be - visions at the boundary of reason or logos. Scientists even suggest there is a genetic link between creativity and psychosis. There are those who 'see things' the more ordinary could not, those whose solitary visions brought them to the brink of madness, such as Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and schizophrenic John Nash, whose story inspired the Oscar Winning film, A Beautiful Mind. Visionaries exist at the 'edge of credulity'. So perhaps even an 'everyday' scientist may find themselves at times 'intuiting' a new vision in silent wonder. The inability to mediate into language what one 'knows' alone can be terribly isolating to the individual who 'knows' but cannot explain what they 'know'. To fully 'know' something seems to require a sharing, a certain affirmation by others that what one 'knows' is indeed 'knowledge' and not madness. That is, it is 'rational' and not 'irrational'.
To 'rationalise' society through calculative reason is a reductionist view of life and being human. There is a plurality to human thinking that explodes the boundaries of thinking that are set by calculative reason. Language enables us to come together, to discuss, to agree, to understand and to overcome our solitary existence in community. But language has its limitations. We cannot say all that we think, experience or feel. We cannot say all that we are. Language is not simply the expression of 'rational thought'; language must somehow embody the full human experience, right down to 'gut instinct' or 'transcendent visions'. How often we find ourselves struggling for words to adequately describe something! I think there can be a 'rational' form of 'that of which we cannot speak', and that is myth, the image or the icon. This is recognition of the need for silence, the need to be in the presence of, and the practice of the discipline of contemplation, or 'unknowing'. Silence acknowledges our limitations as human beings. Silence acknowledges the complexity of being human. Silence teaches us to be nuanced, to be aware of what remains unsaid when we speak, and to speak wisely of what remains unsaid.
Logos and mythos must work in a dynamic relationship. Neither can be isolated without damaging the whole human being. One reviewer of Armstrong's book described silence as 'a kind of lowest common denominator of the human mind. The machine is idling.' This suggests that silence is 'not doing anything'; it is waiting around, idling at the red light before you shift into gear to recommence your journey. I think the reviewer completely misses the point. We are not machines or engines, or minds separate from bodies, but human beings who are a complex intertwining of spirit and matter. We are, in the words of Maximus the Confessor, whole person, soul, body and nature.
I think the silence Armstrong advocates symbolises our 'solitary' self - our need to be a self that is capable of creative thinking and being. Speech symbolises our social self - our need to be understood by and to be heard by others. Silence is not 'purely' the sphere of mythos or image. Speech is not purely the sphere of logos or word. Ultimately for anything to be 'ordered' and 'coherent' we need silence and speech. Contemplation and action. The vita activa and the vita contemplativa.
Both logos as problem solving and myth as image forming require discipline or constant practice. One appears as the mirror image of the other. And one discipline cannot be truly successful without the other. Speech without silence becomes social fanaticism. Silence without speech becomes solitary madness.
In the Phaedrus, Plato gives us an image of the soul, or psyche, as a composite figure of a charioteer, two winged horses and the chariot itself. Both horses have equal boundless energy or passion to pull the chariot, however without the guiding hand of the charioteer, the two horses will tear the chariot apart, since one is focussed upwards and the other downwards. Despite Plato's negative view of the human body and indeed, matter, I think Plato's image of the soul remains a powerful testament to what it is to be human. Every great religion has always issues warnings against both literalism and unbridled imagination. Without a doubt, the fanatic speech of fundamentalist literalism is in danger of gaining the upper hand. But I hope I have shown that the literalism of the evangelical fundamentalist, and the new atheist response to it, are not the only vision for human being, or for being human. And I do not think we are forced to violence if we remember all our ways of being human can come together, as long as we pursue with discipline, focus and honourable intentions, the art of conversation that allows for spaces of silence, and respects the solitary creativity of individuals. In this spirit, let me finish with Christopher Hitchens who gives the definition of an educated person as one, who like Socrates 'knows' the extent of his own ignorance. I'm happy to say, with Mr Hitchens, my education is teaching me I know less and less, but at least I know less and less about more and more. I'm going to finish my paper, after this 45 minute speech, in the hope that the ensuing silence is not the mere idling of a dormant brain, but does justice to my Socratic ignorance and thereby prove me to be a person of the most enlightened education - the ascent from the cave through philosophy.
Petra Brown
PhD candidate and scholarship holder, Deakin University
Presented to the Atheist Society,
13 March 2012


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Antardwand. The inner struggle.
Bhokal – The protector of the fairy folk, the warrior who fights for truth, justice and freedom is back in a awesomely drawn issue by Hemant, with a story that looks extremely promising!
Continuing from Dhikkar, Antardwand promises to be an intruding tale of Gods, Demi-Gods, Sages, Saints, Power, Struggle and the ultimate attainment of Power.
|Intro: Antardwand – The Inner Struggle
Prince Alop is after the Bhokal Shakti and has started an intense penance which will bring him what he currently desires.
This has caused some hoolaboo among the Devta Gan, who assemble to discuss the situation with Shiv.
The preview looks very promising and after Dhikkar, I am kindda excited to read all about Bhokal's origin which in itself, by the way, is one of the first "Origin events" in the Raj Universe – all of which is happening after the actual character launch. Most of the origins until now have been given around the early starting days of the character, like Nagraj, SCD, Doga etc. This series is a new direction that Raj has boldly decided to go and that too for a character that is already well set.
So the inner struggle continues and I just can't wait to get my hands on this one!
|Bhokal initiates the penance!
|Lord Shiv and the Devtas – Everyone stops and takes notice…
|Time to decide…
|Prince Alop on the steps towards the ultimate power!

subset: commoncrawl


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Managing Heroku deploys
I have to admit to have become more and more enamoured of heroku for production class hosting of Rails and Ruby applications. It makes things pretty painless (see my first post on gotchas for my first deploy there) and for Nunemaker's rather strong sentiment, You're An Idiot for Not Using Heroku.
It does kick ass if you're getting stuff up fast, but if you're moving into more serious production environments with multiple devs and you also need a staging environment, the simple
git heroku push master gets to be too simple. You really need something capistrano-esque for managing deployment even to heroku.
So loved George's article and complementary rake tasks: Managing Heroku Deployments.


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Much has been made of Josh Duggar's scandals in recent months. While he is by no means alone in his moral weakness, he has been made into a spectacle. Any time a Christian icon finds himself or herself in the spotlight of shame, it is amplified. It's the opportunity for the world to hold up the church's failure. It's normal human reaction, for anytime someone doesn't feel righteous, they will target those who are supposed to be righteous and point out any failure or perceived failure. It's an attempt at self-justification by bringing someone else down.
However, the church should be the first to bear the burdens of one another. After all, the one thing that proves to the world that we are Jesus' disciples is our love for one another, and as the Bible says, "When one member suffers, all the members suffer with them." How much more is that suffering amplified when every news outlet shines a spotlight on one of our member's sins? At least when you and I blow it, news stations aren't camped out in front of our houses.
Josh Duggar's scandal is a symbol of what is going on in many Christian homes. But instead of the church strengthening the weak, we tend to shoot the wounded. Just look at what happened when Rick Warren's family had the tragedy of suicide. Many who disagree with his doctrine taunted him in the time of suffering, thus shaming the name of Christ, who said our love will be His evidence to the world.
Duggar's name showing up in the Ashley Madison scandal is not the problem. It's the symptom of the problem. One study showed that 50% of men and 20% of women in the church admitted they were addicted to pornography. When you consider that most people don't admit addictions until they are at the point where it is undeniable, this number could be much higher. Going to a 'hook up' service, like Ashley Madison is the result of sexual addictions bearing its fruit in our lives. The longer someone is in the addiction, the more it will come out in behavior.
The church is great about telling people what they shouldn't be doing, but they do little to help people deal with the problem. The church employs shame and fear to pressure people to come out of sin because they don't understand the power of the Spirit of Grace. Condemnation cannot defeat sin. It cannot break the bondage of addiction.
If I had the ability to give Josh Duggar advice, it would be what I'm about to write. Though I can't contact Josh, there are many other Josh's out there who are secretly fighting this war as well. My advice will work because it worked for me, and many men I have shared with over the years. I became addicted to pornography at the age of 9, and it ruled my life for the next three decades. It wasn't until I received Christ that I tried to break free, but I found it was greater than my will.
Even the Apostle Paul stated that he has the will to do good and live righteously, but how to perform good he doesn't find within himself. He wills to resist sin, but when he's using personal effort, he ends up doing the sins he wills not to do. His personal will is not strong enough to defeat sin, nor is it strong enough to live the Christian life of righteousness.
This is where I found myself. Many sermons proclaimed, "Look at your sin. God is angry at the wicked every day. God will judge your sins."
The fear of judgment scared me out of sin temporarily. I determined in my will to stop looking at lustful things, but within a few days I found that my will wasn't strong enough. The cravings of my flesh took over my mind, and though I could resist for a while, the battle was always doomed to failure. Eventually I would be too weary to resist, and I would let go and let my mind binge on lust again. If this is where you are, trusting in your will's ability to resist is failure waiting to happen. This is true whether your addiction is a tangible substance, or the substance of the mind.
Advice #1. The first advice I would give to Duggar and anyone struggling is to turn off the critics. Every person struggles with some type of personal weakness. If we compare ourselves to those who seem to have it together, we'll be self-condemning, and there is no victory in that. The fact is that anyone trusting in their personal efforts is in hypocrisy, for we can only grade ourselves on a curve – otherwise we can't pass the moral test either.
When I escaped my prison of addiction, the church was not exactly helpful. The addictions that once ruled me and seemed unbreakable, no longer have me in their grip. In fact, I no longer have to resist. I don't desire those things anymore. Yet when giving my testimony, a man in the church told me that I wasn't forgiven. He said, "You were a reprobate, and once a Christian falls into a reprobate mind, God gives them up to Satan and they can never again be forgiven."
Apparently, God didn't get that memo. My life is in constant fellowship with the Lord, and He calls me the righteousness of Christ. These false beliefs of condemnation come from a misunderstanding of scriptures, but that's for a different article. However, it shows that the well-meaning but misguided Christians can make recovery very challenging. And if someone isn't yet secure in God's love for them, misquoted scriptures and condemning words can be discouraging.
Advice #2. Rest in God's acceptance. The day I truly believed in God's acceptance for me, my life began to change. In the past, when I blew it, I had the perception of God's wrath. When I understood the Bible's teaching that I am accepted because I am in the Beloved (which is Christ), it took the conditional acceptance of God away. The conditions are on the completed work of Christ, not on me. When I blew it, I didn't defeat the work of Christ. If my sins could destroy the work of Christ, I am making the blood of the New Covenant a common and worthless thing. That is a greater sin than the weakness of my flesh.
Advice #3. Believe God's declaration over you, not the enemy's declaration about you. Unbelief is the only sin grace doesn't defeat. Hebrews 3:12 warns that an evil heart of unbelief is one that departs from the Lord. If we stop for a moment, we can see this truth in our lives. When we don't believe in God's love, we depart from Him instead of drawing near Him. When I believed my sin switched on God's wrath, I departed. Once I learned that His love was conditional upon His own promises and unchanging character, instead of my abilities, I stopped running from God when I felt defeated.
Advice #4. It's God's job to overcome your sin. As far back as Ezekiel 36:26-27, God foretold of the New Covenant, where He would take away our sinful nature, give us a new spirit, and would place His Spirit within us, and God would cause us to walk in His ways. Also in the Old Testament passage of Micah 7:19, God foretold of the New Covenant where He would cast our sins into the depths of the sea, and He will subdue our sins.
For most of my Christian life, I tried to subdue my sins. I failed. No one ever told me that it was God's job to subdue my sins. Or that it was God's job to create in me a heart that would walk in His ways. No one told me that my job was to learn of His goodness so I could learn to walk by faith. The Christian life is a life of faith – completely trusting in the work of God and His promises. His promises begin with the elimination of our guilt through the work of Christ on the cross, and they continue in the promises that He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.
If you study the Bible, you will find that unbelief is the only barrier God has allowed man to stand behind. To some the Bible says, "They could not enter His promise because of unbelief," but to us, our call is to trust wholly in His love. The purpose of the cross is twofold. Your sin (all sin) was defeated on the cross and taken out of the way. To those who believe this promise, there is no barrier. We learn to walk in the truth that sin is defeated, and as we learn to walk by faith, the reality of Christ's work for us begins to bear the fruit of holiness in our outward lives.
The second purpose is that through the cross, God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. All things that pertain to my life means I have to take no thought for my life, what will I eat, how will I live? What will I do? How will I overcome my problems? All things are given to me. And all things that pertain to godliness means my righteousness, holiness, and godliness is the completed work of Christ given to me. I don't have to become these things; I have to learn to walk by faith in what God has declared.
Because of these truths, I am no longer an addict. In most recovery programs, we are told to call ourselves 'recovering addicts'. But this is not so with God. Never will I say, "My name is Eddie, and I am an addict." I now testify that I am not an addict; I am the righteousness of God in Christ. Addiction fell away when there was no room for it to remain. I didn't overcome my addiction. I looked up one day and said, "What happened to it?" I looked in the past and saw the grave marker – Here lies the sins that once haunted Eddie.
Sometimes when I share these things, people judge and try to throw condemnation back upon me. But it doesn't stick, because there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Sin only gripped my mind because I didn't know how to walk by faith and become a receiver of God's power. After all, it is God who said, "The same power that raised Christ Jesus from the grave is in you, and will give life to your mortal (or physical) bodies." Those who receive this promise cannot remain in bondage to sin or any addiction.
To those who are closely tied to an addict, I encourage you to not be hard on the addict. Jesus once asked a religious man, "Who will love God the most, the one forgiven of a small debt, or the one forgiven of an enormous debt?" The Josh Duggars of the world have a blessing others cannot perceive. If they learn to walk in the promise of the Spirit, they will have a strength of character that cannot be shaken and will have a life that stands as a trophy of grace.
One thing the family of the addict must understand is that they are not the problem. When a man has a sexual addiction that compels him to step outside of marriage, it is not because the woman is inadequate. People cheat because they are trying to find fulfillment in the flesh, which isn't possible. This is evident because when someone pursues the flesh, the problem always escalates, and the lewdness must continue to increase. What excites for a moment quickly fades, and the addict must go deeper into darkness to find the same level of excitement the next time. This is why the behavior always escalates. The reason someone seeks an affair is because the pornography is no longer enough.
If I could give advice to Josh's wife, or any spouse in a similar situation, it's to realize her worth isn't the problem. When a spouse is not happy with themselves, they will not be satisfied in the relationship. Promiscuity is the misguided attempt to fulfill what is lacking in the heart, but that lack can only be fulfilled in Christ.
The flesh cannot satisfy, so even if a spouse does everything possible, the flesh still won't be satisfied. We were created incomplete for a reason. The heart of mankind can never rest in contentment until we are established in a thriving relationship with our Creator.
When we are in the midst of an addiction and in our darkest hours, it's hard to believe in the love of God and the power of His Spirit. To have someone come along side as an encourager, who points to the hope before us, is someone to be treasured. It's easy to leave someone in the gutters. Sure they deserve it, but real love creates value. It doesn't demand value. Keep in mind that most addictions began as a trap, and bad religious advice adds to the burden.
Hypocrisy is when someone puts on the pretense of having it all together, but Christians are tempted to put on this façade because the church demands it. Religion demands conformity. It demands self-righteousness, which is replacing the gift of God with human effort. The person overcome by sin can pretend to be righteous because they are mimicking what the church requires. All who are not established in grace are wearing the mask of hypocrisy. But some sins are taboo, while others are shrugged away, but we are all in the same boat. Hypocrisy only shows the image of perfection and says, "Look at me. I am living right." The true man or woman of God says, "In me, nothing good dwells. Look at the righteousness of God given to me through Christ. Let's journey together and learn how to trust in God's righteousness so it comes out in our lives."
God loves the sinner – regardless of the depths they have sunk into. God delights in showing mercy, and transforming sinners into His image as they learn to stop trusting in human effort, and start trusting in God's work for them.
You are the righteousness of God in Christ. May the fruit of the Spirit emerge in your life as you learn to walk by faith in His completed work, given to you as a gift of God's love.


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Social media simmered with outrage this morning over the news that the International Olympic Committee is banning GIFs or online video clips of all the action at the Games in Rio. Per the official rules for news outlets:
Additionally, the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.
If you post on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, it's likely that they might take down that content since they're partnering with exclusive broadcaster NBC and/or the IOC. That's even though those huge platforms are protected by "safe harbor" statutes, "meaning that, in most cases, they aren't responsible for what users post on their service," per New York magazine.
Your safest bet is to embed a GIF posted by another person in your post. And even if you do post your own GIF, you'll only be caught if it starts to go viral. After all, it's hard to imagine an IOC not known for its competence to be adept at pursuing violators around the world during the big event, amid all the chaos and pollution and potential violence and the Zika virus.
so the Olympic Games are gonna be a dumpster fire AND the IOC is banning GIFs?! pic.twitter.com/gIBtKheR4T
— Elise Terry (@elisecterry) August 5, 2016


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A new house with an old soul: Frog Holler c1800 farmhouse was moved from Enfield, N.H., renovated and expanded. The location is near Hanover and Norwich village, but totally private: 71.5 acres on a hilltop with great views, surrounded by woods and fields at the end of a long driveway. The house is a surprise: a great mix of period patina, 21st century practicality, and whimsy.
Its heart is a large country kitchen and family area opening on to a stone terrace with gardens to the south, and a living room with huge fireplace to the west. A private guest suite, elegant dining room, office and awesome mudroom round out the first floor. Above are four bedrooms including the capacious master suite. Two more whimsical bedrooms are in the attic. It's not obvious from the outside or the inside that there is ample finished space on the lower level: the indestructible, rubber-floored soccer/ping-pong room, gym, workshop, media room and storage area. Attached to the house is a 3-bay garage with more storage space.
Surrounding the house are beautiful but unfussy perennial gardens (designed for maximum impact and minimal maintenance), a wildflower meadow, apple, birch, oak and maple trees, and lovely views. The 2+/- miles of trails on the property were designed by John Morton.
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The 24 in. x 30 in. Cabinet has a deco framed door in oil rubbed bronze. Inside the adjustable glass shelves hold all your toiletries and bath items. Our rust-free aluminum construction with mirror back ensures years of use.
- Rust-free aluminum case with mirror back and oil rubbed bronze door frame
- Self-closing hinges open up to 110°
- Adjustable glass shelves
- Recess or surface mount
- Assembly required
- Weight capacity 38 lbs.
- Cabinet is 30 in. H
- Cabinet is 24 in. W


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Lee Seung Gi Talks about Kiss Scene with Ha Ji Won
Lee Seung Gi expressed his feeling about the kiss scene with Ha Ji Won. On April 15, Lee Seung Gi made an appearance on MBC "Section TV Entertainment News," and said that viewers are giving favorable comments on "The King 2hearts," and his acting ability.
He also said, "People say that I'm getting better at acting and I appreciate it a lot."
Lee Seung Gi said, "I think I know how to express what and how my character feels," and he also said with a smile, "Viewers' reactions on the kiss scene was so wild."
He said "the kiss scene was more erotic than I thought. People told me that the whispering before the actual kiss made viewers become nervous and thrilled." He also said, "Someone even said that I seemed like a player."


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Eilat Top List of Asian Restaurants.
Best Asian restaurants in Eilat. Downtown Eilat Asian restaurants list with live music. See photos and search by cuisine, price, location, and more. Where to eat in Eilat, featuring restaurant reviews and ratings.
Restaurants de Eilat & Guide des Restaurants Eilat.
Eilat Cuisine: Chinese, Italian, Thai, Indian, American, SteakHouse, French, Mexican, Japanese, Spanish, Mediterranean, Fast Food, Sushi, General and more.


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General questions about voltage;Why can you have negative voltage (AC) ? Doesn't that imply we can have "negative" energy? Wouldn't it be best if we have negative and positive current for saying which way the current flow?Also;I lost a mark on a SAC with the question being about explainging how seatbelt and crumpling reduce the severity of the drivers injury, it was a 3 mark question. What type of exam "style" answers should I have. The teacher noted on it "how does the seat belt increase the time of collision?", how would I undergo answering that for an 'exam' quality answer?Thanks
Ok, thanks for that. I will ask my teacher what her opinion of what the answer "should" be (even though I find people on this forum more knowledgable and reliable with answer).Also, another question (this is more a general education question).Does the only thing that matters with SACs is your ranking? Please only answer if you are 100% sure due to reading a report from VCAA or talking to an examiner?If so, then does that means there is no different between averaging 90% and 100% on SACs if you go to a low scoring school?
Jasper has a transistor radio with flat batteries. Suggest a reason to explain why the sound is distorted when he tunes in to a strong radio signal.^help anyone? thanks in advance
Jasper has a transistor radio with flat batteries. Suggest a reason to explain why the sound is distorted when he tunes in to a strong radio signal.^help anyone? thanks in advance
The input signal may be too large, causing the amplifier to be limited by the supply voltage.
What does a negative gain amplifier actually achieve?I know it inverts the Vout graph but how does that have a meaningful purpose? What would be the difference in a microphone that is hooked up to an amplifier with a negative gain rather than a positive one?Thanks
Hey guys how would you calculate the value of R? Thanks ANS: 309.1ohms
For part b of the attached question, I get that the resistor, parallel to the LED, will have the same potential difference as the LED-2.5 V, so doesn't that mean the Resistor should have the same current flowing through it as the LED-11 mA; so can't we then use these values for current & voltage, to work out the resistance of Resistor-'R'?But in the worked solutions they haven't assumed that current across 'R' will be same as I(LED), instead this is what how they solved resistance:Vtherm. = 10 2.5 = 7.5 V, Itherm. = 7.5/500 = 0.015 Asince ILED = 0.011, IR = 0.004 A and RR = 2.5/0.004 = 625 Ω
I think you got a bit confused between parallel and series circuits. In parallel circuits, the potential difference across both branches is the same, BUT the current in each branches is different. The sum of the currents in each of the branches is equal to the total current, in this case 0.015A. This is different from series circuits.Hopefully you can see how the solutions got the answer from here!
Ahhh yeah I had a mental blank lolAlso, how would you work out the resistance of these diodes, would you just plug it into the formula: R = V/I?Thanks!


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Selon les médias belges et néerlandais, la société en question aurait acheté son désinfectant dans le nord de la Belgique, auprès de la société Poultry-Vision. Résultat, les Belges n'ont alerté la Commission européenne que le 20 juillet. A ainsi regretté le ministre belge de l'Agriculture Denis Ducarme. Pourquoi autant de pays sont-ils concernés? Des millions d'œufs ont été retirés du commerce en urgence et des analyses ont ensuite été lancées un peu partout dans les entreprises ... Lire la suite »
Athlétisme: Diniz champion du monde du 50 km marche, 3e titre français
Après Pierre-Ambroise Bosse et Kevin Mayer , Yohann Diniz apporte une troisième médaille d'or à la délégation française lors de ses mondiaux de Londres. Mais qu'importe, malgré les épreuves Diniz remporte la médaille d'or mondiale . A Londres, Diniz a amélioré le record des Championnats du monde du Polonais Robert Korzeniowski réalisé à Paris en 2003 (3h36:03.). Lire la suite »
Coca Cola HBC AG (LON:CCH) Given "Hold" Rating at Shore Capital
Coca-Cola Company (The) (NYSE:KO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. Shares of Coca-Cola Company (KO) opened at 45.59 on Monday. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. Lire la suite »
Arsenal To Make Alexis Sanchez Premier League's Highest-paid Player
Here's the thing, Alexis Sanchez is the original front-man for Arsenal , and the club has no one else good enough on the team to replace him should he fail to perform. We are not there yet'. But Wenger said he had not heard from PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and referred to French media reports suggesting PSG are more interested in signing Monaco's Kylian Mbappe. Lire la suite »
Shares hit by US-North Korea tensions
The U.S. blue-chip index is down 1.1% this week and the S&P 500 is 1.6% lower, facing its worst weekly performance since November. The stock fell another 2 cents, or 0.4%, to 5.12 Friday. MSCI's main index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, was last down 0.6 percent. The stock fell 76 cents to $5.48. Instead, investors turned to assets that tend to benefit in times of geopolitical and financial stress. Lire la suite »
U.S. stocks slip, snapping Dow's 10-day winning streak
Flight-to-safety moves pushed up the value of classic assets perceived as safe, including the franc, the Japanese yen and gold prices after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made an explicit threat to strike a US military base in Guam. The Swiss currency was also on track for its biggest daily gain against the euro since the Swiss National Bank removed its cap on the currency in January 2015. Lire la suite »
Himachal landslide buries two buses, claims 7 lives
Rescue and relief operations are still underway at the accident site. Eight bodies have been recovered, including the driver and the conductor of Chamba depot Chanden Sharma and Satpal, respectively. While one bus was on its way to Chamba district from the resort town of Manali, another was on its way to Katra in the neighboring state of Jammu and Kashmir from Manali. Lire la suite »
North Korea talk drags stocks lower; gold, yen rise
The Dow slumped 204.69 points, or 0.9%, to 21,844.01, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.5% to finish at 2,438.21. "Traders should closely watch global equities today, with further falls and risk aversion likely pumping more safe-haven flows into precious metals", said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA. Lire la suite »
Can A New War Finally Kill the Bull Market?
Tokyo's Nikkei index had dropped 1.3% by the time European stock markets opened on Wednesday morning, with similar falls on the German and French bourses. In currencies, the yen strengthened 0.64 per cent versus the greenback at 109.37 per dollar. Several financial sector companies also helped pull down the market, as did Macy's and other big department store chains, after the retailers reported disappointing quarterly results. Lire la suite »
Equities fall on rising tension between US & North Korea
The utilities index, often seen as a bond proxy because of its companies' slow reliable growth and high dividends, was the only S&P sector that ended the day up, showing a 0.25 percent gain. Outside the political arena, declines in a pair of technology stocks added to the cautious tone on the day. Oil prices were headed higher. Most large-cap stocks fell across the board. Lire la suite »
L'avion de ligne sans pilote, ce sera possible dès 2025
L'étude de la banque UBS, reprise par les médias électroniques, indique également des profits doublés pour les propriétaires des compagnies aériennes. Ils devront aussi passer outre les résistances des syndicats de pilotes qui ne resteront pas les bras croisés face à la disparition progressive de leur profession.Ensuite, après une automatisation progressive, ils devront alors réussir à convaincre les passagers de monter dans des avions sans pilote. Lire la suite »
Nuveen Floating Rate Income Fund (JFR) Plans Monthly Dividend of $0.07
Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.05 per share on Friday, September 1st. Nuveen New York Municipal Value Fund 2 has a 12-month low of $14.29 and a 12-month high of $16.36. The correct version of this article can be viewed at https://www.chaffeybreeze.com/2017/08/12/alpha-cubed-investments-llc-has-253000-position-in-nuveen-california-municipal-market-op-fd-nysenac-updated.html. Lire la suite »
Inmovilizan en España 20 mil huevos contaminados
Según se informó, el Departamento de Salud del Gobierno paralizó un cargamento de 20.000 unidades de huevo líquido contaminado con el insecticida fipronil. Muchos de los huevos involucrados están mezclados con otros huevos que no provienen de las granjas afectadas por lo que los residuos de Fipronil estarían muy diluidos. Lire la suite »
Tragic: Young man dies in road crash in Dublin
The road was closed to allow for a forensic exam, leading to tailbacks and diversions in the area. The incident happened on the N7 Naas Road, outbound lane, near Junction 2 Kingswood, at around 6.20am. Lire la suite »
Action again North Korea's ballistic missiles a hard call for US
The US island territory's Office of Civil Defence began distributing fact sheets, Preparing for an Imminent Missile Threat, on Friday, to help people prepare for an attack. In August past year, the North's Foreign Ministry warned that all USA military bases in the Pacific including Guam would "face ruin in the face of all-out and substantial attack" by the North's military. Lire la suite »
Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) Given a €18.20 Price Target at UBS AG
Independent Research GmbH set a €20.00 ($23.53) target price on shares of Deutsche Telekom AG and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. The brokerage now has a neutral rating on the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of €35.48 ($41.74). Lire la suite »
Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
Royal Bank Scotland PLC has a 52-week low of $4.18 and a 52-week high of $7.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $6.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.34. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Scotland PLC (The ) by 24.4% in the second quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Royal Bank Scotland PLC (The ) by 240.6% in the first quarter. Lire la suite »
BidaskClub Downgrades Watsco, Inc. (WSO) to Hold
Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of Watsco by 12.9% in the second quarter. Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.82 earnings per share . On average, analysts predict that Watsco will post $5.78 EPS for the current year. Lire la suite »
Tensions over North Korea weigh on stocks but boost gold
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 36.64 points to 22,048.70, the S&P 500 index inched down 0.90 of a point to 2,474.02 and the Nasdaq composite index lost 18.13 points to 6,352.33. Cempra (CEMP) is leading the biotech sector lower, extending the pullback seen over the course of the previous session. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, gained 40 cents to $52.54 in London. Lire la suite »
Dow slips 100 points as tensions with N.Korea escalate
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43 points, or 0.2%, to 21,885, led by Apple Inc. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned about the tensions on the Korean Peninsula and was "troubled" by the increase in confrontational rhetoric. Lire la suite »
IAMGOLD Corp (TSE:IMG) PT Raised to C$9.00 at TD Securities
The stock of IAMGOLD Corp (USA) (NYSE:IAG) has "Underperform" rating given on Wednesday, May 18 by Howard Weil. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Iamgold Corporation from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, June 30th. Lire la suite »
Coca-Cola Company (The) (KO) Position Cut by Douglas Lane & Associates LLC
The following firms have also recently changed their position in COKE. Great Lakes Advisors Llc stated it has 0.03% in The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO). The Bahl & Gaynor Inc holds 3.58 million shares with $148.46M value, down from 3.79M last quarter. Lire la suite »
Internap Corporation (NASDAQ:INAP) Stake Raised by KCG Holdings Inc
Internap Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. Currently Internap Corp Cmn (NASDAQ:INAP)'s shares owned by insiders are 4.1%, whereas shares owned by institutional owners are 78.6%. Lire la suite »
Neymar free for Paris Saint-Germain debut this weekend
Sky Bet price Neymar up at 3/1 to open the scoring in the game and he's odds-on at 4/6 to find the back of the net at any point in the contest. Guingamp's press box has room for 80 reporters. It would be hard to see Monaco retaining their Ligue 1 crown due to the players that have left, although, their rivals PSG will be expecting nothing less than becoming domestic champions, along with a successful season in Europe. Lire la suite »
Tunisie : le déficit commercial s'aggrave, malgré l'amélioration des exportations
Cette divergence est due à au déficit enregistré avec certains pays, comme la Chine (-2,378 milliards de dinars), l'Italie (-1,156 milliard de dinars), la Turquie (-1,014 milliard de dinars), la Russie (-0,840 milliard de dinars) et l'Algérie (-0,2597 milliard de dinars). Lire la suite »


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Monday 23 September 201919.00 to 23.00
Make a pit stop at Phineas before you head to SCALA for the MTV Beach Party, and get to know your fellow beachgoers!
Please note that you must bring your student ID to enter the bars, and be over 18 to purchase alcohol.
Accessibility Information:
Phineas Bar: Step-free accessibility via the ramp leading into the 25 Gordon Street building. Turn right upon entering, then left into the corridor where there is a lift on the left-hand side. Note that it should be the first lift you see when going down the corridor and not the set further down, which cannot access the bar. Take the lift to the third floor (3), and the bar is on the right hand side.
Created: Mon, 12/08/2019 - 13:15
Last updated: Fri, 16/08/2019 - 12:02


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Like most folks, our lawn looks pretty sad right now. And we have plans to do some much-needed first aid.
Q: Does your lawn tend to look thin in spots?
A: Yep, it looks awful right now.
Q: Would you like it to be a lush green all year long?
If you answered like I did, then you should consider the practice of lawn improvement called overseeding, which is what we're going to do.
Overseeding means that you plant more seeds than necessary to improve the density of your lawn. By planting more seed than is needed, more seeds will germinate than would otherwise have done and your turf can become much thicker. However, simply throwing some seed on top of your existing grass won't do the trick. Do really make overseeding work, you need to do some prep and have some knowledge.
Overseed At The Right Time
Choosing the right time means knowing when the type of grass you are seeding for will germinate best. If you're overseeding using a cool season grass, do it in the autumn, which is the best growing time for cool season grasses. If you're using grasses that flourish best in warm weather, overseed in the spring.
Prepare The Soil Correctly
Rake away all dead, thatched grass and aerate the existing turf if your soil is clay. Testing your soil at this point is a great idea because then you will know exactly what amendments to make to improve soil nutrients and balance pH correctly. Add organic compost or fertilizer if necessary.
Cut It Short
Most garden experts advise against mowing grass very short as this can allow seeds to gain a foothold. However, when you are overseeding, you'll need to mow it quite short to make it easier for the added seed to germinate and begin to grow. The idea is to allow the new seeds as much contact with the soil as possible, and mowing the existing lawn very short helps this to happen.
Seed Lavishly
Overseeding means exactly that—using a lot more seed than would normally be required. You should at least plant double the amount of seed you would plant if you were planting the seeds on soil unencumbered by existing turf.
Pamper Your New Grass
Don't be deceived by the presence of existing turf grasses. Your new little grass sprouts need tender loving care to ensure they thrive and grow. They are every bit as delicate as a brand new lawn. Use protective mulch; apply good organic compost or fertilizer to enrich soil and support growth and water consistently and sufficiently.
Finally, to complete this lawn overseeding instruction, until your overseeded lawn has reached the point in its growth at which it can stand up to human feet and animal paws, keep off the grass!


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Tiki Mugs
$ 30.00 $ 18.00
Stylish Tiki Art by Big Island artist Brad "Tiki Shark" Parker.
Fiber Reactive Dye
30" x 60"
100% Cotton
The Moon of Manakoora is a painting named after a song from the famous 1937 film; "The Hurricane". The song is sung by Dorthy Lamour. The movie was the first one ever shot on location in the South-Seas. It's a tale of Star-Crossed lovers, plus a monster hurricane which wipes the island of "Manakoora" off the face of the big blue Pacific Ocean.
"Manakoora" is roughly translated to mean "Magical Knowledge"; "Mana" meaning "magical or spiritual power" and "Kuu-rah" meaning "Lore" or "Body of Knowledge". Upshot is the moon has magical powers, and you can ask it to make your true love come to you.
Like Dorothy Lamour sings:
"The Moon of Manakoora filled night,
with magic Polynesian charms.
The moon of Manakoora came in sight,
and brought you to my eager arms."


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Colin Offord residency
June 8- 20th 2009
Colin Offord is a harmonic singer, instrument builder and percussionist.
At Cootamundra Creative Arts and Cultural Centre (CCACC) Offord taught singing techniques at community workshops on June 13th, 18th and 20th. Offord also gave a performance on June 19th in two parts : songs and improvisations on voice and Great Island Mouthbow, followed by duets with David Burraston's wire recordings from Wogarno W.A. and WIRED Lab.
More about Offord can be found here, and residency blog posts by Offord can be read here.
This residency was supported by Arts NSW, Regional Arts NSW and Cootamundra Creative Arts and Cultural Centre.


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Ambitious Recordz
would like to proudly present it's flagship recording artist,
He is an ASCAP affliated songwriter/publisher who sings and raps.
For booking contact:
My debut album
"Reflectionz: The Lyfe & Tymez Ov
Ambition & Mr. Kuwn Dalini"
is available NOW everywhere digitally - See new up-coming releases below
Copyright 2015, Ambitious Recordz. All Rights Reserved. Site Design by LaJohn D. Manoy for Em-Print (Publishing, Media & Graphics)


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Today is the day!!! My hexagon class is tonight!
As of right now, I'm not at all nervous but I'm sure I probably will be once I get there. Richard assures me that I will be fine. He says that I'm always relaxed when I talk quilting. LOL!
Display samples, kits and everything else is ready to go. I'll post photos tomorrow. :)


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Colleague in the spotlight:
Arindom Datta (India), banker-in-jeans
Arindom Datta doesn't look like a banker today. Dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, he's standing beside a cotton farmer in a field in the Indian state of Orissa. It's a scorching 45 degrees Celsius and he wipes sweat from his brow as he says: "This farmer recently began selling his organic cotton in the European Union as well. I can't tell you how proud I am of this achievement. It's all the more impressive when you consider that he started eight years ago with a subsidy from Rabo Foundation!"
Arindom Datta is Head of Sustainability (Asia) at Rabobank in Delhi, but today he's performing his other role as Rabo Foundation's Head of Rural & Development Banking. In this capacity he visits cooperatives with no less than 20,000 organic cotton farmer members in Orissa. The relationship with the farmers took root eight years ago. "With the support of Rabobank Foundation, we first provided them with a subsidy so they could organise themselves more effectively. We began investing more at a later stage, through guarantees and loans with a longer horizon. We've taken on risks with them that a regular bank would never accept."
Sales to the European market
Today is a moment to celebrate. Because the rewards of eight years of investing and sowing are now being reaped. Datta: "The cooperative's big dream has come true. The farmers' representatives have made contact with potential buyers in Germany, the Netherlands and France. And they've harvested success. The first shipments of organic cotton have been loaded today and are on their way to Europe."
The cotton farmers' project is an excellent example of how Rabobank gets a project up and running with the help of a subsidy and then provides support in the form of a commercial loan at a much later stage. "A subsidy can be the seed that will grow into the formation of a cooperative. We make the farmers strong together so they become bankable. Rabobank is the only bank in India with the capacity and courage to do this."
Personally follow the progress
Datta explains that he has known the initiators of the cotton farmers' cooperative from day one. He and his colleagues have paid many visits to the farmers located in the Indian states of Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. "Through the years we've invested lots of time in guiding and advising these cotton farmers. It's important to stay in contact so you can track their development yourself and see in what areas they need advice. We support, guide and encourage – but we're also critical!"
Banking in India places extreme demands on local due diligence. "We have to see with our own eyes where the needs lie and how the cooperatives can become better and stronger. That's why we invest a great deal of time in personally visiting established and new customers and initiatives. We spend lots of time travelling in cars, trains and planes to get to the remote corners of the Indian provinces. Once we're there, we stand shoulder by shoulder with the farmers' cooperative leaders in the field. With both feet on the ground, or mud rather, usually up to our knees," Datta says with a smile.
"It really fills me with a sense of pride and satisfaction"
Cotton, dairy and poultry
This can involve cooperatives in the cotton sector, but equally ones in the dairy sector, in which we support a large number of women's cooperatives. "The chain from farmer to consumer product must be especially well-organised in the dairy sector due to the perishable nature of the product. That's why cooperatives are so important." Each step taken in the Indian poultry sector is also carefully planned in advance. "We are currently working with a large poultry farmers' cooperative for a €1.2 million loan so that it can set up a feed mix plant that can efficiently produce chicken feed. It's a structural development that will give the poultry business a stronger backbone. I've also personally followed the development of these farmers. I've seen how they want to approach this process and as a result I am confident that this is the best next step. These kinds of unique opportunities that Rabobank offers makes me a proud Rabobanker."
Arindom Datta has noticed that he has come to think differently about his profession through the years. "I became a banker because I find it exciting and interesting, but I've discovered that it's much more than that. When I think of the 20,000 farmers who are able to sell their organic cotton to the European market in part thanks to us, it really fills me with a sense of pride and satisfaction. The idea that I've contributed to their future makes me very happy."
Contact Arindom Datta: firstname.lastname@example.com
Rabobank Foundation
3521 CB Utrecht
The Netherlands
3500 HG Utrecht
The Netherlands


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The Emily Ann Griffin Foundation hosts an annual Golf Classic in September of each year, and 2019 marks our eighteenth successful event. This is our primary fund raiser, although we do collect donations from multiple supporters throughout the year.
An 18 hole, "shotgun start" scramble begins in early afternoon at Fox Creek Golf Course in Livonia, and is followed by dinner and a silent auction at the Sacred Heart Banquet Center, 29125 West Six Mile Road. Participants can participate in the golf, dinner and auction for $100, or can attend the dinner/auction without golfing for $60.
To register, please download the registration form by clicking on this link, or on the image below:


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I know it's not a Sunday but this is the first time in a while I've been able to sit down on my own and think about things to write about! Its been a busy but lazy week I suppose you could say. Brian moved into his new flat the day before I got back to Ireland so I've been cleaning like a mad woman since I got here since he's at work and I've got nothing else to be doing while I'm here. We went out at the weekend, the first time I've been in a nightclub in a year so that was pretty awesome and since then I've just been pottering around, trying to get things sorted for college and my new flat as well as the rest of my busy life for the rest of August!
I'm so psyched to get back to some normality in the next few days and getting my life sorted for university in September is making me excited for the year ahead: my last year as a student! I'm feeling very nostalgic the last few days, thinking of where the last three years could have gone cos I really haven't felt it go past! I'm 21 in less than a week so it's not helping the case that I'm feeling old! I've been thinking about the future a lot and what it has in store for me and how my plans have changed so dramatically over the last couple of months. My one constant at the moment is this blog and I'm determined to keep it going and make it even more successful than its been already. So that brings me swiftly around to this weeks Scrumptious Sunday Seven and the things that I am looking at, coveting or just very subtly hinting for my birthday!
1. The Bambi jumper. When we were in Amsterdam, I spotted the cutest and most comfortable looking jumper ever in H&M. It was long (probably normal on normal sized people!), was a russet/maroon kind of colour and had a picture of Bambi at the front. We swooned over it for about 10 minutes but I didn't have the 25 euro it cost so I had to leave it behind. I've looked on the H&M websites, both UK and Dutch and can't find it on there so I'm just hoping that this jumper can be found in Belfast when I go up next week, can anyone put my mind at ease by telling me they've seen one!
2. UL. I can't wait to get back to university in September and being able to go back to University of Limerick is so exciting to me! I love the people, the campus and especially the fact that it's so beautifully laid out. I think because I haven't been back for a year, I'm more excited than usual and this is the first year I'll be an editor on the campus and get to meet all my writers! It was hard being away last year when I was still doing so much work for the uni so I'm psyched to get back!
3. My article in the new issue of Linger Magazine. I was really excited with this issue and my article also includes photos of my outfit on me…my modelling career has therefore begun 😛 I love writing for Linger magazine and I've included a screenshot of my article and photos so I hope you enjoy it too!
4. My new-found obsession with Rita Ora. Her style is completely different to mine and I would never wear most of the stuff that she does but she pulls her style off with such ease and confidence, I really admire her. Plus the girl can really sing and she rocks that red lipstick like nobody's business!
5. I've been enjoying cooking so much since I've been back home, there is nothing like a month of eating out to make you appreciate a home-cooked meal! I've been experimenting a bit with things and have found the greatest lunch of all time! I first had this on the train from Budapest to Vienna and was dying to try it ever since and I've been eating it every day this week: ciabatta with cheese (supposed to be Emmental but I've been using Cheddar) rocket and fresh tomato.
6. This year's Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model has been a mixed bag over the last few weeks. I'm a complete addict but this has been disappointing me so far. The last 2 episodes have been above par and as usual, I have my favourites to win. As well as everyone else, I'm vying for Roxy to win, or at least to be in the final. Her hair did look horrendous at the makeover but she is working that orange hair now. My other favourite is Lisa, the Irish girl who got all her locks chopped off into a pixie cut and she is all the better for it, STUNNING!
7. And as usual some fun fashion photography. I'm by the sea this week so you may see some nautical photos thrown in here as well as some birthday themed ones along with the normal ones!
I hope everybody has a great week, its only 3 days until the weekend! I'll be writing again before my birthday so people can feel free to cheer me up about being old, that would be awesome, all hugs and bottles of champagne accepted! Until then keep emailing, reading and commenting, it's really amazing to see how much you guys like the blog and I hope to hear a lot more from you all! And keep an eye on 'Dora and Ellen's Inter-railing Guide' in the coming days for some sound advice!
Keep styling, Em x
You seem to be a month behind the rest of us there Emily! 🙂
Haha, I've just noticed that, thanks for the heads up, changed now! I feel a month behind everyone else to be fair!


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It is easy to pinpoint the top 5 reasons to visit Turkey and one can even extend the list to ten, viagra sale if there is interest. But for the purpose of brevity, viagra this post will only highlight five of the best motivations so that tourists can fully enjoy themselves even during a two-day stay. Yes, the country may be a bit intimidating given its conservative Muslim social scene. But that does not mean it is not great place to have fun. In fact, you are bound to get a lot of the following perks in this Eurasian country; maybe even more.
Beautiful Beaches. Turkey is blessed with a Mediterranean climate and the Aegean coastline. So those who are a fan of the sea are bound to have a blast in any of its coast cities (Antalaya, Patara, Bodrum and Oludeniz) for at most, 6 months. Here, you can swim, surf, snorkel, and dive if you want, or just chill out by the shore and get tanned.
Impressive Cultural And Historical Landmarks. With its long and illustrious background, starring settlers like the Anatolians, Greeks, Persians, and the Romans, this oldest permanently settled region oozes a myriad of ancient artifacts and architecture that would wow any tourist. Some of the most well-known local sites include the City of Troy, Aspendos Theater and Mount Nemrut, where the ruins of ancient Persian tombs lie.
Unique Turkish products. Turkey is well-known for a number of commodities, including carpets, rugs, and kilims. Yes, there are resources that ship authentic products abroad. But if you wish to get them at more affordable prices, Paramount Travel suggests you could drop by the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
With delectable Turkish cuisine is exotic as China. There's no valid explanation to exclude the country's very own culinary masterpieces in the top 5 reasons to visit Turkey. If you have an appreciation for kebabs and Turkish tea anywhere in the world, then you should not hesitate tasting them at the motherland. And while at it, dig into special dishes like the Meze.
Booming Economic Landscape. Not everyone who travels are in it for pleasure. Some seek business opportunities and they are one of the abundant luxuries available in Turkey. Established as the country with the 15th largest GDP-PPP and 17th largest nominal GDP, Turkey offers aspiring entrepreneurs countless ways to find success. And the best part is, it's still a developing nation.
Hopefully, these top 5 reasons to visit Turkey is enough to convince you to swing by the country one of these days. And also online hassle free turkey visa application is another reason to visit turkey..


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New Pictures of Emma at Disneyland, March 27th
Публикувано от Elle | Saturday, 28 March 2015 в 13:24 | No comments
Етикети: photos: fan
New Revlon Picture
Публикувано от Elle | Sunday, 22 March 2015 в 15:40 | No comments
Етикети: .revlon
New/Old Pictures of Emma in LA March 13, 2015
Публикувано от Elle | в 15:32 | No comments
Emma and Petra Flannery for THR's Top Stylists Issue
Cabaret. "Seeing Emma in the musical and her being part of this Liza legacy, I got really inspired by the '70s jumpsuits and tuxedo dresses," says Flannery of Stone's four-month Broadway run. For the SAG Awards, that meant putting Stone in a wildly chic Christian Dior tuxedo gown with a sheer skirt. The Cabaret vibe also is carrying over into their street style: "I just want to wear big eyelashes and those bell bottoms," says the actress, who next appears in Cameron Crowe's Aloha. "And sequins!" adds Flannery. Replies Stone, "Bring it on!"
Публикувано от Elle | Wednesday, 18 March 2015 в 10:53 | No comments
Етикети: media: video , photos: photoshoots
New Pictures of Emma and brother Spencer shopping in Malibu, March 11
Публикувано от Elle | Thursday, 12 March 2015 в 07:52 | No comments
New BTS Picture from the VF Oscar Party Portrait Studio
Публикувано от Elle | Thursday, 5 March 2015 в 09:04 | No comments
Етикети: events: academy awards , photos: on set , photos: photoshoots
Sienna Miller mentions Emma in a new Interview with Vanity Fair
I saw Emma. Before I saw Emma, I saw an understudy do it, Andrea, who was great. Emma was on hand and has remained on hand and has been completely open and brilliant and just is such an amazing person. She warned me of the challenges and pitfalls that she felt. Talked me through stamina and gave me vitamin infusion numbers. And left me throat spray and stuff and all of the things that got her through the show. It was really sweet.
Are you conscious of trying to give the role your own spin, in comparison to anyone who has played it before, or is that not something you worry about?
There's no real way of doing an impersonation in this part. Emma was brilliant, and she was also completely different, I think, from what I'm doing. By all accounts, Michelle was completely different from what [Emma] was doing. We all are complexly different, and that's according to the cast. This part, it sort of has to be your own version. It's really bottomless, and it's really open for interpretation, and there really are a million different ways that you can go with it.
Публикувано от Elle | в 08:59 | No comments
Етикети: cabaret , people talk about emma
New Pictures of Emma in LA - March 2nd 2015
Публикувано от Elle | Tuesday, 3 March 2015 в 17:56 | No comments
New/Old Portrait
Публикувано от Elle | Monday, 2 March 2015 в 08:22 | No comments
Етикети: photos: portraits
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Nature, the international general science journal, published an article this week about the Christian Leaders in an Age of Science project that I co-lead with Revd. Prof. David Wilkinson, Principal of St. John's College Durham University. Written by our Project Manager, Revd. Dr. Kathryn Prichard, it's pithy and personal approach has attracted a long and varied comment stream!
Kathryn tells it how it is from the title on:
Religion and science can have a true dialogue
She begins with a personal account of the sort of activity that senior church leaders (bishops and equivalent) get up to with the scientists at Durham University when we get them all together for a day:
I work for the Archbishops' Council in the Church of England, and this summer I did something that many people would think is impossible. I sat in a dark lecture theatre engrossed in a computationally generated 3D journey through the Universe. Virtual stars whizzed past and seemed narrowly to miss colliding with my head as we accelerated through galaxies and past exploding stars. I listened to cosmologists speak on research into dark matter, particle physics, the rate at which the growth of the Universe is accelerating and the possibility of multiverses. I asked questions and they responded.
Read the open-access article itself to find out more!
The comments have been very varied – from the predictable (the article itself anticipates them) vilifying Nature for dropping its standards, to nuanced and personal comments from scientists who are Christians, and have thought deeply about the relation between their faith and their science. Those that see only negative tensions between religion and science might bear in mind a few sets of 'data':
(1) It is historically uncontroversial that religion, and Christianity in particular, served as a stimulus and support for science. Francis Bacon articulates the theological reasons for the rise of experimental science in the early modern era, to take just one key example. A great collection of reading here is Galileo Goes to Jail – and other myths about science and religion (edited by Ron Numbers)
(2) The 'conflict' notion is, for the most part, a historically invented polemic myth from the late 19th century (see the 'Draper-White' thesis), constructed for other reasons (the new book Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison is well worth a read for both these points)
(3) The extraordinary scientists throughout history who have found deep motivation from and connections with, their faith to do science, are testimony to the positive support for science at the personal level (Copernicus, Newton, Boyle, Maxwell, Faraday, Born, … to name a very few)
(4) Our project aims at catalysing the potential support for a healthy understanding of science and scientific thinking that the church can give at personal, local and national level, and which is natural for it to do. We've seen great examples of churches supporting science festivals, for example. We are working with senior leaders because they tend to come from humanities backgrounds and lack confidence (but not intelligence, learning or enthusiasm) in science. Their meetings with the scientists we arrange under science themes have been transformation for both, time after time.
Perhaps the most important clue to the ways in which a healthy religious life can support science at its core was given by the Nobel Laureate Isidor I. Rabi when once asked why he became a scientist:
"My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: 'So? Did you learn anything today?' But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. 'Izzy,' she would say, 'did you ask a good question today?' That difference – asking good questions -made me become a scientist!"
As it turns out, 'Izzy"s mother was displaying the most faithful awareness of her Jewish tradition – for any close reader of the Bible (this ought to include Christians as well of course) is immediately struck by the importance all the writings urge of questions. One of the tired and uninformed canards in the science and religion conversation is that the latter cuts off questions in place of acceptance of dogma. Nothing could be less accurate. One of the oldest nature-wisdom poems we possess is to be found as 'The Lord's Answer' in the Book of Job. It consists entirely of questions about the workings of the natural world, from the stars to the lightning and snow, to the wild animals and the trees.
The very greatest question, 'What is Truth?' appears at one of the most climactic moments of the whole Biblical narrative, in the tense and probing discourse between Jesus and Pilate before the crucifixion. There is no greater gift to those who would seek to know and to understand than a great question.


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Beware of 'bond proxy' consumer stocks in 2015
By Tim Crockford, portfolio manager, Hermes Sourcecap
In a world of weak aggregate demand, price competition is going to become an increasingly important weapon in winning sales growth. We already started to see this in the latter part of last year, with a broadening range of European companies mentioning a weak pricing environment.
There are few sectors where the effects of price deflation have been more pronounced than in the food retail sector, as lower commodity prices and fierce competitive environments have combined to pile on the pain. A good example can be seen in the actions by UK supermarket chains, which recently released plans detailing their latest round of 'pricing investment'.
While these companies have no doubt tried to pass some of the pain to smaller suppliers, the mega cap consumer staples companies have yet to be affected in a major way. However, we increasingly question to what extent the share prices can continue to perform as the food retailers these companies supply come under increasing pressure.
Unilever, for example, has recorded pricing growth in every single financial year since 2011. Pricing at the group level has been positive for eleven consecutive quarters. Pricing gains generated nearly 50% of organic growth between 2007 and 2013, driving its substantial re-rating from a low double digit P/E to about 20x. However, this trend has broken down in Unilever's weaker markets, with prices realised in Europe falling for each of the last five consecutive quarters. With Chinese demand growth slowing, we wonder whether the Asian giant will be next to join this trend.
Similarly, Nestle enjoyed a pricing CAGR of 2.4% over 22 years to the end of 2013, with price generating about 40% of total organic growth during this period. In fact, the company last saw a group level price decline in the third quarter of 2013. However, pricing growth has been slowing recently, with gains of 3.6% in 2011 reducing to 1.5% in 2013. Again, Europe has been weak, with negative pricing in each of the last eight quarters.
Furthermore, one of the tricks food-producing companies have been using to hide inflation is the old game of reducing the amount of product sold in each package, while keeping the same price. However, there is a natural limit to how far this tactic can be pushed. We suspect even the most inattentive shopper is likely to catch on.
Food & Beverage earnings multiples
Liked by many investors for 'bond proxy' qualities – stable growth and a reasonable dividend yield – we worry these safe-haven stocks could present shareholders with nasty surprises during 2015. If commodity price falls and global macro weakness continue to take a toll on headline inflation numbers, these companies can no longer use price rises in stronger economies to mitigate slowing volume growth. This may start to make the twenty-something P/E multiples unjustifiably hefty.
With margins at near record highs, there is plenty of scope for the successful companies to sacrifice a bit of margin to gain higher volume growth, but this will prove a challenge for the majority of consumer-facing businesses. Against such a challenging backdrop, the strategy will be to focus on those companies able to deliver reliable and consistent growth in cash-profits.
The challenge will be determining which companies can handle the more competitive environment we find ourselves in, where lower prices will be more widely used to gain market share. This should favour strong businesses with healthy balance sheets, high margins and strong free cash flow generation.
Overall, we are quite optimistic on the outlook for European equities. In this triple-zero economy we have in the eurozone – near zero rates, zero inflation and zero growth – growth is a scarce asset and companies able to deliver it should command a much higher premium. We prefer structural growth plays and those companies taking destiny into their own hands through restructuring. With the eurozone now on the right side of the QE policy arbitrage as the ECB expands its balance sheet by €1.2trn over the next few years, Europe could finally fulfil its potential and provide some surprises of the positive variety.


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Things to Do in Las Vegas
Our goal is to help you find the best things to do in Las Vegas, Nevada! Our travel guide will point you to the best places, events, hotels, and deals that the Las Vegas area has to offer. Feel free to email us if you have any questions, recommendations, or suggestions!


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The 2014 Pennock Island Challenge will be held on August 17. There have been a couple of changes
1. Kathy and Willie Schulz are no longer the lead organizers of the event. We are still involved but after 10 years its time for a break.
2. The race is still a fundraiser but the recipient is now JDRF
3. The website we used will no longer be updated.
4. The new website for registration is http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR/TeamJDR...try&fr_id=3791 follow the link it has all the updated contact information and more information on JDRF
Thank you
Willie Schulz